REPORTING POINT 01/07
HEALTH NEWS
“Live healthy...live well”
Dedicated to providing pertinent information on health, fitness, and nutrition to foster a culture of wellness among Southwest Airlines flight crews and their families.
by Larry Kline
SWAPA Voice Mailbox 4337/email: livehealthy-livewell@cox.net
Past issues of “Health News” are available at http://health.theballfamily.org. It includes a search engine; just enter a key word to find past articles. LK
CAN CLA HELP BURN FAT? – yogurt and other dairy products are known for their calcium, protein, and other nutrients, including CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). It is believed that CLA has the potential to increase the fat-burning potential of the body. Studies have shown that CLA (a type of polyunsaturated fat) can help significantly reduce body fat levels. One report from Norway revealed that men and women who took 3.4 grams of CLA a day were able to lose a significant amount of body weight and fat while increasing lean body mass without additional dieting or exercise.
Yogurt is one of the richest natural sources of CLA, but you’d have to eat 72 servings in order to get even 2 grams of CLA, and that is still less than what is in most CLA supplements. Men’s Fitness 8/05.
WRAP IT UP – when preparing or storing food, do you use paper or plastic? Here are the recommended uses for each:
PLASTIC WRAP
Use plastic wrap to cover perishable items like cheese, sausage, or lunch meats because it conforms to the food’s shape better. Make sure the food item is stored airtight to prevent it from drying out, getting moldy, or tasting rancid.
Do not use plastic wrap in the microwave unless it is labeled microwave safe. If using microwave safe plastic wrap in the microwave, do not wrap the bowl too tightly as the heating of the food may cause the plastic wrap to pop and cause the food to splatter.
Also do not let the plastic wrap touch the food when microwaving as some foods absorb chemicals in the plastic.
WAX PAPER
Use wax paper during prep work. Wax paper helps avoid a mess while sifting flour or rolling out cookie dough.
Obviously, do not use wax paper in the oven as it will melt. To prevent cookies from sticking to a baking sheet, use parchment paper, which can withstand the heat.
ALUMINUM FOIL
Cover casseroles with foil along with prepared foods because it can serve as a lid and it can go from the refrigerator to the oven along with the cooked dish. Foil is also helpful for preventing ham or other cured meats from being exposed to light which can cause discoloration.
Do not use aluminum foil to wrap acidic foods like tomatoes, citrus fruits, berries, or onions. For these items, use plastic wrap.
Finally, do not reuse wraps. There is no good way to clean them and you may cross-contaminate foods and increase the risk of food-borne illnesses. Health 5/06.
ARTHRITIS PAIN RELIVERS COMPARED – a recent French study found that ibuprofen (such as Motrin and Advil) provides better relief of arthritis pain in the knee or hip than acetaminophen (Tylenol). However, you should still consider acetaminophen if you require daily pain relief from osteoarthritis because it is considered safest. If that does not work or stops working, the next option is an over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) like aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen sodium (Aleve). Be sure to discuss these options with your doctor since all pain relievers have risks. Long-term daily use of NSAIDs can cause gastrointestinal bleeding, stomach ulcers, and other problems. Acetaminophen can cause liver damage, especially when taken often or combined with heavy alcohol use. University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter 1/05.
SUGAR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND – according to the American Heart Association, adding sugar to your diet puts you at greater risk of heart disease. Besides making you fat and increasing the risk of developing diabetes, researchers found that eating sugar can lower levels of HDL (good) cholesterol in the body. Sugar promotes the formation of advanced glycation-end products – compounds in the blood that damage cells, reducing their elasticity and making the cells more susceptible to disease. The scientists concluded that there is absolutely no research available that shows that eating sugar can be good- and there is a wealth of research that shows sugar may be very bad for the body. Men’s Health 11/02.
READING GLASSES – SOONER OR LATER… the need for reading glasses to correct blurred close-up vision is medically known as presbyopia. Most people start needing some help reading by their mid-40s, as stretching your arms full length to read the newspaper, a menu in a dark restaurant, or a late-evening chart briefing for an instrument approach is not working anymore.
With age, the lens of the eye loses elasticity and the ability to focus on near objects. Also, aging brings a loss of sensitivity to light which compounds the problem.
Over-the-counter reading glasses (readers) are perfectly fine for most people with good distance vision who do not already wear eyeglasses. Readers are cheap (under $20/pair) at drugstores and some large chain warehouse stores. Readers are essentially magnifying lenses in frames. They come in different powers, called diopters, ranging from +1.00 (the weakest) to +3.50 (the strongest) and usually come in 0.25 increments.
These OTC readers will not be the answer if one eye is stronger than the other and needs a different correction. In this case, you will need to see an optometrist or ophthalmologist who can test your eyes and tell you which diopter correction each eye needs.
If you already wear glasses, readers may still be okay or you may opt for prescription reading glasses.
Corrective contact lenses, like glasses, offer a two-in-one prescription but may be hard to fit correctly and even harder to get used to.
Another option is a non-laser procedure called conductive keratoplasty (CK), which is the only procedure so far to receive approval from the FDA for correcting presbyopia. In CK, a very hair-thin probe applies radio waves in a circular pattern around the cornea to shrink and reshape tissue. The result is what the company calls “blended vision,” a milder and more tolerable form of monovision that spares some depth perception. CK take s just minutes in the doctor’s office using only numbing eye drops. Just one eye is usually done (the other eye maintains distance vision) at a cost of $1,500 to $2,000. It takes about a week to recover and several more weeks to stabilize. The procedure is not reversible and is not recommended for people with diabetes, glaucoma, or dry eyes. The procedure may not fully correct the problem and the patient may still require reading glasses for some tasks. Also, the eyes change as one ages, and more surgery may be required in a few years as vision loss progresses. University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter 1/05.
AGING GRACEFULLY – a University of Florida study found that rats who ate lower-calorie, nutrient-dense diets stayed both leaner and fitter as they aged, compared with rats on higher-calorie diets.
Researchers speculate that eating less food helps make the cells burn calories more efficiently – reducing the number of free radicals in the body. Men’s Health 11/02.
WHY DIETS FAIL – according to one researcher who has studied virtually all of the diets to come along the last 15 years, it is difficult for the body to accept being thinner than it was. Once you have put on extra fat, the body tends to defend it. If one sheds a few pounds, a number of biological and psychological mechanisms help return the weight to where it was. Among these:
APPETITE SURGES. Researchers have evidence that after people have lost weight, they are hungrier, and not just for food.
Their preference for high-fat and high-sugar foods goes up. More hunger plus a craving for calorie-dense foods is not the formula for dieting success. Both mechanisms make one likely to eat more than you should if you want to keep the weight off.
METABOLISM SLOWS DOWN. As far as the body knows, weight loss means you are starving. To make the remaining fat stores last, the body burns fewer calories to keep the heart, brain, and other organs working. The basal metabolic rate falls with weight loss, so the laws of physics are working against the dieter. Metabolic rate falls because it is closely linked to how much muscle and other lean tissue you have – the more muscle, the greater the metabolic rate.
With weight reduction from dieting alone, people lose not just fat mass but a little bit of liver, heart, muscle, and other lean tissue. The only way to counter the slowdown in metabolism is to exercise more.
ENZYMES PROMOTE FAT STORAGE. As you lose weight, the body produces lipoprotein lipase (LPL), an enzyme that promotes fat storage. LPL goes up in fat tissue and decreases in skeletal muscle, so the body tends to store fat rather than burn it. You will not actually gain weight unless you eat more.
LESS FAT AND MORE CARBOHYDRATES ARE BURNED. Usually the body burns a mixture of fat and carbs. When one is dieting, the body prefers to burn carbs – not fat.
After weight loss, glucose oxidation goes up and fat oxidation goes down. Again, the body senses famine and is attempting to store energy in the form of fat. When human beings only lived to be 40 this was not a problem. But now that Americans are living well into their 70s and 80s, storing and carrying excess fat is resulting in huge increases in diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
The Bottom Line
FATS. Fats are calorie-dense but can and should be part of a healthy diet. The trick is to minimize bad (saturated and trans) fats in meats, dairy foods, and fatty sweets. Instead, use good (unsaturated) fats in foods like salad dressing, nuts, and oils. Try replacing fats in your diet with good carbs like fruits and vegetables, not starchy carbs like pasta and bagels.
REFINED CARBS. It is essential to cut the refined carbs like refined flour and sugar. Whole grains are a better bet because their fiber may help stave off hunger. Just remember that total calories consumed count and one cannot “pig out” on unlimited whole grains.
PROTEIN. Getting enough protein may keep dieters from losing lean tissue. There is some data that protein may preserve muscle, so it is prudent to consume some protein daily. Protein may help by supplying amino acids, the building blocks of muscle protein, or by preventing muscle protein breakdown.
