Fighting Fads
Hollywood's big stars aren't so big anymore. Matthew McConaughey is in the news for losing 30 pounds to play an AIDS-afflicted drug dealer in an upcoming movie.
McConaughey has indicated that he views not eating as a cleanse and credits drinking a lot of tea with helping him shed the pounds.
Anne Hathaway views not eating as a necessity. To fit in her Catwoman suit for this past summer's “Dark Knight Rises” and to play the tuberculosis-ridden Fantine in the upcoming movie version of “Les Miserables,” the 29-year-old actress reportedly lived on a 500-calorie-a-day diet of radishes and hummus.
And last month, Jessica Simpson used her spot as the very first guest on Katie Couric's new TV talk show to reveal she lost 40 pounds since giving birth in May.
Stars' crash diets and TV shows such as “The Biggest Loser” strike a nerve in Americans with their obsession with weight.
But Butler County nutrition experts say these shrinking celebrities are sending the wrong message.
“First of all, these people are doing it because that's their job,” said Butler Memorial Hospital dietitian Lezlee Shulik. “Is this what the average American wants to do? The answer is no.”
“Those people had to lose weight in a very short time because that is what their job requires them to do. The average person who wants to lose weight says 'This is something I want to do for the holidays, for a vacation, or a lifetime.' It can't be quick, it can't be fast and it shouldn't be unhealthy,” Shulik said.
For example, said Kristin Wabiszewski, a registered dietitian with Concordia Lutheran Ministries in Cabot, “generally speaking, whenever you have one of these fad diets, they are very restricting in certain necessary food groups or nutrients, and they are not sustainable because of this.
“You are going to be devoid of some the nutrients your body needs. There is a wide range of foods with an equally wide range of nutrients,” Wabiszewski said. “You are not getting what your body needs to function.”
Such diets leave dieters bodies in for all sorts of shocks it would otherwise avoid, said Dr. Conan Shaw, a clinical nutritionist with a practice in Cranberry Township.“I think the first danger is not yielding to the needs of the body,” said Shaw. “Aggressive, rapid weight loss has never ever, ever worked out.“This is the American mindset of immediate results,” he said.“People that watch that show, 'The Biggest Loser,' they don't see what goes on behind the scenes,” he said.“Those people are exercising four hours a day. They have a personal trainer and a support team. They are being monitored by a doctor. They have a dietitian making meals for them,” Shaw said.“No one lives that way. You actually need a full-time staff to support you.”The biggest concern is the long-term ramifications of fad diets on the bodies of unsupervised dieters, Shaw said.Complications can include spikes in blood pressure, blood sugar surges, dehydration and severe reactions to prescription medications caused by suddenly thinner people taking the same doses of medicine, Shaw said.And a crash diet, once someone ends it, can leave that someone in worse shape than when they began, said Shulik.“You will lose weight on a very low-calorie diet, but you will lose both fat and muscle tissue,” Shulik said. “When you go off the diet, you gain weight, but you don't gain back muscle. What you gain is all fat.”“Every time you do that, your body becomes fatter. Your weight is the same but your body is going to look different,” he said. “The next time you diet, the weight is a little harder to lose this time because you don't have as much muscle.”
Really, there are no quick fixes, miracle diets or magic food, Shulik said, and rather than eating like Anne Hathaway it would be better to eat like your great-grandmother.“People need to eat less processed foods and less convenience foods,” Shulik said.“It might be quick and fast, and it might be lower calorie and lower fat, but when they take things out of a product, they put in things that you don't want,” he said.“We need a Mediterranean diet with more plant-based foods. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and less of animal protein.”According to Shaw, “The true, healthy way to lose weight is to support those systems that are stressed.”And the way to do that, Shaw continued, is to find out the cause of the weight problem.“My 15 years of clinical experience speak to me on this one,” Shaw said. “Find the cause of your problem. Am I a stress eater? A boredom eater? Am I getting no exercise? Could it be a genetic problem?”Shaw said the best way to lose weight is to exercise, keep a positive mental attitude, make sure you are properly hydrated and get enough sleep.“Remember,” Shaw said, “if it took you a year to gain 50 pounds, don't expect to get it off in 30 days.”“First I would probably focus on what their goal is and what is a sustainable way to reach that goal.”Gossip magazines have reported Jessica Simpson wanted lap band surgery to reach her goal, but doctors couldn't be persuaded.
Dr. David Melniczek, a surgeon at Butler Memorial Hospital who performs 80 to 85 lap band, gastric bypass and sleeve surgeries a year, said the operations aren't a quick fix.Melniczek said in a gastric bypass “a small stomach pouch is created and connected to the gastrointestinal tract, bypassing the stomach.”In a lap band surgery, a band is placed on the upper portion of the stomach, cutting down on the area of the organ that can digest food.In a sleeve surgery, 80 percent of the stomach is removed, he said.Melniczek said, “This isn't something that people enter into lightly. An average weight-loss surgery patient will contemplate this up to five years and insurance companies will insist on six months of dieting before any surgery, typically under the supervision of a family practice doctor.”And after a surgery, Melniczek said follow-up treatment is crucial. “That's where our challenge lies,” he said. “A lot of these patients used food as coping mechanisms. That's why we have a psychologist who can tell if someone is stress eating or failing the surgery.”Melniczek called it a multidisciplinary approach. There are meetings with a nutritionist, follow-up doctor visits and support group meetings.“Weight-loss surgery is not foolproof. We are seeing approximately a 20 percent failure rate in long-term weight-loss patients,” he said. “But a typical weight-loss patient has failed 12 diets before turning to surgery, and 80 percent of them have successful weight loss.”
