Entries Tagged 'Health' ↓

Organic: What it means on different products

You see the word more and more, but what does it say about what it’s on? Here are tips for fruits and vegetables, dairy and meat, cosmetics, processed foods and cotton and coffee. By Julie Deardorff

Some consumers are more than willing to pay higher prices for organically grown food and other products. But is the extra dollar worth it? The answer may depend upon personal priorities.

By definition, organically grown foods are produced without most conventional pesticides, fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge. Livestock aren’t given antibiotics or growth hormones. And organic farmers emphasize renewable resources and conservation of soil and water.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the National Organic Program, says organic is a “production philosophy,” adding that an organic label does not imply a product is superior. Moreover, some nutrition experts say, there’s no need to eat organic to be healthy: Simply choose less processed food and more fruits and vegetables.

To compare the nutrient density of organically and conventionally grown grapes, researchers would have to have matched pairs of fields, including using the same soil, the same irrigation system, the same level of nitrogen fertilizer and the same stage of ripeness at harvest, acknowledged Charles Benbrook, chief scientist at the Organic Center, a pro-organics research institution.

Last summer, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a comprehensive review concluding that organic and conventional food had comparable nutrient levels.

The study outraged some members of the organic community, who criticized the study for not addressing pesticide residues, a major reason people choose organic. Nor did the study address the effect of farming practices on the environment and personal health.

Maria Rodale, a third-generation advocate for organic farming, urges consumers to look beyond nutrition to the chemicals going into our soil, our food and our bodies. “What we do to our environment, we are also doing to ourselves,” said Rodale, chairwoman and chief executive of Rodale Inc., which publishes health and wellness content.

Here’s a closer look at some of the factors that may influence your decision whether to buy organic products.

Fruits and vegetables

Farmers using conventional practices treat crops with pesticides that protect them from mold, insects and disease but can leave residues. Organic fruits and vegetables have less pesticide residue and lower nitrate levels than do conventional fruits and vegetables, according to a 1996 scientific summary report by the Institute of Food Technologists.

The bottom line: Pesticide residue poses little risk to most consumers, health experts say. But fetuses and children are more vulnerable to the effects of synthetic chemicals, which can be toxic to the brain and nervous system, said Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

The Environmental Working Group, a public health advocacy organization, recommends buying organically grown peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, imported grapes and pears because conventionally grown versions are the most heavily sprayed. Onions, avocados, sweet corn and pineapples have some of the lowest levels of pesticides.

As for nutrition, one French study found that, in some cases, organic plant products have more minerals such as iron and magnesium and more antioxidant polyphenols. But although mounting evidence suggests that soil rich in organic matter produces more nutritious food, “we are never going to be able to say organic is always more nutrient dense; that’s going beyond the science,” said Benbrook of the Organic Center.

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Whether you are taking to the skies for business or pleasure, be prepared as you might suffer from “jet bloat,” the body’s increased volume of gas that occurs from airline travel – Seems your intestinal gases expand the higher you rise in altitude, which can lead to some uncomfortable bloating and pain. Chewing gum or sucking on candy to reduce the pressure in our ears while the plane is ascending can cause us to swallow even more air. Same for drinking caffeinated sodas — the more fizz, the more volume, experts say. The expansion of gases at high altitudes has been a topic addressed by the aeronautics industry for years. “Everybody has noticed this,” experts said.  “Even though they don’t serve an awful lot of food anymore on the planes, the bags of chips are inflated like a little pillow. It wasn’t a little pillow on the ground.”  The same thing happens in people. Most people carry about 400 milliliters of gas in their intestinal area, about the volume of a small cantaloupe, experts say. But people experiencing gassy problems may carry as much as a liter of gas. That volume at sea level can more than double at 30,000 feet. Fortunately for your neighbors, most of the resulting flatulence is odorless because it’s due to excessive air.

If you find yourself experiencing jet bloat and becoming gassier during airline travel, follow these guidelines for eating and drinking at the airport and while in flight:

• When scouring the food court, avoid anything that you’ve shown intolerance for on the ground. If milk intolerance is your downfall – avoid all dairy. Try to avoid foods that will probably make you gassy, such as fried foods, beans, bananas, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, or broccoli. If you get gassy, the volume will expand, even in the pressurized cabin as you reach flight altitudes – so there will be even more volume of gas, which can lead to discomfort from jet bloat.
• If you do eat gassy food, take over-the-counter Gas-X or CharcoCaps Homeopathic AntiGas Formula immediately, so you don’t inflate like a bag of pretzels as you reach cruising altitude. The AntiGas pills will stimulate the body’s defense system against the discomfort of intestinal gas.
• Drink beverages rich in electrolytes, such as tomato or fruit juices, which help with hydration. While water is also fine, avoid coffee, tea and sodas since they will dehydrate you, and the carbonation in the soda can cause gas issues. Since alcohol is also a dehydrator, hold off until you are on the ground at the hotel.
• Keep away from caffeinated drinks; instead, drink beverages rich in electrolytes, such as tomato or fruit juices.

The doctor says…

“Take bathroom breaks whenever the fasten-seat-belt sign goes off to keep blood and other body fluids circulating,” says Sandra Fryhofer, MD, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. “Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and salt — all of which cause water retention — and drink at least 8 ounces of water for every hour in flight. Once on the ground, drink a cup of hot green tea and take 500 milligrams of vitamin B complex; both are natural diuretics.”

The trainer says…

“When you can’t get up and stretch, shift position in your seat at least every half hour — cross your legs, prop your feet on your carry-on, or lean forward and interlace your fingers in front of you,” says Keli Roberts, creator of the Time-Saver DVD workout series. “When you land, walk for 15 minutes at a comfortable pace to get blood moving in your lower limbs.”

The scientist says…

“The day before a flight involving a time difference of six hours or more, eat your meals and go to sleep three hours earlier than you normally would. This will lessen jet lag and its side effects, like bloating, by helping your body get into sync faster in the new time zone,” says Hava Siegelmann, PhD, director of the biocomputation laboratory at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Trying to acclimate before you leave can help you get better adjusted — and feel less bloated — when you land.

Article From: FitnessMagazine.Com, Charocaps.Com, and Newsguide.Us

For years, we’ve known about the epidemic of childhood obesity in America. We’ve heard the statistics—how one third of all kids in this country are either overweight or obese. We’ve seen the effects on how our kids feel, and how they feel about themselves. And we know the risks to their health and to our economy—the billions of dollars we spend each year treating obesity-related conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

But we also know that it wasn’t always like this. Back when many of us were growing up, we led lives that kept most of us at a pretty healthy weight. We walked to school every day, ran around at recess and gym and for hours before dinner, and ate home-cooked meals that always seemed to have a vegetable on the plate.

For many kids today, those walks to school have been replaced by car and bus rides. Afternoons playing outside have been replaced with afternoons inside with TV, videogames, and the Internet. And with many parents working longer hours, or multiple jobs, they don’t have time for family meals around the table anymore.

It’s now clear that between the pressures of today’s economy and the breakneck pace of modern life, the well-being of our kids has too often gotten lost in the shuffle.

And let’s be honest with ourselves: our kids didn’t do this to themselves. Our kids don’t decide what’s served in the school cafeteria or whether there’s time for gym class or recess. Our kids don’t choose to make food products with tons of sugar and sodium in supersize portions, and then have those products marketed to them everywhere they turn. And no matter how much they beg for fast food and candy, our kids shouldn’t be the ones calling the shots at dinnertime. We’re in charge. We make these decisions.

That’s actually the good news—that we can decide to solve this problem. That’s why we started Let’s Move, a nationwide campaign with a single goal: to solve the problem of childhood obesity in a generation, so that children born today can reach adulthood at a healthy weight.

Let’s Move is not about trying to turn back the clock to when we were kids, or cooking five-course meals from scratch every night. No one has time for that. And it’s not about saying no to everything either. There’s a place for cookies and ice cream, burgers and fries—that’s part of the fun of childhood.

Instead, Let’s Move is about families making manageable changes that fit with their schedules, their budgets, and their needs and tastes. It’s about giving parents the tools they need to keep their families healthy and fit, and getting more nutritious food—more fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and less sugar, fat, and salt—into our nation’s schools. It’s about helping grocery stores serve communities that don’t have access to fresh foods, and finding new ways to help our kids stay physically active in school and at home.

Achieving all this won’t be easy. This isn’t something we can fix with a bill in Congress or an executive order from the president. I’ve spoken with many experts about this issue, and not a single one has said that the solution to childhood obesity is to have the government tell people what to do.

Instead, it’s about what all of us can do to help our kids lead active, healthy lives: parents making healthier choices for their families; mayors and governors doing their part to build healthier cities and states; and the private sector doing its part as well—from food manufacturers offering healthier options to retailers understanding that what’s good for kids and families can be good for businesses too.

That’s why I’ve been traveling the country, speaking to groups ranging from PTAs to food manufacturers, to elected officials, to school food-service employees, asking all of them to be a part of Let’s Move. And since this campaign began, several major school suppliers have already agreed to improve the quality of their food, doubling the amount of fresh produce they serve to our children. The nation’s largest beverage companies have agreed to provide clearly visible information about calories on the front of their products, as well as on vending machines and soda fountains. The American Academy of Pediatrics has begun urging its members to screen children for obesity and to actually write out prescriptions for parents detailing how to address it. And we’ve started a Web site—LetsMove.gov—with tips on eating well and staying fit.

Changes like these are only the beginning—and we’ve got a long way to go to reach our goals. But I’m confident that if we each do our part, and all work together, we can ensure that our kids have not just the opportunities they need to succeed, but the strength and endurance to seize those opportunities: to excel in school, pursue the careers of their dreams, keep up with their own kids, and live to see their grandkids grow up—maybe even their great-grandkids too. That is the goal of Let’s Move, and that is my mission as first lady. – Newsweek

Look around anywhere in America and the reality assaults you: we are simply too big. Nowhere is the evidence for this more striking than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s color-coded obesity map. Between 1990 and 2008 the country morphs from a sea of pleasant blue, representing an obese population of less than 19 percent, to an alarming patchwork of tan, orange, and maroon, where the stats range from 21 percent obese in Connecticut to 32.8 percent in Mississippi.

The epidemic is most alarming among American children: rates have tripled among kids ages 12 to 19 since 1980, with one third of America’s youth now overweight or obese and almost 10 percent of infants and toddlers dangerously heavy. Obese kids, defined by a body-mass index at or above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex, are at risk for developing conditions in childhood once monopolized by adults: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes. And many are stigmatized and suffer from low self-esteem, which can lead to depression. If current trends continue, nearly one in three kids born in 2000—and one in two minorities—will develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime, according to the American Diabetes Association. The disease is linked to heart attack, stroke, blindness, amputation, and kidney disease. Indeed, a study published last month found that obese children are more than twice as likely to die prematurely as adults than kids on the lower end of the weight spectrum. In the U.S., new government data show an overall plateau of high BMIs in kids over the last 10 years—a hopeful sign. But “even without further increases in childhood obesity, the toll of the epidemic will mount for decades to come,” says Harvard’s Dr. David Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life program at Children’s Hospital Boston.

This goes way beyond fitting into our jeans or airline seats: the estimated annual cost of obesity in the United States is $147 billion. The problem even threatens our national security—being overweight is the No. 1 reason recruits are turned away from the military. Not so long ago, a lack of personal willpower was blamed. Today, obesity is considered a public-health threat, the toll of a toxic environment that endangers the well-being of our children and their future.

It’s not just us, either. “Globesity” has consumed much of the planet, with more than 1 billion adults overweight or obese. And while we’re not the fattest—Nauru, Micronesia, and a handful of other countries beat us—we’re very close to the top of the list. Urbanization, modernization, technology, and the globalization of food markets, which includes the exportation of Coke and burgers, has created a crisis of “epidemic proportions,” in the words of the World Health Organization.

But it’s America that has become the world’s preeminent fat-making machine. To dismantle it we need a coordinated, comprehensive plan of attack, one that pairs individual responsibility with a social construct that fosters good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. We need to be surrounded by food that makes us well, not sick. We need schools and workplaces that reward us for exercising our bodies, not just our brains. “If you want people to make the right choices, they need to have the right choices to make,” says Dr. William Dietz, director of the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. We need forceful and well-enforced policies, a government that invests dollars in improving the diet of school kids and puts limitations on the advertising that targets them. We need Americans to perceive obesity as a personal threat to themselves and to their children, not as somebody else’s problem. We have a long way to go.

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I’m lucky enough to live in a city where the weather allows me  to work out outdoors everyday. Running is the first thing I do when I hop out of bed in the morning. It’s the most fresh and invigorating wake up call and great way to  start the day. Below is a great article on the Benefits that running can provide. – THE WIFE

There are a number of different benefits which an individual can gain from running on a regular basis. There are some runners who run simply for the joy of running but there are others who run because they realize there are a great deal of benefits which can be gained from rigorous exercise such as running. Some of these benefits may include weight loss, improved cardiovascular health, improved bone health, improved mood and better coordination. This article will briefly describe how running can result in each of these benefits.

Those who are looking to lose a few pounds often find running to be one of the most effective forms of exercise for helping them to achieve their ideal body weight. Running is an excellent form of exercise for losing weight because it requires a great deal of energy. This energy requirement means the body burns a large number of calories while running. The number of calories burned while running is typically significantly more than would be burned during less taxing forms of exercise such as walking or doing yoga. The simplest formula for weight loss includes burning off more calories than the individual consumes. When this type of calorie deficit is created, the body begins to shed excess weight in the form of fat. In order to lose one pound of body weight, the body must create a calorie deficit of 3500 calories. This is equal to burning 500 calories per day. Most runners can easily burn off this many calories in less than one hour of exercise. The number of calories burned while running depends on a number of factors including the individual’s weight, the intensity of the workout and the efficiency of the runner.

Improved cardiovascular health is another benefit of running. Some of the benefits of running include lowering the blood pressure and helping the arteries to maintain their elasticity. While running, the arteries expand and contract approximately three times as much as they do when you are sedentary. This means you are not only working out to improve your physical appearance but also the overall function of your body. In doing this the risk of heart attack and stroke becomes diminished.

Running is also beneficial for slowing down the aging process. Those who run regularly are less likely to experience bone and muscle loss as they age at the same pace as those who do not run regularly or at all. The bones grow and become stronger by responding to physical demands. Those who lead a rather sedentary lifestyle do not put this type of demand on their bones and as a result the bones may become weaker. When this happens the individual is more likely to be susceptible to osteoporosis as they age. Conversely, those who run on a regular basis are continually taxing their muscles and their bones so the bones are stimulated to remain stronger and do not as easily weaken with age.

Running can also have many psychological benefits. Most significantly runners typically report being happier and feeling less stressed than their counterparts who do not run or exercise regularly. Running actually has the ability to alter an individuals moods because hormones called endorphins are released while running. These hormones create a sense of euphoria often referred to as a runner’s high and can result in an improvement in the runner’s mood. Running has also been reported to alleviate stress in most runners. There are a number of factors which may contribute to running lowering stress levels. One of the most obvious reasons is the act of running allows the individual to focus on the task at hand instead of being worried or stressed about work, family or other stresses in his daily life. Additionally, running can be very challenging on the body which can result in the individual feeling a sense of accomplishment by completing the run which shifts the focus of his attention from negative stresses to a sense of pride and accomplishment.

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