Posted on by Will Clower

Swiss Chard with Raisins and Pine Nuts

This is a unique dish that can make a wonderful side dish! The colors of the dish are quite festive too!

You’ll Need

 

  • 1 ½ pounds Swiss chard (preferably rainbow or red)
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts (2 ½ ounces)
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • ¼ cup golden raisins
  • 1 cup water
Directions
  • Tear chard leaves from stems, then coarsely chop stem and leaves separately.
  • Toast pine nuts in oil in a wide 6- to 8-quart heavy pot over moderated heat, stirring constantly, until golden, 1 ½ to 2 minutes, then transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain and season with salt.
  • Cook onion in  remaining oil in pot, stirring occasionally, 1 minute, then add chard stems and cook, stirring occasionally, 2 minutes.
  • Add raisins and ½ cup water and simmer, covered, until stems are softened, about 3 minutes.
  • Add chard leaves and remaining ½ cup water and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until leave are tender, about 3 minutes.
  • Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with pine nuts.

 

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Posted on by Will Clower

Be a Grill Master Not a Grill Disaster

This Independence Day, Do NOT Feel The Burn

Independence Day is iconic and ironic. When we’re not doing healthy things like playing softball, having a family picnic, or watching fireworks with family, we’re probably overdoing the inevitable afternoon grillapolooza. ‘Tis the season to fire up the Barbie, throw on some dogs and burgers and shrimps and ribs and veg kabobs and … you get the picture.

Normally we just write off this time as a once per year gorge fest, turning a blind eye to any health concerns as well. I’m not saying that your burger and braut bonanza can’t pack on pounds and clog your arteries, but the good news is that Fourth of July cookouts don’t have to be bad for you in other aspects, such as cancer.

In this regard, most people think that the health of the grill is all about what you choose to cook. But your cooking technique is just as important, and can either decrease or increase the carcinogens you’re downing by the spork-full. Even better, this solution actually makes your food taste even better!

All About The Burn

All meats have amino acids (such as creatine) and sugars. Fine. But if you grill them at very high temperatures, they naturally produce molecules called heterocyclic amines (HCAs, also found in cigarette smoke). We’ve known about these cancer-causing agents for 15 years now, and since then three more HCAs caused by grilling meat have been added to the list.

Given this, you’re just going to have to be at peace with a couple of things. First, you can’t change the fact that meat on planet Earth is composed of amino acids and sugars. It is what it is. And you also can’t change the fact that they can form chemicals that are really really bad for you.

But what you can control is the total amount of HCA you’re eating. The easiest way to do this is to control how well-done you take your meat and what kind of meat you’re eating.

· Well-done meat has 3.5 times more HCA than medium-rare meat.

· When you compare different types of meats, sadly and tragically the highest concentration comes from bacon. The second highest is from fried pork, followed by beef, and then chicken. (This particular study didn’t look at fish.)

Where The Burn Is Best

This is great news for people who veg out at the grill. Feel free to singe away, knock yourself out and flame it up. Plants don’t have the combination of creatine and sugar found in meats, nor do they have the fat drippings that smoke up into the other grilling-induced carcinogens called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Burn baby, you got this. Grilled pineapple is fabulous with a bit of sesame oil over it. We grill apricots and peaches in exactly the same way and they are luscious. When it comes to your plate still smokin’ hot from the grill, the sweetness of the fruit deepens … it’ll make you weep.

But What If You’re A Meat-o-phile?

Sure you want to be healthy, but … bacon. Yes, you want to consume fewer carcinogens, but … ribs. And you’d love to go all lean and green, but … salmon.

The good news is cutting back on your carcinogens doesn’t mean you have to cut back on flavor, meat, or even grilled meat. Below are some simple and tasty suggestions to help you minimize your exposure before, during, and after you grill.

Pre-grill

The Cancer Research Center of Hawaii found that a teriyaki marinade reduced HCAs by 67%. A turmeric-garlic sauce reduced them by 50% (recipe below)! The key here is to use a thin, vinegar based sauce, sans sugar.

Compare that to a thick concentrated commercial barbecue sauce with additive sugars, which can actually triple the number of HCAs. So, if you’re sitting around the house thinking that you just haven’t had enough carcinogens in your food, well now you know how to fix that problem – slather on a thick BBQ sauce with added sugar.

While these researchers were a) in Hawaii and b) grilling food on some beach somewhere, they somehow found time to do the experiments showing an HCA reduction in meats with marinades containing herbs and spices: notably those related from the mint family such as basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, and thyme. Most of these herbs are rich in three compounds – carnosic acid, carnosol and rosmarinic acid – all of which are potent antioxidants.

So be sure to include these tasty herbs in your marinade!

Mid-grill

You have many settings on your barbecue, but for meat don’t opt for “blow torch”. To avoid creating carcinogens, start on a medium high temp and flip the meat often. This will avoid charring, and that will avoid HCAs.

Another great technique, in case you have multiple burners within your grill, is to grill up each side quickly, and then turn off the burner that lies directly under the meat while keeping the other burners on. That basically transitions your grill into an oven.

Post-grill

Once you’ve cooked the food, there is one very commonsense thing you can do to maximize flavor and minimize carcinogens.

First of all, don’t eat char. Think about it. Char. It’s just burnt meat. It’s carbon. I know you like the idea of going all caveman with you singed side of mammoth, but char doesn’t even have any flavor. Don’t eat it … cut it off! If you do this one simple thing, you’ll eliminate many of the HCAs that do happen to get through your marinade net.

Bottom line?

Even briefly marinating foods is effective in reducing the amount of carcinogens — in some cases by as much as 92 to 99%. As a rule, use about one-half cup of marinade for every pound of food, although large pieces may need more to cover the food’s surface adequately.

The amount of marinating time is up to you, because it only takes a few minutes to get the full cancer-preventing effect. Longer times will just add more flavor – good health has never been so tasty!

By going low and slow, and refusing to eat char, you’ll be able to get outside, grill, and add flavor to your barbeque without compromising your health at the same time!

Posted on by Will Clower

Angelic Deviled Eggs

An old time favorite, deviled eggs are always a welcomed treat at any summer meal. Try this angelic deviled egg recipe it might just become your new favorite.

You’ll need:
  • 12 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon French’s mustard
  • Salt and pepper to taste cayenne
  • Sliced olives
  • optional ingredients: Half-n-half (a petite splash), relish (a touch)
To Start:
Set the eggs in a pan of cold water, and then bring the water to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, set the timer. Here at home, the time to boil eggs is 13 minutes flat. Of course, if you’re at a higher altitude, you’ll have a longer boil time.
When the timer goes off, run cold water into the pan to cool the eggs. After about 2-3 minutes, take them out and peel the shells.
Next — the yolks:
Getting them out of the egg without destroying the white takes just a bit of care. First cut them lengthwise before gently separating the yellow around the edges.
Now press gingerly on the underside of the egg half and turn it over to pop the yolk out. Put all yolks into a small bowl and add the mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper.
Tricks:
You can make these a bit more “devilish,” like I like them, by throwing in a conservative sprinkle of cayenne.
But the thing that really makes them silky and “angelic” is by adding one Tbsp half-n-half to the mix. Another suggestion is to throw in one Tbsp relish.
Taste and correct the seasonings with each addition.
Finishing up:
When the mix makes you moan out loud, you know you’ve gotten it right! Now take a small spatula and refill the tiny cups in the egg whites, one at a time.
Finally sprinkle it over with just a bit of cayenne and top it with a slice of olive.
Eating Instructions:
As always, our recipes come with eating instructions. Guilt-free eating only comes when you take small bites, make it last, and control your portions.

So have a half, two at most, as one luscious part of a great meal with your family and friends! That way you get the taste, you get the superb health benefits of eggs, and you don’t compromise your heart or pants sizes! Perfect.

 

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Posted on by Will Clower

All About Sun, Vitamin D, and Protection

(from Deborah Kotz, US News and World Report)

Coinciding with the first week of summer, a study published today underscores the importance of getting adequate amounts of sunlight for its vitamin D-boosting benefits. The research, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, shows that those with the lowest vitamin D levels have more than double the risk of dying from heart disease and other causes over an eight-year period compared with those with the highest vitamin D levels. The researchers cite “decreased outdoor activity” as one reason that people may become deficient in vitamin D. Another recent study found an increased risk of heart attacks in those with low vitamin D levels.

In the winter, it’s impossible to produce vitamin D from the sun if you live north of Atlanta because the sun never gets high enough in the sky for its ultraviolet B rays to penetrate the atmosphere. But summer is a great time to stock up on the nutrient. When the sun’s UV-B rays hit the skin, a reaction takes place that enables skin cells to manufacture vitamin D. If you’re fair skinned, experts say going outside for 10 minutes in the midday sun—in shorts and a tank top with no sunscreen—will give you enough radiation to produce about 10,000 international units of the vitamin. Dark-skinned individuals and the elderly also produce less vitamin D, and many folks don’t get enough of the nutrient from dietary sources like fatty fish and fortified milk.

The government’s dietary recommendations are 200 IUs a day up to age 50, 400 IUs to age 70, and 600 IUs over 70. But many experts believe that these recommendations are far too low to maintain healthful vitamin D levels. They advocate for supplementation in the winter of about 2,000 IUs per day and a dose of daily sunshine in the summer.

The sunshine vitamin may protect against a host of diseases, including osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancers of the breast, prostate, and colon. What’s more, sunlight has other hidden benefits—like protecting against depression, insomnia, and an overactive immune system.

Given all the upsides of basking at least briefly in the summer sun, many experts now worry that public-health messages warning about skin cancer have gone overboard in getting people to cover up and seek the shade. U.S.News got in touch with Robyn Lucas, an epidemiologist at Australian National University who led a study published in the February issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology. Her finding: Far more lives are lost to diseases caused by a lack of sunlight than to those caused by too much.

 

Have we gone too far in promoting protection from the sun?

Possibly. Sun protection messages arose in response to rapidly increasing rates of skin cancers, and they were an essential public-health message. But we now recognize that some sun exposure is important for health, at the very least, to maintain healthful vitamin D levels. (Sunscreen blocks out nearly all UV radiation.) Taking this into account, the Cancer Council of Australia has eased its sun protection message a little over the last few years and now recommends that if you’re out in the sun for relatively short periods, with a UV index less than 3, which indicates a moderate amount of UV rays hitting your area on a given day, then sunscreen and other sun protection (like hats and protective clothing) are not required. Beyond this, I believe we all need a little unprotected time in the sun during the middle hours of the day when the sun is at its highest and UV-B rays can penetrate the atmosphere.

 

How much sun is it safe to get without sunscreen?

It’s difficult to quantify how much since skin pigmentation affects how much radiation your skin absorbs: The darker the skin, the more it’s protected against skin cancer but the less able it is to absorb UV-B rays. It also depends on how much skin is exposed and the time of day. If you’re fair skinned and sunning yourself outside in a bathing suit at noon, you only need a few minutes without sunscreen. If you’re already tan or of Hispanic origin, you need maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Black skin may require six times the sun exposure to make the same vitamin D levels as a very fair-skinned person, but we need more research on this because the studies that have suggested this have been small. We’re starting a study later this year to establish how much skin pigmentation, clothing, sunscreen, and seasonal change affect vitamin D levels, so we should know more about all of this in the near future.

Can I make vitamin D driving in my car on a bright, sunny day on my way to work?

No. For one thing, UV radiation doesn’t penetrate glass; that’s why you can’t get a burn or tan if you’re driving with your windows closed. (The heat you feel is infrared radiation from the sun, which doesn’t have any health impact beyond making you overheated or causing sunstroke if you get an excessive amount.) Even if you’re driving in a convertible, though, you probably won’t get a good dose of UV-B rays if you’re driving in the early morning when the sun is still low in the sky. Taking a stroll during lunchtime is your best bet.  

Posted on by Will Clower

To Get A Healthy Culture of Total Well Being, You Need More Than Ping Pong Tables.

On a recent site visit to a client, I asked the wellness leader at this manufacturing location about his absenteeism rate. He shook his head and said, “It’s pretty non-existent.”

And turnover? “Same.”

When walking into the factory itself, you get the sense of a positive culture immediately. It’s in the employee’s eye contact, the easy conversations, and spontaneous laughter around.

 

While chatting with him just before lunch, an employee came in the door, signed in, said hello, and went back into the plant. After he left I asked, “Is he just now coming in?”

“Yeah, his shift doesn’t start until four, but he’s coming in to hang with the guys before it starts.”

This is exactly the kind of positive workplace culture that should lead to greater productivity, over and above the flatlining absenteeism and turnover. In fact, the plant manager also let me know that their production schedule had increased dramatically over the past six months. Although orders were way up, they hadn’t been able to fill the slots needed to meet the demand. Instead, employees are putting in overtime to the tune of six and seven days per week.

Despite this extra work, the employees were upbeat, positive, contributing to the common goal, and showing up to work with no one grumbling.

Clearly they established a healthy culture reflected in decreased absenteeism and increased productivity within an environment that employees want to come to work in. This is the ideal. But how did this happen?

The most visible element of their wellness culture is the ping pong room. It began with a single table just less than a year ago, and has expanded to three tables over time. In this room, the bulletin board contains the brackets for the competitions and the walls are painted with images of hip ping pong players. To encourage participation for those who are not as skilled, they have established a “developmental league.”

My conversation with the plant manager frequently returned to the fun and engaging table tennis challenges, but what made this cultural transformation work was not about the tables at all. They’re just a specific instance of a general principle.

Soccer Leagues Are Nice Too, But Insufficient In Themselves For The Same Reason

For example, we witnessed a similar cultural change at another manufacturing workplace in Europe. They could not care less about ping pong, but they loved soccer and set up four-person teams in rotating leagues that swapped around periodically. Almost everyone played. They couldn’t wait to get in, play and talk smack with their mates about this form of competitive comradery.

Absenteeism? Negligible. Turnover? Non-existent. Productivity? Consistently high.

In both cases, the tables and teams were necessary but by no means sufficient to bring about the cultural change. There were far more important elements at work that were not so obvious. For example, behind the scenes there was a clear commitment to the health of the employees from the middle and upper management. This commitment was expressed in two-way communication by reaching out to employees, gathering their thoughts, then taking those comments seriously. There were no punitive measures to compel participation. In fact, employees played over their allotted lunch hours and rules were relaxed around getting back to work. 

Traditional thinking would consider all of this as sloppy work practices because the employees weren’t showing up exactly on time, fun is considered frivolous, and communications are more horizontal than top-down. However, the payback on productivity and good attitudes went well above any stray minutes missed here and there.

Even though the teams and camaraderie were the most visible expression of these healthy culture examples, had the sites not implemented key elements of support, communication, and common purpose, the ping pong rooms and soccer fields would have remained unused.

The bottom line is that a positive worksite ecosystem must be grown first, regardless of your field of play.

Posted on by Will Clower

If You’re Emotionally Attached To Your Diet Drinks, Don’t Read This Article.

Bottom line? Drink as little as 1 diet drink per day, and you could get brained!

Gulping down an artificially sweetened beverage not only may be associated with health risks for your body, but also possibly your brain, a new study suggests.

Artificially sweetened drinks, such as diet sodas, were tied to a higher risk of stroke and dementia in the study, which published in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke on Thursday.
The study sheds light only on an association, as the researchers were unable to determine an actual cause-and-effect relationship between sipping artificially sweetened drinks and an increased risk for stroke and dementia. Therefore, some experts caution that the findings should be interpreted carefully.
 
“We have little data on the health effects of diet drinks and this is problematic because diet drinks are popular amongst the general population,” said Matthew Pase, a senior research fellow in the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and lead author of the new study.
“More research is needed to study the health effects of diet drinks so that consumers can make informed choices concerning their health,” he said.
The new study involved data on 2,888 adults older than 45 and 1,484 adults older than 60 from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The data came from the Framingham Heart Study, a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Boston University.
In the older-than-45 group, the researchers measured for stroke and in the older-than-60 group, they measured for dementia.
“The sample sizes are different because we studied people of different ages,” Pase said. “Dementia is rare in people under the age of 60 and so we focused only on those aged over 60 years for dementia. Similarly, stroke is rare in people aged under 45 and so we focused on people older than age 45 for stroke.”
 
The researchers analyzed how many sugary beverages and artificially sweetened soft drinks each person in the two different age groups drank, at different time points, between 1991 and 2001. Then, they compared that with how many people suffered stroke or dementia over the next 10 years.
Compared to never drinking artificially sweetened soft drinks, those who drank one a day were almost three times as likely to have an ischemic stroke, caused by blocked blood vessels, the researchers found.
They also found that those who drank one a day were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with dementia.
Those who drank one to six artificially sweetened beverages a week were 2.6 times as likely to experience an ischemic stroke but were no more likely to develop dementia, Pase said.
“So, it was not surprising to see that diet soda intake was associated with stroke and dementia. I was surprised that sugary beverage intake was not associated with either the risks of stroke or dementia because sugary beverages are known to be unhealthy,” Pase said.
 
In response, Lauren Kane, a spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, issued a statement from the group that said low-calorie sweeteners found in beverages have been proven safe by worldwide government safety authorities.
“The FDA, World Health Organization, European Food Safety Authority and others have extensively reviewed low-calorie sweeteners and have all reached the same conclusion — they are safe for consumption,” the statement said.
“While we respect the mission of these organizations to help prevent conditions like stroke and dementia, the authors of this study acknowledge that their conclusions do not — and cannot — prove cause and effect. And according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), many risk factors can increase an individual’s likelihood of developing stroke and dementia including age, hypertension, diabetes and genetics. NIH does not mention zero calorie sweeteners as a risk factor,” the statement said. “America’s beverage companies support and encourage balanced lifestyles by providing people with a range of beverage choices — with and without calories and sugar — so they can choose the beverage that is right for them.”
Separate previous studies have shown an association between the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and adverse health effects, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, stroke, and possibly even heart failure.
“This article provides further evidence though on artificially sweetened beverages and their possible effects on vascular health, including stroke and dementia,” said Dr. Ralph Sacco, professor and chair of neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, about the new study.
Sacco was a co-author of an editorial published alongside the study in the journal Stroke on Thursday.
“We believe the pathways of which artificially sweetened beverages would affect the brain are probably through vascular mechanisms,” Sacco said.
“When the authors controlled for hypertension and diabetes and obesity the effects diminish, which implies that some of the effects of artificially sweetened beverages could still be going through a vascular pathway,” he said about the new study. “Many strokes are caused by hardening of arteries; and the risk of dementia is also increased by the hardening of arteries in large and small vessels. So, I believe the mechanisms may be through vascular disease, though we can’t prove it.”
 
Heather Snyder, senior director of medical and scientific operations at the Alzheimer’s Association, called the new study “a piece of a larger puzzle” when it comes to better understanding how your diet and behaviors impact your brain.
“It’s actually really more of your overall diet and overall lifestyle that is linked to cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk, and we do know that heart disease and diabetes are linked to an increased risk of dementia,” said Snyder, who was not involved in the new study.
“We know that sugary and artificially sweetened beverages are not great for us. This study adds strength to that, and also says they may not be great for your brain, specifically,” she said. “There are alternatives — things we can all do everyday to keep our brains and our bodies as healthy as we can as we age.” Alternatives such as regular cardiovascular exercise that elevates heart rate and increases blood flow and doing puzzles and games to activate and challenge the mind. These are recommendations from the Alzheimer’s Associations list of 10 lifestyle habits to reduce risk of cognitive decline.
Posted on by Will Clower

What’s Better For Your Back? Yoga or Traditional Physical Therapy?

Image result for yoga funny

(Reuters Health) – Chronic lower back pain is equally likely to improve with yoga classes as with physical therapy, according to a new study.

Twelve weeks of yoga lessened pain and improved function in people with low back pain as much as physical therapy sessions over the same period.

“Both yoga and physical therapy are excellent non-drug approaches for low back pain,” said lead author Dr. Robert Saper, of Boston Medical Center.

About 10 percent of U.S. adults experience low back pain, but not many are happy with the available treatments, Saper and colleagues write in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The American College of Physicians advised in February that most people with low back pain should try non-drug treatments like superficial heat or massage before reaching for medications (reut.rs/2strnGw).

Physical therapy is the most common non-drug treatment for low back pain prescribed by doctors, according to Saper and colleagues. Yoga is also backed by some guidelines and studies as a treatment option, but until now no research has compared the two.

For the new study, the researchers recruited 320 adults with chronic low back pain. The participants were racially diverse and tended to have low incomes.

The participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group took part in a 12-week yoga program designed for people with low back pain. Another took part in a physical therapy program over the same amount of time. People in the third group received a book with comprehensive information about low back pain and follow-up information every few weeks.

At the start of the study, participants reported – on average – moderate to severe functional impairment and pain. More than two-thirds were using pain medications.

Related imageTo track participants function and pain during the study, the researchers surveyed them at six, 12, 26, 40 and 52 weeks using the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ).

Scores on the RMDQ measure for function declined – meaning function was improving – by 3.8 points over the 12 weeks in the yoga group, compared to 3.5 points in the physical therapy group. Participants who received education had an average RMDQ score decline of 2.5.

Statistically, participants ended up with similar functional improvements whether they underwent yoga, physical therapy or education.

More people in the yoga and physical therapy groups ended up with noticeable improvements in function, however.

People would feel a noticeable improvement with a four to five point drop on the RMDQ, write Dr. Douglas Chang, of the University of California, San Diego and Dr. Stefan Kertesz of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in an accompanying editorial.

They write that 48 percent of yoga participants and 37 percent of physical therapy participants reached that goal, compared to 23 percent of people who were in the education group.

Image result for yoga petFor achieving noticeable differences in pain, physical therapy was again no better or worse than yoga. After 12 weeks, people in the yoga group were 21 percentage points less likely to used pain medications than those in the education group. That difference was 22 percentage points for physical therapy versus education.

The improvements among the people in yoga and physical therapy groups lasted throughout the year, the researchers found.

“If they remain the same after one year, it’s a good bet that their improvement will continue on,” Saper told Reuters Health.

One treatment method won’t help all or even most patients, wrote Chang and Kertesz in their editorial.

“Nevertheless, as Saper and colleagues have shown, yoga offers some persons tangible benefit without much risk,” they write. “In the end, however, it represents one tool among many.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/2tlqWyc Annals of Internal Medicine, online June 19, 2017.