Along comes another new diet.
And of course I just have to try it.
So I part with my dough,
But the pounds never go;
“Oh waiter, more chicken—and fry it!” (Diet Jokes)

Dieting to lose weight may be seen as a New Year’s Resolution, but I’ve heard many people at the gym, in classes or on the street lately discussing how they want to trim down before they trim the turkey. So today, I decided to highlight two recent findings related to dieting.

Dieters Anonymous?

Off-and-on access to hyper-palatable foods (high in sugar and fat) can alter brain chemistry in ways comparable to those who are drug and alcohol addicts, researchers at the Boston University of Medicine have found. This finding has been related to how dieters and those with eating disorders struggle with relapse issues (for example, bingeing) after avoiding a “bad” food.

“Diet-cycle” subjects were fed the more tasty, less nutritious food, then re-introduced to their normal meals. When lacking their guilty-pleasure snacks, the subjects exhibited a brain reaction in the area that causes anxiety and stress. The only fix: noshing on their sugar- and fat-loaded feed. And when the “naughty” food became available again, the subjects overate (enter the diet cycle). While this study involved rats and their chow, the scientists believe that the findings are likely also true for humans.

(Image from ehow.com)

The Non-Diet Diet

Toss the diet mentality out the door, so says a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

A group of women were enrolled in a program called “Health at Every Size” and were instructed to aim for a healthy lifestyle, accept their size and avoid dieting. Compared to a control group and a group receiving social support regarding a healthier lifestyle, the Health at Every Size group were less likely to lose control around and overconsume food one year post-study. Both the social support and Health at Every Size populations exhibited significantly lower inclinations to “eat their feelings” (reach for food when stressed, bored, lonely…)

The moral of the story: aim to be your healthiest you, but it’s not necessary to focus so much on the numbers on the scale!

(Image from ehow.com)

Water cooler conversation starter: How amazing is this woman? At age 84, Lan Yin “Eiko” Tsai is raising money to fight Multiple Sclerosis (MS) by riding her bike 150 miles…for the 26th time—all while looking fabulous doing it! Can I be her when I grow up?