Wellness Weekly

A Good Change: I am a big supporter of expanding food labels or at least making them clear and mandatory. As much as I like and use them, many people are not comfortable with them. Many folks do not read them nor understand what they are reading. Even if what the person reads makes sense, they may not know how to apply it in his or her choice of foods. There is a place on the sidelines of this blog to learn more about label reading. For instance, it is important to know the calorie, sodium, sugar and fiber content of the food you are eating in the amount that you are eating. This week there is news that a few large food manufacturers are making this information available to you in a much easier to read format. What I think is especially neat about this new voluntary act is that the same Smart Choices symbol will be used across different companies and even retailer Wal-Mart. The symbol means that the foods have already met the criteria for a healthy product in regards to low cals, fat, sodium and TFAs while also being higher in fiber. The label will include calorie per serving info and number of servings in the package. Begin looking for this new symbol next year and then USE it.

Junk Food and Heart Attacks: So the foods that have the Smart Symbol should not be in the same category as these foods. An article this week reports that eating certain foods can increase a persons overall risk of having a heart attack. Another study has been completed that compares the types of foods a person eats on a regular basis and the risk of heart attack in that population. For instance a diet heavy in tofu and soy and sauces that are of high sodium content was not protective probably because of the salt. It was rather a neutral or average heart attack diet. The Western diet or one similar to the old USA plan of high meat, high fat and junk food had the highest link to heart disease and heart attack while the lowest is in what is considered a Prudent diet, or the way I eat. High fruits, veggies, fiber etc. Where as the Western diet increased risk by 35% the Prudent one REDUCED it by 30%. Here is the thing though – we already know this.

Healthier Life Steps: In large part due to the study referenced above which included 52 countries, the AMA is increasing its efforts to assist people in attaining and maintaining a health promoting and or disease preventing weight. Their intention is noble and their materials are helpful but they may not be accessible to the people who need them the most. The steps are spelled out on a website and website tools are used to motivate persons to NOT smoke, drink appropriately, exercise daily and eat a diet that is Prudent. There is a growing voice amongst health professionals that there needs to be more effort on preventing obesity than just trying to treat it. Obesity can lead to life changing, debilitating disease and almost every related disease is treated with medications, chemicals. Medications have side effects; they come with a financial and physical cost. Please, take control, insulate yourself from disease. It seems hard at first sure, but YOU CAN quit tobacco if you use it, eat smart if you don’t and move more.

Physical Activity Guidelines: The USDA has written several versions of a food guide pyramid and recommendations on how much of what foods to eat based on certain individual characteristics. (personal nutrition information should be provided by a registered dietician) The latest guide even recommends physical activity. Now the Department of Health and Human Services has written the first physical activity guideline. I mentioned this not long ago. The recommendation is about 76 pages long and I have read most of it. There are one page handouts as well. The main point is this; the new “enough” is “MORE”. The guidelines do not ever support inactivity. They note a low threshold for when health benefits, including disease prevention, can occur but they say they have not found an upper limit. In other words, more is better. A minimum is about 2 and a half hours a week, five hours is better, seven hours even more so. The guidelines are almost the same across age groups. Children should do an hour a day, adults and those over age 65 should do the minimum of three days. Activities promoted include, walking, swimming, biking, running, jogging and aerobic dance. Weight or resistance training is also recommended. Everyone should do some thing. Anyone who does not have a chronic disease should begin immediately and those with illnesses should touch base with their docs and then GET MOVING. Interesting that they noted that there is a risk of injury with some exercise and there is even a risk of heart attack for some people but any and all risks they said are far less than the benefit that one gains from regular daily activity. To note, the activity should be at least ten minutes long but can be accrued over the day. In fact, the guidelines discuss how long, how intense and how often. The single most important factor was how long and again, longer is better. They separate moderate and vigorous activity and say that if you do something moderate, like walk, you can do something vigorous like running, for half the time and have equal benefit. Note: cycling and running are only vigorous at certain paces. Most of my activity is at the moderate pace as I can easily carry on a conversation even when running. When I do intervals of course, I have moved into vigorous territory. I also found it interesting that the DHHS said that they see one injury in every 1000 hours of walking and four injuries in every 1000 hours of running. But you would have to walk twice as long as run to get same benefits so the risk is really only half of running not ¾. It is an interesting read actually, REALLY.

TOY ALERT: Please note a serious issue that may affect your children this year. There is a class of chemical in some plastics called Phthalates which has been found harmful in some research studies. (We actually had a class assignment on this when I was getting my MPH so I know it is a real deal). I recall that there were actual cases of reproductive problems in animals exposed to this chemical and apparently the science supports that these reproductive and hormonal side effects could be found in children exposed to the chemical that is often used to make plastics harden. There are at least six types of phthalates and three are banned altogether and three are to be temporarily banned while additional research is gathered. Most importantly we do not want this chemical in products that children will put in their mouths. Here is the important alert. The law removing these phthalate containing products from the market doesn’t take place immediately. So not only are things like rubber ducks which contain the chemical still on the shelves, they are being discounted so that store owners can get rid of them and still make some money. I do not think there is anyway for you to know which products have them either.


Have a great weekend and don’t buy any rubber duckies!