I’m guessing that many of you have seen the widely publicized new Harvard study this week. It claims that in order to avoid gaining weight, middle aged and beyond women must have an hour a day of exercise, which is more than most other studies have advised.  I want to take this study apart a bit, but first let me put it in context within my blog. I try to keep our Dr. Grandma’s readers up on nutrition information and have a personal goal of helping us all to continually find new ways to enjoy whole foods, especially vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. In addition, I believe that good nutrition without exercise will not deliver the good health we seek.

I personally am very committed to my exercise. Not being a triathlete, like some of my family members, I still have a basic commitment to physical activity. My regular routine is to walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes 4 days per week and go to the gym 2 days per week. In the warm months I change some of that treadmill time for gardening time – usually I double the treadmill time for gardening exercise benefit. Sometimes I enjoy a nice walk on the 7^th day, but too often, that doesn’t happen. In another blog post you may find a saying by my personal physician: “You only need to exercise on the days you eat.” I’ve been breaking that rule too frequently lately in missing the 7^th day. But it doesn’t do any good to ‘beat oneself up’ – I’m giving myself ‘brownie points’ because on some busy days it’s really tough to make myself get on the treadmill at the end of the day. But my commitment is fairly strong; I think of exercise as part of life – it’s necessary. Yes, a person at my stage of life could probably stay alive for a while without exercise, but staying alive is not the same as living well. I’d really like to live with vigor and vitality;  and this takes effort on my part.

I’m afraid that many Americans have become ‘soft’ – easy on themselves. They have had easy fast food and little or no exercise and have awakened to bodies and to poor health that they never dreamed they would have. Some have even been startled by heart problems, and by the diagnosis of diabetes and other serious health problems. (See the first paragraph of Dr. Grandma’s blog for January 6th, for the list of benefits from Exercise Is Better than Medicine.) In addition to the ‘grabbing fast food’ habit and the ‘lack of exercise,’ there has been the concept that, just popping in supplements will improve memory, burn extra calories, prevent cancer, and protect your heart and a hundred other problems. If we don’t understand the true benefits of cooking up a healthy meal and exercising, we might be easily convinced that a supplement pill (or ten), could take the place of the more time consuming behaviors (eating right and exercising). Sure enough, it IS far easier than exercise to pop a pill! But the very sad truth is that supplements just can’t deliver the goods. Darn it! I love a good fairy tale.

What is somewhat upsetting to me, is that huge companies, with lots of money for marketing have helped get many of Americans (and now other countries are also following suit) to believe that the easy empty calories of food-like substances – impoverished foods – will nourish them. Many of those same big companies, throw in some few nutrients and plaster words like ‘antioxidants’ all over their labels.

Just as you discovered by reading this blog and many scientific publications, the Mediterranean-style of eating does not come in a pill; it takes enjoyable effort to eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains, as opposed to grabbing a burger. It works the same way with exercise; you can’t substitute a supplement pill for moving your body. Oh sure, you can buy some of the antioxidants that are purportedly used by great athletes, and that will keep you healthy without actually doing the exercise. It’s the same fairy tale mentioned above.

I understand how some of you may feel; you don’t love to exercise, you don’t have time. Sometimes on the way to the gym, I tell, Vic (Dr. Grandpa), “I feel like a cat, splayed out with claws unsheathed being dragged to a bath.” I describe for him a cartoon cat in my mind, that has all fours on the door jams (OK it’s a really big cat.) – the cat wants to avoid the bathroom at all costs. The funny thing is that when I’m walking out of the gym, I don’t feel bad about having done it. Actually, I often have an, “I did it!” feeling. I’m not like one of the many people that have told me, “I just love the exercise high.” I must admit, that although I don’t have an ‘exercise high,’ I frequently do feel better after exercise – not deliriously happy, just a little pleasantly more positive.

Now back to the Harvard study on women and exercise. It suggests that the current U.S. guidelines for exercise will not stop weight gain. They say that the women need to exercise one hour per day, to do that.  If you read the article, you may notice that it studied women who were not dieting. It takes some reading between the lines of the study to understand just what it means – women who were not dieting, because they later break out a subgroup of 13% of those women and draw what might be an overly strong conclusion – let me explain further.

The study was on 34,079 non-dieting middle-aged women followed for about 13 years. The women gained an average of about 6 pounds during the 13 years. The participants in the study that gained little or no weight during the 13 years exercised about an hour of moderate activity daily. Only 13 percent were in this ‘little or no weight gain’ category– and they exercised that magical hour a day.

I have some concerns about the Harvard Study. Is it possible that those who did not gain weight were committed to not gaining weight and did other things besides exercise an hour per day? Just because you’re not on a diet, doesn’t mean that you don’t ‘watch what you eat’ and deny yourself free access to the cookie jar. Maybe those women who started the study with a BMI of less than 25 already had some habits that protected them from over eating (like controlling their environment and managing their portions). My guess, as a woman who has had to keep some tight reigns on herself for many decades, is that those women who were not overweight at the beginning of the study and did not gain weight, were those who already had some life-style habits that they used to maintain weight.

One of the main reasons that I’m guessing this is that the average age of the participants was 54 years at the start of the study. If you’re less than 25 BMI at 54 years old, my guess is you would have already been overweight in this American Foodland that we live in, without some fairly good eating habits. I’ve had a BMI of less than 25 for my non-pregnant adult life. I know that if I did not pay attention to what I ate and only counted on exercise to do the whole job of weight management, I would have been a mighty plump person, long before 54 years old. I told you some weeks ago, that I was taught how to overeat as a young teen – I was a good student of overeating – I learned well. I have never been able to eat anything and everything that I wanted without coming to the reality that I was going to be severely overweight, if I didn’t make a change.

You only use about 100 calories per mile if you weigh 150 pounds; if you weigh less you use up fewer calories. You can calculate how many calories you burn at your weight for the number of minutes you exercise. Even if you exercise the one hour that the elite 13% of the Harvard study women, it’s only two hundred and some odd calories. How much of a single candy bar is that? How bites of a burger? How many ounces of soft drinks in a day?

Please don’t get me wrong, I absolutely believe and advise that exercise is essential to health; I just believe that what you choose to eat is essential to the healthy equation also. As we age, there is less and less room for frequent indulgences. We need to learn how to stay full and satisfied on nutrient-dense whole foods that keep us full on fewer calories than the impoverished fast food and junk foods that the marketing experts so carefully craft to attract us.

It’s not just the story that the scale tells; exercise benefits our hearts, brains, and bodies in multiple ways. But it doesn’t do the weight-loss job all by itself. If you want to maintain normal weight, as our metabolism slows down, even if we exercise we will need to consume fewer calories. I don’t think that it’s a very inviting prospect to eat tiny portions and feel satisfied. I believe that we will need to find foods, that will sustain us – make us feel satisfied, with fewer calories. That’s why it’s so important to strive to increase the intake of high fiber fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains. They fill us up and help us stay full longer than most processed foods. Because it is so difficult to lose or even to maintain weight with exercise alone, I hope you will commit to exercise and to eating a healthy diet.

Sea Scallops and Veggies Stir-Fry

When I was making this dinner, I was almost finished and discovered that I had not thought of animal protein. Because I was taking pictures for the blog, I thought that I should put in some animal protein. I opened the freezer and there was a handy package of frozen scallops – so it turned into scallop stir-fry. The point is that you can use chicken, slivered beef or pork, shrimp, or tofu – they will all work; but you could also make it a meatless meal. The flavor of the meatless version is just as tasty and very nutritious.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon of peeled grated fresh ginger (ground can be used, but I like the fresh better)

½ cup chopped celery

2 cups peeled sliced red garnet yam, cut into 1 inch pieces

10 ounces fresh snow peas

8 ounces bamboo shoots, drained

8 ounces sliced water chestnuts, drained

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 red pepper sliced into 2 inch slices

2 tablespoons soy sauce, low sodium is fine

1 pound sea scallops

Steamed brown rice

Directions:

Prepare the brown rice, if it’s not already cooked and stored in the freezer or refrigerator. Prepare the vegetables. Put the olive oil into the wok; add the onions, celery and yams. When the yams are beginning to soften, add the snow peas, red pepper, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and minced garlic. Keep stirring until the vegetables are hot. Heat the brown rice in a covered microwaveable dish, if you’re using frozen or refrigerated cooked rice. Add the soy sauce and scallops; stir until the scallops are done. Serve over brown rice.

Gather the veggies.

Mince or grate the peeled ginger.

Put the oil in the wok.

Add the yams, onions, and celery.

Cook and stir until the yams are beginning to soften.

Add the rest of the vegetables and the minced garlic.

Add the scallops, or other meat or none - your preference.

Serve over brown rice.