Try a brisk walk on the Charlottesville Downtown Mall

Why not make exercise fun?  This cooler fall season is a great time for some brisk walking, and the Charlottesville Downtown Mall is a great location. Holiday decorations and gifts galore! And remember, the City Market season has been extended and  it is morphing into the Holiday Market this year.

Here are some reasons to get out and mingle with the holiday crowds downtown:

Aerobic Activity Fights Aging, Extends Independence

Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter – JULY 2008
A brisk walk may not exactly lead you to the fountain of youth—but a new research review suggests it’s a good start.

According to the report in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, vigorous walking for about an hour a day, five times a week, can boost your maximal oxygen intake by as much as 25% within just three months. That’s enough to turn back the clock on 12 years of natural decline with aging. For seniors, it could also add a dozen years of functional independence.

Fall Superfoods – Seasonal veggies that pack a nutritional punch

The coming holidays don’t have to ruin your diet. A few wise choices can help you serve special meals packed with anti-aging and other health benefits. Read the suggestions below from UVa Club Red.

Fall Superfoods -Seasonal veggies that pack a nutritional punch
By Teller Stalfort, RD, MPH, UVA nutritionist

As you plan your Thanksgiving meal, consider packing it full of nutritious harvest foods that are as enjoyable as they are healthy. Enjoyed as sides or desserts, they can be full of flavor without being laden with harmful saturated fat, sodium and calories. Fall’s bounty of apples, Brussel sprouts, pumpkin, cranberries and root vegetables come to mind. And you don’t have to wait for Thanksgiving to savor these foods; they appear as early as September and remain available through the winter.

Cranberries

Why add them to your table?

While too tart to be eaten fresh on their own, cranberries are full of fiber and antioxidants, particularly vitamins A and C, which contain a number of health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer. Just a half-cup has more than 10 percent of vitamin C’s RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) and 2 grams of fiber.

What you can do with them

Cranberries are delicious chopped and mixed into brown rice pilaf, dessert crumbles, stuffing, chutneys and even in quickbreads. Cranberries can also be dried for later, adding a twang to cookies and salads. Frozen cranberries work just as well and can be as nutritious as fresh cranberries.

Via Fall Superfoods — University of Virginia Health System – Live Red.

11 foods that lower cholesterol -from Harvard HealthBeat

Here is some good advice for anyone concerned about cholesterol  from the Harvard Medical School free email newsletter. You can search the HealthBeat archives for many more informative articles.

Changing what you eat can lower your cholesterol and improve the armada of fats floating through your bloodstream.

 

In with the good

Different foods lower cholesterol in various ways. Some deliver soluble fiber, which binds cholesterol and its precursors in the digestive system and drags them out of the body before they get into circulation. Some give you polyunsaturated fats, which directly lower LDL. And some contain plant sterols and stanols, which block the body from absorbing cholesterol.

1. Oats. An easy first step to improving your cholesterol is having a bowl of oatmeal or cold oat-based cereal like Cheerios for breakfast. It gives you 1 to 2 grams of soluble fiber. Add a banana or some strawberries for another half-gram. Current nutrition guidelines recommend getting 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day, with at least 5 to 10 grams coming from soluble fiber. (The average American gets about half that amount.)
2. Barley and other whole grains. Like oats and oat bran, barley and other whole grains can help lower the risk of heart disease, mainly via the soluble fiber they deliver.
3. Beans. Beans are especially rich in soluble fiber. They also take awhile for the body to digest, meaning you feel full for longer after a meal. That’s one reason beans are a useful food for folks trying to lose weight. With so many choices — from navy and kidney beans to lentils, garbanzos, black-eyed peas, and beyond — and so many ways to prepare them, beans are a very versatile food.
4. Eggplant and okra. These two low-calorie vegetables are good sources of soluble fiber.
5. Nuts. A bushel of studies shows that eating almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and other nuts is good for the heart. Eating 2 ounces of nuts a day can slightly lower LDL, on the order of 5%. Nuts have additional nutrients that protect the heart in other ways.
6. Vegetable oils. Using liquid vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower, safflower, and others in place of butter, lard, or shortening when cooking or at the table helps lower LDL.
7. Apples, grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits. These fruits are rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber that lowers LDL.
8. Foods fortified with sterols and stanols. Sterols and stanols extracted from plants gum up the body’s ability to absorb cholesterol from food. Companies are adding them to foods ranging from margarine and granola bars to orange juice and chocolate. They’re also available as supplements. Getting 2 grams of plant sterols or stanols a day can lower LDL cholesterol by about 10%.
9. Soy. Eating soybeans and foods made from them, like tofu and soy milk, was once touted as a powerful way to lower cholesterol. Analyses show that the effect is more modest — consuming 25 grams of soy protein a day (10 ounces of tofu or 2½ cups of soy milk) can lower LDL by 5% to 6%.
10. Fatty fish. Eating fish two or three times a week can lower LDL in two ways: by replacing meat, which has LDL-boosting saturated fats, and by delivering LDL-lowering omega-3 fats. Omega-3s reduce triglycerides in the bloodstream and also protect the heart by helping prevent the onset of abnormal heart rhythms.
11. Fiber supplements. Supplements offer the least appealing way to get soluble fiber. Two teaspoons a day of psyllium, which is found in Metamucil and other bulk-forming laxatives, provide about 4 grams of soluble fiber.

via 11 foods that lower cholesterol – Harvard Health Publications.

Can you believe it? More good news about coffee!

After years of bad press, coffee is getting a complete makeover. Here is another snippet of information from the latest Tufts email newsletter.

Coffee May Cut Women’s Cancer Risk

Research news you can use from the editors of the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter, November 6, 2009

That jolt of java might do more than help you wake up in the morning – coffee may also reduce the risk of endometrial cancer. A large new Swedish study reports that women who drink at least two cups of regular coffee daily are less likely to develop the cancer, which affects the cells lining the uterus.

Karolinska Institute scientists surveyed 60,634 women in the Swedish Mammography Cohort study about their coffee intake. Over an average of 17 years, 677 of the women developed endometrial cancer. Regular coffee drinkers proved less at risk for the cancer, with each additional cup o’ joe associated with a 10% lower relative risk. The coffee connection was especially strong for overweight and obese women – who are at greatest risk for endometrial cancer – with each extra cup linked to 12% lower risk for overweight women and 20% for the obese.

Coffee, researchers suggested, may affect blood sugar, fat cells and estrogen – all factors in the cancer. They called for further study including decaf, to separate the possible effects of caffeine and coffee. – International Journal of Cancer

Via Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter

Milk from nuts, beans or udders — which does your body best?

I try to drink both cows’ milk and soy milk every day as well as take calcium and Vitamin D supplements, but I have never tried almond milk. It sounds good – I will have to look for it.

“The Checkup” from The Washington Post compares the three alternatives:

If you opt for soy milk or almond milk instead of cow’s milk, are you getting comparable nutrition value to what moo juice delivers?

This week’s “Eat, Drink and Be Healthy” column looks at the ongoing controversy surrounding cows’ milk: Is the white stuff an essential, nutrition-packed building block of the human diet, as has long been believed, or are there better ways to get the calcium and other nutrients that milk delivers?

For reasons ranging from lactose intolerance and adherence to a vegetarian diet to simple taste preference, people are increasingly turning to such products as soy and almond milks. But not all milks are created equal. Here’s a quick look at the nutritional profiles of the three.

Four Nutrients Linked to Pattern of Lower Alzheimer’s Risk – Support Market Central

A trip to the Charlottesville City Market can be a part of an active lifestyle, and  a healthy diet may help to keep us sharp as we age. The City Market is now open into December, and you just might pick up some healthy, locally grown veggies along with those special Christmas gifts!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the City Market had a permanent place and shelter for year-round use? You can help this become a reality at Market Central!

Below you will find more evidence that it is important to have a healthy diet:

Four Nutrients Linked to Pattern of Lower Alzheimer’s Risk.
SEPTEMBER 2009

A diet high in vegetables, nuts and fish and low in high-fat dairy products may be just the right combination to help reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to findings released at an American Academy of Neurology meeting.

Researchers led by Yian Gu, PhD, of Columbia University analyzed seven nutrients thought to be related to Alzheimer’s in the diets of 2,136 healthy seniors in New York: saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, omega-3 fatty acids, omega-6 fatty acids, vitamin E, vitamin B12 and folate. Their goal was to identify dietary patterns that explain, as much as possible, the variation of nutrients believed to relate to Alzheimer’s disease risk.

“Because foods are not consumed in isolation, dietary patterns taking into account the interactions among food components may offer substantial advantages,” Gu and colleagues explained. Over an average follow-up of almost four years, 251 subjects developed Alzheimer’s.

A dietary pattern high in cruciferous and green-leafy vegetables, tomatoes, nuts and fish but low in red meat and high fat dairy products was associated with lower risk of Alzheimer’s.

The one-third of the subjects most closely matching this dietary pattern were 42% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those whose diets most diverged from that pattern. Even the middle group—matching the dietary pattern less closely, but better than the bottom one-third—saw a 23% lower risk of Alzheimer’s.The dietary pattern linked to lower Alzheimer’s risk was positively correlated with omega-3, omega-6, folate and vitamin E, and negatively correlated with saturated fat and vitamin B12 intakes.The B12 finding was a surprise, Gu commented, because low B12 levels are associated with dementia. Since a chief dietary source of vitamin B12 is meat, however, those consuming more B12 might also be getting lots of saturated fat.

TO LEARN MORE: American Academy of Neurology,abstract at www.abstracts2view.com/aan2009seattle/ view.php?nu=AAN09L_P09.115. Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center, 800 438-4380, www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers.
via Tufts Health Letter.

Can coffee cut the risk of dementia?

My friends know that I am good at finding news reports that speak favorably about things that I really like. So readers need to keep that in mind as they peruse my posts! I can’t imagine a morning without coffee, so I am always hoping to find evidence that will make drinking coffee something that I do “because it is good for me.” All of the findings so far are just preliminary, but the two articles quoted below do mention some positive results. But, never forget that the bottom line in all things is still moderation!

Coffee – The easy way to neutralise cholesterol?

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.

The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why. A vital barrier between the brain and the main blood supply of rabbits fed a fat-rich diet was protected in those given a caffeine supplement.  UK experts said it was the “best evidence yet” of coffee’s benefits.

via BBC NEWS | Health | Daily caffeine ‘protects brain’.

Filtering the News About Coffee

Tea is the most popular beverage worldwide after water, but coffee is close behind it in industrialized countries. While caffeine is a natural component of both tea and coffee, coffee contains more of it: anywhere from 60 to 120 milligrams in six ounces, depending on brewing methods and other factors.

Caffeine is a mild psychoactive substance—it stimulates the central nervous system and improves alertness. It also boosts the analgesic effect of aspirin and other pain relievers, which is why it’s added to some of these drugs.

In large enough amounts, it can cause heart palpitations, stomach upset, and insomnia.

Coffee, derived from a bean, contains many other phyto-chemicals besides caffeine, and some of them may have beneficial effects in the body, as do those in tea, though this aspect of coffee is only beginning to be studied. Coffee itself has been extensively studied for years, generally to see if it causes disease. While many people believe decaf is more healthful than regular, there’s no proof that it is.

Eating Like a Mediterranean May Combat Depression

If you enjoy getting health news updates by email, you might like to try the free email updates from the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter.  I always find something interesting such as the article quoted below:

Maybe it’s not just the sunny climate, dazzling blue sea and bountiful beaches that make people living around the Mediterranean more cheerful. New Spanish research suggests that diet may play a role in the lower rates of depression in Mediterranean countries compared to northern Europe.

The study evaluated the diets of 10,094 healthy Spanish adults according to nine components of the so-called “Mediterranean diet”: high ratio of monounsaturated fats like olive oil to polyunsaturated fats; high intake of legumes, fruit and nuts, cereals, vegetables and fish; moderate alcohol and dairy consumption; and low meat intake.

After 4.4 years of followup, 480 new cases of depression were diagnosed. Participants who most closely adhered to the “Mediterranean diet” were 30% less likely to develop depression than those with the lowest diet-adherence scores. Researchers said the specific mechanism by which the diet may counter depression isn’t known, and an overall synergistic effect may be more important than any single factor. – Archives of General Psychiatry
Could a Mediterranean-style diet help reduce your risk of diabetes? Get the facts in our free report.

Congratulations to Market Central on their new website and blog!

What a beautiful and thoughtful website and blog!  Everyone wanting to learn more about our farmers and to help the Market find a permanent home will find this very interesting.

Photo by Kathy Kildea

We’re on the Web!

Market Central is thrilled to announce the launch of our long-awaited website! www.marketcentralonline.org went live on October 1, and we’d love for you to visit the site and check it out!

You’ll find information on our organization, as well as links to sites for the market manager, individual vendor sites, membership application, and archived editions of Market News.

View a slideshow of market pictures, and post a comment or idea on our blog page. Check back to the site often – it is a work in progress, and will be updated and expanded often!

Via Kathy Kildea, Secretary
Market Central, Inc.
marketcentral@bnsi.net

Download the latest Market Central Newsletter (PDF)

Economical Exercise — Stretching your fitness budget

Economical Exercise

Stretching your fitness budget

By Erica K. Perkins, Health & Fitness Director, University of Virginia

A hundred years ago, “working out” and purchasing fitness equipment or a gym membership would have seemed absurd because life itself was work. Today, the “work” is finding the time and financial resources to exercise. As Ralph Waldo Emerson simply stated: “the first wealth is health”, so time and cost should not be an excuse. Here are low- and no-cost ways to workout:

Walk or Jog

Other than a good pair of supportive shoes, it costs nothing to go on a walk, jog or hike. You can do it around your house, place of work, alone, with a friend or a group, with a dog or with your family. If the weather is poor or questionable, go to the mall and window shop. Simply moving more and sitting less throughout your day has a tremendous impact on your overall health.

Visit the library

The library can be a great resource for free fitness information. Most public libraries have an extensive collection of DVDs for strength training, yoga, pilates or traditional aerobics for you to check out. Don’t count out the books. Borrow a book on healthy recipes or your favorite form of exercise to learn more ways to do it on your own.

Pantry of weights

There are several exercises you can do in your own home that will strengthen all of your major muscles. If you need to add some extra resistance, look in your pantry. Canned goods, jugs or bottles of water and even mixing bowls are items you can hold or lift to challenge your muscles further. Look in your basement, garage or garden shed for brooms, shovels or even firewood and covert those into weighted bars or objects you can lift.

• Squats/lunges: These are excellent exercises that work all of the muscles in the legs and they just happen to be a necessary movement for daily activities. If you have a previous knee injury or current pain, use a wall to support your back and walk your feet out from the wall. Free-standing, be sure to keep your knees behind your toes to protect the knee joint.  Add any weighted object to further challenge your muscles.
• Crunches/back extensions: Lie on your back with knees bent and hands crossed on your chest or behind your neck (make sure you don’t pull your head, which could result in a neck injury) and curl your ribcage towards your pelvis to work the abdominal muscles.  Then lie on your belly with your hands under your chin and with both feet staying on the ground, lift your chest off the ground.
• Push-ups: Push-ups will tone and strengthen your arms and upper body. Depending on your current strength level, you can start with push-ups against a wall or lying down. You can be on your knees or on your feet, or even elevate your feet to further challenge the body. You only need to lower until your elbows are at ninety-degree angles as well.

All of these exercises will sufficiently challenge most of your major muscles without the use of fancy equipment. All you need to do is dedicate some time to a regular routine.

Shop around

If you absolutely need equipment for the type of exercise you want to do, buy it used. Local stores sell used equipment and you can even surf the web and classified pages for gently used equipment.

via Economical Exercise — University of Virginia Health System – Live Red.