HEALTHY LIVING
All the latest health news
ONE OF EACH, PLEASE!
In a health smackdown between broccoli and cauliflower, which would win? Broccoli has vitamin A (cauli doesn’t) and more vitamin C than cauli as well as antiinflammatory sulforaphane and vitamin K. In the cauli corner is choline (essential for brain development) and potassium, which is great for blood pressure. Cauli has slightly fewer carbs than broccoli and is thought to help with weight loss. Tough call… we’d call it a draw. Have both!
MOZZIE MENACE
The World Health Organisation recently ranked dengue fever as the fastest-growing and most concerning mosquito-borne viral disease in the world. The disease results in nearly 500 million infections a year and has spread to about 128 countries in the past 50 years, although it’s still mainly found in Asia and Latin America. If you travel to those regions and you develop a very high temperature with bad flu-like symptoms, it’s worth being checked out. The best course of action, though, is to make sure you’re not bitten by mosquitoes in the first place…
NEEDLES AND PINS
We all get pins and needles every now and then, and most of the time it’s absolutely harmless. But it can sometimes point to another condition: tingling in your hands and feet can be a sign of vitamin or mineral deficiency; a pin-prick sensation in your lips and mouth can indicate a food allergy; tingling in your thumb and first two fingers is often a sign of carpal tunnel syndrome and – if you experience tingling down the outside of your thigh, it’s a sign that your jeans are too tight!
TARGET: TUMOURS
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a groundbreaking technique in immunology screening. It’s a huge advance in cancer management; the take-out is that doctors will be able to prescribe treatments so specifically engineered to the tumours of individual cancer patients that they will be able to powerfully attack the tumour without any side effects.
TINY GREEN GIANT
Commonly used as garnish, microgreens (the smallest shoots of salad veggies like rocket, celery and beetroot – picked just after the first leaves have developed) are a potent superfood. The US Department of Agriculture found that nearly all 25 varieties of microgreens tested had four to six times as many vitamins and phytochemicals as mature leaves from the same plant.
‘All the nutrients the plant requires to produce a lifetime of fruit and vegetables are contained in the first shoot,’ explains Shaun Miller, co-founder of Urban Micro Greens in Johannesburg. ‘In fact, concentrations of nutrients in some microgreens can be up to 40 percent higher than in older plants!’ They’re also rich in antioxidants; vitamins C, K and E; fibre; lutein; phenols and polyphenols; calcium, magnesium and zinc. Better yet, just a tablespoon or two a day gives you all the nutrients you need.