Toddler drinks definitely not for toddlers

In a scene from the 2004 movie “Mean Girls,” lead mean girl Regina George goes on what she calls the “South Beach Fat Flush” — drinking only cranberry juice for 72 hours.

When a fellow student looks at the “juice’s” nutrition label, he says: “This isn’t even cranberry juice. It’s cranberry juice cocktail. It’s all sugar.”

You always need to look closely at the nutrition facts to get past misleading labels. In a new study, published in “Preventive Medicine,” researchers found that to be especially true when it comes to beverages being sold as “toddler drinks.” They’re often marketed in a way that makes parents think they’re healthy, when in fact they’re NOT!

The researchers discovered that a wide variety of these beverages made at least one claim about health or nutrition. Truth: Most are made of powdered milk, added sweeteners (often highfructose corn syrup) and vegetable oil, and contain less protein than regular milk. The World Health Organization and medical experts have deemed toddler drinks “unnecessary” and “unsuitable” for kids nine to 36 months.

Unfortunately, while there are policies in place that say what can and can’t go on infant formula labels, the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate the marketing of drinks to toddlers.

So keep your eyes open and institute your own regulations! When you see a product labeled “toddler formula,” “toddler drink,” or “toddler milk,” skip it. For your toddler’s diet, stick to cow’s milk and water, fresh fruits and veggies, and healthy proteins and fats, such as those found in salmon.

PROTECT YOUR EARS TO PROTECT YOUR HEART

On Aug. 27, 1883, the loudest Earth-produced noise in recorded history was emitted when a volcano erupted on Krakatoa, an Indonesian island. The sound could be heard nearly 3,000 miles away, and within 40 miles of the explosion, people’s eardrums were shattered.

Clearly, loud noise (above 60 decibels, the volume of a normal conversation) is dangerous — and it doesn’t have to be Krakatoa-strong to trigger health problems. Exposure to elevated decibels can:

• Erode your hearing.

• Interfere with sleep, disrupting your endocrine, metabolic and immune systems.

• Damage your cardiovascular system, increasing your risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack and heart failure.

Now, a review in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology provides insight into why the noise-heart damage links exist.

Loud noises cause stress, and chronic exposure to stress hormones boosts blood pressure and damages blood vessels. Plus, one study found that blood vessels’ so-called calcification burden increases by almost four per cent with every five-decibel increase in nighttime traffic noise — upping the risk of atherosclerosis and arterial stiffening. Loud, persistent noise also affects the autonomic nervous system that regulates organ system functions. Maybe excessive noise all over the country is why we have so much heart disease.

So, if you live in a noisy environment:

• At night, use sounddampening earplugs.

• Install sound-blocking shades and drapes.

• Rely on noise-canceling headphones (not while crossing the street!).

• Turn down your earbuds. Canceling out exterior sound with music piped directly into your eardrum doesn’t help keep you calm or healthy.

STAY STRONG AS YOU AGE, WITH A MEDITERRANEAN DIET

The 2001 movie “Frailty,” co-starring Matthew McConaughey as a serial killer, was the directorial debut for Bill Paxton. While the horrifying tale registered only a 78 per cent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it was 100 per cent right about one thing: Frailty — the loss of muscle strength and grip strength, a slow walking speed, loss of 10 pounds in the past year and a low level of physical activity — can devastate you. It’s much too common among older adults and is associated with greater risk of becoming ill, falling, requiring hospitalization and an increased risk of dying in the next three years.

But you can fight — and bite — back. Turns out, according to a major review of published studies, the Mediterranean diet protects against frailty.

Looking at 5,789 seniors in four studies conducted in France, Spain, Italy and China, researchers from University College London found that folks who were the greatest consumers of a Mediterranean diet were less than half as likely to become frail over a four-year period as folks who strayed the furthest from that diet.

Choose a diet that eliminates highly processed foods and emphasizes plant-based foods, including fruits and vegetables, 100 per cent whole grains, legumes and nuts.

You also want to consume healthy oils like extra-virgin olive oil, and use animal protein (mainly fish) as a side dish. That will protect your cardiovascular system, help control your weight, keep your brain clear and allow you to stay physically active and strong as you age. Buon appetito!

WOMEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE A STROKE: WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

Billie Jean King, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have unique strokes that propelled them to 12, 23 and five Grand Slam singles victories, respectively. Unfortunately, ischemic strokes are not that unique and slam a lot more women than men. Every year in the U.S. 55,000 more women than men experience those cranial vascular events.

That discrepancy caught the attention of researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Their research, published in Stroke, uncovered women’s unique risk factors and highlighted their need to take aggressive steps to avoid a stroke.

After looking at hormone levels, hormone therapy, hormonal birth control, pregnancy and time of menarche and menopause, they found that the following were all associated with an increased risk of stroke:

• Getting your period before age 10.

• Experiencing menopause before age 45.

• Having low levels of the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS).

• Taking oral estrogen (without aspirin), or a combined oral contraceptive (again, without aspirin).

True, only a fraction of women who have one or more of those risk factors will have a stroke. But, if any of them apply to you, you should embrace healthy behaviors that will reduce your risk of high blood pressure and stroke. That means seven to eight hours of sleep nightly; 10,000 steps daily; seven to nine servings of fruits and veggies daily; no red or processed meat or highly processed foods, and only 100 per cent whole grains. And always ask your doc about taking an 81-mg aspirin twice daily if you take hormone therapy. Even men taking hormones should do this.

OTC PAIN RELIEVERS AFFECT YOUR MOOD AND ‘TUDE!

When Grace Slick sang White Rabbit’s opening lines, “One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small. And the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all,” she couldn’t have known that acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil) that mother gave you for a headache or sore muscles actually did affect your mood and outlook.

That’s the new findings from a review published in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Researchers found that ibuprofen made women experience LESS hurt feelings when being excluded or recalling a painful memory. Men had the opposite reaction and felt more hurt after taking the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug.

Acetaminophen, a pain reliever that’s not an antiinflammatory, also triggered dulled emotional responses: Study participants who took the drug reported feeling less emotional upset when reading about someone experiencing physical or emotional pain, while positively evocative images triggered less happiness.

According to researchers, “In many ways, the reviewed findings are alarming. Consumers assume that when they take an over-the-counter pain medication, it will relieve their physical symptoms, but they do not anticipate broader psychological effects.”

We say, pay attention to how you feel after taking them, and remember that these drugs are not intended for long-term use. If your doc says it’s OK: Limit acetaminophen to no more than 3,000 mg daily for 10 days for pain; for NSAIDs, find out if their possible gastrointestinal, kidney and cardiac side-effects make them risky for you. And always take these meds with lots of warm water.