The Health Blog: Free Health & Nutrition Information

I’m sure that most of us are dealing with a lot of extra housework now that the holiday season is coming to an end. Many of us are probably facing taking down all of our holiday decor and deep cleaning our kitchens from all the yummy Christmas treats we’ve been making.

Although I love getting in the holiday spirit and making my house look festive, I definitely don’t go overboard because I dread the aftermath of taking everything down. I quickly tore down my Christmas tree the day after Christmas this year because I was so sick of it taking up space in my living room! Also, instead of making a huge Christmas dinner, we took my inlaws out to eat on Christmas Eve instead. My holiday style is definitely no-hassle.

But for those of you who are facing disaster areas in your home, I have good news. Apparently, housework is more effective than playing a sport for helping reduce your risk of breast cancer! Cancer Research, a UK based study, followed 200,000 women who cooked, dusted, mopped and vacuumed around 16 – 17 hours a week for over six years. According to their results, all this housekeeping reduced cancer risk by 30% for pre-menopausal women and by 20% for post-menopausal women.

The connection to lower cancer risk seems to be a combination of maintaining a healthy weight and being consistently active doing housework (as opposed to playing a vigorous sport less frequently.) The full article can be found here.

So for those of us who have been putting off getting our homes back in order again after the holidays, hopefully this will help motivate you a little. :) Happy New Year, everyone!

I have recently made a change in my life. It has something to do with “time of the month” that all of us ladies go through, so I hesitated in blogging about it here, but the change I have made has improved my life so much that I decided to let go of any embarassment and blog about it anyway, in hopes that it might help some of you out there.

I will try to spare the more gory details for the sake of our male readers, but if any of you gals need more information, please feel free to email me!

For years and years, all I have ever known to use every month are disposable feminine hygiene products. They were never a great solution for me, with all kinds of messy, frustrating and inconvenient problems. Not to mention, I did feel a little guilty that I was clogging up landfills. And who likes going to the store for more supplies? Even worse – whose husbands or boyfriends appreciate being sent to the store for those supplies?

I really did not know there were other options out there besides what I was using. I had heard at some point about the Instead cup but was never tempted to try it because I was afraid they would be uncomfortable.

Recently, I was alerted about the existence of the Diva cup and cloth pads. The same ladies who alerted me to this handy dandy little thing also alerted me about the potential dangers of using disposable feminine hygiene products, from Toxic Shock Syndrome (which everybody already knows about, right?) to the fact that there are all kinds of chemicals in the products that are potentially carcinogenic. Did you know that there is chlorine in your run-of-the-mill disposable products? They use it to bleach it white.

These same ladies also said that they found their cramps greatly alleviated and their periods shortened by choosing more natural options. It had honestly not crossed my mind before that the products I was using could possibly affect the way my body handled that time of the month. Crazy, huh?

So I decided to try out the Diva cup after months of trying to talk myself out of it. And guess what? It works and it’s amazing! It’s hygienic, easy, comfortable and best of all, reusable. I don’t worry about Toxic Shock Syndrome. I have been using it for a couple of months now and I will never go back to the discomfort and mess of disposable products. Now instead of dreading that time of the month, I just cruise through it and sometimes even forget what I’m going through!

I hope this helps some of you out there who are ready to give up the hassle and cost of disposable feminine hygiene products and try something more healthful and earth friendly instead.

Here are some links for you to check out:
Diva Cup
The Keeper
Mercola on the dangers of disposable feminine hygiene products
Cloth pads info

As I said at the beginning, I did try not to dwell too much on intimate details, so if any of you female readers have more questions, please feel free to email me! The FAQs on the Diva Cup site are very insightful as well.
Last but not least, if you decide to buy a Diva Cup, run, do not walk, to the Better Life site and buy it from them at a steep discount.

In the wake of New York City’s ruling to ban trans fats, many folks are asking how bad trans fats really are.

My opinion: they’re terrible. This article at WebMD agrees and explains why.

I’m not perfect. I still consume trans fats every now and again. But I do what I can to avoid them.

Keep in mind that “0 Trans Fats” on a product label doesn’t mean there are no trans fats. It usually means there ARE trans fats… but fewer than half a gram per serving, so they’re legally allowed to round down to zero.

Ethical? No. But that’s the way it is right now.

A better approach: Read the label. If you see “partially hydrogenated oils,” then you can be sure the product contains trans fats. Don’t fall for what I call the Zero Trans Fat Scam.

Side Note: I was thinking the other day that a product that claims to have zero trans fats per serving could actually have more trans fats than a product that claims to have, say, 1 gram per serving. How could this be? Simple. Reduce your serving size to the point where there is only 0.49 grams per serving so you can round down.

Example: One product has a serving size of 1 tablespoon with “zero” trans fats (really 0.4 grams per serving). Another product has a serving size of 1 cup with 1 gram of trans fats per serving. Which one has more trans fats? Do the math…

Is it possible to be healthy when you live with unhealthy people? Sure. Is it harder that way? Yes.

Speaking from experience, it’s much easier to live a healthy life when the people around you are committed to the same kind of lifestyle you are.

With that in mind, here is a link to an article that examines which States are the healthiest to live in and which are the least healthy. I thought Colorado would make the Top 5, but it must be somewhere below the Top 10 because it’s not mentioned as one of the healthiest States. You can read about the rankings here:

Minnesota deemed healthiest state, Louisiana worst

Popeye cartoons may have helped little boys growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s learn to eat their spinach, but parents are often looking for further help. Trying to get children to eat their vegetables has been a constant struggle for most parents. There are certain “tricks” that work quite well with many children. Some can also be good educational opportunities, such as vegetable gardening. A child who helps plant and tend the vegetable garden will be more likely to want to eat those vegetables, or at least give them a try, when they are served at the dinner table. Seeing the family enjoying the food that they helped grow will instill a deep sense of pride in your child.

Also, allowing your children to help both plan and prepare their own meals is another good way to pique their interest in vegetables. Although a young child should not be allowed to handle knives or get near a hot stove, you can still safely engage them in the cooking process. Let them wash the vegetables. Let them toss the salad. Let them push the “start” button on the microwave or Cuisinart. Let them be the taste tester. I have very fond memories of sitting at the kitchen table, gabbing with my grandmother and helping her snap the ends off of string beans. It wasn’t a chore; it was fun. And knowing that I helped Grandma prepare the beans made them taste oh-so delicious.

You might try sneaking veggies into dishes that you know the child already enjoys. For example, add diced mushrooms, green peppers, onions, or a combination of these to your spaghetti sauce. Serve hamburgers topped with a slice of tomato, onion, and a leaf of Romaine lettuce. Stir some canned pumpkin into your child’s oatmeal. Make French fries out of butternut squash (see the recipe at hungry-girl.com). Baked potatoes can easily become baked sweet potatoes, which provide an abundance of vitamin A. Broccoli is a great addition to macaroni and cheese, while peas, carrots and corn nibblets fit very nicely into most casserole recipes and soups. If serving pizza, make it a veggie pizza. Some sneaky children will “eat around” the new ingredient; when this occurs chop the vegetable into finer pieces next time or simply leave it out.

It’s perfectly fine to use canned and frozen vegetables; they offer the same nutritional value as their fresh produce cousins — just make sure that the manufacturer has not added other ingredients, like preservatives, MSG, butter, oil, salt, sugar, or corn syrup. When I buy frozen cauliflower, I want the label to read simply, INGREDIENTS: Cauliflower. (Nothing more, nothing less.) A good rule of thumb is: The shorter the ingredient list, the better.

If your child is very young (age 3 and under), you might want to stick with small finger foods, like cooled boiled baby carrots and raw broccoli florets. It can be both fun and educational when you incorporate games such as counting and having the child name the colors of the vegetables. Make believe is also a great tool. Pretend that broccoli spears are trees and celery stalks are boats; your child is a giant who devours them both. There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing with your food, as long as it is eventually eaten. Be sure to always closely supervise young children whenever they eat, to prevent choking accidents and to make sure the food does not wind up in the wrong body orifice!

A person’s taste preferences will differ greatly over a lifetime. As a toddler, I loved to eat raw tomatoes yet hated most other veggies; now that I’m grown, the exact opposite is true. So be sure to expose your child to a wide variety of foods and don’t be afraid to offer him or her the same food a few different times and prepared in different ways. A child who hates steamed broccoli may really enjoy raw broccoli. And one that hates corn one day may find it very tasty a year later. Also, make sure your child sees you truly enjoying the vegetables on your own plate. Children will learn by example and aspire to imitate their parents.

When speaking to your child, try referring to each vegetable by its specific name. For instance, rather than saying “Please eat your veggies, honey” instead try saying “Mmmm… Have you tasted the carrots yet? They are so sweet!” This not only helps to build your child’s vocabulary, it also prevents the child from lumping his/her likes and dislikes into a single category, becoming biased against the food before even trying it. If you simply call it a vegetable, the child’s brain may respond with “I don’t like vegetables” and the prejudice can be instantaneous.

Finally, don’t pressure your child into eating foods that are not palatable to him/her. And never punish a child for refusing food or not cleaning his plate. Forcing food upon your child can lead to eating disorders, anxiety, and a lifelong aversion to that very same food you want him to eat. A child’s eating habits can be a beacon to what is silently going on inside his body. For instance, the child might be physically ill, experiencing dental pain, allergic to certain foods, etc. Monitor your child’s weight and consult a physician with any concerns. It is perfectly fine to allow your child to substitute fruits in place of vegetables. Vitamin A can not only be found in vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes but also in peaches, mangos, oranges, and papayas. Children naturally tend to lean toward sweet rather than savory tastes, and they are often more sensitive about food textures than adults. Respect your individual child’s taste preferences. After all, sitting down to dinner with one’s family should be a treat, not a chore — even for a kid that refuses to eat his veggies.