August 2011 Natural Health Newsletter
In This Issue:
Ladies Only Heart Guidelines
Why Are We Fat?
Dog Detects Dangerous Blood Sugar Changes
Quiz Your Blueberry Knowledge
Potassium Rich Foods Protect Against High Salt Diet
Measuring Your Fat Loss
Regular Features:
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Ladies Only Heart Guidelines
Women are designed differently from men and have unique health needs, experts find. Men are stronger because their bodies are more muscular. Women are softer because we are endowed with a higher percentage of body fat.
Many women, however, have accumulated too much soft tissue, says the American Heart Association. Nearly 2 of every 3 women in the U.S. are now overweight or obese. And heart disease is the leading cause of death in American women, as well as those in every major developed country.
And so, without further ado, the AHA presents its "uniquely female" guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in women:
-Do not smoke. Period.
-Exercise. At least 150 minutes a week of "moderate" exercise plus 75 minutes a week of "vigorous" activity.
-Maintain a healthy body weight. Our goal is a Body Mass Index of 25 or less.
-Eat "DASH-like." Evidence-based "Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension" can help assure a longer, more fruitful life for all princesses in the kingdom.
-Fruit and vegetables: 4 to 5 cups each day, including fresh, canned, dried, frozen, raw, cooked and juiced.
-Fish (preferably oily types like salmon, tuna and sardines): two servings a week. (A serving is 3 to 4 ounces of cooked fish.)
-Fiber: At least 30 grams a day. Hint: Fiber is found in plant foods such as fruit, vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts, and whole grains.
-Whole grains: Three servings a day. A serving is one slice of bread or 1/2 cup cooked rice, cereal, or pasta or 1 ounce of dry cereal.
-Nuts, legumes and seeds 4 times a week. Unsalted nuts, please. One serving is approximately 1/3 cup or 11/2 ounces of nuts or 2 tablespoons of nut butter or 1/2 cup cooked dry beans or peas.
-Sugar: No more than 5 tablespoons of sugar, jam or jelly a week. And less than 450 calories a week from sugar-sweetened beverages. (Caution: One 16-oz-, nonfat, white Chocolate mocha Frappuccino contains 440 calories.)
-Saturated fat. No more than 7 percent of total daily calories; less than 10 to 15 grams per day for most of us. (Warning: 2 measly ounces of regular cheese can easily meet this quota.)
-CHOLESTEROL. No more than 150 mgs. a day.
-Alcohol. No more than 1 drink a day, ladies. That’s 4 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1 to 1.5 ounces other alcohol.
-Sodium. Less than 1,500 mgs. a day.
-Trans-fatty acids. Zero. None. Nada. Many foods these days are trans-fat free. That’s good for a princess heart.
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Why Are We Fat?
In Steven Blair’s case, that question is an urgent one: Is the obesity epidemic plaguing South Carolina, in particular, and the United States, in general, driven more by overeating or by inactivity?
Blair, a professor in USC’s Department of Exercise Science and Epidemiology/Biostatistics, will spend the next year sorting through the question.
First, though, he needs the help of 400 overweight but relatively healthy men and women, between the ages of 21 to 35, to take part in a study about what is behind obesity.
In South Carolina, participants shouldn’t be hard to find. Recent reports by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation showed what any casual observer at the S.C. State Fair, readily can see: Many South Carolinians - two-thirds of the population - are overweight; about 31 percent are obese.
Even the state’s top beauty queen, Miss S.C. Bree Boyce, used to be overweight. But that was 110 pounds and one glittering tiara ago.
Blair’s experiment aims to find out, specifically, why people pack on the pounds. That Knowledge then could be used to help shrink the dangerously unhealthy waistlines of South Carolinians.
Blair has a theory of his own.
Rather than the popular notion that Americans are getting fatter because they slurp down supersized, sugary drinks and chow on CHOLESTEROL-laden Fast Food served up in gigantic portions, Blair thinks inactivity is the bigger culprit.
He points to changes in the way that Americans work, cook and even clean their homes as evidence that what used to take some get up and go now is done with the flip of a switch.
Gone, he noted, are the days when large numbers of Americans earned their living by working on the family farm.
Microwave ovens heat up meals that used to take time and energy to prepare. Many lawnmowers and even vacuum cleaners are self-propelled.
To get the same amount of work done as before, Americans today have to work less. "This shift in energy expenditure is the reason for the obesity epidemic, in my opinion," Blair said.
Blair is a proponent of the idea that a person can be "fat but fit," and he has disdain for what he calls the "obesity mafia," which he says has trained Americans to think that any excess weight is dangerous.
That argument is pounded home, over and over, in magazine covers featuring thin celebrities and, frequently, diet tips so you, too, can look like your favorite star. The view of how much weight is too much has gotten so out of whack, Blair argues, that former President George W. Bush, an avid runner and cyclist, is considered overweight by some.
"Lazy. Harder to get a job. Harder to get a girlfriend," Blair said. "We assign all sorts of bad motives to overweight people. ... We worship thinness. Most of us will never look like those movie stars no matter what we do."
While Blair isn’t alone in thinking one can be "fat but fit," other scientists don’t share that view.
Runners World magazine recently featured an article with dueling opinions on the "fat but fit" theory. Glenn Gaesser, of the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center at Arizona State University, said you can be fit and fat. But another scientist, Dr. Amy Weinstein of Harvard Medical School, who specializes in the health impacts of obesity, wasn’t buying it.
"Physical activity cannot completely reverse the ill effects of carrying excess weight on diabetes and cardiovascular disease," Weinstein is quoted as saying.
Blair said there is no convincing data that diet is the main driver of the country’s obesity problem. He said he hopes his study, where the caloric intake, physical activity and health of participants will be monitored and charted for a year, can shed some light on the debate.
The $2.5 million study is being funded by Coca-Cola, the soda-and-snack conglomerate, which, Blair said, probably hopes for scientific proof that poor diet is not the main reason obesity is raging. But Blair said Coke will have no input on the study, which will be reviewed by a panel of scientific peers.
"We don’t know the cause (of the obesity epidemic), and I think we should find out the cause," Blair said. "Let’s get data."
To see more of The State, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thestate.com. Copyright 2011, The State, Columbia, S.C.
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Dog Detects Dangerous Blood Sugar Changes
A new dog will change Bekah Timm’s life and could one day save it.
Bekah was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in March 2010, when she was 6 years old. Heidi Timm, her mother, said every family struggles when a child is diagnosed with diabetes.
"It’s like bringing home a newborn who never grows up," Timm said.
Recently, Heidi Timm heard about service dogs specifically bred to detect blood-Sugar levels. The Vancouver family hopes to receive a diabetic alert service dog for Bekah. The family is raising funds because of the $15,000 cost of the highly trained dog.
These diabetic alert service dogs are bred with scent recognition. When an individual’s blood Sugar level changes, it changes the body’s scent - which allows a trained dog to detect a problem.
Bekah, who soon will turn 8, has to check her blood sugar at least 10 times a day. It could escalate when she is older if she develops hypoglycemic unawareness, in which a person can’t feel whether their blood sugar levels are low or high, a typical problem for those with long-standing Type 1 diabetes.
Heidi Timm believes the dog will be a backup during the night if Bekah doesn’t sense her blood sugar levels changing. As she grows up, it may be hard for Bekah to maintain a regimented schedule. As a mother who worries about her kids, Timm feels it’s good to have a dog to be there to "tattle" on Bekah if she forgets.
The Timms will get the dog from Warren Retrievers, which breeds dogs with scent recognition for diabetics of all types. After the puppies are born, the group tests the dogs at 9 days old for the scent recognition.
"You want to know that it’s bred for its job," Timm said.
If the dog is found to have this trait, it is matched with a family who fits its personality. The dog must not only have training as a service dog but also have scent-recognition training to detect blood-sugar levels.
Guardian Angel Service Dogs is a nonprofit philanthropic arm of Warren Retrievers and helps with public awareness and funding. Families who are trying to raise money for these service dogs can work with Guardian Angel to raise funds in their community.
Sue Kindred, executive director of Guardian Angel, said many people have disabilities that keep them from participating in normal activities, but a service dog changes that.
"People get their lives back," Kindred said.
Heidi Timm has worked with this group to pay for the dog and its training. She and the family have hosted a community garage sale and raised more than $2,000. They also plan to do car washes, and a mini-golf tournament Aug. 24 at the Steakburger in Hazel Dell.
The Timm family has been matched with its puppy and should receive it by the end of July. Bekah will name it Sarah. The puppy should arrive on her eighth birthday.
To see more of The Columbian, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.columbian.com. Copyright 2011, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.
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Quiz Your Blueberry Knowledge
Everybody knows that blueberries are Antioxidant superheroes, fending off those evil oxygen-derived free radicals that can take possession of every body. A new study now touts blueberries as a bone-builder, too. Take our quiz on this versatile fruit.
1. In a study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Arkansas researchers found that what chemical Compound found in blueberries might help promote bone mass and prevent osteoporosis in laboratory rats?
a) polyphenol acids
b) polyesteric acids
c) polyamoric acids
2. What is most noticeable about polyphenols in blueberries?
a) gives the berry its rounded shape
b) gives the berry its tangy flavor
c) gives the berry its dark coloring
3. How many calories are in one cup of blueberries?
a) 43
b) 66
c) 84
4. How many of those calories come from fat?
a) 0
b) 4
c) 7.3
5. Those seeking a higher-Fiber diet should eat blueberries. One cup provides what percent of the recommended daily value for Fiber?
a) 77
b) 24
c) 92
ANSWERS: 1: a; 2: c; 3: c; 4: a; 5: b.
Sources: www.ars.usda.gov; www.nutrition-and-you.com.
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Potassium Rich Foods Protect Against High Salt Diet
A new federal study suggests a new wrinkle in the debate about the dangers of eating too much salt.
The research found that the people who are most at risk are those who get too much salt but also get too little Potassium. They were twice as likely to die from a heart attack as those who ate about the same amount of both nutrients.
Sodium increases the risk of high Blood Pressure, a major cause of heart disease and stroke. One of the researchers says Potassium may neutralize the heart-damaging effects of salt.
Many foods have potassium. Good sources are spinach, bananas, Broccoli and prunes.
The study was led by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was published in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.
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Measuring Your Fat Loss
HOW TO ... TRACK YOUR MEASUREMENTS
Losing inches from your chest, thighs, arms, hips, waist and buttocks is a clear sign of fat loss and fitness progress. Here’s how to use a tape measure correctly:
Use a plastic tape measure. Cloth varieties can stretch out over time and give you distorted measurements.
Position the tape correctly. Don’t pull the tape in tightly to get a smaller measurement. "Make sure the tape is snug, does not compress your skin and is parallel to the floor," says Maria Kinirons, director of food and nutrition for Weight Watchers North America. Wear thin fabrics - or better yet, nothing at all.
Breathe normally. Don’t suck your breath in or exhale forcefully when measuring your waist or chest.
Look straight ahead. Stand tall with your feet together - or slightly apart if you’re measuring your thighs - preferably in front of a full-length mirror so you can see the tape’s position. Don’t slouch down to look at your reading. For the most accurate results, ask a family member or friend to help.
Take monthly measurements. Don’t measure too often: readings can change from day to day - and even at different points in a single day - based on what you eat and drink. Pick one day a month and measure yourself first thing in the morning. If you’re female, don’t schedule this just before or during your period, when you tend to be more bloated.
Measure at the right place. For your chest, measure around the largest spot, generally at the nipple line. Waist: just above your hipbones, roughly at your belly button. Hips: the widest part of your buttocks. Arms: about three inches above your elbow, at the largest point. Thighs: the biggest part of your upper legs.
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