Showing posts with label obesity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obesity. Show all posts

Thursday, April 23, 2009

I Am Going Into The Dragons' Den - CBC-TV

Weight loss expert will stress mission

Canadians spend $5 Billion on weight loss

Twice as many overweight Canadians despite $3 Trillion in health care spending

HAMILTON: Hamilton weight loss guru Lee Fairbanks will be entering The Dragons’ Den this fall. The Keep Canada Slim president has been chosen as a contestant for the popular CBC television reality program. Filming for next fall's series begins in May.

The Dragons’ Den gives small business owners the opportunity to pitch their ideas to successful multi-millionaire investors. Last year the Dragons invested more than $9 million in these ventures. The show has more than one million weekly viewers.

Fairbanks is excited about the opportunity and confident that The Dragons will choose to partner with him on the expansion of his business across Canada. He said he intends to stress the mission of Keep Canada Slim as well as the money.

“The timing is perfect for this opportunity with us" explains Fairbanks. "Canada is facing the greatest health crisis in its history and that is the dramatic increase in the number of overweight and obese people. Obesity leads to degenerative disease but our government health agencies have proven to be incapable of meeting this crisis. Despite spending more than $3 trillion in the past 30 years on health care we now have twice as many overweight and obese people.”

“As the Baby Boomers, the world's most obese people, move into their 60s the burden on our health care system will become impossible to fund. Keep Canada Slim is the only viable solution to this crisis because it is the only commercially available program that is not based on yo-yo diet principles."

"The Boomers are at a loss as to how to prevent weight gain and its resulting degenerative diseases since every diet program they have attempted has resulted in the yo-yo effect and has caused them to become fatter. Those who used exercise to maintain their weight are now finding with age it is impossible to keep up the pace. Canadians currently spend more than $5 billion on weight loss programs that have a failure rate of more than 90 per cent.”

“Keep Canada Slim is the only commercially available program that teaches weight loss without exercise, and without the rebound effect. It is the only program that can be effectively self-taught and is therefore available to every Canadian no matter where they live. And it is also the most economical option. I am confident that the Dragons will recognize the phenomenal business opportunity this combination of events provides."

Keep Canada Slim provides a step-by-step multi-media approach to changing shopping, cooking and eating habits for weight control and better health. The system was refined through personal consultations with thousands of Canadians over the past 11 years in wellness offices across the country. Today the system is available to the general public in CD form, DVD and written material.

Keep Canada Slim can be purchased through the company website at www.keepcanadaslim.com or through registered consultants at offices across the country in London, Simcoe, Alliston, St. Catharines, Newmarket, Brantford, Timmins, Stoney Creek, Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Sundre, Alberta.

Filming for the Keep Canada Slim segment of the show will be held on May 7 but Fairbanks is sworn to secrecy on the Dragon's decision until the show airs in September.


Contact:
Lee Fairbanks, President, Keep Canada Slim
bigskinny@keepcanadaslim.com
905.628.0279

Richard Maerov, Producer, The Dragons’ Den
richard.maerov@cbc.ca
416.205.3819

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Recession Can Lead to Better Health

Good Time for Traditional Food Values

An economic recession is a great time to return to traditional food values. If you’re feeling the crunch financially you could save a lot of money on groceries while actually improving your health by cutting back on processed and packaged foods. And if you’re smart about your choices you can actually improve your health at the same time.

If you go through the store aisles you’ll find opportunities everywhere to save money. These savings can add up to hundreds and even thousands of dollars for a family over a period of months and years.

Some of the simplest strategies are to return to the lifestyle of our parents and grandparents. For instance rather than boxed processed cereals such as Frosted Flakes and Cheerios old favourites such as oatmeal offer superior health at about one third the price.

You can also save money on food by going on the Keep America / Keep Canada Slim weight loss program for another win-win. KAS is the lowest-priced complete weight loss program in North America at only $129.95 for the entire program of CDs, DVD, books and website support.

For more information go to http://www.keepamericaslim.com/.

Many of our most expensive foods are also high in fat and calories. A health-based weight loss program such as Keep America Slim will show you how to reduce the consumption of these choices, which will naturally save you money.

In the produce section, look for sale products. This week you might find broccoli and cucumbers for $.99 each but next week they are $1.99 and something else is on sale. Staple fruits such as bananas and bagged apples are less than $.99 a pound and provide tremendous nutritional value. More exotic fruits from tropical areas such as strawberries, grapes and oranges also go on sale even in the winter. It requires going to the store with a flexible shopping list, as opposed to simply buying the same things every week regardless of price.

It’s a great time to revisit the potato and to also eat more brown rice, basic starch products that provide a lot of energy per dollar. This is also a great time to endorse the highly recommended habit of reducing the portion size of animal protein products such as meat, chicken and fish which can be expensive, and eating larger portions of vegetables and starches which are much cheaper. Potatoes and rice both lend themselves to a variety of cooking options, such as baked, mashed, roasted and scalloped potatoes, or stir-fried rice with diced vegetables, teriyaki sauce and so on.

Sometimes frozen chicken and fish can be much less expensive than fresh, and purchasing store brands instead of name brands can save even more. Buy chicken with the skin on and bone in and remove the skin and bone yourself at home the way your parents would have. Beans and lentils also offer inexpensive high-quality protein sources as alternatives.

Frozen orange juice can usually be found for a dollar a can on sale, as opposed to $3-$4 for the same amount in a carton. Instead of buying bottled water buy a small carbon filter and make your own. A $7 Brita filter makes 150 L of bottled water with savings of about $50 compared to the equivalent number of 500 ml bottles.

It’s important not to sacrifice nutritional value when making these substitutions. There is a tendency to believe that good foods are all more expensive but this has never been true and is certainly not true today. There have always been healthy choices for people on a budget but sometimes it takes an economic crisis for people to re-evaluate their habits. Just don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. For instance, I wouldn’t eat white bread no matter what the price difference. I will continue to use cold-pressed olive oil for cooking and salad dressing, even though there are cheaper oils. The loss of nutritional value is just too great.

This would be a great time to spend a little extra time in the kitchen making foods that you have been in the habit of purchasing. These would include such things as tomato sauces, stews, salad dressing and snacks. Make your own muffins and cookies. You could spend a few hours in the kitchen on the weekend and make enough of these for a week or more.

Keep America Slim includes a cookbook with 60 easy recipes to start you on your way. Go to our What's in the Package page for more info.

You should check your neighbourhood for alternatives to the mainstream grocery stores that you may be more familiar with. Bulk stores and dollar stores today have a lot of non-perishable goods at cheaper prices and grocery stores. This would include pasta, rice, coffee, tea and flour.

And speaking of coffee, the recession might actually be beneficial to some companies such as Dunkin’ Donuts. I see a lot of people switching from designer coffees at five dollars a crack and going back to DD. You can feed a family of four for a week for the same price as a designer coffee every day.

So remember, there is always a silver lining in every cloud. This recession may be just what you need to get you committed to a healthier lifestyle!

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Magic Secret to Weight Loss - The Four Myths of Dieting

The 4 Myths of Dieting

Mention weight loss at any social gathering and everyone has an opinion to offer and a ready audience to listen. With 71% of Americans and 61% of Canadians overweight, people are always looking for the magic secret – the one thing that will instantly give them a solution to their lifetime of weight control challenges.

In truth, successful weight control starts by understanding why your efforts have failed so often in the past and then choosing a different approach. Chances are very high (90 per cent according to the Canadian Obesity Network) that you have lost weight in the past but gained it back – and usually more than you lost. Many people have done this several times. It’s called Yo-Yo Dieting.
Most people simply try the same approach every year, and get fatter and fatter because of it.

Many people today understand that success comes from a ‘lifestyle’ approach, but then turn around and choose a diet as their ‘lifestyle’, proving that they don’t really understand the difference at all.

To have long-term success and keep the weight off, you must avoid following the Four Myths of Dieting. How many of these do you believe?

To download your copy of the 4 Myths of Dieting go to http://www.keepcanadaslim.com/index.cfm?page=myths

Myth # 1: You must eat less to lose weight. Eat less than what? Ninety-seven per cent of people trying to lose weight are already currently under-eating. If you eat less than your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) requirements you will undermine your metabolism as you lose weight, then rebound once you are off the diet. Your BMR requirements are the minimum calorie level for basic metabolic function, i.e. if you are sleeping 24 hours per day. This is generally about 10 calories per day for each pound of your goal weight. Eating less than this causes the body to switch to ‘Starvation Metabolism’ and metabolize muscle while storing fat. Most people diet on between 800 and 1200 calories per day. This means their goal weight would be between 80 and 120 pounds. I think you can see why this equation doesn’t work.

Myth # 2: You must exercise more to lose weight. Exercise is an add-on, not a foundation of weight loss. If you make exercise the foundation of your weight control program sooner or later it will fail. Injuries, family situations, illness, lack of motivation, there are many reasons why people inevitably cut back on exercise. You must understand food to have permanent control. You must also understand food to have a successful exercise program. You need to eat more food on days that you are exercising to avoid yo-yo diet metabolism. Most people don’t do that. If you have tried exercise you have probably already experienced some of these drawbacks and therefore know that this is true.

Myth # 3: Faster weightloss is always better. Your body can only lose weight safely and permanently at a certain rate, usually 1-2 pounds per week. Faster weight loss can only be achieved through starvation (low-calorie) dieting or artificial stimulants. Both undermine your health and metabolism and make this weight loss temporary.

Myth # 4: Measuring pounds lost is the true measure of success. Your body is made up of six kinds of weight. These are fat, muscle, organs, bone, water and fecal matter. If you are only measuring pounds, you could be losing healthy weight as well as fat. Anorexics are often clinically obese when they die, and can die of heart failure because they have lost so much heart muscle tissue through starvation dieting. You’ve been doing much the same thing on diets. Post-menopausal women can lose up to 3% of their bone density in six months on a low-calorie diet. The weight you want to lose is bodyfat, so start measuring that. Healthy men should be between 11-19% and women between 17-25%. High performance male athletes may be lower.

Keep Canada / Keep America Slim is a comprehensive weight control program sold through the website, www.keepamericaslim.com and through independent consultation offices across Canada.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Top 10 Worst Fast Foods

A&W tops list of Keep Canada Slim 2008 Worst Fast Foods

HAMILTON: A&W took two of the top three spots in Keep Canada Slim’s 2008 Worst Fast Foods in Canada competition, announced today.
A&W’s aptly named “Chubby Chicken Dinner,” won the Worst Dinner/Lunch Award, while their large Chocolate Milkshake won in the Worst Drink category. A&W narrowly missed a sweep when their Deluxe Bacon & Eggs finished third in the Worst Breakfast category behind Burger King’s Enormous Omelette Sandwich.

Note: The complete list in chart form would not "paste" into this format, so we have made it available on our website newsletter archives at http://www.keepcanadaslim.com/index.cfm?page=readArchives&newsletterId=12.

Burger King topped the list with 4 awards followed by A&W with 3, Wendy’s, Harvey’s and Subway with two each. McDonalds, KFC and Taco Bell rounded out the list with one award each. Subway and KFC also received special dishonourable mentions.
Keep Canada Slim (KCS) President Lee Fairbanks said the awards were created to focus attention on food choices. “We are asking these companies to remove these foods from their menu,” said KCS President Lee Fairbanks. “No Canadian should be encouraged to eat them. In the meantime we urge Canadians to boycott these items by refusing to purchase them.”

Worst Dinner/Lunch

The Chubby Chicken Dinner clocked in at 1230 calories with a whopping 68 grams of fat and 3180 mg of sodium. In second place in the Dinner/Lunch category, Wendy’s Triple Everything with Cheese offers 980 calories, 60 grams of fat and 2010 mg of sodium. Third place went to KFC’s Poutine with 970 calories, 54 grams of fat and 2610 mg of sodium.
“Considering that Canada’s Food Guide suggests an average woman consume no more than 2000 calories and 2400 mg of sodium, these choices virtually guarantee weight gain,” said Fairbanks. “Most people would add a side order and a drink to these meals, and if they are not careful, could consume their entire day’s calories in one sitting. The Chubby Chicken dinner wins our Heart Attack on a Plate award.”
KFC won dishonourable mention in this category for their listing of Original Recipe Chicken by the piece.
“Each piece has up to 300 calories, 19 grams of fat and 860 mg of sodium, so if you ate 3 or 4 pieces this product would be in the race for first place,” Fairbanks points out.
Subway also received a dishonourable mention for their Ranch Dressing, 320 calories, 35 grams of fat and 560 mg of sodium.
“This is really liquid fat and salt, and has more calories and 7 times as much fat as their 6-inch low-fat sandwiches,” says Fairbanks. “And again, most people aren’t even counting their dressing as a meal, so these rank as ‘hidden calories’.”

Worst Drink

First place in the Worst Drink category went to A&W’s large chocolate milkshake, registering 1720 calories, 47 grams of fat and an amazing 254 grams of sugar.
“This is really 4 or 5 meals in a glass,” offered Fairbanks, “plus about a week’s worth of sugar. Two hundred and fifty-four grams is about 60 teaspoons of sugar. It amazes me that any company could even create such a product as this. The shake also has 1130 mg of sodium. Most of us wouldn’t consider a milkshake as a major source of salt in our diet.”
Second place in the Worst Drink category went to Burger King’s large Fruitopia with 860 calories and 213 grams of sugar, with Harvey’s 14-ounce chocolate milkshake in third. The Harvey shake has 870 calories with 47 grams of fat and 92 grams of sugar. Fairbanks points out that many parents might think Fruitopia is a good choice for children.
“Considering that Fruitopia is fat-free, the calorie count is very high, and it’s mostly from sugar/glucose-fructose. This combination drives the sugar quickly into the bloodstream and is guaranteed to create a sugar high followed by a dramatic energy drop. I would call it Mood Swing in a Cup.”

Worst Breakfast

In the Breakfast category, Burger King’s Enormous Omelette Sandwich took home First Prize at 730 calories with 44 grams of fat and an even 2000 mg of sodium. The McDonalds Big Breakfast (640-38-1250) and A&W’s Bacon & Eggs Deluxe (650-37-1010) were second and third.
“Most people should aim for 3-400 calories for breakfast and focus on high fibre, low fat and low sodium foods. This sets them up for the day and allows room for higher-fat food choices later in the day when choices become more difficult,” suggests Fairbanks.
Rounding out the Top Ten list for Lunch/Dinner are: 4 - Wendy’s Baconator (840-51-1880); 5 – Burger King Poutine (750-42-2720); 6 – Burger King Original Double Whopper (850-51-990); 7 – A&W Grandpa Burger with Cheese (752-49-1200); 8 – Taco Bell Fiesta Taco Salad (850-45-1690); 9 – Subway 6-inch Double ColdCut Trio (660-39-2160); 10 – Subway 6-inch Double BMT (630-34-2640).
All contents were taken from company websites and were current as of April 7, 2008.

More info at
http://www.keepcanadaslim.com/

Lee Fairbanks
bigskinny@keepcanadaslim.com

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Don't be The Biggest Loser !

Weight Loss Expert Warns: Do Not Become The Biggest Loser

Hamilton: Joining your company’s “Biggest Loser” competition may seem like a good idea if you want to lose weight, but one Canadian weight loss expert warns not to do it.

“Results indicate time and time again that any weight lost on these crash diet programs always comes back, and often brings more weight with it,” explains Keep Canada Slim President Lee Fairbanks. “And worse than that, crash dieting virtually guarantees that you will lose valuable muscle as well as fat, whereas you will likely only gain back fat.”

This loss of muscle combined with additional fat gain is the foundation of obesity, says Fairbanks, and leads to higher disease risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some forms of cancer.

Fairbanks quoted a recent Hamilton Spectator story on Laurel Steel’s (Burlington) annual “Biggest Loser” challenge (Big Steel Weighs In – Good diet, healthy weight – company and employees win” Jan 22, 2009) to prove his point.

“The so-called ‘winner’ two years ago went from 228 pounds to 194 pounds on the Challenge and then back up to 242 pounds,” he points out. “This rebound effect is built in to every rapid weight loss program.”

“A quote from the ‘winner’ highlights the complete disconnect from reality that diets encourage,” explains Fairbanks “He said ‘you're going out with the guys and they are all having two pounds of chicken wings and you’re there eating carrots.’ The proper solution to this situation would be to cut down from two pounds of chicken wings to one pound of chicken wings -- and then add the carrots.”

Fairbanks warns Canadians that only by committing to permanent lifestyle changes, which have nothing to do with a short-term diet, can they hope to turn the corner on obesity and start to build a healthier country.

“We need to encourage our employees and corporate wellness departments to embrace a New Year’s Resolution to promote healthy approaches to weight loss rather than supporting pop-culture entertainment vehicles which use humans as fodder for fun and games at the cost of their health,” he suggests.

Keep Canada Slim educational material is available through their website at http://www.keepcanadaslim.com/, as well as through a network of certified consultants across the country. The company also offers a free school program for Grade 3 students called the Healthy Eating Challenge. The Challenge was run in 31 Hamilton classrooms last year by Mohawk College students.

Contacts

Lee Fairbanks
President, Keep Canada Slim
905-628-0279
bigskinny@keepcanadaslim.com