I ran into an article on Time.com this week entitled “How Not to Get Sick: A User’s Guide to Good Health at Every Age.” It’s all about one of my favorite topics – preventive health. Although I disagreed with some of the advice (statin drugs for 8 year olds?!), I thought there were several gems worthy of sharing. Here are a few to whet your appetite. For the whole article, visit http://tinyurl.com/l6bz8z
-It’s never too early (or too late for that matter) to start eating healthy. A child’s diet should be high in whole grains, fruits and veggies, and be low in saturated and trans fats, added sugar, and salt.
-One third of American teens are overweight or obese. It takes a whole-family approach to combat obesity, since kids generally don’t do their own grocery shopping. If unhealthy foods are available, it isn’t reasonable to restrict only some family members from eating them, so just don’t buy them.
-Single-ingredient foods are a healthier option than processed foods. For a snack at work or school, try some dried fruit and almonds instead of vending machine food.
-Regular exercise at all ages is a key ingredient to health and longevity. Dr. David Katz from Yale’s Prevention Research Center, said “Exercise shouldn't be something that we're "making time" for. It should be a daily given, like sleep or eating.” Picking an activity that you enjoy and having a partner to do it with will help you to make exercise a part of your life. This tip is dedicated to my wife, who I’ve been married to for 3 years this week. I’ve been attending the gym regularly with her for 2.5 of those 3 years, and I’m healthier and happier because of it. Thank you, Melanye, and happy anniversary!
Note: In case you’re curious about the statins comment I made at the top of the page, here’s an eye-opening article on cholesterol-lowering drugs: http://tinyurl.com/2spawz
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
TRANSform Your Fats
Over the years I’ve become quite a cold cereal aficionado, and I’m pretty particular about what I put in that bowl every morning. When I was a kid, putting anything but 2% milk in my cereal would completely ruin my morning ritual, but when I started to think more about my diet in college I realized that I could cut half of the fat from milk out of my diet just by cutting down to 1% milk. I thought it might take a while to get used to, but I adapted pretty quickly. These days I have my cereal with nonfat milk, but I’ve come to learn a few things about fat that make me think twice about cutting it out of other foods I eat.
Here’s the skinny: The fat in milk is saturated fat, which isn’t the best fat, but it’s not the worst, either. The worst fats are trans fats. Trans fats are man-made fats that are included mostly in processed foods because they have a longer shelf life than natural fats. As the use of processed foods and trans fats has risen, so has the rate of heart disease. Trans fats contribute to 2-4% of the calories in an average American diet (1). In a large study involving female nurses, researchers found that replacing the 2% of calories coming from trans fats with unsaturated fats could decrease the risk of heart disease by as much as 53% (2). The take-home from that statement is that we don’t need to cut fat out of our diet, we just need to transform the bad fats we eat into good fats. The more fat you cut out of your diet, the more carbs you will eat, and they’ll most likely be refined. Look instead to replace trans and saturated fats with unsaturated fats.
Tip: Olive oil is one of our unsaturated friends. Instead of greasing your pan with shortening or butter, use olive oil. Instead of getting the creamy salad dressings, look for ones that use olive oil as a base. Lastly, take a tip from the Italians and use it on your bread. It’s definitely not the same as butter, but it can be very tasty. We made garlic bread the other day by toasting some French bread and then brushing it with olive oil and rubbing a garlic clove on it. Yum! Lastly, look at the ingredient list when buying processed foods. The nutrition facts can say 0% trans fat as long as the product contains 0.5 grams or less of trans fat per serving. If the ingredients say “partially hydrogenated” or “vegetable shortening,” put it down and move on.
1. Willett,W. Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. Free Press 2001
2.Hu, F. et al. Dietary Fat Intake and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Women. N Engl J Med 1997;337: 1491-1499
Here’s the skinny: The fat in milk is saturated fat, which isn’t the best fat, but it’s not the worst, either. The worst fats are trans fats. Trans fats are man-made fats that are included mostly in processed foods because they have a longer shelf life than natural fats. As the use of processed foods and trans fats has risen, so has the rate of heart disease. Trans fats contribute to 2-4% of the calories in an average American diet (1). In a large study involving female nurses, researchers found that replacing the 2% of calories coming from trans fats with unsaturated fats could decrease the risk of heart disease by as much as 53% (2). The take-home from that statement is that we don’t need to cut fat out of our diet, we just need to transform the bad fats we eat into good fats. The more fat you cut out of your diet, the more carbs you will eat, and they’ll most likely be refined. Look instead to replace trans and saturated fats with unsaturated fats.
Tip: Olive oil is one of our unsaturated friends. Instead of greasing your pan with shortening or butter, use olive oil. Instead of getting the creamy salad dressings, look for ones that use olive oil as a base. Lastly, take a tip from the Italians and use it on your bread. It’s definitely not the same as butter, but it can be very tasty. We made garlic bread the other day by toasting some French bread and then brushing it with olive oil and rubbing a garlic clove on it. Yum! Lastly, look at the ingredient list when buying processed foods. The nutrition facts can say 0% trans fat as long as the product contains 0.5 grams or less of trans fat per serving. If the ingredients say “partially hydrogenated” or “vegetable shortening,” put it down and move on.
1. Willett,W. Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. Free Press 2001
2.Hu, F. et al. Dietary Fat Intake and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Women. N Engl J Med 1997;337: 1491-1499
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Quench Your Carbs
This weekend I attended the 10th Annual Northwest Chiropractic Symposium. It was geared toward caring for athletes, and one of the lectures was on sports nutrition. Among the many (read, a bajillion, it was like listening to the micro machines guy) topics that were covered was the topic of sports drinks. Not everyone that reads this blog is an athlete (at least not yet), but life is a sport and I found a lot of the info applicable to everyday nutrition.
Here’s the skinny: Sports drinks are great to use during competition, because they replenish the sodium, which can stave off cramps (1), and have added sugar to keep your energy up. That being said, for every 1 athlete out there using a sports drink while competing, there are thousands of spectators drinking the same thing. Even worse, countless more are drinking soda. A substantial portion of our daily carbs come from sugar-sweetened drinks, and recent research shows that the carbs coming from our drinks are packing on the pounds faster than the carbs coming from our food (2). In short, the sugar level in our drink should reflect the level of our activity at that time; those watching the sport should be drinking water and those playing it can reach for the Gatorade.
Tips: For your workout or your next game, add a scoop of protein to your sports drink, or buy one with added protein, to increase endurance and decrease the rate of muscle breakdown during exercise (3). For home, take a look in your fridge and count how many sugar-sweetened drinks there are. Next time you go to the store, leave one of those drinks off the list. Start small and make simple changes that don’t drastically change your lifestyle faster than you can adjust to it.
1.Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2007;39(5): S15, A-572.
2.Am J Clin Nutr 2009;89:1299–306
3. Int. J. Sport Nut. Exerc. Metab. 2008; 18(4) 363-78.
Here’s the skinny: Sports drinks are great to use during competition, because they replenish the sodium, which can stave off cramps (1), and have added sugar to keep your energy up. That being said, for every 1 athlete out there using a sports drink while competing, there are thousands of spectators drinking the same thing. Even worse, countless more are drinking soda. A substantial portion of our daily carbs come from sugar-sweetened drinks, and recent research shows that the carbs coming from our drinks are packing on the pounds faster than the carbs coming from our food (2). In short, the sugar level in our drink should reflect the level of our activity at that time; those watching the sport should be drinking water and those playing it can reach for the Gatorade.
Tips: For your workout or your next game, add a scoop of protein to your sports drink, or buy one with added protein, to increase endurance and decrease the rate of muscle breakdown during exercise (3). For home, take a look in your fridge and count how many sugar-sweetened drinks there are. Next time you go to the store, leave one of those drinks off the list. Start small and make simple changes that don’t drastically change your lifestyle faster than you can adjust to it.
1.Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2007;39(5): S15, A-572.
2.Am J Clin Nutr 2009;89:1299–306
3. Int. J. Sport Nut. Exerc. Metab. 2008; 18(4) 363-78.
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