Holiday Weight Gain is no myth. Between Thanksgiving & New Year’s, the average American gains ¾ pound, but overweight people gain 5. Use the following tips to enjoy the rest of the holiday season - & to help make your New Year’s diet successful.

J   Spice it up. Find any excuse to eat hot peppers, spicy mustards & curies; put jalapenos in your salads. Capsaicin, the hot stuff in peppers, revs up the metabolism, burning off more calories, & may suppress appetite. In a recent Canadian study, subjects who ate sauce rich in capsaicin ate about 200 fewer calories in the following three hours than those who didn’t eat the sauce.

J   Add vinegar. In new Arizona State University tests, subjects who took 1½ tablespoons of apple cider vinegar ate 200 fewer calories at the next meal. Probable reason: Vinegar tends to blunt blood insulin levels that trigger hunger. Other research shows eating vinegar or lemon juice, as in salad dressing with high – carb. foods lowers jumps in blood sugar.

J   Go nuts. When faced with an array of goodies, choose nuts or desserts that contain nuts, especially peanuts. Nuts have good fat and fiber that help suppress hunger, + they have a slew of health benefits. According to a new study in the Archives of internal Medicine, men who ate 1oz of nuts (such as almonds or walnuts) at least twice a week had a 47% lower risk of sudden cardiac death & a 30 % lower risk of coronary heart disease, compared to those who ate NO nuts.  In a different test, people who eat peanuts feel fuller & eat fewer calories later: Chocolate peanut clusters are better fat busters than chocolate truffles.

J   Beware of buffets. Research at Tufts found that adults who ate the greatest variety of sweets, snacks, condiments & entrees ate the most calories & were the fattest. Exceptions: People eating a wide variety of fruit & dairy products had normal body fat.

J   Nibble. Try to eat 5 or 6 small meals daily instead of the usual 3. You’re likely to consume fewer calories. In one recent study, men given 5 small meals instead of one large breakfast ate 1/3 fewer calories at lunch & Felt happy about it. Frequent eating controls blood sugar and, thus, appetite.

J   Be choosy about fats. Some R more fattening. Best to prevent weight gain: olive oil & omega 3 fats in fish & canola oil. Worst: saturated animal fats. Animals gained 1/3 more body fat on a high – saturated – fat diet than on a high – canola – oil diet. But all fat can add pounds. Italian research found children stored eight times more fat after a high fat meal vs. a low – fat one. It’s more filling to eat a high – protein / high – carb. meal than a high – fat one, Dutch research claim.

J   Eat sugar busters. Stick to foods that suppress blood sugar and dampen appetite. Good choices: turkey & chicken breast; dried fruits such as figs, apricots, pears, apples & prunes (not dates); fresh fruits (not to much pineapple); sweet potatoes (not white potatoes); & black eyed peas, lentils & dried beans. Use sourdough bread to make stuffing.

J   Get your calories in bulk. You stave off weight gain better by eating 300 calories in a cup of stew than in an itty – bitty cookie. The stew’s water and fiber fill you up better; finds Penn State researcher Barbara Rolls, Ph.D. Compact calories – potato chips, crackers, and cookies – create fat without stifling appetite. Best weight deterrents; low – fat, high – fiber; high – water foods such as soups, stews, casseroles, fruits & Vegetables. Adding fiber to low – fat diets triples the weight U lose, says Tufts University’s Susan Roberts, Ph.D. Aim for more that 25 grams of fiber a day.

J   Liquid advice. Drink green tea; it helps burn off calories. In one study, 2 to 3 cups a daily burn off 80 calories. Consuming liquids, especially chunky soup, before meals may curb appetite. Women in a Penn State Study ate 27 % fewer calories after a starter of chicken – rice soup. Also, alcohol is not necessarily fattening, but beer & sweetened mixed drinks do contain fattening carbs. All alcohol lessons judgment, resulting in overindulgence. Limit drinks to one for women, two for men. Or don’t imbibe at all.

J   Eat at home. The more often U eat at restaurants, including fast – food chains, the more calories & fat U consume, & the fatter U R likely   to be, government studies say.

J   Gum chews up calories. If u chewed gum all day & changed nothing else about your eating & exercise habits, U could lose more than 10 pounds a year. Don’t buy it? Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, actually measured the energy expended by 7 people who were simply sitting & chewing sugarless gum. Their calorie burn increased by almost 20% while they were chewing, to 70 calories per hour. Okay, so U’d have to chew gum 10 hours a day for 5 days to lose a pound, but the point is this: Even trivial changes in your routine – like taking the stairs instead of the escalator – can have a powerful impact.

Like everything else, there’s a good & bad side to fats. The general misconception that all of them R bad for you, prevalent as it may be, simply is not true. The most maligned of all is cholesterol.

 Practically everyone knows that cholesterol can be responsible for arteriosclerosis, heart attacks, a variety of illnesses, but very few R aware that it is essential to health. At least 2/3 of our body cholesterol is produced by the liver or in the intestine. It is found there as well as in the brain, the adrenals, & nerve fiber sheaths.

1  Cholesterol in the skin is converted to essential vitamin D when touched by the Sun’s ultraviolet rays.

1  Cholesterol aids in the metabolism of carbohydrates. (The more cholesterol produced.)

1  Cholesterol is a prime supplier of life – essential adrenal steroid hormones, such as cortisone.

1  Cholesterol is a component of every membrane & necessary for the production of male & female sex hormones.

Differences in the behavior of cholesterol depend upon the protein to which it is bound. Lipoproteins R the factors in our blood which transport cholesterol.

B       Low – density lipoproteins (LDL) carry about 65% of blood cholesterol & R the bad guys who deposit it in the arteries where, joined by other substances, it becomes artery – blocking plaque.

B       Very – low – density lipoproteins (VLDL) carry only about 15% of blood cholesterol but R the substances the liver needs & uses to produce LDL. The more of them, the more LDL the liver sends out & the greater your chance of heart disease.

B       High – density lipoproteins (HDL) carry about 20 % of blood cholesterol, composed principally of lecithin, are the good guys whose detergent action break up plaque & can transport cholesterol through the blood without clogging arteries. (A recent study found that people with big hips & trim waists have higher HDL cholesterol levels than those with potbellies, which might explain why females, on the average, live eight years longer than males.) In short: the higher your HDL the lower you chances of developing heart disease.

   It is also worth mentioning that though the egg consumption in the US is one – half of what it was in 1945, there has not been a comparable decline in heart disease. Though the American Heart Association deems eggs hazardous, a diet without them can be equally hazardous. Not only eggs have the most perfect protein compounds of any food, but also they contain lecithin, which aids in fat as simulation, most important, they raise HDL levels!

When people talk about their cholesterol levels, they’re referring to the total amount of cholesterol in their blood (serum cholesterol). The amounts R measured in milligrams per deciliter; the accepted levels – for – everyone should not exceed 200 mg/dl.

The ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) to LDL (bad Cholesterol) is as important as the ratio of HDL to your total cholesterol level. The more HDL you have, therefore, the more protection you have against clogged arties.

Blood cholesterol tests will usually also measure your levels of triglycerides. These fats differ from cholesterol, but there is a connection between them; although you can have high triglyceride levels without high cholesterol (and vice versa), lowering triglyceride levels does seem to help bring down cholesterol.

Keeping your daily fat intake to no more that 30 % (& preferably 20%) of total calories consumed is vital to leveling off elevated cholesterol levels. No more than 10 % of that should be saturated.

Source of reference: Daily News, Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine Michael Murry, ND & Joseph Pizzorino, ND.

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