Not all diet foods are created equal

Dr. Oz’s 99 Diet Foods Shopping List

Not all diet foods are created equal – some might even cause you to gain weight. Take the guesswork out of your diet with this comprehensive shopping list of Oz-approved diet foods.

Click here to print your copy of Dr. Oz's 99 Diet Foods Shopping List.

Added to Articles on Mon 01/30/2012

Print this list and bring it to the grocery story to avoid your biggest diet-food mistakes.

Note: While the list includes specific brands, if you find a similar product with the same nutritional value, feel free to use it.

Are hidden food allergies making you gain weight?

The Anti-Allergy Diet

Are hidden food allergies making you gain weight? Mark Hyman, MD, has a 3-week anti-allergy diet to help get your system back on track so you can start shedding pounds.

Added to Articles on Fri 01/27/2012

Are you doing all the right things yet you are still unable to lose weight? A hidden food allergy could be the culprit. Dr.  Mark Hyman, New York Times best-selling author and an advocate for functional medicine, supports groundbreaking research linking food allergies to weight gain.

Sudden-onset vs. Slow-onset Food allergies

Most people think food-related allergic reactions are sudden and fast acting – such as peanut or shellfish allergies which can cause immediate inflammation (an IgE immune response), resulting in swelling or difficulty breathing and can be life-threatening. On the other hand, dairy, which can be hidden in many everyday foods causes a far less acute allergic reaction, creating inflammation hours or even days later (an IgG immune response). Up to 60% of the population could be affected by hidden sensitivities to foods such as dairy.

Dairy Allergy and Weight Gain

Foods with dairy can cause unhealthy bacteria to overgrow and produce toxins that cause systemic inflammation that swells the intestines and prevents normal digestion, causing weight gain, among other conditions such as irritable bowel. In fact, you can gain up to 30 pounds a year due to a dairy allergy. 

Lastly, a dairy allergy is tied to inflammation in the gut, as opposed to lactose intolerance, which is an inability to digest the milk sugar called lactose.

The first step to finding out if a dairy allergy is making you gain weight is to identify both the main and hidden sources of dairy in your diet.

Main Dairy Sources: Milk, butter, yogurt and cheese. 

Hidden Dairy Sources:

Desserts: Cakes, muffins, cookies and chocolate may contain basic dairy ingredients along with “hidden” dairy derivatives such as casein or whey, both milk proteins. Be sure to look for these ingredients on labels and avoid them.

Deli Meats and Fish: Processed meats often contain dairy products such as lactose, casein and caseinates that act as emulsifiers or flavor enhancers. Meats labeled “kosher” will be dairy-free. Be aware that some brands of canned tuna contain casein.

Bread: Both white and wheat bread often contain casein, whey or milk powder. Freshly baked yeast breads are sometimes prepared in buttered pans or brushed with butter as they bake. Ask your baker if this is the case.

Energy Bars: Countless brands of protein and energy bars consist primarily of whey protein. As with all of the above, remember to read these food labels very carefully as well.

The 3-Week Anti-Allergy Plan

To find out if you could be allergic to dairy, follow this plan based on the 3 “Rs”: Remove all dairy, repair your digestive track, and reboot your body.

Week 1: Remove All Dairy

Remove all the dairy from your diet for an entire week, which is how long your system needs for internal inflammation to settle down. Replace dairy milk with almond milk, which tastes good and has high quality protein and fat in it. In addition, replace butter with olive oil, a great source of good fat that contains oleic acid and anti-inflammatory properties.

Week 2: Repair Your Digestive Track

If your gut is damaged by dairy, repair it with healthy bacteria found in probiotics. Choose a probiotic supplement that contains both bifidobacterium and lactobacillus bacteria. Select a product in pill or powder form that has 10-50 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) and take that amount daily. Be wary of liquid-based products, which may not be as active, along with food products with added probiotics. Click here for a smart guide to purchasing probiotics. 

Week 3: Reboot Your Body

Now that you have a clean digestive slate, it’s time to reboot and see if dairy was causing your weight gain. Start by adding one dairy food back at a time and keep a food log of your body’s reactions. Ask yourself: Am I more tired? Am I bloated? Do I have fluid retention? All of these potential factors could be clues that you have a hidden food sensitivity to dairy.

If you think you’re allergic to dairy at the end of three weeks, see your doctor for a blood test, which can help determine if you have elevated levels of a certain antibody that could be causing inflammation. If you are indeed allergic, you can use the above plan stay allergy- and inflammation-free.

Dr. Oz's 10 Weight-Loss Commandments

With our country's obesity epidemic reaching biblical proportions, it's time to commit to 10 easy and basic rules for losing weight and keeping it off.

Added to Articles on Thu 03/11/2010

1. Thou Shalt Not Wear Pants that Stretch

Your clothing is an early-warning system for weight gain. When it's getting hard to snap your jeans, you know it's time to be vigilant. Wearing stretchy clothes allows you to live in ignorance of how your body is growing, making it easier to pack on pounds without knowing it.

2. Thou Shalt Not Keep Fat Clothes in Your Closet

When you keep the clothes you wore at an unhealthy weight, it gives you a back-up plan if the pounds don't come off. Instead, force yourself to stay on track by 86ing your "fat pants."

3. Thou Shalt Not Eat Meat That Walks on Four Legs More Than Once a Week

Meat that comes from an animal with 4 legs is higher in saturated fat (the unhealthy kind) than that which comes from 2-legged animals such as chickens, or animals with no legs, like fish. Plus: women who eat large amounts of red meat more than once a week have a 50% higher chance of dying from heart disease and have higher cancer rates.

4. Thou Shalt Not Graze

Plan your meal before you open the refrigerator, get what you need, and close the door. Opening it throughout the day leads to impulsive choices and overeating.

5. Thou Shalt Not Eat After 7:30pm

When you eat late at night you are more likely to be eating in front of the TV (when you won't pay attention to how much you're putting in your mouth) and you're more likely to pick high-calorie snacks

6. Thou Shalt Not Pile Food More than 1 Inch High or Within 2 Inches of the Plate Edge

Larger portions equal more calories. 'Nuff said.

7. Thou Shalt Not Chew Food Less than 20 Times Per Bite

Chewing allows your body to realize that you are eating food, prompting it to create a sensation of fullness at the appropriate time. When you don't chew enough, you get ahead of that process, eating well past when you are actually satisfied.

8. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Plate

Spend your day nibbling bites on someone else's sandwich or afternoon snack, and you will add on 1,000 calories easy.

9. Thou Shalt Not Carry Small Bills

Nothing loves a small bill better than a vending machine. When you have them at the ready, you are one step closer to an impulsive, calorie-loaded afternoon slip up.

10. Thou Shalt Not Eat While Standing Up

Eating sitting down enables you to be aware of what you're eating and eat it slowly so that your body can tell you your full before it's too late.