What Do Potatoes and Twinkies Have in Common?

Well, the short answer is that you lose weight if you eat nothing but either of them.

In two (I must say) fascinating articles recently e-mailed to me by a friend, two separate men embark on journeys consisting almost solely of Twinkies (and other "convenience store" junk food) and potatoes, respectively. Both men lost weight, as well as experiencing lowered BMI, cholesterol, and even blood sugar, in the case of the potatoes.

I find this both appalling and fascinating. Evidently, losing weight makes a big difference in your health. However, I disagree with this statement by Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association:

"When you lose weight, regardless of how you're doing it -- even if it's with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved."

I would challenge the Twinkie professor to follow this diet for longer than 10 weeks. Say, a lifetime. After all, Morgan Spurlock's dangerous health numbers made an unexpected improvement toward the end of his 30 days eating only McDonald's on an increased calorie diet.

Also, one-third of the Twinkie professor's food was a multivitamin pill, a protein shake, canned green beans, and celery. Not the most nutrient dense food, but he was getting protein and a very few antioxidants. In addition, he was watching his calorie intake.

As for Chris Voigt, the head of the Washington State Potato Commission, he ate only potatoes and seasonings for two months to protest the USDA banning potatoes from the approved WIC foods.

I looked up the list, which you can find at the link above. No organic foods are allowed. This is understandable considering the improved cost of organic food, but it still sucks. Whole milk is not listed as an approved food (though it isn't listed as Do Not Buy), and soy milk is approved. The fat in whole milk is best for nursing mothers and young children, which is why it was traditionally reserved only for them. And I've already addressed issues with soy milk.

Finally, whole wheat bread was listed as approved, but since most of it includes high fructose corn syrup, that doesn't really seem like an improvement.

That said, the WIC approved list does do a pretty good job of limiting packaged foods or additives. However, while white potatoes are definitely not the most nutritious choice, they are far from harmful in the way that packaged, processed foods are.

"There are things we can't measure," said Blatner, questioning how the lack of fruits and vegetables could affect long-term health. "How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can't measure how diet changes affect our health."

Well, actually, we can. In the past sixty years, the health of Americans has declined drastically, and instances of chronic disease (heart disease, diabetes), cancer, heck, virtually everything have risen just as drastically. We may have wiped out smallpox and polio, but we are seeing a brand new range of debilitating health issues: ADHD, autism, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Crohn's disease.

I think most poignant for me is the claim of "CornSugar.com" that "high fructose corn syrup—corn sugar—has been used in the food supply for more than forty years..."
I can only assume that this is supposed to be an argument for the safety of HFCS. However, in the last forty years we have seen U.S. cancer deaths rise from 330,972 in 1970 to 554,740 in 1996 to a projected "leading cause of death" in 2010 at over 7 million worldwide.

"Despite dramatic medical advances over the past 50 years, heart disease remains a leading cause of death globally and the Number 1 cause of death in the United States," reports a 2008 article.

Once called "adult onset" diabetes, type-2 diabetes is now affecting children as young as four. This is entirely caused by lifestyle and diet, and is entirely reversible. "The odds of developing diabetes increased by 40% from the 1970s to 1980s and then doubled between the 1970s and 1990s."

Is this all the fault of high fructose corn syrup? Of course not. But it's not a great track record for foods introduced in the last forty years. And it's not a great argument for eating potatoes and/or Twinkies to lose weight. I find it amazing the lengths to which people will go to prove a pointless point, when indicators that dietary changes will majorly and positively impact disease in America are staring us all in the face. Just goes to show what can happen when money is involved.

Short & "Sweet"

This "Sweet Surprise" video by the Corn Refiners Association states that high fructose corn syrup "like sugar, is fine in moderation."

Princeton University begs to differ in their recent article: "Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain."

"Considerably" more... Just the first three paragraphs are a shocker.

Who are you going to believe?

This article was sent my way by Nealon Hightower, whose blog Six Simple Truths (and forthcoming book by the same name) discusses what's wrong with the weight-loss industry and offers a new approach that has worked for him and many others suffering from obesity.

Diet for a Hot Planet

Thirty-nine years ago, Frances Moore Lappe published Diet for a Small Planet (I still have my grandmother's copy). Now her daughter, and co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, Anna Lappe, has published Diet for a Hot Planet, updating the world on the need to make sustainable food choices.

I highly recommend reading the book, but some of the things we can all do are to eat less meat and to make sustainable meat choices. Yes, grass-fed, local beef may be more expensive, but if you have to pay more and therefore eat less, you kind of get a diet at the same time--and you get higher quality meat that hasn't been feed antibiotics, even to healthy animals as Katie Couric explains on CBS, and also contains the right omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, which is crucial for brain health among other functions like reducing depression.

And here's the kicker: whole, healthy food like this satisfies you. Wouldn't you agree that you'd rather have a filet than a flank steak? Well, eating grass-fed beef is like getting filet all the time--and when you look at it that way, it's cheap.

The best grocery store in Charleston to buy local, quality meat is Earth Fare. Healthy Home Foods also offers customized meat service with local and organic meats and seafood. Restaurants like Cypress (and its sister restaurants Blossom and Magnolia), McCrady's, Hominy Grill, and High Cotton (and all Maverick Southern Kitchen restaurants) frequently if not exclusively purchase local beef, pork, chicken, and seafood, and Guerilla Cuisine, Charleston's underground dining experience, makes its focus local and sustainable food, whether meat or vegetables.

The other part of this "involuntary" diet is to cut back on junk food, which "may prove even more destructive than S.U.Vs." But we'll talk about that later.

Planet Green

A friend recently turned me on to Emeril Green hosted by Planet Green. I don't have cable, but the Web site offers Emeril articles, episode guides, and a recipe archive. There's also a lot of information about other green initiatives, including greening your kitchen.

I see green living and preventive eating as going hand in hand. We take in an appalling number of pollutants from our environments regardless of how we eat. Toxins enter our skin through shower water as well as what we drink; I've read recent articles about antidepressant and birth control pill residue passed through human waste that are not removed by current filtration systems and infiltrate the general water supply (Google "antidepressants in drinking water). We breathe in exhaust fumes, secondhand cigarette smoke, and of course pesticides every day.

Eating with awareness and prevention in mind, as well as doing a small part towards environmental repair. Try eating less meat, the farming of which not only uses vast amounts of water but contributes 18 percent towards greenhouse gas emissions--more than transportation! This doesn't mean you have to be a vegetarian, but a diet of less red meat not only can contribute towards lower cholesterol, weight loss, and a reduced chance of heart disease, but it increases your chances of trying a variety of veggie alternatives with a host of benefits, such as intestine-cleansing fiber and free-radical-busting antioxidants.

Here are some of my favorite vegetarian recipes that guarantee you won't be missing meat for long. And try using organic vegetables for these recipes specifically, even if your budget doesn't support an all-organic diet.

Grilled Portobello Steaks--Try these on a George Foreman grill or broiled in unsalted veggie broth with a drizzle of olive oil to cut the fat in this recipe.

Roasted Veggie Lasagna--Don't be afraid of eggplant! Choose a small one or opt for the baby variety, and slice thin for flavor without bitterness or toughness. Or try this Noodle-Free Lasagna recipe from Self.com's database.

Beet Salad--Again from Self.com, a great low-calorie recipe site that stays away from artificial sweeteners, packaged soup fillers, and , this fabulous salad is surprisingly filling and great for those dog days of summer. Beets are easy to prepare--simply rinse, roast in-skin, and then easily peel the cooled veggies. They're also bursting with sweet flavor and antioxidants.

Vegetable Soup--As fall approaches, soup becomes one of the best ways to enjoy vegetables and fill up. This is my mother's tried and true base:
Saute onion, garlic, and a chopped celery stalk in 1 tsp olive oil. When veggies begin to brown, add no-salt-added vegetable broth and a can of no-salt-added diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil and add chopped carrots and potatoes or butternut squash. Once these have simmered about 5 minutes, then you can add these quicker-cooking vegetables that are fresh, frozen, or canned: green beans, broccoli, cabbage, corn, kale or chard, zucchini, yellow squash, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and other canned beans or pasta. Add water, salt and pepper as needed, and top with any fresh herb: parsely, thyme, sage, oregano, chives, or dill. You can also do a rice base instead of potatoes for this soup; I like brown basmati rice, which cooks more quickly than regular brown rice and adds a nuttier, sweeter flavor.