Modest weight cut = big benefits

What you eat can directly impact disease and health. And someone who is overweight can see enormous improvements in risk from certain diseases by dropping even a few pounds, according to dietitian Marty Lamb, of the LDS Hospital Health and Fitness Institute. Diet is part of disease risk for osteoporosis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, colon cancer and others.

"Even a modest decrease in weight, like 10 percent, significantly reduces the risk of a wide range of obesity-related diseases," Lamb said.

Diet and exercise are a powerful pair for improving health. "You can take someone who is underweight and in poor physical health — a couch potato — and that person will be less healthy than an overweight person who is very active," Lamb said.

Lamb and Libba Shannonhouse, exercise physiologist at the institute, will be featured during today's Deseret Morning New/Intermountain Healthcare Hotline, where the focus will be on eating and exercising to avoid illness and stay fit. From 10 a.m. to noon they'll take phoned-in questions and offer simple, doable tips on eating well and staying active.

In a fast-moving, convenience-food world, it's important to pay attention to labels and make smart choices, Lamb said.

"Parents set the standard. They do the shopping and cooking. Children are big mimics and they mimic what they see their parents do," she said.

Does that mean never eating out or always avoiding fast food? Of course not, Lamb said, "All foods can belong in a healthy diet. It's balance and making good choices. In a fast-food restaurant, get a single hamburger instead of the bigger one. Instead of fries, have a baked potato, side salad, chili, fresh fruit. It's not that you can't ever have fries but not always."

Food patterns develop from "the choices we make, and we owe it to our children to be good examples so that when they grow up and are on their own, good habits are developed," she said.

Food choices can also increase or reduce risk of developing certain illnesses. For instance, limiting intake of red meat, eating lots of vegetables and fruits and having about 1,200 milligrams of calcium is associated with a reduced risk of colon cancer, while a diet filled with red meats and fats and lacking whole grains increases risk.

The diet that decreases risk of colon cancer is also good news when it comes to cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and hypertension, Lamb said.