Forever Young

In a recent U.S. News and World Report article titled “10 Health Habits That Will Help You Live to 100,” sandwiched between suggestions to floss your teeth and stay connected with your friends, was a piece of surprising advice: “Live like a Seventh-day Adventist.”

Not long before that article was published, the national best-selling book The Blue Zonesrecognized Loma Linda, California, as one of the world’s longevity “hot spots” because of its high concentration of Seventh-day Adventists.

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Simple Creative Salads

Salads at home once meant iceberg lettuce topped with a few carrots and perhaps a tomato. A salad was just a bland diet food or a precursor to a meal. Not so today. With all the varieties of greens now available at the supermarket, it has never been easier to make a healthy and tasty salad.

To turn a plain-Jane salad into a spectacular dish, just pick a blend of greens and add your favorite ingredients. It’s that simple and the possibilities are infinite when it comes to the delicious and healthy salad creations you can make. So let these recipes inspire you to get creative in the kitchen and enjoy a great salad every day.

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How to Make–and Keep–Healthy New Year’s Resolutions

It’s a new year, and it’s that time again for making resolutions. Most of the popular picks for yearly resolutions are related with health.

Many people are motivated as the New Year begins, yet once again they eagerly set goals and objectives only to be faced with disappointment. Why is it that resolutions fizzle out, and come and go like the fad of the latest pair of jeans?

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Thinking About Drinking Milk?

As scientific investigators have traced the causes of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, migraines, and digestive problems, the least likely suspect had to be milk. We poured it on our cereal, pushed it on our children, and couldn’t imagine it to be anything but healthful. But more and more researchers now view milk with skepticism about its benefits and concern about its risks. They are linking the epidemics of prostrate cancer, digestive problems, and other ills to our habitual consumption of specific foods including-and especially-milk.

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Childhood Obesity

Alarming statistics show that childhood obesity contributes to diabetes, hyperglycemia, and high blood pressure. The popular notion that overweight children will “outgrow” their condition is not realistic. Childhood obesity is one of the most prevalent nutrition problems among children, exceeding iron deficiency anemia, the previous leader. Twenty-five percent of American children are now obese; this is not a game to play with a child’s health.

Poor food choices are often to blame for obesity. Flirting with excessive snacking, frequent romps to fast-food restaurants, and repetitive “just-this-once” high-fat food choices all contribute to childhood obesity. Quick-grab snacks among kids include chips, cookies, soda, candy, hot dogs, hamburgers, and French fries. A recent survey of grade-school children showed that only about 25 percent had eaten five servings of fruits and vegetables during any given day.

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Arsenal of Prevention

When I think of cancer, my mind takes a stroll down memory lane. I see scores of women and children-women diagnosed with breast, ovarian, or uterine cancer; children fighting leukemia, bone cancers, or muscle sarcomas.

During a routine examination I found an enlarged kidney containing a renal cell cancer in one middle-aged woman. Another patient’s pelvic adenopathy alerted me to the diagnosis of malignant lymphoma.
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Legumes and Their Effect on Heart Disease

At the beginning of the twentieth century heart disease in the public was a small problem; by the end of the century it had become the most frequent cause of death. Studies have shown a strong association between dietary saturated fat intake and the occurrence of this disease. The American diet provides an overabundance of saturated fat and cholesterol found primarily in animal products.

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Refined Robbers: Choose Whole Grains

Statistics tell us that the average American eats only one half of a serving of whole grains daily, although the current recommendation is to eat at least three servings per day. Some people consume predominant whole grains, so this means that many people are only rarely or not ever eating whole grains.

Unfortunately, when many people think of whole grains they think only of whole wheat. That one is great, but there are many more choices available. Several may even have more nutrients than whole wheat. Examples of other grains include oats, barley, millet, rye, brown rice, corn (maize), buckwheat, and amaranth.

So what exactly is a “whole” grain, anyway? Whole grains can be defined as having all three parts of the kernel included. Refined grains, such as white flour, are made up of the endosperm, which is mainly starch. The kernel also contains a germ and the bran. These two layers are loaded with nutrients, including vitamin E, several B vitamins, and some important minerals, including zinc, magnesium, manganese, chro-mium, selenium, and molybdenum. During the refining process these nutrient-rich layers are lost. Fiber is also lost.

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Religion & Health

Are religious people healthier than their unbelieving neighbors? Yes, according to research by the National Institute for Health Care Research (NIHR). This nonprofit agency headed by Dr. David Larson has funded numerous studies examining the role of spirituality in health and healing. Their research confirmed that both mentally and physically, religious people enjoy better health than their nonreligious friends.

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There's WHAT in My Food?

Before you wrinkle up your nose and let loose a big “Ick!” consider this fact: Just because you don’t find such items on the menu of your favorite restaurant doesn’t mean they’re not in the food.

Down to the Sea

Take ice cream, pudding, cottage cheese, salad dressing, or chocolate milk. Check the label, and you’ll find the word “carrageen” nestled in with the other ingredients. Fine folk who live and work along the coasts of New England and Canada pull tons of the stuff out of the ocean each year. It’s red, leafy, and totally seaweed.

After being raked into boats, carrageen is taken to processing plants where it’s turned into a tasteless, off-white powder that quickly dissolves in water and becomes jellylike whenever it comes in contact with the proteins found in milk.

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