Thin doesn’t necessarily mean fit.
Jessica Wilson, a practicing dietitian and University graduate student focusing on human physiology, spoke about everything from the food pyramid to fad diets at the “Healthy Lifestyle Plan” workshop hosted by the Rho Omicron chapter of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority on Tuesday.
“There are fit overweight people,” she said. “Those are the people who are going to last longer than the skinny person who never exercises.”
Moderation, variety and exercise are essential to a healthy life, Wilson said.
Diets don’t work because often in diets “it’s not about what you’re eating, it’s about what you’re not eating,” and the mind and body latch on to the “want” side of that equation, Wilson said.
“Eating those (diet) foods is not fun first of all, and you get tired of it,” Wilson said.
Ashleigh Callier-Wells, the sorority’s vice president, described a diet she went on which focused on cleansing her system. She tried it once, stopped and tried again. The second time around was harder and she couldn’t stick with it.
“Your body knows it’s coming,” Wilson explained. “It says, ‘No, we know what’s happening now and we don’t like it.’
“Being able to be appreciative of your body and appreciate the weight your body is most comfortable at… is better than trying to be size whatever,” she said.
Wilson also argues for eating several small meals throughout the day, and not skipping breakfast or lunch.
“Your body is like a fireplace, it’s going and going all day,” she said. “What happens if you just pile a whole lot of logs on a fire at once? If you think of your body as a fireplace you want to be feeding it throughout the day.”
A person who skips meals and tries to make it up all at once in the evening is far more likely to put on weight, Wilson said. The body hordes the food because it isn’t sure when there will be more. This is not the case for someone who eats consistently throughout the day.
“Their body knows it’s going to get more,” Wilson said.
The body uses the food to keep mind and muscles working smoothly.
Wilson suggests that people eat more complete meals at the time of day they know they’re going to be most active.
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” she said. “Think about when you do the most moving and exercising and thinking. We generally do that stuff in the morning or afternoon.”
She also gave some general guidelines for fruits and vegetables.
The suggested serving size has gone up from three to five servings to five to nine servings, but this doesn’t mean that people should chow down on fruits and vegetables all day.
“I hate that commercial where the woman is at the gym eating a stalk of celery,” Wilson said. “One cup of raw vegetables equals one serving… and most apples that you get at the grocery store will be two servings. You can put fruit on oatmeal.”
When it comes to getting the most from salads and greens, Wilson said, go by color.
“The darker the better when it comes to greens, the more vitamins they’ll have,” she said.
As far as the organic versus conventional fruit and vegetable production debate goes, Wilson says all studies she has seen stated that there’s not much difference between the two.
“With organic, you don’t have to be so careful about cleaning your food, but nutritionally they’re the same.”
Basically it still all comes down to moderation, variety and exercise.
“I’m sorry that a lot more people didn’t come,” said Callier-Wells, looking around the room after the talk. “This is knowledge that more people need to know.”
Wilson’s talk was part of the sorority’s “Zetas Helping Other People Excel” (Z-HOPE) program. The program organizes events like Tuesday’s talk and are open to the campus community.