You might be surprised to hear that 1 in 3 Americans has high blood pressure! Aside from helping control weight and keeping cholesterol in check, a new study has found that fiber helps to lower blood pressure. All of these benefits translate to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. So what foods supply you with fiber? Think plant-based foods: fiber is the parts of plants which are indigestible, such as the seeds, husks, and fibrous stalks. (So animal products do not contain fiber).

When buying foods made from grains (like bread, cereal, crackers, pasta, tortillas, etc), make sure the first ingredient says “whole grain” or “100% whole grain.” Don’t be fooled by labels that say “Wheat Bread” or “Multigrain Bread.” Many of these use white flour as the main ingredient and add coloring to make the bread look like whole wheat bread.

Vegetables and fruits are great sources of fiber and have the bonus feature of being low in calories. So you can pretty much eat unlimited amounts of these (unless you’re a diabetic and need to closely monitor your carbohydrate intake). No one gets fat eating vegetables and fruits—unless they’re in the form or French fries and potato chips!

Beans are another excellent source of fiber. There are so many varieties including pinto, black beans, lentils, garbanzos (chick peas), cranberry, split peas, red beans, and black eyed peas. Throw them into soups, chili, salads, etc. If you’re troubled by gas when you eat beans, try a great product called Beano. This contains the enzyme that helps to break down the undigested starch in the beans. Just chew 2-3 tablets with your first bite of the offending food (don’t swallow them). Beano also helps with gas from those sulfur-containing veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.

That’s quite a headline but this is really an easy win! You don’t even have to change your diet–if the average TV viewer (who watches about 5 hours of TV daily!) cut their TV viewing in half, they could lose up to 12 pounds in one year! It turns out when people watch less TV they replace that activity with others that burn more calories.

TV viewing requires only slightly more calories than sleep–so replacing that with even slightly more active activities like knitting, sewing, cleaning, or scrapbooking make a difference over time.

Here’s another idea: if you have a piece of exercise equipment at home, try watching some of your favorite TV shows while you walk or peddle. If you don’t like sweating, keep in mind that you don’t have to work out at a frantic pace. Walking burns about 100 calories a mile…so if you watch a one hour show and walk 3 miles while watching, you’ve just burned an extra 300 calories!

Something that works for me is splitting my time on the treadmill into 2 sessions. I watch two of my favorite chefs on the Food Channel for 30 minutes each, one in the morning and one in the evening.  It is easier on my body than one 60 minute session and sometimes I end up going longer than 30 minutes so my total minutes for the day might actually work out to 75 minutes. The trick here is figuring out what works for you to keep on moving!

Today’s Diet & Nutrition is a wonderful resource for delicious recipes, health and fitness advice, cooking tips and more!

They are going to an all digital format and until Jan 31 you can subscribe for only $4.99 for 12 monthly issues.

You can view a sample issue at http://www.tdn-digital.com/digital/ and you can subscribe at www.tdn-digital.com/

Use the promotion code INTRO for the special offer.

Okay, it’s January. So you might be thinking about renewing your commitment to getting in shape! Of course you know how important physical activity is for preventing health problems. But just how much exercise do you really need? The answer varies depending on your goal.

If you suffer from mild depression, as little as 20 minutes a week may help you beat the blues.

If cardiac fitness is your goal, the minimum recommendation is 150 minutes per week.

And if you’re aiming for weight loss, that’s going to take at least 250-300 minutes per week. The good news is that you can benefit from exercise sessions as short as 10 minutes. This can help when you don’t have time to do a 30-60 minute workout.

And how hard do you have to work? Shoot for an intensity level which allows you to talk to a companion and not too hard that you’re breathless.

If you’d like more info about getting physically active, you can download a great brochure at http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/adultguide/default.aspx

Happy New Year!

A new study published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concludes that breast cancer survivors in China who ate tofu, soy milk and fresh beans as part of a diet rich in soy protein had a lower risk of dying and less chance their cancer would return. Those who ate the most soy protein had a 29 percent lower risk of dying and a 32 percent lower rate of their breast cancer returning than those who had the lowest intake of soy. This is the largest study to examine the influence of soy intake on breast cancer survival and recurrence; it followed over 5000 women for about 4 years. The foods included in the study were tofu, soy milk and fresh soy beans, all common choices in Asian meals.

The researchers said the results eased previous concern that isoflavones might interfere with tamoxifen, a cancer drug designed to block estrogen. The study found higher soy food consumption was beneficial regardless of whether a patient was taking tamoxifen.

Soy foods are rich in isoflavones, which are estrogen-like compounds that occur naturally in plant foods. Soy isoflavones may compete with the body’s estrogen in binding to cell receptors, reducing the amount of estrogen in the body and hindering the ability of cancers to grow. The most common types of breast cancer depend on estrogen to grow.

Eating soy food that is the equivalent to 11 grams (0.39 ounces) of soy protein or 40 milligrams of soy isoflavone a day was enough to see a benefit. In the study, the women consumed an average of 47 milligrams a day of isoflavone compared with the average U.S. intake of 1 milligram to 6 milligrams a day.  Other ingredients in soy foods including folate, protein, calcium or fiber may also be responsible for the survival benefits.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends people consume 25 grams of soy protein a day, which contains about 50 milligrams of isoflavone, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol that may help reduce the risk of heart disease. One cup of fortified soy milk contains 10 grams of soy protein, or 43 milligrams of isoflavone, while a half cup of a firm soybean patty called tempeh contains 16 grams, or 53 milligrams of isoflavone. A half-cup of tofu or about 1.5 cups of edamame, a green vegetable, also each contain 10 grams of soy protein.

More studies are needed in larger numbers of people among more diverse populations to fully understand the effects of soy on breast cancer survivors. In the meantime, the researchers say “clinicians can advise their patients with breast cancer that soy foods are safe to eat and that these foods may offer some protective benefit for long-term health. Patients with breast cancer can be assured that enjoying a soy latte or indulging in a pad thai with tofu causes no harm and, when consumed in plentiful amounts, may reduce risk of disease recurrence.”

Here’s the link to the original article: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/302/22/2437

Here is some important information from the Tufts Health and Nutrition Update. This latest research shows why it’s important not to overdue it on supplementation of nutrients.

Folic Acid

In further proof that, at least when it comes to nutrition, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing, Norwegian researchers report that high doses of folic acid may increase the risk of cancer. They analyzed long-term results of two clinical trials totaling 6,837 heart patients who were given combinations of folic acid, B12, B6 or placebo to test the lowering of homocysteine, an amino acid in the blood linked to heart disease. Unlike the US, Norway doesn’t fortify foods with folic acid, making it ideal for such a study. When participants were revisited after a total of 77 months, those assigned to supplemental folic acid plus B12 were 21% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and 38% more likely to die of cancer. Lung cancer was the main driver of the results, suggesting a possible connection with subjects’ smoking history. Supplementation levels were also quite high: double the US RDA for folic acid and a whopping 167 times the RDA for B12. The bottom line, experts commenting on the findings said, is that it’s safest to get your nutrients from food, and that high-dose supplements shouldn’t be relied on to prevent chronic disease. – JAMA

My note: It’s important for women of child-bearing age to get adequate amounts of folic acid (400 micrograms) to prevent birth defects like spina bifida. This can be accomplished by taking a daily multivitamin. See my October Newsletter archived on this site for more information on multivitamins.

Selenium

Supplements got a second blow from a new US study linking high blood levels of selenium to increased levels of unhealthy cholesterol. Scientists compared selenium and lipid levels in the blood of 1,042 participants in a national nutrition survey, 48.2% of whom reported taking dietary supplements. Those with the highest selenium levels averaged 8% higher total cholesterol and 10% higher in non-HDL cholesterol (all except the “good” HDL cholesterol). Researchers said the high selenium levels weren’t exclusively caused by supplementation, but did raise concerns given the recent popularity of selenium supplements, thought to have antioxidant benefits and possible anti-cancer properties: “We believe that the widespread use of selenium supplements, or of any other strategy that artificially increases selenium status above the level required, is unwarranted at the present time.” – Journal of Nutrition

My note: To be on the safe side, don’t exceed 200 micrograms of selenium from supplement sources.

I attended a truly inspiring meeting last night and met three women who are changing our world! The title of the meeting says it all: Key Ingredients for Health: How Women Ecopreneurs Can Transform our Soil, Food System and Communities.

Lisa Kivirist is a national advocate for women farmers and coined the term “ecopreneur.”  She is co-author of the award-winning books ECOpreneuring, Rural Renaissance and the Edible Earth cookbook. She and her family run Inn Serendipity Farm and B&B outside Monroe, WI, completely powered by renewable energy.  They serve delicious vegetarian breakfasts from food grown on the farm. You can learn more about her and her farm at www.innserendipity.com  and her ideas about women and farming at www.ecopreneuring.biz

Angie Tagtow, a fellow registered dietitian who lives in Iowa, champions an ecological approach to food and health and works with a variety of groups to collaboratively promote the public health benefits of sustainable food systems. She is the managing editor of the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition (JHEN), a publication she helped launch in order to coalesce local, national and international hunger and environmental nutrition issues. She is spearheading a statewide collaborative that focuses on building community-based food systems as a solution to improving food security and the health of Iowans. See the following for more information:
http://www.environmentalnutritionsolutions.com/  

Xe Susane Moua, orginally from Laos, lived in  southern CA for many years where her family farmed. She moved to Minnesota and fell in love with the 4 seasons! Susane applied for a $6000 USDA SARE grant (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) to develop a St. Paul–based organic farm, providing community supported agriculture (CSA) shares at affordable prices using excess city land.  She is now farming right in her neighborhood in back, front and side yards and selling the produce to her neighbors. See the following for more information:
www.citybackyardfarming.com

The take home message for the night was go out and make a difference in your community: plant a garden, buy locally grown and seasonal food, support a farmer by purchasing a share from a CSA, start a compost bin, stop using pesticides on your lawns and gardens, shop local farmer’s markets, start cooking at home again!

The health of our planet and our bodies depends on healthy soil which provides us with the food we consume…let’s be wise stewards of the land.

Low energy dense foods are full of water and fiber which help us feel full on fewer calories. Another bonus is the cancer protection we get from these mainly plant based foods. One easy way to lower the energy density of your diet is to add vegetables to your casseroles and mixed dishes. Grated carrots along with chopped onions and celery are delicious in meat loaf and lower the energy density of each serving. Look for ways to eat more very low and low energy dense foods and you’ll find it’s easier to lose or maintain your weight!

Very Low Energy Dense Foods

• Most fruits and vegetables, skim milk, broth based soups

Low Energy Dense Foods

• Most cooked grains, breakfast cereals with lowfat milk, lowfat meats, dried peas and legumes, lowfat mixed dishes and salads

Medium Energy Dense Foods

• Meats, cheese, high fat mixed dishes, salad dressings, many snack foods

High Energy Dense Foods

• Crackers, chips, chocolate, candy, cookies, butter, oil, bacon, regular mayonnaise

Adapted from Volumetrics by Barbara Rolls and Robert Barnett

This is one of my favorite magazines! It is a wonderful resource for nutrition and health information and delicious recipes. So I wanted to post this great offer: right now you can get an annual subscription for only $10 at https://www.kable.com/pub/etgw/Subten.asp?src=I9J1TA   (I have no affiliation with this magazine!)

When I went to the Minnesota state fair recently I attended a great demonstration about how important thorough hand washing is, especially during the season of H1N1 influenza. They squirted some gel on our hands which we rubbed around like hand lotion (this simulated bacteria/viruses). After we washed our hands , we went into a darkened booth fitted with a black light; it showed all the places we missed getting clean. So here’s what I learned: Make sure you use hot water and plenty of soap. Scrub thoroughly around your nail beds, between fingers and up your arms. While you do, sing the tune “happy birthday to you” twice through. You’re hands aren’t clean until the song is through (after 20 seconds). This really did work…my hands showed no signs of ‘ viruses” after I used this method.