Get a mammogram, man!

In my previous post I talked about my recent annual check-up and all that changes when one starts rounding 50. I purposely left out one thing as I wanted to wait until some more information came my way.

There's a lump in my chest.
 
One of the benefits of Streamlined Ska Librarian lifestyle is that I'm seeing a new body unfold and appear after years of flab. But a decrease of flab also means I'm seeing things that may have long been hidden.

A few months ago I noticed a bump on my smaller, firmer chest (from man boobs to DAN boobs, I always say!). At first I assumed it might be a contusion of some sort. I'm sort of clumsy and sometimes the barbell or cable may hit me as I'm weight training. But then it never went away. Months later there's still a lump.

Just next to that little inked petal....

So, during my annual checkup, I point this out to my doctor. He pokes around, confirms my family cancer history (both sides, lots of breast cancer) and hands me a referral for a mammogram and ultrasound. "Make an appointment as soon as possible," he said (which was not what he said about getting a colonoscopy, so I noticed.)

Fun Fact #1: While breast cancer in women is over 100x more common than in men, there are still about 2,400 new cases in men each year.  (via the National Cancer Institute)

Yet another 1% of which one hopes to not be a part ...

It's shocking news to think you might have cancer. What would happen next? Would this blog be taken over by a whole new journey of my body?  I had one week between the check-up and the mammogram and I did the wrong thing. I made the rookie mistake:

I looked up stuff about the disease on the internet. 

And I'm a librarian! I should know better!

So this entire week, I read forums and research on treatment, side effects, mortality rates. It was not time well spent. All I could think about was that surgery and hormone therapy would make me lose my nipple and my libido, both of which I was very fond. Not to mention chemo, lymphedema, mestastasis, watching what friends and family went through...Basically I went down the hole I would have smacked someone else for doing. I was a wreck. And I began to think the worst.

And after a fitful and scary week, it was time for the exams.

Fun fact #2: Mammograms for men are ONLY covered by insurance if it's for diagnostic purposes (i.e. if you're symptomatic) and not just for check-ups. (via your insurance company of choice).

It is very odd going into a women's health area of a radiology center and being one of the only men. It turns out the other guys were there for other radiology issues, so I already felt very awkward. For the most part, the staff was great, although the forms to fill out were pretty much gender-specific and not really answerable. (Questions about pregnancy, lactation, the perky breast drawings to show where you had issues). At least it wasn't all pink!

The mammogram tech was wonderful. She walked me through everything, told me what she was doing, prodded and maneuvered me, felt the lump and marked it to make sure it was scanned, compared it to my other Dan-boob, and had a generally good attitude for someone who does a procedure associated with a nasty health issue. 

Fun fact #3: Mammograms hurt!!!  (via my man boobs)

Perhaps having more material to slap onto those plates would be easier, but my Streamlined pecs got squeezed and pressed so freaking hard. I have even more respect for women for doing this. All we men have to deal with is a finger up our butt to feel our prostate for less than a minute. Can you imagine if our little fellas got this treatment?

I'd give credit but it's been Pinterested so many times without a citation. Shame!

Anyway, that took about 30 minutes and then I returned to the waiting room half dressed for my sonogram.

Over 30 minutes later, the ultrasound tech called me in. She asked where my lump was. I showed her.

She looked at me derisively. "I don't feel anything," she snorted.
"Well, my doctor did or else I wouldn't be here," I responded.
She pressed around some more."Show me."
"Here."
"Is that it?"
"Yes."
*snort* "That's all?"

All good feelings I had went out the window. THIS is how you treat someone coming in for a possibly scary diagnosis? Aren't most lesions and tumors only 2-3 cm.? Could you show SOME compassion?

She began the scan. "That looks like a lipoma. Lipo means FAT!" she said as she looked at my stomach.
"Well, better safe than sorry. I've had a giant cell tumor before, so even benign items need to be looked at." (And why am I defending the need to be here?)
"Stay here. Don't get dressed."
A few minutes later, she came back. "I'm giving it to the radiologist. I think you're fine. You can go."

Fun Fact #4: I looked up some reviews of this diagnostic center. All good except for the waiting and this one tech. I can only imagine what those pregnant women coming in for ultrasounds had to endure. ("THAT'S your baby? *snort*") (via Yelp)

But after all that, the radiologist confirmed with my primary doctor that it was indeed only a lipoma: a benign tumor of adipose tissue. My doctor wants to monitor it to see if excision will be necessary at a later date, or if there's any change to it's composition. But as of now, no surgery, no nipple or tattoo loss, nothing but relief!! And no major changes to our regularly scheduled blog theme!

But perhaps there's also a new found sense of awareness for my own chest. Breast cancer can hit men and those of us who come from breast cancer stricken families should check ourselves on a regular basis.

If nothing else comes from this, I make it my pledge to talk about this issue. Get checked. Do it. Do it now.

CHECK YOUR MAN BOOBS REGULARLY. DON'T BE IN THE 1%.

Accountability or just plain ol' fat shaming?

I know I usually start my blog posts with a jaunty introduction about something in my life, but then I was checking up on the website of Registered Dietitian Aaron Flores and he posted about this video:

I am so disgusted, I can't even be jaunty. 

I know we need to take accountability for our actions in life. And yes, it shows the "body" in question avoiding too much exercise and eating a lot of cake. Mmmm...cake.

And yet for all this lack of moving and hidden stash binge eating (that was a trigger for me) and endless huge meals, it was this guy's mother's fault for enabling this lifestyle! The shame! Fast food and juice for infants! You ruined your baby, mommy!

Look, my mom forced me to eat home-made granola and foods from The Vegetarian Epicure and Recipes for Small Planet. In other words, healthy, hippie food. And I still ended up with binging on hidden candy stashes, giving up on exercise, and tipping the scale at 300 lbs. in my 30s. 

Giving your kid french fries isn't the sole reason he dies of a heart attack.

In fact, studies show that parents trying to set more stringent dietary rules on their kids end up with more eating disorders AND obesity issues. 

Then again, you can blame it on television. Or the school system. Or anyone else who you need to place shame upon. 

In other words, its a rich tapestry of reasons as to why we might be obese and suffer from health issues because of it. And by shaming both the obese person and their parents..you might as well be blaming them for the economy, too. It doesn't help. In fact, I can only imagine it will make it worse, because you're making the situation worse. You're not asking or helping people take accountability. You're just abusing them for having birthday cake.

Mmmm...cake. 

Which reminds me of THIS video, which is meant as a joke, but I think covers what the ad is trying to convey in a much better fashion and far more truthfully:

The answer is try to be healthy. Work on it and own it. I can certainly blame my parents for a ton of things, but my current weight and health are my responsibility alone.

 

 

References:

Carter R. “The Impact of Public Schools on Childhood Obesity.” JAMA 288, no. 17 (November 6, 2002): 2180–2180. doi:10.1001/jama.288.17.2180-JMS1106-6-1.

Clark, H. R., E. Goyder, P. Bissell, L. Blank, and J. Peters. “How Do Parents’ Child-Feeding Behaviours Influence Child Weight? Implications for Childhood Obesity Policy.” Journal of Public Health 29, no. 2 (June 1, 2007): 132–41. doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdm012.

Flores, Aaron. “Balance Variety and Moderation RDN: Childhood Obesity PSA - The Completely Wrong Message.” Balance Variety and Moderation RDN, August 14, 2014. http://bvmrd.blogspot.com/2014/08/childhood-obesity-psa-completely-wrong.html.

Klesges, Robert C., Mary L. Shelton, and Lisa M. Klesges. “Effects of Television on Metabolic Rate: Potential Implications For Childhood Obesity.” Pediatrics 91, no. 2 (February 1, 1993): 281–86.

Robinson, Thomas N., Michaela Kiernan, Donna M. Matheson, and K. Farish Haydel. “Is Parental Control over Children’s Eating Associated with Childhood Obesity? Results from a Population-Based Sample of Third Graders.” Obesity Research 9, no. 5 (May 1, 2001): 306–12. doi:10.1038/oby.2001.38.

A Pinch of Oz

So, almost a year after getting my "Dear John" letter from my trainer, I finally bit the bullet. No, I didn't get a new trainer ... yet but I did decide to return to the bigger, more expensive gym where I first met him. And you really do get what you pay for:

Via the NYPL Digital Collections

Perhaps it's the initial giddiness of these first two weeks back in the old place (although the actual gym moved down the block, but it's still the same chain as before). The sheer happiness of finding fully equipped weight rooms, working squat racks, TRX bands, a decent amount of working cardio machines and even the semblance of regular cleaning so there's not a patina of mystery stains after using any stretching/abs/floor areas. Maybe that will wear off in a bit, but for now I can see the difference in my workout already. And that has had a positive effect on my food intake, as well.

Of course, there are a few of the regular flies in the health ointment. That huge cabinet of supplements still stands near the main entrance and the hard sell has begun. My last trainer had a reflex flinch every time we passed by that cabinet after our first session when I ripped him a new one and said if he ever tried to sell me one pill, our sessions were over. Harsh? Yes, but it worked!

But now the push is back. They even offered a welcome back goodie bag of the stuff (I declined). 

If you're running a place that pushes exercise and even nutrition as hard work (no judgements, and fun, but hard work) , why are you also then selling this "easy boost"? (It's rhetorical, I know why.)

I know this is a business model. I know this is a way to make some extra funds. But I see it as a mixed message. And yet, it's not like it's the only place trying to sell us a "cheating way to win."

I get sent lots of library links, cute tattoo videos, and of course, many links about nutrition and weight loss from a variety of my friends. Most of these are out on the usual social media memes, so I often receive them again and again.

And then Dr. Oz happened this past week. So I got a loooooot of links about it.

While I'm not surprised at the results of the hearing or the backlash around it, it does raise the question: If everyone supposedly thought Dr. Oz was a quack about these supplements, why did he still sell so many of them? My "professionals-of-another-degree-mother," the Registered Dietitians, have been weighing in on Oz's claims for quite some time, a lot of it critical towards the man. (Although there are some who use his show as their own PR sounding board). You think having some credential might be taken into account.

Yet we still all want to believe that something will be a "miracle," especially when it comes to our health and weight. One study a few years back showed that the majority of people surveyed did believe that dietary supplements would help in obesity. The numbers were higher for people who were overweight or obese. Yet results, especially those from evidence-based research, show that the efficacy and safety of these supplements is still unknown, and even the ones from "natural ingredients" have not been shown in any positive results of dieting individuals.

And these are often the same people who "eat clean" or deny certain basic food groups. They'll still take a mystery concoction that is "magic"? Is it ethical to promise a miracle, especially if you have a few initials after your name and a global audience?

There's nothing wrong with having faith that you can achieve whatever you want for your body in terms of being healthier. But I'd rather do it on my own belief that "mystery miracles" are not part of the equation.

via The Smithsonian Collection

Yeah ... no.

References:

Laddu, Deepika, Caitlin Dow, Melanie Hingle, Cynthia Thomson, and Scott Going. “A Review of Evidence-Based Strategies to Treat Obesity in Adults.” Nutrition in Clinical Practice 26, no. 5 (October 1, 2011): 512–25. doi:10.1177/0884533611418335.

Pillitteri, Janine L., Saul Shiffman, Jeffrey M. Rohay, Andrea M. Harkins, Steven L. Burton, and Thomas A. Wadden. “Use of Dietary Supplements for Weight Loss in the United States: Results of a National Survey.” Obesity 16, no. 4 (April 1, 2008): 790–96. doi:10.1038/oby.2007.136.

 

"Stop Saying Wheee!"

I do not know why but for someone who is very good at group activities and following rules, I've always felt really uncomfortable at enforced "enjoyment events." Summer camp sing-a-longs, any solstice drum circle and especially group exercise classes where they shout at you to enjoy yourself. They creep me all out. 

Look, I know spin classes and laughing yoga work for many people, but I just don't like them. I don't need to be told when to say "Wheee!"

(This blog entry's title actually comes from a scene from here. It's very apt to this topic).

"But, Mr. Streamlined Ska Librarian," you say, "If I enjoy it, won't I do it more?" Why, yes, small handful of blog readers, you probably will. I think it's sort of obvious that one tends to do any activity more often if one enjoys it. 

via

Maybe I'd have this same expression during my cardio if I had those fabulous heels to work out in. Wheee, indeed.

However, there might be another reason why enjoyable exercise works towards weight loss or weight maintenance. A recent study showed that subjects who were told they were doing a physical activity "for fun" as opposed to "for exercise", ate less afterwards. There was less of a reward aspect to their physical activity. ("I ran 60 minutes on the treadmill, so I can have 2 donuts!")

And I do find that fascinating. Especially when another recent study shows that we consistently misunderstand what is meant by "moderate exercise." And we're only misunderstanding it in one direction.

So at least if we're not getting enough vigorous exercise, we're probably eating less to compensate if we enjoy that exercise.

I do enjoy running, even if it means having to get through those initial 10 minutes of my brain saying, "You can stop now!" Once I get going, I'm very happy. I also enjoy boxing very much and yes, even heavy weight lifting.

But it doesn't mean I don't get bored with the routines and I rarely consider weight lifting to be "just for fun." However, I still like it more than many group exercise instruction. I feel less uncomfortable, which makes it more enjoyable. But I also know that it's work. I'm doing this for a reason. And being Streamlined does make me happier and more comfortable with myself. 

And sometimes you just need to be comfortable and satisfied to get towards happiness. Yet another study shows the relationship between obesity and subjective well-being. Not surprisingly, there seems to be a inverse relationship, and women suffer from low satisfaction due to obesity far more than men. But they also mention one interesting hypothesis from their results:

"Our findings demonstrate that where obesity is more prevalent, the difference in life satisfaction between the obese and nonobese is smaller for women and almost nonexistent for men. The same relationship is likely to exist over time: the emotional cost and advantage of obesity and nonobesity, respectively, may be decreasing as the prevalence of obesity increases. If future research finds evidence for this trend over time, it would offer additional insight into the causes of the exponential growth in obesity over the past 30 years: a cyclical process in which the emotional cost of obesity declines, resulting in greater prevalence, resulting in fewer emotional costs."

In other words, if we all get fat, we'll have less options to which to compare! Yay, now we can make fun of you for being bald!

But, even if we're all moving towards an inevitable obese society, it still doesn't mean you can't have fun being active in some way. And if that makes life better, then it's probably something we should all do in some way. 

Just don't say Wheee. Nobody says wheee. Nobody.



References:

Canning, Karissa L., Ruth E. Brown, Veronica K. Jamnik, Art Salmon, Chris I. Ardern, and Jennifer L. Kuk. “Individuals Underestimate Moderate and Vigorous Intensity Physical Activity.” PLoS ONE 9, no. 5 (May 16, 2014): e97927. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0097927.

Wadsworth, Tim, and Philip M. Pendergast. “Obesity (Sometimes) Matters The Importance of Context in the Relationship between Obesity and Life Satisfaction.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 55, no. 2 (June 1, 2014): 196–214. doi:10.1177/0022146514533347.

Werle, Carolina O. C., Brian Wansink, and Collin R. Payne. “Is It Fun or Exercise? The Framing of Physical Activity Biases Subsequent Snacking.” Marketing Letters, May 15, 2014, 1–12. doi:10.1007/s11002-014-9301-6.

That diet is bananas!

First, if I may:




LET'S GO RANGERS!!!!! WHOOOP!! WE WANT THE CUP! 

OK, now where were we...

A browse through some of my recent cookbooks acquisitions brought this little ditty to light:

via The Buffet Cookbook

 
This is not something met with my usual lip smacking culinary fantasy. However, it seems this was a fairly common recipe in mid-century cookbooks. And I was intrigued. Instead of getting immediately creative, I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter (except I halved it). The result?

Ummmm...no. Granted, my dinner guest thought it was delicious. I thought it tasted like, well, bananas mashed into beef. Blerk.

This might have been good with some sort of curry or jerk spice. Something tangy-spicy to interact with the bananas.

To me, it was a failure. Even if the blog reviews of this recipe were saying it was amazing.You can't believe everything you read.

Which is why this particular article in the NY Times made me a little nervous, at least by it's headline. Men losing 11 pounds in only 4 days? If you look at the full study, overweight men were given severe caloric restriction (360 cal/day!) combined with intense exercise, then continuing increase exercise for another week. And surprise, these men lost a lot weight. And they seemed to have kept it off after a year. But even the scientists confirmed that this needs more observation and it may not be ideal for those without the initiative.
But also, there was a only a handful of men in the study, so this cannot be considered a universal solution, just yet.

Also, looking at it in perspective, when I started my Streamlined lifestyle change, I worked out with my first trainer that if I cut my intake to 2700 cal/day, but increased my exercise, I could maintain my goal of a one lb. of weight loss per week.

Now that was already a huge calorie drop for me. Doing a quick and dirty calorie count on Retro Ska Librarian meals, I was probably taking in 4000-6000 cal/day. Way more than any recommended daily allowance. So coming down to 2700 was already a shift, never mind that it also meant I should be engaging in "intensive exercise" at least 5 days a week (otherwise weight loss would have been only do to even less calories).  I cannot imagine handling 360 cal/day. That's not even a bagel or a beer.

So while this is an eyebrow raising study, do we see it fitting into a healthy lifestyle change? I'm sure someone will try to bank on that! 

"The Danish Starvation Diet! Eat like a Little Mermaid!"

But what makes it more difficult could be our overall diet. A brief written for JAMA has two doctors saying it is the way we store fuel in fat cells that can actually prevent us form properly losing weight. Coming back to the theory that it's not how much you eat, but what you eat. 

I'm not sure how I feel about this theory, and it is just that at the moment, a theory. Taken at it's basics, yes, it is healthier when you count calories to try to eat healthier foods (I suppose 2700 cal/day of frosting tubs would have not have been very smart of me to do).

But will this idea throw more people into the arms of "quick fix" diets and pills, as they feel they are "doomed" by their fat cells? Frank Bruni, fellow former pudgy guy, does see it as a problem that we all fall into:

"And the vogue for painstakingly tailored eating regimens and dieting techniques is to some extent a distraction from that, a dangerous one, because it promotes the idea that basic nature and fundamental biology can somehow be gamed, cheated, transcended."

There is no cheat. There is no extreme way of doing this. And I can no longer buy into any special diet.

It is highly possible that my fat cells have been so overworked that weight loss for me might be harder. But I did do it, without denying myself anything out of the ordinary. However, maybe those "trigger" foods are what these doctors are talking about.  I don't know, I just know what worked and it wasn't advertised on TV.

In any case, there is no easy answer. Never was. Never will be. You want a miracle, look at those beautiful NY Rangers! It took 20 years, but they finally hit their goal! (OK, ouch...)

 
References:


4 Days, 11 Pounds. (n.d.). Well. Retrieved May 23, 2014, from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/4-days-11-pounds/


Bruni, Frank. “Diet Lures and Diet Lies.” The New York Times, May 26, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/opinion/bruni-diet-lures-and-diet-lies.html.

Calbet, J. a. L., Ponce-González, J. G., Pérez-Suárez, I., de la Calle Herrero, J., & Holmberg, H.-C. (2014). A time-efficient reduction of fat mass in 4 days with exercise and caloric restriction. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, n/a–n/a. doi:10.1111/sms.12194

Ludwig DS, & Friedman MI. (2014). Increasing adiposity: Consequence or cause of overeating? JAMA. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.4133

Once a fat kid....

You try. You try so hard. You watch what you eat. You exercise. You say you can break through all the crap in your head to make the crap in your body get better....

...and then this study shows up. Turns out we're doomed from the start. DOOOOMED!! If we were fat in kindergarten, well, let's just give up trying.

Enjoy that crown, baby, because that's the only reward you'll be getting!

From the Sally L. Steinberg Collection of Doughnut Ephemera, Archives Center, National Museum of American History,  Smithsonian Institution via the Digital Public Library of America

Oh, come on, I'm kidding. First off, how can I possibly call myself a librarian and not be incredibly happy that someone actually put together a collection of doughnut ephemera? 

Next, this study doesn't mean that exercise and diet aren't important, but that it might be a tougher battle than we know. It does show:

"Overweight kindergartners had four times the risk of becoming obese by the age of 14 years as normal-weight kindergartners. The relative risks of obesity among overweight kindergartners, as compared with normal-weight kindergartners, were highest among children from the two highest socioeconomic groups. Thus, overweight children from the two highest socioeconomic groups had five times the risk of becoming obese as normal-weight children of similar socioeconomic status, whereas an overweight child from the lowest socioeconomic group had only 3.4 times the risk of obesity as a normal-weight child of similar socioeconomic status"

And this means that these kids were already overweight or obese by the time they began kindergarten, meaning they actually were overweight before 5 years of age. And more of them came from backgrounds where access to better food choices and amenities were available!

The discussion of the study takes additional factors into the equation beyond demographics and socioeconomic factors, such as birth weight and genetics. And yes, these definitions of obesity are based on BMI, never a perfect measure. But here's the rub and it comes from one sentence near the end of the results:

"By the time they enter kindergarten, 12.4% of American children are already obese, and 14.9% are overweight."

Yow. That's going to be one long road for these kids. I've been there. A lot of us have. I just don't remember there being so many of us around as a child. I imagined there would have been a lot of less fat bullying if more of us were supposedly obese.

But what are we doing about it? How are we making this easier for kids to be healthier? What if healthy food isn't around them? What if they can't or won't play sports? What if they're just feeding their feelings? What if it really is genetic?

Whatever it is, I don't think we can blame pre-K kids for their choices and actions that way. But it is important to make this better soon. 

Losing all this weight, even in the right mindset, was hard. Maintaining it is harder. And for all the good and healthy ways I feel now, I would have much rather not have had this extra issue hanging around my younger head.


But I also refuse to let this be an excuse to not make the effort. If this study means that my lifetime of weight issues is not over, well, I just got to keep at it. 

We can't let "fate" determine how we live, but we also need to understand that whatever we're doing now is not exactly helping our future generations.  I want kids to enjoy their doughnut royalty. I just don't want them to have to work that much harder to burn it off. 

I think I finally found my resolution for this year!



References:

Cunningham, S. A., Kramer, M. R., & Narayan, K. M. V. (2014). Incidence of Childhood Obesity in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(5), 403–411. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1309753

Countdown to eating a lot

Oh, where to begin? So many weight loss and weight maintenance studies our there. And yet, a recent study shows that a large percentage of research on obesity and nutrition tend to overstate their results. Is this really a surprise? I also think the topic lends itself to that. We like to grab onto a definitive "solution" or "answer" when it comes to obesity and nutrition. I know I've certainly been guilty of cherry-picking data I need to make a point. But then again, I'm just blogging here, not claiming I've done grant-funded research. 

I do recommend you seek out the entire article. But that's not where we're going now....

I'm going to take a break from some of the usual format this month and go for a theme. We're coming up on one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving. For almost every T-day for the past 22 years, I've hosted anywhere from 3 to 30 people for the feast. Over the years, I've gotten intoa "zone" where I cook EVERYTHING, down to making ice cream for the pies. All guests just bring drinks, themselves and an appetite. It's worked out very well. 

I have some standard favorite dishes (there are a few I've been told can never leave the menu), but it also gives me a chance to try some new things each year. Very rarely is there a true cock-up (more often the casualties are dropped dishes). And I actually find it very enjoyable to just prepare and cook up a storm for a week. 

This year, however, we have a slightly different agenda. Thanksgiving falls on the first night of Chanukah. Yes, the All-American holiday where we all gather together to give thanks and eat a lot of food we may avoid most of the year is now being mixed up with a Jewish holiday where ... we all gather together to give thanks for being alive and eating a lot of food we may avoid most of the year.

Hmmm...this shouldn't be too hard.

Except when you're a kid and you probably feel more left out when everyone around gets Xmas presents, Chanukah doesn't play a big role in many adult Jews lives (or Adult Jews with no kids, I should say). 

Yes, it commemorates, as do many Jewish Holidays, our survival at almost being wiped out, and, like most Jewish holidays, it involved a lot of fried food. And I don't want to be frying latkes just as we're all sitting down to turkey.

So how to combine these two holidays into one super food day?

The rest of this month, I'll be trying out a few recipes and sharing them online. As you know, it's hard for me to actually write down amounts, but I will do my best to ensure you can all share in this. Yes, yes, I am very magnanimous that way.

One of the things I often skip or avoid is a bread with Thanksgiving dinner. In the past there's been pumpkin biscuits, a basic wheat loaf, polentas "crackers" but most often I buy a baguette or two. But I've been toying with a cornbread idea. It's quick, easy and goes well with the all those fall foods. 

But how to make it Chanukah-like? I've seen a few pumpkin or sweet potato corn breads. And a traditional Jewish dish is tzimmes. My family made it with carrots, but I had some yams, which is also "traditional." So why not make a Tzimmes Cornbread? Hmmmm...

I used yams and prunes. I think carrots may be added next time, but yams were a nice thought because you can microwave them very fast. And I thought using coconut oil added another "fruit" flavor to it. I also tend to favor my cornbread more on the corn side with less flour. I actually dropped the flour on the floor (see? that's my thing!) and after that clean-up, I substituted chickpea flour. The end result was good but I think whole wheat flour would work a little better, giving it a little less density. 

I decided to spice it with middle eastern spices and spiked the prunes. The result:

It was fragrant, sweet yet not too much (which is sort on un-tzimmes like) but a nice amalgam of holidays!
This could be good with gravy or applesauce and sour cream! Or even with peanut butter as a snack.


Will it make it to the holiday table in a few weeks? We shall see...

The Streamlined Ska Librarian's "Tzimmes" Cornbread:

12 prunes, cut up

1/4 cup bourbon or rye

1 1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsps ras al hanout

1/4 tsp dried mint

salt to taste 

2 egg whites 

3 tbps coconut oil

1 to 1 1/2 cups yams, cooked 

1/4 cup yogurt, sour cream or buttermilk

1/2 cup honey

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar 

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Soak the prunes in the bourbon

3. Combine next 5 ingredients

4. Add next 5 and mix well

5. Stir in prunes and bourbon. Adjust seasoning

6. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. 

References

Menachemi, Nir, Gabriel Tajeu, Bisakha Sen, Alva O. Ferdinand, Chelsea Singleton, Janice Utley, Olivia Affuso, and David B. Allison. “Overstatement of Results in the Nutrition and Obesity Peer-Reviewed Literature.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 45, no. 5 (November 2013): 615–621. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2013.06.019.

It Never Gets Old...

The season of reality shows is coming back in full swing. In many ways these are a guilty pleasure for me. Partially they are a sense of escape and partially they reaffirm that, yes, at least my life is not like THAT, nor would I ever go through that exposure just for fleeting fame. Sadly, a lot of these shows involve many people from my homeland of Staten Island. All I can say to that is: You can't blame that much on editing.

Of course, a lot of makeover shows are on nowadays including weight loss programs. I know a popular one is The Biggest Loser. I admit I do tune into that one, now more than ever in Streamlined times.  I don't really need to reaffirm what many people think about this show. I won't even link to those posts, because they are everywhere. Suffice to say that I do feel it is presenting a very unfair view of weight loss and the idea that "failures" on the show are only losing 2-5 lbs. a week....well, it's just bad. It reminds me of one of my previous attempts at weight loss a few decades back. I managed to lose 25 lbs. and reached a tableau. And I felt like a complete failure.

Because I. Only. Lost. 25. Lbs.

Sigh. I'm glad that mindset is over. 

But this also brings to mind the endless attempts at dieting and the yo-yo effect that can have on someone.

But this is nothing new. I've already mentioned some of the old diet and cookbooks I own. Now how about a old time "reality show'?

This fascinating paper on President William H. Taft's correspondence with a doctor about weight loss had me hooked. Taft certainly cut a prosperous figure:

Source

But he had concerns about his health. The prescription for weight loss reads remarkably modern (without the "fads"): reasonable amounts of food, exercise and daily logging of weight. There are some historically unique aspects to the plan (Taft's exercises including horseback riding, as opposed to something we might now consider more rigorous), but the gist is very much the same as today.

There's even the other aspects here which show how little things have changed. Taft was a celebrity that was publicly ridiculed for his weight. He tended to report a higher weight loss than he actually managed to achieve. He did lose a lot weight but gained a lot back when he stopped dealing with his physician. This was also not the first doctor and weight loss prgram to which he subscribed. And this particular doctor also used his work with Taft to promote his own diet business, cashing in on this celebrity diet.

When Taft passed away he was about 70 lbs. less than his highest weight, but still considered "morbidly obese" by today's standards.

Taft's legacy as President and as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court is quite varied (He is the only person to hold both positions). But sadly he's probably remembered more for being the fat president. 

Strange to think that dieting and celebrity is more embedded in our collective mind than governmental and judicial initiatives still in play. 

Maybe we should elect Snooki to the Supreme Court. But first I need to go track down some of Taft's doctor's books to add to my collection.


References:

Deborah I. Levine; Corpulence and Correspondence: President William H. Taft and the Medical Management of Obesity. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2013 Oct;159(8): 565-570.

Scares, trends and history

Many people assume I get all my books for free because of my profession. I imagine that if such a statement was true, I would be debt-free. My personal book collection has cost me much over the years, although it was all worth it.

However, I do get one sort of perk. Many of my colleagues are on various award committees for assorted Library Associations, as well as reviewers for national publications. As such, they do get a lot of material to review. And by "a lot" I mean boxes and boxes, sometimes several a month. And my colleagues often find those who might be interested in specific subject who could offer a specialist review. Or, other times, they have have extra copies they give away. And naturally this past year or so, they've been throwing food, diet and nutrition books my way:

So....binge eat in heels?

OK, OK, not that one, but I think I could give that fine review. No, instead I was offered Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry About What We Eat by Harvey Levenstein. And I need to give a review here on this blog, because I heartily recommend this book.

It's a slim volume, and an easy read, but also a nicely cited history of various aspects of food "scares", issues and the intertwining of both government, scientific and popular influence on consumer choices. Chapters cover different issues such as vitamins, beef, milk, fat and so on. Levenstein is a food historian and, to me, the mark of good piece of historical reading is the eagerness to flit through the end notes and bibliography to see just where the author found his citations. And this book delivers!

It's fascinating as well to see some of the nascent attempts at food science and public health in our country. And it drives home another one of my usual tropes about the female oriented dietitian/librarian professions. Much of this book addresses the push of governments and food companies towards the main food purchaser: women. And it was women who were beginning to become involved in Home Economics and Family Science, from which it seems Dietetics rose as a profession. Early librarianship was often referred to as Library Economy, based on providing children with proper educational and popular reading material. 

Hmmm...large corporate sponsors working through "women's professions" to market a message about food purchasing and educational material...sure, that doesn't happen anymore!

There was a lot of these "not so new facts" in the books. That old nugget about yogurt-eater in Eastern Europe lived for over 100 years, is actually even older than I thought. It goes back to the first years of the 20th Century, as it was thought that it could combat the "autointoxication" we suffered from in our waste filled intestines.

One of the medical experts who tried to alleviate autointoxication was UK physician Sir William Arbuthnot-Lane. His solution for chronic constipation was to remove the colon. He also wrote books such as this one:

I really hope she's not wearing that to the colon removal....tacky tacky.

The big takeaway for me (aside from the now large list of primary sources and references I have on my "to read" list), is the amazing permeability of how both the general public and the scientific world views healthy eating and nutrition. The take we have on "slow food" from the "old days" seems pretty ridiculous when you see that a century ago they thought fresh fruit was not as nutritious as canned, prepared fruit. And that additives have been fought about for longer than we've been alive.

We're not in a new era of dieting and food appreciation. We're just continuing on in a long line of trends that tend to repeat. And in the end is probably all is just about moderation in what we do eat.

So, the next time someone you know is declaring a specific "new way of eating," I recommend you give them a copy of this book. That new way may not be so very new and it probably will be debunked soon enough.


References:

Levenstein, H. A. (2012). Fear of food: A history of why we worry about what we eat. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

One apology at a time

I was skimming through the weekly links at the Lean Green Bean website (home of Foodie Pen Pals) and I came across this one: An Open Apology to My Weight Loss Clients.

I suggest you read the whole thing. Is it possible for something to make me feel angry and satisfied at the same time?

"I am sorry because many of you walked in healthy and walked out with disordered eating, disordered body image, and the feeling that you were a 'failure.' None of you ever failed. Ever. I failed you. The weight loss company failed you. Our society is failing you." 

I never joined a diet program such as this, but I certainly know about yo-yo diets, the starvation periods, the endless feelings of not "doing well enough" at it from family and "experts." I am glad this person has taken some accountability in this but it will not change the bigger picture. Even the comments section of her post are filled with the usual, "Well, this worked for me, you all are doing it wrong! Only xxxx calories and such." And I think, "Seriously? You can't just accept that we're enforcing serious body issues on men and women with this crap? You have to call out others?"

It makes me mad because even in my Streamlined present-day self, I still feel and see fatness on me. I do not always see the successful way I changed my life and health. There's enough media and diet industry folks out there to make me feel it's not good enough.

So thank you to this person for at least admitting that a lot of damage gets done to people who really just want to feel better about themselves.

You don't have to be Streamlined to have a hot body and feel good about it.

Sometimes snarky says it all, until it doesn't

I will be the first to admit that I find the endlessly shared posts from Buzzfeed, Io9, Huffington Post and the like to be barely one step above spam mail. It's easy enough scroll past them on facebook or twitter, even if your friends somehow feel the need to send the exact same one directly to you an infinite amount of times. (Yes, yes, I like libraries, we get it!) But I know you're all just sharing because you love me, so thanks.

But today, my Pilates Studio linked to one from Jezebel:

"How to Lose All The Weight You Want in Just 89 Simple Steps"

And I laughed all the way through the list. Why? Maybe because the author or Jezebel's research department (or their poor interns, most likely) did the research to find some study or report that matched all these contradictory statements. And not so oddly enough, a lot of these are reports I have in my "research corral" for future blog posts. So, I did identify.

But I also found it funny because it is true. We are so starved (pun intended) for a "weight loss solution" that we will (pun #2) swallow anything that comes along as THE answer. Even if the premise is contradictory or foolish or just plain odd.

But what takes this piece to another level is the comments. Now, I do believe the internet has created a new level of snarkiness in commentary but there's something about diet and exercise stories which just get everyone on a special chair or self-entitlement. I see this in the NY Times Health & Wellness section, too.  ("I lost 50 lbs. by being smugly superior to you sad sacks and I ate what I wanted! That's the answer!")

A lot of the commentary on this piece also falls into that "Well, THIS worked for me, so you're all idiots for doing the other diets/workouts/fasting." But the thing is, this was meant as a humorous article. To be that kind of snarky commentator takes a lack of humor, a lack of irony and no sense of decorum, really.

This wasn't a NY Times article on a medical study. Nor was Jezebel trying to become an expert on the issues. To me, it seems the author was trying to show that there is no one solution. Just as I always say that my weight loss and ongoing maintenance are "Dan-spired", one can't assume there is a one size fits all solution to this situation.

So stop being so serious about it. Obesity is a serious issue. Losing a crapload of weight and keeping it off is not easy, both physically and emotionally. But not finding the apparent idiocy in most quick-fix diet plans just makes for some very unfunny lives. 

I bet these guys didn't worry about the color of their food or if there was a certain cheat to workouts:

Stall Bar Class Minneapolis, MN (from the Kautz family YMCA Archives, Univ. of MN Libraries via the Digital Public Library of America)

Although I am a little concerned about future lower back issues of that fellow in the middle. You know MY solutions was....