Hilary Swank graces the cover of Marie Claire for the month of November and the tabloids are simply loving some of her responses to interview questions. Instead of focusing on her diet and exercise plan they like the information that she shared that she sleeps in the nude.  Is that really such a big deal?  Let’s instead focus on what this gal does to look so great.  When it comes to her diet, she is now an ex-vegan after years of being a strong vegan and vegetarian advocate because she has realized her body needs more protein.

The fit 35-year-old has a great exercise history.  She said that she loves to workout and she did plenty of sports as a child including basketball, gymnastics and swimming.  She actually started swimming at the young age of three years old.  These days she is into Krav Maga and pilates.  She said,

“To me, working out is literally like eating a meal or drinking water or breathing. If I don’t, I just feel like crap. Not physically, like, Ew, what’s hanging over my pants? But I just feel really ornery.”

She went on to say,

“I start punching actors. Not hard—I don’t get mean. I do Krav Maga, which is Israeli martial arts; I do pilates.”

Currently, Swank is divorced, learning to lead the single ladies life, apparently learning to eat meat as well as survive Hollywood.

Million dollar actress Hilary Swank has recently admitted to Marie Claire that she cried over her plate of food a few years back when she was forced to give up her vegan diet. The 35-yeard-old Oscar winner says she had to make the switch two years ago for health reasons.

“I just started withering away. I wasn’t getting enough vitamins or protein. (It was) very emotional,” she told the monthly magazine. “I sat over my plate and cried. I really had to work through it. It still makes me emotional.”

The actress says that even though it’s been 2 years, she still has difficulty eating animal flesh.

“I don’t know if you have ever looked into a cow’s eye, but it is so soulful. So I don’t like it – but it’s something I have to do.”

It’s pretty ironic that Hilary finally decided that veganism just wasn’t working for her, especially since she is a self-confessed vitamin junkie and such a health nut. Previously, Hilary attributed her slim figure to her high metabolism and power Pilates, but now she releases that she desperately needs as much protein as she can force herself to eat.

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It’s time to review the good, the bad and the ugly in celeb diets of 2008. First a brief recap of 2007. The picks for 2007 were for the most part right on. As predicted, Kirstie Alley did in fact fall off the wagon with Jenny Craig. No surprise, Ricki Lake continues to shine with her remarkable weight loss success as she adopted some key weight loss behaviors. Capping a remarkable turnaround for 2008, Britney went from the worst celebrity diet list of 2007 to the best celebrity diet list this year proving that you are what you eat.

This brings me to theme for the year in celebrity diets of 2008, specifically that “diets don’t work.” The key to sustainable weight loss is not so much a particular diet but the adoption of the proper lifestyle behaviors. It’s the reason why Oprah can’t achieve sustainable weight loss despite trying multiple diets and having all the resources in the world (personal chef, trainer, Dr Oz etc).

You’ll also noticed that this year’s winners all have one thing in common as they develop their new lifestyle dietary behaviors. They achieved their remarkable slim downs by increasing their intake of veggies and fruits. No crazy fasts, diet pills, supplements or miracle cures. Here’s to 2009 and hopefully you’ll find some inspiration from this year’s crop of winners. Enjoy and be healthy, Dr Marc

Best Celebrity Diets for 2008:
5. Jennifer Love Hewitt: Those unflattering bikini photos seem so long ago as this Ghost Whisperer star has been letting her body speak loud and clear; daily fruits and veggies do a body good.

4. Jessica Alba: Jessica exercised her superhero abilities on a regimen of whole foods, cardio and interval training to power her fantastic 25 pound post-pregnancy slim down.

3. Debra Messing: Eating gracefully, Debra lost 42 pounds of her post-baby weight by sticking to a diet high in unprocessed veggies, fruits and lean protein.

2. Kelly Osbourne: By fixing her refined carb cravings with her new addiction to veggies and fruits, Kelly Osbourne is reborn with a healthy new figure.

1. Britney Spears: Since ditching her “Toxic” junk food diet for veggies and lean protein, Britney is sporting a new outlook and an A-list slim down that has everyone wanting “A Piece of Me.”

And the Worst Celebrity Diets for 2008:
5. Carnie Wilson: Carnie proves that even gastric bypass is not a fix for sabotaging behaviors. Despite her much publicized surgery and weight loss, this Celebrity Fit Club participant regained 58 pounds. (Her yo-yo dieting continues; she most recently lost 50 pounds before her current pregnancy.)

4. Monica Seles: This former tennis star may have lost 33 pounds on a high protein diet but she also increased her risk of chronic disease. Advantage: heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis.

3. Hilary Swank: 47 ways to sub-optimal health. Reportedly downing 47 “million dollar” supplements a day, this Million Dollar Baby star is unwittingly subjecting her body to accelerated aging.

2. Kim Kardashian: Kim has kept her shapely “junk in the trunk” figure with exercise and a gig on Dancing with The Stars. However, her junk food diet will inevitably cause… too much junk.

1. Oprah Winfrey: The queen of media and yo-yo dieter is the poster child for “diets don’t work.” Proper weight loss behaviors and habits should be one of Oprah’s “favorite things.”

Hillary Swank downs a reported 45 supplements a day! She’s quoted as saying:

“This is my Aloe C, which I dissolve in water. Here’s my flax. This one’s for my immune system, and this one is my BrainWave – it’s great, like if I have a lot of lines to memorise. I just took my most important ones, which are my Oz Garcia Longevity Pak. I shoved them in my mouth right before I met you, which I actually shouldn’t do, because I choked on my vitamins once before.”

So are vitamins and supplements really the fountain of youth?

Unfortunately the data on supplements has been dissappointing.  Consider these studies:

High Dose Beta Carotene and Vitamin A supplementation in smokers: This study found that smokers who took beta carotene and Vitamin A supplements had an increased risk of lung cancer by 28% over those who did not take supplements! Additionally the death rates increased by 46% for cancer and by 26% for cardiovascular disease. The results were so compelling the study was stopped 21 months early for ethical reasons.

Vitamin E - Hope Trial - double blind, placebo controlled study involving 9541 patients with cardiovascular disease or diabetes with 7 year follow up
The Vitamin E group (400IU/day) group had a:
19% increased risk of Heart Failure
21% increase in hospitalizations for Heart Failure
No benefit in preventing cancer or major cardiovascular disease

Vitamin E – Women’s Health Study: 39,876 healthy women at least 45 years old followed for an average of 10 years. Vitamin E (600IU/day) showed no benefit in reducing cardiovascular disease or cancer.

Woman’s Antioxidant Study: Women with a history of cardiovascular heart disease, or 3 cardiac risk factors were given Vitamin C (500 mg/d), Vitamin E (600IU), Beta-Carotene (50 mg every other day). No Benefit was observed among women at high risk for heart disease.

Bottom line, under the rigors of controlled studies pill popping vitamins have not been shown to consistently improve health. In fact the opposite is true. And the studies suggesting potent harm should serve as a warming. Supplements will in no way substitute for a diet full of unprocessed fruit and veggies. You can’t have your Ho- Hos and Yodels and pop some vitamins and think your covered.

It is short sighted to think that beta-carotene is for instance the “anti-cancer” vitamin when it is one of over 600 carotenoids. Vitamins work in concert with each other, and grossly oversupplying one vitamin over another upsets this balance. In fact studies done in ferrets suggest that supplying beta carotene in high doses actually creates pre-cancerous lesions leading to lung cancer formation.

Here’s the take home message. The best source of vitamins is a diet rich in unprocessed fruits and veggies.

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Hillary Swank attributes her figure to exercise, power Pilates and “good genes.” She told People magazine last week, “I really appreciate exercise because I think it’s a great stress relief. I do this thing called power Pilates, which I love, love, love.” She adds,

“in the end I really have to give it up to my genes. I think I’ve been blessed with my father’s metabolism.”

Hillary Swank, who bulked up with weight training and a high protein-low carb diet for Million Dollar Baby, has continued to be a fan of Pilates. As far as I could tell, Power Pilates positions itself as “classical Pilates made simple.” From their website, they “teach the exercises and principles created by Joseph Pilates through a classical – systematic – integrative approach. By utilizing this systematic approach, teaching becomes much simpler for the instructor and communicated in a way that is clearer and easier for the client to understand and progress.”

While Hilary attributes her figure to her “father’s metabolism,” rest assured she continues to exercise and eat right. Barring a medical condition such as “hypothyroidism,” the overwhelming reason for weight gain is not metabolism but eating too much of the wrong foods. More on this in a subsequent post…

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