Sep
06
2010
I read an article recently that indicated the incidence of childhood obesity in the kindergarten population of most cities is still high. How can this be? There has been a dramatic change in the constituents of the diets-notably the elimination of transfats, the switch to low fat dairy products, the elimination of sweetened drinks and candies from school vending machines, the increased postings of nutritional information and the restriction on salt. So how can the majority of our kids still be obese and overweight? Okay-let’s break this down. In some school systems, besides the dietary changes, there is a push for more exercise time. As noted previously in this column, there is even a push to change recess into a structured exercise program. That’s important since a healthy child is one that has a balance of good nutrition and physical fitness. Adding more nutrition and fitness education into the curriculum from pre-school through middle school is also showing positive effects (Dr. Gary D. Foster-Director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University, Philadelphia-June 27th, The New England Journal of Medicine). So why are our kids still over weight? Well, as we all know, our kids spend only a portion of their day at school-between six to eight hours. The rest of the afternoon and evening is devoted ...
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Aug
28
2010
I think that I have had enough! Yes, my friends, I am throwing in the towel. I was staying up late, watching some of my favorite reruns of NCIS, Law and Order and James Bond when the munchies hit. You all know what I am talking about. Those feelings that strike, out of no where-“I’ve got to have something! Anything. I’m hungry. At least I think I am. Maybe I am. Not really but I want something to eat.” Where do these sensations come from? Who is that talking in my head? I had a good dinner just three hours earlier. Sure, could be the carbohydrates being digested and the insulin levels rising. Scientifically that makes sense. As your food digests and is broken down into tiny matter, the individual elements like fats, proteins and sugars are released and start to travel. The sugar level rising triggers a release of insulin from your pancreas. Subsequently, the insulin manages to get the sugar back into the cells and lowers the levels. But the insulin levels remain high. This may trigger additional reactions which include hunger. So there, I rationalized my late night eating. Wait a minute. Let’s get back to the reason for this article-those attractive and seductive food commercials, those DQ Blizzards, those new dark chocolate peanut butter cups, those new crust Domino’s Pizzas, those five dollar Subway sandwiches, it’s ...
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Aug
23
2010
My friends, we are back to school. Summer has come to an end and the fall school schedule quickly approaches. In many parts of the country, school has either started or is about to today! That’s right, those yellow Thomas school buses will be crowding the streets. The slow speed school zones are in force and kids are crossing the streets-so watch out! Lunches and snacks are being prepared at home. Please make them healthy! After school activities are being scheduled. And parents, the driving begins again! OMG! Another season is upon us. It seems that this summer went quicker than most. I guess it was because it was filled with so many activities. There was barely enough time to enjoy the peaceful time off the road. Oh well, here we go again.
So I begin my new season with another issue that has caught many by surprise as we all go back to school-there is a new push to eliminate “unstructured” playtime-also called recess and morph it into structured time-like physical exercise (PE). The reason-from the “more exercise time will help stop childhood obesity” side-is just that. These advocates feel that our children need to burn off more calories in a structured exercise program to balance the calories/food being consumed. There is a good point there-balance. Remember as I have said in many articles, the calories-as food that are consumed must ...
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Aug
15
2010
Can you believe it? A feat of fashion technology has been developed-“smart clothes” that help you know when you are sweating, clothes that can track vital changes in your system like your pulse and blood pressure, clothes that can tell you are under stress and clothes that help you lose weight! That’s right, you read it correctly. There are new fabrics that have been developed-now called “smart clothes” that are designed to move fashion to a new level-one that is closely aligned to your body. So not only will you look for the size and color, but you will decide on what attributes the clothes will help you with. This is not entirely a new field. After all, NIKE came out with their performance driven “Dri Fit” technology ( a hybrid microfiber and polyester fabric) that is able to quickly “wick” or absorb sweat away from the body-keeping the skin dry. Also NIKE has “Therma-FIT” which uses a fabric to keep cold air out and body heat in. Let’s not forget the clothing with “stain-resistance,” “wrinkle-free,” “water-proofing,” and “sun/UV-ray resistance.” Others with built in “bullet-proofing,” “insect repelling, “I-Pod docking stations,” “global-GPS,” and NASA’s astronaut clothing that keeps dust and space out. So it seems that the newest generation of “smart-clothing” has gone one step farther. Now, sweating in a shirt will reveal a slogan-or phrase and let everyone know that ...
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Aug
11
2010
This seems like a no brainer-but I will ask you anyway-when we take our kids to the supermarket-how many times do they chose a particular item on the basis of their prior knowledge of the brand and or characters on the packaging? Dah! As my daughter would politely say. Of course they do. Kids are sponges for the thousands of advertisements they hear, see and read. I hear my daughter reciting those ads in the car with her friends when I take them to dance class. They laugh about the ads. But it shows that these ads stick. And when they go into an environment like a market or mall, these colorful, sometimes celebrity driven, musical and rhythmic ads have their way of influencing their shopping decisions and eating decisions. So it is not unusual to discover that ads can influence even a younger age group-which we know spends a lot of time in front of the TV and are starting to spend even more time on the computer. Even at the age of three, kids food choices are being manipulated by what they are viewing-which is then is passed along to the purchasing selection by their parents. A study from 2007, Effect of Fast Food Branding on Young Children’s Taste Preference, demonstrated that, “By the early age of 3 to 5 years, low-income preschool children preferred the tastes of foods ...
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Aug
07
2010
How many times do we say, “I need to exercise,” in any given day. Okay, maybe not say it out loud but think it. A hundred, a thousand, more? We all say it-mostly after a big meal. Sometimes we get the motivation and go into the gym at the end of the day or maybe an evening run for a few miles-and it feels great. But how many times do you think about taking a long walk to get your metabolism moving? Probably less than 5 % of all of our exercise thoughts focus on walking. Most of us think that walking can’t burn off as many calories as running. And that’s correct. Usually we burn about 100 calories for every mile we walk. Now if you run, maybe at a pace of 6 miles an hour, you may burn off 150 calories for that same mile. That’s really pretty close. In fact several studies (the original concept from Dr. Hatano in Japan-circa 1965) have revealed that walking 10,000 steps daily was equivalent to walking approximately 5 miles. And, if you walked 10,000 steps, these studies (D. Basset-University of Tennessee, C. Tudor-Locke- Walking Behavior Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA) showed that you were able to reduce your body fat, control diabetes and reduce waist to hips ratios. So there it is, walking, preferably a long walk at ...
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Jul
31
2010
Okay, so I guess all of you that have been reading my columns know by now that my emphasis is on eating less. Cut down on the portion sizes. Yes, to some, diet is a four letter word. Let's talk lifestyle! Eating less and exercising will help you maintain a healthy weight, improves the quality of your health and is anti-aging. As I explained in prior columns, calorie restriction (CR)-the term used for low calorie meal plans, has been associated with many benefits. Both in human experiments and in animal research, the data has been confirmed-CR subjects outlive their normal and over fed counterparts. Researchers in Japan discovered that short term calorie restriction can improve the performance of the heart. Now comes further research showing that low calorie meal plans can actually enhance the immune response. What? Eating less can make my immune system stronger? Well, Simin Nikbin Meydani, Director at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University studied 46 overweight men and women, 20 to 40 years old and had them consume either a 30% or 10% calorie restricted diet for six months. The results: “short-term calorie restriction for six months in humans improves the function of T-cells*.” That means, our immune systems can improve with less food consumed. What is your immune system? Well, its the system of your body that ...
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Jul
26
2010
I was running on the treadmill last night and listening to a news story about a research study that showed the benefits from “light or moderate intensity physical activity.”* It made me think about all the times I have recommended to my friends and readers of this column, that all you need to start with is ten minutes of exercise a day (read “Take Ten”). The results are now proven scientifically: even a low level (low intensity) of exercise, over a small amount of time, can be helpful at improving your life* in quantity and quality. So then I started to think about whether we can correlate this to eating and did some preliminary research into the calorie restriction concept. From very early studies in mice and monkeys*, calorie restriction has led to longer life spans and has delayed the onset of many chronic diseases (e.g. cancer, heart disease and stroke).
In the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent estimates, there are over 36 million people over the age of 65 and about 200,000 people over the age of 100. And according to the United Nations, by 2013, there will be over 3 million people in the world over the age of 100. So our population is growing and living ...
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Jul
23
2010
First, I want to thank tennis great John McEnroe for allowing me to use one of his famous lines when he was questioning a call from a judge at one of his professional tennis tournaments. I always wanted to use it in one of my articles, so thanks John. But in all seriousness, this issue of caffeine for kids is getting out of control. Yes I am aware that it is the young adults, teens and preteens that are becoming the “fastest growing group of coffee drinkers” according to the National Coffee Association. Even prime time television shows actors drinking caffeine drinks- the character “Abby Sciuto”, played by actress Pauley Perrette, is a forensic scientist in one of my favorite shows-NCIS (CBS), drinks a huge plastic cup called a “Caf-Pow” given to her as a reward for her amazing ability to come up with answers to puzzling clues using an array of technology and science. I do think she drinks way too much of it! Yes I am aware that in America alone, close to 500 million cups of coffee are consumed each and every day, with coffee drinkers drinking an average of 2.6 cups per day. The total caffeine intake per day for coffee drinkers is an astounding 363.5mg!!! In the United States, 80% of all adults consume caffeine on a daily basis-and the average daily consumption of caffeine ...
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Jul
19
2010
Let’s congratulate our bipartisan representatives in the United States Congress for passing the legislation: Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act (H.R. 5504) on July 14th, 2010. We are all aware that millions of kids come to school each and every morning hungry. According to Share Our Strength (Strength.org), over 12 million kids go to sleep each night with food insecurity. And we also know that the only chance at a healthy and nutritious meal (breakfast and or lunch) for these children is at school. There have been multiple studies published that demonstrate the importance and benefit of an adequate breakfast on the learning and skills of children.
What will this legislation do? Here are the highlights:
Improve Access to School Meal Programs
Increase the number of eligible children enrolled in the school lunch programs by using Medicaid/SCHIP data to directly certify children who meet income requirements without requiring individual applications and requiring states to establish and execute a plan to increase rates of direct certification.
Provide enhanced universal meal access for eligible children in high poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and using census data to determine school wide income eligibility.
Increase children’s access to healthy school breakfasts by providing competitive grants to school districts to start up or improve their program.
Improve Access to Out of School Meal Programs
Ensure fewer children go hungry year round by providing meals ...
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