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CNN Live Saturday

The Chocolate and Sex Diet?

Aired January 10, 2004 - 12:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, ANCHOR: If the new year has you frantically trying the latest fad diets or exercise routines, just chill out.
Our guest is here to turn your 2004 upside down. What if sex lowers your cholesterol? Eggs and chocolate, perhaps they're health foods? And can you be fat and healthy at the same time? Yes, in the real world or at least in Dr. Dean Edell's world. He's the author of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Healthiness." And he's joining us from Chicago.

Good to see you.

DEAN EDELL, "LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HEALTHINESS" AUTHOR: How are you?

WHITFIELD: I'm doing pretty good.

All right. Most people think being healthy means slimming down. You say that it's really not that simple. Sometimes you can just really go ahead and continue to be fat or pursue being fat and being healthy. What do you mean?

EDELL: Absolutely. And the evidence shows that. The problem is that most people don't hear what the scientific evidence is about dieting. We go for all the marketing and all, you know, the diet schemes.

And basically, the Cooper Institute in Dallas did the pioneering studies on this, and they found fitness does matter, but fitness, and I repeat, was not correlated with body weight.

If I ask people to carry around an extra 50 pounds, a hundred pounds day in and day out, up the stairs, down the stairs, they will be a buff person inside. So you're not automatically a subhuman and a medical basket case if you're overweight.

And we're driving people crazy, and we're almost causing them to obsess about food. So the diet industry is out of control. It's an industry that does not work. Sells you a product that does not work 95 percent of the time. And I think it's time America wised up.

WHITFIELD: So we're not only obsessing about food. But some of us are obsessing about vitamins, food supplements. Should we have them? Are we getting enough nutrients in the food that we eat?

You say vitamins are not necessarily the answer? EDELL: No. Absolutely. This is an industry out of control. Congress created the largest loophole in the history of consumer law with the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.

It simply says -- and where else in our world do we see this? They can sell you a product, as long as they call it a food supplement, that has no proof of efficacy and no proof of safety. And consequently, everybody's going through that loop.

And most vitamin studies, I mean, the good gold standard studies, are finding that vitamins don't seem to help a lot. And a lot of people use them, eat a lousy diet, and they think they're helping themselves. So you've got to be careful and start talking to your doctors and look at the objective evidence about these things.

WHITFIELD: Here's some other things you're going to set the record straight on. Most of us have been conditioned to believe that we've got to drink at least eight glasses of water a day and that perhaps eggs would not be considered healthy food, that chocolate wouldn't be considered healthy food. Maybe even coffee. That wouldn't be considered healthy.

You're saying remove all those rules and start all over again.

EDELL: Yes. They're just not true. University of Nebraska has done a recent study finding that you don't need eight glasses of water a day. Everything you eat has water. And everything counts: juice and milk and tea and all those kinds of things.

And as far as chocolate, you know, we've created this moral nutrition concept. Evil foods out there to get you. If chocolate came on the market today it would be a health food item, because it's very powerful in antioxidants. I'm not saying eat three boxes of chocolate a day. But let's be reasonable here.

WHITFIELD: Moderation.

EDELL: Yes. And the amazing thing is, when you tell people -- if I put someone on a diet and I say, "I want you, if you love chocolate, I'm insisting that you eat chocolate." You make them eat chocolate, they will eat less overall.

This just say no approach only creates overeating and obsession about food. Letting people eat what they want, but teaching them how to eat less. Calories count. This high carb, low carb thing is nonsense.

WHITFIELD: OK. And quick, we're running out of time. In about ten seconds or so, explain why sex is considered to be a healthy activity for all of us and something that people need to do more of.

EDELL: Yes. Absolutely. I can't prescribe it for you, but basically there have been two major studies that find the more sex one has the lower the cardiovascular risk factors and the longer one lives. So this is -- My whole idea is that do things that you enjoy for your health. If you hate the strategies you're taking, you're just not going to do them. And sex is part of the healthy lifestyle.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Dean Edell, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Healthiness." Thanks very much and Happy New Year.

EDELL: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 10, 2004 - 12:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, ANCHOR: If the new year has you frantically trying the latest fad diets or exercise routines, just chill out.
Our guest is here to turn your 2004 upside down. What if sex lowers your cholesterol? Eggs and chocolate, perhaps they're health foods? And can you be fat and healthy at the same time? Yes, in the real world or at least in Dr. Dean Edell's world. He's the author of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Healthiness." And he's joining us from Chicago.

Good to see you.

DEAN EDELL, "LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HEALTHINESS" AUTHOR: How are you?

WHITFIELD: I'm doing pretty good.

All right. Most people think being healthy means slimming down. You say that it's really not that simple. Sometimes you can just really go ahead and continue to be fat or pursue being fat and being healthy. What do you mean?

EDELL: Absolutely. And the evidence shows that. The problem is that most people don't hear what the scientific evidence is about dieting. We go for all the marketing and all, you know, the diet schemes.

And basically, the Cooper Institute in Dallas did the pioneering studies on this, and they found fitness does matter, but fitness, and I repeat, was not correlated with body weight.

If I ask people to carry around an extra 50 pounds, a hundred pounds day in and day out, up the stairs, down the stairs, they will be a buff person inside. So you're not automatically a subhuman and a medical basket case if you're overweight.

And we're driving people crazy, and we're almost causing them to obsess about food. So the diet industry is out of control. It's an industry that does not work. Sells you a product that does not work 95 percent of the time. And I think it's time America wised up.

WHITFIELD: So we're not only obsessing about food. But some of us are obsessing about vitamins, food supplements. Should we have them? Are we getting enough nutrients in the food that we eat?

You say vitamins are not necessarily the answer? EDELL: No. Absolutely. This is an industry out of control. Congress created the largest loophole in the history of consumer law with the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.

It simply says -- and where else in our world do we see this? They can sell you a product, as long as they call it a food supplement, that has no proof of efficacy and no proof of safety. And consequently, everybody's going through that loop.

And most vitamin studies, I mean, the good gold standard studies, are finding that vitamins don't seem to help a lot. And a lot of people use them, eat a lousy diet, and they think they're helping themselves. So you've got to be careful and start talking to your doctors and look at the objective evidence about these things.

WHITFIELD: Here's some other things you're going to set the record straight on. Most of us have been conditioned to believe that we've got to drink at least eight glasses of water a day and that perhaps eggs would not be considered healthy food, that chocolate wouldn't be considered healthy food. Maybe even coffee. That wouldn't be considered healthy.

You're saying remove all those rules and start all over again.

EDELL: Yes. They're just not true. University of Nebraska has done a recent study finding that you don't need eight glasses of water a day. Everything you eat has water. And everything counts: juice and milk and tea and all those kinds of things.

And as far as chocolate, you know, we've created this moral nutrition concept. Evil foods out there to get you. If chocolate came on the market today it would be a health food item, because it's very powerful in antioxidants. I'm not saying eat three boxes of chocolate a day. But let's be reasonable here.

WHITFIELD: Moderation.

EDELL: Yes. And the amazing thing is, when you tell people -- if I put someone on a diet and I say, "I want you, if you love chocolate, I'm insisting that you eat chocolate." You make them eat chocolate, they will eat less overall.

This just say no approach only creates overeating and obsession about food. Letting people eat what they want, but teaching them how to eat less. Calories count. This high carb, low carb thing is nonsense.

WHITFIELD: OK. And quick, we're running out of time. In about ten seconds or so, explain why sex is considered to be a healthy activity for all of us and something that people need to do more of.

EDELL: Yes. Absolutely. I can't prescribe it for you, but basically there have been two major studies that find the more sex one has the lower the cardiovascular risk factors and the longer one lives. So this is -- My whole idea is that do things that you enjoy for your health. If you hate the strategies you're taking, you're just not going to do them. And sex is part of the healthy lifestyle.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Dean Edell, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Healthiness." Thanks very much and Happy New Year.

EDELL: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com