Important Facts About Diet & Weight Loss

April 27, 2012

Interview with Dr. Nancy Snyderman, author of the book Diet Myths That Keep Us Fat: And the 101 Truths That Will Save Your Waistline--and Maybe Even Your Life

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Mike Carruthers:
You've heard a million times that Americans are fatter than ever but why? Is it just a matter of willpower?

Nancy Snyderman, M.D.:
There's a sabotage that's just a part of the bigger picture. We have created lovely suburbs with no sidewalks; we've taken gym out of school; we do not know how much fat is in the average meal when we go out to eat.
 

Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Chief Medical Correspondent for NBC News and author of the book Diet Myths That Keep Us Fat

At the same time the American dinner plate has gone from seven inches to nine inches - all of those things together have meant that for the first time ever our children are not expected to live as long as we do.

There is so much contradictory information about the food we eat, for example, some people say carbs are good, some people say they're bad.

And they're both sort of right and they're both sort of wrong. You have to eat the right carbohydrates. Stay away from processed white bread and starched rice and still embrace whole grain foods like bread. How bread could suddenly be a bad thing to eat is beyond me. When eating fruits and vegetables you can have all the carbs you want.

And one place people get a lot of extra calories without realizing it, says Dr. Snyderman, is from alcohol.

If you have a cocktail or two and then you sit down and have a bottle of wine it's very easy to have consumed four to six hundred calories with just alcohol.