Rebecca McGrane

Wake-up Call for Diet Soda Drinkers

Rebecca McGrane — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:30:03 +0000

New study is wake-up call for Diet soda drinkers

Sorry, soda lovers – even diet drinks can make you fat.

That’s the word from authors of two new studies, presented Sunday at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.

“Data from this and other prospective studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas as healthy alternatives may be ill-advised” Dr. Helen Hazuda, professor of medicine at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, said in a written statement. “They may be free of calories, but not of consequences.”

Consequences like weight gain.

For one study, researchers at the center followed 474 diet soda drinkers, 65 to 74 years of age, for almost 10 years. They found that diet soda drinkers’ waists grew 70 percent more than non-drinkers. Specifically, drinking two or more diet sodas a day busted belt sizes five times more than people who avoided the stuff entirely.

And as waist size grows, so do health risks – including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions.

Just how does diet soda make you fat? The other study may hold the answer. In it, researchers divided mice into two groups, one of which ate food laced with the popular sweetener aspartame. After three months, the mice eating aspartame-chow had higher blood sugar levels than the mice eating normal food. The authors saidtheir findings could “contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans.”

But how?

“Artificial sweeteners could have the effect of triggering appetite but unlike regular sugars they don’t deliver something that will squelch the appetite,” Sharon Fowler, obesity researcher at UT Health Science Center at San Diego and a co-author on both of these studies, told the Daily Mail. She also said sweeteners could inhibit brain cells that make you feel full.

So if sugar soda is no good, and diet soda isn’t either – what should we be drinking?

Dr. Hazuda told the Daily Mail, “I think prudence would dictate drinking water.”

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Free Pantry Makeover

Rebecca McGrane — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:45:36 +0000

One of the services I offer as a Dr. Sears L.E.A.N. Certified Health Coach is the Pantry Makeover.

What’s a Pantry Makeover you ask?

Well it is the icing on the cake when it comes to eating healthier. Of course, it can also be the cake beneath the frosting if you are just starting your travels to healthier eating.

During the makeover, you’ll receive an introduction to Traffic Light Eating – Dr. Sears’ method for teaching children about green ‘go’ foods, yellow ‘slow-down’ foods, and red ‘stop-and-think’ foods. We will discuss the best label reading techniques, and how to spot the items you will want to avoid as you implement healthier eating in your home. From there we will take a look inside your pantry and refrigerator and you will label foods as green, yellow, or red. This will give you and your family a visual reminder of which foods to eat more or less of. Finally, we will discuss shopping lists, and you will use the L.E.A.N. shopping list (which I will leave with you) as a guide for your future trips to the grocery store.

This is not a food-pitching session! We will not be throwing out all those red light foods. Instead, we’ll develop a plan to replace them with equally yummy green or yellow light foods in the future. Most families need to take these changes one step at a time. You don’t want to start a revolution with the sudden changes, you want to gently encourage your family to make changes that will benefit their health so that everyone in the home can look better and feel better!

Normally I charge $90 for this 1 to 2 hour in home private consultation. However, I am re-developing my Virtual Pantry Makeover program and need videos of at least 3 different pantries. Yes – you, your pantry, kitchen etc will co-star in the video for my new program.

If you live in and around the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area* and would like your family & pantry to be featured in my Virtual Pantry Makeover program enter your email address below to receive more information. If the form doesn’t show up in your browser you can use this link instead.

You will need to be sure and click the link in the confirmation email that will be automatically sent to – otherwise I will never see your information.

*If you live outside the area but really, really want to participate you can enter your email too. Maybe we can figure something out. I love to travel.

Dr. Bill Sears Exclusive

Rebecca McGrane — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:50:03 +0000

Are You Mom Enough?

Did you find the 8 B’s helpful? Then consider attending L.E.A.N. Expectations. L.E.A.N. Expectations is a series of educational workshops designed to teach those preparing for pregnancy, expecting, and nursing mothers how to care for themselves and their babies. The program is made up of three separate workshops, each two hours long, that can be taken in sequence or individually. Dr. Sears’ years of pediatric experience make each class relevant to moms in all stages of pregnancy, whether they are carrying their first baby or their fifth.
Learn more at LiveLEANAmerica.com