Nutrisystem's Deceptive Advertising

I never understood the appeal of Nutrisystem. Paying way too much for processed food then still having to buy my own fresh fruits and vegetables never sounded like a good bargain. Their commercials, aside from being generally annoying, always show people with dramatic weight loss while flashing RESULTS NOT TYPICAL on each photo. A recent Nutrisystem campaign features shapely football commentator, Jillian Barberie, touting a 41 lb weight loss which she credits to Nutrisystem. Her before picture took me by surprise because I watch plenty of football and I never remembered seeing Jillian look that fat.

I have seen her commercial several times and something about that before picture bothered me. At first I just assumed it was because the dress she was wearing was really ugly. Someone as cute as her, no matter how fat, shouldn't wear something that shapeless and frumpy. But this morning, I happened to be walking right by the tv screen when the commercial played and got a REALLY good look at the before picture in the ugly brown dress. Then it hit me. The reason that dress looked like a shapeless tent is because it is a MATERNITY DRESS!

That's right folks. Jillian's BEFORE photo is a photo of her pregnant. According to internet reports, the 41 pounds she gained was BABY WEIGHT. If you check medical sites or have ever had a baby yourself, you would know that doctors recommend a healthy, normal weight woman gain between 25 and 37 pounds.

AmericanPregnancy.org provides a handy breakdown of where that gain comes from...

• Baby = 7-8 pounds
• Placenta = 1-2 pounds
• Amniotic fluid = 2 pounds
• Uterus = 2 pounds
• Maternal breast tissue = 2 pounds
• Maternal blood = 4 pounds
• Fluids in maternal tissue = 4 pounds
• Maternal fat and nutrient stores = 7 pounds

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/eatingfortwo.html

So even with her gaining 4 pounds more than recommended, and her baby weighing closer to six pounds, seriously....how much of her weight loss is due to Nutrisystem? Apparently the secret to looking smoking hot after gaining 41 pounds is to be smoking hot in the first place and then give birth. Shame on Nutrisystem and shame on Jillian for misleading the public about her weight loss.

Blame Canada

Low carb diets have always been the "ugly red-headed stepchild" of the dieting world. Despite over 100 years of evidence that reducing your intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates can help you lose weight, lower your blood pressure, raise good cholesterol, and reverse type 2 diabetes, low carbing is still called a "fad". Not only that people who promote the diet are called quacks, zealots, and accused of endangering people's health. As long as a few random doctors (like Atkins and Eades), or a lone science reporter (like Gary Taubes) sang the praises of a low carb lifestyle, it was easy to dismiss them as a wacko minority who just didn't understand the truth.

The "truth" according to the mainstream is that saturated fat causes heart disease, all calories are created equal, and you should eat lots of whole grains (carbohydrates). If you weigh too much, you need to cut calories and exercise more. This "diet" advise has resulted in ever-growing obesity numbers and has a miserable 95% failure rate. For the longest time, people were told their obesity was their own damn fault and evidence that sugar, carbohydrates, and things like high-fructose corn syrups are to blame was ignored.

But now a group of people in Canada are proving, once again, that refined carbohydrates and sugars are the primary cause of obesity and disease. In 2007, the Namgis First Nation of Alert Bay, Canada gave up refined foods and sugar and returned to a more native diet. Their rates of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes were up to five times the national average. Dr. Jay Wortman, Senior Medical Advisor - First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada, believes that the introduction of western carbohydrate-rich foods which replaced the traditional diet is the primary cause. By returning to native food sources of wild salmon and oolichan grease (a fish oil) but still allowing grocery store foods like vegetables, beef, pork, bacon and eggs (basically foods with protein and fat but no starch or sugar), they were able to make an approximation of their traditional diet without requiring people to go out and kill a moose with their bare hands. It was, in a way, the Northern Exposure version of the Atkins Diet.

From the CBC website article about the diet: "Permitted foods include; beef, pork, chicken, fish or seafood, cauliflower, broccoli, all the salad greens, eggs, cream, but not milk. Milk contains lactose, which is sugar.

Not permitted are starches like pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and sugar. Dr. Jay Wortman believes that it was the introduction of these by Europeans over a hundred and fifty years ago that caused the rise of diabetes and obesity.

And so the key to this diet is the avoidance of starch and sugar because those were not common components of a traditional diet.

An interesting component is oolichan grease. It's a very healthy fat and in the fact it was a big part of the diet in the past, was one of the reasons it was such a healthy diet."
http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/wortman.html
http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/

While the final data is still being evaluated, this diet study sponsored by Health Canada and the University of British Columbia has produced profound results. A reduction in study participant weight, lower blood pressure, diabetics able to reduce or eliminate medication, lower bad cholesterol numbers, etc... Study participants are now encouraging other First Nations to return to their native diet to reap the health benefits enjoyed by their ancestors.

The documentary about this study entitled "My Big Fat Diet" is currently being aired in Canada. Until it is available on DVD, there are some YouTube video clips available (below) as well as a radio interview with Dr. Wortman that can get started on your own quest to "go native". Remember, you don't have to be a member of the First Nation to start a low carb diet to lose weight and improve your health. Anyone can do it! If, however, you want to bury your head in the sand about how healthy a low carb lifestyle is and you still want to believe fat people are stupid, lazy gluttons, things are going to get much harder for you. Don't blame me, blame Canada.

Video Clips
Challenge from the Cheif
Intoduction to "My Big Fat Diet"
More from "My Big Fat Diet"

Radio Interview
The Current

Magic Pants

To guys, pants are a piece of clothing that keeps delicate things warm and protected while providing convenient pockets to hold wallets, scraps of random paper and loose change. To a woman, what starts as a simple piece of cloth and some thread goes through a transformation that turns them in to something powerful and unique. Something magical.

A woman can try on hundreds of pairs of pants trying to find just the right one. It's more than just finding the right waist size and length. It's finding that pair that makes your butt look good, makes your calves look shapely and hides that mommy roll right below your belly button. A pair of pants like that can lift your mood, put a smile on your face and make you feel like a million dollars. The magical perfect pair can boost your confidence and put a spring in your step and, if a woman doesn't have a pair, she actively searches for one every time she gets anywhere near a mall.

My pair of magic pants comes in the form of a cute pair a denim capris. I got them at a thrift store 2 years ago. I bought them because they were the right size, but I did not try them on. At $3.75 I wasn't too worried if they didn't fit. Turns out they didn't at the time. I could barely pull them up and there was no way in hell I could button them or pull up the zipper without doing serious damage to myself. Since they were cute and I was hopeful that someday I would lose weight, I put them in the back of a dresser drawer and there they sat until last Summer. 

During a clothing clean-out (I had lost weight after starting low carb), I found them again. I tried them on and this time I could get them up AND button them. They were still tight, but compared to last year, I could see improvement. I even braved wearing them for one day in August, though they did make me a bit uncomfortable. As it got cooler, I tucked them away again and didn't find them again until today.

I am tired of the cold weather and decided that even though it was going to be cool today, I was also tired of wearing long pants. I wanted to wear my cute capris. I cautiously slid them on and was totally surprised that, not only could I button them, but I could zip them up and they were a little loose in the waist. There was even room in the seat! I instantly felt euphoria and began dancing around the bedroom. I even braved the scale and I was down 2 lbs over the past 2 weeks. More dancing ensued. My husband gave me "the look" as I tried to explain to him the wonders of a woman's pair of magical pants. Then he pulled on his boring, non-magical guy jeans and immediately stuffed the pockets with loose change and random bits of note paper.

The magic of the pants has stayed with my throughout the day. I have checked myself in the mirror several times....which is something I normally don't do. I have stayed cheerful despite the fact that it is gloomy outside AGAIN and the size of the stack of work on my desk has doubled. There is also a pile of laundry and a small mountain of dishes waiting for me at home. But who cares? My butt looks good today. It is amazing what some fabric, arranged in the proper configuration, can do for a woman.