No Gimmicks: Eat Less and Exercise More

A desire to turn over a new, more healthful leaf typically a ccompanies the start of a new year. My mail, for example, has been inundated with diet books, most of which offer yet another gimmick aimed ultimately at getting the gullible reader to eat less and exercise more.

Publishers assume, correctly, that the shock of the scale after nearly six weeks of overindulging on food and drink will prompt the purchase of one or more books on dieting by people who are desperate to return to their pre-Thanksgiving shape.

And really, it doesn’t matter whether you choose a diet based on your genotype or the phases of the moon, or whether you cut down on sugars and starches or fats. If you consume fewer calories than you need to maintain your current weight, you will lose.

My advice here is to save your money, toss out (or donate to a soup kitchen) the leftover high-calorie holiday fare, gradually reduce your portion sizes and return to your exercise routine (or adopt one if you spent too much of ’07 on your sofa).

Slowly but surely the pounds will come off. And as Aesop said, slow and steady does indeed win the race. Gradual weight loss, achieved on an eating-and-exercise regimen that you can sustain indefinitely, is most likely to be permanent weight loss.

If you’ve been reading this column for years, no doubt you already know that. But I believe it bears repeating at least once a year, not because I want to further depress the booksellers’ market, but because I’d rather you spend your hard-earned money on foods that can really help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight and good health.

The basics of good nutrition have not changed.

Meals replete with vegetables, fruits and whole grains and a small serving of a protein-rich food remain the gold standard of a wholesome diet. Still, at both ends of the age spectrum as well as in between, recent months have held some new findings — and some surprises — that are worth noting.

Perhaps most distressing to a chocoholic like me was a report in the Nov. 20 issue of the journal Circulation that while dark chocolate can indeed improve coronary circulation and decrease the risk of heart-damaging clots, most dark chocolate on the market is all but stripped of the bitter-tasting flavanols that convey this health benefit.

The color, in other words, tells you nothing. Now it’s up to manufacturers to label the flavanol content — not just the percentage of cocoa, which may have no flavanol at all.

www.nytimes.com