Welcome to Diets in Review! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Hey, drop that doughnut, officer! That’s the message (sort of) from dietitian Rana Parker to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The image of the carb-addicted pudgy police officer seems to be counter-intuitive, considering the physical nature of the job. So, the LAPD proudly boasts that they are hiring a dietitian to help slim down their force, and reverse the trend of expanding waistlines.

The LAPD has been facing a shortage of recruits, so they’ve relaxed their body fat limits to 22 percent for men and 30 percent for women.

As may be expected, there has been some resistance from the not-so-thin Blue Line, but there have also been some welcoming arms, and more importantly, successes.

Parker’s presence has helped some officers drop weight, which should make a stressful job less weighty. The common joke of the police officer in front of a 7-11 munching on a doughnut and sipping coffee makes for an easy laugh, but it’s not the whole story. While, there may be some truth to the stereotype, the obvious problem is that when you combine odd and long hours with a stressful profession, it’s a recipe for dietary disaster.

I applaud the LAPD, as one of the best ways we can honor the service of these heroes and heroines is to help them fight a battle some of them are losing - the battle of the bulge.

Those of us in the U.S. are reminded of our country’s obesity problem nearly every day, but rising obesity rates are not uniquely American. In fact, a few years back, there was a phrase coined by the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify a worldwide epidemic - globesity.

We only have to look at our neighbors to the south to see that we are not alone. Mexico ranks right up at the top with the U.S. in the worldwide rankings of the most obese countries on the planet. In fact, the country’s Health Secretary, Jose Cordova, has expressed his concerns about the impact of his country’s growing diabetes epidemic. Pfizer’s launch of its Exubera inhaled insulin product in Mexico last year shows that there is a real demand, and a real obesity problem.

There is a growing polarization in worldwide nutrition. That is, there are the millions of starving people in third world and developing countries, and then there are the more than one billion overweight adults, at least 300 million of whom are obese.

In a country that has a significant issue with poverty, it seems to baffle the mind to think that Mexico could be amongst the heaviest populations in the world. According to the World Bank, extreme poverty has been cut from about 24 to 17 percent of the general population and from 42 to 27 percent in rural areas. This is accounted for by an expanding economy, boosted largely by free trade agreements such as NAFTA. Not to mention an estimated $20 billion that is remitted from Mexican workers in the U.S.

Economic issues still come into play. British newspaper The Guardian reports that 80 percent of Mexican schools don’t have access to drinking water. This is made up for by substituting soft drinks. Mexico is one of the world’s largest consumers of sugary carbonated drinks.

So maybe it comes as no surprise that companies like Pepsi and Coca Cola are trying to step in and play the good guys by advocating healthier living through exercise with school kids. Don’t expect them to plop down any money to help find ways to get clean water in schools.

Figures from a 2006 national survey stated that more than a quarter of Mexican children between five and 11 are too heavy - a 40 percent increase since 2000. It also revealed that 72 percent of Mexican adults are now over overweight or obese, which is slightly higher than in the U.S. That’s one statistic that Mexico would prefer not to compete with us on.

Check out Shaq’s Family Challenge to learn more about getting your entire family in shape- no matter where you might call home.

Can your diet actually determine the sex of your child? That seems to fly in the face of science, since we know that sex is determined by the male sperm. But it appears that a report from researchers at Oxford and the University of Exeter in England shows that the female body can favor the successful development of a male or female embryo.

If women skip meals, they may favor having girls. That’s odd, yet interesting. The reasoning, from the study, is that glucose levels may help determine the sex of the child, with higher glucose levels favoring boys. Skipping meals tend to suppress glucose levels.

Like so many of these off-the-wall studies, they say that results are either inconclusive or not fully understood.

While choosing the sex of your baby may sound like a novelty, women should definitely consider a healthy pregnancy diet.

Last week I reported on the resistance of chain restaurants in New York to post sensible disclosure of their food’s nutritional information. Well, Health magazine has taken the proactive approach and published a list of 10 top choices, when they could find restaurants willing to divulge their nutritional information.

Backed by a panel of experts, Health magazine went through 43 chains that matched the criteria of having more than 75 locations across the U.S. Here are the top 10 (with some interesting surprises):

1. Uno’s (yeah, the deep pan pizza place)- The home of the deep pan pizza also has a penne bolognese with just 16 grams of fat.

2. Sweet Tomatoes- While all-you-can-eat buffets aren’t normally thought to be healthy, Sweet Tomatoes has all kinds of healthy options at their salad bar, and even some at their soup bar.

3. Ruby Tuesday- While Ruby Tuesday is home to a number of beef burgers and fried food options, you can also order a veggie or turkey burger.

4. P.F. Chang’s- Chinese takeout packs some serious caloric punch. But if you can go to a higher end option such as P.F. Chang’s, you have better options like the carb-free vegetarian lettuce wraps.

5. Bob Evans- The well-known greasy breakfast haven also has plenty of low-carb, low-fat entrees.

6. Mimi’s Cafe- This café-style restaurant has some healthy options, like the chicken & fruit.

7. Romano’s Macaroni Grill- The Italian chain has plenty of refined carb choices, but there’s also the Italian sorbetto and biscotti: just 330 calories and 4 grams of fat.

8. Chevy’s Fresh Mex- High sodium counts are always a concern when dining out, but Chevy’s lives up to the “Fresh” in its name. Grilled Fish Tacos are a better option than a thick cheesy burrito.

9. Olive Garden- Like Macaroni Grill, there are plenty of pasta options to lead you astray. But there are also choices like the low-fat capellini pomodoro (644 calories and 14 grams fat).

10. Denny’s- This is probably the biggest surprise of them all, but the same place where you get sausage and pancakes, offers grilled-chicken-breast salad, or even tilapia with rice and veggies. Each have less than 15 grams of fat.

Check out the article at CNN.com for details as to why these establishments made the grade.t