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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News Tidbits

May 6, 2007

  • Whatever your views on world economics and globalization, there is one clear benefit: year-round availability of fruits and vegetables...the staple of the Mediterranean diet.  Just make sure that you don't add any unwanted "protein" - like scorpions... by washing and examining the produce thoroughly.  Then, Mangia, Mangia. 
  • More research supports the beneficial effects of dark chocolate (including cocoa) and green tea.  One of the mechanisms is the content of polyphenols, true also of olive oil.  The higher the content of these agents, the more the protection, both through their effects on the serum Lipids, but also by their effects on the epithelial lining of our blood vasculature.  For olive oil, virgin or extra virgin are best, since processing reduces the content of polyphenols. 
  • Some schools are finally becoming pro-active in addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity in their midst...and they are catching flak for it.  Not surprising, given the quality of some of the parenting out there.  See the article on the subject in the WSJ April 14-15, 2007, pA1.   Keep it up, folks.  You have a lot of catching up to do. 
  • Now here is a rest from all this talk about dieting, etc.  Professor Barry Glassner has written a book entitled "The Gospel of Fear" (Ecco/Harper Collins, 2007).  His thesis is also discussed in a report in The Day March 5, 2007, pC1.  He finds much of the discussion about obesity and dieting to be mis-directed, without due regard to the very important elements of genetic predisposition, economic hardship and anti-smoking campaigns.  To that I would add the all too early pubertal access to sex, pregnancy and birth control pills in young girls precisely during their natural growth spurt...leading them to spurt out in all the wrong directions.

    • GS


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