Heavy Body, Healthy Heart
I found this article this morning on AOL Health
I am always looking for hope. This doctor, in an article from Prevention Magazine says even heavy people can have healthy hearts by including 10 minutes of exercise into their daily routine; that the biggest danger comes from belly fat, which impedes circulation. Your weight may stay the same, but if belly fat decreases, you have gained in fitness.
In my practice, I’ve seen a number of overweight patients virtually eliminate their heart disease risk by losing just a few pounds. This is, of course, wonderful news. I believe that most of us, by employing a few simple lifestyle changes, can avoid having a heart attack, and I intend to use this space every month to help you do that. But while I delight in my patients’ successes, some of them are dissatisfied by minimal weight loss and tell me they “just want to be thin.” In reaching for that goal, they often inadvertently sabotage the newfound cardiovascular fitness that losing just a little weight can provide.
Fitter in 10 minutes
Are you surprised to learn that you can be fit and, to put it indelicately, fat? Many doctors I know are startled to hear this, too. But the latest research, out of Louisiana State University, shows that overweight women can improve their heart health by adding just 10 minutes of activity a day.
In that study, researchers asked more than 400 sedentary women with high or borderline-high blood pressure to add a short bout of moderately intense activity, such as brisk walking, to their daily routines for 6 months. Although the women as a group neither lost weight nor lowered their blood pressure, they ended up fitter, as measured by their oxygen intake, and – this is the really important part – their waistlines got smaller. That’s significant because belly, or visceral, fat is linked to insulin resistance, a contributor to heart disease. You can reach this level of fitness without losing a pound.
You can read the whole article HERE.
Higher IQ Linked to being Vegetarian
I found this among BBC’s Most E-mailed stories and I can see why. Holy smokes! Adventure Man and I have gone greatly, but not totally, meatless. Sometimes, we just can’t resist. About once every three months or so, we just have to have a steak or a hamburger, but mostly, we try to eat lower on the food chain. Good thing I LOVE salmon. And those hammour kofte they make at the Sultan Center on the weekends. Ummmm . . . . hmmmmm. Can you eat fish and be vegetarian?
Intelligent children are more likely to become vegetarians later in life, a study says.
A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10.
Researchers said it could explain why people with higher IQ were healthier as a vegetarian diet was linked to lower heart disease and obesity rates.
Read the whole story HERE.
Apples and Honey Mustard
This is one of my favorite mid-morning snacks. It also works as a last-minute delicacy you can set out when friends show up unexpectedly. As good as it tastes, I hate to tell you, it is also good for you.
Slice apple into eighths. Cut out seeds. Mix 1 Tablespoon honey (some great Yemeni honey is best) with 3 Tablespoons mustard. Place in small bowl, arrange apple slices around bowl, serve! Did it even take 5 minutes? No!
Use a good mustard:
Monsieur Fallot’s mustard is, amazingly, available in Kuwait at the Sultan Centre stores.
Cactus Flower in Pensacola
The Cactus Flower in Pensacola is usually the first place we go when we get to Pensacola. They have some of the best Mexican food you can find, freshly prepared, and you better get there early or you’ll have to wait a while for a table – the secret is out!
Located in a small strip mall undergoing some serious renovation, the Cactus Flower serves lunch and dinner. You’ll see all your friends there – we can’t go there without running into someone we know.
This is the chicken quesadilla. It is more than one person can eat! We took the rest home for another meal.
This is the three taco dinner; you can choose chicken, beef or pulled pork, or any combination of the above. It comes with a choice of beans (these are the smashed beans) and rice, too. Usually, I order this a la carte, because I can eat the three tacos, but not all the beans and rice, too, and I hate to waste.
This is the tostada dinner, which also comes with beans and rice. Delicious!
As for gaining weight, so far so good. Haven’t done a scale check, but the clothes still seem to fit and the waists aren’t too tight, so I guess I am keeping it off by lugging my baggage here and there, and keeping moving.
Obesity Contagious
Obesity ‘contagious’, experts say
This report is from BBC Health News.
The study looked at data collected over 32 years
Having a friend, sibling or spouse who is overweight raises a person’s risk of being obese too, US researchers say.
They said data on more than 12,000 people suggested the risk was increased by 57% if a friend was obese, by 40% if a sibling was and 37% if a spouse was.
They argued this showed social factors, such as the body sizes of other people, were important in developing obesity. . . .
“Rather, there is a direct, causal relationship. What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate body size.
“People come to think that it is OK to be bigger since those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads.”
The study was actually about heart disease, and this result was a by-product of the study.
Supersize Me
Have you heard about this movie? It is a documentary, and you might think “Oh YAAWWWWWWNNN” but this one really kept going. I love visiting our son; I learn SO much.
The creator of this movie decides that for one month, he will eat every meal, three meals a day, at McDonald’s. And he has to try every entry on the menu at least once. And if the employees ask him to super-size, he has to do it. It appeared that he also made a rule for himself that he had to finish every meal. I don’t know how he did it.
Before he does this, he visits three doctors, a cardiologist, a gastroentrologist and . . .hmmmm, maybe an internal medicine specialist. He has health care professionals who will do blood readings every week and weigh him in. He starts at 185 lbs and very low body fat, and his cholesterol and triglicerides are to die for – excellent readings. His girlfriend is a vegan chef, so he has been eating beautiful meals, but not a lot of meat. (He is not a vegetarian.)
We watch him eat many of the meals. On the third day, his system rebels, as he is trying to finish, I think, a double quarter pounder, and he vomits. It isn’t pretty. At one point, his girlfriend says he has lost his sex drive, and has far less energy than before.
At the end of the first week, his weight has gone up to 203 – 12 lbs in one week! Worse, his cholesterol is rising rapidly. The second week, he is feeling sick and the doctor says he is developing a fatty liver, from digesting all the fats and sugars he is eating.
At the end of the month, he has gained 25 lbs, his system is in total rebellion against all the fats and sugars, and the doctors have warned him that he must stop now to reverse the damage.
Threaded through this adventure are sides, where we learn how much sugar the supersized drinks contain, and that even the SALADS at McDonalds have sugar in them. The calorie count for one of the salads exceeded that for the Big Mac!
I have to admit, there is nothing like a fast food hamburger every now and then – maybe once every six months or so – but this movie is a must see if you are eating at a fast food restaurant even once a week. The “food” they are serving is so processed, it barely qualifies as food.
The man who conducted this experiment went on a vegan diet for a while when he finished, and it took 8 weeks for his blood readings to return to normal, and 9 MONTHS for him to lose all the weight he had gained.
This was a fascinating movie, and a must see if we want to counter the rising tide of obesity spreading around the world. If it were an illness, people would be mobilized. As it stands, obesity is going to kill more people every year than smoking. The narrator says this is going to be the first generation of young people whose lives will be shorter than their parents, thanks to fast food. See this movie! Take your children!
There is a post script, and another reason I love this movie. As we were watching, my son said “Mom, thank you for cooking all those dinners for me as I was growing up.” He and his wife are very exercise and diet conscious, and I am proud to say, they live very conscientiously, trying to recycle, trying to eat fewer processed foods. What a gift that “thank-you” was!
Bayou Texar, Early Morning
A warm breeze blows, barely ruffling the mirror like waters of the Bayou Texar early in the morning. The area is like a large scale fitness track, with singles, couples and groups running, walking, chatting and getting fit. Mid-day is brutal, but early morning and evenings are almost perfect. This is for you, R, a reminder of your school days in Pensacola, and for you, Adventure Man, wishing you were here, too. 🙂
Exercise After Eating
From BBC Health News:
Exercising after meals can help promote weight loss by boosting hormones that suppress appetite, say UK scientists.
Thanks to these hormones, active people feel less hungry immediately after exercise, and this carries through to their next meal, experiments suggest.
Even when their meals were bigger, sporty people gained fewer calories overall because they burned off more.
The Surrey University and Imperial College London work is published in the Journal of Endocrinology.
Exercise may alter people’s appetite to help them lose weight
Twelve volunteers were fed the same breakfast.
An hour later, half of them worked out for an hour on an exercise bike while the other half sat quietly.
Both groups were left for another hour and then allowed to eat as much as they liked.
Unsurprisingly, people who exercised burned more calories than those who sat quietly, 492 kcal compared to 197 kcal.
And when given the chance to eat afterwards, people who had exercised tended to eat more, 913 kcal versus to 762 kcal.
However, when the amount of energy burned during exercise was taken into account, the sporty people took in fewer calories overall – 421 kcal compared to 565 kcal for the inactive group.
And levels of hormones called PYY, GLP-1 and PP, which tell the brain when the stomach is full, increased during and immediately after exercise.
Volunteers also said they felt less hungry during this time.
Researcher Dr Denise Robertson said: “In the past we have been concerned that, although exercise burns energy, people subsequently ate more after working out. This would cancel out any possible weight reduction effects of exercise.
“But our research shows that exercise may alter people’s appetite to help them lose weight and prevent further weight gain as part of a healthy, balanced lifestyle.”
My comment: We keep hoping we can lose the weight with no sweat, but it seems like everywhere we turn, the secret seems to be . . . eat less . . . exercise more. You can read the rest of the story HERE.
Welcome, Earthling!
The commenter on this blog known as Earthling, now has his own blog under his own name. A geographer with GoogleEarth, he has frequently given info and tips on Google Earth which I have passed along to you.
His blog is a hoot. Matt is a picky eater, surrounded at Google by free, high quality food in huge abundance and variety, and that is what he is blogging about. Maybe he will also show their on-site laundry and gym facilities 😉
In spite of his self-proclaimed picky eating habits, Matt is a very good cook, a creative cook, and I always loved it when I could hear him puttering around in the kitchen because something good was going to come out of it all. His one food addiction is hot peppery sauces, and his Jambalaya is so fiery I can’t eat but a bite or two.
Here is a Matt story (every family has these stories):
One day Matt’s Mom was making dinner when Matt, about fifteen at the time, walked in and asked “what’s for dinner?” She told him. Twenty minutes later the delivery man from a local restaurant pulled up and rang the doorbell – Matt’s dinner had arrived. Matt’s Mom was dumbfounded, and then laid down the law – if she was going to all the trouble of fixing dinner, her family would eat it! No delivery!
You can find him HERE at Google-Food-Spot.
Check in and give him a big welcome, please.
It’s about Fat, Not Weight
A new study tells us you can be normal weight, but still at high risk, depending on where you carry your weight. Women at highest risk carry more fat around their organs. From BBC Health News:
A test has been designed which can show if people of normal weight are at an increased risk of heart disease because they are carrying “hidden” fat.
Developed by South Korean researchers, it checks blood-flow via a cuff on the ankle or arm.
Professor Paul Stewart, an obesity specialist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, said: “The take-home message of this study is that having more fat around your the belly area puts you at increased risk of heart disease.
“it’s not so much about general obesity; it’s about middle-aged spread and where fat lies that’s the problem. . . . .
Writing in Clinical Endocrinology, the team say those with the poorest blood flow had more fat around their organs, and so were most at risk.
“This is one more test that can indicate risk.”
Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: “This study confirms what we have known for some time; good heart health seems to depend more on our shape than our weight. ”
”Visceral’ fat inside our abdominal cavity – surrounding our intestines – increases our heart disease risk more than fatness in other parts of our body. “It’s possible in future that measures of waist circumference will be included to refine the heart disease risk assessment.
Read the entire article Here.
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