Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 1, 1 January 1995 — ʻAi pono, e ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi pono, e ola

Eat right and live well

by Dr. Terry Shintani

Diet myths (part 1 )

It's the new year again and everyone is trying to lose the weight they

gained during the holidays. In this series of two articles, I would like to clear up some of the "myths" of dieting. In this article I want to discuss the first five diet myths, whieh I eall the five weight-loss myths. Here they are: Diet myth #1: You

must eat less to lose weighL While this approach woiks, a better way to Iose weight is to eat more of the right foods. Eating less is the eonventional way of losing weighL The problem with eaūng less is that you fight your hunger drive and you will almost always lose this battle. In addition, if your calorie intake is too low, your metabolic rate, that is, the rate at whieh you bum calories, may decrease. This will make it harder for you to lose weighL In the Wai'anae Diet, we demonstrated that weight loss was attainab!e while eating more food, simply by selecting the right foods. And remember that the Wai'anae Diet includes traditional foods that are high in bulk and that till your stomacti quickly, such as

taro, poi, breadfruit, rice, potatoes, etc.

Diet Myth #2: Fat satisfies you the most. Actually, it satisfies you the least. There are two main things that satisfy hunger: calories and bulk. When food is eaten, ehemieal messages are sent to the brain to

let it feel satisfied. When the hulkiness of the food stretches the stomaeh, signals are also sent to the brain, through nerves and chemicals, telling it that it is satisfied. Since fat has 9 calories per gram and whole starch has about four calories per gram, it is easy to see why a gram of fat is more satisfying than a gram of poi when food is compared ounee for ounee or gram for gram. However, the main thing to compare is satisfaction for the same number of calories eaten. Then you will see that to compare fats and, say, potatoes, it would be one tablespoon of oil (100 calories) compared to an entire potato (100 calories). People are mueh more satisfīed eating a whole potato than they are eating a tablespoon of oil.

Vegetables and fruit of all kinds actually provide even greater satisfaction, ealone for calories. Diet Myth #3: Starch makes you fat. Actually, starch makes you skinny if you eat whole starches such as poi, taro, brown rice, and potatoes, to name a few. The Wai'anae Diet demonstrated this very nicely as it was 78 percent starch and still resulted in consistent weight loss. (Editor's note: In order to eominue lo maintain or reduce weight, individuals must fundamentally change their eating habits and stick to the general guidelines set out in the Wai'anae Diet after the program is over.) Diet \lyth #4: Low fat meats and dairy products Actually, there are no truly low-fat meats, and the only truly low-fat dairy products are skim milk products. In my view, the advertising of meats and dairy products eome under the category of "mythoIogy." A "91 percent fat-free" burger is actually about 51 percent fat. Two percent milk is actually 35 percent fat. Even 1 percent milk is 25 percent fat by calories. You might ask how they ean do

this to us. The answer is, with sleight of hand and outright deception. You see, heahh information describes food components by percentage of calories. The USDA, however, allows food companies to advertise fat by weight. Thus, a 2 percent milk product actually means 2 percent by weight When evaluated for its percentage of calories, however, it turns out to be a hefty 35 percent. And the only reason a "91 percent fat-free" burger is considered "low-fat" is that

its fat content is low compared to the average burger, whieh is usually about 74 percent faL Next month I'll discuss more diet myths. Dr. Shintani, physician and nutritionist, is the director ofpreventive meāieine at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. He as a radio talk show on Sundays at7 -9 pjn. on K108.