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Thanksgiving and Dietary Atonement!

11/27/2013

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Tomorrow is the big day. Thanksgiving is wonderful time when we get to remember the blessing of freedom that God has given us here in the United States. In the process most of us will nearly eat ourselves into a coma with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, deviled eggs, green bean casseroles and then, pie of all kinds. I always tell my patients who must diet that they get two days off a year and Thanksgiving Day is one of them. With all the food
we are going to eat it might comforting to know that there is a way to reduce the adverse effect of all those excess calories. 
 
In today's New York Times Gretchen Reynolds tells us that even if we hardly move an inch all day and eat 10000 calories or more,1 we can keep all of it from going to notorious fat deposits in special places on our bodies.
The antidote is binge exercising! In a study done at the University of Bath in England, test subjects were told to walk no more the 4000 steps a day and to eat 50% more food each day. 
 
The subjects were divided into two groups. One group consisted of strict couch potatoes and the other would run for 45 minutes each day. The runners were also instructed to eat an extra 25% more food than the couch riders. The study found that the bad effects of eating way too much food and doing next to nothing all day were present within 7 days and included changes in their fat cells and their insulin production and effectiveness. 
  
The runners on the other hand did not suffer these changes to the same degree. Indeed, it appeared that a seven day binge of eating could be offset by a similar seven day binge of exercise. Blood sugar control and changes in fat cells were greatly reduced in those who binged on exercise along with the pie. 
 
I know this is true. I have been a runner for 44 years now and I started running for one simple reason. I liked to eat, and hated to diet. I also knew that while I was not going to get any taller, that I could be bigger. So I ran and I still do. And, I weigh about the same as I did when I left high school. 
 
So tomorrow, while you are thanking God for His goodness toward us and eating that second piece of pie, you might want to think about taking a walk after lunch. 
 
God bless you and yours as you serve Him. 

1. The Power of a Daily Bout of Exercise, Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times, November 27, 2
 


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    Charles D Hodges Jr. MD
    I have been counseling people with mood problems and other family issues  for 25 years.  

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