How Not to Eat Like a Power Broker:
Time-Pressed Dieters Try to Alter Habits

By MELINDA BECK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 6, 2005; Page D1

Does this sound like anyone you know?

He -- or she -- typically has a muffin or donut in the morning, or
skips breakfast entirely. Lunch might be a sandwich or yogurt on the
run. By around 4 o'clock, they are ravenous and hit the vending
machine or snack on whatever cookies or candy are sitting around the
office. Once they get home, they will devour the children's leftovers
and keep grazing until bedtime. Or they head out for drinks and a big
dinner with friends or clients, demolishing the bar nuts and the
breadbasket along the way.

Stephen Gullo, a New York psychologist and diet counselor, calls this
the "Wall Street Eating Syndrome," because it sums up the eating
habits of so many of his time-pressed patients in the financial
industry. But variations of it apply to millions of other Americans --
and it's a prime recipe for gaining weight.

Amid the sea of contradictory diet advice, there is an emerging
consensus that skimping on meals early in the day sets people up for
compulsive snacking later -- and that this cycle goes a long way
toward explaining why Americans are becoming steadily more obese.

A key reason that most French women don't get fat, writes Mireille
Guiliano, in her best-selling book of the same name, is that they eat
balanced meals throughout the day and don't snack.

Skipping breakfast, says Arthur Agatston, a cardiologist and author of
"The South Beach Diet," "allows blood sugar to drop and hunger to
increase over the course of the morning, resulting in powerful
cravings for a lunch that includes carbs of questionable value -- the
very kind guaranteed to keep you overweight."

Of course, eating a good breakfast is hardly revolutionary advice. But
many Americans haven't taken it to heart. The NPD Group, which has
been tracking food trends for 25 years, says 12% of Americans
regularly skip breakfast. Some people argue that eating breakfast
makes them hungrier during the day. But that's likely because they are
eating the wrong breakfast, which can be just as bad as skipping it.

Starting the day with a donut or sweetened cereal and orange juice --
or other refined carbohydrates -- can activate your appetite instead
of controlling it, says Walter Futterweit, a specialist in diabetes
and other endocrine disorders at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in
New York City. "You're getting a sudden burst of pure sugar, which
causes an immediate release of insulin," prompting your blood sugar to
drop. An hour or two later, you may start feeling edgy, irritable,
have difficulty concentrating and you're driven to eat again. "It's a
vicious cycle. It really disrupts the whole day," Dr. Futterweit says.

Indeed, Dr. Gullo says his high-powered patients weren't overeating
because of a lack of willpower. "These people have extraordinary
willpower," he says. The problem was, "They were fighting their own
body chemistry."

Besides being too busy to eat enough early in the day, victims of
"Wall Street Eating Syndrome" inadvertently set themselves up for
binge eating once they do start snacking in the late afternoon, Dr.
Gullo writes in his book, "The Thin Commandments." If you go without
food for more than three or four hours, and then eat simple
carbohydrates such as cookies or pretzels, you spark a sudden rise in
a natural body protein called neuropeptide Y. It's like putting "a
match to gasoline," he explains. "Instead of being satisfied, your
appetite has actually been turbocharged, and instead of eating just
one cookie, you end up eating the whole bag."

The best way to keep your blood sugar stable and your appetite under
control, many nutritionists agree, is to fill up on protein for
breakfast -- ideally, an egg white omelet or nonfat yogurt. More lean
protein and a salad or other vegetables for lunch will help keep you
feeling full for hours. A midafternoon snack with protein and fiber --
think hard-boiled eggs, low-fat cheese or a low-fat, high-protein
energy bar -- will protect you from feeling like you need a
high-carbohydrate fix around 4 o'clock.

By dinnertime, you should be less hungry, and content with more lean
meat and a salad or vegetable. If you want a late-night snack, try
crudities, sugar-free Jell-O or a low-calorie frozen pop. "The later
you are eating, the lighter you should go on carbohydrates," says Dr.
Gullo.

Many successful dieters say they have become new converts to the
breakfast habit. "I try to push myself to eat something like cottage
cheese or an egg-white omelet," says one investment banker who
recently lost 85 pounds, despite working long days on the trading
floor surrounded by junk food and having frequent late dinners with
clients. He also makes time to exercise, either at 5 a.m. before work,
or at 11 p.m. afterward. "My wife thinks I'm nuts," he says. "But I'm
pretty determined."

Eliminating temptations also helps. "Conference rooms are usually
junk-food rooms -- bring your own snack with you," says Dr. Gullo, who
recommends packing individual servings of water-pack tuna, low-fat
cheese and high-fiber bran crackers.

"We banned food in our office," says Nancy Shapiro, 57, who, with her
sister, Joyce Segal, 59, lost a total of 95 pounds by eating breakfast
for the first time, lean protein lunches and healthy snacks. The
sisters are co-owners and co-presidents of Joyce Leslie Inc., a
Moonachie, N.J., retail chain that sells junior-size clothing. "We fit
into our own inventory now!" says Nancy.