The only way Ira Green avoided ridicule as an overweight teen was because of his athletic prowess. But when the structure of high school and college athletics disappeared, his adult weight ballooned to over 400 pounds. “When I had to have surgery to save my life,” said Ira, “I decided to teach kids at weight loss camps.”

After losing over 200 pounds and directing 10 weight loss camps, Ira is gearing up for this summer’s all-girl weight loss camp on the campus of William and Mary. Camp Friends 4ever is based on Ira’s seven weight loss principles: structure, accountability, honesty, rewards, balance, game planning, and selfless selfishness.

While the camp does have a proven and successful curriculum, you won’t see Ira or his staff barking out orders. “Twenty years ago, these kinds of camps were more rugged,” said Ira. “We let the campers choose their activities and in turn, they want to work harder, and my staff doesn’t waste energy on disinterested kids.” His style of discipline is basic: when a camper misbehaves, Ira brings them to his office, sits them down and asks, “Have I ever disrespected you?”.

“They start bawling,” said Ira.
Read Full Post >

The market is saturated with food documentaries. A new one is about to surface, yet this one doesn’t seem to be filled with the same information told in a new way. This one rarely mentions obesity, doesn’t really get into what vegetables you should be eating, and I don’t think there’s much mention of fast food. This one is different. It’s bringing to light an important issue that has been hidden in the dark for too long. Genetic Roulette, The Gamble of Our Lives will be released soon and so will many frightening yet true facts about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO).

GMOs have become a hot button issue in the food, health, and related industries. Grassroot efforts are rising up as Non-GMO advocates try to get ears to hear the hard truths about the food we’re being fed and the food we’re feeding to our kids. This film may be the voice advocates need. There are many details that compelled me to listen closer and research more about this topic. One of the harshest truths was revealed early on in the film – we are all likely eating food that causes insects’ stomachs to explode. Stomachs explode, yes, you read that right.
Read Full Post >

My daughter is turning three this week. As any mother can attest, I just can’t understand where the time has gone. She’s smart, sassy, full of song, and has been waiting for her birthday for months. With no prompting she has provided constant reminders of her wish for birthday hats, balloons (one of each color), and a cake (with fire on top) for months. I was happy to finally oblige with all three this weekend.

The cake, of course, is the centerpiece of any birthday party. But I’m also that mom and sugar is a rare treat in our house – birthdays being a reasonable exception. Still, I didn’t want to overload her, myself, or our guests with a sugar bomb topped with more fat and sugar in the frosting. So, I shared my vision for a fresh, homemade, but easier-on-the-sugar cake with our assistant editor and resident baker extradordinaire, Dana.

This Strawberry Lemonade Cake was a hit! It was rich and dense like a restaurant or bakery cake, but felt clean, light, and perfectly sweet. That’s because we didn’t use any butter and went light on the sugar, but made up for it with honey and fresh strawberries.
Read Full Post >

We’re pretty proud of our team and constantly working to give you more access to them. Starting April 23, you’ll be able to meet with our resident nutrition expert Mary Hartley, RD each week to have your questions answered and get her take on the latest health and nutrition trends and news.

Make sure you’re following DietsInReview on Google+, then mark your calendar every Tuesday at 8p EST / 7p CST for a 30-minute chat with Mary, our managing editor Brandi Koskie, and a couple of our loyal followers.

Yes, YOU can score a seat at the table and have your question answered! Each week we’ll select a few DIR followers to join the chat.
Read Full Post >

We’ve all been fed bad diet advice at some point in our lives, usually with negative consequences. But what about the diet advice we feed our kids? Is it healthy, constructive, inspiring? Are we setting them up for nutritional success or failure?

These are questions we should be asking ourselves when raising a child. The diet examples we set for our kids and the words we use to guide them will no doubt affect their relationship with food. Unfortunately, just one poor example or one piece of bad advice can cause a flurry of negative results.

While there’s a descent amount of truth out there regarding kids and diet, there’s also a lot of bogus advice. This is especially sad considering this is such a crucial time for our nation amidst a childhood obesity epidemic.

A recent study suggested that kids should simply eat off smaller plates to avoid obesity. This isn’t terrible advice, per say, but eating off a smaller plate isn’t going to solve the problem. Kids need to develop a healthy understanding of food as nutrition instead of learning little “tricks” to hopefully divert them from health disasters.
Read Full Post >