Eating Habits

My eating habits in college were terrible. All those gravy-covered french fries, late-night pizzas and happy-hour chicken wings took their toll, and I just about doubled the freshman 15. There's something about being in college, away from parents and with all those academic pressures, that seems to inspire unhealthy eating. Maybe that's why every college town needs a place like PJ's Pub, a 20-year-old bar and restaurant near the Johns Hopkins University. Though non-academics are, of course, allowed to eat at PJ's, the menu of burgers, tacos, wings, sandwiches and pizzas clearly caters to the college demographic.

TODAY WE discuss the latest cheery bulletin from the weight-loss front, which can basically be summed up like this: When it comes to diets, we're all doomed. Maybe you heard that medical researchers just finished the first extended study of four popular diets: Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers and the Zone. And what they found was this: All of them get pretty much the same results. And the results aren't great. No matter which one you choose, you'll probably only lose a few pounds - way fewer than you want to lose.

I want my children to develop better eating habits (less fast food and sugar, more fresh fruit and vegetables), but it's an expensive and time-consuming change. Any suggestions for a working mother on a budget? Dr. Katherine Battle Horgen, a consultant for the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders and co-author of Food Fight, a new book addressing the Amer-ican obesity epidemic, offers these suggestions. To save money, take advantage of seasonal discounts on produce and freeze what you don't eat for later use as fruit smoothies or vegetable purees.

IF THERE'S a message being delivered to the American people this summer, it's this: We're a bunch of fat slobs. And we'd better do something about it, pronto. Earlier this month, Kraft Foods announced it was joining the war on obesity - I hear that term and picture battalions of U.S. Marines sweeping through the streets, bayonets fixed, battling chunky people wolfing down Big Macs, Snickers bars, etc. - by reducing portion sizes, changing the recipes for some of its foods and providing "alternative choices."

PEDALING TO THE post office today, biking it, substituting leg power for half a gallon of air- and bay-polluting, highway-supporting, foreign-depending petroleum -- just to send off a half-ounce, overdue bill. It's one of those days when I just feel the need to try, if only a bit, to shrink the giant balloon that always floats over my head. You haven't noticed the balloon? It's the size of a sperm whale. Stop snickering. You've got Moby Dick in tow, too, if you're anything like a typical American.

IF YOU WANT to persuade 8- and 9-year olds to eat foods that are good for them, what can you do, short of taking out an ad on Nickelodeon? You might follow the example of the county Health Department and take your message directly to the schools. The department's message to third-graders about eating right comes in the form of a food tasting the department calls "Fruity Tooty Veggie Weggie Try It Day." Before the tastings began this school year, more than 2,600 county public school third-graders had participated during the past four years in classroom presentations on healthy eating and physical activity, which were sponsored by the Health Department and assisted by the school nurse program.

Recently, Monique Randolph's oldest son told her he was tired of the seafood they often had for dinner. "What do you want?" she asked. He didn't know, so together they found a multicultural cookbook for children at the library. And thus began the Randolph family's culinary trip around the world. Peanut soup from Ghana was one highlight. Randolph, her two sons and their friend shelled, roasted and processed the peanuts. They combined the resulting butter with yams and other savory ingredients - and liked the results.

Americans may perceive super-sized portions or packages of food as a good value. But the tendency to ignore sensible portion sizes can be shortchanging something that money can't buy: good health. Eating sensible portions can be a powerful weapon in the battle of the bulge. That's one of the messages in "The New American Plate," an eating program based on proportion and portion size developed by the American Institute for Cancer Research. "The focus is on weight management and lowering cancer risk," says Melanie Polk, a registered dietitian and nutrition-education director for the institute.

Florence Gill, 93 and suffering from dementia, needed a little help each day dressing, bathing and eating. She was, by all accounts, doing well -- until she entered a nursing home to recover from an eye infection. In just four weeks, the 5-foot-1 former schoolteacher dwindled from 88 pounds to 72 pounds. Her son Gerald visited twice a week but didn't notice the weight loss because his mother was always covered by a blanket. Nurses assured him that she was eating. By the time his mother was free of the infection, it was too late.

As adults grow older, proper nutrition is often threatened by diminishing appetites and a host of factors, including ill-fitted dentures, depression and chronic disease.A coalition of health care experts, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, recently reported that an estimated 40 percent of the nation's 2 million nursing home residents aren't getting the nutrients they need. And it is thought that about half of them were malnourished before they even arrived at the homes."Elderly people in all settings -- whether they're living at home or in a nursing home -- are at risk for malnutrition," says Beth Klitch, president of Survey Solutions Inc., a national nursing home consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio.