Diet News

We are very pleased to announce that Mary Grace (Sucholet) Webb has joined our professional complement.  Her offerings will appear periodically in the appropriate category over the signature 'MGW'

Mary Grace Webb, MA, RD, CDN

Clinical Nutrition Manager, New York Hospital Queens

Ms. Webb is a graduate of the University of Connecticut with a BS (Cum Laude) in Clinical Dietetics. She also holds a Masters Degree in Health Administration from Hofstra University.

As Clinical Nutrition Manager, Ms. Webb is responsible for the nutritional care of all in- and out-patients at a teaching hospital affiliated with the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. She has been actively involved in the development of a successful Gastric Bypass Surgery program, and is a popular community speaker on topics including obesity management, oncology, and geriatric nutrition.

Prior to joining the staff at New York Hospital Queens in 1999, Ms. Webb worked at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City as a Patient Services Manager. There she coordinated quality assurance programs for the Food and Nutrition Department and developed special meals and services for the Cardiac Transplant Unit. She also held positions as a Clinical Dietitian in various hospitals in Connecticut and California.

Aside from her experience in health care, Ms. Webb was also a Nutritionist and Service System Developer for Weight Watchers International (at the time a division of the HJ Heinz Company). For eleven years she helped create the Weight Watchers Program used throughout North America. Ms. Webb is one of the developers of the popular Weight Watchers "Point System."

 

With the participation of registered nutritionists and dietitians, we offer here more detailed information and reasons for choosing foods that satisfy, please and work to maintain a healthy weight. With such foods, with the Rule of Half...portions one/half the size that you have been used to, and eating whenever you are hungry (rather than once or twice per day), calorie counting becomes much less important. What becomes vital, and an integral part of the Mediterranean Diet, is regular daily exercise. Nothing fancy is necessary, unless you enjoy it: brisk walking (3 or 4 miles per hour for 30-45 minutes), stair climbing (2 to 3 flights per minute for five to ten minutes, etc. Of course, check with your physician before beginning a significant change in your exercise life-style.

GS

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Recent News

March 3, 2007

1)      A recent article in the New York Times Magazine, dated January 28, 2007, has a great deal to say about the “Nutrition Industry” (pp28-47): “The Age of Nutrition: How Scientists Have Ruined The Way We Eat”, by Michael Pollan. 

·        “Thirty years of Nutrition science has made Americans sicker, fatter and less well nourished”.  This is a plea for a return to plain old food. 

·        “Nutritionism, which arose to help us better deal with the problems of the Western diet, has largely been co-opted by it, used by the industry to sell more food and undermine the authority of traditional ways of eating”.

·        “It’s a lot easier to slip a health claim on a box of sugary cereal than on a carrot, with the perverse result that the most healthful foods in the supermarket sit there quietly in the produce section, while a few aisles over, the Cocoa Puffs are screaming about their new-found whole-grain goodness”.

 

2)      Anti-Oxidants and Phyto-Chemicals.  While we read periodically of scientific articles that caution against over-using bottled anti-oxidant vitamins like beta-carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E, there is no doubt that anti-oxidants in natural form (black grapes, red wine, leafy green vegetables, walnuts, other nuts, herbs and spices…) may protect against a wide variety of cancers, may repair dangerous DNA mutations, and are cardio-protective. 

 

3)      Not only what we eat, but how we eat matters.   See the article by Tara Parker-Pope in the WSJ, Jan. 16, 2007, Health Journal, pD1).  What makes a difference?   How fast we eat.  Eating on the fly vs. sitting down to eat.  Size of dinnerware.  Eating with friends vs. eating alone.  Eating with a good drink.  This columnist provides good health information in her weekly offering.  (Healthjournal@wsj.com). 

 

4)      See “The Dish On Fish” (Harvard Health Letter, Feb. 2007 – www.Health .Harvard.edu).  The benefits of eating fish, with its store of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, generally far outweighs the risk of the mercury content of some fish.  To choose wisely, consider this benefit – to – risk sequence: Salmon>Trout>Turia>Tuna>X Swordfish. 

 

5)      But Wait….  An article in the WSJ cautions against overdoing the dieting thing.  (“Worth The Weight”, by Arthur C. Brooks, Feb. 17-18, 2007, Opinion, pA8).  The author notes that somewhat overweight persons are happier and more open in their relationships with others.  And of course, the best thing to go with a meal is family and good friends.

 

GS


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