Issue 136

5111 Kali Era, Virodhi Year, Chaitra month
2066 Vikramarka Era, Virodhi Year, Chaitra month
1930 Salivahana Era, Virodhi Year, Chaitra month
2009 AD, April

Contents

Home

Management
AJIN

TSJ

MS

Vegetarian Links

Disclaimer

Soliciataion

Contact

VPC

More Links

Vedah

Diet and Exercise

Diet and Colon Cancer
Walnuts
Food Addiction
Salt and Americans
Mediterranean Diet
American Vegetarians

Miscellaneous

Yoga
Skin CANCER
Bedbug Outbreak
Breastfeeding Lowers Mom’s Cardiovascular Risk

Recipes

Pineapple and Potato Curry
Vegetarian Lasagna Recipe

Diet and Exercise

Diet and Colon Cancer
A medical doctor, Dr. Stephen O’Keefe, at the University of Pittsburgh has compiled evidence confirming that what people eat provides the link between diet and colon cancer. That’s because diet has a direct effect on the diversity of microbes in the gut. That may not surprise most people. The typical Western diet, rich in meats and fats and low in fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates, has been recognized for years as a risk factor for colon cancer.
Healthy diets with an abundance of complex carbohydrates provide the gut with significant numbers of micro-organisms called firmicutes. Those organisms use starches and proteins to manufacture short-chain fatty acids and vitamins such as folate and biotin to maintain a healthy colon. But the microbes in the gut also produce toxic products from food residues. Diets heavy in meats produce sulfur, which decreases the actions of “good” bacteria and increases the production of other possible carcinogens.
Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in adults in Westernized communities. The results suggest that a diet that maintains the health of the colon wall is also one that maintains general body health and reduces heart disease. A diet rich in fiber and resistant starch encourages the growth of good bacteria and increases production of short-chain fatty acids, which lessen the risk of cancer, while a high meat and fat diet reduces the numbers of these good bacteria. Colons host more than 800 bacterial species and 7,000 different strains that could be key to treating diseases, he said.

Walnuts
Eating walnuts may help to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer, research suggests. The nuts contain ingredients such as omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phytosterols that may all reduce the risk of the disease. The US study was presented to the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

Food Addiction
About 1 out of 5 American-4-year-olds is obese, researchers said. The rate is even higher -- 1 out of 3 -- among American Indian children, they said. The study used height and weight data on 8,550 children. All were 4 years old. The group was selected to include a cross-section of the U.S. population. More than 1 out of 5 black and Hispanic children were obese. So were 1 out of 6 whites and 1 out of 8 Asians. The study was in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
Millions are suffering from "conditioned hypereating" -- a willpower-sapping drive to eat high-fat, high-sugar foods even when they're not hungry. In a book being published in April, the former Food and Drug Administration chief, Kessler, brings to consumers the disturbing conclusion of numerous brain studies: Some people really do have a harder time resisting bad foods. It's a new way of looking at the obesity epidemic that could help spur fledgling movements to reveal calories on restaurant menus or rein in portion sizes.
Numerous factors, including physical activity, metabolism and hormones, play a role in obesity. But Kessler, now at the University of California, San Francisco, gathered colleagues to help build on that science and learn why some people have such a hard time choosing healthier:
-- First, the team found that even well-fed rats will work increasingly hard for sips of a vanilla milkshake with the right fat-sugar combo but that adding sugar steadily increases consumption. Many low-fat foods substitute sugar for the removed fat, doing nothing to help dieters eat less, Kessler and University of Washington researchers concluded.
-- Then Kessler culled data from a major study on food habits and health. Conditioned hypereaters reported feeling loss of control over food, a lack of satiety, and were preoccupied by food. Some 42 percent of them were obese compared to 18 percent without those behaviors, says Kessler, who estimates that up to 70 million people have some degree of conditioned hypereating.
-- Finally, Yale University neuroscientist Dana Small had hypereaters smell chocolate and taste a chocolate milkshake inside a brain-scanning MRI machine. Rather than getting used to the aroma, as is normal, hypereaters found the smell more tantalizing with time. And drinking the milkshake didn't satisfy. The reward-anticipating region of their brains stayed switched on, so that another brain area couldn't say, "Enough!"
People who aren't overweight can be conditioned hypereaters, too, Kessler found -- so it's possible to control.

Salt and Americans
It's very hard for individuals to cut bad food habits on their own. So, the government should step in to help. First, it was a ban on artery-clogging trans fats. Then calories were posted on menus. Now it is salt. The New York City health department is taking on salt. City officials are meeting with food makers and restaurants to discuss reducing the amount of salt in common foods such as soup, pasta sauce, salad dressing and bread. About three-quarters of the salt Americans eat comes from prepared and processed food, not from the salt shaker. That's why New York officials want the food industry to help cut back. For its salt initiative, New York has recruited public health agencies and medical groups across the country. The campaign, with a goal of cutting salt intake by at least 20 percent in five years, is modeled on a plan carried out in Britain. That effort set voluntary salt reduction targets for 85 categories of processed foods. By fall, Campbell Soup plans to have more than 90 lower-sodium soups available. That includes its first soup, tomato, which will have almost a third less salt. The industry hopes salt reduction remains voluntary.

A recent government report showed that seven out of 10 adults should be eating even less than the recommended amount - about 1,500 milligrams. That includes everyone over 40, anyone with high blood pressure, and African-Americans, who are at greater risk than whites for high blood pressure.

Research Review Confirms Value of Mediterranean Diet
Eating vegetables, nuts, olive oil, flax oil etc. can help to protect your heart, researchers confirm after pooling a huge volume of evidence. The new study put together the results of 189 previous studies. Of these, 146 looked at people's past habits. The other 43 assigned them to follow particular diets. Researchers found "strong evidence" that vegetables, nuts and monounsaturated fats (such as olive oil) protect against heart disease. The same was true for the Mediterranean diet, which includes these elements, plus fruits and grains. The study found that foods that quickly raise blood sugar can harm the heart. Examples include sweets and refined grains. Trans fats also are harmful. The journal Archives of Internal Medicine published the study.

American Vegetarians
According to new research published in the Journal of the American Dietic Association, current vegetarians in the younger and older groups had more healthful diets than non-vegetarians. Among adults, current vegetarians were less likely to be overweight/obese than non-vegetarians. Former vegetarians (who gave up being vegetarians) are more prone to unhealthful weight control behaviors compared to never-vegetarians.

Miscellaneous

Yoga
Yoga, with its meditation, breathing exercises and sometimes-difficult poses, has been practiced for more than 5,000 years in India and elsewhere. Because it's known for its ability to bring inner peace, yoga often is recommended to heart and cancer patients as a way to relieve stress. Research suggests that yoga can lower blood pressure and slow the heart rate. But there has been little study aimed at using yoga as a medical treatment.

Dr. Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, a cardiologist at the University of Kansas Hospital who specializes in rhythm disorders of the heart, is studying Yoga for atrial fibrillation. More than 2 million people in the United States have atrial fibrillation. Left untreated, it can lead to stroke, heart attack or heart failure. Dr. Lakireddy was born and raised in India. His grandfather was a yoga instructor. But, Dr. Lakkireddy gave up yoga, as many Indians do, when he was a teenager and started practicing again only recently in the US. He plans to enroll 50 people and is looking for participants in his study. Three of his patients contributed a total of about $10,000 to pay for his study.

More than half a dozen drugs are available to treat atrial fibrillation. But they don't work for every patient, and even when they do, they can lose their effectiveness over time. There also is a heart procedure that destroys electrical "hot spots" that trigger atrial fibrillation. It works about 70 percent to 80 percent of the time. Dr. Lakkireddy is hoping yoga can reduce or even eliminate the need for medications. http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/EMIHC274/333/8011/1329284.html?d=dmtICNNews

Skin CANCER
Melanoma, the deadliest kind of skin cancer, is now the most common cancer in young British women, the country's leading cancer organization said. Based on current numbers, Cancer Research UK predicts that melanoma will become the fourth most common cancer for men and women of all ages by 2024, and that cases will jump from about 9,000 cases a year to more than 15,500. Cancer experts attribute the rising number of skin cancer cases largely to the surge in people using tanning salons. The World Health Organization has previously recommended that tanning beds be regulated because of their potential to damage DNA in the skin. Experts said most deadly skin cancers could be avoided if people took the proper precautions when in the sun and avoided tanning beds.

Bedbug Outbreak
Bedbugs are back, and the U.S. government is looking for solutions. Rare since World War II, the tiny insects now are widespread. They are bothering sleepers in college dorms, public housing, hospitals and even fancy hotels. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is getting involved. The agency hosted a two-day conference on the topic this month. Pesticides are not an easy solution. Many that worked in the past have been taken off the market to protect the environment. The bugs also can resist some pesticides. The pest-control industry wants to test other sprays to see if they are safe for home use. Other ideas include heating, steaming or freezing the bugs.

Breastfeeding Lowers Mom’s Cardiovascular Risk
The longer women breastfeed, the lower their risk of heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular disease, University of Pittsburgh researchers report in a study published in the May issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, so it's vitally important for us to know what we can do to protect ourselves. We have known for years that breastfeeding is important for babies' health. We now know that it is important for mothers' health as well. Postmenopausal women who had breastfed for at least one month had lower rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, all known to cause heart disease, according to the study. Women who had breastfed their babies for more than a year were 10 percent less likely to have had a heart attack, stroke, or developed heart disease than women who had never breastfed. The benefits from breastfeeding are long-term ― an average of 35 years had passed since women enrolled in the study had last breastfed an infant. The longer a mother nurses her baby, the better for both of them. The study provides another good reason for workplace policies to encourage women to breastfeed their infants. The findings are based on evaluating histories of 139,681 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative study of chronic disease, initiated in 1994.

Recipes

Pineapple and Potato Curry
Ingredients: 3 cloves garlic; 1/3 cup water; 1 tsp ginger; 2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp soy sauce; 2 tbsp sesame oil; 1 onion, chopped; 4 medium potatoes, chopped; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 cup pineapple, crushed or chunks; 1 cup coconut milk; rice

Preparation: Combine garlic, water, ginger, curry powder, soy sauce and sesame oil in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Sautee onion and potatoes in olive oil for 4 to 6 minutes, or until onions are soft. Add garlic and spice mixture and allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. Add pineapple and coconut milk and simmer, uncovered for five more minutes. Serve over rice. http://vegetarian.about.com/od/ethnicrecipes/qt/vegindian.htm

Vegetarian Lasagna Recipe
Ingredients:1 onion, chopped; 1 small head of garlic, all cloves chopped or pressed; 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced; 1 head broccoli, chopped; 2 carrots, chopped; 2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped; 1 can corn, rinsed and drained; 1 package Silken Lite tofu; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon oregano; 1 teaspoon basil; 1 teaspoon rosemary; 2 jars pasta sauce (see E2-Approved Foods); 2 boxes whole grain lasagna noodles; 16 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained; 2 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed; 6 roma tomatoes, sliced thin; 1 cup raw cashews, ground

Preparation: Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Sauté the onion and garlic on high heat for 3 minutes in a wok or nonstick pan. Add the mushrooms and cook until the onions are limp and the mushrooms give up their liquid. Remove them to a large bowl with a slotted spoon. Reserve the mushroom liquid in the pan. Sauté the broccoli and carrots for 5 minutes and add to the mushroom bowl. Sauté the peppers and corn until just beginning to soften. Add them to the vegetable bowl. Drain the silken tofu by wrapping in paper towels. Break it up directly in the towel and mix into the vegetable bowl. Add spices to the vegetable bowl and combine.

Cover the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch casserole with a layer of sauce. Add a layer of noodles. Cover the noodles with sauce. This way the noodles cook in the oven, saving time and energy. Spread the vegetable mixture over the sauced noodles. Cover with a layer of noodles and another dressing of sauce. Add the spinach to the second layer of sauced noodles. Cover the spinach with the mashed sweet potatoes. Add another layer of sauce, the final layer of noodles, and a last topping of sauce. Cover the lasagna with thinly sliced roma tomatoes.
Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, sprinkle with the cashews, and return to the oven for 15 minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Makes 10 - 12 servings of sweet potato lasagna. http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianlasagnarecipes/r/engine2lasagna.htm?nl=1

Health and Nutrition

Issue 136