Sodium sneaks in
Stashing your salt shakers into the dark recesses of your kitchen cabinet won’t do enough to keep your sodium levels at the recommended 1,500 milligrams a day if you enjoy convenience foods and restaurant dining. About 75 percent of the average person’s sodium intake comes from processed and restaurant foods, says a story in the August issue of Consumer Reports on Health.
Too much sodium can spike your blood pressure and may play a role in stomach cancer, worsening asthma, bone loss and kidney stones. According to the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine, a daily sodium intake of 2,300 milligrams is the most you can consume without putting your health at risk.
Yet the yummy places where sodium lurks may shock you. Here is a sampling from a list that runs with the article:
Smoked turkey on whole wheat with one slice of cheese and brown mustard: 1,190 mg of sodium.
McDonald’s grilled chicken cobb salad: 1,500 mg.
Stouffer’s homestyle frozen dinner, grilled lime chicken: 1,780 mg.
Hot and sour soup–1,562 mg.
Taco Bell grilled stuffed beef burrito–2,080 mg.
Blimpie BLT wrap–2,677 mg.
Organic’s skeptics
Organic foods are more nutritious and safer to eat than conventional foods, right? They definitely seem better, since such foods are produced without conventional pesticides, antibiotics, bioengineering, growth hormones or ionizing radiation.
A report in the August New England Journal of Medicine Health News says a study of preschool-age children who ate mostly organic produce had lower amounts of pesticides in their bodies. Yet other experts believe organically grown produce “may contain higher levels of naturally occurring plant pesticides and fungal toxins, which might be as dangerous as manmade pesticides.”
In addition, the Health News associate editor, Dr. George L. Blackburn, says few well-controlled studies have shown any real nutritional differences between organic and conventionally grown foods, since most Americans already get a lot of nutrients.
What’s more important, some experts say, is that you focus on eating a daily diet rich in plant-based foods of any kind.
Stress fattens belly
Crunch all you want, but if your life is stressful, you may never get rid of that belly fat.
High stress raises your cortisol levels, which in turn deposit more fat into the abdominals’ cortisol receptors, according to ongoing research at the University of California at San Francisco.
“People called `high-stress responders’ [who secrete more cortisol in response to stress than others] have more central fat, regardless of body weight,” says UCSF assistant professor Elissa Epel in the August issue of Shape.
To drop that tummy fat and cut the stress, the magazine suggests the following:
Eat more foods with omega-3 fatty acids (salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, flaxseed and walnuts).
Follow a Mediterranean diet to add more healthy fruits, vegetables and oils.
Find ways to relax through meditation and deep-belly breathing.
Stop overeating as a way to deal with stress.
Think good thoughts, because negative thinking can bring on stress.
A quiz to digest
When antacids, laxatives or anti-diarrhea products become as much a part of your daily routine as reading the morning paper, it may be time to consider whether you have serious digestive trouble. To help determine your overall digestive health risk, take the six-question quiz at www.gastro.org/corescore, designed by the American Gastroenterological Association.
Here are two sample questions:
Do you experience any of the following (or a combination of all) at least once a week–heartburn/abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea or constipation?
Have you unintentionally gained or lost 5 or more pounds in the past year?
This user-friendly Web site also offers nutritious recipes.
