Diet

What an enchanting dream -- feeding your family a more nutritious diet and cutting the food budget at the same time. Well, you might want to pinch yourself, because it can be done.We know, we know. Grilled seafood, rich in nutrients and low in fat, crisp asparagus, and large meaty tomatoes -- all of these things are so expensive.And there's the waste factor. If you're like the average family, you buy fresh fruit and vegetables, only to throw them out because they've gone bad before you've had time to prepare them.

What's the best way to lose weight - load up on proteins and cut carbohydrates? Keep the good carbs and just trim fats? Or build "healthful" fats into your diet? Scientists now say it doesn't matter as long as you consume fewer calories. A new study in The New England Journal of Medicine tested four different diets and found that participants lost similar amounts of weight on each of them. In the extensive two-year study, investigators randomly assigned more than 800 overweight participants to follow one of four heart-healthy diets, each emphasizing a different combination of carbohydrates, protein and fat. All replaced saturated with unsaturated fat and emphasized whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

When we first heard about Maggie Smith's situation, it didn't seem as serious as some we've dealt with in The Sun's monthly Make Over My Meal series. Boy, were we wrong. The 32-year-old working mother of two does a good job of getting a meal on the table every night in spite of a lengthy commute from Owings Mills to her home in Frankford. Usually the family has dinner together, and everyone pretty much eats the same thing. While 4-year-old Melina and 2-year-old Myles aren't great eaters, they enjoy some fruits; and Smith makes sure they drink lots of milk.

Karen Paris knew she was eating too much when she caught herself eating off her daughter's plate. "I had gotten into some really bad habits, and my portions were huge," she recalled. So she began a campaign to lose 25 pounds. There was no secret shortcut: She joined Weight Watchers, cut back on portions at every meal and took up aerobics and circuit training at the YMCA near her Catonsville home. Her weight has since fluctuated, but Paris, now 44 and paid to run weekly sessions for Weight Watchers members, has managed to keep it within 5 pounds of the goal she achieved back in 1995.

Ladies and gentlemen, choose your dietary weapons. Would you prefer to eat Southern fried chicken and shrimp creole for breakfast while supping on shredded wheat? If so, see The Reverse Diet by Tricia Cunningham and Heide Skolnik. Or perhaps you're ready to ditch that regimen Francaise (French Women Don't Get Fat) and go eastward with Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat by Naomi Moriyama and William Doyle. (The authors say that Japanese women have the lowest rate of obesity in the developed world: 3 percent, compared with 11 percent for French women and 34 percent for American women.

Applying a new method of analyzing the chemistry of tooth enamel, scientists have examined molars of prehuman ancestors who lived in Africa 3 million years ago and determined that they had more varied diets than had been supposed.They dined not only on fruits and leaves, as modern chimpanzees do, but might also have been meat eaters.In a study reported in today's issue of the journal Science, anthropologists said their tests of the carbon content of teeth of Australopithecus africanus indicate that they ate large quantities of food rich in carbon 13 -- such as grasses and sedges -- or animals that ate these plants, or both.

Q. Your column about the dangers of low cholesterol caught my attention. For years I avoided all fat in my diet, but then I was unable to conceive. After including fat in my diet briefly, I became pregnant, but lost the baby when I returned to my no-fat regimen.After the miscarriage, my gynecologist told me my cholesterol (94) was not sufficient for making the sex hormones I need to sustain a pregnancy. I changed my diet, raised my cholesterol to 114 and had a healthy, normal, successful pregnancy.

Strawberry recipes spring forthStrawberry fields may be forever but spring is a great time to turn to "Totally Strawberries Cookbook" (Celestial Arts, 1999) by Helene Siegel and Karen Gillingham. This compact, 96-page book packs a wallop with recipes for tarts, salsas, drinks and more. Nothing is easier than the Strawberry Milkshake: 2 1/2 scoops softened strawberry ice cream, 1/2 cup milk, 2 large or 4 small strawberries, hulled and chopped. Combine ingredients in a blender. Process until smooth and frothy.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- There's nothing unusual about a relief pitcher having a little afternoon catch during the fourth week in February.Except Arthur Rhodes spent yesterday throwing to himself inside the Orioles clubhouse.And Rhodes wasn't throwing baseballs. His idea of fun was heaving a 10-pound cantaloupe-sized yellow ball against a trampoline and catching the rebound. Not once, or twice, but over and over. Teammates and coaches squeezed past, saying nothing, until one bemused observer couldn't resist.

In the wake of a trial that brought a $23 million award to a Texas woman who sued manufacturers of the diet drug "cocktail" known as phen-fen, 20 Maryland residents have filed suits in U.S. District Court in Baltimore linking the drug to their health problems.The most serious allegation, made by Angela Borlik of Arnold, is that her husband, Michael, 48, died in May 1997 of primary pulmonary hypertension, a lung disease that she says the drugs caused.Other plaintiffs say they have suffered from heart disease or related cardiopulmonary problems, according to the suits.

For a country in which about 200 million people are overweight or obese, scientists have discouraging news: Even those who maintain a healthy weight probably should be eating less. Evidence has been mounting that the practice of caloric restriction - essentially, going on a permanent diet - greatly reduces the risk of age-related diseases and even postpones death. It has been shown to extend the lives of yeast, worms, flies, spiders, fish, mice and rats. Now, in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and released today, many of the same benefits have been demonstrated in primates, the best evidence yet that caloric restriction would help people.

Calcium supplements have no effect on weight, study says People who eat more dairy products have lower weights and seem to lose weight more easily, several observational studies published in recent years have suggested. But new research - perhaps the best study to date on the issue - found that calcium supplements have no effect on weight. The study involved 340 obese or overweight adults, most of whom were women. They were assigned to take either 1,500 milligrams of calcium or a placebo with meals for two years.

What's the best way to lose weight - load up on proteins and cut carbohydrates? Keep the good carbs and just trim fats? Or build "healthful" fats into your diet? Scientists now say it doesn't matter as long as you consume fewer calories. A new study in The New England Journal of Medicine tested four different diets and found that participants lost similar amounts of weight on each of them. In the extensive two-year study, investigators randomly assigned more than 800 overweight participants to follow one of four heart-healthy diets, each emphasizing a different combination of carbohydrates, protein and fat. All replaced saturated with unsaturated fat and emphasized whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

We all know that salt is an essential ingredient of life. It helps maintain the electrolyte balance of our cells. It helps transmit nerve impulses. It aides muscle contraction and relaxation. Our blood is 0.9 percent salt. But as with most anything, says Dr. Mahmoud Alikhan, cardiologist with the St. Joseph Medical Center, moderation is the key - and too much salt can be unhealthy. How much salt does a typical healthy adult need? The average American eats about 5 to 10 grams of sodium chloride in his daily diet, and that is too much.

After receiving the doctor's diagnosis that I had high blood pressure and diabetes, I realized my life had to change. In about a year, I lost 143 pounds, but the process of getting there wasn't easy. I tried every diet there was before finding one that worked for me. I tried the no-carbohydrates diet; didn't work. I tried Weight Watchers; didn't work. I tried the diet where you eat all of the meat you want somehow thinking that that is going to miraculously cause you to lose weight. (I really enjoyed that one.)

The race for the White House is dirty business. Really. The campaign season that continues today with the West Virginia primary has been especially long, particularly for Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- a physical endurance test that includes thousands of germy handshakes, greasy chicken dinners, long hours and heavy reliance on the vocal cords. This is also the era of YouTube and 24-hour news channels to document every grimace, hacking cough and mental slip-up, and a time when baby boomers and young new voters expect their candidates to be pictures of agelessness, as many of them envision themselves.

Manager Dave Trembley interrupted yesterday's pre-game session with the media in the visiting dugout at Roger Dean Stadium after he noticed that Nick Markakis was trying to take grounders at shortstop. "Nick, get off the infield before I get out there and put a size 11 1/2 where it don't shine. I talked to you about that yesterday, you knucklehead," Trembley yelled, a huge smile on his face. Markakis broke into a jog and took his place in the outfield. "He thinks he's off the hook for giving me a 12-pack of diet [soda]

OKLAHOMA CITY -- If anyone still doubts the correlation between obese America and our fast-food culture, consider Oklahoma City, where the mayor has asked residents to join him on a diet. The city best known to many Americans as the site of Timothy McVeigh's horrific act of terrorism in 1995 is also the fast-food axis of the nation and the eighth-fattest, with an obesity rate of 25 percent. Mayor Mick Cornett is hoping to change that. On New Year's Eve, he challenged citizens to lose 1 million pounds and launched an interactive Web site where people can sign on and track their weight loss (thiscityisgoingonadiet.

DEAR CAL -- I've been trying to give my 10-year-old daughter some basketball pointers. She won't listen to me, but if the coach tells her the same thing, she hangs on her every word. Am I doing something wrong? Greg Fridinger, Severna Park DEAR GREG -- This is something I believe is experienced by all parents. Even though I was fortunate enough to play for a long time and have a Hall of Fame career, I went through the same thing when my son, Ryan, was younger. As a father, all you can do is provide your daughter with the information you feel she needs to succeed.

Here's a question to ponder: Why is acne common in the Western, industrialized world, while the pimples that trouble American kids are rare in developing countries? It's a puzzler -- and one that prompted Australian researchers to ask whether changing the diet of teenagers would have any effect on acne. The results could change the way dermatologists think about diet. To test their theory, the Australian researchers recruited 50 young men between ages 15 and 25 with mild-to-moderate acne.