You may not expect a mental health practitioner to prescribe a healthy eating plan, but that approach may not be far off. In recent years, scientists have been studying the link between food and mood more closely. They've found that there may be a relationship between the risk of common mental health issues - including depression and anxiety - and our diet quality.

"The role of diet in mental health may be particularly important for populations who are vulnerable to nutritional shortfalls, such as infants and the elderly, and those consuming a less-than-optimal diet," says Robin Kanarek, PhD, a Tufts University psychology professor studying the interaction of nutrition and behavior at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Far too many people fall into the latter category. But with a little effort, people generally can improve their eating habits.

When looking at the quality of your diet, consider both foods to eat more of and those to limit. Observational studies show that healthy eating patterns that include plenty of nutrient-rich plant foods, such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and omega-3-rich foods, such as salmon and flax seeds, are associated with decreased risk of depression and anxiety.

On the other hand, a Western-style diet - rich in foods high in refined carbohydrates (sugar and white flour), highly processed foods and sugary beverages - is associated with increased risk of depression and anxiety.

"While the results of earlier studies suggest a relationship between nutrient intake and mood, research that actually examines the effects of diet on measures of mental health is needed to confirm a causal relationship between food and mood," Kanarek says. That will require rigorous intervention studies. The first controlled trial explicitly designed to test dietary improvements in people with depression, dubbed the SMILES trial, was recently published in BMC Medicine. It suggests dietary approaches to improving mental health warrant further study.

The three-month trial was led by scientists at Deakin University in Australia. They enrolled 67 adults with relatively poor-quality diets and moderate to severe depression (under medical treatment). They reported a low intake of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and fiber but a high intake of sweets, processed meats and salty snacks.

Half of the people were asked to follow a modified Mediterranean diet ("Modi-Med Diet," above) and complete nutrition counseling sessions. The other half (the control group) attended general social support sessions but received no diet advice.

Compared to the control group, those in the diet group had significant improvements in depression and anxiety symptoms. The greatest benefits were seen in those who improved their diet the most. At the end of the trial, 32% of people in the Modi-Med Diet group no longer met criteria for depression. In comparison, only 8% of those in the control group had remission of their depression. These findings are very encouraging but now need to be replicated in larger studies.

Scientists also are taking a closer look at why diet might impact mental health. Some possibilities theyre exploring include diets effects on the gut microbiota (bacteria and other microbes), inflammation, oxidative stress (cell damage) and brain plasticity (changing structure, wiring and function).

While scientists work out the details linking diet and mood, dont wait to adopt a healthy eating pattern. We already know it could benefit your physical health. Its potential to lift your mood may be a bonus.

Read more:
Connecting Food And Your Mood - HuffPost

High Altitude Health Deborah Holmes MedX of Estes

It's summer time and I've found myself deciding that it's ok to indulge in some of these wonderful things that only come around during the summer. I'm thinking of s'mores next to the fire, ice cream, hot dogs on the grill, staying up a little later and enjoying the warm summer evenings on the deck with a glass of wine! Its O.K. don't you think?

Life can't be all strict and no flex, at least I don't think. Life is about moderation. Moderation allows us to enjoy some of the things that make life sweeter, more fun and enjoyable, especially during this summer time.

Moderation should be our motto for life and specifically when it comes to our health. I believe moderation is the key to a healthy, long and happy life.

I think back to a friend of mine from college, who jumped all over me one night for not eating a piece of pizza because I was "on a diet." Her comment to me was "like you are never going to eat another piece of pizza in your life."

Of course, I know that there is a difference between eating a piece of pizza and eating an entire pizza. Moderation.

With all these "fads" happening in the world, we see things come and go in the health and fitness world. Everyone is trying to come up with the perfect diet, the perfect exercise machine, the perfect solution. Something new or some new idea on dieting and exercise and encourage you to do it to the extreme. They want complete control and dominance over your choices making you over-indulge on the diet plan or take the workout to the extreme claiming it's the only way it will work. How many of these programs really stick around? Not many. How many of these programs are successful? Not many. How many of these programs really focus on your health? Not many.

The bottom line for every diet program that I know, begins and ends with moderation. Eating moderate portions of food, eating moderate amounts of each food group that provides necessary nutrients for our bodies and eating within moderate time frames throughout the day. Even the Atkins, South Beach and State of Slim diets, which all direct your diet intake away from carbohydrates for an amount of time, will eventually lead you back into including carbohydrates in your diet but only to be eaten in moderation.

Still the most successful diet program around today, is Weight Watchers. Why, because they incorporated individual choice and moderation into their philosophy a long time ago!

Even in exercise you need to exercise for health, not to body build or to run a marathon. Those are unrealistic goals for almost all of us. However, strength training and walking/jogging for health is realistic and it includes moderation.

Research continues to show that exercise done in moderate amounts of time and intensity will provide the best outcome for a long and healthy life. Those who practice moderation, tend to keep a healthy outlook about exercise (and eating) and maintain their exercise all their lives. They exercise for life, function and overall health.

Those who practice moderation also tend to have fewer injuries that are often associated with more extreme exercise, which also favors long term consistency and dedication.

Just think about it. Coffee, alcohol and juices, enjoy them with moderation. Chocolate and sweets? Go ahead and eat them, with moderation. Carbohydrates, fat and fiber, all very important in your diet, with moderation. Television, video games, computers; sure, with moderation. Dining out, shopping and spending money, fun to do but needs to be done with moderation. Hobbies, interests and desires make up our personalities, yet should not become obsessive. Therefore, practice moderation.

Hopefully, you got my intended message with this article. It is such a real issue in life. We all need to enjoy the good things in life and not feel guilty about it. We all need to experience life to its fullest without becoming obsessive. We all need to live healthier without making it so difficult. It's all about moderation, in everything we do.

Read more here:
A motto for life moderation - Estes Park Trail-Gazette

Iron is crucial because women build up blood volume during pregnancy, and deficiencies can lead to anemia, which increases the risk of having a low birthweight baby, and increases the risk of preterm labor and delivery, explained Dr. Clark, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Expecting women need double the iron a woman who isnt pregnant needs, according to A.C.O.G. So during pregnancy, vegetarians and vegans should take special care to eat plenty of iron-rich foods, like dried beans and peas and fortified cereals. Because the iron in plant-based foods is not as easily taken up by the body as the iron from meat, you should cook them, soak them or eat them with foods high in vitamin C to increase absorption, said Susan Levin, the director of nutrition education for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an advocacy group that promotes a plant-based diet. Prune juice is also high in iron. Ms. Levin said shed encourage any pregnant woman to take the prenatal vitamin and focus on iron-rich foods such as spinach, lentils, beets and raisins.

B vitamins, including vitamin B12 and folic acid, are also critical in pregnancy. Vitamin B12 is not found in plants, but its in tofu, soy milk, some cereals and nutritional yeast, which some vegans eat as a cheese substitute. Folic acid prevents neural tube defects to the spine and brain, which occur in the first month of pregnancy, so the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends that any woman of childbearing age take a daily supplement of folic acid of 400 micrograms daily, at least.

Being deficient both in vitamin B12 and folic acid has been shown to further increase the risk of having a baby with neural tube defects, Dr. Clark said. Physicians often advise women to take prenatal vitamins, which usually contain iron, vitamin B12, folic acid and other nutrients.

Not eating meat during gestation may even have upsides. A vegetarian diet in the first trimester was linked to a lower risk of excessive gestational weight gain, a 2010 study found. Furthermore, Ms. Levin said, Maternal diets high in plant foods may reduce risk of complications, including gestational diabetes. This includes both vegetarians and meat-eaters who eat a lot of vegetables during pregnancy, she said.

Still, pregnancy can throw curve balls, and not all women are able to continue on a vegetarian or vegan diet. When Dr. Clark discovered she was carrying twins, she was transitioning to a vegan diet after a year of vegetarianism but almost immediately experienced severe nausea and gastroesophageal reflux and lost her appetite. I couldnt look at salad or anything green, she said.

The only foods that she could stomach turned out to be mashed potatoes, eggs and chicken. I broke my vegetarian diet because I needed my babies to grow, she said. Being underweight can be just as detrimental to a pregnancy as being overweight.

See original here:
Can You Have a Healthy Vegetarian or Vegan Pregnancy? - New York Times

Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (press release)

A Day in the Life of an Asia Trail Keeper Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (press release) A red panda's diet consists mostly of bamboo. Keepers provide our pair, ... In this photo, we've asked one of the otters to enter a clear Plexiglas box, which allows our veterinarians to safely take a radiograph while he or she is awake. The biggest ...

See the original post:
A Day in the Life of an Asia Trail Keeper - Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (press release)

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.

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