Harley Pasternak Blogs About the Surprising Ways Alcohol Can Hurt Your Diet

Celebrity Blog

By Harley Pasternak

02/06/2013 at 02:00 PM EST

Harley Pasternak

Courtesy Harley Pasternak

Last week, country singer Tim McGraw made a splash when PEOPLE magazine featured an article about his complete physique transformation.

What I found most interesting about Tim's turn around was his revelation that drinking had been the primary roadblock. Tim realized that his alcohol intake not only added more girth to his gut, but it led to his poor dietary decisions, and sapped his desire to work out.

Tim also went on to explain how his family was the main reason behind his decision to give up drinking, get healthy, and be a positive/healthy role model. And he looks better than he ever has at 45!

There is a lot of conflicting information and opinion out there about alcohol and its role in weight gain. If I had a penny for every person who's told me about all the research showing how a glass of wine a day can actually be heart healthy (but that same person goes on to drink four beers with their glass of wine a day), I'd have a lot of pennies!

Believe it or not, the extra calories from alcohol is not the primary reason people gain weight when the drink too much or too often. In fact, it's a distant third.

I don't want to be a total killjoy and say that you can never have a drink again, but I don't want you to sabotage all your hard work to be healthier with alcohol, either. Let's take a look at how alcohol can undermine your weight-loss efforts.

1. ALCOHOL DIMINISHES YOUR BODY'S ABILITY TO BURN FAT
When you drink alcohol, it's broken down into acetate, which your body burns for energy first – before any other calorie source or stored fat. So the energy that we expend when we have alcohol in our system is coming from the alcohol, not the other carbohydrates or fats which have to be stored if they're not burned.

In plain English? Alcohol squashes our ability to burn fat. In fact, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found subjects who consumed less than an ounce of alcohol over a 30-minute time period decreased their body's ability to burn fat by 73 percent!

2. ALCOHOL WEAKENS OUR INHIBITIONS
Many of my clients tell me that they find themselves straying from their healthy eating habits when they've had a couple of drinks. When we drink alcohol, the functions our bodies use to tell us when we're full and when to stop eating are dulled. So not only are we more likely to give into temptation, we're also less likely to be able to tell when we've had enough.

In a UK Study that looked at alcohol's effect on calorie consumption, those who had the equivalent of two drinks ate up to 30% more. Building on that same principle, a Dutch study found that it took subjects longer to feel full when they drank alcohol before a meal, when compared to those who had a non-alcoholic beverage prior to eating. To put it simply, when we drink alcohol, we're more likely to eat too much of the wrong things.

3. ALCOHOL IS LOADED WITH CALORIES
Alcohol has nearly twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbohydrates. We've all read about the surprising calorie counts of our favorite alcoholic beverages – 740 calories in a margarita! 210 in a cosmopolitan! But even if you cut out the sugary mixers and liqueurs used in your favorite cocktails, you're still consuming a lot of empty calories. Remember: alcohol is not an essential nutrient. Any calorie we consume from alcohol is completely valueless.

4. ALCOHOL PREVENTS ABSORPTION OF VITAL NUTRIENTS
When we drink alcohol, the body shifts gears and focuses its energies on expelling the alcohol, which leaves little time for it to perform its other necessary functions, like processing vitamins and minerals and maintaining blood glucose levels, which are integral to maintaining a healthy metabolism. So not only does alcohol not have any nutrient value of its own, it also makes your body less able absorb and process nutrients that are valuable to you. So when we drink, those superfoods that we're trying to include in our diets become a whole lot less super.

5. ALCOHOL PREVENTS US FROM GETTING A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP
If you read my blog post on sleep's impact on our weight and bodies as a whole, you understand how important sleep is to our weight and overall health. Alcohol affects the quality of our sleep in a number of ways, from increased waking to shallower sleep, to pain due to heartburn caused by inflammation of your digestive system.

Not only that, but you can develop a dependence on alcohol to fall asleep, which actually works against you because it may help you fall asleep, but it won't help you get good quality sleep.

Has alcohol affected your diet efforts? Tweet me @harleypasternak – and let me know.

Check back every Wednesday for more insider tips from celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak on Hollywood's hottest bodies – and learn how to get one yourself! Plus: Follow Harley on Twitter at @harleypasternak

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Wall Street stymied as investors lack catalysts to trade

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday as investors, without any major economic reports to guide them, awaited fresh incentives to trade after rallies took the S&P 500 to five-year highs.

Transportation stocks were among the worst performers, weighed down by a 10 percent drop in CH Robinson Worldwide to $60.40 after the freight transport company posted a lower-than-expected adjusted quarterly profit.

The Dow Jones Transportation index <.djt> shed 0.3 percent after closing at a record high Tuesday for a gain of more than 10 percent in 2013.

The benchmark S&P 500 index has advanced 6 percent this year, climbing to its highest since December 2007. The Dow industrials <.dji> have risen above 14,000 recently, making it a challenge for investors to push stocks higher in the absence of strong positive catalysts.

"Overall, we believe that the next near-term market dip should provide an opportunity to buy stocks ahead of rallies higher in the coming months, but we are skeptical about the long-term sustainability of these gains due to the maturing age of the bull market," said Ari Wald, equity research analyst at C&Co\PrinceRidge in New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 5.28 points, or 0.04 percent, at 13,984.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 0.56 point, or 0.04 percent, at 1,511.85. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 1.67 points, or 0.05 percent, at 3,173.25.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index was supported by Apple Inc , which rose 1.1 percent to $462.62.

Walt Disney Co was among the bright spots, up 1.1 percent at $60.31, after the company beat estimates for quarterly adjusted earnings and gave an optimistic outlook for the next few quarters.

According to Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday morning, of 301 companies in the S&P 500 <.spx> that have reported earnings, 68.1 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters. In terms of revenue, 65.8 percent of companies have topped forecasts.

Looking ahead, fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to grow 4.7 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

The benchmark S&P index rose 1.04 percent Tuesday, its biggest percentage gain since a 2.5-percent advance on January 2 after lawmakers agreed on a temporary delay of the "fiscal cliff."

Ralph Lauren Corp climbed 8 percent to $178.15 as the best performer on the S&P 500 after reporting renewed momentum in its holiday-quarter sales and profits.

Time Warner Inc jumped 4.4 percent to $52.15 after reporting higher fourth-quarter profit that beat Wall Street estimates, as growth in its cable networks offset declines in its film, TV entertainment and publishing units.

Visa , the world's largest credit and debit card network, is expected to report earnings per share of $1.79 for its first quarter, up from $1.49 a year earlier. Smaller rival MasterCard MA.N recently reported better-than-expected results but said its revenue growth could slow in the first half of the year due to economic uncertainty.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Kenneth Barry)

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The Lede Blog: North Korean Propaganda Video Uses 'Call of Duty' and 'We Are the World' to Imagine a Brighter World, Without Manhattan

When aliens strike, the climate goes berserk, the Russians invade, an asteroid threatens the Earth, New York City is often the first place to be destroyed. Hollywood has long used the city’s skyline to demonstrate what destruction looks like in action movies and video games. It seems as if North Korea, in seeking to show how an assault on America would play out, also has Manhattan squarely in its cross hairs.

A new propaganda video, posted Sunday on a Web site and a YouTube channel that serve as outlets for North Korean state media, shows a computer-animated representation of Lower Manhattan in flames as bombs rain down.

A video posted on a North Korean YouTube channel this week features images of Manhattan in flames.

As a blogger for Kotaku reports, the attack on Manhattan is lifted straight from the video game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,” and unfolds as a sweeping instrumental version of “We Are the World” plays in the background.

The cartoonish propaganda clip is one of a slew of recent videos that have been released by North Korea to promote the country’s missile program. Although the video might make some observers laugh, the tension over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and missile program is deadly serious.

The United Nations Security Council voted on Jan. 22 to tighten sanctions against North Korea as punishment for a Dec. 12 rocket launch. In response, the North vowed to expand its nuclear program “both quantitatively and qualitatively” and conduct a third nuclear test at a “higher level.”

As our colleagues David Sanger and William Broad reported after December’s successful missile launch by North Korea, there is no evidence that the country currently has technology that can threaten the continental United States – much less New York.

Administration officials said that while the launching was successful — and advanced the North’s missile program — it was hardly a threat to the United States, despite a warning by Robert M. Gates in 2011, when he was secretary of defense, that the North would have a missile capable of reaching the United States by 2016.

The video begins with an image of a man in blue pajamas sleeping. He recounts a dream in words that appear on the screen. “I had a dream last night, a dream of soaring into space on board our Unha-9 rocket,” the man says.

Unha, Korean for galaxy, is the name of the North Korean rocket series. The latest one, launched in December, was the Unha-3. So the dreamer is imagining a future, more advanced version of the rocket. After first showing footage of a real rocket launch, the video shifts to animation.

“Our Kwangmyongsong-21 spacecraft got separated from the rocket and traveled through space,” he says.

Once again, the dream appears to show the advances North Korea hopes to make in the years to come. In December, the satellite launched by the North was rocket number 3. By the time the series reaches 21 in the man’s dream, the rocket looks like the American space shuttle. The animation at that point shows the spacecraft circling the globe in search of its target, the music from “We are the World” building as it moves closer to the United States.

“I see stars and the green Earth. I also see a unified Korea.” These words appear on screen as the video moves from animation back to real footage of people waving flags, in particular, a “Korea-is-one” flag. The video shows a unified, not divided, Korean Peninsula in blue, a symbol of Korean reunification.

Then the video shows an overhead image of New York draped in the American flag. “Meanwhile, I see black smoke rising somewhere in America,” the dreaming man says. “It appears that the headquarters of evil, which has had a habit of using force and unilateralism and committing wars of aggression, is going up in flames it itself has ignited.”

At this point in the video, the computer-animated scene copied from “Call of Duty” show Lower Manhattan in flames.

“Just imagine riding in a Korean spaceship. One day, my dream will come true,” the narrator says. “No matter how hard the imperialists try to isolate and stifle us, they will not stop our people’s path toward our final victory of achieving a unified, strong and prosperous Korea.”

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Tim McGraw Visits The Ellen DeGeneres Show - Sans Underwear!

By Maggie Coughlan

02/05/2013 at 01:45 PM EST

TMI, Tim McGraw!

Ellen DeGeneres has been known to hand out underwear with her show's name on it to her famous guests. And McGraw, who makes an appearance on Tuesday's episode, is seen wearing them in a photo taken while he was out for a jog.

"Are you wearing them right now?" DeGeneres asked the sexy country star, 45, who appeared on the latest issue of PEOPLE.

"No," McGraw answered.

"Why not?" DeGeneres asked.

"These pants were too tight to put underwear on," he explained. "Now I've really embarrassed my daughters ... what was I supposed to say?"

"It's always good to be honest around here," DeGeneres said. "Well, you look good."

McGraw – who has three daughters (Gracie Katherine, 15, Maggie Elizabeth, 14, and Audrey Caroline, 11) with wife Faith Hill – also spoke on his decision to get sober.

"When it gets to the point where you think it’s affecting you adversely and it’s affecting your relationships adversely, it’s time to make a change and I thought it was," he said. "I also thought my girls are getting older and I certainly wanted to have some good solid ground to stand on when I started talking to them about their situations."

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Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.

With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.

"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.

City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.

"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.

Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.

"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.

Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.

While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.

Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.

Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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S&P 500 gains more than 1 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 rose more than 1 percent on Tuesday as stronger-than-expected earnings helped the outlook for profit growth while the Nasdaq also traded more than 1 percent higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 121.55 points, or 0.88 percent, at 14,001.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 16.25 points, or 1.09 percent, at 1,511.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 38.08 points, or 1.22 percent, at 3,169.25.

(Reporting By Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Baby Girl on the Way for Kathryn Fiore

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

02/04/2013 at 01:00 PM ET

Courtesy Katheryn Fiore

Cue the lullaby: The Wedding Band is prepping for its littlest fan yet.

Actress Kathryn Fiore, 33, and her husband, actor Gabriel Tigerman, 32, are expecting a daughter in late May, her rep confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.

“We are expecting a baby girl!” the couple tell PEOPLE. “This is our first and we are over the moon excited!”

Fiore — who is also known for her sketch comedy on MADtv — and Tigerman, who has had roles on Supernatural and Journeyman, tied the knot at Malibu’s Pepperdine University in October 2008.

Her godfather, movie critic Rex Reed, served as their officiant.

– Anya Leon

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APNewsBreak: Catholic hospital acknowledges error

DENVER (AP) — A Catholic hospital on Monday acknowledged it was "morally wrong" for its attorneys to argue in court that a fetus is not a human being under Colorado law.

The admission comes after executives of Catholic Healthcare Initiatives met with Colorado's Roman Catholic bishops to discuss its defense in a wrongful death lawsuit filed after a mother and her unborn twins died in the emergency room of St Thomas More Medical Center in Canon City in 2006.

Disclosure of the hospital's successful legal arguments last month drew sharp criticism because they appeared to contradict church doctrine that life begins at conception. Colorado's bishops vowed to review the case. Catholic Healthcare Initiatives operates Thomas More and dozens of other Catholic hospitals.

In joint statements released Monday morning, the Bishops and CHI said the operation was "unaware" of the lawyers' legal arguments. They said that CHI executives acknowledged "it was morally wrong" to make that contention because it "directly contradicts the moral teachings of the Church."

The statements also noted that, while the legal status of the fetus was key to getting the case dismissed before trial, the hospital also won on appeal by arguing there was no proof that medical error caused the fetuses' deaths. The father of the unborn children is asking the Colorado Supreme Court to hear the case.

The Bishops and CHI extended their condolences to the family. They also pledged to pursue stronger legal protections for unborn children.

"Catholic healthcare institutions are, and should, be held to the high standard of Jesus Christ himself, who is our divine and eternal healer," said the Bishops' statement.

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Wall Street retreats from five-year high

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Monday after a disappointing report on factory orders, retreating from gains in the prior session that left the S&P 500 at a five-year high and the Dow above 14,000.

Investors also grew wary on political uncertainty in the euro zone, leading to a sharp rise in Spanish government bond yields.

Chevron and Wal-Mart were among the biggest drags on the Dow after analyst downgrades.

"S&P technicals are at overbought levels, and risk-off harbingers, such as Spanish 10-year yields, which are much more difficult for central bankers to tame, have bounced off recent lows," said Peter Cecchini, managing director at New York-based Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

Spanish and Italian bond yields rose, renewing worries about the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis. Spain's prime minister faced calls to resign over a corruption scandal, while a probe of alleged misconduct involving an Italian bank was expected to widen three weeks before a national election.

The benchmark S&P 500 rose on Friday, leaving it roughly 60 points away from its all-time intraday high of 1,576.09, while the Dow's march above 14,000 was the highest for the index since October 2007.

The S&P index <.spx> is up 5.5 percent for the year, with nearly half of the gains coming after U.S. legislators temporarily sidestepped the "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts.

Data from the Commerce Department showed overall factory orders rose 1.8 percent in December, below economists' expectations. The report said capital goods orders outside of the defense and aircraft industries, edged 0.3 percent lower. The category is seen as a gauge of U.S. business investment plans.

Economic data has pointed to a modest U.S. recovery, but the data have not been strong enough to upset investor expectations the Federal Reserve will continue its stimulus policy that has buoyed stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 117.19 points, or 0.84 percent, at 13,892.60. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 13.72 points, or 0.91 percent, at 1,499.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 37.77 points, or 1.19 percent, at 3,141.33.

The CBOE Volatility index VIX <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, jumped more than 10 percent to 14.48 by afternoon trade.

Chevron Corp dipped 1 percent to $115.34 after UBS cut its rating to neutral, while Wal-Mart Stores Inc shed 1.5 percent to $69.46 after JP Morgan lowered its rating on the world's largest retailer and reduced its price target.

Oracle Corp lost 2.6 percent to $35.28 after the company agreed to buy network gear maker Acme Packet Inc for about $1.9 billion. Acme Packet shares surged 22 percent to $29.20.

Shares of household products company Clorox rose 1.3 percent to $80.23 after quarterly profit beat analysts' estimates as a severe flu season boosted sales of disinfecting wipes.

Earnings are due from Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Yum! Brands Inc , owner of fast-food chains, after the closing bell.

According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 256 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings through Monday morning, 68.4 percent have reported earnings above analyst expectations compared with the 62 percent average since 1994 and the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.

S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are expected to rise 4.4 percent, according to the data. That estimate is above the 1.9 percent forecast at the start of earnings season, but well below the 9.9 percent fourth-quarter earnings forecast on October 1.

Herbalife Ltd slumped 3 percent to $34.03 after the New York Post newspaper reported the seller of weight loss products is facing a probe by the Federal Trade Commission.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)

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Lino Oviedo, Candidate in Paraguay, Dies in Crash

RIO DE JANEIRO — Lino Oviedo, a candidate in Paraguay’s presidential elections and one of the country’s most polarizing political figures, was killed in a helicopter crash on Saturday night while returning from a political rally in northern Paraguay, government officials said Sunday.

The fiery crash, which killed Mr. Oviedo, 69, an aide and the pilot of the helicopter, opens a new phase of uncertainty in Paraguay, one of Latin America’s most politically unstable countries. After authorities confirmed his death and called it an accident, officials in his party, the National Union of Ethical Citizens, immediately questioned whether Mr. Oviedo had been assassinated.

The death of Mr. Oviedo, a retired general who had led Paraguay’s army, brought an end to a tumultuous political career.

He initially gained prominence in 1989, when he helped topple Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, the dictator who ruled Paraguay for 35 years.

Mr. Oviedo fled the country in 1996, seeking exile first in Argentina then in Brazil, after being charged of organizing an aborted coup attempt against Juan Carlos Wasmosy, then Paraguay’s president.

The authorities also indicted Mr. Oviedo on charges of masterminding the assassination of Luis María Argaña, the vice president who was killed by gunmen outside Asunción in March 1999. But after Mr. Oviedo returned to Paraguay in 2004 and served time in prison in connection to the coup-plotting conviction, Paraguay’s Supreme Court absolved him of the various charges.

He then took up a hard-charging political career, campaigning as a populist who nimbly used Guaraní, Paraguay’s widely-spoken indigenous language, in his speeches. He became known as the “bonsai horseman,” in a nod to his short stature, and came in third in the country’s last presidential vote, in 2008.

Paraguay was officially commemorating Stroessner’s overthrow on Sunday, making the timing of the helicopter crash questionable for some of Mr. Oviedo’s political supporters. Paraguayan aviation authorities, while claiming that the helicopter went down in an area of northern Paraguay with stormy weather on Saturday night, said they would investigate the causes of the crash.

“Twenty-four years ago today General Oviedo overthrew the dictatorship,” César Durand, a spokesman for Mr. Oviedo’s party, told Radio Ñanduti. “This is a message from the mafia,” he said, employing a blanket term often used by Paraguayans to refer to shadowy organizations involved in drug trafficking and the contraband of pirated goods into neighboring Brazil.

Mr. Oviedo’s chances of winning Paraguay’s presidential election, scheduled for April, appeared to be slim, political analysts said. According to recent polls, support for Mr. Oviedo remained in the single digits, placing him far behind the front-runner in the race, Horacio Cartes, a banking and tobacco magnate.

The election comes after a stretch of political turmoil in Paraguay in which Paraguay’s Senate hastily ousted the president, Fernando Lugo, from office in June. Mr. Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, had ended six decades of one-party rule when he was elected, but faced fierce opposition from lawmakers to his attempts to reduce Paraguay’s disparity in landholdings.

If Mr. Cartes, 56, holds his lead, the presidency will return to the Colorado Party which long dominated Paraguay. Still, his campaign is facing questions over his business dealings. State Department diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks revealed claims in 2007 that a bank under Mr. Cartes’s control was involved in a great deal of Paraguay’s money-laundering activities.

Mr. Cartes has rejected the money-laundering claims, calling them “laughable rubbish.”

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