Gain the right amount for your baby's sake

Not only does gaining the right amount of weight during pregnancy lead to better health outcomes (eg. less chance of C-section, reduced risk of gestational diabetes, healthier birth weight of the baby, etc) and a higher likelihood that you'll get back in your skinny jeans, but new research suggests that it's important to your child's future weight, too. A recent study from the University of Pennsylvania on over 10,000 women showed that gaining more than the recommended amounts during pregnancy (25-35 pounds for normal wt, 15-25 pounds if overweight) can increase the child's chances of becoming overweight in the future. They followed the children until the age of 7 and found that for every 2 pounds over the recommended guidelines that the mom gained, the odds of the child becoming overweight increased by 3%. The scientists speculate that excess weight during pregnancy can trigger certain physical processes like high blood sugar levels causing overproduction of insulin in the baby while in the womb. To gain within the guidelines, remember that you don't need to eat for two -- just have about 300-400 calories more than you normally eat during the second and third trimesters. This is equal to a PB&J or a yogurt and a banana. With your doctor's okay, either continue to or start exercising -- walking is a great option for beginners or even those who are already fit. Pregnancy is the perfect time to focus on eating right and exercising -- it will keep you and your baby on the longterm road to good health.

Salt may be making us fat

If your family has been packing on the pounds, the culprit could be too much sodium. An interesting new study from London just came out in the journal Hypertension that showed a higher salt intake in kids was linked to a greater likelihood of becoming overweight and obese. The reason? Researchers speculate that all that salt makes the kids thirsty and they end up drinking loads of calories from soda and other drinks. While switching everyone in your family to water instead of all the liquid calories is one solution, reducing the amount of sodium you eat is beneficial for lowering blood pressure and heart disease risk as well.
Bottomline: when you're shopping keep an eye on the sodium too. While sodium is found in many of the obvious places like snack foods and fast food, lunch meats, cheeses and breads are often also full of salt. Look for lower sodium versions of these (Alpine Lace, Boar's Head, Ezekiel bread).
Luckily many food companies are on board with getting the salt down. I've noticed many new varieties of lower sodium soups on the grocery store shelves lately and Campbell's just announced they'd be lowering the sodium level in 12 of their condensed soups marketed to children. There's also good research showing that eating broth-based soups before meals helps to lower the number of calories you eat at that meal; so soup can be a great diet tool.

The link between clutter and overweight

Just caught a really interesting episode of Oprah with Peter Walsh, the de-clutter expert and author of "Does this clutter make my butt look fat?" The show was about an overweight family and the link between all of the excess stuff and the excess weight. There were some really good points Peter made:

• eating healthfully is impossible in an overcluttered kitchen (many people resort to takeout or eating out when their sink, refrigerator or cabinets are a mess)
• children model the behavior of their parents, including all of the excess

It served as a good reminder that environment plays a huge role in a child's healthy development. If we want kids to move freely in their surroundings and learn appropriate amounts of everything, we need to do our best to resist excess. If we want our children to eat right and exercise, we better eat right and exercise. Sometimes it's easy to forget that those little ones are watching all of our healthy or unhealthy habits. Here are some tips from Peter for tackling the excess:

• stop buying "stuff" - de-cluttering is first and foremost
• choose what's good and not what's easy (in other words, nourish yourself with a homemade meal and give the takeout menus a leave of absence)

With these points in mind, I think I'll go do the dishes and then get dinner started!

Don't supersize me follow up...

Yesterday, just after we posted on the potential pitfalls of eating too much fast food, a new study came out supporting the very point we were making: the more often you eat out, the greater the likelihood you'll be overweight. The study was done at Temple University and showed that people who ate fast food 3-6 times per week had significantly higher BMIs (body mass index) than those who ate fast food 0-2 times per week. BMI is a measure of your weight relative to height or in simple terms, the higher your BMI, the more overweight you are.
The study also looked at whether people would be willing to pay more for healthier items and the answer was basically no. Luckily, some chains, like Wendy's, have healthier items available on the combo deal without any extra charges. So you can get a salad, baked potato, chili, or yogurt + granola rather than fries with your meal for no extra money. You can even get a bottle of water instead of a fountain soda, no charge. After doing a nutrition analysis with the same grilled chicken meal with yogurt + granola and water, you can save 220 calories, 10 grams of fat and 250 mg of sodium over the small French fry, small Coke version.
Since Americans eat out an average of 5 times per week -- and with our hectic schedules we know that's not going to change -- every fast food chain needs to offer healthier choices without the customer having to pay more for it. Because we all know it's hard enough passing up those greasy, salty fries for a salad, you don't need cost to be a factor also. So, stick to the restaurants that offer healthier choices without having to make a dent in your wallet. It's all about balance, and Wendy's is one place helping make that a little easier. (Hey, that could be their tagline.) Who knows? If every fast food place got on board with offering healthier choices at no extra charge, maybe the next time they do the study, they'll find that people who eat at fast food joints are no heavier than people who avoid them. At least that's this dietitian's/mom's/crazy-busy-person-who-eats-fast food-too's pipedream.

Too much weight during pregnancy = more weight 15 years later

Well, it seems that all women tend to gain weight over time, but those who gain too much weight during pregnancy keep even more pounds on. A study out of Sweden showed that women who gained more than the recommended 25-35 pounds (healthy pre-pregnancy weight) or 15-25 pounds (overweight pre-pregnancy) had higher weights 15 years later than those who gained either the recommended amount or less. On average they weighed 22 pounds more than they did prior to pregnancy even 15 years later; those who gained the right amount during pregnancy still weighed about 15 pounds more 15 years later compared to pre-pregnancy weight.
It sounds bleak, but it doesn't have to be. During both of my pregnancies, I was concerned about gaining too much. So, I made a pretty big effort to eat close to the way I ate before I was pregnant. I would have an extra snack or two when I got hungry, but stuck to lowfat yogurt, nuts or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I also made sure to keep exercising, at a bit lower intensity. I gained about 20 pounds during each pregnancy and took it off within a month of giving birth. My boys were both a healthy 7 pounds 10 oz so for me it was the right amount to gain. I'm a big proponent of keeping the weight gain closer to the lower end of the range as much as you can. The key is to continue eating a good diet, exercising and listening to your body. Those are my tips. What worked for you?

weight gain during pregnancy too high?

Saw an interesting article today that leads me to question the weight gain recommendations. The Harvard study looked at weight gain in women during pregnancy and the risk of the child becoming overweight. They found that women who gained the recommended amount of weight were four times more likely to have a child who was overweight at age 3, as women who gained less than the advised amount. The women who gained too much weight during pregnancy were also at a higher risk of having an overweight child.

Since really taking off the baby fat begins during pregnancy, I've always told pregnant women to make sure not to gain more than the recommended 25-35 pounds; or if overweight to begin with, 15-25 pounds. But this new study, calls into question whether those amounts should be lower, at least for the sake of keeping your baby at a healthy weight (and it would make taking off the baby fat easier post-delivery). One study is not the be all and end all, but it's worth considering.