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Are probiotics right for you?
You've decided to start probiotics. Here are a few pointers to consider before you dive into the exciting waters of healthy bacteria.
What are probiotics?
Probiotics are healthy microorganisms, usually bacteria, which a person eats for health benefits. When you take antibiotics or eat an unhealthy diet, your colon may have more "bad" bacteria than "good" ones. Probiotics restore the "good" bacteria. The most common are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.
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The scoop on sweeteners
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
by J. Pieter Hommen, MD
Artificial sweeteners have many times the “sweetness” of sugar, much smaller amounts are required to enjoy sugary foods with equivalent sweetness, thus reducing the calorie intake for a given food when compared with sugar.
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Healthy Choices On-The-Go
by Carl Germano, RD, CNS, CDN
While the standard fast food establishments may be the first thing that comes to mind, eating on the run can be healthy providing you make the right choices.
If you are part of the fast paced crowd, always on the run or travel quite a bit, you know how difficult making healthy food choices can be. The fast food restaurants that litter the highways and byways of America are chock full of foods high in saturated fat, sugar (especially high fructose corn syrup) and calories. I am sure you are also conscious of the relationship of eating fast foods and obesity and ill health as well. Remember the movie “Super Size Me” – enough said! It is interesting to note that the rise in obesity which started in the mid 1970’s is correlated with the number of fast food restaurants more than doubling since that same time.
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Your fat may be killing you…increased cancer risk
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
PA number of experiments in animals have shown that calorie restriction has been shown to reduce the development of tumors.
It has long been known that a connection exists between someone’s diet and his/her susceptibility to colon cancer. This fact is obvious when considering the incidence of cancer among populations in different geographical areas and how that incidence changes when those individuals immigrate to areas with vastly different dietary norms.
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How to avoid food poisoning
tips to keep you safe
by Robert D. Fusco
The most important thing you can do to prevent food poisoning is to adopt a “food-is-dangerous” attitude. You should handle all raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs as if they were contaminated...because they often are..
It catches you by surprise. One moment you are feeling fine and then you unexpectedly experience a bout of crampy abdominal pain; then comes the urgency and diarrhea, and perhaps some nausea.
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Diet & Dementia: Is there a connection?
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
The notion that dietary interventions may have some influence on the course of Alzheimer’s dementia is captivating to patients and clinicians alike.
Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are particularly scary for patients and their families because these diseases have the potential to strip an individual of his or her autonomy and identity. For this reason, the notion that dietary interventions may have some influence on the course of Alzheimer’s dementia is captivating to patients and clinicians alike. At this point, strong, sound evidence to recommend any specific diet is lacking. Several possibilities remain promising, however, and may present patients with low-cost, low-risk options in the management of their disease.
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Drink to your Health
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
Choose water when you desire a beverage or to quench your thirst. You will get all of the benefits with very little risk.
Water is humanity’s universal drink. It quenches thirst better than any beverage, provides hydration to every cell of our body, helps with multiple bodily functions and keeps our body temperature stable. The human body is made up of about 50-70% water by weight on any given day. Our water balance is maintained through dietary intake and loss via urine, feces, and evaporation.
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MILK: A wealth of health… but necessary for adults?
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
Does milk consumption contribute to good health outcomes?
Should adults continue to drink milk well into their more mature years?
One nutritional/dietary issue that seems to have generated some controversy over the years is the question of whether milk should be consumed once a child becomes an adult.
As you have surely seen, the National Dairy Council has promoted milk consumption using notable personalities over the years, all wearing milk mustaches and looking fit.
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The Role of Nutrition in Cancer Prevention
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
It has long been established that diet can have enormous effects on one’s chances of developing cancer. However, simple changes in diet can reduce the possibility that one will face this dreaded disease.
It has long been known that a connection exists between someone’s diet and his/her susceptibility to cancer. This fact is obvious when considering the differences in the incidence of cancer among populations in different geographical areas and how that incidence changes when individuals from that group immigrate to areas with vastly different dietary norms.
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The big Debate
by Karen A. Thomas, MD
Vitamin D is now a nutritional super hero boasting an array of healing powers reaching far beyond the bones.
Long a silent sidekick to calcium, vitamin D is now a nutritional super hero boasting an array of healing powers reaching far beyond the bones. A deluge of recent studies suggests tantalizing connections between vitamin D and a bevy of conditions. While many in the medical community embrace the emerging benefits of the vitamin, some remain cautious, if not skeptical. So why all the hype and what do you need to know?
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Eating Your Way to a Healthier YOU!
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
Eating high-saturated fat, high salt, high-sugar foods will almost certainly prevent your body from working efficiently and maintaining your wellness.
The 21st century’s promise of new health care innovations will likely result in a greater understanding of many medical conditions and health practices. However, one disease that has continued to baffle doctors and patients is the topic of today’s article: obesity.
Why has obesity increased so much over the past two decades? Why is obesity so difficult to contain and subdue? Why are our children becoming bigger and less healthy?
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Exploring the caffeine confusion
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
Caffeine is without a doubt the most popular drug in the world. People all over the world consume it on a daily basis in such beverages as coffee, tea, cocoa, soft drinks, energy drinks, and even in bottled water.
Over the past twenty-five years, extensive research has been conducted on the health aspects of caffeine consumption. Some interesting findings have surfaced. This article will address many of the issues surrounding the use of caffeine and its health effects.
Leading off is the number one health issue facing all Americans: heart disease.
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Choosing organic. Is it worth the price?
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
Organic food has now become a common household term in the United States and around the world. What is organic food? Is it really better for your health?
Organic food has now become a common household term in the United States and around the world. What is organic food? Is it really better for your health?
Organic food is produced according to certain standards: crops must be grown without conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, and sewage sludge and processed without ionizing radiation or food additives. Additionally, in most countries, organic produce must not be genetically modified.
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Fish and Fish Oils…the health benefits and risks
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
Omega-3 fatty acids first received public and professional attention when epidemiologists learned that the Inuit people living in the far northern climates – who had high-energy, high-fat diets – experienced a decreased rate of heart disease. Fatty fish, a staple of Inuit diets, are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, particularly eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA). Thus, the link between a diet rich in omega-3 fats and heart disease was made.
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Is “Yo-Yo” dieting a “No-No”?
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
Yo-yo dieting, defined as: “(rapid) weight loss followed by subsequent regain of the lost weight,” is no longer the dangerous, metabolism-wrecking weight loss plan it was once thought to be.
The medical community now understands that a body’s metabolism is dependent on many complex and inter-connected factors. The main metabolic influences include the foods you eat, your level of physical activity, your muscle and fat stores, and your thyroid and adrenal glands. Yo-yo dieting has now been scientifically proven not to have any effects on the above metabolic parameters.
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The New Fat to Fear Triglycerides
by Karen A. Thomas, MD
Excess triglycerides are now known to increase the risk of coronary heart disease.
While abnormal cholesterol levels are widely recognized as a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD), an elevated triglyceride level can also wreak havoc on the heart. Like cholesterol, triglycerides are a type of fat found in the bloodstream and while extremely high levels have long been known to cause pancreatic disease, recent studies show that an excess of triglycerides, or hypertriglyceridemia, is also associated with the development of CHD.
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Thanksgiving & Healthy Eating
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
This Thanksgiving holiday, you can eat healthier with some simple changes to how you prepare your food and how much you eat.
From traditional turkey and potatoes dinner to a pumpkin pie dessert, American Thanksgiving invariably revolves around food. With new scientific evidence confirming good nutrition lowers the risk of many diseases, it is now more important than ever to eat healthily. This Thanksgiving holiday, you can eat healthier with some simple changes to how you prepare your food and how much you eat.
Let’s begin with the symbolic centerpiece of Thanksgiving: turkey.
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Sorting out the Whole Grain Truth
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
Bread or cereal that is brown in no way should be presumed to be whole grain.
Are you, like me, in search of the nutritional truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
If yes, then continue reading. You will learn all about the grain, the whole grain, and more about the grain as we unsheathe the grain and discover its nutritional wealth.
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Nutrition Safety
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
As I vomited all night long, I vowed to be more prudent in selecting and preparing the foods I would eat from now on.
A not so funny thing happened to me on a recent trip to St. Louis, Missouri: I caught a stomach bug! Maybe it was the creamed chicken soup or the Caesar’s salad I consumed upon arriving at my hotel. Perhaps it was caused by my not thoroughly washing my hands earlier in the day when interacting with my toddler child who was recovering from some childhood virus.
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The healthful benefits of Garlic
by Daniel Kesden, MD
Garlic is high in carbohydrates, low in fat content, and moderate in protein content. It contains some vitamin C and B vitamins, and is high in selenium, sulfur, and germanium.
Garlic is an odiferous member of the Lilly family of plants, which contains healthful benefits and disadvantages. Garlic has been used since ancient times in China and India both as a foodstuff and as a medicinal agent. Greek and Roman soldiers used to swallow garlic before a fight to improve their performance. Greek athletes ate garlic as part of their training. Sir John Harrington in 1607 outlined the benefits of garlic
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Enjoy a cup of Tea and Relax
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
No longer an ancient Chinese secret, tea is now known to have many therapeutic and healthful benefits. Tea is the second most popular beverage (next to water) around the world.
Tea is not just for two anymore, as it is an extremely popular beverage. The British consume their fair share, for sure, but many other countries equally enjoy tea in impressive numbers, including China, India, and other Asian countries. Tea is now a big selling item in the U.S. Why is tea on everyone’s drink list?
First, tea is tasty and smells nice. The aromatic bouquet that permeates a room after steeping a good pot of tea is well known among teatotalers. The taste of tea is just as variable as its aroma, and like wine there are many descriptive terms used to denote one type of tea’s mouth feel to the next.
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Cash in on the Crop
by Connie Trinkle
Harvesting the final offerings of a summer garden is now underway in some regions, so we asked a Midwesterner to cash in on the crop and cook up some delightful recipes using homegrown ingredients. Each of these dishes is a meal in itself, but if you feel energetic…call the neighbors and serve all the dishes. We guarantee they will earn you many accolades. Our favorite was the Chicken Peach Bacon Salad… a real crowd pleaser.
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A to Z of Healthy Living
by Aletha Olgesby, MD
Avoiding illness and maintaining good health may seem complicated, expensive and time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be so. Some basic, practical steps can make a difference in your family’s health.
Automobile accidents claim thousands of lives and cause pain and disability from injuries. Protect yourself by wearing your seat belt regularly. Stop your vehicle before using a cell phone. Always fasten children into age appropriate restraint seats.
Brittle bones fracture easily. Protect yours by getting adequate calcium and vitamin D.
Everyone needs physical exercise every day. Most experts now recommend thirty minutes of moderately intense activity such as brisk walking daily.
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Berry Well
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
What do wine, green tea, and blueberries have in common? ANTIOXIDANTS
Berries contain large quantities of antioxidants. Studies have implicated these antioxidants in slowing the aging process and lowering one’s risk for many diseases, including certain cancers and heart disease. Antioxidant-rich berries are now being recommended to treat specific medical conditions, including bladder infections, arthritis, and visual problems.
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The Good and the Bad of Cholestrol
by Craig Karpilow MD FACOEM
The reason for the concern about cholesterol is statistics show that a great majority of the heart disease we have in the U.S. is caused by abnormalities in the levels of cholesterol substances in our bodies. Heart disease causes one death every 34 seconds, approximately 2,400 deaths per day
How Do You Know if
You Have High Cholesterol?
With most diseases, symptoms happen to the body that you may detect as different from normal. For instance, strep throat presents with the symptom of throat pain, heart attacks present with symptoms of chest pain. High cholesterol, however, rarely causes symptoms. It is silent and usually detected only during a routine blood test that measures cholesterol and other fat levels. You may first discover you have a problem only when you are diagnosed with a condition that is caused, in part, by high cholesterol, such as coronary or other artery disease...
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HEALTHY CHOICE?
by Randall F. White, MD
Alcohol, what do the experts say?
If you were hoping for simple advice about drinking alcohol, you might be disappointed. Although alcoholic beverages may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, excessive use may harm your health. Alcohol, experts say, is not a one-size-fits-all drug.
Dr. Arthur Klatsky is a senior consultant in cardiology at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, California. In 1974 he, along with several other scientists, confirmed that moderate alcohol use reduces heart-disease risk.
More recently he has looked at strokes in drinkers and nondrinkers. He says that light-to-moderate drinkers are at lower risk of the most common kind of stroke, in which a blood vessel to the brain becomes blocked. Heavy drinkers and nondrinkers have the same level of risk, he says, slightly higher than that of light drinkers.
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Omega Factor
by Late Alan Clark, M.D
If fish oil is effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis, researchers now are pondering the potential benefit in treating osteoarthritis, a much more common condition that affects over 60 million people in the US.
What would you say about a naturally occurring compound that has been proven to lessen depression, prevent heart disease and sudden death from heart attacks, lower blood fats, reduce high blood pressure, prevent (perhaps cure) arthritis, and ameliorate attention deficit disorder?
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Eat More Calcium and Lose More Weight
by Samuel Grief, MD, CCFP
It seems like every week a new diet fad is coming out that promises to "take off the pounds". Of course, it often happens that these same diets do not work in the long term, are impossible to tolerate, or are actually dangerous to your health. No matter what any pseudo-researcher or weight loss guru says, the true secret to weight loss always comes down to eating a well balanced diet with fewer total calories than you burn....
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