Losing Weight at McDonald's
The movie "Super-Size Me" is a documentary about how a man gained 35 pounds in a month eating at McDonald's. However, Ruth Kava, PhD, RD, has written an interesting piece for Tech Central about two people, Ms. Soso Whaley and Mr. Chazz Weaver, who lost weight eating at McDonald's, one by restricting calories to about 1800 a day, and the other, a weight lifter, who consumed over 4,000 calories a day and still lost weight because of energy expended. Dr. Kava analyzed the nutritional values of the diet.
"So the lowdown on our McDieters' diets: they could have been better, but they weren't awful. Ms. Whaley's task was the harder one, and one that should be brought to the attention of other dieters. A person who limits caloric intake has to pay particular attention to food selection in order to obtain all the necessary nutrients (or take supplements). Could she have avoided the deficits we found while eating at McDonald's? To some extent, yes. She could have consumed more fiber by eating salads more frequently; that would also have helped her get more folate. (This would be particularly important for a woman during child-bearing years, since adequate folate can help protect against some types of birth defects.) Her low intake of iron might have been helped by more meat and iron-fortified grain products, also by more eggs. Fat intake would drop with consumption of nonfat dairy products. More potassium could be obtained from increasing orange juice consumption (also by eating other fruit sources like bananas -- not served at McDonald's, to my knowledge), and even eating more French fries.
Mr. Weaver's diet had plenty of pretty much everything, which isn't surprising considering his large caloric intake. He, too, could have benefited from more vegetable foods -- salads in particular to increase his fiber intake. His potassium intake could also be increased by greater consumption of vegetables and fruits. His cholesterol intake was very high -- this could have been lowered by eating fewer eggs. On many days his breakfasts included not only sandwiches that included eggs, but also a couple of side orders of scrambled eggs! (His complete diet is listed on his website at www.truthinfitness.org). But we must note here that Mr. Weaver's blood cholesterol profile actually improved while he did his McDieting -- this can be attributed to his very active lifestyle, weight loss, and/or the likelihood that he is not in that group of people whose blood cholesterol is affected by his dietary cholesterol intake. Mr. Weaver's cholesterol levels changed for the better over the course of his McDiet month."
The complete story is here.
"So the lowdown on our McDieters' diets: they could have been better, but they weren't awful. Ms. Whaley's task was the harder one, and one that should be brought to the attention of other dieters. A person who limits caloric intake has to pay particular attention to food selection in order to obtain all the necessary nutrients (or take supplements). Could she have avoided the deficits we found while eating at McDonald's? To some extent, yes. She could have consumed more fiber by eating salads more frequently; that would also have helped her get more folate. (This would be particularly important for a woman during child-bearing years, since adequate folate can help protect against some types of birth defects.) Her low intake of iron might have been helped by more meat and iron-fortified grain products, also by more eggs. Fat intake would drop with consumption of nonfat dairy products. More potassium could be obtained from increasing orange juice consumption (also by eating other fruit sources like bananas -- not served at McDonald's, to my knowledge), and even eating more French fries.
Mr. Weaver's diet had plenty of pretty much everything, which isn't surprising considering his large caloric intake. He, too, could have benefited from more vegetable foods -- salads in particular to increase his fiber intake. His potassium intake could also be increased by greater consumption of vegetables and fruits. His cholesterol intake was very high -- this could have been lowered by eating fewer eggs. On many days his breakfasts included not only sandwiches that included eggs, but also a couple of side orders of scrambled eggs! (His complete diet is listed on his website at www.truthinfitness.org). But we must note here that Mr. Weaver's blood cholesterol profile actually improved while he did his McDieting -- this can be attributed to his very active lifestyle, weight loss, and/or the likelihood that he is not in that group of people whose blood cholesterol is affected by his dietary cholesterol intake. Mr. Weaver's cholesterol levels changed for the better over the course of his McDiet month."
The complete story is here.
posted by Rosabelle 9:19 PM
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