You can influence your children positive or negatively.

Anything a respected adult does in front of children become an example for them. Either at home, in the supermarket, cooking or eating, adults are sending permanent behaviour messages to children. Consequently it is extremely important that parents and trainers teach children acting better than talking.

If a person advice a youngster not to smoke, and at the same time this person is smoking in front of him, the advice is useless.

If you watch families at the supermarket, and all or most of them are obese, try to watch the cart. Very frequently, you will see it full of manufactured products, and with a significant absence of fresh products, vegetables and fruit.

Later, victims and many doctors will blame the genetic factors of these disorders. Disorders that have their origin in inadequate nutrition habits, most of them created and fostered from childhood.

A few days ago I saw a grandmother looking after her grandson. They were at the supermarket Iand I could see how she was buying a dozen of those chocolates eggs wrapped in aluminum paper, those that hide a small toy inside them. I noticed it as she asked permission to an attendant to give one of these eggs to the baby, an eight or nine month’s old child, who apparently was anxious to eat one. This child was already addicted to those harmful pieces of stuff even before being one year old!

I asked the lady if the parents’ child were aware of this practice, and when she refused to answer, telling me “that it was not my business”, I told her I could report this behavior to the social authorities, and that she could be prosecuted for it. Anyway, the solution for these problems starts with adequate adult information. Nevertheless, health authorities are considering punishing extreme cases of malnutrition. Fattening a child is no better than keeping them in a permanent state of hunger.

Use smaller plates at home

Fifty years ago, Dr. Francisco Grande Covián, one of the Spanish researchers that worked with Dr. Ancel Keys on the Mediterranean Diet, started using one of his simplest but most valuable motto: “You can eat everything but in a dessert plate”.

Years ago, this expression should have been changed. There have appeared many products that are sold as food and should be avoided at all. Nevertheless and considering this fact, the phrase continue being valid.

The Mediterranean Diet recommends a varied nutrition. It is the simplest way to get all the nutrients we need in a natural way. The modern Mediterranean Diet goes further and bans any unnatural and industrially processed products. As Michael Pollan says, only is food what your grandmother would have considered food.

But Mediterranean Diet also recommends eating small portions. The amount you should eat depends on the calories expenses you have had. Mediterranean Diet followers learn how to interpret the signals that the body sends to them. It is a matter of routine and years.

Cornell University is promoting The Small Plate Movement, an initiative that advice switching from a traditional 12 inches plate to a smaller 10 inches one. It would deal to a reduction of food intake and calories. This is a measure that has been proved that works. The Small Plate Movement tends to operate in two fields. One of them is the family environment. The second one but more difficult is in Restaurants. About this point, marketing specialists have contradictory opinions about this issue. It could be seen by customers as a simple reduction of operating costs, and it could damage the image and the competitiveness of the establishment. A solution to this could be offering smaller portions at a reduced price.

Nevertheless, the small plate movement is being implemented and for different reasons at the hotel and cruises buffets. Considering that customers can repeat as many times as they wish, it does not represent any problem. But it is not the best way to lose weight.

January 7, 2012

In the Mediterranean Diet you can find delicious meals.

Mediterranean Diet Groups can be the answer to preserve this Lifestyle from disappearing. Latest report reveals that Spain has reached the highest rate of child obesity in European Union and almost equals USA level. Apart from Governmental actions as controlling food publicity, regulating school meals, banning some types of products, most of them related to trans fats, some further actions must be taken by the population. Nevertheless, the first measure is to involve citizens in new lifestyle patterns and educate them. And to make clear to parents that their way of life is going to be followed by their children.

When you go to the supermarket and see the trolleys of some families, you can easily understand why all the members of those families are condemned to be obese. If you look at the people who push the trolleys, we will confirm this fact. Generally, all of them are overweight.

It has been observed that joining a proper group can be the best therapy to learn how to change your unhealthy habits.

Your environment is extremely relevant to develop healthy habits. If your family context is not positive, you should try changing it. It is a difficult task that needs time and patience. It is clear that joining an appropriate group can be the best therapy to learn how to change your unhealthy habits.

Mediterranean Groups can be the solution.

Yesterday, one of these Mediterranean Diet Groups met to enjoy a Mediterranean meal. It was not a typical menu of salad, vegetables, grilled meat of fish. It was a “puchero”. It is a very ancient and traditional Mediterranean meal. To make it, you cook together different types of meats as veal, pork, chicken, fresh bacon, “chorizo” (a type of Spanish sausage), “morcilla” (black pudding) and some vegetables and legumes as cabbage, celery and chickpeas. Before of that they enjoyed a superb “jamón iberico” (Iberian ham).

None of them is overweight. But none of them has these types of food daily. The secret is to balance the food intake and to do frequent exercise.

Is any of them overweight?.

Photography courtesy of “El Pingue”

In the decade of 1960, every Mediterranean citizen used to eat about 44 pounds of legumes every year. Today, this quantity is about 7 pounds. The reason is the lack of time to prepare and cook them. They have been replaced by different types of fast food and processed foodstuffs.

Many of the products that Mediterranean people consume today are not particularly healthy. The weaker health regulations of these countries are converting them in real heavens for the food industry, a powerful sector with strong restrictions in more advanced health prevention countries.

A solution can be found in the so called “Range V foods”. The meaning of this expression is explained below.

It has been studied that the two people drives of today’s informed consumers are health and user-friendliness. For this purpose, food has been classified in six different types:

Range I. Fresh food as it comes from the origin. Except for fruits, they are difficult to handle. In general, they are extremely healthy.

Range II. It consists of conserved and semi-conserved foods, as tinned pineapple, etc. They are easy to handle but less healthy. They can be used occasionally, but not every day. Nevertheless, you can find excellent products in this range.

Range III. They are frozen products. They normally are raw and healthy, but are also difficult to handle.

Range IV. They are generally fresh fruit and vegetable foods, clean, sliced and free from inedible parts. They are kept inside a flexible plastic transparent bag. Consumers should check, before purchasing these products, that there are no air pockets in vacuum packing. In some cases, they are refrigerated. They can be considered healthy but have to be cooked.

Range V. They are modern prepared dishes, ready to eat after a short period of regeneration (normally heating). Their characteristics are to have been submitted to thermal treatment and kept in a controlled atmosphere. They are or should be free of preserves and additives. They are supposed to be healthy and are especially handy. It is commonly accepted that the Range V food represents the future.

The cons are that the price is higher than the rest of food types and that people have to develop an ability to choose the right ones in content, health safety and properties.

Range VI. This last section contains textured and irradiated food. They probably will be discontinued as the idea has been a complete failure. The process changes the color, taste, smell and texture of the food.

Exercise reinforces willpower and determination

These days I am trying to lose three pounds in order to prepare myself for Christmas. I do not want to be worried during that time. I have intensified the exercise, and I have slightly reduced foods as bread, sweet desserts and wine or beer. Nevertheless, I continue eating a lot, but more salads, vegetables, and grilled fish and meat.

Last Sunday, I went to walk to the mountain. I did about ten miles from sea level to six hundred feet and back, all together. I spent two hours and a half and felt extremely happy.

When I was finishing my walk, I found a friend sitting at a terrace. I stopped a while to talk to her. Suddenly, a waiter brought her a banana split, and then she invited me to share it. It was extremely tempting, both the ice cream and her company. Nevertheless, I was tired, hungry and thirsty, and I knew that I needed something different. First of all, taking a warm shower and then, the meal I had left prepared in the refrigerator. I thought that if I accepted the invitation, I was going to ruin the effort of the day. Then all I had done was going to be useless. The sugar and the fat would rush into my bloodstream at high speed, stopping the calories burnt.

Later, I thought the exercise had produced two positive effects on me. The first one was the proper physical activity and its beneficial consequences. The second one, a reinforcement of the motivation to maintain and continue the diet.

To succeed in any project one need two main key factors: goals and willpower. Objectives mean planning to do something, in a certain way and within a determined period. Nevertheless, without moral strength and determination, any good intention that implies effort will not be accomplished.