Weight Debate

The Agriculture Research Service (ARS) scientists in Athens, Georgia, have found that if stored properly, eggs can be used beyond the sell-by date.

In tests at the Poultry Processing and Meat Quality Research Unit, scientists found that eggs, if properly handled and refrigerated, didn’t decrease markedly in quality during a 10 week test period. That’s well beyond the current 30 day industry standard for storing eggs on supermarket shelves.

Washing eggs according to current guidelines removes bacteria like Enterobacter or E. coli O157:H7 from their surface, reducing the chances that the microbes could get into them once you crack them open in your kitchen.

An egg’s shell and membranes under the shell provide a barrier that limits the ability of microbes to enter. A natural protective coating, called the cuticle, helps to preserve freshness and prevent microbial contamination of the egg. This coating is damaged or removed by processing, but some processors apply a thin layer of oil to help preserve each egg’s quality.

Source: www.ars.usda.gov/ 02/14/2007

You don’t need to buy special clothes or belong to a gym to become more active. Physical activity can be and should be part of your everyday life. Try different kinds of activities that keep you moving. Look for new ways to build physical activity into your daily routine.

Almost anyone, at any age, can do some type of physical activity. You can still exercise even if you have a health condition like heart disease or diabetes. In fact, physical activity may help.

For most older adults, brisk walking, riding a bike, swimming, weight lifting, and gardening are safe, especially if you build up slowly.

Find things you like to do, such as:

• Go for brisk walks.
• Ride a bike.
• Dance.
• Work around the house.
• Garden.
• Climb stairs.
• Swim.
• Rake leaves.

Increase Your Chances of Living Longer
Science shows that physical activity can reduce your risk of dying early from the leading causes of death, like heart disease and some cancers. This is remarkable in two ways:

• 1. Only a few lifestyle choices have as large an impact on your health as physical activity. People who are physically active for about 7 hours a week have a 40 percent lower risk of dying early than those who are active for less than 30 minutes a week.
• 2. You don’t have to do high amounts of activity or vigorous intensity activity to reduce your risk of premature death. You can put yourself at lower risk of dying early by doing at least 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity aerobic activity.

Everyone can gain the health benefits of physical activity – age, ethnicity, shape or size does not matter!

Check With Your Doctor
Always check with your doctor if you aren’t used to being active or you have health problems. Doing activity that requires moderate effort is safe for most people, but if you have a chronic health condition such as heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, or other symptoms be sure to talk with your doctor about the types and amounts of physical activity that are right for you.

Post-menopausal women can lose 1 to 2 percent of their bone mass annually.

Results from a study conducted at Tufts University, which were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1994, showed that strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk for fractures among women 50 to 70 years old.

Strengthening exercises are both safe and effective for women of all ages, including those who are not in perfect health.

There are plenty of indoor bone-strengthening exercises that you can do to get strong, healthy bones. Some examples include:

• Dancing
• Lifting hand-held weights – or soup cans
• Biceps curls
• Sit-ups
• Jogging in-place
• Push-ups
• Pull-ups
• Carrying full laundry baskets
• Rowing a boat
• Strength training in aerobics class

Servings – about 4

Ingredients
2 cups of unsweetened orange juice
1/2 cup of whole frozen strawberries
1 banana, sliced
4 ice cubes

Directions
In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth.

Fat has twice as many calories as protein and carbohydrates, so it is easy to see why you should cut back on fat to you help control your weight. But what about cutting back on added sugar??

Sugar is present naturally in some foods, like the fructose in fruit, or the lactose in milk. Added sugars – also called caloric sweeteners – are sugars and syrups that are added to foods at the table (table sugar), or during processing or preparation by the manufacturer, like the high-fructose corn syrup in sweetened beverages and breakfast cereals. Remember that added sugars provide extra calories to your diet… but with few nutrients, or no nutrients at all.

Health experts have several reasons for saying we should cut back on added sugar:

• Studies show that people who consume many foods and drinks with added sugar tend to consume more calories than people who consume fewer of these foods. They also show a link between weight gain and drinking sweetened beverages. Cutting back on added sugars, especially from sweetened beverages such as regular soda and fruit punch, can help you and your family maintain a healthy weight.
• Added sugar provides calories but no additional nutrients. An eating plan that helps you and your family maintain a healthy weight is one that focuses on getting plenty of nutrients within your calorie needs.
• Many children and teens, especially girls, don’t get enough calcium, a mineral that’s important for strong bones and teeth and other body functions. Giving your children fat-free or low-fat milk instead of sweetened beverages can give their bodies a boost.

Eat only once in a while or on special occasions foods that are the highest in fat and added sugar, and when you do have them, have small portions. They are calorie dense (high in calories), and many are low in nutrients. Some examples:

• Cookies and cakes.
• Pies.
• Cheese cake.
• Chocolate.
• Candy.



• Chips.
• Buttered microwave popcorn.
• Regular soft drinks.
• Fruit drinks, such as fruitades and fruit punch.
• Milk-based desserts and products, such as ice cream, sweetened yogurt and sweetened milk.
• Grain products such as sweet rolls and cinnamon toast.

Table Sugar:
1 level teaspoon = 4 grams, 15 calories
1 heaped teaspoon = 6 grams, 25 calories
1 cup = 770 calories

Guide for baking with less sugar:
For every cup of flour, use only:

• 1/2 cup sugar in cakes and cookies
• 1 tablespoon sugar in muffins and quick breads
• 1 teaspoon sugar in yeast breads

Other Names for Sugar
If you are looking for the word “sugar” on the nutrition label of foods you buy, it may be listed as another name. In one form or another, sugar is added to more of the foods you buy than you can imagine!! Reading the ingredient label on processed foods can help you to identify added sugars. Some other names for sugar on food labels include…

• Barbados sugar
• Barley malt
• Beet sugar
• Brown sugar
• Buttered syrup
• Cane-juice crystals
• Cane sugar
• Caramel
• Carob syrup
• Castor sugar
• Confectioner’s sugar
• Corn sweetener
• Corn syrup
• Date sugar
• Demerara sugar
• Dextrin
• Dextran
• Dextrose
• Diatase
• Diastatic malt
• Ethyl maltol
• Fructose
• Fruit juice concentrates
• Galactose
• Glucose
• Golden sugar
• Golden syrup
• Granulated sugar
• Grape sugar
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Honey
• Icing sugar
• Invert sugar
• Lactose
• Molasses
• Maltodextrin
• Maltose
• Malt syrup
• Mannitol
• Maple syrup
• Muscovado sugar
• Panocha
• Powdered sugar
• Raw sugar
• Refiner’s syrup
• Rice Syrup
• Sorbitol
• Sorghum syrup
• Sucrose
• Sugar
• Syrup
• Treacle
• Turbinado sugar
• Yellow sugar

Need more energy??
5 Hour Energy ® is a 2 (two) ounce energy shot that provides, within minutes, hours of energy and alertness, with no jitters, and no crash later.

5 hour energy contains a blend of B vitamins and amino acids.

There is zero sugar in 5 hour energy.

There are zero herbal stimulants in 5 hour energy.

There are only 4 (four) calories in 5 hour energy.

5 hour energy has no Aspartame. It never has contained Aspartame. It contains Sucralose, the sweetener found in Splenda.

The amount of caffeine in 5 hour energy is as much as 1 (one) cup of the leading premium coffee.

5 hour energy is non carbonated.

There are many flavors to choose from, including:

• Grape
• Pomegranate
• Lemon Lime
• Berry
• Orange

Caffeine
5 hour energy is also available in a Decaf version, called Decaf Citrus, which has only 6 mg (milligrams) of caffeine, which is about as much as a half a cup of decaffeinated coffee.

Extra Strenght
5 hour energy is availbable in extra strenght for people who need a lot of extra energy, called Extra Strenght 5-Hour Energy® in berry flavor.

If it doesn’t say 5-hour ENERGY® on the label, it’s an imitation. Hundreds of other brands have entered the market, many with similar sounding names.

5 hour energy is available at retail outlets throughout the United States and Canada.

Living Essentials is the manufacturer of 5 hour energy.

Always check with your doctor if you have any medical conditions, are taking any medications, if you are sensitive to caffeine, or you have any other concerns.

Article – 8/13/2004
United States Department of Agriculture

Cinnamon adds zest to more than just food. The spice contains substances that, in test tube studies, wake up body cells to the hormone insulin. Because insulin regulates glucose metabolism and thus controls the level of glucose in the blood, the substances may have the potential to delay or prevent adult-onset, or type 2, diabetes.

Nearly 6 percent of the U.S. population – 15.7 million people – have diabetes, and one-third of them don’t even know it. The large majority of diabetes cases are type 2 – the kind that usually begins in midlife. It is characterized by the failure of body cells to recognize and respond to insulin as well as they once did. This leads to elevated blood sugar because insulin’s job is to prompt cells to take in glucose.

Another 13.4 million people have elevated fasting blood sugar levels below the threshold indicating diabetes but are at high risk for developing the disease. Lack of exercise, being overweight, and genetic predisposition are often cited as contributing factors involved in the high incidence of diabetes in western countries.

Worldwide, this silent killer claims more than 100 million lives annually. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. And for many people, drugs or other forms of treatment are unavailable.

A search for a natural way to keep blood sugar levels normal began more than a decade ago, when ARS chemist Richard A. Anderson and co-workers at the Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research Center assayed plants and spices used in folk medicine. They found that a few spices, especially cinnamon, made fat cells much more responsive to insulin, the hormone that regulates sugar metabolism and thus controls the level of glucose in the blood.

With help from Walter F. Schmidt in ARS’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory at Beltsville, the researchers identified the compounds in cinnamon responsible for its activity. The patent application names Anderson, his co-workers C. Leigh Broadhurst and Marilyn M. Polansky, and Schmidt as the inventors.

Cinnamon is among the world’s most frequently consumed spices and is relatively inexpensive. Anderson and colleagues found that its most active compound—methylhydroxy chalcone polymer (MHCP)—increased glucose metabolism roughly 20-fold in a test tube assay of fat cells.

The researchers tested 50 some plant extracts and found that none of them came close to MHCP’s level of affecting glucose metabolism—a process in which cells convert glucose to energy. If in future research MHCP proves to do the same in people, it might provide a natural remedy against diabetes.

What’s more, MHCP prevented the formation of damaging oxygen radicals in a blood platelet assay.

“That could be an important side benefit,” notes Anderson. “Other studies have shown that antioxidant supplements can reduce or slow the progression of various complications of diabetes.”

MHCP is the first chalcone, a type of polyphenol or flavonoid, reported in cinnamon. MHCP and other active compounds are water soluble and are not found in the spice oils sold as food additives.

Anderson pointed out that the water extract reduced blood pressure in hypertensive rats even before it increased insulin sensitivity. And compounds in a water extract are less likely to be toxic in large doses than those in an oil extract, he says.

Source: www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul00/cinn0700.htm
By Judy McBride, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff

Honey is good for you.

Honey is primarily composed of fructose, glucose, and water.

Honey contains many vitamins including B1, B2, B6, C, E, K, and A.

Honey also contains:

• Calcium
• Phosphorous
• Potassium
• Iron
• Copper
• Manganese
• Magnesium
• Niacin
• Riboflavin
• Pantothenic acid
• Sulfur
• Zinc
• Trace enzymes
• Minerals
• Amino acids
• Antioxidants

Honey is believed to help the immune system and fight infection.

Honey is often used as a home remedy to treat colds. Honey mixed with lemon can be a soothing cough syrup.

Honey can also soothe a sore throat.

Many current studies have promoted the intake of honey for athletes. Honey is a highly effective natural energy booster.

WARNING:
Do not give honey to babies under one year old. Honey can contain a type of bacteria that can easily grow in infants, causing serious illness or death.

Iron

• Iron is a mineral needed by your body.
• Iron is present in all your cells.
• Your body needs iron to make hemoglobin (Hb).
• Iron is a carrier of oxygen to the tissues from your lungs in the form of hemoglobin.
• Iron helps your muscles store and use oxygen.
• Iron is a transport medium for electrons within your cells in the form of cytochromes.
• Iron is an integral part of enzyme reactions in various tissues. Enzymes help your body digest food and also helps with many other important reactions that occur within your body.

Too little iron (called iron deficiency) in your body can interfere with these vital functions and lead to morbidity and mortality. Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency and the leading cause of anemia in the United States. Those at greater risk for low iron levels include:

• Females and Iron – teenage girls and women who:
  • are at childbearing age
  • have heavy bleeding during their period
  • have had more than one child
  • use an intrauterine device (IUD)
  • engage in regular, intense exercise (female athletes)
  • are pregnant – about half of pregnant women have iron-deficiency anemia.
• Older infants and toddlers – mainly those who drink a lot of milk or are having a growth spurt.

These groups of people should be screened at times for iron deficiency by their doctor.

Daily Recommended Dietary Allowances for Iron (mg = milligrams)
7 to 12 months – 11 mg
1 to 3 years – 7 mg
4 to 8 years – 10 mg
9 to 51+ years – 8 mg

14 to 18 years – Males – 11 mg
14 to 18 years – Females – 15 mg
14 to 50 years – Pregnancy – 27 mg
14 to 18 years – Lactation – 10 mg

19 to 50 years – Females – 18 mg
19 to 50 years – Lactation – 9 mg

Most people get enough iron by eating a healthy, balanced diet, and eating iron-rich foods. Your body can absorb iron from meats more easily than from vegetables or other foods.

Some Food Sources of Iron: (Other foods may contain iron)
Clams, canned, drained 3 ounces – 23.8 mg
Chicken liver, cooked, 3 and 1/2 ounces 12.8 mg
Ready-to-eat cereal, 100 percent iron fortified, 3/4 cup 18 mg
Oysters, eastern, wild, cooked, moist heat 3 ounces – 10.2 mg
Oatmeal, instant, fortified, prepared with water, 1 cup – 10 mg
Soybeans, mature, boiled, 1 cup – 8.8 mg
Lentils, boiled, 1 cup 6.6 mg
Beans, kidney, mature, boiled, 1 cup 5.2 mg
Beans, lima, large, mature, boiled, 1 cup 4.5 mg

Iron can be given as a mineral supplement. It’s usually combined with multivitamins and other minerals that help your body absorb iron. You should not take additional iron supplements unless it is advised by your doctor.

Side Effects of Too Much Iron
Some side effects of too much iron in the body from foods, and other sources such as vitamins containing iron, include:

• Constipation.
• Nausea.
• Vomiting.
• Diarrhea.
• Dark colored stools.
• Abdominal distress, especially when supplements are taken on an empty stomach.

Some evidence suggests that iron can stimulate the activity of free radicals. Free radicals are natural by-products of oxygen metabolism that are associated with chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease. Free radicals may inflame and damage coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle. This inflammation may contribute to the development of atherosclerosis, a condition characterized by partial or complete blockage of one or more coronary arteries. Other researchers suggest that iron may contribute to the oxidation of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, changing it to a form that is more damaging to coronary arteries.

Excess amounts of iron – called iron overload – can result in toxicity and even death.

Ultraviolet (UV) rays are an invisible form of radiation. Ultraviolet (UV) rays can penetrate your skin and damage your skin cells.

Sunburns are a sign of skin damage. Suntans aren’t healthy, either. They appear after the sun’s rays have already killed some cells and damaged others.

UV rays can cause skin damage during any season or at any temperature. They can also cause eye problems, wrinkles, skin spots, and skin cancer.

Protect yourself:

• Stay out of the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. That’s when the sun is the strongest./li>
• Use a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher.
• Wear protective clothing.
• Wear wraparound sunglasses that provide 100 percent UV ray protection.
• Avoid sunlamps and tanning beds.
• Check your skin regularly for changes in the size, shape, color or feel of birthmarks, moles and spots. Such changes are a sign of skin cancer.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention