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How Celebrity Moms (Really) Lose the Baby Weight

Ever wonder how so many celebrities can transform back to skinny and sexy right after having a baby? Does this leave you frustrated? In this guest article my friend and colleague Ray Salomone - The Wellness Crusader reveals the un-natural Hollywood secrets that make these post-partum transformations possible.

A combination of many emails and my brewing disgust at the celebrity magazines and their coverage of "How I Lost The Baby Weight" have compelled me to finally expose the sham behind what has frustrated women all over the world.

Remember, I train celebrities and I am forced at times to put up with their unbelievable nonsense. So here's the deal.

When a celebrity gives birth (often by a scheduled, voluntary c-section) many immediately receive a tummy tuck. Once they are home, they bring in their (already assembled and waiting in the wings) team of professionals whose sole duty is to get the celeb back into red carpet shape. Often a publicity deal is already in the works with a magazine selected to cover her miraculous return to the spot light.

This team is made up a personal trainer, a masseuse, yoga instructor, Pilates instructor, nutritionist and personal chef. More often than not, little pills are often taken. (Remember the Rolling Stones song, Mother's Little Helper?) They devote their entire day to this. Every other annoyance is taken care for them. Changing diapers? Please!

Losing sleep? Makes for a great sound bite but it's not the truth.

During this 4-6 week hunker down, the new baby is rarely seen. The child is in the care of a full time staff.

(Note: When a celebrity says "my baby sitter" what she really means is

"My full time nannies")

Also- notice how they all say, "Breastfeeding helped me to lose the weight." Yeah right! Breastfeeding and weight loss has NO connection. Most of them couldn't be bothered to breast feed anyway. The horror!

So ladies, please give yourself a break. It took you nine months to gain the weight, give yourself nine months to lose it. Believe nothing you read in the magazines. Enjoy the experience of your newborn. Eat healthfully. Exercise when you can. As the weeks and months go by, your baby will get into a routine, and then so can you. And now you can have your sanity back on this issue.

Another Great Reason to Eat Egg Yolks

I know most of you are not pregnant, but there's a lesson in this that can be useful to you anyway- and of course if you know someone who is pregnant (or planning to be), pass it on!

New research suggests that what a woman eats during pregnancy may offer her offspring protection against breast cancer. Researchers at Boston University studied female rats whose mothers were given different amounts of choline, a nutrient found in eggs, during pregnancy. The rats were given either no choline, normal amounts of choline, or extra choline during pregnancy, and, after birth, their female offspring were treated with a chemical that causes breast cancer.

Whilst all of the female offspring went on to develop breast cancer, the results showed that offspring of the rats that had received extra choline during pregnancy had slow growing tumors whereas the offspring of rats that consumed no choline during pregnancy had fast growing tumors.

Furthermore, the slow growing tumors in the offspring of rats fed extra choline had a genetic pattern similar to those seen in breast cancers of women who are considered to have a good prognosis, whereas the genetic changes that occurred in the fast growing tumors were similar to those seen in women with very aggressive forms of breast cancer that are associated with a poor prognosis.

So what's the lesson?

Well, first of all, guess where choline is found? In the yolks of eggs. The very part that the idiot wing of the American Dietetic Association has been cautioning against, leading to the epidemic of "healthy" egg-white omlettes our low-fat friends are so fond of. I've been preaching that this is a bad idea for so long now that my voice is getting hoarse! Stop with the egg-white omlettes already! The good stuff is in the yolks (not that there's not good stuff in the whites as well, but nature put them together for a reason!)

And that's the lesson for all of us, not just those who are pregnant. Low-fat (or no-fat) versions of whole foods are rarely an improvement over the way they were "designed". Fat is not what we need to fear in the American diet (sugar is, but that's another story)

This research comes on the heels of recent studies by Jeff Volek, PhD, RD showing that eggs can also lower inflammation, a silent killer if there ever was one.

Choline is an undiscovered superstar in the nutrient galaxy, and is truly a "brain food". The best food source of choline is (unfortunately) beef liver, but the second best is a whole egg. Beef, cauliflower and navy beans also have some as well.

Choline is in the B-vitamin family. A single capsule of B-Supreme contains 200mg of choline, more than an entire egg. I also recommend the Choline Punch created by my good friend and colleague Dr. Al Sears.

Oh No! Not Vitamin D Again!

I know you may be sick of me talking about this vitamin, but I just can't stop myself. Virtually every week new information becomes available that points to the fact that we just are not even beginning to get enough of this incredible vitamin.

Now the Canadian Pediatric Society is proposing to boost the recommended intake by women who are pregnant or breast-feeding to 2,000 IUs per day. (This new guideline appears in a consensus statement published in September by the society in its journal Pediatrics and Child Health).

What does this have to do with you if you're not pregnant? Actually, a lot.

What researchers are learning is how much more vitamin D we need for optimal health than anyone suspected. Researchers writing in a recent issue of the International Journal of Cancer exposed prostate cells to the most biologically active form of vitamin D and found that it significantly increased the activity of a protective anti-oxidant enzyme (called glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, just in case you wanted to know!). The enzyme literally mopped up damaging free radicals in the prostate cells, protecting them against injury and death.

Studies have shown absolutely no ill effects or dangers in taking 2000 IUs a day which the prestigious Institute of Medicine considers the "safe upper limit" for daily consumption. But off the record- most experts don't consider that a "true" ceiling for safe use, especially since the body can easily generate 10,000-20,000 IUs a day sunbathing without a whit of harm. But for political and legal reasons most organizations won't recommend anything higher than what the conservative IOM recommends.

OK that's fine. I think if taking even 1000 IUs of vitamin D a day puts you ahead of the game and 2000 IUs is even better. I personally take 2000 IUs every day as part of my own regimen. Best thing of all it's the perfect vitamin for people who hate to take vitamins. It's a tiny little easy to swallow gel the size of a tic tac and it's one of the cheapest vitamins on the planet.