Category Archives: Diet And Food

We all feel the same way about weeds: We don't want them in our garden. But Joseph Leyda, a certified ecologist and permaculture designer in Vancouver, wants you to look beyond the nuisance. The best way to deal with a garden full of weeds is to pluck them from the ground -- and put them on your plate.

Leyda will hold an Edible Weed Workshop on Sunday at the 78th St. Heritage Farm at Washington State University's Clark County Extension Offices, where he will show participants how to identify weeds in your own backyard and how to harvest and add them to your diet.

Leyda molded one-quarter of an acre of the farm into a forest ecosystem last December, layering trees, shrubs and herbs on top of one another into what's called a guild.

"Weeds can occasionally perform positive functions," Leyda said. "When guilds mature and the intended plants become established, a few weeds can actually help the system."

The workshop will close with a tour of the grounds, allowing attendees to identify, harvest and eat the weeds they find. To register, go to the extension website and click events.

"We want people to come away with the idea of looking at weeds as resources instead of the enemy," said Jenifer Naas, program coordinator and lead watershed steward at the 78th St. Heritage Farm.

Here are a few weeds Leyda recommends picking up and adding to your diet this spring:

Sources: Edible weeds (From: Couplan, Francois. The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America. Keats Publishing, New Caanan, Connecticut: 1998.)

-- Rebecca Barnhart, Special to The Oregonian

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Vancouver ecologist teaches residents to safely harvest food from their yard

Pierre Dukan asked to be removed from the doctors list because he was facing disciplinary action He proposed giving teenage school pupils extra exam marks if they kept to ideal weights

By Peter Allen

PUBLISHED: 21:17 EST, 16 May 2012 | UPDATED: 06:48 EST, 17 May 2012

Controversial: Nutritionist Pierre Dukan has been struck off as a doctor in France after he was accused of giving dangerous advice to teenagers

A diet guru whose fans include the Duchess of Cambridge's mother has been struck off the medical register in France after being accused of misadvising teenagers.

Pierre Dukan, 70, asked to be removed from the doctors list at his own request because he was facing disciplinary action.

The nutritionist had used a book to propose ideal weights for 17 and 18 year-old school pupils, giving them extra exam marks if they kept to them.

It led to a formal complaint from the College of Physicians in Paris, who said that the scheme could lead to increased cases of obesity and anorexia.

The physicians said Dukans proposal was in breach of article 13 of the medical ethics code which states: A doctor must be aware of the repercussions his views can have on the public.

There was also an allegation that Dukans 80 million plus slimming business might be in breach of medical codes.

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Diet guru who helped Carole Middleton lose weight is struck off the medical register in France

7-Eleven

Fanta Mango is the first flavor of Lite Slurpee. Next up: Strawberry Banana and Cherry Lemonade.

By Rob Neill

It probably says something more about America than it does about 7-Eleven, but starting this month the retailer is rolling out a product that seems right for its time: a sugar-free Slurpee.

Fanta Sugar-Free Mango is this months diet flavor. 7-Eleven said it has spent two years coming up with the formula for a simple reason: customer demand.

For years weve gotten calls through our guest relations hot line, When are you going to have a diet Slurpee? company spokeswoman Margaret Chabris said. The calls have come not only from the weight-conscious but from diabetics and those with other nutritional issues, she said.

We worked at that formula for two years, trying to nail the right attributes of the Slurpee. Not just the taste. But you need to have Slurpee all the way to the bottom of the cup, not just water and ice.

Cost will be the same as a standard Slurpee. Formulas may differ, but for example the Fanta Wild Cherry is 66 calories for 8 ounces. The diet equivalent is 20 calories. It will be available at all participating 6,700 7-Elevens in the U.S.

It'sunknown how many people, if any,drink Slurpees in 8-ounce servings. According to 7-Eleven literature, each year Americans drink enough Slurpees to fill 44 Olympic-sized swimming pools

It also makes business sense to try something new.Americans are drinking fewer soft drinks -- although its still about two a day for each person.

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7-Eleven serving up diet Slurpees for the first time

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) Converts to the trending paleolithic diet say the eating habits of our caveman ancestors, along with exercising and getting enough sleep, will keep your body running smoothly well into your golden years.

This is a diet that would be good for anybody, said UCSF nephrologist Dr. Lynda Frassetto, who has been studying the paleo diet for years.

CBS 5 HealthWatch Series On Paleo Diet

A key factor, according to Frassetto, is limiting the level of acid in the body. Acids, which are regulated by the kidneys, tend to build up as people grow older and their kidneys work less well.

But paleo proponents believe that the right diet can bring acids back into balance. Specifically, this means eating more fruits and vegetables, the so-called base foods, and eating fewer animal proteins and grains, which are high-acid foods.

When you look at things like what do hunter-gatherers and chimpanzees eat, you get a diet that has meat in it, and a lot of fruits and vegetables, and no dairy products and no grains, explained Frassetto.

Video: Should Everyone Eat A Paleo Diet? Lynda Frassetto, MD

There is also some evidence that a healthy diet, along with exercise and stress reduction, can help protect a key ingredient in the aging process called telomeres.

Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of the chromosomes, explained Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, a 2009 Nobel Laureate. If the caps are eroded away, the cells will stop replenishing.

But it turns out that telomeres are dynamic they can change, and the choices people make can affect that change.

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HealthWatch: Can Paleo Diet Extend Your Life?

TOPEKA, Kan., May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Today, Hill's Science Diet launches the Basics for Balance Sweepstakes to educate pet owners about the importance of balanced nutrition for their four-legged family members. Pet owners who enter the sweepstakes will have a chance to win a grand prize that includes:

Secondary prizes, including a year's supply of Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance along with an annual subscription to Food Network Magazine, will be awarded to 25 consumers. One-hundred consumers will receive a tertiary prize an annual subscription to Food Network Magazine.

"Food Network has a long history of encouraging balanced and healthy meals for consumers, so FOODNETWORK.COM was a natural fit when we were looking for a partner to host our Basics for Balance Sweepstakes," said Mark Champ, Product Manager, Hill's Pet Nutrition. "This collaboration gives consumers the opportunity to access essential pet health and nutrition information that will help them understand how important a balanced diet is for everyone in our families, including our pets, and a chance to win some great prizes."

The sweepstakes is currently being promoted in Food Network Magazine and on FoodNetwork.com, including advertorials in Food Network Magazine and consumer newsletters.

To learn more about the Basics for Balance Sweepstakes, please visit http://www.FoodNetwork.com/BalanceSweepstakes.

About Hill's Pet Nutrition

Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc. manufactures Hill's Prescription Diet brand pet foods, therapeutic pet foods available only through veterinarians, and Hill's Science Diet brand pet foods sold through veterinarians and finer pet specialty stores. Founded more than 60 years ago with a unique commitment to pet nutrition and well-being, Hill's is committed to its mission to help enrich and lengthen the special relationships between people and their pets. Hill's produces high-quality, great-tasting pet foods owners can trust and give to their canine and feline companions as part of a veterinary health care team recommendation. This ultimately improves patient health and the health of the practice. For more information about Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc., and Hill's Evidence-Based Clinical Nutrition visit HillsPet.com.

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Hill's® Science Diet® Launches Basics for Balance Sweepstakes

(CBS News) Is it safe for a pregnant woman to go on a diet? According to a new study, not only is it safe, but it can even be beneficial and reduce the risk of dangerous complications.

Study: Autism risk tied to mom's obesity during pregnancy 1 out of 5 white women smoke while pregnant, study reveals PICTURES: 12 crazy myths about pregnancy

Doctors already know that piling on excess pounds during pregnancy increases the risk for complications such as pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes, but many are cautious of giving weight loss advice out of concerns for adverse events that would harm a mom and baby's health.

For the new study, published in the May 18 issue of the British Medical Journal, researchers analyzed 44 relevant studies that comprised of more than 7,200 women, looking for the effects diet, exercise or both had during pregnancy. They looked specifically at how much weight women gained throughout pregnancy and whether a mother or child suffered any complications.

The researchers found that all three methods reduced a mother's weight, but diet showed the greatest effect with an average reduction of almost 9 pounds. Pregnant moms who only exercised lost about 1.5 pounds, and moms who did a combination of diet and exercise lost an average of 2.2 pounds.

The diets were tied to health benefits for pregnant moms, the researchers found. Women who went on a calorie-restricted diet were 33 percent less likely to develop pre-eclampsia, a spike in blood pressure caused by significant amounts of protein in the urine. Left untreated, the condition can be fatal to a mom and baby, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Mothers' risk of gestational diabetes was 60 percent lower with a calorie-controlled diet, and their risk of gestational high blood pressure was 70 percent lower, compared with the other groups. The risk of premature birth was also reduced 32 percent in dieting moms.

"Weight control is difficult but this study shows that by carefully advising women on weight management methods, especially diet, we can reduce weight gain during pregnancy," lead researcher Dr. Shakila Thangaratinam, a clinical senior lecturer and consultant obstetrician at Queen Mary, University of London, said in a news release. She said it also shows that following a controlled diet has the potential to reduce the risk of a number of pregnancy complications.

Dietary advice in the study based on limiting overall calorie intake, balancing protein, carbohydrates and fat, and eating foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes. The research did not show what a healthy amount of weight gain was for pregnant women or how many calories a woman should eat daily during pregnancy.

The March of Dimes says women beginning pregnancy at a healthy weight should gain 25 to 35 pounds over the nine-month pregnancy, and women who are obese should only gain 11 to 20 pounds during pregnancy.

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Study: Diet during pregnancy safe and beneficial

Congratulations! When you take the formal steps to becoming an investor, you're becoming that much more self-determined. You start life relying on your parents to make your financial decisions, and by the time many of us advance to young adulthood, we might go so far as having someone at our employer's accounting department recommend a 401(k) for us. Sure, this is technically the desirable "passive income" under some definition, but with too much emphasis on the adjective and not enough on the noun.

What It Means to InvestMany people get intimidated at the idea of buying their own investments, and thus never commit to doing so. On the other end of the continuum are people who are only interested in buying Google at its initial public offering price ($100) and selling it four years later at its $714 peak.

You can do that - somebody must have - but the chances of succeeding at it are tiny. It's important to remember that investing is not defined as "trying to build wealth with as little effort as possible." That's not investing, that's speculating. We have lotteries for that. Investing is deferring spending in the hopes of a greater return. Get a dollar today, by whatever means, and you can either exchange that dollar for something or hold onto it. In that way, investing is analogous to saving.

In fact, it doesn't hurt to think of "save" and "invest" as synonyms. Put your money in a hollowed-out tomato can instead of spending it on something perishable, and you're investing. Granted, you're investing with a zero rate of return, but you're still investing, instead of consuming. (Also, in the event that the currency deflates, you'll actually enjoy a real rate of return, when you store your money in said tomato can, instead of investing in the conventional way.)

There's no general-purpose form of investing for everyone, just as we all require different diets, or different wardrobes, depending on where we are and what we're trying to achieve. The Upper West Side society matron can probably forgo a pair of steel-toed work boots, just like she doesn't need a portfolio heavy on growth-company stocks. The 22-year old unmarried coal miner could get tremendous use out of both.

What Happens Next?When you contact an investment professional, the first thing you'll be asked is, "What are your objectives?" Most people will respond to that by sitting there agape and trying to formulate an answer, without betraying their naivet. To be fair, it's a complicated and overarching question that you need to have spent time figuring out the answer to, long before someone asks you.

Before you meet with an investment professional, step back. Schedule the meeting at least a couple of weeks down the road, because you're going to need to do your homework with regard to answering the above question. You do that by asking yourself, and giving frank responses to, some other questions:

How's your financial situation right now? Your investment advisor is going to lay your financial life bare in ways you might find uncomfortable. That universal taboo about never discussing money? Money is all that investment advisors discuss.

If you're already drowning in consumer debt affixed to high interest rates, then you're not ready for formal investing yet. Say you have a $13,000 credit card balance that you're making minimum monthly payments on, on a card that charges 17.9% per annum. The best investment you can make at this point is living like a Paris underground dweller for as long as it takes to pay the debt off. Unless you know of some investment that can guarantee you an 18% return, and if you do, please tell us about it.

If you're paying your bills with room to spare, and are building a savings account balance every month without knowing what to do with it (a good problem to have), proceed.

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So You've Decided To Invest ...

DAKAR, SENEGAL--(Marketwire -05/15/12)- Canadian partners the Micronutrient Initiative, the Government of Canada and Teck launched a major project with the Senegal Ministry of Health today that will save young lives from diarrhea, a condition that can be deadly if untreated.

Each year, 1.5 million children under the age of five die from complications associated with diarrhea, including 6,000 in Senegal. Zinc is an essential micronutrient that can prevent and treat diarrhea, yet two billion people around the world do not get enough zinc through their diets.

The Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH) project in Senegal will scale up the use of zinc supplementation and oral rehydration salts (ORS) to treat diarrhea across the country. This simple solution, that costs as little as 50 cents per treatment, reduces the severity of diarrhea and can save lives.

The project will aim to treat more than two million cases of diarrhea in children under the age of five over the next three years. Zinc and ORS treatment will be delivered through health care workers at 4,000 service delivery points in Senegal.

The project is being launched as part of Senegal's wider diarrhea prevention and treatment program under the "Division d'alimentation, nutrition et survie de l'enfance". It will contribute to the country's overall efforts to reduce child mortality rates and to meet its commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goal Four: Reducing Child Mortality.

"Our government values strong partnerships that make a difference in the lives of children and women in developing countries. The Micronutrient Initiative has been a Canadian partner that has helped improve the health of millions recognizing the importance of good nutrition and food supplementation," says Canadian Minister of International Cooperation Beverley Oda. "We are proud to have Teck join our existing partnership to promote the benefits of zinc to ensure healthier families."

This project is recognized as a high impact solution that supports Canada's Maternal and Under-five Child Health objectives.

"As one of the world's largest producers of zinc, we recognize the ability we have to make a difference," says Doug Horswill, Senior Vice President at Teck. "Through this partnership with the Micronutrient Initiative, the Government of Canada and the Ministry of Health in Senegal, we will improve local awareness about zinc deficiency, enhance distribution systems and ultimately save children's lives."

Project components include behaviour change communication and increasing knowledge so that more caregivers, health practitioners and community members know of the importance of treating diarrhea with zinc and ORS. The project also aims to make the management of childhood diarrhea a key part of reducing of child mortality. ZACH will work with all levels of government to help ensure the availability of supplies and treatment that is affordable for families, communities and the health system as a whole. Treatment will be monitored to track progress on the project.

"With the Government of Senegal's clear commitment to reducing child deaths, launching the first ZACH project in this country was a natural choice," says Venkatesh Mannar, President of the Micronutrient Initiative. "We will prove how effective zinc and ORS is in treating diarrhea and saving children's lives. This could very well be the next revolution in child survival."

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The Micronutrient Initiative, Government of Canada and Teck Launch New Initiative with Senegal Ministry of Health to ...

By Alan Mozes HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 8 (HealthDay News) -- Now there's another reason to hate your commute.

New research has found that the longer your driving time between home and office, the less likely you are to exercise, the more your waistline widens and the worse your overall heart health becomes.

The findings come from a study of nearly 4,300 workers in Texas cities whose daily commute times were compared to their odds of various health risk factors.

"Previous studies have looked at sedentary behavior like TV viewing and total time spent driving," said study lead author Christine Hoehner, an assistant professor in the division of public health sciences at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "But we wanted to look specifically at commuting distance, since it's an important part of people's daily routine."

"What we found ... is that long commutes can take away from exercise and are associated with high blood pressure, higher weight and generally lower fitness levels," Hoehner said. "This may make a lot of sense, because it's extremely intuitive. But it nonetheless suggests that longer commutes are really getting under the skin and affecting people's health."

The findings appear in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

According to the researchers, the number of workers driving to work by private car more than doubled between 1960 and 2000, increasing from more than 41 million to nearly 113 million. The average distance traveled to work also has grown in recent years, from nearly nine miles in 1983 to more than 12 miles in 2001, the researchers said.

The new study focused on adult Texans living in either the Dallas/Fort Worth or Austin regions.

No participant had a history of heart attack, stroke or diabetes, and none were pregnant. All were employed in jobs that required a commute of some kind.

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That long commute may be harming your health

GUELPH, Ontario, May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- LifeLearn, Inc. announced that it has received three Communicator Awards of Distinction for multimedia educational programs that the company developed for Bayer Animal Health (Bayer), Nestle Purina, and Novartis Animal Health (Novartis) during 2011. These programs used multimedia games, activities, and simulations to teach scientific principles to healthcare staff.

For example, Bayer's Parasite Scene Investigation online accredited continuing education program mimicked the popular show "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" to teach veterinary technicians to correctly identify, diagnose, and treat common parasites found in pets. Nestle Purina's Veterinary Diets Challenge computerized game was used at industry trade shows to engage attendees while teaching them about proper pet nutrition. And the Novartis It's a Pet's Life game is a team-based activity that educates veterinarians and their staff members on parasite prevention and treatment.

"Every educational program, meeting, and event we produce is geared toward enhancing the education of our clients' target audiences to achieve corporate goals, and we're thrilled to receive this recognition for our creative, results-oriented work," said Leah Stephenson, chief creative officer at LifeLearn. "Bringing learning to life through fun activities and multimedia stimulation results in better retention and application of knowledge. The value we provide to clients is simply marrying complex scientific principles with creative learning techniques for longer-lasting results."

The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 550+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts.Current IAVA membership includes representatives from acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms such as Conde Nast, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, HBO, Keller Crescent, Monster.com, MTV, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Tribal DDB, Victoria's Secret, Wired, Yahoo!, and many others.

For more information about LifeLearn's Corporate Solutions, visit http://www.lifelearn.com/for-corporate-partners/ .

About LifeLearn

LifeLearn is an industry leader in developing quality and trusted educational products for the human and animal health industries. LifeLearn's mission is to Bring Learning to Life, and its Corporate Solutions group provides integrated, full-service marketing solutions that develop effective learning experiences. LifeLearn began in 1993 as part of the Veterinary Continuing Education program at the Ontario Veterinary College. Today, LifeLearn is a privately held company with headquarters in Guelph, Ontario. For more information, visit http://www.LifeLearn.com.

About The Communicator Awards:

The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for communication professionals. Founded by communication professionals over a decade ago, The Communicator Awards is an annual competition honoring the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations and identity work for print, video, interactive and audio. This year's Communicator Awards received thousands of entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world.

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LifeLearn wins awards for three multimedia education programs