Vitamin K may be one of the most overlooked vitamins when it comes to our overall health. It is one of the fat soluble vitamins, along with A, D, and E that are critical for many bodily functions. In particular, it is very important for heart health and studies have shown it do reduce arterial calcification and improve bone density. Unfortunately, many of us lack sufficient levels of Vitamin K. The main food source of Vitamin K is leafy green vegetables. However, there is another source – the beneficial intestinal bacteria that live within us. For much of human history this provided a significant proportion of Vitamin K. Here again is a problem of modern man and our diets. Many of us do not have adequate levels of the friendly flora in our guts. If you suffer from digestive issues such as constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, and acid reflux (to name a few) it is likely your personal bacteria are out of balance.
And now here’s the big “ah-hah” moment! We’ve all heard how our use of antibiotics kills the friendly flora, well here’s another. When experimental animals were given “FDA acceptable daily intake” amounts of sucralose (that’s Splenda) for 12 weeks, numbers of key beneficial flora were decreased significantly. Even after another 12 weeks of being off sucralose key levels remained significantly depressed. (Information courtesy of Nutrition & Healing September 2009 newsletter by Dr. Jonathan Wright.)
So – if you are having digestive problems and can’t figure out why, Splenda may be the culprit. And to be honest, any time you have something you can’t figure out, lay off all the artificial sweeteners for about 45 days and see what happens. They’ve been connected to all kinds of health maladies.
Bernard Rosen, PhD is a Nutrition Consultant and Educator. He works with individuals, groups, and at corporations to create individualized nutrition and wellness programs. His office is in Thiensville, WI. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, e-mail at bernie@brwellness.com, call (262) 389-9907 or go to www.brwellness.com.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Back to School Nutrition Ideas
In the spirit of “back to school” I thought I’d offer a few thoughts on nutrition for kids. (Of course this advice applies to adults as well.) In all honesty, it is probably the most challenging aspect of my private client practice. While it can be difficult to get adults to eat healthier, kids can be even more so. The food producers and manufacturers have developed special foods that they call “kid’s food”. If you take the time to read the list of ingredients you will find that most of it is not food and should not be consumed by anyone, particularly our children. Our children are growing and need the healthiest foods available to properly fuel their minds and bodies.
The consumption of “kid’s food” and more sedentary lifestyles (lack of exercise, lots of television, computer, and video games) is greatly impacting the health of our youth. Here’s some scary statistics from the CDC. Obesity among children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled in the past 25 years, increasing from 6.5% in 1980 to 17.0% in 2006. The rate among adolescents aged 12 to 19 more than tripled, going from 5% to almost 18%. Keep in mind, before being classified as “obese” there is “overweight” classification, which I have seen estimates between 20 and 25%.
How do we get our kids to eat healthier foods? One successful strategy that I use is to make subtle substitutions to the foods they like to eat. Let’s take something as simple as the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For the peanut butter use organic peanut butter that is nothing but peanuts and peanut oil. Most commercial peanut butters contain added sugar and hydrogenated oil (trans- fats). We know trans-fats are linked to cancer and that added sugar adds empty calories. I stress the organic because peanuts are one of the most highly pesticided crops, so non-organic peanut butter will contain potential chemical residues and toxins. Ever wonder why there are so many peanut allergies today? For the bread I recommend sprouted bread. It comes in a variety of flavors and is the healthiest bread option. It has more vitamins and fewer calories per slice. However, it is made from wheat so for those with gluten intolerance use another bread option such as flax and millet bread. For the jelly, find the most natural product you can. Look for spreads that do not add sugar or have less sugar added. The fruit already has plenty of sugar.
What are some other healthy substitutions? A major area to look at is the carbohydrates. Our kids eat a lot of them – bread, rice, pasta. Our goal here is to shift from the refined and processed white flour products to whole grains. In addition to the switch to sprouted breads, we can use brown rice instead of white rice and pasta from brown rice rather than refined wheat (the white pasta). All of these substitutions taste virtually the same. They just look a little different and that may turn off the kids. But, covered in tomato sauce they will never know the difference!
Then there are snacks. The kids get home from school and they are hungry and it is not quite dinner time. There are certainly some better choices than chips and dips. Another societal norm is this idea of “snack food.” Just like with “kid’s food” we need a little retraining. What is a snack? It is a small meal. So, think of something healthy that would be part of a meal. It can be a half of a sandwich, one hard boiled egg, a cup of yogurt, some fruit, something spread on a stick of celery, vegetables and dip. There’s nothing special about these foods, except that they are healthy. I like to tell people not to worry about if something is considered “breakfast” food or “snack” food – just eat healthy food when you are hungry!
A valuable resource is the web site www.mequonkids.com. It has lots of great ideas for school lunches and snacks. For more ideas and recipes go to the mequonkids.com web site and click on “Brown Bag Lunch Ideas” or “After School Snacks.”
Bernard Rosen, PhD is a Nutrition Consultant and Educator. He works with individuals, groups, and at corporations to create individualized nutrition and wellness programs. His office is in Thiensville. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, e-mail at bernie@brwellness.com, call (262) 389-9907 or go to www.brwellness.com.
The consumption of “kid’s food” and more sedentary lifestyles (lack of exercise, lots of television, computer, and video games) is greatly impacting the health of our youth. Here’s some scary statistics from the CDC. Obesity among children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled in the past 25 years, increasing from 6.5% in 1980 to 17.0% in 2006. The rate among adolescents aged 12 to 19 more than tripled, going from 5% to almost 18%. Keep in mind, before being classified as “obese” there is “overweight” classification, which I have seen estimates between 20 and 25%.
How do we get our kids to eat healthier foods? One successful strategy that I use is to make subtle substitutions to the foods they like to eat. Let’s take something as simple as the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For the peanut butter use organic peanut butter that is nothing but peanuts and peanut oil. Most commercial peanut butters contain added sugar and hydrogenated oil (trans- fats). We know trans-fats are linked to cancer and that added sugar adds empty calories. I stress the organic because peanuts are one of the most highly pesticided crops, so non-organic peanut butter will contain potential chemical residues and toxins. Ever wonder why there are so many peanut allergies today? For the bread I recommend sprouted bread. It comes in a variety of flavors and is the healthiest bread option. It has more vitamins and fewer calories per slice. However, it is made from wheat so for those with gluten intolerance use another bread option such as flax and millet bread. For the jelly, find the most natural product you can. Look for spreads that do not add sugar or have less sugar added. The fruit already has plenty of sugar.
What are some other healthy substitutions? A major area to look at is the carbohydrates. Our kids eat a lot of them – bread, rice, pasta. Our goal here is to shift from the refined and processed white flour products to whole grains. In addition to the switch to sprouted breads, we can use brown rice instead of white rice and pasta from brown rice rather than refined wheat (the white pasta). All of these substitutions taste virtually the same. They just look a little different and that may turn off the kids. But, covered in tomato sauce they will never know the difference!
Then there are snacks. The kids get home from school and they are hungry and it is not quite dinner time. There are certainly some better choices than chips and dips. Another societal norm is this idea of “snack food.” Just like with “kid’s food” we need a little retraining. What is a snack? It is a small meal. So, think of something healthy that would be part of a meal. It can be a half of a sandwich, one hard boiled egg, a cup of yogurt, some fruit, something spread on a stick of celery, vegetables and dip. There’s nothing special about these foods, except that they are healthy. I like to tell people not to worry about if something is considered “breakfast” food or “snack” food – just eat healthy food when you are hungry!
A valuable resource is the web site www.mequonkids.com. It has lots of great ideas for school lunches and snacks. For more ideas and recipes go to the mequonkids.com web site and click on “Brown Bag Lunch Ideas” or “After School Snacks.”
Bernard Rosen, PhD is a Nutrition Consultant and Educator. He works with individuals, groups, and at corporations to create individualized nutrition and wellness programs. His office is in Thiensville. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, e-mail at bernie@brwellness.com, call (262) 389-9907 or go to www.brwellness.com.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Things I've learned today
A seven year olds poop in a modern campground is even less fun and more stinky to clean up then a 2 year olds on a hiking trail when wearing no diaper.
Geocaching several caches in one day is stupid for us.
The geocaches that say bring your own pen are so samll that it doesn't have any fun trading items to keep the kids interested.
Apparently, my kids would love to live in a pickle barrell.
A day trip for our family usually lasts ALL day with lots of side trips. Its 9:57 and we're 1/2 hour from camp (strike that.....its now 10:45 and according to TomTom we won't be back at camp until midnight) .
However we see a lot of things that most people never see in their lifetime.
The UP has some gorgeous uninhabited country.
Which is a REALLY good thing considering that Chuck drove off and left me standing in a backcountry road with no pants on as I changed out of my swim bottoms and into pants.
Nylon swim bottoms are NOT comfortable to walk in all day long and the resulting rash is less comfortable.
Driving off the beaten track and into some primitive campgrounds of the NPS make me miss our tent camping days of Chuck and I.
However, driving back in the still of the night with sleeping children makes for some awesome quiet couple time.
And I'm going to enjoy it.
Geocaching several caches in one day is stupid for us.
The geocaches that say bring your own pen are so samll that it doesn't have any fun trading items to keep the kids interested.
Apparently, my kids would love to live in a pickle barrell.
A day trip for our family usually lasts ALL day with lots of side trips. Its 9:57 and we're 1/2 hour from camp (strike that.....its now 10:45 and according to TomTom we won't be back at camp until midnight) .
However we see a lot of things that most people never see in their lifetime.
The UP has some gorgeous uninhabited country.
Which is a REALLY good thing considering that Chuck drove off and left me standing in a backcountry road with no pants on as I changed out of my swim bottoms and into pants.
Nylon swim bottoms are NOT comfortable to walk in all day long and the resulting rash is less comfortable.
Driving off the beaten track and into some primitive campgrounds of the NPS make me miss our tent camping days of Chuck and I.
However, driving back in the still of the night with sleeping children makes for some awesome quiet couple time.
And I'm going to enjoy it.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Bioidentical Hormones
Hormone therapy is a frequent topic of discussion with my patients. The media coverage of bioidentical hormones including Oprah, Suzanne Somers and Dr. Christiane Northrup have empowered women to seek a better quality of life and relief from menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, impaired sleep, vaginal dryness, decreased libido, painful intercourse, loss of memory and weight gain. This has caused quite a stir in the medical community. Why? Because women are asking questions they’ve not asked before – especially about bioidentical hormones. What are bioidentical hormones? Bioidentical hormones are prescribed hormones that are identical to the hormones produced in a women’s body prior to the onset of menopause. The most commonly prescribed include three different types of estrogen (estrone, estradiol and estriol), progesterone, testosterone and dehydroepiandosterone (DHEA).
There are two categories of bioidentical hormones: compounded and manufactured.
Compounded bioidentical hormones are pills, creams, gels, suppositories, injectables, sublingual drops or lozenges that are prescribed by health care providers who tailor the dose to a woman’s individual symptoms and concerns. They are literally assembled in the pharmacy by a certified compounding pharmacist and are available through mail-order and some local pharmacies. Compounded bioidentical hormones are generally not covered by insurance and therefore are an out-of-pocket expense.
Manufactured bioidentical hormones are pills, creams, gels, sprays and injectable medications manufactured and marketed by large pharmaceutical companies. They come in standard doses and, therefore, are not available as tailor-made medications. There are other limitations with manufactured hormones. For instance, bioidentical estrogen is only manufactured as estradiol – the most potent of the three types manufactured in a woman’s body. Manufactured bioidentical hormones may be covered by insurance.
The alternative to bioidentical hormone therapy is synthetic hormone therapy. They include manufactured hormones that are similar to but intentionally different than the chemical structure as those hormones produced in a woman’s body. Premarin (conjugated equine estrogen) and Provera (a synthetic progestin) are the most commonly prescribed conventional hormones. They are the suspect hormones studied in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Study that raised concerns about all hormone replacement therapy due to increased risks of blood clot formation, stroke, heart attack and cancer. Upon release of this information in 2002, many women abruptly stopped hormone usage and many physicians stopped or significantly limited prescribing hormone therapy.
The American
The debate in the medical community continues regarding the safety and effectiveness of the bioidentical hormones as they have not been studied in large standardized controlled trials such as the WHI. However, it is difficult to undertake such studies when medications are tailor-made for individual women. Small European studies from the 1980’s suggest an improved safety profile with bioidentical hormones. However, this has yet to be proven.
A review article published in January of 2009 in the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine states that patients report greater satisfaction with bio-identical hormone therapies. Clinical outcomes and physiologic data support that bio-identical hormones are more effective than synthetic hormones and are associated with lower risks, including the risk of breast cancer, stroke and heart attack. Further randomized controlled trials are needed to further expound upon the differences.
References:
3. North American Menopause Society Statement on Bioidentical Hormones Therapy
Friday, August 14, 2009
Rant and Rave avoided...thank your lucky stars.
So, I had another post started but it seemed like a huge bitchfest and rambling nonsense to me so I figured I’d restart it. Afterall, who really wants to read about the wicked witch of the west that I work with, my horrible Aunt Flo cramping this month or the shitty city that I live in that gives tickets for parking in your own driveway?
A couple of weeks ago I got a new blackberry; I love the blackberry. Seriously, I think I’d marry it if I could as I already sleep with it usually. Hey, I use it as a secondary alarm clock! However, I’ve had issues with keeping up on blogging. I find myself less and less on the pc and more and more on my blackberry, which for all its awesomeness, it isn’t exactly made for blogging. Unless they made a blogger application for it, then that’d be way cool! Everyone would get daily updates from my vacation next week as I seem to be doing a lot of Facebook updating through the easy-peasy app. So if you’d like to keep up to date on my daily comings and goings, add me as a friend!
One of the major goings in our household right now is the fact that 4 days before our annual week-long camping trip, Miss Elizabeth has decided to potty train herself. Yay! Except for the fact that I’m not sure how well driving in a car for 9 hours is going to work with a little girl *just* starting out in panties. Or how well, traipsing through Tahquammenon Falls is going to be with her in a backpack with just panties on and no where to use the potty. I guess it’s nature afterall and she’s always trying to pee standing up (its what happens when you live in a houseful of boys and your sitter is a boy too!) However, I’m not going to actively discourage her so we’re working on wearing big girl panties to go along with her big girl bed that she got last weekend. It’s been sooooooooo nice having my own bed back to just Chuck and I again. Well, at least until about 5 am every morning.
And considering that Chuck just celebrated his 41st birthday last Friday, he needs all the uninterrupted rest he can get. He keeps sputtering about how he’s getting old and needs more sleep now then he did before. I think it’s true too, despite all the studies done that suggest older people need less sleep. Maybe it means “older” people without young children….cuz we’re exhausted at the end of the day.
His birthday was a nice day; spent some time at the splash pad, the beach and had a huge dinner made by me and Lucas. Rachel Ray is one of my culinary heroes. Okay, maybe she’s my only culinary hero…but I love her recipes and the fact that it’s a 30 minute meal makes it even better in my book. This time we did a recipe for Chipolte grilled Porterhouse steaks with a cilantro-lime butter compound, cheesy smashed potatoes and a fire roasted vegetable mixture tossed in the butter compound. I know, yummy right? It was all gone at the end of the day too…even the boys loved the meat.
During the whole time, Lucas kept saying “I’m turning into a good little chef, aren’t I momma?” Of course, I agreed but not just out of the motherly obligation…he really is! He was a ginormous help and has really come out of his shell lately. He, being Lucas, had to get in the good-natured ribbings on his father’s 41 years; last night he informed me that we beat Daddy at the grocery shopping game because Daddy is “old now and getting slow”.
However, we’ll see just how “old and slow” daddy is when we’re hiking through the wilderness and geocaching for the first time. I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll have a hard time keeping up with him.
We leave for the UP tomorrow. Hope to update in the wilderness….maybe it will bring out my sentimental, thoughtful side. I’m really looking forward to doing nothing for 9 days….and when I say nothing, I mean hiking, boating, swimming, playing in the sand, geocaching, visiting the museums, possibly going to the zoo, visiting the fish hatchery, Kit-i-kippi springs and seeing my aunt and uncle for a day.
Sounds like heaven.
A couple of weeks ago I got a new blackberry; I love the blackberry. Seriously, I think I’d marry it if I could as I already sleep with it usually. Hey, I use it as a secondary alarm clock! However, I’ve had issues with keeping up on blogging. I find myself less and less on the pc and more and more on my blackberry, which for all its awesomeness, it isn’t exactly made for blogging. Unless they made a blogger application for it, then that’d be way cool! Everyone would get daily updates from my vacation next week as I seem to be doing a lot of Facebook updating through the easy-peasy app. So if you’d like to keep up to date on my daily comings and goings, add me as a friend!
One of the major goings in our household right now is the fact that 4 days before our annual week-long camping trip, Miss Elizabeth has decided to potty train herself. Yay! Except for the fact that I’m not sure how well driving in a car for 9 hours is going to work with a little girl *just* starting out in panties. Or how well, traipsing through Tahquammenon Falls is going to be with her in a backpack with just panties on and no where to use the potty. I guess it’s nature afterall and she’s always trying to pee standing up (its what happens when you live in a houseful of boys and your sitter is a boy too!) However, I’m not going to actively discourage her so we’re working on wearing big girl panties to go along with her big girl bed that she got last weekend. It’s been sooooooooo nice having my own bed back to just Chuck and I again. Well, at least until about 5 am every morning.
And considering that Chuck just celebrated his 41st birthday last Friday, he needs all the uninterrupted rest he can get. He keeps sputtering about how he’s getting old and needs more sleep now then he did before. I think it’s true too, despite all the studies done that suggest older people need less sleep. Maybe it means “older” people without young children….cuz we’re exhausted at the end of the day.
His birthday was a nice day; spent some time at the splash pad, the beach and had a huge dinner made by me and Lucas. Rachel Ray is one of my culinary heroes. Okay, maybe she’s my only culinary hero…but I love her recipes and the fact that it’s a 30 minute meal makes it even better in my book. This time we did a recipe for Chipolte grilled Porterhouse steaks with a cilantro-lime butter compound, cheesy smashed potatoes and a fire roasted vegetable mixture tossed in the butter compound. I know, yummy right? It was all gone at the end of the day too…even the boys loved the meat.
During the whole time, Lucas kept saying “I’m turning into a good little chef, aren’t I momma?” Of course, I agreed but not just out of the motherly obligation…he really is! He was a ginormous help and has really come out of his shell lately. He, being Lucas, had to get in the good-natured ribbings on his father’s 41 years; last night he informed me that we beat Daddy at the grocery shopping game because Daddy is “old now and getting slow”.
However, we’ll see just how “old and slow” daddy is when we’re hiking through the wilderness and geocaching for the first time. I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll have a hard time keeping up with him.
We leave for the UP tomorrow. Hope to update in the wilderness….maybe it will bring out my sentimental, thoughtful side. I’m really looking forward to doing nothing for 9 days….and when I say nothing, I mean hiking, boating, swimming, playing in the sand, geocaching, visiting the museums, possibly going to the zoo, visiting the fish hatchery, Kit-i-kippi springs and seeing my aunt and uncle for a day.
Sounds like heaven.
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