Encouraging Health

If you’ve ever polished off a fresh baguette or fought over that last slice of deep-dish pizza, you’ve eaten gluten. It’s the healthy plant protein found in several grains that, among other baking feats, makes bread light, chewy, and irresistible. So you’d think it would be everybody’s favorite nutrient. Nope. Instead, shunning gluten — it’s in wheat, rye, and barley, and often in oats — has become the diet of the moment.

Why? Lots of people swear they feel 10 times better when they don’t eat gluten, celebs included: Gwyneth Paltrow, Rachel Weisz, and Jenny McCarthy are all rumored to be gluten-free. Also, for certain people, avoiding gluten is a medical must: It does a number on their intestines. So could all those stomach cramps be caused by your morning bagel? Should you try going gluten-free? Here’s the real what’s what:

Some people can’t tolerate gluten. Period. In them, gluten triggers an immune-system attack on the small intestine, also known as celiac disease. This disorder isn’t that common, fortunately — only about 1% of Americans (3 million people) have it — but almost 97% of them are undiagnosed! Symptoms range from gas, pain, and bloating to fatigue, seizures, and depression. Over time, celiac disease can screw up digestion to the point of malnutrition. Self-test kits are sold online and can provide clues, and blood tests are the next step, but a definitive diagnosis requires a biopsy.

Some people seem sensitive to gluten. But “gluten sensitivity” is a medical gray area. There are no tests for it, and although problems — migraines, skin breakouts, irritability, even autism — have been blamed on it, doctors haven’t found a clear link. If you suspect you’re sensitive, before you put your toaster and pasta machine on eBay, try this: Go gluten-free for a few weeks to see if symptoms improve; then, add a bit of gluten back into your diet. If problems return, you may be on to something.

How to Try Going Gluten-Free
Most suspicious foods are easy to spot. They include anything with wheat — bread, muffins, cookies, most other baked goods — as well as foods made with several other grains: barley soups, ham on rye, anything with oats. But there are hidden sources, too. Gluten is used in soy sauce, beer, hot dogs, some ice creams, caramel flavoring, sausages, and foods seasoned with MSG. It’s even in the adhesive on stamps and envelopes!

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It burns fat, fends off disease, strengthens our bones, and improves our mood — and now studies suggest it may even suppress our appetites.

What’s this miracle of modern medicine? Actually, it’s pretty old-school. It’s exercise. Although the jury’s still out, new research suggests it may inhibit people’s munching.

Exercise More to Eat Less?
You’ve heard the expression “work up an appetite.” The reverse might actually be true. Overweight people in a study actually ate less — and dropped some body fat to boot — after 3 months of regular aerobic workouts on either a treadmill or a bicycle.

A Chemical Reaction
Researchers suspect there may be something chemical about exercise that helps increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) — a blood protein known to curb appetite. The higher the BDNF, the fewer calories the study participants consumed, and the more weight they lost.

More benefits of Walking:

1. I wish I had more energy.
A short brisk walk has both a calming and an energizing effect, according to research. And walking may help you feel more alert and well-rested because of its ability to improve the quality of your sleep.
2. I wish I could think more clearly.
Need to sort out some things in your head? Few activities help improve your perspective as quickly as a brisk walk, which will boost circulation in all parts of the body, including your brain.
3. I wish I could protect myself from my parents’ diseases.
Your genetics determine only a small part of your health profile. Research shows it’s how you live your life that really counts, and walking regularly can prevent and improve many serious chronic diseases.
4. I wish I could lose weight.
Although you might think that losing weight is the only way to enjoy an improved health profile, the truth is that regular walkers may not have to worry quite as much about what the scale says.
5. I wish I felt happier in general.
Protecting and nurturing your mental health is an important part of overall wellness, and studies show that walking regularly has the ability to lower your stress levels.

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To keep your knees and hands free of arthritis, here’s what you should have before each meal: a small salad.

Why? Because the vitamin K in leafy greens — think cabbage, spinach, and swiss chard, for starters — could help reduce your risk of joint damage.

Get a Grip on Arthritis
In a study of older adults, those with higher blood levels of vitamin K were significantly less likely to develop the bone spurs and cartilage damage that are common in painful osteoarthritis. Hands seemed to benefit most, but people’s knees got some protection, too. Just one word of caution: If you’re on blood thinners, check with your doctor about appropriate K intake.

A Yummy Greens Scene
You shouldn’t need a vitamin K supplement if you eat your greens — especially dark ones. (Whew. One less supplement to take.)

I love kale. Here’s a recipe i’d like to try soon:

Indian-Spiced Kale and ChickpeasChickpeas make this exotic dish a terrific player in any vegetarian menu.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-1 1/2 pounds kale, ribs removed, coarsely chopped (see Tip)
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth, or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garam masala, (see Ingredient note)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed

Directions
1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add kale and cook, tossing with two large spoons, until bright green, about 1 minute. Add broth, coriander, cumin, garam masala and salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in chickpeas; cover and cook until the chickpeas are heated through, 1 to 2 minutes.

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It’s lean, it’s laden with fill-you-up protein, and it helps keep your arteries clear. What is it?

It’s the mighty bean. Yep. Beans have it all — including the ability to reduce the amount of artery-clogging fat in your blood.

Lower Lipids
In a study, people who ate a half cup of cooked pinto beans every day for 12 weeks experienced a drop in total and LDL (bad) cholesterol. Which means beans could do great things for your heart health. Researchers theorize it’s the antioxidants in beans — called polyphenols — that may help lower blood lipids.

More Heart Safeguards
One possible caveat: In the recent bean study, HDL (good) cholesterol dropped a bit, too — something not seen in other bean studies. Follow-up research will be needed to see if it’s a fluke or holds true. In the meantime, here are a bunch of other reasons to make beans your best friends:

They help your pants fit better.

Thanks to all the fiber, they help control Blood Pressure.

Getting Rid of the Gas

The fact that beans help thwart colon polyps is all well and good. But how can you prevent the gassy aftereffects that often come with beans?

Here are some tips:

Rinse canned beans before cooking or eating them.

Pour off the soaking water for dry beans and use fresh for cooking.
Increase bean consumption gradually.

Offset the added fiber with plenty of fluids and exercise.

Bean There, Done That

Colon health doesn’t start and stop with eating beans, of course. You should also consider colon cancer screening.

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Want a fun and easy way to power up your brain? Have a chat over coffee, tea, or even warm milk.

The key here is the chat, not your choice of beverage. Even if they’re brief, occasional bouts of social interaction can help sharpen your wits.

Keep Chatting for Better Thinking
Whether you engage in conversation with a friend, a family member, or the guy behind you in the express line, keep talking. In a recent study of young adults, a mere 10 minutes of face-to-face conversation about a social issue was enough to boost working memory and mental processing speeds. Chitchat was as good as a crossword puzzle, in terms of brain benefits. In fact, the more people socialize, the better their brainpower — regardless of age.

Mental Aerobics
Conversation requires us to pay attention, remember what was said, deduce the other person’s meaning, and come up with appropriate responses — some pretty serious mental gymnastics. And when it comes to mental muscle, it’s use it or lose it.

Pick Up a Book, Bulk Up Your Brain

Don’t deny yourself the luxury of curling up with that murder mystery, tragic tale, or sci-fi thriller this weekend. Consider it self-defense class for your brain.

Being a bookworm doesn’t just make you smart. It makes you mentally tough. It builds so much cognitive reserve that bookworms’ brains may be bolstered against bad things like pollution and toxins.

Calling All Reserves
On cognitive tests, book lovers outperform people with lower reading levels. No surprise there. But the big news is that people who read regularly may develop a “cognitive reserve.” What’s that mean? That they’ve got extra brainpower to keep the mind rolling when brain cells are under attack. In a study of factory workers, the brains of the big readers functioned just fine on cognitive tasks, despite on-the-job exposure to toxic substances, like lead.

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When it comes to heart health, a person’s weight may not matter as much as previously thought.

Surprising Findings
A new national study shows that about half of overweight people have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels while “an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity,” reports the Associated Press.

According to the American Heart Association, overweight people have a body mass index (BMI)—a measurement that assesses weight in relation to height—of 25.0 to less than 30.0, or about 10 percent over ideal body weight. Being overweight or obese has long been associated with a higher risk of heart problems.

But the new study shows that not as many overweight people are plagued with heart problems as once thought. On the flip side, people who are not overweight and seem perfectly healthy could have serious heart health issues.

About 51 percent of overweight adults—approximately 36 million people nationwide—had mostly normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar. Roughly one-third of obese adults—those with a BMI of 30.0 or greater—also fell into the healthy range.

And about a fourth of adults who were in the recommended weight range had unhealthy levels in two of those categories. “We’re really talking about taking a look with a very different lens” at weight and health risks, said study author MaryFran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity researcher.
Analysis: Weight still matters
“This is not to say that obesity is not a problem,” said researcher Rachel Wildman at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “But there may be certain individuals for whom obesity is not as big a problem as we thought.”

She believes other studies must be done before the information is taken too seriously. For example, the study did not take into account what people ate. The overweight but heart healthy individuals. may have better diets overall, she said.

“I don’t think this is completely genetic,” Wildman said. “I’m sure there are things people can do to help bring down their risk factors even if they can’t get the weight off.”

Study co-author Judith Wylie-Rosett said that the study shouldn’t send the message “that we don’t need to worry about weight.” Half of overweight people do have an elevated risk of heart disease. The study may mean, however, that for overweight people without risk factors, losing weight “might be important only from a cosmetic perspective.”

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Four simple rules could turn your breakfast into a cravings crusher, pound shedder, and mood booster.

It’s all about timing and balance, according to Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons, author of Potatoes, Not Prozac.

One, Two, Three, Four . . .
Here are DesMaisons’s four simple rules for using breakfast to counterbalance the biochemical mechanisms behind sugar cravings, obesity, and depression.

1. Do it daily. Your goal is to make it a daily, automatic habit. The reward? You can kiss late-day low blood sugar and sugary snack cravings goodbye — permanently.

2. Do it sooner rather than later. For the best results, eat breakfast within an hour or so of waking up — even if you’re not hungry. Morning-time low blood sugar produces a brain chemical designed to mask hunger pangs — but can cause sugar cravings later in the day.

3. Make it complex. We’re talking complex carbohydrates here (whole-grain cereals, steel-cut oats, high-fiber fruits, etc.) The fiber keeps blood sugar on an even keel and helps you feel full longer.

4. Power it with protein. Protein slows digestion, helps prevent spikes and dips in blood sugar, and can even give you a dose of depression-fighting tryptophan. DesMaisons recommends that you get a third of your daily protein at breakfast.

It’s true: breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. A nutritious, well-balanced morning meal not only sustains your energy levels better than endless cups of coffee, but it also can help:

• Boost weight loss efforts. Research shows that breakfast eaters are more successful at losing weight and maintaining that weight loss compared to breakfast skippers.
• Sharpen your mind. People who consume a high-fiber breakfast stay more alert than those who start their day with a high-fat meal, according to research.
• Protect your cardiovascular system. A study revealed that people who consumed whole-grain cereals rather than refined cereals had a lower risk of heart disease.
• Strengthen your immune system. The right breakfast choices help you start your day with immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.

Browse Encouraging Health.

If you’ve been denying yourself pancakes for health and waist reasons, get out the griddle — they’re back.

Play Fast and Loose with the Batter
“Pancake batters are like cookie mixtures: They aren’t an exact science. You can throw all kinds of stuff into them and they’ll still come out just fine!” says nutritionist Elizabeth Somer, RD, author of The Food and Mood Cookbook. Here’s how to rehab your favorite flapjack recipe:

1. Cut Down the Calories
· Use half the oil, margarine, shortening, or butter called for in the recipe.
· Use nonfat milk or nonfat condensed milk — or low-fat buttermilk or soymilk — instead of whole milk.
· Use cooking spray to prepare the griddle.
· Keep servings to two 4″ pancakes.

2. Pump Up the Fiber
· Replace some of the white or unbleached flour with whole-wheat pastry flour. (It’s lighter than regular whole-wheat flour.) Start with 3/4 cup white and 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour for every cup of flour called for. Increase the whole-wheat flour every time you cook until you find the proportion you like best.
· Toss in a handful of oatmeal to up the protein and fiber. (You may need to add a little extra milk, too.)
· To make gluten-free pancakes, use buckwheat flour.

3. Skim Off the Cholesterol
· Replace the eggs with egg substitute, or use two whites per yolk.
· For fluffier pancakes, whip the whites separately, and then fold them into the batter.

4. Skinny Down the Sugar
· Replace half the sugar with Splenda.
· Try adding sweet-tasting flavorings: vanilla, nutmeg, and/or cinnamon, and leave out some of the sugar.

5. Rev Up the Antioxidants
· Mix a spoonful of canned pumpkin, grated apple, or whole blueberries into the batter.
· Add some toasted wheat germ or ground flaxseeds, too.

6. Swap Out the Syrup
· Heap on fresh or thawed berries — any kind.
· Top with a tablespoon of all-fruit apricot jam and a sliced banana.
· Spoon on fat-free sour cream, yogurt, or ricotta cheese mixed with mango chunks or mandarin oranges.

If you still crave syrup, drizzle any of the above with a little agave nectar (sold in health-food stores). It tastes as sweet as syrup, but it’s far easier on your blood sugar levels.

Now, Reap the Rewards
Trading pale, wimpy pancakes soaked in butter and syrup for hearty, healthy ones rich in flavor, fruit, fiber, and nutrients will do more than rehab an A.M. favorite and boost your energy for the day.

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Take time to find — and do — things that make you happy. It could mean better blood sugar.

It’s true. A study shows that depressed people may be 42 percent more likely to develop diabetes. And the stronger the sad symptoms, the greater the odds.

The Culprit: Unhealthy Habits
Sad feelings, researchers suspect, can make you wanna do some pretty unhealthy things — like pig out before bed, sack out on the couch all day, or maybe even smoke or drink. And those are all things that could put you on the road to diabetes. But bad habits are only part of the picture, experts note. Even in the absence of bad habits, depressed people are still more likely to develop diabetes.

Beating the Blues
Battling depression isn’t easy and may require counseling or other treatments if it’s severe or hangs around. But if you’ve got just the occasional blue mood, don’t let it linger. Bust out of it.

Any number of events can set off an unpleasant emotional reaction that leads to a blue mood. For some people, the blue mood can spiral into something deeper and last for weeks or longer. This level of depression typically requires treatment by a professional healthcare provider.

However, if you experience milder forms of depression, such as dysphoria, you can take steps to diffuse your negative feelings before your world comes crashing down and you put your health at risk.

First, take a closer look at three key facets of your life: 1) your thought processes, 2) your relationships, and 3) your stress levels. Next, assess how they influence your psyche on a daily basis and why. As you consider these areas of your life, develop a plan to more effectively deal with any troubling issues.

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Red wine isn’t the only beverage that helps keep your arteries clear.

Here are two other mighty fine choices: cranberry juice and tea.

Both are bursting with heart-protective flavonoids. To get the RealAge-recommended daily dose, you can drink several cups of tea (any kind will do) or two and a half small glasses of cranberry juice a day. Yup, it’s that easy.

All About Your Arteries
Whole fruits and veggies are good flavonoid sources, too. But it’s nice to know that what you drink can help nudge you toward the RealAge goal of 31 milligrams of flavonoids daily. Get enough and you’ll not only help give heart disease the boot but also fend off peripheral artery disease (PAD) — a condition that reduces blood flow to the limbs and vital organs. OJ and tomato juice have lots of flavonoids, too, by the way.

Extra Protection
Stave off artery disease with these additional love-your-heart steps:

Kick butt. Smokers are at particularly high risk.

Lace up your walking shoes. Carve out 30 minutes during your day to pound the pavement.

Love the good fats. That means grabbing nuts (not chips) and olive oil (not butter)

Cram in More Cranberries

Bursting with flavor, dripping with color, and abounding in cancer-fighters — the tiny cranberry has it all.

The bright red of the cranberry is a clue that it is jam-packed with flavonoids, including ones that appear to defend against cancer cell growth. So spread your turkey sandwiches with lots of tasty, fresh cranberry relish. It’s great on fish, in muffins, and as a salad topping, too!

Researchers testing a unique group of flavonoids — anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, and flavonol glycosides — found that individually, each one prevented liver and breast cancer cells from multiplying. When the three are combined, as they are in a cranberry, they may be even more effective in squelching cancer cell growth. In the lab, it’s called synergy. In your mouth, it’s called divine.

Enjoy plenty of fresh cranberries this season by making sauces, cobblers, muffins, and breads with them. When they are out of season, stock up on dried cranberries and add them to cereal, salads, and trail mix. And cranberry juice with a splash of sparkling water is a terrific refresher. With every bite or sip, you’ll be doing something positive for your health, and positively delicious.

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