Elwood's Health Information
Weight Cycling--The "Yo-Yo" Problem

Carrying a few extra pounds of body weight may be less harmful than "yo-yo" dieting! The cycle of repeatedly losing and regaining weight can make weight management more difficult in the long run. It may lead to a slower basal metabolic rate, eating disorders, and poor self-esteem. According to some studies, weight cycling may even increase the risk for some ongoing health problems, such as heart disease and some forms of
cancer. Moreover, lost weight that repeatedly comes back may lead to feelings of frustration and failure. 

Weight cycling often comes from quick-fix diets, weight-loss gimmicks, and other risky strategies. Without physical activity, each time the dieter sheds a few pounds, he or she loses lean body mass, along with body fat. Because the approach for weight loss is short-lived, pounds quickly go back on. Without exercise, those regained pounds are mostly body fat, which burns less energy than muscle. As the cycle repeats itself, the
dieter needs fewer and fewer calories to maintain weight, and it gets harder and harder to lose weight. The cycle of "failure, success, failure" makes it psychologically harder to try again, too.

If repeated "ups and downs" of dieting describe your weight problem, shift your approach to management. You can break the cycle. Go for long-term approaches, rather than short-term results. Make gradual and permanent changes in the way you eat, your activity level, and your lifestyle. It's the only way to be healthy--for life.
20 Everyday Ways to Get Moving!
Do you find it difficult to fit 30 minutes of physical activity into your life everyday? Think again. Even with a busy lifestyle, you can boost your activity level. These everyday activities can count toward your day's total if they're done with moderate intensity--and most take little, if any, extra time.

1. Get up 30 minutes earlier in the morning, and take a brisk walk to start your day. Need someone to get you going? Schedule your walk with a neighbor.

2. Forget the drive-through carwash. Wash the car yourself. Bonus: You'll save money at the same time.

3. Take stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. Walking up stairs is a great heart exerciser and calorie burner!

4. Park at the far end of the parking lot for a longer walk. Get off the bus a stop ahead. Then walk the rest of the way to your destination. 

5. Are you a computer user--on and off the job? Give yourself at least five minutes of exercise for every hour of computer time.

6. Walk around your building--outside or inside--during your lunch hour or coffee break. You'll burn energy rather than being tempted to nibble on a snack. 

7. Get a dog, and walk together. No dog? Then walk your cat--or pet pig--on a leash.

8. Play actively with your kids, grand kids, or pets. Some dogs like to play frisbee as much as kids do!

9. Before and after dinner, walk--and talk--with your family. To burn more energy if you have an infant, use a baby carrier on your back rather than push a stroller. 

10. Do some backyard gardening. (Bonus: Grow fresh vegetables and herbs if you can.) In the fall, rake leaves.

11. Ride your bike to work or to a friends' home, if it's not too far away. Walk to do errands that are just a few blocks away.

12. While you watch television, do household chores or projects: mop the kitchen floor or refinish a piece of furniture. Avoid the "couch potato" syndrome.

13. Catch up with your around-the-house work: wash the windows, vacuum or shampoo the carpet, clean the garage or basement, sweep the sidewalk.

14. Use the exercise equipment you already own. Do two things at one time: ride your stationary bicycle while you read the morning paper or news magazine. Watch the morning news while you work out on your
rowing machine.

15. Push your lawn mower instead of using the power-assisted drive. Skip the snow blower; shovel the snow by hand if you're fit.

16. Make homemade bread. Knead the dough by hand, not with a bread machine or food processor.

17. Use the restroom or pay phone that's at the other end of the building so you get more chance to walk.

18. Plan an active family vacation or weekend outing. Rather than sit on a beach, go canoeing, hiking, or snow skiing. 

19. "Walk your talk!" If you like to chat on the phone, buy a portable one so you don't need to sit still. 

20. Rent an exercise video, rather than a movie. And work out with thevideo as a leisure-time activity.
Phytochemicals: What Role in Health?

Besides nutrients, there's another "crop" of compounds in plant foods--legumes, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains--that may affect your body. Collectively they're called phytochemicals, meaning plant chemicals.

Phytochemicals are substances that plants naturally produce to protect themselves against viruses, bacteria, and fungi. And they include hundreds of naturally-occurring substances, including carotenoids, flavonoids, indoles, isoflavones, capsaicin, and protease inhibitors. As with vitamins and minerals, different plant foods supply different kinds and amounts of phytochemicals. 

Their exact role in promoting health is still uncertain. However, certain phytochemicals may help protect against some cancers, heart disease, and other chronic health conditions. So, stay tuned!

Until scientific research learns more, the nutrition bottom line still applies: Include a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains, including whole grains. And count on food, not dietary supplements, for the health qualities they provide. That way, you'll reap the potential benefits of the many phytochemicals found in all kinds of foods from plant sources.
Ten Great Ways to "Fiber Up"
Are you ready to eat more fiber and hit the 20- to 35-gram daily target? These ten guidelines can put your day's food choices within range.

1. Eat a variety of food. With a mix of foods, you consume a mix of fibers both soluble and insoluble. And you get the benefits of both types.

2. Pick high-fiber snacks: popcorn, fresh fruit, raw vegetables, and nuts.

3. Remember breakfast--a good time for fiber-rich foods. Besides bran cereal or another fiber-rich breakfast cereal, enjoy oatmeal, whole-bran muffins, or whole-wheat waffles. In fact, check food labels for a cereal with
five or more grams of fiber per serving. Top with fruit for a little more fiber. 

4. Switch to whole-grains--in bread, cereals, buns, bagels, and pasta, to name a few. Besides the fiber, making sandwiches on a variety of whole-grain breads adds interest and taste. Breads with whole grain include cornbread from whole, ground cornmeal; cracked wheat bread; oatmeal bread; pumpernickel bread; rye bread; and the perennial favorite, whole-wheat bread. Eat breads made with bran, too, such as bran muffins.

5. Plan to eat legumes two to three times a week. They're among the best fiber sources around and add exciting new flavors to dishes. 

6. Eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Plan a cooked vegetable and a salad for dinner (that's two vegetable servings) and enjoy another for lunch. You have just two more to go!

7. Enjoy fruits and vegetables with the edible skin on. With the skin, a medium potato has 3.6 grams of fiber. Skinless, it has less--2.3 grams. Also enjoy the flavor and crunch of edible seeds, for example, in all kinds
of berries, kiwi, and figs. They, too, supply fiber. 

8. Choose whole fruit more often than juice. Fiber is found mainly in the peel and pulp; usually both are removed when juice is made.(Sometimes orange juice is processed with the pulp.) So juice has almost
no fiber at all.

9. "Fiberize" your cooking style. Substitute higher-fiber ingredients in recipes, such as using part whole-wheat flour in baked foods. And fortify mixed dishes with high-fiber ingredients, perhaps bran added to meatloaf.

10. Check food labels for fiber facts. Almost all food labels carry a Nutrition Facts panel, which lists the amount of fiber per serving. Look for words, such as "high in fiber" or "more fiber," on labels, too. Spot fiber-rich ingredients on the ingredient list. For example, look for "bran," or for "whole-grain" or "whole-wheat flour."
Take Your Taste Buds to the Mediterranean
Here's no single cuisine for regions that border the Mediterranean Sea. The dishes of Greece, Southern Italy, Spain, Southern France, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Morocco, for example, are all distinctive. Yet, they typically contain plenty of grain products, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and fruits; less meat and poultry; and more fish. Their fat is mostly monounsaturated (from olive oil), rather than saturated. And yogurt and cheese
offer other sources of animal protein.

Traditional Mediterranean eating may have several health benefits--especially for reducing risks of heart disease, and perhaps for some cancers. Studies show that the death rate from heart disease and the incidence of cancer are lower among many Mediterranean populations. And, the incidence of these health problems has gone up among people who no longer eat in their traditional way.

The reasons for this are not yet clear to scientists. In general, the total fat intake of the Mediterranean diet isn't lower than the typical American diet. It's just shifted to more monounsaturated fat. Other dietary factors, not fully understood, may offer some protection. But the research evidence isn't conclusive.

Before you switch your eating style, be aware that the benefits of the Mediterranean lifestyle may go well beyond food! Traditionally, the people studied in the region were also more physically active. Body weight and genetics are factors, too. And the overall lifestyle was more relaxed.
What Are Cruciferous Vegetables...And What Do They Do?
A potential cancer-fighting connection has focused attention on cruciferous vegetables. These members of the cabbage family derive their name from their four-petaled flowers, which look like a crucifer, or cross. They include a diverse selection of vegetables: arugula, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, radishes, rutabaga, turnip, turnip greens, and watercress.

Although inconclusive, studies suggest that vegetables from the cabbage family may help protect against colon and rectal cancer. While the reasons are unclear, experts believe that they contain nutrients, compounds, and phytochemicals that seem to have a cancer-fighting component: beta carotene, fiber, and vitamin C, among others. Cruciferous vegetables are also fat-free. As an added bonus, cruciferous vegetables
supply varying amounts of calcium, iron, and folic acid, too.

The cabbage family of vegetables has something else in common: a strong cooking aroma. Proper food handling enhances the flavor of these vegetables, without intensifying the aroma:

Eat cruciferous vegetables soon after you buy them--raw or cooked.Cook them quickly, just until tender-crisp.
Don't keep leftovers more than a day.
Caution--Decorative Dishes
For years lead has been an ingredient in the glaze, or coating, on ceramic bowls, dishes, and pitchers. With proper firing, or heating in a kiln, glazes with lead are safe. However, when dishes aren't fired correctly or when copper is added to the glaze, hazardous amounts of lead can leach from dishes into food. Lead is harmful to health, gradually collecting in bones and some soft tissues. Among other problems, leadpoisoning can cause learning disabilities, organ damage, and even death. Chidren and pregnant women are particularly sensitive to the toxic effects of lead. To be sure your dishes are safe enough for food, follow these guidelines:

Inspect the surface of ceramic dishes. The surface that contacts food should be
smooth and shiny, not rough or painted on top of the glaze. Check both sides of dishes, bowls, and pitchers. If it says "Not for Food Use" or "For Decorative Purposes Only, " don't use it for food! 

Don't store food in ceramic dishes or leaded crystal. Lead can leach out when acidic foods and beverages, such as coffee, tomato juice, fruit, or wine, come in contact with glaze or leaded crystal over time. Beware of ceramic ware made by untrained potters. . For the most part, today's hobbyists are well aware of the problems of lead glazes.

Beware of ceramic ware brought back as souvenirs from foreign travel and older dishes, imported before Food and Drug Administration monitoring. To check your own dishes, purchase a lead-test kit. Hardware or hobby stores are the best places to find one.
Please Don't Eat the Daffodils!
Edible flowers add a distinctive flavor and a unique splash of color to all kinds of foods. But you can't eat just any flower! 

Some are poisonous; even edible flowers may be contaminated by chemicals if they weren't grown for eating. Don't eat flowers you buy from a florist or a greenhouse--or that you pick along the road. There's a long list of flowers that aren't edible: buttercup, lily of the valley, foxglove, periwinkle, oleander, delphinium, and daffodils, to name just a few! For edible flowers, you need to either grow your own or buy them in the produce section
of your supermarket. They should be labeled as "edible flowers." Only eat flowers if you're absolutely sure of their safety!

You might grow these edible flowers in the kitchen garden outside your backdoor: marigolds, nasturtiums (enjoy the leaves and the blossoms), borage, pansies, violets, and roses. Fertilize your flowers as you would a vegetable garden. Then, when harvesting, wash them well, and gently pat them dry. Bon appetit!
Safe Take-Out
Whether from restaurants, supermarkets, or quickservice establishments, take-out foods have become part of our way of life. Many of these foods are perishable, so they need to handled with care to avoid food borne illness. 

For Hot Foods ...

Hot foods need to be held above 140 degrees F, and cold foods, at 40 degrees F or below. Make sure the food is hot when it's picked up or received. Then eat it within two hours. If the food won't be eaten for more than two hours, you might refrigerate it in shallow, covered containers. Then reheat it to a temperature of 165 degrees F, or until it's hot and steaming. You might check the temperature with a meat thermometer. Or reheat it in a microwave oven--covered and rotated for even heating. Then let it stand for two minutes for more thorough heating. As another option, you might keep it in the oven or in a crockpot at 140 degrees F for above but not if you'll hold it much longer than two hours. Food will lose its appeal if it's held longer. Cover it with foil to keep it moist. And check the temperature with a meat thermometer.

For Cold Foods ...

Cold foods need be held at 40 degrees F or below. If you don't eat cold take-out foods right away, refrigerate them. Discard any foods kept at room temperature for more than two hours. If the heat tops 90 degrees F, toss it after one hour. For deli platters that stay on the buffet, keep the platters on bowls of ice. And for
take-out foods, store them in chilled, insulated coolers. 
Fat Facts for Tots
Put away your adult notions about fat where a young child's diet is concerned. A low-fat eating plan is not advised for children under two years of age. Fat is an excellent source of the energy, or calories, that supports a young child's rapid growth and active lifestyle. Some fatty acids--linoleic and linolenic acid--are essential for growth. They must be supplied by food because the body can't make them.

Between age two and five, it's OK to gradually reduce fat. As they consume less calories, or energy, from fat, children can get more energy from nutrient-rich foods that have less fat: grain products, fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy foods, and other protein-rich foods.By age five, a child's eating style should conform to the same Dietary Guidelines as older children and adults--limiting fat to no more than 30 percent of total calories, and
saturated fat to no more than 10 percent of total calories. Remember that this guideline refers to your child's overall diet--not to one food, meal, or even one day's intake. This guideline is meant for the total fat in food choices over several days.

Higher-fat foods, in moderate amounts, can fit in a child's healthful eating plan. They're a concentrated energy source that fuels growth, development, and active play. These foods also add taste and variety to a balanced diet.
Healthful, No-Cook Snacks for Kids
Kids have a case of the after-school munchies? Try these healthful, no-cook snacks. They're easy and fun to make, and depending on your child's age, require little or no adult supervision.

Snack Kebobs. Cut raw vegetables or fruit into chunks. Skewer them onto thin pretzel sticks. (Note: To prevent discoloration, dip apples, bananas, or pears in orange juice after they're cut.)

Veggies with Dip. Cut celery, zucchini, cucumbers, or carrots into sticks or coins. Then dip them into prepared salsa or lowfat dip.Banana Pops. Peel a banana. Dip it in yogurt, then roll in crushed breakfast cereal, and
freeze. Fruit Shake-Ups. Put 1/2 cup lowfat fruit yogurt and 1/2 cup cold fruit juice in a non-breakable, covered container. Make sure the lid is tight. Then shake it up, and pour into a cup.

Pudding Shakes. Use the same technique for making fruit shake-ups, but instead mix 1/2 cup cold milk with 3 tablespoons of instant pudding. Sandwich Cut-Outs. Using cookie cutters with fun shapes, like dinosaurs, stars, and hearts, cut slices of cheese, meat, and whole-grain bread. Then put them together to make fun sandwiches. Eat the edges, too. Peanut Butter Balls. Mix peanut butter and bran or corn flakes in a bowl. Shape them
into balls with clean hands. Then roll them in crushed graham crackers.

Ice Cream-Wiches. Put a small scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt between two oatmeal cookies or frozen waffles. Make a batch of these sandwiches ahead, and freeze them. Ants on a Log. Fill celery with peanut butter or cream cheese. Arrange raisins along the top.
Body Composition: Fit, Not Fat
Body Composition: Fit, Not Fat

For athletic performance, your body composition may be more important than your weight, unless you compete in a weight category. That's true even if you're not an athlete. Health risks go up as the proportion of body fat increases. A lean, muscular body has benefits beyond athletics and good looks--it's a quality of overall fitness.

For nonathletes, body fat levels of 15 to 18 percent for men, and 20 to 25 percent for women are considered acceptable. Body fat levels below 4 percent for men and 10 percent for women suggest an eating disorder. According to the Institute of Medicine, obesity is defined as more than 25 percent body fat for men and more than 30 percent for women.

What's healthy for athletes? Male athletes typically have body fat values of 5 to 12 percent; female athletes, 10 to 20 percent. The difference depends on the sport and within a specific sport. If you want to know your body composition, check with a trained health professional. Health professionals use specialized techniques, such as skinfold measurements, underwater weighing, and bioelectrical impedance (done with a computer). You can't get an accurate body fat measurement on your own.