The Fast Food Diet: Lose Weight and Feel Great Even If You're Too Busy to Eat Right

Fast Food Diet Guide

We are busier than ever before and seem to have less and less time of our own. In a world that buzzes with multitasking, demanding careers, and media and information overload, we increasingly realize that our health is in our own hands and that we should be making responsible food choices but we often just don't have time. Now, this terrific new book from a respected physician gives readers clear and simple strategies for surviving (and enjoying) fast food and sidestepping the guilt. Dr. Sinatra offers an accessible, easy-to-follow plan to help readers stay lean and healthy even when they must resort to Burger King for breakfast or McDonald's for lunch or dinner two or three (or more) times a week.
Dr. Sinatra makes it a snap to select the healthiest menu items from a wide variety of fast food restaurants while offering tips on what to eat during the rest of the day and week to regain nutritional balance. With 25 years of experience using nutritional therapies to help patients prevent and reverse heart disease, Dr. Sinatra provides authoritative advice, including many meal plans for optimal health for families on the go. For the millions who have both the desire to eat healthy and a schedule that makes it difficult to do so, this book will become a constant companion.
Stephen Sinatra, MD (Essex, CT), was Chief of Cardiology and Director of Medical Education at Manchester Memorial Hospital in Connecticut for almost 20 years. He is published in medical journals and has appeared on many national television and radio outlets, including CNN and MSNBC. His health newsletter has nearly 50,000 subscribers. James Punkre (Santa Fe, NM) is a professional writer.
Editor's Note: eMaxHealth editorial team does not favor fast food and does not believe it's a good diet. However, it chose to publish this material because millions of people eat fast food. Since they choose to do so, at least they can be more selective and make better choices for fast food in their diet.

National Weight-Loss Effort Targets Black Community

The Washington Post on Saturday examined the 50 Million Pound Challenge, which seeks to reduce obesity and encourage healthy lifestyles in the black community. Two of every three men, four out of five women and one in five children in the black community are overweight, according to the challenge’s Web site.
Fitness expert and physician Ian Smith said he began the program last year to provide a “national platform” for healthier living among blacks (Thomas-Lester, Washington Post, 10/4). Smith said that the campaign’s challenge for 50 million pounds of weight loss can be met if 25% of the 20 million blacks in the U.S. who are considered overweight or obese each lost 10 pounds (Kaiser Health Disparities Report, 4/5/07). More than 690,000 people across the nation have joined the challenge since April 2007, and almost three million pounds have been lost.
Smith said, “What we are trying to do is not only to get people to lose weight, but to get them to take a better look at the choices that are directly impacting their physical and spiritual health.” He added, “Poor lifestyle choices and cultural entrenchments have, unfortunately, made African-Americans extremely vulnerable to a wide range of diseases that are in many cases life-threatening” (Washington Post, 10/4).
Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Weekly Health Disparities Report, search the archives, and sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork.org/email . The Kaiser Weekly Health Disparities Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2007 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Alli Diet Pill: Does it live up to its weight loss promise?

Alli: fda approved diet pill

The first and only over-the-counter product for weight loss approved by the Food and Drug Administration will be available Friday, June 15.
Orlistat, known by the brand name Alli, works by decreasing the amount of fat absorbed by the body. It is the OTC version of Xenical, a prescription weight loss pill. The good news: Orlistat has been tested and the prescription version has been used since 1999.
Last fall Dr. James Anderson, head of the UK College of Medicine Metabolic Research Group, and his colleagues examined the effects of OTC strength (60 mg) orlistat on mildly to moderately overweight individuals. The study was the first of its kind. Previously, the drug's effects had only been studied in obese individuals. Study participants took either orlistat or a placebo three times daily with meals for 16 weeks. Results of that study showed those taking OTC-strength orlistat did lose more weight than those taking the placebo.
"Our research showed that people taking orlistat and following low-fat diets lost almost five percent of their initial body weight, about seven to15 pounds, over four months," Anderson said. "While two to four pounds a month isn't dramatic, steady weight loss of this amount can have major health benefits. For example, the reduction in LDL-cholesterol, the bad-guy cholesterol, of 10 percent can reduce risk of heart attack by 20 percent."
Any successful dieter knows that long-term weight loss is about lifestyle changes not quick fixes. While taking Alli diet pill may help you lose weight, it won't do all of the work for you. Anderson stresses a healthy diet and exercise plan are absolutely necessary to lose the weight and keep it off.
"This is the first over-the-counter medicine that has proven effectiveness. It is my hope that people will take one capsule before each regular meal, breakfast, lunch, and supper, and alter their fat and calorie intake," Anderson said. "If they commit to exercise six days a week, most people can lose weight steadily. All of us are in this for the long haul and need to keep up healthy behaviors, not for days or weeks, but for months and years. Doing regular physical activity and making good food choices will help us be trimmer and give us more energy."