NEWSBREAKS INCLUDE:
[check mark] Another Reason for Kids to Eat Breakfast
[check mark] ACE Your Way to Get Fit
[check mark] Whole Grain Foods and Diabetes Risk
National Panel Says to Americans: Eat Less and Eat Less Salt
The Institutes of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board recently released the newest Dietary Reference Intakes for water, sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes. According to the report, Americans-who consume far more salt than recommended-soon will be missing the target by a wider margin because the recommendation has been decreased considerably. The report now recommends that healthy 19- to 50-year-old adults should consume 1.5 g of sodium and 2.3 g of chloride each day-or 3.8 g of salt. This amount is enough to replace the amount lost daily on average through sweat and to achieve a diet that provides sufficient amounts of other essential nutrients while decreasing risks of high blood pressure. In surveys conducted during the last decade, the estimated average intake of sodium in the United States was 4.1 g for adult men and 2.9 g for adult women. The panel said most North Americans eat far too much salt, much of it in processed foods. According to them, the most salt anyone should eat a day is 5.8 g. US men's median intake of salt is between 7.8 and 11.8 g per day, and women take in between 5.8 and 7.8 g every day, the panel found. Too much is not good.
The panel concluded that most people get enough fluid per day. Recommendations for water intake are that, on average, women need about 91 oz (2.7 L) of water a day and men need about 125 oz (3.7 L). Food and beverages, including coffee and even beer or other drinks, all contribute, so it is impossible to say with certainty exactly how many glasses of plain water someone should drink.
New Guidelines Spell Out Recommendations Based on Women's Risk of Heart Disease
More than 40,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, a sobering number. However, it is small compared to the more than 500,000 women who die annually from heart disease, the leading cause of death of women in the United States. Many lack awareness of symptoms and signs of heart disease that are specific to women. The American Heart Association's new report, "Evidence Based Guidelines for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention," therefore, focuses on heart health for women.
The new guidelines categorize women into 4 risk groups that are based on the Framingham Global Risk score. This score classifies people based on their potential to have a cardiovascular event, such as a stroke or heart attack. The higher a woman's risk, the more aggressive are the recommendations she may need to follow. The new guidelines recommend that all women, in addition to decreasing risk factors such as smoking and managing diabetes, achieve 30 minutes per day of physical activity. Also, they should adopt a heart-healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables, with low-fat dairy, lean meats, fish, and modified portions to help achieve a healthy weight. Women in the highest risk bracket, with a 20% risk or more of having a cardiovascular event in the next 10 years, should consult their doctor to explore drug and other therapies.
For more information about the guidelines go to: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3018804. (Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association; February 4, 2004)
Another Reason for Kids to Eat Breakfast
A new study in the Journal of the American Dental Association shows that kids who skip breakfast have an increased risk of dental carries. Children between the ages of 2 and 5 years who didn't eat breakfast every day were almost 4 times more likely to develop tooth decay in their baby teeth than kids who never skipped the morning meal. Additionally, kids who ate fewer than 5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day also had an increased risk.
Investigators speculate that their results stem from a twofold effect: children who don't eat breakfast have an overall unhealthier diet than their breakfast-eating counterparts and the nutrients found in breakfast foods, such as calcium and protein, may protect teeth, making them less vulnerable to cavities. Stay tuned to see if these results are confirmed. (Journal of American Dental Association; January 2004)
Whole Grain Foods May Help Lower Diabetes Risk
According to a study in Diabetes Care, individuals who consume a diet rich in whole grains, especially high-fiber cereal, have better insulin resistance, putting them at less risk for diabetes. Researchers at Tufts University found in an analysis of epidemiologic data that people who consumed more than 3 servings a day of whole-grain foods were less likely than their non-whole-grain-eating counterparts to have metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is the term for when a group of metabolic risk factors all occur in one person, including central obesity, high triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Most Americans consume fewer than 1 serving of whole-grain foods per day. These researchers recommend that individuals consume high cereal fiber and more of other whole-grain foods. (Diabetes Care, February 2004)
ACE Your Way to Get Fit
The American Council on Exercise (ACE) recommends its top 10 ways to get fit and stay fit in 2004:
1. Be a role model. Do others see you enjoying the benefits of being active? Set an example by inviting friends to walk with you or take an exercise class after work.
2. Make fitness fun. Some people prefer to play games rather than exercise. Make the idea of exercising a game in itself, and offer rewards for participation or meeting certain goals.
3. Be both active and productive. Show friends and family that it's possible to be both active and productive by doing activities that accomplish a task while also using some energy, such as walking the dog to the store to buy a newspaper, mowing the lawn, biking to work, or walking to school.
4. Make workouts short and sweet. Who says exercise has to take up a lot of time? Knockout this excuse by showing others how easy it is to exercise in short blocks of time spread throughout the day.
5. Extol the benefits. Research shows that people who exercise live longer and healthier lives than those who don't. In fact, exercise is the closest thing you'll find to the fountain of youth.
6. Train for a charity event together. Get fit, and raise money for a good cause. For some, it's easier to be motivated to exercise if it's done for a larger cause.
7. Set short-term goals. Encourage friends to reward themselves by setting and achieving short-term fitness goals.
8. Offer to be a workout partner. If someone knows you're counting on him or her, then he or she is more likely to show up for work-outs.
9. Use inspirational music. Nothing perks up a workout faster than upbeat music. Research shows that listening to one's favorite music while exercising makes it easier to exercise longer and more intensely while making workouts more enjoyable.
10. Don't preach, lecture, or nag. The worst thing you can do is shame someone into exercising. Instead, create opportunities to exercise and make it as fun and enjoyable as possible.
Calendar
March 14-16, 2004. International Restaurant and Foodservice Show of New York. New York, New York. For more information, go to http://www.internationalresturantny.com or call 888-334-8705.
April 14-17, 2004. American Society on Aging and the National Council on the Aging. San Fran-cisco, Calif. Contact Linda Jones at 415-974-9638, [email protected], or http://www.agingconference.org.
April 17-24, 2004. Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology Annual Experimental Biology Meeting 2004. Washington, D.C. For more information, visit http://www.faseb.org/meetings/eb2004/.
April 29-May 2, 2004. Academy for Eating Disorders Annual Meeting. Orlando, Fla. Contact Bette German at 703-556-9222, [email protected], or http://www.aedweb.org.
May 11-14, 2004. CDC Diabetes Translation Meeting. Chicago, Ill. Contact 240-631-3948 or [email protected].
May 22-24, 2004. Vitamin E and Health. Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, Mass. For more information, call 212-838-0230 x 234 or go to http://www.nyas.org.
June 2-4, 2004. American College of Sports Medicine 51st Annual Meeting. Indianapolis, Ind. Contact Jim Gavin at 317-637-9200 x117, [email protected], or http://www.acsm.org/meetings/annualmeeting.htm.
July 13-16, 2004. IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo. Las Vegas, Nev. Contact Stan V. Butler at [email protected] or http://www.am-fe.ift.org.
Aug 17-19, 2004. Second National CDC Prevention Conference on Heart Disease and Stroke. Atlanta, Ga. Contact 770 488-8003, 770 488-6487, or http://www.cdc.gov/cvh.
September 14-17, 2004. Council for Responsible Nutrition Annual Conference. Leesburg, Va. Contact 202-776-7929 for more information.
Books and Media Received
Weight Management: State of the Science and Opportunities for Military Programs, Subcommittee on Military Weight Management, Committee on Military Nutrition Research. The National Academies Press; 2004. $39.00 ISBN: 0-309-08996-4.
Dietary Reference Intakes: Guiding Principles for Nutrition Labeling and Fortification, Committee on Use of Dietary Reference Intakes in Nutrition Labeling. The National Academies Press; 2004. $39.95 ISBN: 0-309-09143-8.
Complementary and Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine, Richard A. Stein and Mehmet Oz. Humana Press; 2004. $99.50 ISBN: 1-58829-186-3.