MyNetDiary Blog

Don’t Make a ‘Bee-Line’ for a Slim Waistline

In a presentation by Dr. Kevin Hall, a researcher with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, Canada, it was posited that losing weight could be twice as hard as previously thought. Dr. Hall suggests that there is no direct line between calorie-reduction and weight loss and a body’s metabolism factors greatly into how fast weight comes off when dieting.

At the base of his report is that a body’s metabolism rate slows when one is dieting, so a better image for picturing weight loss is a downward curve that plateaus as one nears one’s goal; this is in place of a straight line toward a weight goal.

Dr. Hall continues by stating that simply cutting 500 calories from one’s diet every day will not lead to losing a pound a week for everyone, as it doesn’t fully factor in different people’s varying metabolism rates.

Dr. Hall, along with his colleagues, developed a mathematical model that takes into account a person’s age, height, weight and physical activity level to better predict how much weight that person might lose on a diet and exercise plan. Currently, according to Dr. Hall, the model is intended only for use by physicians and researchers scientists.

His new “rule” suggests a person would need to cut 10 calories per day from their diet for every pound they want to lose over a three-year period, so cutting 100 calories per day would lead to a 10-pound weight loss over three years. Half of this weight loss would occur over the first year. To lose more weight after the three-year period, you’d have to cut more calories, according to Dr. Hall.

The key to this study, however, is that there is no clinical trial backing up these stats. Currently, it is just a mathematical model that has been validated by comparing it to some actual changes in people, so we’ll have to follow this as it progresses. The NIH, however, is currently recruiting participants for a clinical trial comparing the effects of reducing fats and carbohydrates in obese adults.

So what image best helps you when visualizing your weight loss goal? Tell us on the MyNetDiary Facebook page or in our Community Forum.

Trying to Build Muscle? Don’t forget about calories!

Building muscle requires some additional protein but not as much as you would think. There are three keys to building muscle:
1.       Additional calories to support an increase in muscle mass.
2.       Additional protein to support an increase in muscle mass.
3.       Adequate resistance training to stimulate an increase in muscle mass.

I will leave the strategies for effective resistance training to our guest athletic trainers and exercise physiologists - this post will address calories and protein intake.

Protein & Calories

Excess protein beyond the maximum that a body can utilize will not get stored as muscle. Rats! One’s body appears to max out in terms of how much protein it can use “anabolically” – that is, how much protein can be incorporated into other protein tissues over the course of a day.

The RDA for protein for adults is only 0.8 grams of protein/kg body weight (or 0.36 grams/lb body weight). Maximal anabolic use ranges between 1.2 – 1.7 grams/kg body weight (0.55 – 0.77 grams/lb) depending upon sport, with power/strength training in the upper end of the range. For instance, a 68 kg (150 lb) person’s estimated maximal use of protein is going to be somewhere between 82 – 116 grams per day. If that person consumes 200 grams of protein, then up to 84 grams might get used for purposes other than protein synthesis. Nitrogen gets stripped off the protein building blocks (amino acids), and then those carbon backbones get oxidized for energy or they get shunted into other pathways such as carbohydrate production and fat storage. If you are in a calories deficit to lose weight, then those molecules are likely to be used for energy. If you are in a calories surplus, then they are likely to be stored as fat.

If you eat a lot of protein, then you better have good kidneys! The stripped off nitrogen gets converted to ammonia and then to urea, which is then excreted in the urine.

Spread It Out!

The information in this post come mostly from “Advanced Sports Nutrition, Second Edition” by Dan Benardot, PhD, RD, LD, FACSM. Benardot recommends avoiding “peaks and valleys” of intake throughout the day if maintenance or growth of muscle mass is desired. Consuming calories and protein throughout the day in meals and snacks readies the body for muscle growth when an appropriate stimulus presents itself. Consuming carbs and some protein after training appears to be particularly helpful in maximizing muscle growth. As well, good quality protein is important. Whey seems to be particularly helpful – a natural source is milk.

Vegans need to be especially careful to get enough calories and protein for muscle growth. Please see the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics position paper on Vegetarian Diets. If you click on the PDF link, you will see the entire report, which was written by vegetarian dietitians.

What If I Want to Lose Weight?

A calories deficit will allow you to lose weight but weight loss will always include both body fat and some amount of lean body mass (e.g. muscle). You can minimize loss of muscle during weight loss by continuing to exercise, including regular resistance training, and not going too low in your calories intake. When you don’t meet your calories required for basal metabolism, your body accelerates loss of both lean body mass and fat so that your total energy expenditure can drop quickly. You can view your BMR calories in MyNetDiary Details tab on the web, or in My Plan in apps.

Are You Choosing the Right Goal?
If you are a competitive athlete, then consider visiting a sports medicine facility so that your body composition (i.e. percentage of body fat and lean body mass) can be tested accurately. You would benefit from having a weight goal based upon a range of body fat percentage in line with your sport. Contrary to what many athletes assume, sometimes a better goal for performance is not weight loss or gain per se, but a change in body composition. And that may or may not involve a net change in weight.

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources
Benardot, D. Advanced Sports Nutrition, Second Edition. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 411 p.

Clark, N. Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, Fourth Edition. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 461 p.

Position of the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Nutrition. Nutrition & Athletic Performance. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 2009;109:509-527. Access online here. Be sure to click on the PDF link below the abstract for the full report.

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Keep Your Diet Out of the ‘Red Zone’ During Super Bowl XLVI

Super Bowl XLVI is this Sunday, and while it serves as one of the largest televised events of the year (sports-related or otherwise), it’s also an unspoken excuse to sit on a couch for four hours while downing high-calorie snacks and drinks. But you don’t have to send your diet into the “red zone” this weekend in the name of team support. You just have to have the right game plan!

Starting today, you can up your exercise regimen for the next three days in anticipation of ingesting more calories on Sunday. Keep track of those “extra calories” you burn these next three days so you can cash them in on snacks and drinks during the big game.

If you’re heading to a friend’s house for a potluck, make sure you at least bring a healthy dish to eat. Don’t expect everyone else to cater to your diet restrictions or limitations. Just be realistic that the Super Bowl is about party foods, not health foods. It’s likely others at the party will appreciate having something available on the lighter side too.

Think about your field position in relation to the snack table. Don’t sit down next to the nachos or strap a bucket of wings to your knees. Put some distance between you and the food so you’ll have to get up to get a refill.

Don’t grab the football-sized plates if possible. If your host only has dinner plates, fill it with veggies first, leaving yourself only a small amount of room for the fattening stuff. Small appetizer plates are best.

Fill up before you watch. You don’t have to start the game on an empty stomach! You can fill up at home or with healthy foods before you start watching. This will help you avoid mindless snacking while you’re hungry and paying attention to the game.

Hire a water boy. Okay, this one is meant to be funny, but in reality, you want to be drinking as much water before, during and after the game as you can. Alcoholic drinks and sodas have a lot calories in them, so quench your thirst with the good stuff as often as you can.

In the end, remember that your goal for that day is to watch the game and enjoy your time with friends and family - not to see how much food you can fit in your stomach. And your goal for this year is to be healthy and lose weight - not derail yourself during the last football game of the season.

Keep an eye on the prize - your health! Have fun and go Giants/Patriots!

Four Keys to Losing Weight While Injured

Let’s face it, sometimes injuries happen, especially if we’re new to regular exercise or stepping up our training routine. And though they can be a setback to our exercise regimen, they don’t have to be a setback to our weight loss goal. Here are four keys for keeping our waistline down while an injury lays us up.

1. Assess your injury. Talk with your doctor about the severity of your injury. Is it a mild sprain, a pulled muscle, or something worse? Your doctor can go over your restrictions on movement and help you find out what you can do, instead of leaving you to imagine all the things you can’t do. Perhaps talk with a rehabilitation specialist about a few exercises you can do to help the healing process.

2. Place extra attention on your diet. As we well know, to lose a pound of fat we need to lose 3,500 calories. We lose these calories through consuming fewer calories than our RDI (Reference Daily Intake) and burning them with exercise.

If your exercise routine is limited or stopped while you’re injured, then it follows that your diet will take over a larger share of the workload. We recommend you track your calorie intake diligently while you’re exercising less. With that, make sure your daily activity level is set to your new lifestyle (i.e. Sedentary or Low Active), as an injury can make you less active than your previous everyday life. This will help MyNetDiary calculate an accurate calorie goal for you.

Also, you will likely have to scale back your weight loss goal during an injury. If you were on course to lose two pounds a week, you’ll likely do better to only aim to lose one pound (or less) a week. The important part is that you either lose weight or maintain, and not give up and start gaining back what you’ve already lost.

3. Stay connected. Perhaps you were part of a weekly running group, or you had an exercise buddy at the gym. Don’t shy away from those with whom you’ve been active because suddenly you’re not. If your injuries require a lengthy recovery periods (i.e. months), perhaps you could volunteer at race days to support your friends or take the time to write notes of encouragement to those on the same journey as you are. Consider your role temporarily changed from “player” to “mascot”. Helping others will help you.

4. Worry about today, not tomorrow. Don’t set arbitrary deadlines to be back to full health. You can set goals for yourself, like increasing your endurance and strength, but deadlines can set you back, mentally, if you don’t hit them when you thought you should. Worry about what you can do today to continue losing weight. Even if your injury is similar to one you had in the past, the recovery period can be different, so don’t make a timetable based on the past. If you come back too quickly from an injury you only risk injuring yourself again. Take it day by day.

Size Matters: A Quick & Dirty Guide to Controlling Portion Size

Although most of us think we are good guessers when it comes to portion size, we aren’t! We are easily tricked into overestimating or underestimating portion size, and therefore, calories. Small differences in portion size might not seem like a big deal, but those differences add up over time and can help you make or break your weight goals. So learn tips on how to err on the side on minimizing, not maximizing calories. Most of the tips listed here are adapted from Brian Wansink’s “Mindless Eating.”

1.       Container Size

We think portions are smaller when their containers are large and conversely, we think portions are larger when their containers are small. These tips are especially important for those of you who do not measure or who just measured a food or beverage once and then shifted to “guestimating” thereafter.

Use tall, skinny glasses instead of short, wide glasses. The same amount of liquid (e.g. 1 cup) will look like more in a tall, skinny glass than when it is contained in a short, wide glass. We tend to drink more calories from short, wide glasses. Practical tip: don’t throw out your short, wide glasses – instead, use them for water. This will encourage you to drink more water.

Use smaller plates (8-9 inches) instead standard dinner plates (10-12 inches). Don’t guess – take out a ruler or measuring tape and measure the total diameter of your plate. Are your plates really large? Consider using salad plates instead of dinner plates, or simply buy smaller dinner plates.

Use custard cups instead of bowls. Pyrex custard cups will hold about ½ cup or 4 fl oz without spilling over the sides. Regular-sized bowls can easily hold up to 12 fl oz (up to about 1½ cups). Custard cups are perfect for ice cream, puddings, fresh fruit salad, and other foods that you wish to limit to a ½ cup serving.

2.       Color & Contrast

If the food and dish have a similar color, then we are more likely “over serve” ourselves compared to a target amount (and therefore, eat more calories). Example: attempting to serve oneself one cup of cooked white pasta on a white plate. When the food and plate have a high color contrast, we tend to guess lower – that is, we tend to “under serve” ourselves (e.g. white pasta on a black plate). And interestingly, the reverse is true if the plate and tablecloth have a high contrast – we tend to over-serve food (e.g. white plate on a black tablecloth). The key is contrast rather than plate color per se. Van Ittersum and Wansink published a great article on this subject: “Plate Size and Color Suggestibility: The Delboeuf Illusion’s Bias on Serving and Eating behavior.” The article will be published in the Journal of Consumer Research, but it is accessible online ahead of print here. If you prefer a brief summary of that study, then check out Ann Lukits’ article, “Tricking the Eye To Keep From Heaping Plates” in The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2011.

3.       See All You Eat

Assemble all meal components (prepared, that is) so that you see everything you are about to eat for that meal. Once you finish your meal, do not go back for seconds. When we eat multiple courses, we lose track of how much we have eaten and tend to eat more calories. Keeping visual reminders on the table of how much food or drink we have consumed (e.g. empty beer or soda bottles, empty plates, bowls, or glasses, bones, etc.) helps us eat fewer calories than if there are no visual reminders. Practical tip: avoid “all you can eat” restaurant specials and buffets.

Good luck experimenting with portion size! Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Community Forum or MyNetDiary Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources

Katherine Isacks, MPS, RD. MyNetDiary. Hidden Cues to Eating.

Katherine Isacks, MPS, RD. MyNetDiary. Measuring & Estimating Portion Size.

Wichita State University. Visual Estimates of Serving Sizes.

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Meal Replacements at Lunch Can Help You Lose Weight

I just read an interesting study about how meal replacements at lunch can promote gradual weight loss. Levitsky & Pacanowski published their nifty study in the peer reviewed journal Appetite: “Losing weight without dieting. Use of commercial foods as meal replacements for lunch produces an extended energy deficit.”

Note that weight loss researchers have long known that meal replacements can encourage gradual weight loss. What was different about this study was that the meal replacements were commonly purchased prepackaged foods, not liquid high-protein supplements, special high fiber meals, or expensive diet-branded meals. The study used five commonly purchased foods that are not typically considered “diet” foods: Chef Boyardee Pasta (microwavables), Smucker’s Uncrustables, Kashi Bars (GoLean style), LeanPockets, and Campbell’s Soup in Hand.

These products average about 200 calories per container. Study participants were allowed to add one piece of fruit to their meal replacement of choice. Over the course of the 10-day study period, participants consumed an average of 250 calories less per day on these meal replacements compared to eating unrestricted lunch meals. This resulted in an average weight loss of 0.5 kg (1.1 lb) by the end of the study. Average calories intake at other meals remained consistent despite consuming the lower caloric lunch. As well, study participants did not rate their hunger any higher or lower at subsequent meals despite the lower caloric lunch meal.

What might be the teaching point from this study? The authors state that “these data suggest that substituting any meal that contains less energy than a typical meal can be used successfully as meal replacements for the purpose of weight reduction.”

My take home message from this study is that we don’t have to spend a fortune on specially formulated prepackaged products to lose weight. We can simply use affordable prepackaged foods to control calories at lunch and lose weight gradually, without an increase in hunger at other meals.

Of course, I would rather have folks choose a balance of less processed, whole foods for their meals to maximize nutrient intake while limiting calories, sodium, saturated fat, sugar, and preservatives. But losing weight if you are obese (BMI ≥ 30) is extremely important for your health too. If eating a calories-controlled processed lunch meal helps you achieve a safer weight then do it. After all, a plan to eat a calories-controlled lunch meal cooked from scratch from whole/unprocessed foods is only a good plan if you actually execute it! Be practical. If you are worried about nutrient intake, examine your daily, weekly, or monthly nutrient intake averages by using MyNetDiary’s report tab on the web.

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Are Our Words Contributing to Our Obesity? How Our Language and Social Status Influence What we Eat

Ever hear of statements like “fit for a king” or “breakfast of champions”? For a long time in our history we have equated portion size with social status, and we have promoted an image that “more is better.” But where has this gotten us? Today, nearly a third of American adults are obese (with the expectation that will rise to 41 percent by 2015) and 17 percent (or 12.5 million) of children between ages 2-19 are obese.

A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research took a closer look at this “bigger is better” mentality and asked if it could be related to our current obesity epidemic. In the last 20 years, researchers have found that portion sizes have increased by 52 percent for soft drinks, 27 percent for Mexican food and 23 percent for hamburgers. The notion of “super sizing” every food order is running rampant in our country, being fed by the idea that if we “eat like a king” then we must be one.

The researchers at Northwestern University experimented by manipulating the status of meals to find out if consumers’ portion choices would be influenced by the perceived need for social status as it is attributed to food size. What they found is that people did choose larger portions if they felt they had a more prominent social status, and, on the other hand, they chose smaller portions if they felt they had a more negative social status. In short, choosing bigger portions was an expression of how they felt about their social status (i.e. bigger = better).

So what can we do about this? First, we can remind ourselves that we have the freedom to choose our portions. If a restaurant or fast food chain offers a “Super Gargantuan Mega King Kong” option for a burger or side of fries, it’s likely they also have sizes small through large. We can exercise our power of choice and order according to our calorie goals and level of hunger.

Second, we can consider the nutrient density of the foods we choose. Yes, we may be tempted to go all “XL” on a bucket wings, but why not go “XXL” on a plate of veggies too (or better yet, instead of!)? We don’t have to make our “one big thing” the most unhealthy thing on our plate. We can double up on the good stuff and choose smaller portions of the not-so-good stuff.

And lastly, we can “go big” in other areas of our lives. We can literally become the “queen of our workouts,” or the “king of the running club,” or even the “pauper of Pilates.” We can “give big” too, volunteering to coach a kid’s activity or sport once a week. There are many other ways we can satiate our egos in relation to “bigger is better” instead of just choosing the biggest burger on the menu.

Tell us, what healthy ways do you “go big”? Share them on the MyNetDiary Facebook page or in our Community Forum. We’d love to hear from you!

Running the Holiday Gauntlet

Here we are again – in the middle of that magical time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day - the holiday gauntlet. It is a time for holiday cheer, festivities, parties, gift giving, and calories. As I recommended in last year’s post, consider a sane approach during the holiday gauntlet: aim to maintain weight rather than trying to lose weight. That is, hold steady – this will give you a little more leeway with your calories intake with which to enjoy the season.

You Still Matter More Than Gifts!
Don’t get so caught up in the merrymaking and gift giving that you fail to take care of yourself. Your family and friends will not benefit from you forgoing self care simply to insure that they get their favorite sweet or gift. You being alive and healthy enough to enjoy life is what matters most – and your loved ones ability to enjoy your company. Don’t lose sight of this very basic fact.

Not Enough Time
Yes, there is enough time to cook healthy meals and exercise even during the holiday gauntlet! You simply have to value those activities enough to schedule it into your day along with the other things that you do. Think of ways to free up time. If you have a family, then what age-appropriate activities can your children and teenagers do to help you get a healthy dinner on the table? How about your spouse – does he/she pitch in enough? Who’s doing the dishes? In my house, the person who cooks does not do the clean up. Ask for help! This frees up some of your valuable time for self care behaviors.

Dining Out & Parties
We tend to consume a lot of calories in both eating environments. Choose one or the other, but don’t do both for five consecutive weeks. If you typically eat out for lunch, then start bringing in lower caloric foods from home so you can budget for party calories later that evening. Skip parties that you really don’t enjoy and use that time for self care.

Keep Tracking
Keep tracking to remain aware of your calories intake relative to your total calories expended so there won’t be any unpleasant surprises in the New Year. So what if you made some choices that resulted in a huge calories surplus one day? It is the net calories over time that results in weight loss, gain, or maintenance. A 3500 calories surplus is needed to gain one pound of weight. That means you would have to eat 3500 calories over your weight maintenance calories to gain one pound. Most of us gain weight gradually over time with a creeping calories surplus that occurs for weeks, months, and years.

“All or Nothing” Doesn’t Work
Get rid of the “all or nothing” approach to holiday eating. If you persist in this type of thinking, I can pretty much guarantee that you will gain weight over the holidays. You don’t need to be perfect – this ultimately results in a pretty dramatic fall from grace during the holidays. And not knowing how bad things are getting is not freedom – it is simply not knowing. Better to track, assess, and make changes without drama. Knowledge is power – use it to make effective dietary and activity changes rather than as a tool for self-loathing.

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources

Clemson Cooperative Extension. Control Holiday Weight Gain.

Gay Riley, MS, RD, CCN. NetNutritionist.com. A Survival Guide to Holiday Eating.

Harvard Health Publications. Enjoy Guilt-Free Holiday Eating.

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Control Calories on Thanksgiving Day?

I believe that Thanksgiving Day is a day to enjoy with others. I hope that those of you trying to lose weight will not punish yourself by forcing a calories deficit on a day reserved for being thankful for food and sharing it with others. Having said that, it is also a great opportunity to practice portion control. It not only helps minimize a likely calories surplus, but it also helps prevent us from overeating to the point of feeling sick and lethargic. One can enjoy Thanksgiving Day without deprivation by simply consuming smaller portions of delicious food and going for a walk.

Walk!

If you have the big meal earlier in the afternoon, then you can go out for a walk afterwards while it is still daylight. You can’t burn off the meal by walking but it will help reduce the calories surplus for the day. As well, it feels good to get out in the fresh air and move a little bit after being inside all morning long (possibly cooking, baking, eating, and/or socializing). I bet you will be less likely to keeping eating all afternoon and evening if you can take a walking break. Also, walking after the main meal is ideal for those of you with diabetes – walking will help control the post-meal rise in blood glucose. For more tips on controlling diabetes in general, please see my article at MyNetDiary.

Enjoy in Moderation

Limit alcohol. Choose wine, light beer or plain liquor to limit calories per serving. Microbeer lovers beware – some styles can be over 300 calories per serving if the alcohol content is particularly high. See my blog article on beer. Mixed drinks with multiple shots, cream, juice, or soda pop will also be high in calories.

Appetizers. Best choices are fresh veggies, fresh fruit, or very lean proteins (e.g. grilled shrimp or chicken). But skip the dip – most will contain about 80 – 100 calories per tablespoon. Limit appetizers with high fat meats (e.g. bacon or prosciutto wrapped anything) or cheeses to one piece or skip them altogether.

Be picky. Only eat what you think is truly great tasting and leave the rest. Perform triage with your holiday meal calories!

Dinner plate. Fill your dinner plate once and be sure to include protein, whole grains, and plenty of non-starchy veggies. For help on balancing your plate, check out Harvard’s Healthy Plate diagram.

Dessert. If you want to sample multiple desserts, then limit portion size of each sample so that the entire dessert plate is equivalent to one serving and don’t go back for more. Extras that add calories: homemade whipped cream (100 calories per ¼ cup or 4 tablespoons) and drizzled chocolate syrup (100 calories per 2 tablespoons).

Stop nibbling. It is very difficult to assess the total calories intake from nibbling. It is a form of mindless eating that is rarely accounted for in our logs. However, bites here and there can contribute a lot of calories throughout the day. Eating bites of dessert from other people’s plates (or licking batter off of spoons or bowls) can easily cost us 50 calories per bite (e.g. 1/6 of a small brownie, 1/6 slice of pumpkin pie, or 1½ tablespoons of cake batter). Some foods, like creams and frosting, are closer to about 70 calories per tablespoon.

Don’t skip meals. I know a lot of folks try to save calories by skipping breakfast the day of the feast, but don’t bother. You’ll only make it up in spades later in the day. Nibblers – are you meal skippers?

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources

Eating Well. Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes, Menus and Cooking Tips.

Food Network. Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger, MS, RD. Full on Thanksgiving.

Harvard Health Publications. Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes. November 2005.

MyNetDiary Blog. Katherine Isacks, MPS, RD. Thanksgiving.

NPR. Nicole Spiridakis. A Vegetarian Thanksgiving. 11/19/08.

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.