One high-fat bite may be one too many
After nipping Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup in 2014, Luis Suarez, aka the biting soccer player, was given a last chance to behave decently when Team Barcelona picked him up after his ban from the sport (it was Luis’s third offense).
We certainly hope it’s not as tough for you to learn that a bad bite can threaten your well-being!
A new study published in Nature shows that downing one highfat milkshake made with whole milk, heavy whipping cream and ice cream can cause remodeling of red blood cells so that the 25 trillion of them in your body become small, spiky barbs and you have increased levels of an enzyme that damages blood vessels and increases inflammation. Plus, white blood cells that scavenge damaged red blood cells become bloated, and your plasma becomes thick, off-color and filled with lipids. Quickly, that may destabilize plaque and cause a heart attack or stroke. From just one serving!
Eating high-fat meals day after day, as many folks do, changes the temporary assault on your arteries to a chronic attack, risking cardiovascular problems like heart attack and stroke, impotence and wrinkles.
Seems Barcelona may be your best and last chance to get it right, too. The Mediterranean diet, with small portions of fish, minimal meats and a focus on fruits and veggies, whole grains and heart-loving odd omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids in olive oil and nuts keeps RBCs healthy. Then you’ll enjoy a long, healthy life — along with smoother skin and a better love life!
Stop dieting and start loving foods that love you back
In a scene from the show “King of Queens,” Carrie comes home to find her husband, Doug, making breakfast. “Pancakes!” She exclaims. “Sausage too? What happened to your diet?”
“Uh, not sure,” he responds. “I think it got lost in the shuffle somewhere around Tuesday.”
She asks him to at least eat a light lunch.
“What is the point of that?” he replies. “You can’t resurrect a diet on a Friday afternoon. That’s crazy.”
Diet disasters like Doug’s are common. Deprivation and desperation, denial and doughnuts — they seem to go together like, well, “diets” and “don’t work.”
For a recent study, researchers followed more than 4,000 men and women in their 20s and 30s for more than 10 years. While only about 25 percent of the study participants resisted weight gain, they were the folks who ate regularly and had no history of dieting. The most vulnerable to weight gain were yo-yo dieters, who went on and off and on and off various regimens.
So how do you lose weight and keep it off ? You want to gradually change your lifestyle rather than hop onboard the latest diet trend:
Think Mediterranean
(lean meats as side dishes, lots of veggies and fruit, healthy oils like olive oil, and omega-3-rich fish, avocados and nuts) or focus on foods from the earth so that plant-based eating becomes your main focus. Then eat as much as you like (your appetite will naturally self-regulate) and watch your health transform as your body shape does too.
Your morning coffee is safe Question:
Now that California is making coffee companies and sellers label their products as cancercausing, do I have to give up my morning cup or two? Please tell me this is just the Californication of science. — Jay J., Portland, Oregon
Answer: Where to start? We think there are three essential points to make right off the bat:
1. While it’s true that the acrylamide that coffee contains after roasting (French fries, chips, crackers, chocolate and grains contain it, too) is the same chemical that the International Agency for Research on Cancer has designated a 2A carcinogen (that boils down to “might or might not be carcinogenic in humans”), it’s not likely to be risky in the minute amounts found in even unhealthful foods. For example, McDonald’s fries have 328 parts per billion.
How does it get there in the first place? The chemical is formed by using what the Food and Drug Administration calls “traditional hightemperature cooking processes for certain carbohydrate-rich foods.”
2. Those small amounts per billion are far, far, far less than the straight dose of acrylamide fed to lab rats to test whether it is potentially carcinogenic. Their dose was up to 10,000 times stronger than what you’re getting from food, but it does then trigger tumor formation. Plus, rodents absorb and metabolize the chemical differently than humans.
When asked if the available tests mean that humans should stop drinking coffee, the Washington Post quoted Leonard Lichtenfeld, the American Cancer Society’s deputy chief medical officer, as saying: “No. That’s not what the science shows us.”
3. Meta-analysis of multiple studies on coffee consumption found that overall, coffee seems to offer health benefits, including a probable decreased risk of breast, colorectal, colon, endometrial and prostate cancers and cardiovascular disease. In addition, observational studies showed that caffeine is associated with a probable decreased risk of Parkinson’s disease, Type 2 diabetes and dementia, all by 20 percent or more. Dr.
Mike is an avid coffee drinker and espouses the health benefits of java, both caffeinated and decaffeinated, for anyone who isn’t sensitive to caffeine (doesn’t get a headache, arrhythmia, gastric upset or anxiety from having one cup in a one-hour period).
So, don’t forgo your
Joe, but always feel free to ditch added sugars and high-fat dairy.
Q: My aunt, who’s 78, has COPD. She smoked for most of her life (not anymore). Is it the end of the road for her? — Lynda M., Arlington, Virginia
A: Not necessarily. In certain cases, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) can be arrested and even reversed. Recently, German researchers found that aggressive pulmonary rehabilitation “is an effective and costeffective therapeutic intervention that improves physical performance ability, shortness of breath and the quality of life in patients with COPD.”
Dr. Mike’s Cleveland Clinic defines COPD as a family of diseases ranging from emphysema to chronic bronchitis. Most cases are caused by smoking, but a growing number of cases are triggered by air pollution. Sometimes, emphysema is caused by an alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic condition in which the lungs are no longer protected from the effects of an enzyme in the white blood cells that breaks down lung tissue.
COPD causes shortness of breath and mucus buildup in the lungs, which puts a huge strain on the heart. It’s the third most common cause of death in the U.S.
So, what’s the pulmonary rehabilitation therapy routine? First off, it requires that the patient stop smoking, as your aunt has done. Then, the researchers say, it’s very effective to enroll in a three-week inpatient program that combines interval and endurance training, a healthy diet and oxygen therapy. They also say it’s beneficial (and economically smart) to enroll in an outpatient program. That’s done three times a week for six to 12 weeks. Your aunt’s doctor can recommend the best PR routine for her. Good luck, and remember, PR works!