Seeing Pink

Are you seeing pink ribbons everywhere? Well, it is October....which means it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

Prevention
Cancer is such a difficult disease to think about prevention because we really don't know the cause and we definitely don't have a cure. The best advice I can give on prevention from a nutrition perspective is to eat a plant-based diet. This does not mean that you need to become a vegetarian (although that would be OK), but it does mean that meat and other animal protein (dairy) should not be the majority of your diet. I like to think of it as an accessory to the base which is whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. We know that the antioxidants, phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals that are in these plant-based foods work in synergy to help prevent disease.

Going through treatment
If you have cancer and are going through treatment, make sure you are keeping your strength up with good foods.

1. Focus on protein for healing. The cancer itself and the treatments to fight it all increase your body's need for protein.
2. Keep yourself well hydrated. Chemo can be especially hard on the kidneys. Drink 8-10 glasses of water every day. Regardless of your treatment plan, hydration is a must.
   
3. If you are nauseous, try some ginger and snack on bland complex carbs like dry toast, crackers, and pretzels.
4. Do not lose weight. Even if you have been trying to lose weight for years, now is not the time to say good-bye to extra pounds. Your body needs nutrients to fight off the disease, and not getting enough food could leave you sicker and more weak.

Last but not least, ladies.....do your Breast Self Exams every month and get your mammograms as advised by your physician!

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Sweet Morning

Consumer Reports just released a comparison of children's breakfast cereals and offered a ranking of them. The cereals were examined based on calories, sugar, sodium, fat, and nutrient quality.


You can read the part of the report here. I did read the entire report and a few things I found interesting:

1. 58% of "children's" cereals are consumed by adults. The leprechaun is obviously charming more than just the kids. For those of you who haven't been charmed, look at your own "adult" cereal and see how much sugar it has. You may be surprised that is has the same or more than the kid's cereal.
2. The average American consumed 134 grams of added sugar daily in 2000, a 40% increase from the 1950's. Most cereals contain between 1 and 16 grams of added sugar per serving.
3. When researchers watched kids pour their bowl of cereal, kids were pouring 50-65% more than the serving size suggested most often.
4. These exact same brands of cereal are sold in Europe, but they contain 40% less sugar than the cereals in the US. Our taste pallets in the US are becoming accustomed to a lot of sugar, fat, and salt in our food. The companies add these ingredients to make their product taste better than the competitor's, but we as consumers are suffering.
5. Two cereals had more than 50% sugar and 9 cereals had 40% sugar. That means that of all the ingredients in the cereal, a good percentage is just plain sugar.
6. Many cereals have very little fiber. The 4 cereals that got the "Very Good" rating from Consumer Reports were Cheerios, Kix, Life, and Honey Nut Cheerios and all had at least 2-3 grams of fiber.

A cereal I don't mind is Frosted Mini-Wheats because it has 6 g of fiber. It got a "good" rating but not the "very good" from CR, but I would rank it very good for the fiber content.

What's for breakfast?
Half the battle with children is to get them just to eat breakfast and if their cereal will help them eat breakfast, let's give them cereal. However, instead of just giving into some of these really high sugar varieties, try mixing a lower sugar/higher fiber cereal with the one they like most that contains a lot of sugar.

Cereal is a great way to get milk into your kids, and you can easily throw some blueberries or sliced banana in the bowl, too. Look for cereals that contain whole grains, less than 12 grams of sugar, and at least 3 or more grams of dietary fiber. Limit portion size for children that are tending toward being overweight. Encourage drinking more milk or eating a piece of fruit to fill up instead of pouring more cereal.

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Teen's Friends Affect Weight

Childhood and teen rates of overweight and obesity are on the rise, and studies are trying to find correlations to see what we can do about it.

A new study in the Journal of Health Economics found that the weight of a teen's friends was directly correlated with their own weight. Teens with obese parents also tend to be overweight themselves.

The researchers found that eating patterns, diet, and exercise were all influenced by who the teens hung out with most. Females were affects more strongly than males.

What can we do? Encourage our children to be active in sports so that the friends they make on these teams are active and like to do active things even outside of the sport. If your child isn't especially athletic, encourage them to find activities that do require movement, like the Wii Fit. It isn't quite the same as playing soccer for hours, but at least it is movement and getting them off the couch. Encourage your kids to eat healthy foods and involve them in meal selection and preparation so they can learn how to cook and not rely on convenience foods. I know this is all easier "said than done," but we have to teach our next generation to focus on their health and wellness to keep them fit and happy!

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Top 10 Reasons to Eat Rice

Do you love rice? I love sushi and stir fry and both include rice! Here are some good reasons to eat more rice.

Top 10 Reasons to Eat Rice:

1. Rice Eaters are Healthier. Research shows Americans who eat enriched and whole grain rice consume more nutrients, are less likely to be overweight, have lower blood pressure, and lower risk of metabolic syndrome.
2. Rice is good throughout the life cycle. Enriched white rice is a good source (12% for the day in 1/2 cup cooked) of folic acid and contains 5% of the daily value for iron. Folic acid helps to prevent birth defects and may help with heart disease and certain cancers.
3. Brown rice is a whole grain. Brown rice has a nice mix of phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. This is a really easy switch to make to get some whole grains. One half cup cooked counts as one of your servings of whole grain for the day.
   
4. Rice is nutritious. Rice is packed with vitamins and minerals such as B-vitamins, iron, potassium, and fiber.
5. White rice is enriched in nutrients. Since 1998, white rice in the US is fortified with folic acid because of the direct link of folic acid with preventing neural tube birth defects. Enriched white rice actually has more folic acid, niacin, thiamin, and iron than brown rice.
6. Rice is cheap! With the tough economy at the present time, everyone is looking for less expensive options that are still nutritious. as half cup serving is about 10 cents. You can't beat that!
7. Rice is versatile. Because rice has such a bland flavor, you can use it in so many different dishes from side dishes to soups to desserts.
   
8. Rice is the most popular grain in the world. People of all different cultural backgrounds love rice. It is a staple in Asia and in many Latin American countries as well.
9. You support local farmers. 80% of the rice consumed in the US is grown by farmers in California, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
10. Rice is easy to prepare. Some companies offer 90-second pouches of brown or enriched rice, or you can easily find the quick cooking varieties that cook in less than 5 minutes.

For information on rice or for recipes, visit www.usarice.com

Photo courtesy of USA Rice

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Organic Supply Shortages

I am a fan of organic foods, but I don't buy everything organic. The reason is mainly price. We all know that the organic label comes at a premium. With food costs rising, we need to consider how we want to spend our food dollars a bit more closely.

In the Nutrition Business Journal Report on Organic Markets 2008, they say that demand for organic products is growing, but the supply is becoming uneconomical. To make sense of this, think about how a food gets labeled organic. In order for milk and meat to be labeled organic, the animals need to be fed organic feed. Many small organic farms cannot sustain their organic practices with the rising prices.

The Organic Trade Association has reported that organic food sales have grown in the US between 17 and 21% every year for the past 11 years. WOW! Other food sales have grown 2-4% in the same time period.

This demand is causing some companies who use only organic ingredients to look outside the US to supply their ingredients. This makes me a bit sad as an American because I like to shop locally and support my local farmers, too. One of the advantages to me of organic is that (I hope) produce is picked at it's peak of ripeness and nutritional quality and then gets right to me. If US companies have to get their organic produce from Central America, how fresh is it by the time they get it? I can't imagine that the nutritional quality is not going to suffer.

We know about the benefits, both health and environment, of going organic. Let's hope that organic farmers in the US are able to sustain without knocking us out with their prices so that we can continue to support them!

Image courtesy of howtogoorganic.com

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