Nutritious Notes

Tonight I was watching the Biggest Loser and some of the past contestants joined the current contestants for parts of a marathon. What I noticed was all but 1 of the past contestants had gained some of the weight back. I don't really wonder why though. The show focuses getting the contestants to lose a ton of weight through extreme exercising and a very low calorie diet. And then it sends them home. The only nutrition advice the contestants get seems to come in the form of product promotion, aka the big bucks of the processed food marketing world. When the contestants leave the ranch, they probably do their best to eat like they did on the ranch but unfortunately, that probably means they are buying processed foods, 100 calorie artificial sugar yogurt and multigrain cheerios. These are not the tools for a weight loss supporting diet. What the show needs to do is hire me to teach about the importance of whole foods, eliminating the processed crap and teaching the contestants how to cook healthy meals. For instance, the healthy meal I enjoyed while watching the show: steamed Sea Bass with Mango Ginger sauce and from the garden chard cooked in vegetable broth. It took me 20 minutes to make and was absolutely delicious, full of B vitamins, healthy fats and antioxidants.
By incorporating nutrition lessons and cooking classes into the show, the contestants will be better armed to enter their life in the real world again because they will know not only what healthy food is but why it works also. I felt bad for the character, Koli, who when given a month to return home to his friends and family, instead ran off to Las Vegas in order to avoid the temptation that being around those he loves would bring with it. Then he also said it was hard to eat his fish and vegetable dinner when the college kids he was living with were eating pizza and burgers. While he did make the right choice during the show, what happens when he goes home and is no longer trying to win? If we really want to talk about changing lives, we need to provide the tools to maintain that change, not just the quick fix of 6 months with Jillian Michaels and whatever the other guy's name is.