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JAMES R. LYONS, M.D., is a plastic surgeon practicing in Westport, Connecticut, a former clinical instructor at Yale University, and a diplomate of the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He is certified by the ABPS and is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the Connecticut Society of Plastic Surgeons, the New Haven Medical Society and the Yale Surgical Society. Dr. Lyons lives in Connecticut with his family.
Fat is your friend.
I'm determined to help you rethink what your fat is. It might take some time to wrap your mind around that idea, but the simple truth is that everyone needs fat. Not a diet that's fat-free. Not a diet that's low-fat. Not a diet fueled by the notion of "I'll get fat if I eat fat."
You need good, nutritious, healthful fats in your food. And you need good, firm, resilient brown fat in your body—not the old yellow fat that's basically mush—for not just optimum health but optimum beauty, too. The difference between young fat and old fat is like the difference between a smooth round plum and a wrinkled prune. One is dense, smooth, and rounded, and the other is not.
Furthermore, the recently published studies on deep, functional brown fat provide clear evidence that, ironically, the answer to the obesity epidemic may be more straightforward than formerly thought. For these scientists, the answer lies in the fat cell itself!
So let's take a look at the crucial role of fat—and what you can do about getting rid of old yellow fat and replacing it with new brown fat.
We're Obsessed with Fat—but for all the Wrong Reasons
Too many people in our country are becoming alarmingly obese. Cookbooks and health books and talk shows and magazine articles are constantly bombarding us with images and facts about the fat that causes diseases—and kills. There is, in fact, a particular mindset where it's all too easy to see fat as the enemy without understanding how and why the right kind of fat is so important. And because many people do not understand what nutrients the body needs and when to eat them, they end up eating all the wrong things, and put on more weight. Or they become alarmingly thin, somehow thinking that starving themselves of all fat is the only way to achieve that superflat belly and those jutting cheekbones.
Michelle Obama has Great Fat; Madonna Doesn't
Michelle Obama has an amazing body—not because it's got the most amazing shape, but because she's amazingly average, with exactly the right amount of good brown fat in her face and body.
It's interesting to take a look at her figure, as she's got broad shoulders, a small bust, and a small waist, yet wide hips, an ample butt, and long legs. She's not skinny, and she's not fat—she's firm and toned, with exceptionally well-defined upper arms. She exudes health and vitality. Her posture is perfect and she carries herself with elegance and grace. Most of all, she's a woman comfortable in her own skin.
Compare Michelle's lovely strong curves with Madonna's angular, supermuscled and almost terrifyingly buff body. Although Madonna is only five years Michelle's senior, she looks much older, because she has almost no body fat at all. Unless she's carefully lit in photographs, she can look harsh, haggard, and tired.
In other words, Michelle Obama has got great fat. Madonna doesn't. That doesn't mean I don't admire Madonna for her singing and dancing talent, her staggering discipline, her work ethic, and her seemingly inexhaustible energy and stamina. Personally, I believe that if Madonna stopped her compulsively long workouts (a reported minimum of four hours a day) and gained about fifteen pounds, she would look so spectacular she'd knock your socks off.
But the right fat in the right areas is a good thing. It's an intrinsic part of your body. If you want to feel good and look good, it's essential to have a body where all systems are functioning at optimum levels, both physically and mentally.
Just as important: understanding that eating the right kind of fat will not make you fatter.
That is, you will not get fatter if you eat the kind of fat that's good for your body; eat it at the right times during the day, along with carbohydrates, to keep your metabolism on an even keel; and don't eat so much of it that your body automatically stores it instead of burning it off.
So when did we make the switch from looking at adorable little babies with rolls of fat on their thighs, wanting to blow on their dumpling bellies to make them peal with laughter…to being afraid to eat properly and obsessing about every calorie we put in our mouths, even as we struggle to maintain a healthy weight or a figure with curves where we want them?
I've spent many hours trying to figure out when fat became a four-letter word. I clearly remember the day when the daughter of a family friend was over, and my wife and I were watching a Marilyn Monroe movie. This teenager had never seen Marilyn in her prime before. And what was the girl's response? That Marilyn was sexy, or beautiful, or vulnerable? I wish! Instead, she said, "Oh my God. She's so fat!"
It was a disheartening moment, I have to say, as Marilyn's glorious curves are certainly not what I'd consider to be "fat." And, as someone who's devoted his life to optimum health, it pains me to look at images of seriously underweight and undernourished Hollywood stars, with their toothpick legs, pin-thin arms, and cheeks that are rounded due not to good brown fat but to the miracles of modern medicine, which has created the kind of substances that can be injected or inserted into them to plump them up. I'm left wondering how these stars can continue to function with such patently unhealthy bodies—and what kind of role models they are for the women of the world.
Frankly, I think thin is bad. You can't be a stick and be healthy. And the older you get, the more aging this gaunt thinness becomes.
I have an intimate knowledge of the danger of thinness, because as a plastic surgeon, I deal with it on a daily basis. From my point of view, what I do for a living is plump up thin faces, and put implants in areas of the body perceived by their owners to be too thin, whether their cheeks or their jaws, their breasts or their butts. Not that any of this is wrong, of course. But what, really, is the heart of the issue?
It's fat, of course!
Fat Basics
Your body intrinsically knows, within the modulation of its metabolism, how much fat it needs to function. Anything beyond that will be stored for future use, to supply energy when needed.
Your body prefers to store energy as fat, as a direct result of tens of thousands of years of evolution. Early humans had trouble finding food, especially calorie-dense food. Plus they were in constant motion as they went hunting every day. As fat is calorie dense, with nine kilocalories per gram (carbohydrates and protein each have four kilocalories per gram), it became the most efficient way to provide the stored energy our ancestors needed for survival.
Fast-forward to the present, when we're no longer hunter/gatherers and have every conceivable food at our fingertips. While we've evolved enough to create art and music and send a man to the moon, the human body's technology has not evolved at the same pace. It still thinks it's going to have to hunt for its next meal, so it will always hoard all excess calories in the form of fat—if you let it.
Why You Need Fat
Fat is necessary for several basic bodily functions. Your body needs a certain amount of fat to store the vitamins A, D, E, and K, which are necessary to maintain the health of your cell membranes and its walls, as well as the overall health of skin, bones, and the immune and clotting systems. Bodies must also have fat for the brain and the neuro-system, so nerves can fire properly and communicate with each other. This is why it's so important for babies to have a lot of fat in their diets; without it, their brains won't develop properly.
With only a minimal amount of fat in your body, you won't feel very well and you'll look horrible. Your skin will be dull, your immune system will be compromised, and your energy level will be nonexistent.
I've seen the horrifying effects of a superstrict no-fat diet in the bodybuilders who train at my gym. In the weeks before a competition, these guys starve themselves to make their muscles look more ripped. Not only is this unhealthy, but their faces become so drawn and pale, it's not an exaggeration to say that they look like they're dying. Their brains are so starved for fat and carbohydrates that their synapses aren't firing properly. They tell me they feel like they're out of control. Basically, they are, as they literally can't think straight.
About Insulin, Glycogen, and What Causes Yellow Fat
Since your body will always store excess calories as fat, if you eat too much of any food that is converted into fat, it's converted into the kind of bad yellow fat you don't want.
Think of your food as coal being added to a furnace. If you add too much coal, the fire gets too hot and then burns out. If there's always way too much coal, the bottom of the pile will become powdered and useless, similar to low-quality yellow fat.
Whenever you eat carbohydrates, your body secretes insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar, to maintain an even blood-sugar level. Insulin wants excess sugars out of the blood, so it immediately spikes and then falls to move the excess someplace less harmful—like your fat cells. Your yellow fat cells.
An additional part of the process has to do with glycogen, the name for your body's initial stores of carbohydrates. Most glycogen is stored in the liver and muscles, and released when your body needs it. In other words, glycogen is an energy source that is immediately available so your brain can function well and your muscles can move where you want them to.
If you eat the right amount of food, your body will not need to store any excess calories, which are always stored as fat. Instead, it will store the calories only as glycogen. When glycogen storage is exceeded, the extra glucose is deposited as fat. At first, it's deposited into good, brown fat cells. Healthy brown fat tissue is well contained in a framework of fascia, which keeps fat in a tight cluster supporting the overlying skin and firmly attached to the underlying muscles. There is a defined level at which fat tissue can maintain a homeostatic relationship with the surrounding fascia, blood supply, and lymphatic drainage—the three work together to create the shapes of youth in the face and body.
Now, fat cells do not increase in number as we gain weight. They only get larger. If you overeat, eat poorly, or don't exercise, excess fat increases in volume. As the fascia stretches, the fat starts to fall off the muscles and does not buttress the skin with the same firmness. If the cells become too enlarged, the fascia stretches along with the connective tissue holding the cells together and thinning of the nutrient blood vessels cannot contain the cell volume and the shape and tone, so they start to look loose and yellow—shapeless. The scale of fat quality is a continuum, from brown to yellow. Yellow fat is brown fat turned bad.
So if you eat too much, your insulin will keep on desperately trying to get the excess sugars out of your blood, and you'll never be able to deplete your glycogen stores to trigger the conversion process from bad yellow fat to good brown fat. Instead, you'll just get fatter and fatter in an endless cycle of blood-sugar highs and lows followed by increased storage of yellow fat.
As you'll learn in chapter 4, figuring out the balance of glycogen storage (to prevent excess consumed calories being stored as fat) with glycogen availability (to give you energy and to avoid any breakdown of your muscles) will be the foundation of your Eating Plan. Mobilizing glycogen for energy use is determined more by diet than by exercise.
The evolutionary "excess calories automatically get stored as fat" phenomenon is the basis of understanding yo-yo dieting. If you stick to a very calorie- and fat-restrictive diet, your body will automatically click into starvation mode, lessening its daily caloric need. Yet even when you start to eat normally again, your body will remain less efficient at processing the nutrients, and you'll quickly gain weight, and then some. Then you go back to a superrestrictive diet to lose the weight, and the vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting spirals out of control.
In addition, those who work out like crazy but don't eat properly will shrink in an unhealthy fashion; since they rapidly deplete their glycogen, they end up burning both fat and muscle for energy. Their bodies read the lack of glycogen as starvation, so their metabolism slows down, too. And those who work out like crazy but eat too much do not lose weight because as their glycogen is replenished, their appetites increase. As soon as they replenish their glycogen stores, any excess calories turn into yellow fat.
Your body weight is not the only indicator that you may have a lot of bad yellow fat. Sometimes those who are only very slightly overweight, who appear to be in excellent health, who have normal blood work and blood pressure and no inclination toward type 2 diabetes, have too-high yellow fat stores. Yet the damage that's going on hasn't been noticed yet because it's all internal. It's like a car that stalls suddenly for no apparent reason, and you've got no idea the engine is about to blow up!
Converting Yellow Fat to Brown Fat
Since you know that once your glycogen stores are all filled up, any other calories that come into the body are going to automatically be stored as yellow fat, the trick is to keep this glycogen storage level as close to even as possible. Have too little fat and carbohydrates, and you'll go into starvation mode. Have too much and you'll develop too much yellow fat.
What you want instead is healthy brown fat.
When you add fuel slowly and continuously, the fire in your body's furnace will burn evenly and steadily. Our bodies are designed to burn fat preferentially, so if the bad yellow fat becomes the most available form of fuel—in other words, when you can use it up instead of storing it—it will keep on getting burned up. Instead of losing muscle, healthy brown fat, and bone, as happens on most restrictive diets, all you'll lose is your bad yellow fat.
At the same time, when you eat nutritionally sound foods like complex carbohydrates, your body's need for the fat it must have for cell functions remains stable. With a constant and even concentration of glycogen in the muscles and liver, the body now thinks that glucose is no longer needed, so it's not immediately stored as bad yellow fat.
Our bodies "make" brown fat the same way we make all our tissues healthy anywhere. So instead of just thinking about losing pounds as you would during a typical weight-loss diet, I want you to be thinking about fat replacement, too—as in replacing yellow fat with dense brown fat.
That's because, as you know, the right volume in the right place is what makes you look shapely and youthful. Brown fat is not about weight—it's about shape.
What do Yellow Fat and Brown Fat Look Like?
From my perspective as a surgeon with thirty years of experience cutting into bodies of all shapes and sizes, it's immediately apparent that yellow fat and brown fat look and feel and behave very differently.
If you look at yellow fat under a microscope, it's all white. It appears to have large vacuoles, which are large spaces inside a cell. The cell walls are stretched and there's very little fibrous tissue or blood vessels.
When I cut through yellow fat during surgery, there's little to no bleeding, which is very unhealthy; it's an indicator of how bad eating habits have a visible effect on the health of your tissues, even when you can't see them on the surface. Seeing yellow fat on the inside is like seeing the leathery, wrinkled skin on the outside of a woman who smokes and tans too much.
When I'm performing surgery on a healthy female patient, however—one who's nourished herself well and exercised often—I don't see yellow fat. I see firm brown fat in certain areas of the body—the areas that define the patient's gender.
Your body has well-defined areas where fat cells are located: on top of the muscles (subcutaneous, deep fat), in the abdomen (intra-abdominal fat), and in the organs (like the fat in the liver, for example). We're born with the number of fat cells, or adipocytes, that we'll carry through life; these cells can get larger or smaller as you gain or lose weight, but they can't multiply.
In each area, there is a predetermined network of connective tissue to organize and form the fat cells, a certain number of blood vessels to supply the fat with nutrients, and a certain number of lymphatics to drain the fatty tissue. If the size of the fat cells does not overwhelm the network of connective tissue; if the blood supply keeps up with the metabolism of each cell so it functions at the optimal metabolic rate; and if the size of the cells does not overwhelm the lymphatic drainage channels, you have brown fat.
Brown fat gets its color from thick, fibrous tissue between its cells, as well as countless blood vessels. As a result, it looks brown—more of a tan color, actually—because blood is constantly supplying and replenishing the fibrous tissue and fat.
In addition, brown fat is compact and shapely. It looks youthful (because it is). Brown fat adheres tightly to the overlying skin and underlying muscles. This cohesive relationship of skin, fat, and muscle defines youth!
With yellow fat, on the other hand, the network of connective tissue is over-stretched due to the enormous fat cells, the equally stretched blood vessels course scantily through the cells, and cell membranes are loose and sometimes fragmented due to sluggish cellular metabolism that gets little nourishment because there's no blood to supply it. Yellow fat actually feels greasy as a result. Nor does it support the overlying skin or have the resilience to help contour the underlying muscles. It's blobby, with no defined volume. Or rather, its volume translates to old!
You can easily get an idea of what old yellow fat looks like every time you see a raw steak. When raw, the thick lumps of fat on the end are a dense, opaque white. It's got a very specific kind of greasy feel to it when you touch it.
On a raw chicken, yellow fat is definitely bright yellow, and in big clumps that you can pull out of the cavity or trim near the tail. Many chickens, though, don't have a lot of visible yellow fat anymore, as they've been bred to be extra-lean. Which is a good thing for you.
(Moral of the story: Always trim your meat. The kind of fat that's bad for you looks pretty gross on the outside—and you don't want it on your insides!)
Yellow Fat is Pervasive, Too
One of the biggest problems with yellow fat is that it's pervasive. It moves into your vital organs, and particularly into your abdomen area and around your intestines. This pervasiveness is basically why people who are overweight have so many health problems. The quality of their tissues is poor; their metabolism is sluggish; and there's an increased demand on the heart and lungs. The body is in chronic overload, as if it's a truck dragging an entire house behind it all the time.
I was reminded of the pervasiveness of yellow fat when I was discussing it with a patient recently, and she told me about an incident that happened to her decades before, when she had gone to the hospital for some severe endocrine problems and had shared a room with several other patients, including a morbidly obese woman. This woman urgently needed a liver biopsy, normally a simple procedure done under local anesthesia, so one day the surgeon and his team came into the room, drew the curtains around her bed, and sedated her. They got to work, and then a few minutes later there was an ungodly crash. The surgeon came stomping out, his face beet red, swearing at the top of his lungs. What had happened? He'd been unable to find this woman's liver. Her yellow fat had completely obscured her internal organs.
Anyway, this hot-tempered surgeon got so frustrated—inappropriately so, I might add—that he knocked the instruments to the floor. But I could understand his frustration, because he wanted the best for this woman. He knew her life was now at grave risk because she'd have to have general anesthesia for a simple biopsy.
The bottom line is, there is never going to be any need for yellow fat. We don't need it to give us energy—we have glycogen and good brown fat for that. So beyond what you look like, it increases your need for insulin, makes you prone to diabetes, makes you feel sluggish, and may increase your risk during medical procedures. It is intermingled with all tissues of your body—your heart, liver, everywhere. It's pretty gross.
The Skinny on Fat
Anyone who's seen a recent fashion show knows that the runway models are so skinny you could seemingly blow them over like a feather—but they've also got jiggly bottoms and wobbly thighs. Why? Because they don't eat enough, or they don't eat properly when they do eat, and many don't exercise. (Believe me, I'm not blaming them—I'm blaming the fashion industry.) So the tiny amount of fat these models have is mushy yellow fat. These women are barely out of their teens, a size 00, yet they're fat and skinny at the same time.
Superskinny models are the visible embodiment of yellow fat versus brown fat. That they deprive themselves of good nutrition means they don't have good-quality tissue. Just as skin will reflect damage done to it by smoking and excessive tanning and look old before its time, doing the wrong things to the tissues of your body will be visible, too. Poor-quality tissues, such as yellow fat, are going to look and act a certain way whether there's too much of them (as in an overweight person) or too little (as in a severely underweight person).
Next time there's a Hollywood award show on TV, watch the actresses walking down the red carpet—you know, the actresses who are lovely, gorgeous, talented, and starving. See who's very thin, yet still has a little pooch in the front. That's bad yellow fat.
Even though these actresses often follow vigorous exercise regimens, they don't know how to target the excess yellow fat in their abdomens or butts and replace it with healthy brown fat. Their bodies are desperate for any fat at all—so they'll hold on to whatever they can get. This is due to a condition called lipodystrophy, the hormone-driven phenomenon responsible for areas of collected fat in certain areas of the body. These areas are the most resistant areas to weight loss, and need a little push—namely Lose the Fat, Lose the Years program.
Yellow fat has no purpose except to, well, hang there and make you feel miserable and look older.
Too Little Fat
While I can't do much about the bodybuilders who are starving themselves before a competition, I can try to do something about the countless patients who erroneously think that avoiding fat or severely restricting calories will help them get or remain superthin.
If you don't have enough of the good brown fat, you'll get way too thin—not attractively lean, but scary skinny!
Without fat for energy, you'll have minimal glycogen stores in your body. Then if you decide to work out, you'll deplete all your stored glycogen, and your muscles won't work properly. They'll be too weak. And weak muscles can't get stronger, so you won't put on any of the lean muscle mass that makes you look youthful and strong.
From the Inside Out: The Importance of Nourishing Your Cells
As I discussed in the introduction, on April 9, 2009, several articles in The New England Journal of Medicine discussed the thermogenic, or heat-producing, properties of brown fat cells found deep in the body. The findings were particularly newsworthy because these researchers discovered that the thermogenic effects of these fat cells can be activated in adult humans after long exposure to cold temperatures.
The researchers also showed that the number of thermogenic brown fat cells you have, like the subcutaneous brown fat that I have studied and operated on for decades, is inversely proportional to your weight and your body mass index (which is a measure of fat, not just weight). Leaner people have more brown fat cells than overweight people.
Fat cells and all other cells are the basic building blocks of your body. If these cells aren't properly nourished, it's going to show, particularly in the luster of your skin and the shape of your muscles.
What you eat and the way you behave affects all cell functions. It's actually at the cellular level where it's determined how you're going to age—and where your young fat is going to go. Furthermore, the reasons why the right kind of exercising makes you look more youthful is because it stimulates and replenishes cells, improves blood flow, and more efficiently moves nutrients to where they are needed.
If you don't nourish your cells properly, it's as if you are creating a toxic situation in your cells. Fortunately, replacing old yellow fat with new brown fat is going to nurture your cells so they work at peak efficiency.
But Lose the Fat, Lose the Years is designed to replenish these glycogen stores throughout the day, to keep the fuel burning evenly. Which is why it's absolutely essential to eat a postworkout meal, as this will supply instant calories for your muscles so they'll be able not only to replenish themselves, but to prevent the stressed muscles from cannibalizing other muscles after the demands of the workout.
With the Eating Plan, you'll keep your metabolism evenly burning and therefore working most efficiently, so your body won't be converting calories into fat deposits. It won't need to. And that's when the weight will finally come off—and stay off.
Fat: It's all About the Volume
My son Blake used to be on his college dive team, so he gets what makes muscles work and become shapely with the right kind of weight training; and after listening to me discuss my theories over the years, he gets metabolism and brown and yellow fat.
"Fat is the language of volume," he told me. "Because volume is created by fat."
And volume is what makes us look youthful.
If you close your eyes and envision a twenty-year-old face and a fifty-five-year-old face, then erase all the wrinkles from their skin, which face will appear older?
The twenty-year-old face will be round and curvy. The fifty-five-year-old face will be thinner and more angular. It'll look older due not to the amount of wrinkles, but to its shape, lost volume, and the distribution of fat.
Having the right amount of good brown fat that will keep you looking and feeling youthful is like building a house with a strong and sturdy foundation. You want a structurally sound house—and you want a structurally sound body, too. If you don't create a solid structure that will properly support what's built upon it, anything you do to the surface will be cosmetic only. It's like painting a house without priming it first—the paint will soon peel and flake, leaving the raw wood exposed to the elements and ruining your house.
Fat and Your Face
You need good brown fat supporting the tissues in your face to create a soft, youthful look. Losing this fat as you grow older changes the volume of your face, making it look gaunt. Despite what cosmetics companies often claim, their moisturizers and creams can treat only the outer layers of your skin—they can't treat the underlying tissues, so there's nothing you can buy over the counter to replace lost volume in your face.
The Fat and Fat Pockets of Your Face
What surgeons have learned is that you don't have one solid sheet of fat under your skin, although it looks like that when you're young. Instead, there are several fat "pockets" that all have their own internal aging clock. The different pockets of fat gain and lose volume separately, and sag with gravity at different rates—explaining why your face doesn't age uniformly.
Although you have no control over how these pockets of fat in your face are going to age, since you can't control the pull of gravity, you do have the ultimate control over how you affect them—by the way you behave. And the way not to behave is by losing all your good brown fat. As you know, brown fat creates volume and plumps up skin to make you look youthful. So when you get rid of bad yellow fat and replace it with dense brown fat, it will make a startling improvement to the shape of your face.
Aging from the Top Down
Let's divide the face into four segments, so you can more clearly understand how it ages: the forehead, the eye area, the cheeks, and the central face (the lips and chin, or perioral area, meaning around the mouth).
These four segments are all unique, especially in texture; the forehead skin is fairly thick, while eyelid skin is more like silk, and cheek skin is smooth and peachy. They age at different rates, because they're affected by different processes. Foreheads and the perioral skin, for example, respond to the constant movements of the muscles underneath; eyelids are affected by wrinkling and by fat; cheeks are affected by how the fat gradually slides down toward the jawline.
The key point is that the four segments usually age from the top down. This is relevant to understanding fat because what fills your face with volume, what supports your skin and creates the undulations of youth, is brown fat. With age, facial fat descends, diminishes in quality, and becomes more yellow in consistency.
Improve the quality of your facial fat, and your face will automatically look better. Dense, toned brown fat hugs the bones and muscles and intimately supports the overlying skin; lose the coalescence of these tissues and you'll have a face that truly shows its age.
Aging from the top down happens externally and internally, on the topical level of your skin itself and to the underlying structure of fat, muscle, and bone. Most often, you'll first see wrinkles on the forehead, then on the eyelids, then in the crow's-feet area, then the cheeks, and then the nasolabial fold, or the line running from your nose down to your lips.
As we get older, vertical lines—what I call the elevens—start to appear between your brows and in the deepening of the nasolabial folds. You'll also see the eyebrows descending, the cheeks losing shapeliness, and the chin line becoming less defined and more jowly.
To me, the cheeks are the most interesting part of the aging face, as well as the most difficult part to correct without the correction being obvious. That's because the volume of the cheek, the beautiful curve right over the cheekbone in the apple (referred to in medical terminology as an ogee curve), which then descends down to the mouth segment, has nothing to do with skin. It has everything to do with fat.
I like to call the aging of the cheek "devolution." The fat actually flattens out and falls down, leaving a hollowing-out under the eye. The apple descends and creates a jowl, as if it were dripping fat like wax melting down a candle.
Restoring the quantity and quality of the volume in your cheeks is what truly creates a youthful contour, whether you're thirty or seventy.
Fat and Your Body
Aging from the top down doesn't just affect your face. Your entire body starts to, well, droop from the neck down to your torso and eventually reaching your ankles and feet—primarily due, of course, to changes in fat distribution. But, as you've figured out by now, only if you let it!
The controlling factor when it comes to the distribution of fat in the aging process is your hormones. They're responsible for the shape of your body, whether it's 99, 150, or 250 pounds.
About Hormones
Estrogen is the female hormone that rules all other female hormones, particularly during its profound fluctuations during puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause/menopause.
The amount of estrogen your body produces will define your fat distribution. It's that simple—and the reason why men and women put on weight differently.
When a young girl moves toward puberty and gets her first period, she'll start to deposit fat in her thighs. During the ensuing decades of fertility, fat will obviously be distributed in the breasts and abdomen during pregnancy. As estrogen as well as progesterone levels begin to decline, changes in fat distribution become even more pronounced. At the same time, the male hormones, or androgens (which all women have), become more pronounced, triggering the movement of fat to areas like the arms, the front of the neck, the sides of the breasts, and the central abdomen.
Obviously, hormonal changes are happening slowly over time, and there's no predicting how you'll fare during your lifetime. But it must be said that if your health isn't good, if you don't eat well, and if you don't exercise, chances are much higher that you'll suffer more extreme symptoms as menopause approaches, because you'll have less brown fat and more of the yellow fat that wreaks havoc on your body.
Why "Spot Reducing" is a Fallacy
There's no such thing as "spot reducing"—but I can't tell you how many of my patients think that if they do a lot of crunches, their bellies are going to get thinner. Or that if they do a lot of arm exercises, their arms will lose fat, too.
Your body is predisposed to put on fat in certain areas, and from a physiological point of view, there's just not anything you can do about it. But—and this is the crucial but—if you have good brown fat in the areas where fat tends to be visible (like the belly), you won't really notice it. It will lie flat near your muscles. It will be dense and resilient and supportive, so you won't get that droopiness or pooching that you associate with getting older. It will create the curves and shadows of a healthy, attractive body.
The Rest of the Body Ages, Too
Why do we age?
Basically, all of the structures of our bodies are held together in a toned fashion by elastic fibers and collagen. Together, they make up the "scaffolding" of what we call connective tissue. The matrix, or substance that surrounds the elastic fibers and collagen, is made up of mucopolysaccharides, which are what hold water in tissue. Think of it as the fabric or the netting in between cells. With age, the connective tissue loosens and becomes more lax.
While there's nothing you can do about the fact that collagen and elastin are going to degrade over time, you can certainly retard the process by living and eating well. A fifty-year-old woman who's in good shape and who's never smoked is much more likely to look vibrant and youthful than an overweight smoker, due to the better quality of her connective tissue. It's why such a woman will have a younger "Visual Age" than her overweight, smoking counterpart who is the same chronological age.
Ideally, you want to have a Visual Age that is lower than your chronological age. You'll certainly be able to do that when you follow the Eating and Exercise Plans in this book.
How your skeleton holds up over the years is one of the basic markers of aging. Bones tend to demineralize and therefore get softer over time, especially in women. This can be exacerbated if you're calcium deficient, leading to osteoporosis. If the osteoporosis is extreme, you literally lose inches of height.
Your organs also work less productively as you age. This has nothing to do with fat. Believe me, if scientists could figure out how to stave off these inexorable changes, we would all live a lot longer.
And Now…Onward to Lose the Fat, Lose the Years
What is the essence of Lose the Fat, Lose the Years?
When it comes to fat, what do we all want to do? We want to control the volume of fat in our bodies as well as the quality of this fat. We also want to have faces and bodies that are as healthy and youthful-looking as possible.
So why do people get fat? The principle is simple: You put on fat when you put more energy into your body (with food) than you put out (with energy expended, as with exercise). But the solution to managing fat in/fat out is not simple at all—which is why obesity is at epidemic levels. The average American doesn't know how to eat well or when, or how much exercise to do and what exercises will be best for them.
Lose the Fat, Lose the Years will show you that instead of thinking of fat as the enemy, you can learn how to harness its power to reshape your body and improve your health.
The Eating Plan will teach you that when you eat specific kinds of foods (either carbohydrates or protein) at specific times during the day, you won't have any excess carbohydrates left in your body to be converted into yellow fat.
Eating six times a day will keep your blood sugar at an even level, so you will avoid the peaks and valleys of cravings that lead to bingeing. Your body will quickly come to realize that more nutritious food will always be coming every few hours, so it will no longer be primed to store any excess as yellow fat. Calories will automatically become good brown fat.
The Exercise Plan will help you strengthen and shore up the nonbulky muscles of your core—all the muscles that define a youthful silhouette. Lean muscle has high energy requirements, so even at rest it will keep your metabolism elevated. (It's as if you'll be creating a muscle furnace!) Combine the new, stronger, leaner muscles with the balanced approach to eating, and you will not only get rid of your yellow fat, but also strengthen the rest of your body as well as improve your posture.
This system will work even if you have declining hormone levels—the hormones that trigger more fat deposits as you age. As you get older, your body preferentially deposits fat in specific sites, most noticeably the abdomen, flanks, outer thighs, and upper arms. (When this happens is determined by your genes and your gender.) But once you replace these hormone-triggered, "middle-age" zones of yellow fat with dense and resilient brown fat, your body will once again look younger and more shapely.
Read on, and you'll see how Lose the Fat, Lose the Years will work for you.
LOSE THE FAT, LOSE THE YEARS Copyright © 2009 by James R. Lyons, M.D


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Reviews for Eternal Life LyricsPerformed by Jeff Buckley
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Jeff Buckley was a great and smart man | Reviewer: Joey | 11/28/07
The message of the song is the truth and I'm glad Mr. Buckley was able to convey that. I was skeptical of liking Jeff Buckley when I originally was introducted to his music but after to listening to songs like this one, I have really change the way I view him as an artist. He was truly talented!
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subset: commoncrawl


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LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. - Only on WINK, we are hearing from a teenager who was on a ride that malfunctioned Tuesday night, injuring five people. The accident happened on Ring of Fire at the Lehigh Spring Festival at Veterans Park. That ride remains closed and according to the State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, it will stay closed for some time.
Franklin Zamora, who was on Ring of Fire when it malfunctioned, tells us he and his family are still shaken. Troubling memories from Tuesday night are all too fresh in his mind. "The ride came to a halt," Zamora said. "You felt the sudden impact. I felt something hit my leg. I'm not exactly sure what it was because it was too sudden to tell. The person beside me was screaming, get me out of here."
The 15-year-old was one of the last riders strapped into Ring of Fire before something - which we still don't know - went very wrong. A witness filmed a chaotic scene on their cell phone just moments after it happened.
"One," Zamora recalled, "her whole face was bleeding. I find out I have contusions all over my body. It still hurts to move my neck."
The State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said the Ring of Fire will not reopen for some time, and will not be removed until the investigation is complete. After that, officials say more investigation will be needed before the ride can be set up again.
Zamora said Modern Midways, which operates the ride, offered no apology and very little compensation. He's now considering a lawsuit.
A Modern Midways manager declined to comment, only saying that all of the riders are okay.
"Had that ride stopped a little bit above, none of us would probably be here," Zamora said. "I don't want anybody else injured. I'd like to see Modern Midways pay for what they did, pay for their negligence, their lack of safety, their lack of care."
A state inspector traveled to Lehigh Wednesday, taking pictures and checking each part of Ring of Fire. We won't know what exactly caused the malfunction or if any fines could be issued until the investigation is complete.
President of the Lehigh Spring Festival Andy Reisinger released this statement: "The Board of Directors of the Lehigh Spring Festival and all its volunteers are deeply saddened by the tragic incident, which occurred at "The Ring of Fire" carnival ride, which is owned and operated by Modern Midways. We hope that all victims involved in this incident will quickly recover from their sustained injuries. As safety and security of our patrons and guests is always our number one priority, we are certain that a thorough investigation by the proper authorities will provide us with the much needed answers, why such incident occurred. The Lehigh Spring Festival is a staple and an annual tradition of our community, which has provided Lehigh Acres with a family oriented, fun filled festival for almost 40 years. Once again, we wish everyone who was involved in this incident a speedy and full recovery."


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Monday- Friday Lunch Specials
Served 11:00 am – 2:00 pm — $6.50 – $7.50 w/cup of soup
2 soups featured daily_ Bowl of soup $3.50, Cup of soup $2.00
Monday: Hot Beef, Mashed Potato, gravy and vegetable.
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Friday: MADE TO ORDER – Fish Platter or Shrimp Burger Basket
Dinner specials start at 5:00 pm (unless noted)
Monday – Wing Night – 6 wings for $3.00, Happy Hour 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm with Margaritas $3.75, Corona Beer and Bud Light Lime $3.00 and OPEN MENU
Tuesday – Burger or BBQ Pork Basket $5.50, OPEN MENU, Texas Hold'em, registration 5:30 pm, play starts 6:30 pm.
Wednesday – Chicken Buffet $7.50 and OPEN MENU. TO GO order available is ½ chicken plus sides. "BARGO" starting at 6:00pm in the bar, Free Juke Box to follow, Happy Hour 8:00pm – 10:00pm
Thursday – BBQ Ribs, fries, slaw, ½ Rack $8.00 or Full Rack $14.00 and OPEN MENU
Friday – Fish Fry Every Friday 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm in the hall, Fried or Baked Fish, choice of potato, slaw, and roll, single serving $8.50 or All U can eat $11.00, or FRIDAY NIGHT MENU, Meat Raffle 5:30 pm, KARAOKE 8:00 pm – midnight.
Saturday – Kitchen open from 11:00 am – 9:00 pm, OPEN MENU, Bar Bingo 6:30 pm, progressive jackpot starts at $400 and goes up $100 per week until someone wins or up to $1199.
Sunday – BBQ Pork Sandwich w/chips $4.50, Noon – 8:00 pm, Key Chain drawing 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm See posting for jackpot amount.
Must be 18 years old to play BINGO, BARGO AND MEAT RAFFLES


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Manual can opener?
- BeeZee Nov 14, 2008 04:53 PM
I'm sick of the electric can opener taking up space on the counter when it's used at the most once a week...plus I can't ever clean all of the gross gook off the blade area.
What's your favorite hand-cranked can opener? I know OXO gets good marks for ergonomics, do they have one that works well? What do you use?
Hand cranked or thumb cranked? There is a huge difference, if you catch what I am driving at. See link below. I am also partial to their, still available, wall mount, hand cranked, can opener.
(BTW Swing-A-Way is a division of Focus Products Group, and Swing-A-Way does make can openers, for other companies for them to rebrand.)
Another Oxo fan...I have been using this Oxo one for years....simple and good.
re: valerie
I own that too - best can opener I've ever had.
re: Jennifer_B
Thanks for the suggestions...I had one of those openers that uncrimped the lid many years ago, I may go back down that road. I want a small unit that will happily reside in the "gadget" drawer along with the microplane.
re: BeeZee
The only problem with the lid removers is you can't squish out the juice from the can very easily. I have both, I need the old fashioned one especially for tuna fish.
re: coll
After cutting my hand badly with a sharp lid from my old Swing-a Way, I bought a Kuhn-Rikon lid lifter. I love it! It works like a charm, and leaves no sharp edges whatsoever. True, you can't squish out the juice from a can easily, but this disadvantage is to me far outweighed by the safety factor...and the lid fits back on the can so well that you can store unused food with the lid back on! The lid fits so perfectly, that I put an x on the lid with a marker to remind me that the can has been opened!
re: Jennifer_B
I use one like this for most tasks, but for some reason I can't get a can of Goya beans open with the darn thing. So I keep my Swing-A-Way handy too.
re: GilbyEast
I believe you have some foreign packed can. (non-standard to USA specs.) On the same token, manufactured can materials have different tolerances, incompatible with the ultra-precision (aka...ultra-picky) chime cutters. Old trusty, SAW to the rescue! :-)
re: adamshoe
Swing-A-Way still makes the wall mounted can opener. (Model 609W) The W denotes it has a White body.
re: RShea78
If I may humbly submit, I like the Chefmate brand manual can opener I bought about a year ago at Target. I was actually going to buy a Swing-a-way, but they didn't have it at the store. I like the Chefmate much better. For one, the ergonomics seem much better. Two wide handles that close down one over the other and the large thumb/index finger driven paddle that moves the wheel that makes taking off the lid just below where it's crimped together. Cuts cleanly and doesn't get that gook that gets on the Swing-a-way's cutting wheel. The lid comes off clean as a whistle. Even my sister who questions my cooking judgement was impressed when she used it. About $10 as I recall. Made in Taiwan it says on it fyi.
re: Feed_me
You and a few others seem to like them "chime cutting" can openers. Ones I have had never lasted any reasonable length of time or simply was too awkward to deal with. I got a plastic shoe box with at least 20 different chime cutters. The only reason for me keeping them, is to be constantly reminded that- "I got junk".
I like the Oxo Smooth Edge Can Opener.
But, whatever you decide to get, I really think that the manual openers with the 'smooth edge' or 'safe cut' feature are a good idea. These openers cut the can below the edge so that there are no sharp edges and the top of the can doesn't fall into the can.
Good luck!
You have cited all the reasons I have refused to own an electric can opener for 30 years. I think it is the gook that really turns me off. I saw too much of this at my mother's house.
Oxo and Kitchen Aid make very good manual openers. You will be happy with either one. Just remember that a manual can opener needs to be large in order to be easy to use. If you have the misfortune of being left handed, as my daughter is, they actually make models for you too. Just look online.
re: RGC1982
""You have cited all the reasons I have refused to own an electric can opener for 30 years. I think it is the gook that really turns me off. I saw too much of this at my mother's house.""
Hey, does your family or you use a toothbrush? My can openers get their teeth brushed as we do eat some of the same food. Nothing is as bad as a kernel corn meshing through their teeth so give them some respect.
re: RShea78
But...if you use one of the newer lid lifters such as OXO or Kuhn-Rikon (my favorite), the opener never touches the food and thus remains sanitary and needs no "brushing".
The Swing-a-Way was great in its day, but is now obsolete.
re: josephnl
Lid lifter? Don't you mean "chime cutter"? The honest to goodness lid lifter I have is used to open up canning jars.
Like I said above, I got a box of 20 of those worthless chime cutters.
I looked over the Kuhn Rikon website and see what you may be describing, but they call theirs "Auto Safety LidLifter". I do not think I will blow $16 + S/H, even though the Swiss seldom makes junk.
The problem is with the cans in the way they are sealed. Most of these chime cutters manufacturers do mention that lids may contain glues, which will cause problems. They go into detail that it may be necessary to overlap the cut and then turn the knob backwards. At this point the can lid should be cut free, but it doesn't work.
re: RShea78
I have that Kuhn Rikon opener. It's totally worth the $. Not for the lid lifter (you can lift the lid by hand too) but because it cuts the can on the side so the lid won't fall in the can, and can be easily placed back on the can later. Never had a can that didn't open with it, actually.
re: josephnl
Sorry, but with all due respect for your preferences and for the fine products of OXO and Kuhn-Rikon, I must take issue with your claim that the Swing-A-Way is "obsolete"! My dictionary defines that term as meaning "no longer in general use" or "of a discarded or outmoded type." Swing-A-Ways are clearly in general use today, as witness (among other things) the number of Chowhounds who enthusiastically recommend them. Furthermore, I have yet to encounter an upscale kitchenware store that does NOT sell them. And can openers similar to Swing-A-Way--though of inferior quality--are widely available at every price point, indicating that this is hardly a "discarded or outmoded" technology.
Needless to say, I'm very happy with my Swing-A-Way, which has served me well for over 20 years.
re: Miss Priss
""Needless to say, I'm very happy with my Swing-A-Way, which has served me well for over 20 years.""
Chalk me up for an impressed 40 years-Plus owner. I also consider my Swing-A-Way can openers to be true and reliable. There is no local household, that I am aware of, that doesn't have several Swing-A-Way(s). My only second choice is the military P-38.
I can sit back and can find several faults with those ridiculously - over priced "CHIME CUTTERS". They are awkward, unreliable, uncomfortable, and a big yes- they can contaminate food with fine metal shavings and seal glues.
re: RShea78
OK, I'll bite--why do you call them "chime cutters"?
re: coney with everything
In the pre-seal stage of a can the top lid (when applicable, the bottom lid) will have extra material to extend outward, and slightly downward. This outer bell shaped area of the lid seal is called the chime, that gets crimped to finish, forming the can seal.
Or as a ASCII art;
(-----can lid-----) <---the chime--<
re: RShea78
thanks! dinner AND a show!
re: Miss Priss
I am not a linguist, and will gladly agree that my usage of the work "obsolete" was likely improper. My point however is that there are now (at least in my opinion) far better products than the old Swing-A-Way which I too loved in its day. The major advantages of a product such as the Kuhn Rikon lid lifter are:
1) The lid is literally lifted off, therefore there are no sharp edges produced, making this is a safer product than the S-A-W.
2) The opener never touches any of the can's contents, therefore it remains clean. This is a clear advantage from both cleaning and hygiene perspectives.
3) The lid is removed so perfectly, that it can be used to temporarily reseal the can for storage.
Yes, the Kuhn-Rikon is not cheap (it's about 20 bucks), but it is well designed and very well made, and should last many years
re: josephnl
I see the Kuhn-Rikons at TJ Maxx for less than ten dollars all the time.
re: Jennifer_B
If it's the K-R Safety Lid Lifter, it's really a great deal!
re: josephnl
Well, I can't and won't argue over your love for your Kuhn Rikon. Maybe I'll even try one some day, if I'm as lucky as Jennifer_B and find one for under $10 at TJ Maxx. But in all honesty, I've never felt the need for a change
re: RShea78
It is far easier to put a manual can opener in the dishwasher than to brush the teeth on an electric model. Sorry, but I don't find that the "convenience" of electric can openers is worth it. Maybe it's because I don't open all that many cans. Or maybe I will change my mind when I get old and have arthritis. Until then, I vote for manual. But your response did make me smile.
Get a p38 opener for a dollar at a army surplus store!
re: RShea78
No, I don't have it, but it looks quite similar to the newer OXO safety lid lifter which cuts on the side, much like the Kuhn-Rikon that I have been touting. These newer openers have the advantage of safety (no sharp edges) and are cleaner in that the cutting mechanism doesn't touch the food...at least in the K-R which I like, or in the newer OXO which works similarly.
Add my vote for a Swing Away. I've had one for years and my Mom has had the same one in her kitchen for over 50. I got talked into a Henkles a few years after CR ( I think) rated it #1. It lasted about a year before it got dull. Bought another Swing Away and have never looked back.
re: silvergirl
True, if one has that kind of money to burn. ~$35 - $50 +S&H.
re: RShea78
I received it as a Christmas gift last year. Sorry, I had no idea it cost that much.
re: josephnl
I treat those sharp, semi-serrated lids with all the respect of a whirling Skilsaw blade. I often use forks or spoons to pry up an edge, and then use pliers. Sometimes, I let them just sink to the bottom. I try to keep most of my "sangre" inside of me, although I failed miserably in a motorcycle wreck a year ago in Cozumel.
re: josephnl
Have you ever heard of "Magnetic push pins"? Unfortunately, the description is off a bit, as they use a magnet instead of pin.
There is no kitchen that should be without those, even for the fridge to hold up notes.
Back to the real subject- I use those around my cans as a lid lifter when I use my SAW.
I already know a chime cutter will eventually become a PITA. They all use the same mechanics, that wears out IMHO all too fast for my needs. All mine worked reasonably well, for about the first 100 cans. Then I found the chime cutter required additional overlaps. Then degrade to 2 laps around the can. Then let's play the game of "can lid difficulty"...
I am back to my old SAW in less than 2 months.
Put me in the camp of those that refuse to buy an electric can opener. I grew up with one and have owned a few but haven't used an electric in over 15 yrs.
I use an OXO and it does a fine job. I don't open a lot of cans but it's just not that hard to use a manual.
I like the Kuhn Rikon can openers. They are fabulous. They open the can in a way (by cutting on the *side* not the top) such that the lid doesn't fall in, and because they cut on the side, you can put the lid back on top of the can without it falling in... oh and also they cut it in a way so the can lid won't cut you too easily, too. A tad more pricey, but well worth the $ in my opinion.
When you use one you need to put the can opener flat, parallel to the floor, and lock it on top of the can (unlike standard can openers which are perpendicular to the floor). It'll go around the can like butter, after which you will think it didn't cut the can at all, but it really did :)
re: yuanzhoulv
Agree completely. The K-R is the best for safety, cleanliness and convenience!
re: yuanzhoulv
""They open the can in a way (by cutting on the *side* not the top) such that the lid doesn't fall in, and because they cut on the side, you can put the lid back on top of the can without it falling in...""
They actually cut midway into the "outer edge" or "chime" of the "top", not into the side of the can. The same top chime gets used in traditional can openers to rotate the can with a serrated wheel. "Safety" comes into play because a blunt sliver of the top section remains intact along with the thin-sharp cylinder section of the can.
Maybe a quickly drawn picture can help? (Click on it to expand)
Just came across this thread - it's over a year old, but the topic isn't dated.
I'm sold on openers that work from the side instead of cutting through the top of the can. Not only is the result neater and safer - no jagged edges, the opener separates the top from the can without needing to cut metal - but in a pinch, you can reclose the can by pushing the lid back into place.
America's Test Kitchen top-rated the Rösle can opener and I bought one, for $37 if you would believe it. Didn't like how it worked. So I picked up the Zyliss Safe Edge Can Opener, I forget where, maybe at Gracious Home, but Amazon offers it - for $15. Fits the hand nicely, using it is simple and intuitive, and it works! Hasn't failed me yet.
re: armagnac
I know I'm late to the races here, but unfortunately, I need a can opener now, and not 2 years ago when everyone was talking about it! Well, if anyone has the time, here is my question: I've used several manual can openers, don't know which brands, but cheap to be sure. Every one of them leaves a small jagged point in the rim of the can after it's opened.
However, I just visited my MIL, who has one that is about 15 years old. Again, I don't know which brand, but I am beginning to suspect it is a Swing-Away. Here is why: It was so easy to use, the movement being much easier than mine, which requires quite a fight, and: THIS IS THE FIRST MANUAL CAN OPENER THAT I'VE EVER USED THAT DIDN'T LEAVE THAT JAGGED EDGE (OR POINT) INSIDE THE RIM OF THE CAN.
Perhaps this has been covered in the discussion here, but if so, I didn't see it and do apologize. If anyone can shed some light on this, though, I'd be very grateful. Does the old Swing-Away indeed leave the inside completely smooth? Thanks in advance, Fridaybaker
re: fridaybaker
This is the Swingaway I have, it really is the best can opener ever as far as ease of use
I can't say as I've noticed whether the inside of the can is smooth or not, as I usually leave the lid partially attached.
re: fridaybaker
The only can openers which are completely safe (do not leave any sharp edges on the can or removed lid) are the side cutting lid lifters such as those made by Kuhn Rikon. See my posts above to see why I prefer these openers to the old standby's such as Swing-A-Way.
re: josephnl
I have a Kuhn Rikon, liked it very much except after a year or so it stopped cutting the cans and now only will partially open them. Am I expecting too much for these to last a few years, like the ones I had in the past (ie swing- away) or is there something I should be doing to "sharpen" it?
re: poptart
This KR does not really cut the can, but rather breaks the seal joining lid to can. I find that some times it does open a can, or requires a couple of circuits. I think those cans have a different seal geometry.
A swing-away cuts the lid, and does not depend as much of details of how the can is manufactured. The KR uses finesse, swing-away brute force.
re: poptart
I have had mine (the Kuhn-Rikon) for several years, and it still works fine. Sometimes you do have to "go around" the lid a few times for it to completely separate the lid from the can. I'd bet that if your opener is not working properly and you returned it to where you bought it (assuming it's a reputable place such as W/S, B,B & B or Sur LT), they'd replace it without question. I still maintain that lid lifters such as the Kuhn-Rikon or the similar Oxo are the way to go. Although the Swing-a-way is obviously a workhorse that will rarely if ever fail, the lid lifters are much safer, and also more sanitary (they don't touch the food)!
re: josephnl
Thanks to you both. Yes, I end up going around the cans many times these days. In the beginning it was pretty good, getting the can top in one or 2 passes. Now it's 5, 6, 7...and I am still prying it.
Unfortunately I bought while out of town, but your reviews have me encouraged to buy a replacement at a local shop.
re: poptart
Do buy your replacement at one of the major stores I mentioned above. I think it's unlikely to fail again, but if so, these stores all have excellent customer service. Have you tried contacting Kuhn-Rikon...perhaps they would do something?
re: josephnl
I haven't tried contacting them, but it's a good idea. Bought a new one tonight that has a slightly different design (still Kuhn-Rikon) so I am hoping it's an improved redesign and look forward to trying it out.
i like the zyliss brand.
they make two differnt types.:
once kind cuts the metal arount the top of the can (my favorite)
the other type cuts the metal around the side of the can (i used this type for my dogs food)
from now on i'm intending to buy zyliss brand kitchen utensils only
OXO stuff can be hit or miss but I've had good luck with this can opener:
I don't see any reason to have an electric can opener unless you are opening dozens of cans a day or have some kind of disability like arthritis that prevents you from using a manual opener.
re: taos
Swing-A-Way is now made in China and the quality has diminished. I was able to do a comparison of the made in the USA and the new made in China version same model at a local store. I bought the last one they had and would have bought more as I don't think the Chinese version is going to last like fans of Swing-A-Way have grown so accustomed to.
re: SanityRemoved
I am so glad I got most of my basic kitchen equipment back in the '70s, when I got married. Everything today seems to be manufactured to be disposable. Sometimes I wish I could trade everything in for more modern looking appliances, but I think I would be sorry in the long run.
re: SanityRemoved
I've also suffered from the poor quality of the new Chinese-made S-A-W's .... gone through two of them in the last 4-5 years. The teeth that grip and turn the can is MUCH softer than the old openers, its really sad. The only reason I found this thread is because I'm not going to get fooled a third time. The new S-A-W openers look like the old, but they are far removed from the "buy one and pass is to your grandkids" models that we grew up with
re: greenraf
Having nearly sliced my thumb off years ago with a can lid that was carelessly thrown in the trash, I am now the happy owner of a Kuhn-Rikon lid lifter. These newer openers made by K-R, OXO, and others lift the lid off the can. Three advantages: 1) much safer...no sharp edges, 2) the lid can be replaced on the can to temporarily close it for storage in the frig, and 3) since no part of the opener ever touches the can contents, the opener never needs washing...it stays clean. I love my Kuhn-Rikon!
re: SouthFLmom
Happy to report that we are all still thrilled with the Kuhn-Rikon ten months later. It is fantastic!
re: NotJuliaChild
Yes, I would second the Fissler. Even use it on #10 cans.
re: NotJuliaChild
Have never heard of this brand, but it gets terrific reviews on Amazon. I'm assuming it lifts the lid rather than cutting it like the Swing-a-Way...and thus is much safer and without sharp edges....right?
re: josephnl
Yes, that's correct. After the initial turn, you lightly bend the opener to the right and it carries the lid off. Thus, the lid will never touch the ingredient inside. I always wash my can tops before opening, as I hate when they touch the food. Also, it leaves no burs. I bought this after I opened a can of olives and pricked my index finger dead on the tip.
I agree the Swing a way used to be a good can opener until Focus bought out Swing a way and moved operations to China. So I now like the Zyliss can openers. Pretty smooth operation plus it locks on the can for draining.
re: somervilleoldtimer
I got tired of my electric can opener after about 2 months of hauling it out of the cupboard, plugging it in, cutting the can, then unplug, etc. Who needs that? I love the OXO manual one I got from Bed Bath and Beyond. Very smooth, easy to turn even for arthiritic hands and quick.
I have a black OXO manual can opener and it works great. Has for years. I used it when we lived in an RV for several years. When I got a house again I didn't bother to buy an electric one - stuck with the OXO manual.
Oxo and Swing-a-way are good and reasonably priced.
Go to a store and see how things feel in your hands.
What one person finds comfortable my not work for you.
re: pine time
As posted above Swing-a-way is not the same can opener it was a year or so ago.Made in China now.You can see the difference in the two when looking side by side. I cant comment on oxo, but I like the Zyliss can opener and the Victorinox (swissmade) can opener.
I'm looking at these posts going back four years now, and I'm concluding this: The problem is that these manual can openers today-- the Swingaways and Oxos, etc.-- are simply not as good products as they used to be. They're made in China, plastic parts instead of steel, blades that get dull faster, etc. The result is that openers that used to last decades now wear out in a year or so-- and you can't get replacement blades for them! So you have to throw them out and get a new one. I don't see a solution to this. Are there ANY manual can openers that are made 'the old-fashioned way'?
re: george_dyke
Maybe this one:
(Swing-a-way type)
re: george_dyke
As I've said previously on this thread and others, there are currently far better products on the market than the old Swingaways which were great in their day. True, the newer products are likely made in China, and may have plastic parts. Nevertheless, the better quality 'lid lifters' such as those made by Kuhn-Rikon and Oxo will likely last several years. I've had a K-R for at least 5 years, and although I do not open that many cans, I expect that it will last many more years. I see no advantage in the Swingaway type of opener which cuts a disk off the top of a can, and I can think of 3 big advantages for the 'lid lifter' type of opener.
1) The lid is literally lifted off, therefore there are no sharp edges produced, making this is a safer product than the Swingaway type.
2) The opener never touches any of the can's contents, therefore it remains clean. This is a clear advantage from both cleaning and hygiene perspectives.
3) The lid is removed so perfectly, that it can be used to temporarily reseal the can for storage.
I would definitely recommend that you get a Kuhn-Rikon opener. You'll be happy!
re: josephnl
I have a new lid-lifter type. It's neat when it works, but I have encountered several situations in which it doesn't. These include can bottoms, commercial-size cans, and European cans. The basic problem is that the tolerance is tighter for this type of opener. I keep my old Swing-a-Way as a backup, which still works after more than 40 years. I also keep an old manual pry-type (no moving parts) as my final backup — I rarely need it, but I did once recently.
re: GH1618
I don't open that many cans, but I can't remember a single miss with my Kuhn-Rikon, including several European cans (primarily from Spain and Italy). Your point though is well-taken. Having cut myself rather badly one time on a sharp lid, I'm generally sold on the lid-lifters for routine use.
re: GH1618
Update: I finally threw out my Pyrex opener (which breaks the seal from the side instead of cutting the lid) in disgust, when it failed to open an ordinary US-made can. I replaced it with the EZ-DUZ-IT, which is a Swing-a-Way type, made in the old Swing-a-Way factory in St. Louis:
My 1969 Swing-a-Way still works, but the cutter is worn to the point that it's a bit balky at times. The new one is very similar — the differences are:
The handles are a little shorter and have more comfortable grips.
1. The bottle opener is not on the new one (ok by me).
2. The 1969 model has a nicer crank handle, with rounded ends and slight depressions where the fingers go. The new one is a simplified shape. It was actually Swing-a-Way that changed the handle, if I remember right.
3. The new one is chrome plated, thus shinier. This does nothing for me, but maybe it will be easier to keep clean.
4. The year of manufacture is not stamped on the new one.
The EZ-DUZ-IT seems to be equivalent to the original in all important respects, so it should last about as long. I'll report back in 2057 for a comparison, if this website is still operating and if I'm still alive (I'll be 109).
re: josephnl
Last year I was given a 'lid lifter' type of opener. I can't seem to warm up to it.
Storing food in opened cans has no appeal for me. The safety aspect of the lid lifter ought to be a real advantage, given that we process for recycling shortly after use, removing top and bottom and flattening the can with the lids inside. But somehow it isn't.
I'm just too used to the motions and so work faster with the faithful Swingaway (20 years and counting). There's a satisfaction in having a tool that does its one job well with only hand power, handles any can, cleans easily, and keeps on working indefinitely.
re: ellabee
There is a bit of a learning curve with the lid lifters, but the safety issue makes it worth it!
re: kseiverd
There is no question but that the P38 and the Swing-a-Way's are the most efficient can openers on the planet. Nevertheless, after having severely cut my thumb on the sharp edge of a can opened with a S-a-W, this opener no longer has a place in my kitchen. Yes, there is a bit of a learning curve with the "lid lifters", and there are also a few cans which are a bit more challenging to open, the Kuhn-Rikon lid lifter is the only can opener presently in my kitchen. I don't open that many cans, but I've not had a single can that I couldn't open with the K-R. And..there are no sharp edges to worry about.


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After you've narrowed your focus on a target, you need to craft the perfect attack plan. Should you start small and expand through premiums, or go big right off the bat? OpenView's founder Scott Maxwell evaluates each go-to-market strategy, and his finding may surprise you.
Editor's Note: This post is one part in a series by OpenView founder Scott Maxwell on go-to-market strategy design. Read his previous posts to learn:
- The key to market clarity
- Why focus is everything
- How you can apply the tools of design to your market strategy
- When you should start designing your go-to-market strategy
- The 4 C's of effective go-to-market strategy
Should You Start Small and Go Big, or Vice Versa?
Once you've identified the best customer segment to target, it's important to consider how you'll attack that segment.
In the SaaS world, the prevailing wisdom seems to be that smaller, emerging businesses can (and maybe should) fuel initial growth through a freemium or low average sales price (ASP) models. Then, they introduce premium features or options over time, allowing the business to grow existing monthly recurring revenue (MRR) or target bigger buyers.


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1/3 Photos of Auntie's Armenian Rice Pilaf
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
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20 mins
Being of Armenian descent, I was raised on foods from that region of the world, and pilaf was one on which the children in my family cut their teeth. I never even knew rice was white until I was 17 years old as we always ate pilaf. My brothers and I had no grandmother to teach us, but we did have our great-aunt, our grandfather's sister, who filled that role, and passed-down the recipes from our ancestors to us, and now I prepare them for my own children. This pilaf recipe is it: just pilaf. Nothing fancy, no mushrooms, nor shallots or onions or pine nuts. It was our staple. We ate it with stroganoffs poured over the top, with grilled burgers on Saturday afternoons in the long, hot Summers in Long Island and then Southern California, with my mother's wonderful roasts on Sunday nights. It was the perfect side with Shish Kebob on Christmas day, and alongside our Thanksgiving turkey. This is the recipe for pilaf as Auntie taught us.
Serves: 6
Units: US | Metric
Serving Size: 1 (142 g)
Servings Per Recipe: 6
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2014 Grand National
The 2014 Grand National will be a National Hunt horse race and will be held on 5 April 2014 at Aintree, which is near Liverpool in the UK. As in previous years the course will be the standard Grand National course of four miles three and a half furlongs or for the metric amongst us 7,200 meters. The course is made up of two circuits of the 2014 Aintree Grand National course and the horse will successfully have to navigate 30 stiff jumping fences. The 2014 Grand National course is still uniquely challenging, despite the "improvements" made to fences over recent years. The National features much larger fences than those found on most National Hunt racecourse. Some of the famous fences that have ended many jockeys dreams of winning the National and also ended many punters dreams of a big Grand National scope include Becher's Brook, the Chair and the Canal Turn
The 2014 Grand National prize should continue to make it the most valuable jumps race on the European circuit with the 2013 Grand Nation prize fund being £975,000
This site will build over the coming month to provide a complete guide to the 2014 Grand National and a central on going resource for all things relating to the Grand National past, present and future.
I guess one of the key things we will try to answer over time is who will win the 2014 Grand National and what horses provide good value in the race.
Can the 2013 Grand National winner Auroras Encore ridden by jockey Ryan Mania for trainer Sue Smith repeat its win and go on to win the 2014 Grand National.
This is a task that has only been done in consecutive years by three horses in the history of the race, although a larger number of horses have gone on to win the race on more than one occassion.
Abd-El-Kader 1850/51
1850 – "Abd-El-Kader" won and was the first horse to do so in under 10 minutes, winning £1,000 and went on to win in 1851 – and became the first ever dual Grand National winner, sorry no picture is available, although I would love to find one.
Over the course of the coming months and weeks we will track all the latest 2014 Grand National News and provide our latest thoughts on what is likely to win the 2014 Grand National, so whether you are waiting for the big day or you want to bet anti post for the 2014 Grand National please bookmark our site and come back for updates.
Incoming search terms:
- 2014 grand national
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- Grand National Dates 2014


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Dalton approves beginning work on Mount Rachel trails project
I believe your money could be better spent, maybe a little repriortizing and putting people first before cosmetic touches, like unemployment,creating new economic growth, making insurance available to all citizens and decent medical care or paying teacher, police and firefighters and rescue personnel a well deserved increase
September 12, 2011 at 2:17 p.m.
Missing Palmgren computers turned over to defense attorney
@Rolando, Why so negative? your comments come across as very agressive, I'm curious why the attacks?
July 8, 2011 at 12:03 p.m.
Missing Palmgren computers turned over to defense attorney
Are there current searches taking place we may volunteer for and if could someone please post information
July 8, 2011 at 11:59 a.m.


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1/5 Photos of Blueberry Stack Cake
Prep Time:
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20 mins
20 mins
This is a recipe I got from a friend's grandmother; everyone who has ever tried it has wanted the recipe. They're also usually surprised at how easy it is to make; they think it takes alot more work than it does. If you don't like blueberries, you can try other types of fruit; one of the ladies at work told me she tried it with raspberries and it was just as good.
Units: US | Metric
Serving Size: 1 (2399 g)
Servings Per Recipe: 1
Make this season merry, bright and manageable with our easy ideas.


text: Big/Lil Reveal for The Night Owl Family View full-size image < previous next > Is this photo a winner? "We are members of the Rho Mu Chapter of Chi Omega at DePaul University in Chicago. For our Big/Lil Sister Reveal, our family decided to make tshirts to add to our traditions! So here are The Night Owls, looking quite lovely in their Custom Ink-made shirts!" - Katie28 (Nov 09, 2009) Share this photo on: Twitter Facebook Pinterest Similar Photos: chicago | sorority | event | depaul university | american apparel jersey v neck | chi omega | rho mu chapter | big lil reveal Feeling inspired? Visit the CustomInk Design Lab to start your own group order. Design Your Own