Wellness Weekly with video recipe

Most of the articles that caught my eye this week, or my ire, as it were, appeared in the Wall St Journal or on My Yahoo homepage. Interestingly, I emailed the reporter for one of the stories so I could have more information for my readers. I will hit a few highlights, but I also want to provide a little history about this blog site and newsletter.
I began writing a weekly email newsletter in 2000 and it was first for the Social Work / Case Management Dept at WFUBMC. I was the department’s appointed wellness ambassador for our Action Health (employee wellness) program. Things rather cascaded from there. I received some fitness and nutrition certifications (nothing gold standard) and the newsletter went out to a lot more people and was also at one time posted at two Fitness Centers, in NC. Originally it ended with a recipe. I put many recipes together into a small cook book as well. At the time I was a social worker doing some personal training and catering on the side. In 2004 I went back to college, to grad school and received the Public Health master’s and the credential of Certified Health Education Specialist. This blog came about because many people wanted to keep getting their “News” even as I moved to FL and my web page attempt was tedious.. My goal has been the same for four or five years now, and is the premise of the blog. I want only to prevent disease or progression of disease in myself and the people I know and the people with whom I share this world. My next goal is to have this influence as an “expert” but for now, I do it as I can and as a layperson. Many times I share my ideas about food with my friends, coworkers and family. I have a gift.. I am sure that I do. I can revise any recipe and make it healthier. I have learned tricks on the preparation and the selection of foods. I believe 100% in the Volumetrics concept of Dr. B. Rolls and not at all in any dieting. My cooking tricks, techniques and ideas are hard to put in writing and for some time I have considered video taping my cooking. If you checked in lately, you can see that I have taken a stab or two at doing just that. As I work to make this better I do have to wonder about the balance between the news and the cooking.. or I might find a way to compartmentalize. Bear with me as once again the Weekly News, now nine years old, gets a makeover. Today’s column will end with my most famous and historic recipe, Cereal Bars, with a demo video.

The News:

Treating Stroke: Tom Burton of the Wall St Journal described an interesting debate regarding what is the best treatment for preventing a stroke. This is timely as we hear talk about effective treatment and comparative research. Tom noted a study that compared surgery to stenting but which does not answer the question about drug therapy as the third option. In the article, Tom explains the stenting. This is to insert a small metal tube in the neck to open the blocked artery. We have spoken of stents a lot so you know the risks with them. This is also known as something that is noninvasive, but to me, a tube in my arteries IS invasive. The surgery has been around a long time and is considered effective for clearing clogged arteries. [just writing this scares hell out of me and is exactly why I eat the way I do] The surgery is referred to as a carotid endarterectomy and Tom says that this cutting open the artery and then cutting away the fatty plaque is “pretty routine”. A third option is the use of medication. There is some evidence that drugs like statins can keep the plaque from building up more and in some cases may even reduce it. The next step would be in evaluating if the drugs, the endarterectomy or the stents prevent the most strokes and of course, which have the highest adverse outcomes. Now if this doesn’t make you want to avoid high fat foods I don’t know what will. And that would be the fourth option, preventing plaque buildup in the first place.

Knees and Knee Parts: I am sure that there are people who receive knee replacements and have an improved quality of life, I haven’t met them. Research comparing physical therapy to arthroscopic knee surgery, for instance, did not show a better outcome for surgery. I have said this before but here again… some people choose surgery over physical therapy HOWEVER<>

Speak Up: This week also brought an article that encourages the recipients of health care, you and me, to speak up about the quality even to a white coat. Yes, it is okay to say, gee Doc could you wash your hands please? In reading this article I recalled one time that I did not speak up and wished I had and others where I do speak up but have a hard time being heard. The first was ten or more years ago when my Dad was in the hospital and had to have his blood taken. The phlebotomist (I think that is the term) did not wear gloves. I remember thinking that he must think my dad is a safe stick, because he is 70ish etc, but that doesn’t mean the person drawing the blood was “safe”. More personally, because I am a health educator and study this stuff, I know that to get a good blood pressure read, the patient should be seated for several minutes and their arm should be at a 90 degree angle. How many times do you walk in and right away the cuff is placed for the BP?

Colds: I like oh so much to be right, so let me share some info from Melinda Beck’s Health Journal from Tuesday. Basically, it is ok, even beneficial, to work out when you have a cold, she said swim or run. It is not helpful to take those supplements and herbals that claim to protect you from getting colds or shorten their duration. Research supports that getting plenty of exercise, sleep and vitamin D (some from sunlight for sure) is protective for preventing colds or minimizing symptoms and duration. To ease symptoms these three things were suggested, decongestant sprays, hot beverages and acetaminophen. The researcher stated that there was no evidence to support use of antihistamines or cough medicines. True that.

Ok that is enough news.

Here is the recipe. These cereal bars are, in my opinion, wonder bars. They keep you feeling full, they level your blood sugar, they assist in the removal of LDL cholesterol and they keep you regular, which would intuitively also protect against colon cancer and a cranky mood. [omg, I crack myself up]. Let me add a disclosure, what I mean to say is that the ingredients in these bars will do the above, the bars themselves have not been used in a research study… yet.

Cereal Bars

1 ¾ c Kashi Good Friends Cereal (in red box) or Kashi Go Lean

3 c All Bran original

½ c loose oat bran (buy at a whole foods store)

1/4 c skim milk plus 1+ cup water

¼ c Waldon Farms sugar and calorie free syrup

1/4 c apple sauce(no sugar added)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 c egg substitute

mix all together in a bowl and pour into 8 ½ by 11 inch pan that has been thoroughly sprayed with butter flavored non-fat cooking spray. Bake at 375 about 40 / 45 min, if spring to touch they are done. When completely cooled, place on cutting board, cut in half and then each half into 12 bars, will have Approx. 40 calories each and about 4 g of fiber. (I use a brown glass dish and I cool over night in the fridge for easier cutting. These are small, cut into twelve pieces for 80 cals each).

Very important note, before you add the milk/water mixture (last) have the oven heated and the pan sprayed so that as soon as you stir it you fold it into the pan and place in oven, otherwise, the water is quickly absorbed by the cereals and it’ll dry out. The mixture should be wet, but not too loose. It’ll be trial and error. I use almost 2 cups of milk/water mix.

wellness weekly

It’s NOT a Small World After All: At play, vibrant and energetic, children were at one time the epitome of health, full of vim and vigor. Childhood was a time of learning achieved in fun and active ways. Disney World a place to take these precious children for a little more fun and adventure. Now doctors are diagnosing hypertension and hypercholesterolemia in children while Disney World remodels to make its rides capable of handling the ever expanding girths and heft of its visitors young and middle aged alike. As parents, teachers, health care professionals and a society, we MUST do more to make a healthy weight possible for our children or they will die before we do.

Fitness: In an article explaining the benefits of yoga, cardiovascular health was not found to be one. Researchers studied the practice which involves stretches, poses and balances to learn what health impact it does have on those who do it. The benefits do include balance, stability and flexibility but not increased cardiovascular fitness, as yoga was not found to increase heart rate through exercise or if so, not to sustain it long enough to meet the recommended duration. Cardiovascular exercise is noted to improve health by improving blood and oxygen flow but also by reducing weight and increasing HDL or healthy cholesterol. Instead, the well respected Kenneth Cooper of the Cooper Wellness Clinic suggests that a moderately fit 35 year old RUN 20 minutes four times a week. Less fit persons are encouraged to begin a walking program of 30 minutes a day most days of the week. He did not say we should not do yoga by any means, only that for heart health we needed the cardio exercise separately.

Women and Disease: Heart disease is our country’s number one killer. It kills more women than lung or breast cancer. What is interesting is that just as lung cancer has increased for women (taking more lives than breast cancer) while it has decreased for men, so has heart disease. Many health experts attribute rises in lung cancer in women to cigarette smoking. Lung cancer takes years to develop, not so long to kill however, and women started smoking and smoking more years after men did. Many people mistakenly believe that the number one smoking related illness is lung cancer, it is not. The number one smoking related disease is also the number one killer of Americans. It is heart disease. So when research came out this week showing an unexpected rise in coronary heart disease among women ages 35-44, not just disease, but death at those ages, I thought again of smoking. The authors of the study noted genetics, obesity and diabetes as risk factors for heart disease and I add cigarette smoking. Nicotine and carbon monoxide play off each other here, but nicotine in cigarettes causes the release of fat and cholesterol. (coronary heart disease IS clogged artery disease) and nicotine in cigarettes narrows arteries. Those overweight young women who smoke are at significantly high risk for heart attack and death. Add a birth control pill to that mix and you are toast.

Global Unwarming Melts the Pounds?: The American Public Health Association, or APHA, is pushing efforts to reduce green house gasses and emissions in order to help us improve our health in myriad ways. Spokespersons and CDC experts agree, if we drive less and walk and cycle more, we cut the emissions and lose the pounds. It is also suggested that we eat less meat because it is more taxing on the environment to produce than fruits, vegetables and grains. Amen to that! This is supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as well and a Dr. Lawrence from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Public Health who notes that men, in general, eat 1.6 x more meat then recommended. Remember, red meat consumption is consistently correlated with colon cancer.

Reality: In a novel I just read, a character notes that humans can’t stand too much reality and in fact, flee from it. In regards to wellness, I believe that is exactly what a large percentage of us do. Reality is this. The major causes of death and significant disability are controllable and related to lifestyle choices. The medicines we depend on instead, medicine to control the diseases such as hypertension and diabetes which cannot be cured, cause additional health problems. Recently we have heard about heart attack risks with diabetes drug Avandia. Now it is said that a physician raised those concerns in 1999 and was muzzled by GSK which makes and or markets Avandia. Eight years later and the drug gets a black box warning. Think that will matter? Not really. My years working in a hospital saw many doctors blow off the warning labels even when I brought them to their attention. So if they want to keep those meds away from people they’ll have to vioxx them. You, on the other hand, might try eating wisely and moving more.

ICE: Once again I must extol the virtues of ice. Ice is a wonderful anti-inflammatory and can be used to treat injuries sometimes instead of medicine. And here again ice is offered as a treatment in lieu of medicines. [why do we need an alternative, well, that is spelled out above]. Anyway, I have two sisters. Both are experiencing hot flashes these days. One of them has the experience in response to menopause while the other is having them as a side effect of a medication she must take. I overheard their recent lamentations. Middle sister’s wisdom is now offered to you all. She takes lunch box ice packs and wraps a towel or cloth around them, or one of them and places in at the base of her neck as she is falling asleep. When she feels better she places it beneath her pillow. If she wakes later in the night with another heat rush or flash, she flips her pillow which is now very cool to her face and neck. You may respond to this idea the same way big sister did. “Oh, I am so going to do that.”

I did indeed write this Thanksgiving Weekend and enjoyed doing so. Hope you are all invigorated by the holiday break and doing your part to stay well.