Total Health Work

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Your mother always told you that you needed to eat your vegetables if you wanted to grow up to be strong and healthy.  Since then, we’ve been inundated with a barrage of information from every source imaginable that she was right.  But does that mean that we’re follow our mother’s advice (and the advice of every health expert on the planet)?

According to both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medicine report, the answer is no.  According to recent research, only about 25% of Americans are getting the minimum recommended daily servings of fruits or vegetables. (Only 20% are getting getting both.)

It only takes one cup of raw or cooked vegetables or two leafy greens to count as a serving.  So do one cup of rar friut or a quarter-cup of dried fruit That doesn’t seem like much, but apparently, the majority of Americans think it is.  Or at least their eating habits have avoided even this minimum.

So what does this look like?

- 1 small apple

- 1 large orange

- 1 small wedge of watermelon

- 8 large strawberries

- 1 large bell pepper

- 2 stalks of celery

- 12 baby carrots

- 1 large ear of corn

One thing that I noticed while going over this list was that french fries and donuts were not listed. (Bummer!)

If you’re not sure how many servings of fruits and vegetables you should be eating, you can to to www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov to calculate the number of servings that are right for you.

Listen to your mother.  You’ll be healthier and you’ll make her happy.

Stay Healthy

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Sometimes the world of "research" baffles me a bit.  For instance, I just ran across an article in the New York Times reporting on a recent "study" financed by Cake Media and a public relations consultant for the Nintendo  gaming company that shows that children playing the Wii video games simulating sports activities don’t expend as much energy as if they actually played the games in real life.

I don’t don’t know about you, but my first reaction after reading this was … Duh.  I mean, come on, I don’t think that takes a lot of sparks humming around the grey matter to figure that one out.

The research was very precise in it’s results. Playing a game of Wii tennis, for example, (an interactive video game created by the Nintendo gaming system), expended around 179 calories an hour.  Wii Boxing burned only 174 calories an hour.  (Now that one did surprise me.  In real life, it seems like boxing would burn more calories; not to mention a few bruises.)  Playing a game of real tennis, on the other hand, used 318 calories an hour and punching a boxing bag burned 382 calories. (See, I was right.)

The study also measured the number of calories that children burned while playing traditional, sedentary video games.  They found that, while the interactive Wii games burned more energy than the traditional video games, they don’t compare to the real thing. (How many times can I say "duh" in the same post?) 

The "research" was obviously heavily subsidized by the "public relations consultant" for Nintendo.  The conclusion of the "study" asserts, and I quote … "While [Wii video gaming] is not going to replace the real thing, it’s certainly moving in the right direction."

Really?  Do you mean the fact that kids actually get up out of their chair to play (this is optional, by the way).  How about turning off the video game and going outside to throw a ball back and forth (or even up against a wall.  THAT would be moving in the right direction.

Call me old fashioned, but I think we should be encouraging our children to play some real games, not to sit mastering an electronic simulation offered in a video game.  I know the Wii games are fun to play and they certainly have their place.  Let’s just not begin to think that there are any real health benefits associated with "virtual exercise" through video sports games.

If you have a choice … and you should MAKE the choice … chose to engage in the real thing when it comes to exercise.  It’s actually a lot more fun and has a lot more benefits to your health.  The only exception, perhaps, is the Wii boxing.  Virtual bruises probably don’t hurt as much.

Stay Healthy.

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Tags: exercise, health, Nintendo, physical activity, video games, Wii

Your New Year’s resolution to exercise more often could also help relieve some common symptoms of menopause.  A new study done in Pennsylvania suggested that regular physical exercise may help reduce many of the menopausal afflictions that women deal with, including stress, anxiety and depression.

This approach seems much safer than hormonal replacement therapy for women afflicted by the effects of menopause, although the researchers admit that there doesn’t seem to be a significant relationship between exercise and the elimination of hot flashes.

There is, however, a substantial reduction in the levels of depression, anxiety and stress among women who are physically active.  Women who do not engage in regular physical activity are much more likely to suffer from these negative symptoms.

The study is significant for several reasons.  While exercise does not appear to impact some of temporary symptoms, such as hot flashes, it has a much more substantial effect on many of the long-term ailments that are associated with menopause.

The surprising aspect of the study was that the level of physical activity necessary to decrease the symptoms of menopause was minimal.  Just walking a short distance as a part of a daily routine, for example, was enough to have a positive impact.

It was interesting to note that, as a group, black women tend to suffer more from menopausal symptoms than whites and that moderate exercise seems to have a more significant impact for this demographic as well. 

One reason for hot flashes in women is a fluctuation of hormone levels which affect the brain’s center controlling body temperature.

Other research indicated that while exercise does not appear to reduce the number of hot flashes that menopausal women experience, those who are physically active tend to "care less about having them."  

This finding supports the psychological, as well as physical, benefits that exercise offers.  The reduced levels of estrogen that accompanies menopause does lead to an increase of stress, anxiety and depression.  The mental benefits of physical activity is significant in terms of reducing the intensity of these symptoms.

For more information on menopause visit the National Women’s Health Information Center.

Stay Healthy.

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Tags: estrogen, exercise, hot flashes, menopausal, menopause, women's health

Teenagers in New York City are lighting up less frequently than they used to.  In fact, they are smoking much less than the national average according to a report in the New York Times.  This is good news for a number of different reasons.

New York has often been a forerunner for the nation.  The fact that fewer teens are smoking is a move in the right direction.  The drop of tobacco use among teenagers is attributed mainly to the curbs on smoking in public areas and the skyrocketing taxes on cigarettes which adds around $3.00 to the price of each pack.

Among ninth to twelfth graders surveyed, the number of smokers dropped from 17.6 percent in 2001 to 8.5 percent in 2007.  The national average among teens is currently around 23 percent.

The drop is also credited to an aggressive attack on businesses selling cigarettes to minors.  In a program called Youth Tobacco and Prevention, the department of consumer affairs hires teenagers to try to buy cigarettes illegally within the view of public inspectors.  The crackdown has obviously had an effect.

Whatever the reason behind the decline, it’s a move in the right direction.  Our society seems to be slowly moving away from it’s addiction to nicotine, but the battle is far from over.

Talking with your teens openly about the dangers of cigarettes is the best defensive.  Let’s hope that this trend away from tobacco use continues and spreads to other parts of our world.

Stay Healthy.  

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Tags: cigarettes, New York, nicotine, smoking, teen smoking, tobacco