Showing posts with label Darryl Roberts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Darryl Roberts. Show all posts
Monday, June 11, 2012
What's the Difference Between Simple and Complex Carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are divided into two types, simple and complex. The classification is based on the chemical structure and reflects how quickly sugar is digested and absorbed.
Simple carbohydrates are also called simple sugars and are chemically made of one or two sugars. A simple sugar can be just what the name implies, the sugar in your sugar bowl. Things like candy, syrups, and soda pop are also straightforward examples of simple carbs. They are absorbed quickly -- just think how fast sugar-based candy melts in your mouth.
Simple carbs also include foods such as fruit and milk. These are better sources of simple carbs because they contain vitamins and fiber, and also important nutrients that your body needs, like calcium.
Complex carbohydrates are also known as starches and are made of three or more linked sugars. Grains such as bread, pasta, oatmeal and rice are complex carbs, as well as some vegetables like broccoli, corn legumes such as kidney beans and chick peas. They take the longest to digest.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
I was lied to about BMI..
When I started this blog over a year ago, my focus instead of weight was BMI score. I always thought it was somewhat flawed, due to everyone having different muscle mass. The index is basing everyone have the same muscle mass.
The Truth about BMIAmericans think the body mass index can tell them if they're at a healthy weight. But they're wrong
The next time you happen to catch a Minnesota Vikings game, take a look at Adrian Peterson, the team's 6'1, 217-pound running back. Now ask yourself: what kind of physical characteristics would you attribute to him? Athletic? Lean? Fit? All of these certainly sound like valid answers to us—but his clinical classification might surprise you.
By any normal standards, Peterson is one of the fittest men on the planet. But by our country's system of measuring body fat, he's overweight. If you're like most people, you've probably heard of the 'body mass index,' or, as it's more informally known, BMI. It's a popular formula used to not only gauge if a person is overweight or obese, but also how great their risk is for future health problems.
BMI is a relatively straightforward equation that measures a person's body fat by comparing their weight to their height:
(Weight in pounds) / (Height in inches) (Height in inches) x 703
You can also figure out your BMI without doing any math, here: Log onto http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ for an online calculator.
There are four different categories a person can fall into, ranging from underweight to obese. They are:
*18.4 or lower: Underweight.
*18.5 to 24.9: Normal weight.
*25 to 29.9: Overweight.
*30 or higher: Obese.
According to the National Institutes of Health, being overweight or obese by this measure can put you at risk for heart disease, type II diabetes, and even some cancers.
But BMI doesn't work well for individual people. One of the formula's obvious flaws, explains Alan Aragon, the Men's Health Weight Loss Coach and a nutritionist in California, is that it has no way of discriminating between fat and muscle—which is the case with Peterson.
Part of the problem is that BMI was never designed as a tool for judging any individual person's weight—either by physicians or the general public, says Timothy Church, a professor of health at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. In fact, the formula was originally intended to measure the collective weight of an entire population, but because of its straightforward math and distinctive categories (i.e., if you score a 25 on the BMI scale, you're overweight), it soon also took off.
Here's how BMI was born: In the early part of the 20th century, medical studies began to show a link between excess weight and an early death. So doctors and insurance companies started to seek out an easy method to determine a person's body-fat percentage. Insurance companies were especially concerned with this task, and devoted portions of their budget to discovering an obesity-determining calculation.
It wasn't, however, until physiology researcher Ancel Keys published a study in 1972 called "Indices of Relative Weight and Obesity," that the modern version of BMI came about. Keys conducted a series of studies on male populations in order to test if any pre-existing mathematical equations could measure a group's relative amount of body-fat. Fortunately for him, one did. The "Quetelet Index," (a.k.a., weight divided by height, squared) which was developed by Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet in the mid-1800s, proved to be successful.
To Keys' credit, he never intended for physicians or insurance companies to use this equation—but BMI was just too perfect. Because it was simply a math equation, it was quicker, easier, and cheaper to use than more direct and accurate measures—like the underwater weighing test, which measures how much you weigh by how much water you displace, and the skin fold measurements, which calculates how much fat you have beneath your skin.
"BMI was really pushed by [companies like] Metropolitan Life," Church said. "It was meant to give them an excuse to charge [their clients] more."
The formula received its official stamp of approval in 1985, when the NIH cited it as the index of obesity, Ever since then, BMI has gradually become more and more accepted—now it's the standard, go-to formula for determining what makes a healthy weight, even among regular people, says Frank Hu, Ph.D., professor of health and nutrition at the Harvard School for Public Health.
Another issue is gender. The Quetelet Index—and corresponding Keys study—were both created from research on male populations. An entirely different formula was originally used for determining obesity in female populations, and yet, doctors use the same equation for both genders, says Church. In the beginning, the NIH differentiated between men and women by establishing different "thresholds" for one's BMI, to account for the variance between men and women in the equation. But even that difference dissolved in 1998. When pressed for the reasons why, an NIH spokesperson declined to comment.
So why has no one tried to change the system? One reason is that imprecise numbers from BMI aren't dangerous, says Hu. And besides, doctors are able to determine risk factors using other measurements.
Still, the alternatives to BMI aren't perfect either. The most common of which is the waist circumference test, which measures abdominal obesity (a.k.a., the fat around your stomach). It's slightly better than BMI at measuring someone's risk for illnesses like heart disease and diabetes, say our experts, because it measures fat specifically, instead of taking into account the weight of a person's muscle mass.
The truth is, people know if they're overweight—so be your own judge. Look in the mirror, monitor your jean size, and talk to your doctor. But don't rely on a flawed formula to determine your health status.
The Truth about BMIAmericans think the body mass index can tell them if they're at a healthy weight. But they're wrong
The next time you happen to catch a Minnesota Vikings game, take a look at Adrian Peterson, the team's 6'1, 217-pound running back. Now ask yourself: what kind of physical characteristics would you attribute to him? Athletic? Lean? Fit? All of these certainly sound like valid answers to us—but his clinical classification might surprise you.
By any normal standards, Peterson is one of the fittest men on the planet. But by our country's system of measuring body fat, he's overweight. If you're like most people, you've probably heard of the 'body mass index,' or, as it's more informally known, BMI. It's a popular formula used to not only gauge if a person is overweight or obese, but also how great their risk is for future health problems.
BMI is a relatively straightforward equation that measures a person's body fat by comparing their weight to their height:
(Weight in pounds) / (Height in inches) (Height in inches) x 703
You can also figure out your BMI without doing any math, here: Log onto http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ for an online calculator.
There are four different categories a person can fall into, ranging from underweight to obese. They are:
*18.4 or lower: Underweight.
*18.5 to 24.9: Normal weight.
*25 to 29.9: Overweight.
*30 or higher: Obese.
According to the National Institutes of Health, being overweight or obese by this measure can put you at risk for heart disease, type II diabetes, and even some cancers.
But BMI doesn't work well for individual people. One of the formula's obvious flaws, explains Alan Aragon, the Men's Health Weight Loss Coach and a nutritionist in California, is that it has no way of discriminating between fat and muscle—which is the case with Peterson.
Part of the problem is that BMI was never designed as a tool for judging any individual person's weight—either by physicians or the general public, says Timothy Church, a professor of health at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. In fact, the formula was originally intended to measure the collective weight of an entire population, but because of its straightforward math and distinctive categories (i.e., if you score a 25 on the BMI scale, you're overweight), it soon also took off.
Here's how BMI was born: In the early part of the 20th century, medical studies began to show a link between excess weight and an early death. So doctors and insurance companies started to seek out an easy method to determine a person's body-fat percentage. Insurance companies were especially concerned with this task, and devoted portions of their budget to discovering an obesity-determining calculation.
It wasn't, however, until physiology researcher Ancel Keys published a study in 1972 called "Indices of Relative Weight and Obesity," that the modern version of BMI came about. Keys conducted a series of studies on male populations in order to test if any pre-existing mathematical equations could measure a group's relative amount of body-fat. Fortunately for him, one did. The "Quetelet Index," (a.k.a., weight divided by height, squared) which was developed by Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet in the mid-1800s, proved to be successful.
To Keys' credit, he never intended for physicians or insurance companies to use this equation—but BMI was just too perfect. Because it was simply a math equation, it was quicker, easier, and cheaper to use than more direct and accurate measures—like the underwater weighing test, which measures how much you weigh by how much water you displace, and the skin fold measurements, which calculates how much fat you have beneath your skin.
"BMI was really pushed by [companies like] Metropolitan Life," Church said. "It was meant to give them an excuse to charge [their clients] more."
The formula received its official stamp of approval in 1985, when the NIH cited it as the index of obesity, Ever since then, BMI has gradually become more and more accepted—now it's the standard, go-to formula for determining what makes a healthy weight, even among regular people, says Frank Hu, Ph.D., professor of health and nutrition at the Harvard School for Public Health.
Another issue is gender. The Quetelet Index—and corresponding Keys study—were both created from research on male populations. An entirely different formula was originally used for determining obesity in female populations, and yet, doctors use the same equation for both genders, says Church. In the beginning, the NIH differentiated between men and women by establishing different "thresholds" for one's BMI, to account for the variance between men and women in the equation. But even that difference dissolved in 1998. When pressed for the reasons why, an NIH spokesperson declined to comment.
So why has no one tried to change the system? One reason is that imprecise numbers from BMI aren't dangerous, says Hu. And besides, doctors are able to determine risk factors using other measurements.
Still, the alternatives to BMI aren't perfect either. The most common of which is the waist circumference test, which measures abdominal obesity (a.k.a., the fat around your stomach). It's slightly better than BMI at measuring someone's risk for illnesses like heart disease and diabetes, say our experts, because it measures fat specifically, instead of taking into account the weight of a person's muscle mass.
The truth is, people know if they're overweight—so be your own judge. Look in the mirror, monitor your jean size, and talk to your doctor. But don't rely on a flawed formula to determine your health status.
The truth about BMI!
Following 'The Thin Commandments'By Jacque Wilson, CNN
Darryl Roberts examines a vegetable in his documentary, "America the Beautiful: The Thin Commandments." STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Darryl Roberts says America has a health problem, not a weight problem
Roberts is filming three documentaries on beauty, health and sex
"America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments" focuses on the diet industry
(CNN) -- At 6'3" and 277 pounds, Darryl Roberts had a body mass index of 34.6. Anything over 30.0 on the BMI scale is considered obese, and his doctor warned him that his blood pressure was too high.
So the doctor gave Roberts some medication and told him to take the pills daily. Side effects, she cautioned, could include erectile dysfunction. Roberts balked. "Can't I just exercise and eat healthier?" he remembers asking.
"Think about it," Roberts says with a laugh. "A 40-something year-old man on a race not to take pills that cause erectile dysfunction. Every guy I tell that to goes, 'Oh my God, I can relate to that.' "
The documentary filmmaker bought a bike and started adding salads to his diet. Two months later he returned to the doctor and was pronounced perfectly healthy -- despite having lost only 6 pounds.
It's a journey that he chronicles in "America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments," a follow-up to his first award-winning film. The documentary focuses on the United States' unhealthy obsession with dieting and losing weight.
"We have a health problem, not a weight problem," Roberts says matter-of-factly.
CNN spoke with Roberts about his film, why he believes the BMI system should be outlawed and the award he's most proud of. The following is an edited version of that interview:
CNN: Why did you start filming the "America the Beautiful" documentary series? What sparked your passion for the topic?
I always had this knack for attracting really awesome, quality women in my life. Like I had a five-year [relationship], a five-year and an eight-year relationship. [But] I used to travel around the country with these athletes and entertainers, running into these women that would hang out at the gate.
After doing that for a while, I went, "Wow, you know what? I want a girlfriend that's awesome like the one I have, but that looks like these [groupies]." After being exposed to them for so long I could no longer appreciate the awesomeness of the woman that I was with. So that's when I started thinking, "Why did I do that?" Like when you have so much, why was beauty so important? That gave me the idea to do a documentary.
CNN: What did you learn from your first documentary?
I was sitting around watching my film one day and it occurred to me -- it just hit me -- all these three things: plastic surgery, cosmetics and eating disorders, are things that primarily affect women. And we still have an archaic appreciation for women in our country because if things primarily affect women, nobody does anything about it. But when it affects men, they do something about it right away. ... It's like we're in 1910. Everything looks really sophisticated because you have computers, you have iPads, you have smartphones and tablets, and everything you see looks so developed, but underneath it, I don't believe we value women the way that we should in this country.
CNN: Why did you decide to focus on dieting in your second documentary, "The Thin Commandments?"
When I was traveling with the first film, I went to 287 universities. At each one ... somebody would stand up and say, "Wow, we really like your film, but you didn't deal with the dieting industry. Why not?" So I go on the computer one night just researching dieting, and I come across this website that has the BMI, body mass index, of celebrities. So according to this website, the BMI of Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Mel Gibson, The Rock, Christian Bale, LeBron James -- all these celebrities -- make them either overweight or obese. And I'm like, "This is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard."
So then I did some more research on BMI. The government uses it, doctors use BMI, schools use BMI, and I'm like, "This is how they get you." In the first film, I show how we use beauty as a weapon against the American public -- now we're using weight as a weapon against the American public.
CNN: What is wrong exactly with the BMI system?
It was invented in like 1830 ... and it was invented to show sizes of populations. Like, for instance, the entire population of the United States. It was never intended to be used for an individual diagnosis of someone's health and how much they should weigh. That came in the 1970s with this guy Ancel Keys when he reformulated it to the current BMI thing.
Then in 1998, some of the scientific advisers of Weight Watchers went to the government and said, "Hey, you know what? The number that's used for the overweight category for BMI should be lowered." And the government did it. They lowered it. And when they lowered it, literally 25 million people became overweight, overnight. But guess what: Those are new customers now for the dieting industry.
CNN: Can you really say obesity isn't a big problem in this country? Why are you, in a way, fighting against that sentiment?
First off, because [if] you are defining [obesity] by BMI, then it's erroneous. So what we may have as a problem in this country is a health problem. That I agree with. We show it in the film. We have a health problem. And what we also show in the film is that health problems come to people with or without weight. So the film is making the point that we should be focusing on the health of people and not their weight.
Where we have problems is lifestyle choices. We have too many people eating fast food. We have too many people not exercising. We have too many people not engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors. My point is if we have more people engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors, we will become a healthier nation, whether we lose weight or not. If you think about it -- it makes sense, right?
CNN: Tell me about the third documentary in the "America the Beautiful" series. What will it be about?
So far I've done the health and beauty series, so the next one will complete it and make it the health, beauty and sex series, which are the three biggest things affecting our youth. It will be about the sexualization of our youth. Everyone says that's going to be the whopper there. I'm going to start it in January. I have no idea what I'm going to find. I always start my documentaries with no preconceived notions, and I jump in interviewing people to see what I can find.
CNN: What award for your documentaries have you won that you're most proud of?
There's a film festival that Will Smith and Meryl Streep are affiliated with -- the Giffoni Film Festival. It's a film festival for kids. They never show documentaries, only feature films that appeal to kids, right? But with ["America the Beautiful"], the Giffoni Film Festival made an exception to let a documentary in there. I went to the screening, and I was terrified that my film was going to put all these kids in a comatose state. We went to the awards presentation, and they announced the audience award and called our name. I went into shock. Here are kids voting a documentary as their favorite film in this big film festival. That was literally my proudest moment.
CNN: Where can people see "America the Beautiful: The Thin Commandments"?
[It's] actually touring around the country in theaters. We've been to six cities so far; we'll go to 30 more. They can go to our website at AmericatheBeautifuldoc.com and go to the screening schedule and see when we'll be coming to a city near them. It [also] comes out on DVD in March.
Darryl Roberts examines a vegetable in his documentary, "America the Beautiful: The Thin Commandments." STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Darryl Roberts says America has a health problem, not a weight problem
Roberts is filming three documentaries on beauty, health and sex
"America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments" focuses on the diet industry
(CNN) -- At 6'3" and 277 pounds, Darryl Roberts had a body mass index of 34.6. Anything over 30.0 on the BMI scale is considered obese, and his doctor warned him that his blood pressure was too high.
So the doctor gave Roberts some medication and told him to take the pills daily. Side effects, she cautioned, could include erectile dysfunction. Roberts balked. "Can't I just exercise and eat healthier?" he remembers asking.
"Think about it," Roberts says with a laugh. "A 40-something year-old man on a race not to take pills that cause erectile dysfunction. Every guy I tell that to goes, 'Oh my God, I can relate to that.' "
The documentary filmmaker bought a bike and started adding salads to his diet. Two months later he returned to the doctor and was pronounced perfectly healthy -- despite having lost only 6 pounds.
It's a journey that he chronicles in "America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments," a follow-up to his first award-winning film. The documentary focuses on the United States' unhealthy obsession with dieting and losing weight.
"We have a health problem, not a weight problem," Roberts says matter-of-factly.
CNN spoke with Roberts about his film, why he believes the BMI system should be outlawed and the award he's most proud of. The following is an edited version of that interview:
CNN: Why did you start filming the "America the Beautiful" documentary series? What sparked your passion for the topic?
I always had this knack for attracting really awesome, quality women in my life. Like I had a five-year [relationship], a five-year and an eight-year relationship. [But] I used to travel around the country with these athletes and entertainers, running into these women that would hang out at the gate.
After doing that for a while, I went, "Wow, you know what? I want a girlfriend that's awesome like the one I have, but that looks like these [groupies]." After being exposed to them for so long I could no longer appreciate the awesomeness of the woman that I was with. So that's when I started thinking, "Why did I do that?" Like when you have so much, why was beauty so important? That gave me the idea to do a documentary.
CNN: What did you learn from your first documentary?
I was sitting around watching my film one day and it occurred to me -- it just hit me -- all these three things: plastic surgery, cosmetics and eating disorders, are things that primarily affect women. And we still have an archaic appreciation for women in our country because if things primarily affect women, nobody does anything about it. But when it affects men, they do something about it right away. ... It's like we're in 1910. Everything looks really sophisticated because you have computers, you have iPads, you have smartphones and tablets, and everything you see looks so developed, but underneath it, I don't believe we value women the way that we should in this country.
CNN: Why did you decide to focus on dieting in your second documentary, "The Thin Commandments?"
When I was traveling with the first film, I went to 287 universities. At each one ... somebody would stand up and say, "Wow, we really like your film, but you didn't deal with the dieting industry. Why not?" So I go on the computer one night just researching dieting, and I come across this website that has the BMI, body mass index, of celebrities. So according to this website, the BMI of Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Mel Gibson, The Rock, Christian Bale, LeBron James -- all these celebrities -- make them either overweight or obese. And I'm like, "This is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard."
So then I did some more research on BMI. The government uses it, doctors use BMI, schools use BMI, and I'm like, "This is how they get you." In the first film, I show how we use beauty as a weapon against the American public -- now we're using weight as a weapon against the American public.
CNN: What is wrong exactly with the BMI system?
It was invented in like 1830 ... and it was invented to show sizes of populations. Like, for instance, the entire population of the United States. It was never intended to be used for an individual diagnosis of someone's health and how much they should weigh. That came in the 1970s with this guy Ancel Keys when he reformulated it to the current BMI thing.
Then in 1998, some of the scientific advisers of Weight Watchers went to the government and said, "Hey, you know what? The number that's used for the overweight category for BMI should be lowered." And the government did it. They lowered it. And when they lowered it, literally 25 million people became overweight, overnight. But guess what: Those are new customers now for the dieting industry.
CNN: Can you really say obesity isn't a big problem in this country? Why are you, in a way, fighting against that sentiment?
First off, because [if] you are defining [obesity] by BMI, then it's erroneous. So what we may have as a problem in this country is a health problem. That I agree with. We show it in the film. We have a health problem. And what we also show in the film is that health problems come to people with or without weight. So the film is making the point that we should be focusing on the health of people and not their weight.
Where we have problems is lifestyle choices. We have too many people eating fast food. We have too many people not exercising. We have too many people not engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors. My point is if we have more people engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors, we will become a healthier nation, whether we lose weight or not. If you think about it -- it makes sense, right?
CNN: Tell me about the third documentary in the "America the Beautiful" series. What will it be about?
So far I've done the health and beauty series, so the next one will complete it and make it the health, beauty and sex series, which are the three biggest things affecting our youth. It will be about the sexualization of our youth. Everyone says that's going to be the whopper there. I'm going to start it in January. I have no idea what I'm going to find. I always start my documentaries with no preconceived notions, and I jump in interviewing people to see what I can find.
CNN: What award for your documentaries have you won that you're most proud of?
There's a film festival that Will Smith and Meryl Streep are affiliated with -- the Giffoni Film Festival. It's a film festival for kids. They never show documentaries, only feature films that appeal to kids, right? But with ["America the Beautiful"], the Giffoni Film Festival made an exception to let a documentary in there. I went to the screening, and I was terrified that my film was going to put all these kids in a comatose state. We went to the awards presentation, and they announced the audience award and called our name. I went into shock. Here are kids voting a documentary as their favorite film in this big film festival. That was literally my proudest moment.
CNN: Where can people see "America the Beautiful: The Thin Commandments"?
[It's] actually touring around the country in theaters. We've been to six cities so far; we'll go to 30 more. They can go to our website at AmericatheBeautifuldoc.com and go to the screening schedule and see when we'll be coming to a city near them. It [also] comes out on DVD in March.
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