Welcome to this weeks edition of Baby Boomer Family – The Health Halo

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This is your host, Denise Boomer and Dr. Bee Boomer, welcoming you to this weeks edition of the Baby Boomer Family on PodcastForBoomers.com.

This week we are talking about The Health Halo.

Imagine you are shown an "Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad" with a 20 oz. cup of regular Pepsi. How many calories? Now you are shown the same salad and Pepsi plus 2 "Fortt's" crackers – "Trans Fat Free". How many calories? Well the correct answer is 934 and 1034 calories respectively. However the majority of people surveyed felt the second selection had fewer calories. Wrong!

When foreign visitors were given the same test, the majority answered correctly.

When given a choice to choose a lower calorie meal – Big Mac or Subway 12 inch Italian sandwich, most ordered the Subway sandwich plus non-diet soda and cookies. They choose the meal with 56% more calories.

It is felt the health halo is to blame. If it is trans fat free, it must reduce the total calories in the meal. Wrong it still adds calories. If you eat a subway sandwich, you will lose weight, maybe.

We have been blasted with the health advantages of trans fat free and eating certain foods with enable you to lose weight. No necessarily true. Europeans know that the amount of food not so much what food is the secret to losing weight – they got the survey right.

So even the "healthy" foods can cause weight gain if enough of it is eaten. Just because it is "healthy" doesn't mean you can eat all you want and not gain weight.

Watch out that the Health Halo doesn't cause you to eat more and gain weight.

Thanks to NY Times and John Tierrney for the heads up on the Health Halo.

Thanks for listening.
Remember your comments are always welcome.
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Until the next time, this is your host Dr. Bee Boomer and Denise Boomer saying good bye!