Mixed Messaging in Workout Trends

March 12, 2013

It’s not easy to be you.  How can it be?

You are told one thing about exercise and nutrition one day and then before you know it, you are told something contradictory the next. 

Sometimes it all just seems like too much.  And I would agree, it can be too much.  You shouldn’t have to work so hard to make sense of things.  I’m here to tell you it’s not your fault.

I blame the media.  Kind of.  And scientists.  Kind of.  And my fellow trainers.  Kind of.  Let me explain.

If no one reads your articles – which are increasingly being read online – then no one is looking at your banner ads, no one is paying your bills, and you and your media outlet have to shut down.   Thus, every story must have some shock value. 

No one is going to read the article that says more intense exercise is better than less, you shouldn’t skip breakfast, and that you shouldn’t eat too many carbs at night.  So every story that gets headlines reports a study that “proves” (ahem) the opposite.

For example, a recent article in the Washington Post ran with the following headline:

“Less intense but longer-lasting exercise may be better than strenuous workouts” 

When you examine the study used for this, you see that the media drew conclusions that cannot be drawn from the study.  Notice I didn’t say “wrong” conclusions. 

Now we get to the part where I blame the scientists.

The study was so poorly designed; you can almost tell that the researchers set out to get a study that gets them the end result they wanted.

I will keep this short and sweet.

There were three groups studied: a “sitting” group that did very little physical activity, a “minimal intensity physical activity” group and an “exercise” group (emphasis added by me to the last two groups).  The results showed that the minimal intensity physical activity group showed more improvement in various measures of health.  All you need to do is check out the graphics used to illustrate the problem with the conclusion here:

PLOS ONE

The study makes conclusions about “exercise” but there are too many variables changing to lead to the conclusions. And of course, the poor, unsuspecting media outlets that trusted the scientists – drew from the results.

Here are the two big problems, both easily visible in the graphic above.

1. Note that the exercise group did MVPA (moderate to vigorous physical activity) in the form of cycling (yellow section) while the minimal intensity physical activity did NO exercise at all.  They just stood and walked.
2. But next, and more importantly, note that the minimal intensity group did far less sitting than the exercise group.  Other than the higher intensity exercise, the exercise group sat down most of the rest of the day!  What was the difference in sitting time?

I hope you’re sitting down for this.

The exercise group spent 12.7 hours sitting while the minimal intensity physical activity group spent 7.4 hours sitting and about 8.6 hours standing or walking.  Yes, that’s right, by forcing the exercise group to sit as much as humanly possible the rest of the day, the researchers managed to “show” that less “exercise” is better than more intense exercise. 

Just what a shocking-headline-hungry media and an unmotivated public want to hear!

If you’re interested in reading the details of the study, it is from the Feb. 13 online issue of PLoS One.

Now we get to the part where I blame fitness trainers.

Even when a study is designed well, we don’t know how to use it properly.  Many of my colleagues claim to do “Tabata Training,” but not one of them anywhere is actually doing it.  In fact, most of them have never even read the Tabata study from 1996.  Anyone claiming to do Tabata training is really just doing interval training (not a sexy, catchy term anymore – Tabata sounds exotic and foreign!) where the interval is 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of full rest.

What’s the problem?

Without doing the intensity used in the Tabata study and only using the interval timing used, you are not doing Tabata training.  And it is impossible to achieve the intensities used in the study outside of a research setting.  You cannot do it with push-ups or jumping jacks.  It just can’t happen. 

So even my fellow members of the fitness industry have contributed to the problem by using a term they have no business using for training that they aren’t really doing.  If Izumi Tabata’s last name were “Jones” no one would be imitating his training.

And you, the poor public, just keep getting more confused.  Scientists tweak data to show a “breakthrough,” to score attention, while a media desperate for eyeballs and clicks scoops it up and leagues of well-meaning fitness trainers start haphazardly using whatever buzzwords they’ve heard in the media and from clients in an effort to ride current fads to success.

So which is better, less intense or more intense exercise?  I can’t answer that based on the study above.  And this is why you can seemingly never get definitive answers – only contradictory ones – no matter how many studies are done.  Too many of them are done not in the name of science but in the name of shocking stories dressed up like science.

Intermittent Fasting

February 19, 2013

Contrary to popular recommendations to eat smaller, more frequent meals, new research suggests that a short, periodic fast (called “intermittent fasting”) might actually rev up your fat-burning machinery while helping you control glucose and insulin. Important hormonal changes mean that you might lose more fat and gain more muscle, all by skipping a few meals.  Some data show that Intermittent  fasting, when done properly, might help extend life, regulate blood glucose, control blood lipids, manage body weight, gain (or maintain) lean mass, and more.

There is no conclusiveness to the research on intermittent fasting, but honestly there doesn’t likely need to be.  In my opinion “conclusive” will always be somewhat unachievable and unrealistic when it comes to human nutrition.  For some people it will be a wise approach that will lead to better health while for others intermittent fasting will be the wrong approach.

Elusive Conclusiveness

There is too much individuality and variability in humanity to make any one approach the answer for everyone.  From omnivorism vs. veganism to intermittent fasting, this is one truth that becomes apparent the more you investigate nutrition.  We all come from a line of genes that are built on highly diverse diets based on your ancestral geography.  And chances are good that it will be very different from the person next to you.  Espousing one approach as the correct way for all humans will always be wrong.

Traditional Doesn’t Necessarily Make it Right

Yes, the idea that we should return to our roots and eat “paleo,” run barefoot, and eat less often all have a certain appeal.  But we have to be very careful with this line of thinking.  I’m guessing that we’re not going stop bathing, using deodorant, or using cell phones are we?  Not everything we used to do as cavemen is practical – or even smart – anymore. We have evolved. It doesn’t mean we should ignore our evolutionary history, but it also doesn’t mean we should devolve and embrace everything from the paleo period of human history.

This is Your Brain on Calories

Sometimes I think I know too much about how the brain works. Your brain uses a very high amount of energy – around 20% of the calories you used in a day!  In fact, per unit of tissue, your brain uses more energy than your quadriceps muscle.  In caveman times, we were fasting/starving more often for sure.  But we also did not have to think as much as we do now.  The body of knowledge we have to walk around with combined with the incoming stream of information and news from around the world and in your own personal world is staggering.  And this means your brain is going to work harder and thus need more energy. 

Cause and Effect or “Just ’Cause I Said So?”

Too often with an extreme shift in thinking, something seems so shocking that it can create a buzz and cause people to rush and adopt a certain behavior.  Other people just do it because they know someone else who did it.  There is often a rush to find the next perfect diet, which is the risk with intermittent fasting. 

It could be that the results are just from people eating better food (since this often happens when someone is dieting anyway) and/or eating less junk (if you’re periodically fasting, you’re eating less junk even if you’re still eating junk when you eat.)  It could also be that a periodic fast might help you learn the difference between real hunger (the body telling you it needs something) and mental hunger (eating from boredom or any other reason than real hunger.) 

Find out More

If you want more information or would like to give it a try, I would direct you to the excellent free e-book by John Berardi of Precision Nutrition.  It is an excellent review of the pros and cons along with helpful details of how to try various versions of intermittent fasting.  It is mostly a spot on review of all the factors you would need to know to decide if you want to try it and if it might be for you. 

Do the research from credible sources and decide for yourself. 

Training the Abs Without Ab Exercises

February 04, 2013

It has gotten very popular to recommend squats and deadlifts as "abdominal" strengthening exercises, but like a lot of ideas that are appealing and sound good, this approach is not quite correct although this is mostly dependent on what type of ab training you are after.

In general, I'm not inclined to recommend heavier, bilateral back squats or deadlifts as "abdominal" exercises.  The distinction is critical.  The traditional versions of these exercises don’t develop abdominal strength so much as display it.  Or, if you use a heavy enough weight beyond what the abs are prepared for, they display a lack of it – and doing so would typically put one at risk.  The same appealing but faulty logic is used to make people think they jump higher from doing box jumps…box jumps demonstrate how high you are already capable of jumping, they don’t magically make you able to jump higher from putting a box in front of you.

If you are seeking abdominal strength to support your back and to be able to move, live, work, and play without hurting yourself, then you may be able to use strength training exercises (as described below, not above) to strengthen the abs.  However, if you are after that ripped look for the abs, you need to do targeted abdominal training and eat a very clean diet – period.  To get that look, the muscles have to be targeted and well-developed so they stick out a bit.  And without removing the layers of body fat beneath the skin that cover up muscle definition, the lean look will be elusive.  For more details on how to do this, try the workouts, exercises, and nutrition recommendations in my top-selling fitness book, Abs Revealed.  Check out Abs Revealed on iTunes for the iPhone app.

To use non-abdominal exercises to develop strength (and stability) in the abs for general fitness and “everyday” strength, then you need to use asymmetrical loading.  Some examples…

1. “Suitcase” Deadlift – standing holding the middle of a barbell (hold it like a dumbbell) on one side of your body. Perform a deadlift as you traditionally would while holding the weight level.  Bend forward at the hips and then the knees while keeping the back straight – not vertical, but straight.
2. Rainbow Squat – hold the sides of a dumbbell, medicine ball, or horn of an upside-down kettlebell with both hands.  Start with the weight overhead. As you squat down move the weight to the right, lowering it as far as is comfortable just outside your right leg.  Stand back up and return the weight overhead and repeat to the left side.
3. Single Arm Dumbbell Row from Lunge Stance – stand holding one dumbbell with the opposite foot forward and lean over the front foot so that very little weight is on the back foot.  Keep the torso in the same alignment as if you were doing the row on a bench while performing a dumbbell row.  Keeping your body up with your own muscles will make the abs (and the glute of the front leg) work very hard.
4. Single Arm DB Press on Stability Ball – lay down supine on a stability ball with the neck and shoulders supported on the ball, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor.  Hold a dumbbell in one hand and perform a single are DB chest press moving the arm in the same technique with a two-arm press. 

Wrap Up

If you want to get something you need to go after it, not avoid it.  For decades we did too much ab training in the hopes of changing the look of our mid-sections.  The correction for doing too much of something is not to do too little of it.  But if you’re just after general strength and not ripped abs, you can do strength training in certain ways to achieve that goal and may not need much targeted abdominal training.

Healthy Versions of Unhealthy Coffee Drinks

January 02, 2013

 I love a great cup of coffee.  And chances are, so do you.  Coffee has many health benefits, but these days, having a “coffee” often means having a couple of shots of espresso along with enough fat, sugar, whipped cream, chocolate or caramel to make a cake.  Calling a Peppermint Mocha a coffee is like calling a banana split a fruit. 

Below you will find the caloric damage done by some common favorites along with the stats for plain coffee, followed by how to save a bunch of money, a bunch of calories, and provide a boost to health by making your own variations.  Keep in mind that the variations will have no sugar so don’t expect them to make your taste buds explode, but the use of real ingredients will make up for it as you can enjoy real flavors.

 

Drink (16 ounces)	Caffeine (mg)	Sugar (g)	Fat (g)	Calories
Caramel Macchiato	150	32	7	240
Cinnamon Dolce Latte	150	40	13	330
Gingerbread Latte	150	37	13	320
Peppermint Latte	175	54	15	410
Vanilla Latte	150	35	6	250
1 oz. shot espresso	75	0	0	5
Bold pick-of-the-day	330	0	0	5

 

Caramel Macchiato, Vanilla Latte

Use Pure Vanilla Powder (by Madagascar Bourbon) – using real vanilla will provide an elegant touch and a wonderful change from the sugar overdose.  You can find this product in most organic and gourmet food stores.

Cinnamon Dolce Latte, Gingerbread Latte

Brew your coffee however you like, and then use essential oils of Cinnamon and Ginger to add the real flavoring.  You’ll only need to use one drop as the real thing packs enough punch.  I use essential oils purchased from Your Body Needs.  Most cinnamon sold in stores isn’t real cinnamon.  Real cinnamon helps control blood sugar while real ginger fights inflammation.

Peppermint Latte

Brew your coffee however you like, and then use essential oil of Peppermint along with Cocoa extract to add a shot of the real thing.  As with the cinnamon and ginger, you’ll only need to use one drop as the real thing packs enough punch.  Essential oils purchased from Your Body Needs, and the cocoa I use is Pure Inventions.  Real peppermint aids in digestion. 

 

If you call it coffee, it should be mostly coffee. Add some real cinnamon, ginger, peppermint, cocoa, and vanilla to boost the health benefits and add some authentic flavor to your next coffee.

 

3 Tips for a Fit Holiday Season

November 27, 2012

No, I’m not crazy.  I think this is the perfect time to get started on getting fitter.  It’s certainly better than January. In many places the beginning of January is the darkest, coldest time of year.  And you’re dealing with the aftermath of the holidays after possibly hosting family or travelling to see them. 

By trying some of the methods here, you can get a jump on your fitness program now and build some confidence and momentum by knowing what you can accomplish even during the hardest time of year.

Focus on Solutions Instead of Challenges

You will likely have no trouble listing reasons why you cannot workout this time of year with all that you have to do.  I get it.  I really do. But work with me on this -- pull out your calendar and ask yourself: “Where are my opportunities to exercise this month?” Map out ‘bright spots’ in your holiday schedule where there will be any available time to work out.

Do What You Haven’t Been Doing

If you have been doing weights before cardio, do the opposite. Using time-based sets? Switch back to rep-based sets for the holidays. Using metabolic circuits? Switch back to traditional strength training. Try faster, full-body exercises if you’ve been doing more traditional strength training. 

Changing things up is a great way to challenge and engage yourself at a time of year when you may be feeling distracted or less motivated. Our bodies adapt to that which we’ve been doing most often, so changing up any major part of your program can lead to progress in less time.

Use “Less is More” Workouts

You may not have time for your full routine, so get a good challenge in whatever time you have! Your body responds to the demand of an effort—not its duration. The benefits of an hour of exercise don’t suddenly appear in your body when the clock rolls over from 59 to 60 minutes during your sessions. If you  normally do 30 minutes of cardio you only have 15 minutes, then change something (add speed, resistance, incline, etc.) to feel as challenged after 15 minutes as you do after 30.

Why an Apple a Day Might Not Keep the Doctor Away

November 06, 2012

Does an apple a day keep the doctor away?  Perhaps, but only if that apple is organic and free of pesticides.  If it isn’t, that apple may send you to the doctor faster than you think.

Recent news stories outlining how organic foods are not proving to be any healthier reflect a poor understanding of logic and science in most levels of society – from the media down to the average person.

First, organic farming is not new.  It is the way humans farmed for all of human history until the mid-1900’s when extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides began.  We have over 10,000 years of organic farming proving to be a healthy way for humans to farm.  By contrast, “conventional” framing has only been the convention for 60 to 70 years at the most.

What no one seems to be studying is whether conventional farming is as healthy as organic.  The common approach is to study the opposite and this makes little sense as organic farming is already the standard.

Next, apples are one of the “dirty dozen,” one of the foods that are most important to consume organically due to the high level of residual pesticides present on conventionally farmed apples. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) operates under a paradigm of “the dose makes the poison.”  Essentially, they continually lower the doses of pesticides in animal testing until no observable effects are seen.  And this is terrible science.

Current research on a number of pesticides is showing conclusively that there are a number of non-immediately observable effects from a number of pesticides.  They are proving to have powerful effects on hormones at lower doses (whereas at higher doses they show direct toxicity). 

This alteration of hormones has powerful effects on the size and function of many structures in our brains and has direct implications for everything from lowered IQ’s in children exposed to high doses of pesticides in utero and after birth, to our brains’ susceptibility to diseases like Parkinson’s.

As it turns out, it’s the poison that makes the poison.  If something is toxic to humans, there is proving to be no acceptable dose. 

An organic apple a day will help keep the doctor away while a pesticide-riddled apple might just bring the doctor your way.

For More on Health:

Women's Health

Mental Health

Baby Health

Solving the Halloween Candy Crisis

October 15, 2012

I love this time of year.  How could you not?  Crisp fall air, changing leaves, and Halloween on the way.  It’s the only time of year that it is acceptable to decorate with skulls! 

When I first began my fitness career, however, I really struggled with Halloween.  It is kind of funny to me now, but I had some major concerns to reconcile.

Our culture is driven by junk food, sweets, and candy at every holiday, event, and happy or sad occasion.  Which means “treats” (an occasional indulgence) aren’t really treats any longer, and there are almost daily opportunities to eat something unwise.  Did you drink a soda today?  That’s a treat.  Considering the amount of sugar in it, soda is candy, not a beverage. 

So for a few years, I was paralyzed by Halloween.  Losing my father to obesity when he topped 400 pounds and seeing my mother at just under 400 pounds at her heaviest made a real impression on me.  Our choices determine the body we live in – it’s not mostly genetic. It’s our day-to-day choices that matter the most, not what you do on any one given day.

The paralysis manifested itself by “skipping” Halloween and not handing out anything.  I kept the house dark and watched horror movies, or I would go out. I wanted to participate in the holiday, but I just needed a few years to figure it out.  Here are some tips to give out some candy and some cool stuff to take a step toward health instead of horror for the trick-or-treaters in your neighborhood.

• Give out candy that is only made from real food.  Think a small number of ingredients, minimal to no colorings, and contains nuts or coconut and perhaps darker chocolate and a reasonable amount of sugar.  Stuff like licorice, candy corn, and most hard candy would be out.  These items aren’t food.  They are edible, but not food.

• Go to the dollar store and pick up some packages of super balls, mini dinosaurs or other simple and fun toys.  Mix them all into the bowl with whatever candy you choose.  You will be amazed at the number of kids that pick some of the toys.  (Even they realize they have enough candy!)

• Visit an ethnic grocery store or the ethnic aisle of your standard grocery and pick up some candy options that are less traditional.  You could pick a single country’s chocolates and inform the kids where they are from.   You’ll give them a good story about where the candy is from and may spark an interest in seeing where the country is on a map.

• At home, eliminate sodas, fruit juices, candy, and chips from your family’s diet for the week or two before or after Halloween. This allows for above-average candy consumption by your own kids from their trick-or-treating.

• IMPORTANT: Store the Halloween candy in a difficult to reach place in the kitchen – either high or low in a cabinet.  Do not store it at shoulder height or in a visible bowl!  It will get eaten faster than it should be. 

Yes, these tips take a little more effort than simply buying massive bags of the worst candy.  But only a little more effort, and it is worth it.  Children often learnmore from subtle, daily, seemingly small choices of the adults around them rather than the extensive lessons we try to teach them.

Be creative in how you celebrate this fun holiday and you just might send the message that “fun” doesn’t always have to equal “fun size.”

For More on Health During the Holidays:

10 Healthy Holiday Foods

Alternative Holiday Foods

Healthy Holiday Appetizers and Finger Foods

Why Do People Hate Change?

June 18, 2012

The “facts” of fitness aren’t hard to figure out. The “how” is relatively easy to access. It’s available in countless books and websites.

Yet somehow, people find change in health and fitness to be difficult. And it’s due to an out-of-control reward system. The perception that to get in shape, you have to give up everything that tastes good and is fun, doesn’t sit well with most people’s reward systems. Countless studies have shown clearly that when given a choice between a smaller reward now and a larger reward later people, people most often choose the immediate reward. 

The result is that the “pain” of giving up favorite junk foods or sacrificing couch time for workout time is greater than the less tangible, more abstract, far off “pleasure” achieved from hitting fitness goals that are months or even years away.

Do People Hate Change?

Lots of people have babies. Multiple times. And most often on purpose! There might be no greater inconvenient change than the changes necessary to accommodate a child in your life. Clearly, change can be welcomed and embraced, even when it is very inconvenient. 

The reason is that the drive and desire – motivation – to make the change (have a child) outweighs the desire to stay with the same situation (not have a child). And this provides the formula for success with any change, including fitness. Start with the desired change; discover the powerful emotional reasons why the change matters, and then start to work on how. 

You have to find the why before you can get to the how.

From What to Why

Starting a workout program should be the last thing you do. Ask “what” until you get deep enough to make the goals specific, relevant and meaningful. For example, if you start with a goal of “get in shape,” that’s too vague and meaningless to be powerful. Keep asking questions like “What will be different in my life when I get in shape?” and “What does ‘get in shape’ mean to me?” until you get the detail you need.

Once you get enough detail on your goals, then you ask “why” until you discover the reasons you care about the goal. You might find that a goal that starts as “weight loss” really means “be able to see my son or daughter get married or graduate college,” for example. You won’t ever know unless you ask. And if you don’t ask, you’ll never activate the powerful emotional components of motivation that help you work around life’s endless parade of challenges to fitness program success.

More on Motivation:

Get Inspired to Get Fit

How to Start a Weight Loss Program

5 Steps to Changing Your Behavior

Photo Source: Thinkstock/Digital Vision

The Surprising Similarity Between Chocolate, Cannabis and Exercise

May 01, 2012

What do marijuana, exercise, and chocolate have in common? All three activate the same receptors in the brain. This isn’t the same story you’ve heard about endorphins and exercise. This is about endocannabinoids, a class of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers in the brain.)

Sure, there might be some health benefits to medical marijuana, but a lot of it depends on the method of delivery. Smoke of any type is toxic to the human lung, so smoking anything is unequivocally unwise – period. 

What about chocolate? Lots of health benefits; lots of calories, too. And too often, it is has so much added sugar to outweigh the positives. 

But exercise? It’s the high with no downside! Endocannabinoids are produced in the body and the brain when we exercise. They go all over the place – the spinal cord, the brain. And they spread good feelings everywhere they travel.

In the spinal cord, they block pain signals from getting to the brain. They light up the reward centers in our brain. And some recent success has been found with using gradually increasing doses of exercise to successfully treat chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.

Photo Source: Thinkstock/Pixland

The link between exercise and these natural painkillers makes a lot of sense. When humans were hunter/gatherers, we couldn’t allow a little joint pain to stop us. 

Interestingly, endorphins are larger molecules than the endocannabinoids. This means that, endorphins can’t cross the blood-brain barrier (keeps larger molecules from entering the brain.)  As a result, many researchers now believe that it’s the endocannabinoids that are responsible for the runner’s high commonly attributed to endorphins. 

So you can choose marijuana, which will lower your fullness signals in the brain and make you overeat.  You might over consume chocolate – and feel good for a little while as you lose motivation and watch your waistline grow. Or you can exercise, get the same effect, and the side-effect is a better body and better brain. This choice really is a no-brainer.  

More on the Human Brain:

Top 10 Brain Myths

Do We Really Only Use 10 Percent of Our Brain?

Top 5 Ways Your Brain Influences Your Emotions

Photo Source (upper right): Thinkstock/Digital Vision

Meal Comparison: How Much Can You Eat in 500 Calories?

April 16, 2012

What do the following three things have in common?

• Red velvet cupcake (from Crumbs Bake Shop)
• Small piece of fried chicken, a few fries and a cup of soda
• Chicken with seasonal tomatoes and rice pilaf, mixed melons, baby arugula salad and two cups of unsweetened iced tea

They are all 500 calories. But if you lined them all up next to each other, you’d see something pretty amazing. The first one is just a big cupcake. The second is small plate of food with a glass of soda. The third is a large plate with the chicken and rice pilaf, a small side plate for the salad and a small side bowl of fruit plus the glass of tea.

You can get your 500 calories in a lot of food or a little. You can participate in our embarrassing child-like national love affair with cupcakes and knock out 500 calories in one hand, or you can chow down on 500 calories and have a complete meal.

Would you rather eat one cupcake, or a whole chicken dinner?

The secret is the water content and calorie density of the food. Water adds weight and volume, but no calories. It’s 100 pounds of lead vs. 100 pounds of feathers. The feathers would take up far more room, but 100 pounds is 100 pounds so they would weigh the same.

There’s been some fascinating research on this, much of it done with 700 people in a year-long trial, the results of which have formed the basis for The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet by Barbara Rolls, Chair of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State.The big take-away is this: If people were eating a diet that was less calorie-dense, they were eating significantly more food – about a pound more a day – and they were eating fewer calories and losing weight.

I know, it sounds like the latest bogus miracle cure for weight loss: “Eat more and weigh less”. But that’s exactly the truth. It’s just that “more” in this case means “more volume” and not “more calories”. 

It’s not big portions that are leading to obesity. It is big portions of calorie-dense foods and even not-so-big portions of junk foods.

How do you eat foods with more water and/or less calories? You use lots of fruits and vegetables! These are the same foods that are good for just about everything else.

Perhaps it’s time we grew up, put down our gourmet cupcakes and stopped asking why “it’s so hard to lose weight”. It isn’t hard. It’s just hard when we eat the wrong foods. The main recommendations for which foods promote health haven’t really changed much in the last several decades. So while you often hear debate on the finer points of nutrition, the basics have stayed fairly consistent.

As author Michael Pollan says, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

More on Diet and Fitness:

How Calories Work

5 Healthy, Effective Diets

You on a Diet: What You Need to Know

 

Photo Sources: Thinkstock