Long-time subscriber, Janet Treftz-Allen, MS, RD, just asked us for some new ideas for a health class that is both fun and educational AND doesn’t include the over-beaten paths of weight loss or blood pressure or cholesterol. She finished a free online class called “Las Veggies” (a take off on Las Vegas) and wanted something new that would really teach people to make a change. It wouldn’t just teach them to take a paper and check off a list to win a gift card. You can see what we suggested at the end. But we also decided to explore the best-selling diet book themes on amazon.com right now to see what is popular.
Take a tour through the most popular diet books, this minute, at Amazon.com. We noticed a consumer trend for health that you won’t want to ignore when designing and pitching your classes: OPTIMIZE me. Everyone wants an accelerator. Something that will bring them the most results for the least amount of work. Miriam Webster defines “optimize” as, “make perfect, effective, or as functional as possible.” You can understand the appeal. You optimize images for your website to make them look much more colorful, yet be a smaller file size. You optimize your business or work plans to bring in a lot of results with the least amount of effort. And you might even “optimize your wardrobe” so you look really great and can wear 30 different outfits with the same 4 garment pieces and 2 accessories, all the while looking 5 years younger.
Of course, if you are a professional who is evidence-based, you know that health is is both boring and crystal clear: “Eat more fruits, vegetables, dried beans, whole grains and a variety of lean protein foods. Get enough calcium-rich foods, too. And get enough physical activity each day.” It really means, “Stop eating so many cookies, toaster pastries and rich restaurant meals and put your electronics down long enough to walk vigorously for 30 minutes each day.” Health, it seems, is about getting enough of the right stuff but leaving behind all that is damaging. Why do they keep morphing it into fads like fat-free foods or gluten-free foods or low-carb or acai juice?
I bet you have seen a lot of Paleo Diet advice and tips, like, “I frosted the cake with coconut butter cream.” Maybe you still hear, “I need to lose weight, so I am going to watch my carbs.” Or they declare, “I don’t need to worry about nutrition because I take vitamins.” Or, “The guy on the TV show said….”
Here are the most popular themes for diet books right now, along with a few corresponding class ideas, so you can fight fire with fire:
Optimize me:
AMAZON title: Optimize your health
AMAZON title: Optimal eating
AMAZON title: Optimal diet
What this really means: Give me a way to cheat the system. Let me do the MOST in the least amount of time.
Class ideas: Jumpstart your day with a high-fiber breakfast, feel full faster by starting most of your meals with a salad, how to make delicious beverages with zero calories, optimize your eating plan….
Fast and easy, limited time only:
AMAZON title: 17 days to weight loss.
AMAZON title: 7 day diet
AMAZON title: 17 hour diet plan.
What this means: Give me an easy timeline. I can do this stuff for 7 days or 17 days (is 7 the magic number?) but I can’t think of it forever just yet. I only want to be “grounded” for a short amount of time. I want to graduate really soon!
Class ideas: 6 lessons to a better you, 2 things you can’t grow old without, 3 weeks to healthy habits.
Special science, not ever before published:
AMAZON title: Paleo Man Is The New World Man
AMAZON title: Juicing Is the Bible
AMAZON title: Wheat Made My Belly
AMAZON title: Count Sugar Grams And Forget Everything Else
What this means: Let me in on a secret that I can believe. Because it is fun to talk about it
Class ideas: The secret hiding places of fiber, the power of a plant based diet, omega 3 versus omega 6, whole foods win.
I just want to copy everyone:
AMAZON title: Mediterranean Diet
AMAZON title: Eating Wild
AMAZON title: Follow Us With The Melting Method
What this means: “Waiter, I will have what they are having, because it sounds really cool.” OR “I want to do this because I saw it on TV.”
Class ideas: What do the world’s blue zones, with the most octogenarians, have in common for lifestyle habits? What do the people in the National Weight Loss Registry have in common? What did the successful DASH study participants do?
Perform magic:
AMAZON title: How to melt away the pounds without doing a thing
AMAZON title: Amazing plan to shed pounds
AMAZON title: How to increase your metabolism
What this really means: I don’t want to give anything up or do anything extra. Give me the magic trick!
Class idea: Eat more (calorie density), 40 grams of fiber a day will help you shed 20 pounds, eat your vitamins, make a healthy plate…
And here are 3 more that we gave Jan:
Optimize Your Kitchen Style:
http://foodandhealth.com/
celebrate-your-inner-chef/
This is a really fun kitchen makeover class. There is a quiz to discover what you love about cooking, along with tips about how to make your kitchen easy to work in, so you don’t want to go out every night. You could have a recipe contest or cooking demo, too.
It’s All About Dessert:
Why not have a fruit dessert workshop:
http://foodandhealth.com/
summer-fruit-dessert-
presentation-tips/
You could set up stations to have the class work in groups and compete to make the most creative desserts using various fruits and other ingredients. Or you could make a cooking demo to create many mouth fruit watering desserts?
Well, I brought Arugula to have lunch with me today:
And here is another veggie one – to take a salad to work:
http://foodandhealth.com/take-
your-salad-to-work/
Of course, pictures say everything.
Did you see our new Food Photo Bulletin Boards:
This colorful vegetable bulletin board shows all of the MyPlate vegetable groups, along with serving sizes, a plate that is half-filled with fruits and veggies, and 2 easy ways to eat more veggies: salad and vegetable soup.
This fruit board is our masterpiece. See the serving sizes for fruits, various ways to enjoy fruits, and 2 gorgeous fruit desserts that will cause everyone to run to the grocery store to buy more fruit.
The MyPlate board shows just what you need to eat in a day. Each food group with the proper serving sizes is shown. Plus they see a healthy plate poster with an explanation of the food groups. And they get inspired with a beautiful farmer’s market vegetable basket. PLUS there is a beautiful photo example of a real, live healthy plate.
Here you can see common grain food serving sizes, the anatomy and benefits of a whole grain, a plate that shows half the grains as whole PLUS a photo of many whole grains. Can they guess them all?
OR maybe you want to bribe them with oil paintings:
This oil painting poster is a photo of fresh farmer’s market vegetables, from 3 different vegetable color groups, that is rendered into an artistic, realistic oil painting. It comes three to a pack so you can hoard them all for your office, give one to your boss or better still, give them away in a health fair contest.
You can bribe them to eat better with jewelry:
Here is a MyPlate silicon bracelet that declares MyPlate on the outside while the food groups are embossed on the inside. It can help with “immersion training” where they look at healthy food groups all day!
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