Do you have metabolic syndrome?

Weight loss is not a typical topic for Wired magazine, but this month they have a cover feature story on The Thin Pill.

The article is all about what's called the metabolic syndrome, "a condition that though only concretely defined five years ago, is now said to afflict as many as 75 million Americans – whether they know it or not. We sit, indeed, amid an epidemic of metabolic syndrome, a fact all the more remarkable because so few people are familiar with it. For this is no virus on the loose, no plague that has spread unchecked. Rather, metabolic syndrome is just a new way to think about a cluster of well-known and increasingly prevalent conditions. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by five risk factors: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides (fatty acids in the bloodstream), low HDL ("good") cholesterol, and obesity. Of the five, obesity – which is itself often referred to as an epidemic – is the most important, because the rise of the morbidly overweight is directly driving the rise in the syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is, in fact, almost indistinguishable from obesity – at least 85 percent of those who have the syndrome are obese or overweight."

The article debates whether 'metabolic syndrome' is a disease that was invented by the pharmaceutical industry in order to push diet pills at us in the guise of medical authority.

Update: Where is Star Jones Now?

Star Jones lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago (about 150 pounds) and has kept it off.

In June, she says she was kind of fired from The View, a very popular show she had been cohosting for nine years.

So the question is, what is Star Jones up to now?

She has not updated her website as to her current activities since July. In July she hosted a week of a program called "House Hunters in New York City". Here she helped New York house hunters find their dream home. This program got the highest ratings in HGTV's cable channel's history while she was hosting.

But since then there has been no update posted on her site. So it seems she is taking a well deserved break to relax and regroup from her nine years of TV.

Star Jones is hugely ambitious; she grew up with a single parent, in a housing project, became a lawyer and then became famous on TV. I have no doubt she will be in the public eye again sometime soon.

Update November 17th: Here's a very recent photo of Star Jones at the after party for Dancing with the Stars taken in November 2006.

From ET Online: "ET breaks the news that STAR JONES REYNOLDS will be executive producing and appearing on a new TV program. "We are executive producing the first year ender on Black America," Star told us Wednesday night in Los Angeles. "We are doing a full look at the issues, the people, the conversations that were held in Black America, something that... has been a project that I've always wanted to do." Star told us that her show will air on TV One, a cable/satellite network geared towards African American adults."

Coca Cola and their "Negative Calorie" Green Tea

Enviga is a new soda that we'll soon be hearing about everywhere. This is because it's a new product from Coca Cola and likely to get massive advertising dollars.

Enviga is being promoted as a negative calorie green tea. It can be considered negative calorie because it speeds up your metabolism. Ingredients include caffeine and EGCG (a naturally occurring antioxidant that increases metabolism).

Coca-Cola says that if you drink three servings of Enviga you will burn between 60 to 100 calories more than normal that day.

Nestle partnered with Coca-Cola to develop this tea, which is sparkly and served as a cold drink.

Enviga first launches in New York and Philadelphia next month.

Found via The Guardian

P.S. To me it looks like the logo branding of this 'negative calorie' soda, with that little flame above the 'i', along with some of their marketing materials, looks and sounds a lot like their competition; the Celsius drink.

Gwyneth Paltrow Diets Strictly

Gwyneth Paltrow, 34, is reportedly on a very strict diet now. She's fed up with not being able to lose the last of the post-baby weight. Her second baby, Moses, was born in April this year. She also has a two year old daughter, Apple.

Above is a photo of her from last month and a before pic (right) taken a few years ago.

Paltrow is known to practise yoga regularly. She has followed a macrobiotic diet for a very long time. But in 2005 she told People Magazine that she's not as stringent as she once was and that "Now I'll have cheese once in a while or white flour, but I still believe in whole grains and no sugar."

But now Life Style Extra is reporting that she is going on a special diet designed by health guru Dr Joshi where she will only be eating the following foods for the next few weeks;

* turkey

* chicken

* white fish

* vegetables

* bananas (the only fruit allowed)


She is not to eat any;

* dairy products

* wheat

* tomatoes

* peppers

* fruit

* sugar

* gluten

* red meat

The diet regime she's on also requires taking herbal supplements to flush out toxins, regular colonic irrigation, reflexology and cupping treatments. (Cupping treatments? What the heck is that?)

The British newspaper also says Gwyneth has taken to wearing corsets to make her appear slightly thinner but she hopes to ditch these when she's finished with this temporary diet.

Tara Reid regrets her Liposuction

Tara Reid has never been overweight. She says she weighs 110 now and has fluctuated about 10 pounds over this point at times. (Her height is 5'4".) But despite being very slim, Reid decided a couple of years ago that she would like a flatter stomach. She wanted her stomach to be taut, like a six-pack.

She went ahead with a liposuction operation (at the same time as she was having her breasts enlarged). But this week she told Us Magazine that the lipo work was a disaster. Her stomach became "the most ripply, bulgy thing".

Last month she went in for reconstructive surgery to try to get this fixed. It's one more case of warning about the risks of liposuction surgery for people who are seeking an easy way to quickly lose belly fat.

Has Suzy Preston kept the weight off?

It's been a while since Suzy Preston was on the Biggest Loser show and lost 95 pounds. (She went from 227 to 132). Has she managed to keep the weight off since then?

Suzy Preston and Matt Hoover got married last month. It's the most recent photo I've been able to find of them. They both look like they've put on a few pounds but they look fabulous and very much in love. Their wedding photographer had this to say about whether they've managed to keep the weight off;

"They both look great. They may have added a few pounds since the finale of the show but they still exercise and eat right."

Update November 6th: Us Magazine reports that Suzy Preston is pregnant and they are expecting their first baby in April. Congrats to them both.

See more background on Suzy Preston here.

A Healthy Lunch for Daycare?

My baby recently started daycare three days a week. (I keep calling him 'baby' all the time even though he will be three years old in four months.)

So I've been making daycare lunches for him for the first time.

I'd like to make healthy lunches but I find it hard to think of good ideas for his lunch container. He's not a 'sandwich' eater yet. When we're at home for lunch I usually reheat leftovers from the previous dinner, or make him some scrambled egg and toast, or open a can of tuna or sardines or salmon and give it to him with healthy crackers. Then there is fruit, yoghurt and basically the entire contents of the fridge and cupboards are open for me to offer him, as he can often be a finicky eater.

But at the daycare they ask that the food does not require refrigeration or heating-up. So that limits it a bit. They also don't allow any kind of nuts which is hard because nuts are so good for him and he can eat a lot of them. I once included a flax granola bar in his lunch but was quickly educated that this is not allowed as it may contain traces of peanut products.

I would love to get some ideas from people as to what they put in their toddler's lunch box. Here's what I've been doing so far;

Yoghurt
I often include a yoghurt in his lunch. I prefer to buy the large (non-premixed) containers and give him an individual serving in a small re-washable plastic container rather than buying the individually portioned cups. It's usually a lot cheaper and much better for the environment.

Fruit
I usually include a piece of fruit, most often a banana, but sometimes grapes or berries (rasberries, strawberries or blueberries as they have been in season). I put the berries in a small plastic container as above.

Sandwich
I often make a cheese sandwich (with a bit of ketchup, as this multiplies the odds of him eating it), cut the rinds off, and cut it into little squares. He often doesn't eat it.

Crackers and Cheese
This is a current food fad with him. A little cracker with a slice of cheese on it.

Leftover Chicken
I often include little pieces of chicken in another plastic container if we happen to have some leftover.

Carrot Sticks
He seems to like finely cut carrot sticks right now.

Heavily Diluted Juice
I give him a sippy cup filled with about 1/4 cranberry juice and 3/4 water.

So, other than the carrot sticks, the vegetable quota in the lunches is almost zero. And it seems I must be missing on some good stuff. I'm thinking there must be more good ideas for what to make. Would love to hear from people about this!