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• Journalist and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host, Mika Brzezinski is releasing a new book this week about her struggle with food addiction. The book is titled “Obsessed: America’s Food Addiction and my Own.”

• Brzezinski appeared on Today this morning to discuss the book and defend any critics who might think because of her trim figure that she has no place to write on the topic of food addiction. However, the author contends her addiction to food looks just like anyone else’s, obese or not. “This book is all about the need to nurture a conversation and start turning back the tide of the obesity epidemic,” she said.

• Though her weight wouldn’t reflect it, Brzezinski likens her food addiction to an alcohol or drug addiction, because she feels powerless over it. Even while writing the book Brzezinski admits she “fell off the wagon,” several times, one night eating an entire jar of nutella after what she calls a binging episode induced by the insomnia medication, Ambien.
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• Dr. Mehmet Oz appeared on the Today Show this morning to discuss a new campaign he’s launching to address an issue that’s caused some confusion amongst his fans as to which products he endorses.

• The campaign is called “It’s Not Me” and is seeking to fight against brands illegally using his name to endorse their products. “I don’t sell any products,” said Dr. Oz. “If you see my name next to a product being sold to you, they’re lying to you.” Dr. Oz reports that he has teamed up with Google, Facebook and other large “internet vendors” to address this issue.

• Dr. Oz considers supplement ads to be most concerning because they’re potentially dangerous when mixed with medications, something the average consumer is not educated on. “Someone, I believe, will die this year because of some of these fraudulent ads,” he said.
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Pregnant moms with odd cravings isn’t news; the two go together like newborns and sleep deprivation. As much as we’d like a cold, hard reason for why we crave things completely out of the ordinary when we’re pregnant, that research doesn’t really exist. It is what it is. Some have said that a craving can be linked to a deficiency, your body’s way of raising a red flag and saying “give me some iron,” but the science to back that up hasn’t yet been found.

So why has Jenna Wolfe, a correspondent for the TODAY Show, been so carb crazy during her pregnancy? Mary Hartley, RD says, “My best guess is that Jenna is craving more calories from carbohydrates relative to her former diet, which may have emphasized protein and only enough calories to maintain a svelte figure.”

Prior to becoming pregnant, Wolfe admits on her TODAY Show blog that she maintained an incredibly healthy diet. Just look at her – that’s all the proof you need! “Yogurt, fruit, nuts, eggs, salad, protein, veggies, grains, protein,” she wrote about the way it was.

Today, her pregnancy diet doesn’t look much different than other moms: “Cold cereal, bagel, order a salad for lunch (good), only eat the croutons from that salad (yeesh), pasta, pasta, a pickle, pasta, dessert.”

“Carbohydrates provide energy, and now Jenna needs enough energy to run two bodies,” commented Hartley. Sure, one body is very little, but it is growing fast! Pregnant women need to eat enough calories to support the baby’s weight gain. ”

But like a lot of moms, Wolfe is feeling the unfair pressure of judgment by other moms. She wrote, “I’m battling the pregnancy pitfalls and am struggling to stay on the fitness track. But please know I’m trying.”
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Ten years ago, Today Show weather anchor Al Roker decided he needed a drastic change in his lifestyle when he tipped the scale at 340 pounds. He decided to have a gastric bypass surgery in 2002 and lost 100 pounds in eight months, eventually reaching 190 pounds lost. Then, five years ago, he received the devastating news that his mother had cancer, and his weight crept back up as he dealt with her terminal illness. After regaining and losing another 40 pounds through a 28-day cleanse and strict diet and exercise regimen, Roker writes about it all in his memoir “Never Goin’ Back,” released Dec. 31, 2012.

He talked about shedding the “fat guy image” and his new book this morning on Today.

Roker relates in his book that he chose to have bariatric surgery after losing his father to lung cancer in 2001. He had yo-yo dieted for years with no lasting results. He describes his aha! moment in an interview with PARADE magazine:

“[My father] was at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, and I would go in every day. We’d talk and joke, and then one day he got serious and said, ‘Look, we both know I’m not going to be here to help you with my grandkids, so you gotta promise you’re ­going to lose weight.” Seven days later he was gone. A few weeks afterward, [Deborah and I] found out we were pregnant with our son Nicky. I said, “Okay, I’m going to have to do something.”

Roker found success with a gastric bypass, but admits it is not for everyone, calling it just another tool for losing weight that was a very difficult choice for him. When his mother got sick, his healthy living routine went to the wayside as he balanced spending as much time as he could with her with the normal pressures of his work and family life. He thought he could handle a few slip-ups with his diet, eventually reverting back to old habits and secret binge eating, and used food as a form of self-medication.
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America’s favorite nutritionist Joy Bauer, earned a little more air time this week. The star debuted a new segment on the TODAY Show this morning called “Joy’s Healthy Bite,” in which she covers the latest buzz in the health world including food trends, research findings and celebrity diets. 

We tuned in for today’s segment where Joy touted the health benefits of two of her favorite foods: Greek yogurt and avocados.

Joy reported that last week, the American Heart Association presented a study that showed people who regularly eat yogurt even just two to three times per week, are able to significantly reduce their risk for getting high blood pressure.

Not just any yogurt does the trick, Joy warns. Don’t pick yogurts that are high in fat and sugar. Instead look for those that are non- or low-fat, and then add your own sweeteners – about 1 teaspoon of sugar or honey – and a little fruit if you prefer. If you’re partial to buying flavors, Joy recommends checking the label to make sure there’s no more than 20 grams of sugar per serving. 
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