The Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional recommendation based on the dietary patterns of Greece, Southern Italy, France and Spain in the 1940s and 1950s.[2] The principal aspects of this diet include proportionally high consumption of olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits, and vegetables, moderate to high consumption of fish, moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), moderate wine consumption, and low consumption of non-fish meat products.[3]

There is evidence that the Mediterranean diet lowers the risk of heart disease and early death.[4][5] Olive oil may be the main health-promoting component of the diet.[6] There is preliminary evidence that regular consumption of olive oil may lower all-cause mortality and the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, and several chronic diseases.[6][7][8][9]

In 2013, UNESCO added the Mediterranean diet to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of Italy (promoter), France, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Croatia.[10][11] It was chosen because "The Mediterranean diet involves a set of skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions concerning crops, harvesting, fishing, animal husbandry, conservation, processing, cooking, and particularly the sharing and consumption of food." [12]

A 2016 review found similar weight loss as other diets.[13]

Dietary factors may be only part of the reason for health benefits gained by certain Mediterranean cultures. Physically active lifestyle, lower body mass index, cessation of smoking and moderate alcohol consumption also may contribute.[14]

A 2011 systematic review found that a Mediterranean diet appeared to be more effective than a low-fat diet in bringing about long-term changes to cardiovascular risk factors, such as lowering cholesterol level and blood pressure.[15] A 2013 Cochrane review found limited evidence that a Mediterranean diet favorably affects cardiovascular risk factors.[4] A meta-analysis in 2013 compared Mediterranean, vegan, vegetarian, low-glycemic index, low-carbohydrate, high-fiber, and high-protein diets with control diets. The research concluded that Mediterranean, low-carbohydrate, low-glycemic index, and high-protein diets are effective in improving markers of risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, while there was limited evidence for an effect of vegetarian diets on glycemic control and lipid levels unrelated to weight loss.[16] However, concerns have been raised about the quality of previously performed systematic reviews and meta-analyses examining the impact of a Mediterranean diet on cardiovascular risk factors.[17] Newer reviews have reached similar conclusions about the ability of a Mediterranean diet to improve cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure.[18]

The Mediterranean diet often is cited as beneficial for being low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fat and dietary fiber. One of the main explanations is thought to be the health effects of olive oil included in the Mediterranean diet. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fats, most notably oleic acid, which is under clinical research for its potential health benefits.[7] The European Food Safety Authority Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies approved health claims on olive oil, for protection by its polyphenols against oxidation of blood lipids[19] and for the contribution to the maintenance of normal blood LDL-cholesterol levels by replacing saturated fats in the diet with oleic acid[20] (Commission Regulation (EU) 432/2012 of 16 May 2012).[21] A 2014 meta-analysis concluded that an elevated consumption of olive oil is associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events and stroke, while monounsaturated fatty acids of mixed animal and plant origin showed no significant effects.[8]

In 2014, two meta-analyses found that the Mediterranean diet was associated with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes.[22][23]

A meta-analysis in 2008 found that strictly following the Mediterranean diet reduced the risk of dying from cancer by 6%.[5]

Another 2014 systematic review and meta-analysis found that adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with a decreased risk of death from cancer.[24] There is preliminary evidence that regular consumption of olive oil may lower the risk of developing cancer.[9]

A 2016 systematic review found a relation between greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet and better cognitive performance; it is unclear if the relationship is causal.[25]

According to a 2013 systematic review, greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet is correlated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and slower cognitive decline.[26] Another 2013 systematic review reached similar conclusions, and also found a negative association with the risk of progressing from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's, but acknowledged that only a small number of studies had been done on the topic.[27]

As the Mediterranean diet usually includes products containing gluten like pasta and bread, increasing use of the diet may have contributed to the growing rate of gluten-related disorders.[28][29]

Although there are many different "Mediterranean diets" among different countries and populations of the Mediterranean basin, because of ethnical, cultural, economical and religious diversities, the distinct Mediterranean cuisines generally include the same key components, in addition to regular physical activity:[30][31][32]

Total fat in a diet with roughly this composition is 25% to 35% of calories, with saturated fat at 8% or less of calories.[32]

In Northern Italy lard and butter are commonly used in cooking, and olive oil is reserved for dressing salads and cooked vegetables.[33] In both North Africa and the Middle East, sheep's tail fat and rendered butter (samna) are traditional staple fats.[34]

The concept of a Mediterranean diet was developed to reflect "food patterns typical of Crete, much of the rest of Greece, and southern Italy in the early 1960s".[32] Although it was first publicized in 1975 by the American biologist Ancel Keys and chemist Margaret Keys (his wife and collaborator),[35] the Mediterranean diet failed to gain widespread recognition until the 1990s. Objective data showing that Mediterranean diet is healthful originated from results of epidemiological studies in Naples and Madrid [36] confirmed later by the Seven Countries Study, with first publication in 1970,[37] and a book-length report in 1980.[38] The most commonly understood version of the Mediterranean diet was presented, among others, by Walter Willett of Harvard University's School of Public Health from the mid-1990s on.[39][40][41][42][43]

The Mediterranean diet is based on what from the point of view of mainstream nutrition is considered a paradox: although the people living in Mediterranean countries tend to consume relatively high amounts of fat, they have far lower rates of cardiovascular disease than in countries like the United States, where similar levels of fat consumption are found. A parallel phenomenon is known as the French Paradox.[44]

A diet rich in salads was promoted in England during the early Renaissance period by Giacomo Castelvetro in A Brief Account of the Fruits, Herbs, and Vegetables of Italy.[45]

When Ancel Keys and his team of researchers studied and characterized the Mediterranean diet and compared it with the eating habits of the US and the most developed countries during that period, some identified it as the "Diet of the Poor". According to the famed Portuguese gastronomist Maria de Lourdes Modesto who met with Keys, Portugal was included in their observations and studies, and according to their conversation, Keys considered Portugal had the most pure "Mediterranean" diet. However, Salazar, the dictator of Portugal, did not want the name of Portugal included in what he understood as the diet of the poor.[46]

Still today the name of the diet is not consensual among Portuguese gastronomists. After the Mediterranean diet became well-known, some studies evaluated the health benefits of the so-called "Atlantic diet", which is similar to Keys' "Mediterranean" diet, but with more fish, seafood, and fresh greens. Virglio Gomes, a Portuguese professor and researcher on food history and gastronomy says, Portuguese cuisine is really an "Atlantic cuisine".[46]

Media related to Mediterranean Diet at Wikimedia Commons

Link:
Mediterranean diet - Wikipedia

It's also known as the Navy diet, the Army diet and sometimes the ice cream diet, because in addition to hot dogs and tuna fish, you get to eat ice cream on all three days of the program.

Smells fishy, right? Well, hold your nose. It's about to get really stinky.

The military diet is a variation of the ever-popular three-day diet, a crash plan of "fill-in-the-blank" foods to eat if you want to lose weight fast. These diets typically claim that you can lose about 10 pounds in three days to a week if you follow their blueprint to the letter. The meal plans are usually extremely basic and calorie-restrictive, because let's face it, that's how you lose weight.

But are these diets healthy? Will the weight stay off?

Breakfast is a cup of caffeinated coffee or tea, one slice of toast with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and half a grapefruit. That's 308 calories.

Lunch is another cup of coffee or tea, a bare-bones slice of toast (whole-wheat is best, they rightly say) and a half-cup of tuna. This meal is tiny, only 139 calories.

Dinner is 3 ounces of any meat (that's about the size of a playing card), a cup of green beans, half of a banana and a small apple (not a large apple, even though the calorie difference is minuscule), but wait: You get a whole cup of vanilla ice cream! If you choose steak instead of a lean chicken breast as your entree, this meal equals 619 calories.

But even with the steak and the cup of full-fat ice cream, the day adds up to a mere 1,066 calories. No snacks allowed.

Here's day two's repast. It adds up to only 1,193 calories, even if you pick some higher-fat options.

Breakfast is another dry piece of toast, one egg cooked however you like and half of a banana. Let's say you fry your egg in oil. That's 223 calories.

Lunch is a hard-boiled egg, five saltine crackers and a cup of cottage cheese. If you choose full-fat cottage cheese, the total is 340 calories.

Dinner is half of a banana, a half-cup of carrots, a full cup of broccoli, two hot dogs (that's right!) and another treat: a half-cup of vanilla ice cream. The meal totals 630 calories (if you eat a full-fat pork or beef dog).

How does this fare fair?

"Ice cream is not a good use of the meager calories," she added. "You could have 3 cups of salad and only eat 100 calories, or other nutritious foods that will be satisfying and hold back the hunger."

Day three is the most restrictive, only 762 calories.

Breakfast is a slice of cheddar cheese with five saltines and a small apple. That's 232 calories.

Lunch is grim: one dry slice of toast and an egg. Even if you fry the egg in oil again, that's a total of 170 calories.

Dinner is 460 calories and a stomach-turning combination of half a banana, a full cup of tuna and another cup of ice cream. Maybe they think that by now, you're so hungry, you'll be willing to eat those foods together.

The websites promoting the military diet say that eating certain food combinations will boost your metabolism.

"There is no truth behind claims that the food combinations in the first few days will increase your metabolism and burn fat," Magee said.

"There's no research I know of behind those claims," Drayer agreed.

And what about the rest of the week?

You round out your week by eating what you like, so long as it's less than 1,500 calories a day. Then you can start on the three-day restrictions again.

Best of all, no exercise -- zero, zip, nada -- is said to be needed on this diet.

"Yet another fad diet that won't lead to healthy or sustainable weight loss!" Magee said with passion, adding that exercise is "key to lasting weight loss."

She also feels there are potential physical and emotional ramifications to diets that restrict and deprive you to this extent.

"It can lead to weight cycling, a quick loss and regain of weight, that can weaken your immune system, mess with your metabolic rate and increase the risk of other health problems, such as gallstones and heart trouble," Magee said.

"We did not develop this. We do not use it. It has absolutely no resemblance to the real military diet. Even our rations are healthier and more nutritionally sound," Deuster said. "It looks like they just took the name 'military' and added it to the diet and capitalized on it."

"The Birmingham Hospital Diet did not originate with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and we do not support or recommend it," university public relations manager Bob Shepard said. "This diet has absolutely no connection to UAB Hospital other than the often repeated but false Internet rumors."

Oh?

"It is unfortunate our name has been associated with this diet," the Cleveland Clinic said in a statement. "We have never endorsed this meal plan, and it does not meet the standards for what we would consider a healthy diet for heart health or overall well-being."

And?

"The American Heart Association is not -- and never has been -- associated with this diet."

"This didn't come from us, despite the use of the word Kaiser. Kaiser Permanente supports a balanced diet, rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains."

Oh, and there are lots of ads.

But nowhere on the page is there an author, an expert, a nutritional guru. No one takes ownership of this information or gives you any credentials to prove their expertise.

"That's a red flag," Drayer said. "Any helpful diet plan should be created or supported by a credible person or resource or organization. If something is out there without any author or inventor, anyone can say anything and not know how the body works."

Trying to track down the owners of three of the most popular military diet sites proved to be a dead end. Emails and calls to listed numbers got no responses.

Add to that the fact that science still doesn't have the "perfect" solution for weight loss and maintenance, he said, and you've got an area that is ripe for exploitation.

Drayer agreed. "I think a lot of people just want to know the next dieting magic bullet, quick fix, and they just go for these fad things."

But why are so many of us fooled in the first place?

The failure of some people's "BS detectors" when they encounter fake information can be explained, Southwell said, by what science now knows about how the brain processes data. Instead of sorting the good from bad as the information arrives, the brain accepts it all, "and then in another part of the brain, it's tagged as true or false."

"It leaves open this window of opportunity," he explained, "so people believe just long enough and then get tired, distracted, and what happens? They get sucked in. They might be skeptical at first but fail to do the research and think, 'well, maybe this will work. This might be my solution.' "

The fact that so many of us share our discoveries with friends and loved ones on social accounts fuels the misinformation fire. Southwell calls it "social contagion."

"It's like the dynamics of infectious disease. You've spread the disease before you've even come down with it, " he explained. "You find it, you share, you read more and find out that it's not effective, or you try it out and you're disappointed. But the genie is out of the bottle already."

According to Southwell, that's exactly what many of these sites are counting on.

"It doesn't matter if it ultimately gets debunked, because it's going to take a while for it to reach the same numbers of people as the original rumor or fake diet," he explained. "And the debunking is not as sexy as the original diet lure.

"In the meantime, you might see the spread of unhealthy dieting behavior, and for some people with certain diseases or conditions, that can cause real harm," Southwell said, such as heart disease or diabetes. "But it can't be traced back. Who is culpable for that?"

Let's face it. We still want a quick way to lose 5 or 10 pounds fast, just in time for that special occasion. Is it possible to do so in a healthy way?

"I will prescribe a modified three-day diet just to jump-start weight loss," Drayer said. "I typically recommend increasing your water intake and eliminating all starchy carbs like breads, pasta, cereal and rice, as well as sweets and treats for one week. Doing this not only cuts calories, but you also shed some extra water too, which can be motivating as the numbers on the scale go down."

For those who drink their calories, Drayer recommends slashing sugary beverages such as sodas, flavored lattes, fruit juices and smoothies, "as the calories from these beverages can really add up."

Magee prefers to trick the body into losing weight, to avoid what she calls a starvation backlash.

"When you decrease your calories so severely as they do in the three-day military diet, your body tends to go into conservation mode and actually burns fewer calories," she said, "because it thinks you are entering a potato famine or similar, and it wants to survive.

"I think it's better to trick your body into burning calories by decreasing the calories you eat a little, increasing exercise to burn more calories, to create a daily deficit of about 250 calories a day," she explains. "It's slower but more sustained weight loss, and you are more likely to lose body fat rather than muscle tissue and water."

Regardless of what method you try, said Drayer, remember that any diet should be cleared by your nutritionist or doctor before you begin. And when it comes to the three-day military diet, she concluded: "I can't imagine any doctor or expert endorsing the military diet as healthy or beneficial in any way."

See the original post here:
Military diet: 3-day diet or dud? - CNN

It was the fat joke heard 'round the world. Pope Francis, speaking with Donald and Melania Trump during their recent visit, asked the first lady whether she'd been feeding her husband potica, a rich Slovenian dessert.

His Holiness wasn't the only one eyeballing the president's diet. Recently, the public learned that the White House kitchen staff knows to deliver their boss extra Thousand Island dressing and a double serving of ice cream while his guests get vinaigrette and a single scoop of vanilla, triggering sniggers about presidential gluttony.

And since Trump so shamelessly slings stingingly personal insults tied to fitness and body type from "Miss Piggy" to "fat pig" to "Little Marco" why resist the urge to poke his proverbial soft underbelly?

We should resist, because Trump's attitudes toward healthy eating and exercise aren't a joke they have serious consequences for the nation's health. First, they mark a dramatic pivot from his presidential predecessors on both sides of the aisle. Previous presidents saw projecting a personal embrace of healthy living as politically attractive, while Trump perceives just the opposite.

And second, in a nation already defined by highly unequal access to healthy food and exercise, Trump's own inclinations threaten to make wellness an even lower public and private priority. Today, if your work schedule, child care and next meal are unpredictable, wellness is at best aspirational and at worst a cruel reminder of yet another dividing line between haves and have-nots. Trump's attitudes and actions will only exacerbate this inequality even as they thrill his fans.

American presidents have celebrated wellness as a personal and political virtue for so long it verges on clich. Teddy Roosevelt famously advocated an outdoorsy "strenuous life," which showcased his own swagger and resonated in a moment when urbanization and the expansion of white-collar work provoked anxiety that white men were becoming sedentary sissies.

Sixty years later, President-elect John F. Kennedy decried in Sports Illustrated that affluence had created a physically and morally "Soft American" unfit for Cold War citizenship. This essay painted JFK as a champion of "vigor" (even as he privately suffered from serious ailments) and boosted support for federally funded physical education and recreation programs.

Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were often photographed jogging, while a 1983 Parade spread featured Republican Ronald Reagan exercising on Nautilus machines and chopping wood. Fellow Republican George W. Bush installed a treadmill on Air Force One, required staffers to exercise and told Runner's World in 2002 that at long last, "statistic after statistic is beginning to sink into the consciousness of the American people that exercise is one of the keys to a healthy lifestyle."

President Trump, however, missed that memo. The president's conspicuous contempt for self-care unlike Obama's occasional furtive cigarette benefits him politically in part because it taps into the anti-Obama hatred that propelled him to power. The Obamas took the presidential embrace of healthy living as a vehicle to improve society and self to new levels.

Men's Health dubbed Obama the "fittest president ever" and stealth video of his workout in a Warsaw hotel gym went viral. If Michelle Obama first drew notice for her sculpted biceps, her legacy became Let's Move and lunchroom reform. So powerful is this association that a Tennessee school cafeteria worker recently told me that a Trump supporter crowed that serving her child chocolate milk and tater tots at school was a "personal F-U to Michelle Obama."

Not only does Trump benefit from being the anti-Obama, but he also gives voice to a sense among his supporters that healthy eating and exercise have become increasingly elitist. Back in 2007, Obama caught blowback at an Iowa campaign stop for making casual reference to buying arugula at Whole Foods. Soon after, white working class reality TV star Mama June proudly told In Touch that despite her wealth, she served her family "sketti" enriched spaghetti doused in butter and ketchup rather than snobbishly preparing quinoa.

Trump's self-fashioning as champion of the common man capitalizes on the contemporary association between wellness and unsavory cosmopolitan pretension. Yet his love of rich foods and leisure paradoxically trades on century-old tropes that also cast him as a kind of Everyman's Billionaire. Until about 1920, the wealthy conspicuously consumed caloric foods and avoided exertion because few felt they could afford to do so.

Dominant scientific theory at the time argued that humans were born with a finite energy supply and that the better classes should conserve theirs for loftier ends than physical labor. When industrialization and the white-collar sector made food abundant and sedentary work more accessible however, resisting these temptations through diet and exercise became a display of upper-class restraint as it remains today.

Trump, whose appeal to many stems from nostalgia, conjures an outdated but aspirational ideal of what wealth might feel, or taste, like. It's why dropping $36 on an "haute burger" just after overwhelmingly capturing the working class white vote didn't tarnish Trump's legitimacy. It's why the "cheap version of rich" marketed in every truffle-oil-soaked steak slung at his eponymous "Grille" still sells. Same goes for his peculiar but precedented explanation that he prefers relaxing at his various luxury properties to exercise that would deplete his "non-rechargeable battery." In the throwback image of American abundance that Trump hawks, his supporters envision themselves as deserving fat cats consuming cake rather than kale.

And yet. While expending energy on exercise and dietary restraint may be undesirable for Trump's everyman, it's a requirement for the women in his orbit. Of the little we know about Melania Trump, her penchant for Pilates is widely reported and a former roommate remembered her consuming only vegetables and diligently wearing ankle weights around the house. First daughter Ivanka Trump's diet and exercise routines have long been the stuff of lifestyle pubs, and she recently craved a sweat badly enough to cause controversy by enrolling at a Washington studio under an alias.

In 1996, Trump himself set up a media scrum in a gym to film a tearful Alicia Machado exercising after she gained what he determined was an unacceptable amount of weight for Miss Universe. A viral meme in the wake of the January Women's March announced, "In one day, Trump got more fat women out walking than Michelle Obama did in 8 years."

Clearly, Trump's world is a sexist one in which wellness is a women's issue. Weight control is appropriately top priority for the half of the population whose worth corresponds to their waistlines.

Unlike exercise and diet, sports especially football have long earned the approval of conservatives, including Trump, for building masculinity and competitiveness. The president's apparently contradictory celebration of sport and scorn for healthy living actually corresponds to a longstanding cultural divide between the two. In the 1950s and 60s, straight American males were assumed to be so uninterested in diet and exercise that women's magazines counseled wives to trim the fat from their husband's roasts out of eyesight in order to safeguard the health of their hearts and egos.

By 1979, historian Christopher Lasch bemoaned the "degradation of sport" due to the "new sports for the noncompetitive" taking place in gyms and studios, which promoted bland "amateurism" in the name of inclusiveness and health promotion. (Some might consider this a forerunner to conservative complaints about participation trophies.) Thus, in the Trump playbook, sports are commendable for building manly character, while expanding opportunities to exercise and eat mindfully for health or beauty is feminine and inferior.

Making America Great Again will affect our collective wellbeing in subtle ways beyond the AHCA, cuts to Planned Parenthood and the deregulation of school nutrition that Trump embraces. Contemporary wellness culture is flawed, but has dramatically improved Americans' lives and saved taxpayers millions. Diverse policies and programs ranging from Title IX, to yoga for the incarcerated, to corporate wellness initiatives, to body-positive activism have helped make the connection between healthy living and human flourishing widely accepted. Trump threatens to destroy those gains.

We owe our president the privacy to eat and exercise as he wishes, free from the fat-shaming cruelty for which his critics rightly fault him. But when he brandishes his unhealthy lifestyle to romanticize an era in which junk science upheld twisted ideas about gender, class and health, we owe it to each other to resist the deepening wellness divide, body, heart and mind.

Washington Post

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is associate professor of history at the New School and the author of "Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture." She is currently writing a book about American fitness culture.

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Donald Trump's diet is bad for America's health - Chicago Tribune

On Wednesday, the Washington Post published an article titled, "Why Donald Trump's diet is bad for America's health." That's right amid journalists' sustained hysteria over President Trump's efforts to discredit the mainstream news media, the mainstream news media is critiquing his diet.

To be clear, the article was amusing and I would never argue it shouldn't have been written or deserved to be censored. But it's just not necessary for a mainstream outlet to publish an article that goes after the president for his diet while working to convince the country that it's fully committed to rescuing our precious democracy from the "darkness." Editors at the Post should have passed and suggested it be submitted to Slate or Salon or another progressive publication.

This article, by the way, is just one of many similar examples of mainstream outlets finding laughably creative ways to attack Trump. Which is why Trump and his supporters argue the mainstream media will find any way at all to attack the president. The publication of this article doesn't exactly rebut their argument.

Really it's somewhat remarkable that mainstream journalists have the audacity to complain about Trump attacking the credibility of the media when their publications continue to willfully provide him with the ammunition to do so. Those are the very headlines that Trump allies blast around on social media or rant about on the radio, incrementally making Americans less and less inclined to trust the serious reporting from top outlets.

Yes, the Post publishes opinion articles from people on both sides of the aisle. Still, this one was filed under the paper's news analysis section, and almost comically embodied Trump allies' constant complaints about the press finding every possible way to critique him.

If you are concerned about the president discrediting you, do not provide him with the tools to do so. I, too am worried about the disintegration of trust in the media. I think it's important to have gatekeepers who can be counted on to tell readers the truth in a balanced way. But the media will never earn back the country's trust if it insists on publishing trivial attacks that only make the president's work of undermining their credibility so much easier.

Emily Jashinskyis a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

Read the original here:
Democracy Dies in Double Scoops: WaPo publishes article critiquing Trump's diet - Washington Examiner

TAMPA BAY, Fla. - Charcoal toothpaste, charcoal detox pills, and even charcoal lemonade! People are going charcoal-crazy over the dark stuff. We're not exactly talking about the charcoal you use to grill out with, but rather activated charcoal.

It's the same activated charcoal doctors have been using for detox in the emergency room, but now, it's made its way into mainstream as a diet fad!

One Tampa doctor is warning though, for some, this new way of detox and teeth whitening could be dangerous.

"There is really no medical necessity for activated charcoal," said Dr. Kamal Patel. "And in fact even for teeth, it's been shown to take off some of the enamel from the teeth."

Dr. Patel has done extensive research on the effects of activated charcoal on the human body when taken as a detox supplement and says his findings are quite disturbing, especially for people who are on life-saving medications.

"We found that people that were taking activated charcoal; it was interacting with their prescription medication and that was dangerous."

Dr. Patel isn't convinced and neither is the Food and Drug Administration. The marketing flyers that come with some of these products even warn people should consult with their healthy provider about mixing any supplements with medications.

Read more:
Tampa doctor warns about possible dangers of taking activated charcoal for diet purposes - ABC Action News

At Colonia Verde in Fort Greene. Photo: Liz Clayman

When Hawa Hassan couldnt find the sauces from her home country of Somalia in the States, she made them herself. Now, shes the creator and CEO of Basbaas Sauce, a line of condiments that so far includes tamarind-date sauce and coconut-cilantro chutney. (Shes also involved in fundraising efforts for ZanaAfrica.) Basbaas is currently the only Somali line of sauces sold in America, and this week, Hassan took a break from her hustle to go back to Seattle, where she moved as a refugee when she was 7. There, she feasted on Ethiopian food and a 10-year-olds excellent home cooking, and returned to New York to enjoy meals at Santina and Colonia Verde. Read all about it in this weeks Grub Street Diet.

Friday, June 23 Im in Seattle, where I spent many of my formative years. Im here to see my goddaughter, Smary, who recently turned 10 and is graduating from fifth grade. Her mother, Mulu, has been my best friend since we were about that age. After the graduation, about ten of us head over to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant, Abeba. Mulus dad is already there and waiting for us with tej (honey wine) on the table. As soon as we sit down, he suggests we cut the sweetness of the wine with a few squeezes of lemon. This is radically different to me, so I listen closely. Mulu is a refugee like me, but shes Ethiopian and Im Somali a big difference. I spent many years sharing meals with her and her family, and this outing feels wonderful, like coming home.

Lunch is doro wat, Ethiopias national dish. Its made with chicken slow-cooked in a spicy, onion-based stew, and served with hard-boiled eggs. Theres also a veggie combo, shiro (ground chickpeas), and doro tibs (beef cubes sauteed in a spice blend). Ethiopian food is served on a communal platter and eaten with your hands. Once the food arrives, Mulus sister Elisabeth asks for mitmita, a hot Ethiopian spice blend. It transforms the flavor profile and makes everything taste even better. Of course, through all of the spices and delicacies, were all talking, laughing, and feeding each other, a practice known as gursha. I wish I could express how lovely it all is.

For dinner, Mulu, her sister, and I set out for a girls night. We grew up in the South End neighborhood of Seattle, and we all have fond memories of Lake Washington. We head to BluWater Bistro and sit outside. We start with a Sauvignon Blanc, which I relish, as Im still stuffed from that big lunch. Mulu orders jerk-chicken satay, pineapple-jcama salsa, and wild greens for the table. Shes excited to be out on a Friday night, and Im enjoying how laid-back it all is. We make plans to meet more of my friends at Stone Lounge in Bellevue, where my high-school friend Zack Bruce is singing.

Saturday, June 24 I wake up early (7:30 a.m. on a Saturday thats early). The girls are heading to tap class, so I read a little, check emails, and set my schedule for the week. Soon, its brunch time. Mulus husband, Zithri, is a Ph.D. student, so they live basically on campus in a lively neighborhood called U Village, which has a lot of options. I walk over to Joey Kitchen, get a seat outside, and people watch. I order a BBQ salmon-rice bowl with sesame soy sauce, snap peas, edamame, mushrooms, and daikon. Its crunchy, savory, and filling.

Dinner is made by my goddaughter, and shes so excited to feed us (with help from her mom). We have seared salmon, butter-lettuce salad, and simple Asian egg noodles. I love that she credits her sous-chef mom. Shes 10, and this is honestly better than anything I usually make on a Saturday night. Im so proud of her love for cooking.

Sunday, June 25 I wake up really early, at 6:45 a.m., chug water, and do a little writing. I go for a walk and get coffee for everyone. Im having breakfast with my friend Vanessa, and she suggests Jujubeet, a juice bar, which is a new spot for me. We both order a power smoothie with almond milk, cacao, almond butter, protein powder, and banana. It tastes like chocolate milk, and I dont feel guilty.

Today is Eid, which marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Mulu, whose husband is Muslim, invites me to lunch. We go to Stanfords Restaurant & Bar in Tukwila. I order the pan-seared crab Benedict, which features poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, asparagus, housemade biscuits, and country potatoes. Its great, but too much for me.

We rush home because Im due to fly back to New York tonight, and I want to spend more time with the girls and Mulu. My time in Seattle always flies by; its bittersweet.

Monday, June 26 I drink a ton of water on the red eye, and ginger tea when I get home. Im not really hungry (for once), so I plunge back into work. Basbaas, my Somali condiment company, is growing fast, and its definitely time to raise money for the next phase. Ive got meetings all over town. Its exciting, exhausting, and overwhelming. But through all the daily craziness, Im grateful to be sharing my culture and my cuisine.

I run home and whip up a late lunch of scrambled eggs on rye, a personal favorite. Sadly, my spinach went bad while I was out West, so I saute a red onion, a handful of mushrooms, and diced garlic. I throw in the two eggs at the very end. For seasoning, I only add black peppercorns, because Im obsessed with using my Basbaas coconut-cilantro chutney on everything.

Just before dinner, I have a boxing appointment with my dear friend and trainer Susan Reno.

Ive been boxing for ten years at the Wat in Tribeca. I love it there, but I havent done any workouts for two weeks, and I know Susan is going to kick my butt. She does, and then I head to Santina. Its airy, bright, and refreshing, and I meet my friend Joseph Mizzi for dinner. Joe is the co-founder of 14+, a nonprofit that builds and operates schools and orphanages in rural Zambia. Im inspired every time I see him.

I start with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, while Joe gets a Montepulciano. Joe and I always eat alike, so we share. We get the salad with tuna carpaccio and the cecina, an Italian pancake served with broiled rock shrimp, crispy fried shallots, spicy ginger, and bok choy. Im in heaven and probably dancing, which Im known to do when the food is this yummy. We transition to the branzino crudo and the spaghetti with blue crab. I cant believe how light the spaghetti is, and how much flavor the cherry tomatoes and parsley add. I love New York, but right now it feels like Im cruising the Mediterranean.

Tuesday, June 27 Ive got jet lag and Im still on PT. I chug water and take a rehab shot from Juice Press. I pick up coffee on the way to my first meeting, but like most New Yorkers, Im moving slower than normal because of the MTA. After kicking myself for not making breakfast, I run into Sun in Bloom and huff down some corn-tortilla tacos. Feels so good.

Later, after work, I run to Trader Joes to get some fixins for tonights dinner (and a Clif bar). I often find myself craving my moms cooking, and when this happens, I make a Somali pasta sauce that we call suggo. Somali cuisine is rich, aromatic, and flavorful, influenced by the spices and tastes of far-off lands, such as India and Italy. (I share this recipe in Julia Turshens upcoming cookbook, Feed the Resistance.) Instead of spaghetti, I serve it over a sweet potato, and its delectable. After dinner, I have a couple cups of ginger tea, and then its off to dreamland.

Wednesday, June 28 I wake up around 6:30 a.m., down some water, and follow it up with a shot of apple-cider vinegar. My friend Lisa is stopping by at 8 for a walk and catch-up session before work, and when she arrives, we head to Bittersweet for iced coffee. Fort Greene, my Brooklyn hood, is buzzing this morning, the weather is perfect, and we do a brisk walk for an hour before we both need to get to work. I skipped breakfast and its fine.

Lunch is at Colonia Verde. I go there at least once a week, and its become my favorite local hangout. I love taking my Manhattan friends there. We order Cmodos sliders, which are lamb meatballs with cranberries on gluten-free po de queijo, and a big salad.

I run home, catch up on emails, and get ready for a work meeting in the evening. Dinner is at Piora in the West Village, and its new to me. I start with espresso, and then dive into monkey bread (with chicken wings, potato, and artichoke barigoule), crab, shrimp mandu, and crispy poussin, which our server insists tastes like candy apples. We move to a nightcap at Hudson Clearwater. Its been a busy day and Im grateful.

Washington Square Parks famed Dosa Man is featured.

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Through all of the spices and delicacies, were all talking, laughing, and feeding each other, a practice known as gursha.

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Its trying to find a solution for Greek-style yogurts slipping sales.

Your food agenda for the month.

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These are the easiest, best bean burgers youve ever made.

Thanks to his trade deal, beef is now going to China instead of them.

It says itll work faster and cheaper than its competitors.

Rooftop gatherings, lots of hot dogs, and more.

No word on the terms, but the network did not issue a retraction.

In a new test, a third of the chains iced drinks were contaminated with fecal bacteria.

Here, a group of truly great, mostly old-school, worth-going-out-of-your-way diners.

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Entrepreneur Hawa Hassan Loves Po de Queijo and Doro Wat - Grub Street

Dr. Travis Stork's known for hosting The Doctors, a health-focused daytime talk show, but these days, it's his latest book that's getting all the attention. In December, he released The Lose Your Belly Diet, a book that aims to help people lose weight by focusing on the bacteria in your gut.

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Though it's been months since its debut, the book continually spikes on Amazon's Movers and Shakers list its roundup of the top-selling products across the site and it's currently listed as the No. 1 bestseller in the Diet Books category. Naturally, this begs the question: What's all the hype about? Aside from the famous author and the fact that the title suggests fixing a problem just about every human struggles with (just look at search traffic for "flat belly" and "flat stomach" exercises). Is it all just marketing hype?

While it is cleverly marketed, what sets the diet apart from many out there is its focus on microbiomes those tiny organisms that live in our bodies, particularly our stomachs. Having a healthy mix of bacteria in your gut can keep you healthy, lowering your chance for various diseases and help keep your weight in check, according to Dr. Stork.

"Researchers are now discovering that gut bacteria also seem to play a role in the complex process of weight loss and weight gain," he writes. "We don't know exactly how much impact our Little Buddies have on our weight, but we're learning enough to believe that understanding the connection more fully may help us as we confront the obesity epidemic in the United States and in our own bodies."

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The book itself doesn't get tediously microbiome-focused, though. The first section of The Lose Your Belly Diet sets the stage, then part two goes into which foods can give you that healthy mix of gut bacteria. Part three focuses on other ways to boost your stomach's microbiome health (avoiding antibiotics when you don't need them, exercise, and what probiotic supplements to take, namely), while part four gets actionable, providing a diet quiz, recipes, and a meal plan.

Essentially, that meal plan involves eating plenty of leafy greens and fiber-rich vegetables, as well as high-fiber, low-sugar fruits, like blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and pears. He also recommends two to three servings of whole grains per day, as well as six to seven servings of protein with a preference for nuts, legumes, fish, and dairy over beef, pork, and chicken.

Overall, the plan seems in line with many healthy eating plans out there. No food is off limits, though it does recommend avoiding anything that's high in sugar.

Though there aren't many stories online from people who've tried the diet, Dr. Stork has featured two women on his talk show who both lost 20 pounds and four inches from their waistline after following the diet for a few months.

"Compared to other diets, there is more variety. I didn't feel like I was deprived," one of the women featured, Karen, said. "Within a week, I actually felt different. I felt better."

Throughout the clip, there is a disclaimer: These results aren't typical. Most people lost an average of about 1 1/2 pounds per week. That falls in line with most recommendations for healthy weight loss (about 1-2 pounds every seven days).

Get the top 10 flat-stomach tips from The Lose Your Belly Diet here.

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People Are Going Crazy For The 'Lose Your Belly' Diet - Delish.com

Normally I like to kick back Saturday and not think about anything in particular with no appointments to keep and no clocks to watch, but I dropped that routine last weekend. Editor Samantha Perry had gotten a text from the Beckley Gun Club, and that text had the magic words machine gun.

For several years, the Beckley Gun Club has hosted a Media Day at its gun range in Cool Ridge up on Flat Top Mountain. Its built on reclaimed strip mining land, and a really great piece of scenery. The mined out areas, now converted into gun ranges, form natural arenas for shooting. Bullets and shotgun pellets go right into cliffs. The sites remoteness also adds to safety.

I look forward to Media Day, and this year fellow sports reporter George Thwaites and photographer Jessica Nuzzo joined me for the shooting. I know the way pretty well it involves going up steep roads, many of the paved with gravel so I didnt have any problems; in fact, the route seemed shorter this year. George and Jessica traveled together and found the route a touch more daunting; the forest on either side of the road makes you think of cougar and Bigfoot sightings. As the old saying goes, once you think youre lost, youre there. Jessica told me after she and George arrived that they were thinking of turning back. I know theyre glad that they didnt.

We get to fire a variety of rifles, shotguns and pistols; the gun club provides all the firearms and ammunition. But this year there was some ammunition I could have provided: filled pop cans.

Shooters Roost brought a can cannon to this years event. Its an AR-15 rifle body with what looks like a mortar or rocket tube instead of a regular barrel. You load the rifle with a .223 Remington blank cartridge and load a 12-ounce can of soda pop into the tube.

Naturally, I had to try it. You hold it like you would a shotgun, and when the range supervisor gives you the OK, you take off the safety and fire. The kickis similar to what a shotgun gives you.

I fired a can of Diet Mountain Dew about 150 feet into the air. It smashed into a cliff, spraying Mountain Dew and embedding itself into the rock. I think that can is still there. After firing that, I announced, I want one! Cpl. James Long, of the West Virginia State Police Princeton Detachment, who is a gun club member, pointed out that you wouldnt want to get hit by that cannon. I agreed, and remarked that the state medical examiner would have a pretty strange report to write if anyone got hit. Struck by a round of Diet Mountain Dew would be an unusual cause of death.

Longs daughter Brittany, who is a champion shooter in NRA 3-Gun competition, demonstrated her skill when she shot two cans fired by the AR-15 launcher. What was really amazing was how the cans reacted to the buckshot. Instead of exploding, they seemed to peel apart in flight as they kept going in a straight line. Imagine an oranges peel suddenly spinning right off the fruit.

We also got to fire an automatic AR-15 short barrel rifle with a suppressor. I quickly learned that its a weapon you dont master quickly. Yes, it looks simple, but when on full automatic, the barrel wants to climb and you have to hang on tight; of course, I came away wanting one of those, too.

Of course, we learned about gun safety, too. Thanks to the clubs lessons, Ive come to think of firearms the same way I think of power tools like saws and drills. Theyre perfectly safe if you use them correctly. For instance, leaving a power saw plugged up is a bad idea, and so is leaving a firearm loaded and with its safety off. Im planning to get a pistol of my own, but I also plan to attend classes on how to use and store it safely. Im not looking to get into any gun battles or foolishness like that; just some target shooting on a range and self protection, which I hope would never be necessary.

I plan to attend next years Media Day, and I hope my friends at theDaily Telegraph will keep attending it, too. Its a great opportunity to use firearms and learn more about them.

Greg Jordan is the senior reporter at the Daily Telegraph.Contact himat gjordan@bdtonline.com.

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'Can cannon,' AR-15 add extra kick to Media Day at the range - Bluefield Daily Telegraph