Archive for category health

The Eyes Have It: A Winning Diet

We’ve spent a lot of time singing the praises of resveratrol for the heart-healthy benefits from consuming red wine and grapes. Now a new study from vision researchers at the medical school at Washington University in St. Louis uncovered additional foods that can demonstrate their health-worthiness from properties found in resveratrol. Add blueberries and peanuts to the list. Perfect timing since blueberry season is just at the beginning of what promises to be a fruitful month or so!peanut

This time the beneficial focus rests with the eyes in preserving vision (even in instances where there has already been some deterioration). This made sense to the researchers who cited the anti-aging properties of the compound so eye degeneration issues formed a natural fit. Let’s see if I have this right: Eat and drink some of these special foods and beverages and your heart and eyes benefit from the consumption. Nothing too difficult about this concept.

Wait, there’s more. Another study also just released addressed the obesity-fighting properties of resveratrol. This quickly brings to mind the French Paradox: A phrase employed with the earliest resveratrol studies that questioned how the French can remain so thin while they consume such large quantities of wine. As Yogi would say, deja vu all over again.

Nothing wrong with either of these studies. They point us in the right nutritional direction, and they have the seasonal advantage of information. Peanuts for the baseball game; grapes and blueberries as new seasonally ripe fruits, and wine anytime.

This makes sense to me!

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Drink Up: Pour These

OK, what health news interests you? What’s your drink of choice? How healthy do you want to be? Coffee? Tea? Wine? We’ve got it all and today it’s all in the good news column!

Check it out:

A new study from the Netherlands found that coffee and tea drinking in moderation reduced the risk of heart disease. Too often we find studies with a particularly small sample size. Not this time. They followed almost 40,000 coffee and tea drinkers for 13 years. Impressive. Those that consumed 2-4 cups of coffee daily had a 20% lower risk of heart disease than those consuming less coffee. Tea drinkers: You’ll love this. Those who drank 3-6 cups of tea daily reduced their risk by 45%. Even those who drank more than 6 cups daily were able to reduce their risk by 36%. Wonder about the mixed drinkers: The coffee-tea-coffee-tea routine folks?mrcofffeetea

–More interested in the positive news re: wine? Got you covered. We’ve talked a lot about the health benefits from red wine and its major property, resveratrol, and now, not one, but two studies indicate the positive powers from the compound in red wine and grapes. Drink and be skinny one study finds (fat cell reduction protects against heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s). The other study reaffirms the overall heart-healthy benefits from red wine. Of course, the researchers point out additional research is needed, but these results are in the right column.

Soft drink consumption down. Well, that’s not totally accurate but in a study at Harvard’s Brigham & Women’s University, researchers found that if they created a “soda tax” more people would forgo the sugary sweet drinks. They raised the price of the beverages by 35% for a 4-week period and watched sales drop while coffee and diet beverage increased by 20%. Not so sure about the diet drink approach but believe taxing sugary drinks may provide some of the positive health results (less diabetes, obesity) than relying completely on individual decision-making.

So it’s a hot week, this first official week of summer, cool yourself down with an iced coffee or iced tea. Enjoy dinner with a glass of red wine, and hydrate sufficiently with water. Your body will thank you.

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Love These Studies

Every once in a while I feel obligated to share some health news with you. Like with the positive effect of certain beverages. Wine mostly tops my list but a new study should interest even more people as researchers in Spain believe they have found a positive link between moderate drinking (not just wine but other alcoholic beverages, too) and a decreased risk of getting Alzheimer’s. Everyone believes the study is still in its early stages of suggesting positive lifestyle changes and caution that drinkers who also smoke may negate the positive effects from the alcohol.wmc_home_glass

An interesting side-note is that women seemed to fare better with this beverage link than their male counterparts. Just a few weeks ago we found that women are increasingly the largest purchasers of wine in this country but still are often ignored when a wine list is presented at a restaurant. Maybe someone will start to note that women are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about wines and are not afraid to walk into a wine store or order wine in a restaurant. Have you noticed that wine stores are hiring more women! Pay attention, restaurants!

A beverage at a totally different part of the spectrum has demonstrated positive results as well. Not that long ago we discovered that coffee drinking counted as part of our daily hydration endeavor. Now a study demonstrates that tea which had been considered a dehydrating beverage actually rehydrates better than plain water as it provides the positive, heart-healthy antioxidant effects.

Just one more bit of health news to ponder today. Again we look at the heart-health link and this time we toss out much of what we previously considered about the dangerous factors in dairy food contributing to higher cholesterol and possible weight gain. A new Swedish study demonstrates the opposite result between dairy foods and cholesterol. Again, women fared better than men; this time with improved heart-cholesterol numbers. Women who consumed the most milk products had an improved cholesterol profile.

If one study says go to the right, an author awaits to disprove the notion. That’s a possible end result of the dairy-cholesterol link. Call me a skeptic!

As with all studies, these are beginning pieces of welcome news for lifestyle changes and improved health benefits.

Stay tuned.

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Draw a Circle: Lower your Calories

Some studies are just more fun to read than others. I can’t hide that fact! Take the French Fry discussion. According to the Journal of Food Science, if you cut potatoes into strips and want them to become French Fries, you’ll need more oil and, they’ll need to cook longer. Translation: They will not be considered a healthy food.potato

Yet, if you make circle fries out of your potatoes, you’ll shorten the cooking time, i.e. reduce the oil you’ll need and still come up with a similar tasting product, albeit healthier.

This all rests on the premise if you believe potatoes are healthy to start with! I confess: I’m a potato person and like the nutritional benefits from this food!

My prediction: More circle potato products with fun-sounding recipe names!

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Water: How Much?

May is a busy month for accolades. Besides all the food-focused holidays, it is also National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. In order to help with our obesity numbers, physical activity and daily exercise remain important components. If you’ve been thinking about getting outdoors and doing something for yourself, this is a good month to take the pledge. Speaking of the pledge, there is the President’s Challenge which focuses us on daily activities to improve overall health.

Just a few helpful reminders. We need to be properly hydrated. That phrase gets mired in complexity. Does everyone, regardless of size, health condition, or physical activity, need the same amount of water a day? Can the sport dictate the rules? How about the length of the activity? The time of day? All relevant questions, but hydration is not a single-focused, exclusive phenomena. If you plan to start running today, grabbing a couple water bottles will not do the trick. Sure, they won’t hurt but that is not considered proper hydrating.

Let’s look at a few factors. Jimmy Connors one of tennis’s great athletes used to get leg cramps if he didn’t prepare for a match with an intensive amount of water for several days prior to the matches. He could feel them coming on and knew his lack of (water) diligence was going to cause pain. Research also indicates you can overdose on water and that can have a debilitating effect. Getting the balance can be accomplished by a daily intake of water which matches your daily physical commitment. Many recommend a sports drink to supplement water as you’ll be losing too much water through perspiration. Or, just give your water an energy boost with powder packs to turn it into a more powerful beverage. Over or under-doing liquids has severe negative consequences from leg cramps and extreme nausea to heat-related medical problems.propelpaks

No one needs to remind you about sunscreen and time of day. OK, I just did, but application of the SPF’s and reapplication may be a long-term critical commitment. There are numerous products that reduce the sweating off (as in dripping into your eyes) during physical activity. Until you find the right balance of fluids and have your activity in a manageable zone, consider skipping the high noon workout or consider an indoor regimen when it’s 100 humid degrees. Keep your body hydrated no matter time of day or physical activity.

Participate. Drink. Be smart.

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A New Healthy Twist

How about this combination: The American Heart Association and Nintendo! Frustrated by the alarming obesity numbers and the lack of exercise among our population (AHA research found 70% of respondents say they never exercise and 40% say they find it boring), the Association and the game company formed a strategic relationship to help get people moving. Active-play video games are the focus as the emphasis is to create a multi-tiered approach to a more active lifestyle.

Nintendo has the very popular WiiFit Plus and the Wii Sports Resort games which will form the basis for this program to get people active. The benefits of moving and exercising are well-known, but accessibility often proves a deterrent. The new campaign is nintendoheartcalled “Get Informed,” “Get Empowered”and “Get Active.”

Research indicates the average person spends more than 8 hours daily just sitting down. That is about to change if this partnership has its way. Later this year they will jointly host a summit of leaders from a variety of fields to find ways to create synergies and benefits of active-play video games and physically active lifestyles. Beginning this summer they will host an information website with a component (www.activeplaynow.com) to help people conduct personal assessments of their lifestyle. Speculation abounds that a new Wii Sensor will be available to measure pulse rates.

Any approach we take to help us get off the couch and on our feet has to be given serious attention. Combine the acitivty with a heart-healthy diet, and you’ve got a winner.

I’m a gamer–Check out the tennis ball machine!

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We Can Stop The Obesity Death March

Certainly without the attention at the top of the food chain, AKA, First Lady Michelle Obama, much of what is being written about obesity and much of what is being done would not be getting the stellar attention it has; that it needs. We have followed the early beginnings of  her interest in issues of food and well-being with the planting, supervision, and enjoyment from last year’s first Victory Garden at the White House to her involvement with the local community and the creation of an additional Farm Market near the White House.

The trail led others, for instance, Jamie Oliver, to cross the pond and discuss the horrid obesity statistics in the US. Then there were the various other food mavens (Alice Waters) who got in on the act to remind people, consumers, that they, too, have a long-held interest in this topic. Now everyone seems to have lined up in an orderly fashion behind the leader of the band, The First Lady. Each First Lady traditionally takes on a cause. This one strikes home more than most. It affects a larger cross-section of the population than most and has a terrible effect on speeding through life too quickly: Early Death.

Yes, there are a lot of contributing factors. School Lunch programs deserve some of the blame with their insistence on antiquated guidelines that place too much emphasis on carbs. Food choices in these programs are little better with too much interest in pre-packaged foods such as pizza and chicken tenders. Not good. Then there are the numerous fast food chains that trip over each other to offer low cost foods. Well, if your budget is on the continuing downhill decline, then $1 meals, regardless of what they are, serve a functionality that cannot be beat: They feed people at an affordable price. The end result may not be a pretty picture!

Now where is this all going. Just this week the First Lady’s program of getting people out and moving (Let’s Move) and eating healthy found lots of new friends, in this case, government agencies that would be coming together to get the message out and provide the muscle to make it work. OK: the commitments. The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity has 70 recommendations in its 124-page report. One of its strongly worded goals is to reduce childhood obesity which has been steadily climbing since the 1970s from its current level at 20% to 5% by 2030: “Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation.”

The First Lady believes these goals will help reduce the childhood obesity epidemic by working with the child, the family, and the community. Some of the strategies include an emphasis on prenatal care and improved child care settings. Getting food manufacturers (Heinz and Kraft have already committed to reduced sodium levels in some foods) to improve their labels and improve their foods. There is also interest in improving nutritional education and getting children more physically active.

A number of government agencies will be at the forefront of change from the FCC that will monitor the ways food is marketed to children and the DOT which is rolling out the National Center for Safe Routes to Schools with improved biking and walking access. The First Lady recognizes that the task is enormous and involves cooperation from every sector of the private and public universe of agencies and businesses.hlthykids

Fun strategies are already in place to get young people interested. USDA will partner with the International Game Developers Association to host game jams in US cities next weekend, May 21-23 with the idea of producing video game prototypes. Remember the Apps for Healthy Kids competition continues until the June 30 deadline.

We can all cooperate and make this work. Too many lives are at stake.

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Nuts to You/Us

IMG00824Those teeny tiny handfuls of nuts with the good antioxidant characteristics have not been doing the trick. We enjoyed the product and even thought we were lowering cholesterol fears, but no, not enough.

The news, from California’s Loma Linda University’s Department of Nutrition with funding from the Tree Nut Council, is excellent: Grab a second handful, and you’ll be doing yourself a bigger favor. You’ll love the taste and at the same time you’ll see an improvement in heart-healthy benefits. None of the individuals in the study were taking cholesterol-lowering medicines but if they had high cholesterol, their numbers dropped.

Let’s look at the much maligned Macadamia or similarly, the Pistachio. Both are popular in the Atkins diet universe, but often denigrated as nuts you should avoid. Maybe not; these tree nuts do the same cholesterol and triglyceride lowering as their faithful companions.

What about the lowly peanut that is banished from most pre-school lunch boxes and many school cafeteria but certainly not at the ballpark. As long as you are not allergic, you can benefit from ingesting peanuts for their positive heart healthy ways.

Before you finish a container of nuts, remember that a little more than 2 ounces were given to subjects in this study and that amount lowered cholesterol levels by over 5%. Another takeaway is that the results did not apply to individuals who were considered obese. The nuts did not do the trick! Nor did a smaller helping of nuts lower cholesterol as much as grabbing that second handful!

Of course, we can overdo the nut-eating scenario, but we can help our hearts by not cutting them out of our diets! You’ll be surprised how many nuts are in two ounces! Get out the measuring cup and do your heart a favor!

Definite news to digest.

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Health Food/Food for Health

I love days when everything in the health news department affirms much of my thinking. Today was certainly one of those days. Here are three beauties to ponder:

Coffee. I am always on the lookout for the latest positive news about coffee and its potential health benefits. A meta analysis was conducted by researchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health examining over 700,000 people who are coffee drinkers. They found that having more than six, yes, six 8-oz cups of coffee daily, did not boost the likelihood of getting colon cancer. They found the same effect from soda drinking, but we need to think about the sugar-laden drinks as causing other problems such as obesity. Now the tea drinkers did not receive as big a boost in the clean health department. The jury is still a little unclear on this one. Coffee and soda drinks did not yield an increase in colon cancer.

Dark chocolate. As readers of this blog know, I have a special warm spot for news about dark chocolate. Today’s report from Johns Hopkins University finds that a compound in dark chocolate may protect the brain after a stroke by shielding the nerves from further damage. Researchers hope that this particular property may someday be used to protect people against strokes. So a simple translation means eat and enjoy dark chocolate while at the same time you are insulating yourself from the dangers of getting a stroke. We’ve recognized the heart healthy chocolate benefits so this further validates additional benefit from a little sweet.see's

Vitamin D. So much has been written about the vitamins lately and Vitamin D was last year’s attention-grabbing darling as so many people were all of a sudden diagnosed with a D deficiency. Could it be that we are so dedicated to our sunscreen regimen that the sun has no chance to give us its beneficial D attributes? Now that millions have been told to take Vitamin D, this particular study from the Cleveland Clinic says the optimal time to take this vitamin is with your biggest meal of the day. Figure out that simple calculation and pop your D to protect yourself. It will make a major difference.

Keep in mind that this week, May 9-15, is Food Allergy Awareness Week.

Nothing complex about any of these reports, but they are all simple information solutions to improve our overall health.

Settle in with a hot brew and a piece of wonderful dark chocolate, and don’t forget to include your D with whatever meal has the most calories. We can enjoy ourselves and impact our health.

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Skip the Gluten

In what has been an ongoing struggle for many people and food manufacturers, finding good tasting, gluten-free products has moved from the back of the store to a more visible, ever-growing presence. When you have a major flour manufacturer acknowledging they need to be in this space, you know you’re near the top of the Leader Board. King Arthur Flour now has a dedicated, gluten-free production facility with a broad base of product choices. They are aware of the growth in this market, and want to be in on the action.

With anticipated annual double-digit increases, G-F products are becoming mainstream. Why is this? Are we eating too many foods that cannot possibly agree with us? Are we better off returning to the unprocessed world of centuries ago?gfbakehouse

All good questions. Obviously individuals with Celiac Disease need to remove themselves far from products with gluten. Then there are all the other people who have digestive issues or have wheat allergies. As more people become aware of the ease of possibilities to be gluten-free or embrace a reduced gluten lifestyle, the numbers of subscribers to this food universe logically will continue to increase.

The downside risk of adjusting is minimal. Reading labels may be the most arduous task unless you move yourself to a market that clearly identifies its G-F products. It may surprise you how prevalent the glutens are as oat, barley, and rye accompany the wheat tree. These grains are far more prevalent in products than a quick shrug might indicate.

With the increase in products and the ability to eat foods that mimic their gluten cousins, changing over to more of a G-F existence may prove far easier than anticipated. Being aware makes shopping that less painful. Making the switch may accomplish the same digestive reward.

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