Here’s a great way to start your Sunday off - attend  Boot Camp taught by Julia Derek in Central Park.  You all know Julia as she a frequent contributer to CGB. Not only is Julia an excellent teacher (and I know because I have taken her classes …ouch!) with many years of experience, she is also entertaining. Other potential perks: the possibility of  meeting other city girls and city guys!

Fit & The City Sunday Boot Camp in Central Park will include:

High intensity workout for all ages and all fitness levels in the heart of Central Park taught by experienced fitness instructor Julia Derek. Gain strength, lose inches, and have fun doing it!  Email julia@adrenalinefitnessny.com to reserve your spot and find out details about this event.

When: Sundays (first class June 15) at 9:30 am (lasts for an hour).
Where: Great Lawn, Central Park
Cost: $15

For more info about Julia, go to www.adrenalinefitnessny.com

Fit & The City Saturday Yoga Class in Central Park

If you’re in town during the weekends , please join us for a Vinyasa Yoga class in Central Park! Destress, strengthen your body, gain flexibility. Class is aimed at intermediates and is taught by Vinyasa/Hatha instructor and Integral Yoga Institute graduate Alex Starodubstev. All you need is a yoga mat and 15 dollars! Please email julia@adrenalinefitnessny.com for more information and to reserve your spot today.

When: Saturdays (first class June 14) at 9am (one hour).
Where: Sheep’s Meadow, Central Park.
Cost: $15

For more info about Alex, go to www.adrenalinefitnessny.com

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Martha McKittrick, RD, CDN, CDE is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator. She specializes in weight control, cardiovascular health, polycystic ovarian syndrome, diabetes, sports nutrition and preventative nutrition. A staff dietitian at The New York Presbyterian Hospital for the past 22 years, she also counsels clients privately and is a consultant to physicians, corporations and health clubs. She was the nutritionist for the 1998 NYC Marathon. She was an exercise instructor in NYC health clubs for 15 years.

Martha has appeared on numerous television, radio and web cast programs. She lectures on a regular basis and has been interviewed and written for publications including The Journal of The American Dietetic Association, Dietitian’s Edge, Nutrition Today, Allure, Self, Family Circle, New York Newsday and Cooking Light. Martha is known for giving practical nutrition advice, both in her individual counseling sessions as well as group lectures. Two of her most popular lecture topics include “Healthy Eating on the Run” and “Tame Your Carbohydrate Cravings”.

Martha was a health expert on WebMD™s Diet and Nutrition Message Board for the past 7 years. She also developed and led Find Your Ideal Weight:12 Weeks to a New You weight control program on WebMD (with 42,000 registrants) for the past 7 years. In her free time, Martha is an avid cyclist, runner … and now a blogger.

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A city girls nightmare! Recent lab tests found very high levels of mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants. Sushi from 5 of the 20 places had mercury levels so high that the Food and Drug Administration could take legal action to remove the fish from the market. This is bad news for me and for other city girls who love tuna. I am obsessed with seared tuna and tuna tartare - that’s what I would order 90% of the time if it were in the menu. The same goes for my favorite food - sushi.

The new study shows…
The New York Times purchased tuna samples from 20 stores / restaurant in Manhattan. There was so much mercury in the tuna samples from most of the restaurants, that a regular diet of 6 PIECES A WEEK would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency The places with tuna with the highest mercury content were from: Nobu Next Door, Sushi Seki, Sushi of Gari and Blue Ribbon Sushi and the food store Gourmet Garage. (Some of my favorite restaurants!).

The highest levels of mercury were found in bluefin tuna. The more expensive restaurants tend to serve bluefin tuna as it is a more expensive fish. Bluefin tuna, which is a larger fish, tends to accumulate more mercury from the fish it eats. Mercury enters the environment as an industrial pollutant. Other species of tuna, including yellow fin, tend to contain less mercury because they are smaller fish and would therefore eat less fish containing mercury.  However, it is almost impossible to tell what kind of tuna you are getting in a restaurant.

Previous warnings of mercury in canned tuna
In 2004, the FDA warned that pregnant women, women who might become pregnant and small children should limit their consumption of certain varieties of canned tuna because the mercury it contained might damage the developing nervous system. Fresh tuna was not included in the advisory. Most of the tuna sushi in the N.Y. Times samples contained far more mercury than is typically found in canned tuna. This new study is telling us we should all limit our intake of tuna.

Mercury and potential health problems
In addition to the dangers for small children and pregnant women, studies have suggested that mercury may also cause health problems for adults. The risks including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and neurological symptoms.

The new guidelines for tuna consumption
More studies need to be done before the EPA can set guidelines for eating tuna. However until that time, some experts are advising everyone to avoid bluefin tuna altogether. Other experts are recommending that we should not eat a meal of tuna with these high mercury levels more than once every three weeks. I would recommend that you choose other types of fish in a Japanese restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter).

I’ll need to follow my own advice… so far this week I’ve had an order of seared tuna, tuna tartare and 2 tuna rolls. Guess no more tuna for me for the rest of the month!

See this link for the full article by Marian Burros. The article talks details of the study, recommendations by health experts along with how the owners of the 5 restaurants with tuna with high levels of mercury will handle it.

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Question from Susan: I work late and then go to the gym. I usually end up eating dinner at 9 pm. Is this making it more difficult for me to lose weight?

Answer from Martha: Eating late dinners is a problem for many people. Maybe in suburbia people eat dinner at 6 pm, but most of the city girls and guys I know eat at 8 pm or later. You are not alone!

So this brings us to the question - will eating late at night contribute towards weight gain or make it more difficult to lose weight? Most health experts agree that it is the total amount of calories that you consume in a day that has the greater effect on your weight as compared to the time you eat.  So technically, if you eat dinner at 9 pm versus 7 pm, it should not make a difference one way or another when it comes to your weight… as long as you are sticking to your daily calorie goal.

If you are diligent about sticking to your weight loss calorie goal (more on determining these calorie goals will come in a future post), you should be able to lose weight despite eating a late dinner.

However, if you find your weight will not budge (despite being careful with your total calories), you might want to try to eat a lighter dinner. I would suggest that you eat a good sized snack (~ 200 calories or so) prior to working out.

Suggestions for snacks include:
- 1 T. peanut butter on a small banana 
- 4 oz cottage cheese and fruit
- a string cheese and 100 calories of whole grain crackers
- energy bar

Then eat a light dinner (300-400 calories) after working out.

Suggestions for dinners include:
- egg white omelet with veggies and whole grain toast
- steamed Chinese food with 1/2 cup brown rice
- miso soup, salad, 3 pieces of sushi and 3 sashimi
- 4 oz chicken breast or turkey burger and 2 cups veggies
- frozen dinner and veggies  

One more thought…while your total caloric intake is what is most important when it comes to weight control, we can’t totally discount the way you space out your calories. Eating multiple meals or “feedings” as I like to call them, tends to help speed the metabolism more than just eating 1-2 large meals - even if the calories were the same for the both scenieros. I have many clients who eat minimally during the day and then gorge at night. Your best bet from an energy standpoint as well as from a metabolism standpoint is to eat something every few hours.

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I often hear my clients say “I am working on improving my diet - I gave up coffee” or “Is coffee really that bad? Can I have one cup a day?”  Coffee somehow has the reputation of being unhealthy. I am not exactly sure where it can from. On the contrary, research is showing that a  cup of coffee can not only help wake you up, it may have health benefits as well.

Coffee Perks

• Lowers risk of diabetes: A review of 15 studies on coffee and type 2 diabetes published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that people who regularly drank coffee had lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Most people in the studies drank coffee prepared with the drip method. Decaffeinated coffee was not always identified, but in two of the studies, the decaf drinkers had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. So how does coffee have this effect of decreasing risk? Here is the potential mechanism… coffee contains many beneficial substances including chlorogenic acid, a compound in the antioxidant family that may improve glucose (sugar) metabolism.  Coffee also contains magnesium, a mineral that can also improve insulin sensitivity and enhance glucose tolerance
• May lower risk of liver cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and possibly colon cancer.  At least six studies indicate that people who drink coffee on a regular basis are up to 80% less likely to develop Parkinson’s, with three showing the more they drink, the lower the risk. Other research shows that compared to not drinking coffee, at least two cups daily can translate to a 25% reduced risk of colon cancer, an 80% drop in liver cirrhosis risk, and nearly half the risk of gallstones
• Drinking coffee and exercising may prevent cancer in sun-damaged skin cells by spurring production of a tumor-blocking protein in the body, a study found. Exercise and caffeine, used in combination, doubled levels of a tumor-suppressing protein called phospho-p53, researchers found. Exercise alone spurred an 18 percent increase, and drinking the equivalent of two cups of coffee daily caused a 27 percent rise. The research was done in mice - obviously more research needs to be done on humans. ( Bloomberg News August 5, 2007)
• Can increase energy levels, elevate mood and help decrease headaches
• Italian researchers credit another compound called trigonelline, which gives coffee its aroma and bitter taste, for having both antibacterial and anti-adhesive properties to help prevent dental cavities from forming
• Can enhance athletic performance and endurance
•  Contains soluble fiber. This is the type of fiber that dissolves in water and helps prevent cholesterol from being absorbed by the intestines. As a registered dietitian, it never would have occurred to me that coffee has more soluble fiber than some fruits and vegetables. I associate higher fiber foods with foods that have more bulk. But in doing research for this post, I found the soluble fiber content of the following foods:  
  espresso (per cup)  has 1.5 grams
  filtered coffee (per cup)  contained 1.1 grams
  instant coffee (per cup) contained the most — about 1.8 grams:
  cooked cauliflower 1/2 cup for 1 gm
  small banana for .6 grams
  cubed melon (1 cup) for .3 grams.
  For more info on this study, check out this link. Keep in mind the just because coffee contains soluble fiber, I am not suggesting that you substitute coffee for fruits and vegetables as they contain numerous other healthy components.
• Can contribute towards fluid needs. In the past, it was believed that coffee dehydrated you. More recent studies show that coffee does not dehydrate habitual drinkers and can count toward your daily fluid quota.
• Coffee is naturally calorie-free…unless you are loading it up with cream and sugar or drinking some of the high calorie coffee drinks (see my post on calories in starbucks drinks).

So What Has the Health Benefits - a Substance in the Coffee or the Caffeine? Actually both the caffeine and other substances found in coffee are responsible for health benefits.

- Substances in the coffee: Coffee contains large amounts of antioxidants - even more than many fruits and vegetables.  Antioxidants are found naturally in many foods and beverages and are thought to provide health benefits in preventing diseases such as heart disease and cancer by fighting cellular damage caused by free radicals in the body. Free radicals are damaging substances that are produced through normal bodily processes.  The antioxidants may help in decreasing risk of diabetes.

- Caffeine content: Some of coffee’s reported benefits are a direct result of its caffeine content. For example, experts believe the evidence is very strong that regular coffee consumption reduces risk of Parkinson’s disease. In fact, Parkinson’s drugs are now being developed that contain a derivative of caffeine based on this evidence.  Caffeine is also what helps in treating asthma and headaches. This is one of the reasons why pain relievers such as Anacin or Excedrin contains up to 120 milligrams of caffeine. This is the same amount of caffeine found in a large cup of coffee. 

Is There a Down Side to Coffee? While coffee has many perks, health experts are not recommending we substitute our water bottles for coffee cups. Here are some of the potential downsides:

• Too much coffee (or any product that contains caffeine) can make some people jittery or increase irritability. (your boss always has a coffee cup in hand… hmm …that might explain a few things).
• In my practice, I commonly see people who skip meals or go too long without eating and drink coffee all day long in atttempts to increase energy levels or ward off hunger. The has a negative health effect on your nutritional intake. While coffee can give you a quick energy boost, food is what provides you with more sustained energy levels.
• While it can contribute towards your fluid needs, it does not replace water. I often see people who only drink coffee or diet soda during the day. Water is the preferred source of fluid.
• Can cause rapid heartrate in some people. This actually happens to me. I used to love drinking several large cups of coffee a day, but after several episodes of a prolonged rapid heart rate, my doctor told me to limit regular coffee. I now drink 1/4 real coffee mixed with 3/4 decaf.
• Can some people’s abiliity to sleep if consumed too close to bedtime (again, that would be me!)
• Can stain your teeth (especially for you city girls who have invested in teeth whitening!)
• Can aggravate certain stomach problems. Some reports claim that coffee can induce stomach ulcers and impair digestion by raising stomach acidity levels. Some also experience heartburn but there is no proof directly linking any of the aforementioned problems to coffee. Regardless, many individuals experience stomach problems after drinking coffee. And decaffeinated brews have the same effect as regular blends in that regard. I actually have GERD and when it “flares up”, I find both coffee and decaf to be irritants.
• Some studies show a link between moderate to heavy consumption of coffee and increased inflammation and heart disease risk. Not all studies show this same link. 
• Again, some studies show that decaffeinated coffee can elevate fatty acids and raise LDL.
• Pregnant women should limit their intake of coffee

Bottom line, if you are a coffee drinker, no need to cut it out (unless you have been told to do so by your doctor) as it may actually have some health benefits. However you still need to make an effort to eat a healthy diet and exercise. There are no set guidelines as to what is the maximum amount of coffee you should drink a day. My opinion is moderation… 2 cups a day might be a good guideline. Just my opinion!

Ok - so I was a spokesperson for the National Coffee Association a few years ago and lectured to editors on Food and Mood at the New York Academy of Science in Oct. 04…however this did not make me “pro-coffee” for that reason. My data is based on reseach!  

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Question from Bob: If diet soda has no calories, why is it bad to drink it?

Answer from Martha: Glad to see that guys are also reading this blog! You have posted a great question that my clients frequently ask me.

 Here are some of my thoughts on diet soda:

1. I would not tell you that you have to totally avoid diet soda. My concern is for people who are drinking several a day - and drinking little or no water. In general, we drink too much soda and too little water. In 2005, Americans consumed 2 1/2 servings a day of soda (regular and diet). Regular soda contains approximately 9 teaspoons of sugar. While diet soda obviously does not contain sugar,  it contains other ingredients including artificial sweeteners, sodium, phosphoric acid and other preservatives.

2.  While artificial sweeteners have been approved as safe for human consumption by the FDA, many health experts still recommend consuming them in moderation.  While the majority of people consume these ingredients without any problems, a small percentage of people have reported symptoms when consuming these sweeteners, especially aspartame. I think the key word is moderation. I personally consume artificial sweeteners - but try to limit my servings to about 2 a day. This is just my opinion because as I said previously, they are approved as safe by the FDA.

3. Some studies  have suggested that artificial sweeteners may actually contribute towards weight gain. The suggested mechanism for this is that the body may learn to predict caloric intake by the taste and texture of certain foods. When artificial sweeteners are consumed, our body sends the appropriate sweet signals to the brain but never receives the sugary calories (as would be predicted by the sugary taste of the diet soda). So the body then sends out signal increasing the appetite in search of higher caloric foods. However, this theory is not agreed on by all health experts.

4. Have you ever poured soda on a car (probably not!) ? When I was a child, this was a common prank from kids in my neighborhood. The soda actually erodes the enamel on the car. While I do not recommend you pour soda on your car to test this theory out, here is another experiment to try.  Put a nail in a glass of soda and in a few hours, the soda will erode the nail. Think what it is doing to your gastro-intestinal tract. Personally for me, soda is the worst culprit in terms of bringing on pain from my reflux.

6.  Lastly, dentists are concerned about the acid in regular or diet soda wearing away at the enamel of your teeth.

Bottom line, an occasional diet soda is fine, but make water your beverage of choice.

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Martha McKittrick, RD, CDN, CDE is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator. She specializes in weight control, cardiovascular health, polycystic ovarian syndrome, diabetes, sports nutrition and preventative nutrition. A staff dietitian at The New York Presbyterian Hospital for the past 22 years, she also counsels clients privately and is a consultant to physicians, corporations and health clubs. She was the nutritionist for the 1998 NYC Marathon. She was an exercise instructor in NYC health clubs for 15 years.

Martha has appeared on numerous television, radio and web cast programs. She lectures on a regular basis and has been interviewed and written for publications including The Journal of The American Dietetic Association, Dietitian’s Edge, Nutrition Today, Allure, Self, Family Circle, New York Newsday and Cooking Light. Martha is known for giving practical nutrition advice, both in her individual counseling sessions as well as group lectures. Two of her most popular lecture topics include “Healthy Eating on the Run” and “Tame Your Carbohydrate Cravings”.

Martha was a health expert on WebMD™s Diet and Nutrition Message Board for the past 7 years. She also developed and led Find Your Ideal Weight:12 Weeks to a New You weight control program on WebMD (with 42,000 registrants) for the past 7 years. In her free time, Martha is an avid cyclist, runner … and now a blogger.

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