Category Archives: Diet And Food

Dear Readers,

Now that we are getting settled into the new year, many of us are working on getting healthier. There is so much information about diets, sometimes it's hard to know what is really good for you. U.S. News rated 35 diets, and coming in first for overall health (not just weight loss) was the Mediterranean Diet; the Flexitarian and DASH Diets tied for second place. A panel of nutrition experts ranked the diets based on seven categories:how easy it is to follow, its ability to produce short-term and long-term weight loss, its nutritional completeness, its safety and its potential for preventing and managing diabetes and heart disease (1).

Most of us have heard of the Mediterranean diet, but it was American scientist Ancel Keys who first correlated the diet with health benefits (2). It is a plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and olive oil. Moderate amounts of fish, poultry, and dairy serve as protein sources, but red meat is eaten no more than once a week. Red wine is allowed in moderation, as well as caffeine (3).

DASH is an acronym for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. This diet emphasizes whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. It is low to moderate in fat and allows 6 oz meat per day. The DASH diet reduces salt to one teaspoon per day, or 2,300 mg. Keep in mind this includes the amount of salt already in the food before using the salt shaker. Studies have shown that it improves high blood pressure in as little as two weeks. Caffeine and alcohol are permitted in moderate amounts (4).

Flexitarian combines the words flexible and vegetarian. The term was coined by dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, who published the first book on flexitarianism. It is basically a plant-based diet that allows limited amounts of fish and meat. Alcohol and caffeine are not restricted, but it's wise to use them in moderation (5). This diet is easy to follow and as the name implies, its ease lies in its flexibility.

The common thread throughout these diets is to eat more plant foods and less meat. Try to plan your meals around fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. For example, a whole wheat pasta with sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, herbs and seasonings, more veggies, and sprinkled with fresh parmesan cheese makes a delicious entree. Fresh fruit with a touch of whipped cream will satisfy your sweet tooth.

It takes conscious effort and planning to change your eating habits. When making a lifestyle change, give yourself at least 4-6 weeks to get accustomed to it. If you "fall off the horse," get back in the saddle. That's the only way you'll learn to ride.

Until, next time, be healthy!

Dear Dietitian

Leanne McCrate, RDN, LD, CNSC is an award-winning dietitian based in Missouri. Her mission is to educate consumers on sound, scientifically-based nutrition. Do you have a nutrition question? Email her atdeardietitian411@gmail.com. Dear Dietitian does not endorse any products, health programs, or diet plans.

Originally posted here:
Dear Dietitian What are the best diets? - Kiowa County Press

A friend of mine recently posted an article from The New York Times about the wellness industry and how its basically a big marketing scheme that targets entitled white women.

Here in Aspen, we are all about wellness. Its not just an industry here its a lifestyle. Theres a whole culture surrounding this concept of self care, which is really just a phrase that has been coined by entitled white women so we can be totally selfish and then be able to justify it.

You could even argue that an entire culture has evolved from the idea of wellness, and that Aspen has been on the forefront of this concept long before it became a trend. Still, its everywhere, from that bag of gluten-free potato chips (potato chips have been gluten free, hello) to grossly overpriced athleisure labels who can now charge a hell of a lot of money for a pair of glorified tights.

But I have to admit, this article got to me. It made me immediately defensive, especially the idea that much of wellness is based on pseudoscience. I have learned in numerous ways that what you eat has a huge impact on your health.

But out here in the world, we are bombarded even with all these trending diets. Everything is gluten-free this, vegan that, Paleo or Keto. These are elimination diets that cut out foods that are deemed bad for us. Then comes a slew of products that meet the requirements of said diet, but whos to say theyre any healthier than what we started with?

It has occurred to me on more than one occasion that its absolutely ridiculous that we have the luxury to eat in these highly discriminating ways when there are people starving in the world. Its also occurred to me that its super annoying when youre out to dinner with that girl that spends 20 minutes requesting all kinds of substitutions not because she has any real allergies, but because she wants to be able to continue to squeeze into a size 4.

On the other hand, I have learned enough to understand there is a lot of toxicity in our food and it does make sense to try and avoid it. But lets be honest: my biggest motivator has always been to look good and to squeeze into a size 4 (all right, 6). Why sugar coat it?

As I get older though, my health has almost (but not quite) eclipsed my vanity. Having a baby at the late age of 45 created a few problems. That pesky gestational diabetes came back a check-up last year revealed that my average blood sugar was too high. I also have some issues around hiatal hernia the result of my stomach having been stretched from pregnancy and now putting pressure on my diaphragm, a condition that gets painful if I eat too much sugar. Theres also the little problem of being 10 pounds heavier now than I was in my early 40s. It seems as though we gain about 10 pounds for every decade after the age of 30. The women I know who are in their 50s, 60s and 70s and are still thin achieve that by not eating very much at all.

I once asked my friend Dana how she stays so thin in her late 60s. She leaned closer and whispered in a conspiratorial tone, Im always hungry.

Theres also the pressure of living in Aspen, a place where people are not only beautiful but also high-achieving in everything they do, especially when it comes to athletic prowess. Set foot into any fitness studio and youre bound to find a majority of well-coiffed, well-dressed, artificially young-looking people who are extremely fit and extraordinarily thin.

My friend had posted this article after I had just signed up to do a 30-day cleanse through a multi-level marketing company that sells nutritional products. For a cool $300, Id ordered a month worth of this companys various powders and teas that would help me detoxify and lose weight.

Id done this program once before and lost 14 pounds. Over time though, once I started eating actual food again, the weight creeped back on. The box arrived late, several days after the start date to the group cleanse. Still, Id peruse the private Facebook page that had been set up as an online support group, and discovered people were mostly interested in finding products that were cleanse approved.

Check out this amazing breakfast I had this morning, one wrote. A gluten-free bagel with eggs, tomatoes and avocado. You dont have to feel deprived.

Below that were a series of comments about how the gluten-free bagels were actually chock full of ingredients that werent allowed on the cleanse.

Then there were the comments about how the companys various cleansing products were causing bloating and abdominal discomfort, followed by more comments about how to use the companys other products to counteract the side effects caused by their products in the first place. You should double the amount of the fiber powder to help with the bloating caused by the protein powder, one wrote.

It occurred to me that a lot of these people were missing the point. Yes, a month spent guzzling various protein drinks, fiber formulas and detox teas might help generate a little weight loss, but you cant live that way forever. You also have no idea what those products are really made of, unless you take them to a lab to be tested. When the box finally came, I sent it back.

I realized maybe that article had a point. Wellness is an industry, and us Aspenites are precisely its target market. I guess its a matter of truly understanding what The Aspen Idea of mind, body, spirit is all about. I guess Im lucky enough to spend the rest of my life trying.

The Princess is eating vegan this month. Email your love to alisonmargo@gmail.com.

Read more:
Aspen Princess: Chasing The Aspen Idea through another 'wellness' run - Aspen Times

Maybe you read the widely-shared opinion piece in the New York Times calling on women to smash the Wellness Industry. Maybe youve heard that were in the middle of a backlash against diet culture, or that the latest diet trend is not dieting.

Sounds pretty good, right?

That not-diet diet everyones talking about is intuitive eating, and its the current source of curiosity/obsession among health bloggers, Instagram fitspo accounts, and wellness news publications including, I guess, VICE? 2019 was a big year for intuitive eating, with trend stories appearing everywhere from NPR to the Cut in the last several months.

This way of eating may be newly resonant, but its not newthe philosophy was introduced by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in their 1995 book book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works.

Its not a fad, and thats the difference, said Lisa Sasson, a clinical professor of nutrition at NYU Steinhardt. I teach it in all my classes.

Put simply, intuitive eating is intended to eliminate the guilt associated with food and the binary of foods as good or bad. Its more of a psychological attitude; its not about counting calories or eat this, dont eat that, Sasson continued. Intuitive eating doesnt exult any of-the-moment superfoods; theres no obsessive nutrition label reading.

It is, technically, eat-whatever-you-want, but theres a bit of public misperception around that: Registered Dietitian Anne Mauney, who also uses Instagram to promote an IE lifestyle (@fannetasticfood), said that even though youre not paying attention to calories when eating intuitively, you are being conscious of how hungry or full you are. Theres a focus on how foods make you feel, and an emphasis on mindfulness. That means eating slowly, putting down the fork periodically, checking in after a few minutes to see if youre still hungry, and not continuing to eat just because theres still food on your plate.

The idea is that the longer you stick to these lifestyle changes, the more youre in control. You respect your own bodys signals, Sasson explained.

Its also not a weight loss plan, no matter what you mightve read. If you Google intuitive eating, intuitive eating for weight loss comes up pretty early, Mauney said. Its frustrating, because Ive seen a lot of people marketing intuitive eating for weight loss, which is not at all what its about. If youre really focused on weight loss, its going to be almost impossible to be an intuitive eater.

One of Sassons classes is called Nutrition Through the Life Cycle, and she said were a nation with an eating disorder, behavior that begins when were kids. Children rely on hormones that tell them when theyre full or hungry; they know to eat and when not to. Its parents who make them finish food even if theyre full so they can, say, watch TV or go play. When food becomes more than foodwhen broccoli is a requirement or cookies become a rewardthats when people get out of touch with their own body cues. And that internalized message can follow you your whole life, leading to moderate body dissatisfaction or an all out eating disorder.

Thats not the only thing making it tough to practice. Theres also the fact that the moment we live in is that it isnt built to make eating well, quite so intuitive.

We live in a 24/7 world of food advertisements on the television, on the radio, on Facebook and Twitter, said UCLAs Dana Hunnes, a senior dietitian at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center.

You know, I was at Macys, the department store, a few weeks ago, Sasson said. Every floor had food. You could smell the aroma as youre going through womens shoes, or womens dresses. There was an eating opportunity on every floor.

In a world where SUVs come outfitted with XL cupholders and snacks are engineered to make us crave more and more of them, eating well can be a challenge. When youre constantly being bombarded by billboards plastered with 20-foot-tall burgers; scrolling Twitter during, say, a week-long media craze over a certain fast-food fried chicken sandwich; or looking at the umpteenth grain bowl or smoothie bowl in your Instagram feed, it can be difficult to parse what you want from what you think you want. Hunnes said all that subliminal messaging can dampen or influence our own intuitive thinking, which makes it easy to see why some are skeptical about the IE lifestyle.

So what do you do about it? In short: If you think you want it, eat it. There's no judgement either way, this is all just information, said Molly Bahr, whos both a licensed mental health counselor and an intuitive eating Instagrammer. This can be a helpful reframe each time we think we mess up with intuitive eating ... there is no messing up, it's just information. How else will we learn our natural body cues, what we find satisfying, or what feels good in our bodies? It's all an experiment, and we're gathering data.

Intuitive eating isnt a get-fit-quick schemedietitians will tell you its more of a yearslong and in fact lifelong undertaking. Bahr said its a way of eating and living meant for anyone whos tired of going on diets but not getting the long-term results they expected or hoped for. One of the things she liked about it is that it can truly be tailored to anyoneespecially with the help of a dietitianregardless of their relationship with food.

Someone with anorexia or who has dieted for a long time may not be able to detect their hunger or fullness cues yet, but they can start with other principles like rejecting the diet mentality and work with a dietitian on how to navigate the hunger and fullness piece until the cues get back on line, she explained. Keep in mind, this process can take months and years. No one is expected to get a handle of all 10 principles in 12 weeksthat's sort of a lingering diet mentality.

If youre wondering where to start, or are interested in learning how you can adopt some of the principles in your own life, we asked them to demystify the process and tell us what the intuitive eating-curious need to know.

Bahr recommends reading the books Intuitive Eating, Health At Every Size, The Body Is Not An Apology, and Just Eat It. And she has an array of podcast recommendations: Dietitians Unplugged; Love, Food; Food Psych, Dont Salt My Game.

If that sounds like a lot of reading and listening and youre ready to get going right now, she also laid out the 10 principles of intuitive eating (which you can read more in-depth descriptions of here):

1. Reject the diet mentalityLearn about diet culture and why diets don't work, set aside weight loss goals, and let go of dieting behaviors to get out of our heads and into our bodies.

2. Honor your hungerEat consistently, throughout the day, including when you notice gentle signs of hunger.

3. Make peace with foodGive yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods (excepting those you cant because of medical conditions, of course).

4. Challenge the food policeSay no to the food rules diet culture has taught us about what, how much, how often, and when to eat.

5. Feel your fullnessListen for the signs you're no longer hungry; notice the signals telling you when you're comfortably full.

6. Discover the satisfaction factorEat what you really want to eat. No more food swaps for zucchini when youre feeling pasta.

7. Cope with your feelings without using foodSeek out and learn additional ways to deal with emotions and practice self compassion.

8. Respect your bodySimply put? Treat and talk to your body with respect.

9. Joyful movement: feel the differenceEngage in activities you find enjoyable, and notice what you like about it (better sleep, more energy).

10. Honor your health with gentle nutritionEat a variety of foods and notice how they feel in your body.

Note that these are guidelines, not rules. You dont have to (and truly, wont be able to) do all 10 right away. And, Bahr said, theres no such thing as failure or messing up here; there are wins, and theres learning. You dont have to go in orderalthough principle 10 is listed last for a reason. If we jump into nutrition too soon, we can quickly turn it into another diet, Bahr said.

What happens over time as we start to feed ourselves consistently with food we want, learn our hunger and fullness cues, notice how foods feel in our body, stop constantly trying to lose weight, and cope with our emotions in healthy ways we will naturally begin to crave a variety of foodsincluding nutrient dense foodswithout actually trying to focus on the 10th principle.

If you came to intuitive eating by way of Instagram, you might believe the movement is for a certain type of (thin, privileged) person. (Take a scroll through a few lists of intuitive eating Instagrammers to follow, and youre going to see a lot of white women with incredibly toned upper arms who incorrectly overextend intuitive eating into being a weight loss method.)

Social media absolutely creates a distorted sense of reality and unrealistic expectations, Bahr said. The people she chooses to follow dont center their body on their accounts. In other words, Bahr said, Their body is not their business card.

She recommended digging into your personal biases when it comes to intuitive eating online. Do most of the people you follow look like you or your ideal self?

It may be a signal to diversify who you follow. Look for accounts in different sizes, colors, abilities, and lifestyles.

I know how hard it is in the beginning to wrap our minds around this, but there are no rules in intuitive eating, Bahr said. (Unless, of course, eating something would be fatal.) As humans, we want what we can't have; a lot of people discover they don't actually like the foods they've been avoiding. It took me a few boxes of Pop Tart flavors to realize I actually don't even like them and I haven't looked back since.

Bahr described giving yourself this permission to eat as working through a habituation phasethink, for example, about how excited you are when you get a new phone, outfit, or even a new relationship. Now think about how you feel about these items a year later. The overexcitement fades.

This is where mindfulness comes in: eating slower, chewing, and really being aware of your food. Mauney tells clients to actually pay attention, put it on a nice plate, really sit downno distractionsand enjoy that food. You might realize that half of a cupcake is enough to leave you feeling satisfied, loosening the grip and diminishing the allure that certain foods once held over you.

When you assign a negative trait to a food, you give it power, Sasson said. If you worked in an ice cream shop, and every day you could have two scoops of ice cream, ice cream would not be a big deal anymore. Its denial and deprivation that can lead to obsession.

Its not uncommon to eat emotionally, whether that emotion is loneliness, or sadness, or good old-fashioned boredom. Sassons recommendation was to try and find something else you can do when youre stressed or overwhelmed, and to learn ways to deal that arent foodwhich can provide temporary comfort, sure, but doesnt deal with the real issue.

Bahr said that in the same way cravings and binge-y behaviors will become less frequent the longer you eat intuitively, external factors will begin to influence your food and drink choices less over time. Just as we can trust our body to breathe, tell us when we need to go to the bathroom, or go to sleep, we can learn to trust our hunger and fullness cues while also aiming for satisfaction in our eating experience.

Bahr said to throw out the scale (the one for weighing you, and the one for weighing food) and to delete your food tracking app and other fitness trackers, along with old transformation pictures. She recommends unfollowing accounts that promote diet culture, and instead following actual intuitive eating or healthy-at-any-size accounts.

But, again? Dont feel like you have to do all of that right now.

I havent met anyone thats completed all these things in one day, Bahr said. This takes time. We let go when were ready.

No one is a perfect intuitive eater. Im not sure we can ever 100 percent get rid of those [negative] thoughts, Bahr said. Just know that we dont have to believe all our thoughts. They arent always helpful. They arent orders. And we dont have to listen to them.

It might be really, really hard. This is not a way of eating or living that meshes with our get-it-now culture. But over time, you might feel better. Over time, you might be able to find the joy in eating again.

And whos to say something that gives you psychological joy isnt as important as something thats good for your body? Sasson asked. Start to learn the pleasure that food can bring.

What is intuitive eating? Its really that youre an expert on your own body, Sasson said.

But once again: Its a diet only in the way of eating sense, not in the do this to drop 10 pounds fast sense. Its being co-opted by diet culture and sold as the new weight-loss program, Bahr said, so its confusing to know what's current and who to listen to. Its possible to lose weight with the program; others gain weight.

For anyone who gains weight after intuitively eating, seeing [a] thin, fit celebrity talking about it and praising it may send them mixed signals and may damage their self-esteem, said UCLAs Hunnes. And that could lead an IE newbie to return to the disordered patterns theyre familiar with.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Continue reading here:
Intuitive Eating: The Not-Diet Diet for People Who Are Sick of Diets - VICE

A full-scale nuclear war would likely trigger a worldwide period of cold and darkness that could spark a famine.

However, David Denkenberger, a mechanical engineer at the University of Alaska who runs the nonprofit Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED), told Business Insider that it would still be possible to save humanity with some type of sustainable disaster diet.

Experts have warned that a nuclear war between India and Pakistan would unleash a global catastrophe that would result in 50 to 125 million direct fatalaties and cause a sharp drop in the global temperature devastating the worlds food supply.

Researchers found that if Pakistan attacks urban targets in 2025 with 150-kiloton nuclear weapons and if India responds with 100-kiloton nuclear weapons, smoke from burning cities would release 16 to 36 teragrams of black carbon into the atmosphere, blocking out sunlight and cooling the global surface by 2 to 5C (3.6 to 9F), according to a news story on the website of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

According to Denkenberger, who published his work in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, there are ways to sustain humanity even amid a nuclear winter. A 2008 paper describing how fungi could survive a thermonuclear holocaust and a subsequent nuclear winter drew his interest.

The conclusion of the paper was, maybe when humans go extinct, the world will be ruled by mushrooms again, Denkenberger said in an interview with Business Insider. I said, Wait a minute. Why dont we eat the mushrooms and not go extinct?'

Mushrooms could feed on the milions of dead trees, which could potentially feed everyone still alive for about three years, according to Denkenbergers estimates in his study.

In addition to mushrooms, which dont need much light to grow, seaweed is another potential food source.

Seaweed is a really good food source in a scenario like this because it can tolerate a low light levels, Denkenberger explained to the business publication. Its also very fast-growing. In a nuclear winter, the land will cool down faster than the oceans, so the oceans will remain a little bit warmer. Seaweed can handle relatively low temperatures.

The mechanical engineer estimates the world would need about 1.6 billion tons of dry food per year to feed everyone, but he said humans could possibly grow that much seaweed in three to six months.

Theres definitely historical precedent, he told Business Insider, noting previous volcanic winters that have taken place and triggered cooler temperatures worldwide. But it has been a challenge getting people to think about these bigger disasters.

See the original post:
Doomsday diet of mushrooms could save humanity in event of nuclear war - New York Post

ADELE'S former personal trainer has revealed the strict diet the singer was on to help her lose seven stone.

Camila Goodis - known as the Brazilian body wizard - revealed the gruelling 1,000 calorie a day regime Adele used to shed the pounds on Thursday's Lorraine.

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As well as consuming half the recommend 2,000 calories a day for women andbeing strict about her meals, Adele also stuck to daily workouts to shed the pounds, she claims.

"She's working out but I think 90 per cent of it is diet," she told Lorraine.

"It's a good diet to shed the weight. The first week is intense, green juices and only 1,000 calories," she said.

"She doesn't look too thin - she looks amazing."

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Pilates trainer Camila Goodis, 36, trained Adele, 31, alongside Robbie Williams wife Ayda Fieldat their Los Angeles home.

She said: "When she came for a work out I didn't know it was her and when she left I thought 'Oh it looks a little bit like Adele'.

"She looks amazing - she's changed her lifestyle and diet."

Adele told a holidaymaker on her recent getaway to Anguilla that she a lost a staggering seven stone.

The singer was said to have opened up to a fan about her weight loss while holidaying with Harry Styles and James Corden on the Christmas Caribbean trip.

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Adele shocked fans as she showed off her newly slim and trim figure alongside her English pals earlier this month.

The mum-of-one looked carefree grinning ear to ear while taking in a little sun on the sand.

And now a fan has claimed the star was just as pleasant when she approached them for a chat and discussed her weight loss on the beach.

Lexi Larson told People magazine: "Adele came over and sat down next to me and my friend and was like, 'So what can I do for you girls?'

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"We were so excited. We were talking to her for a little while, and then she got Harry Styles to come over and sit with us also. We took a picture with Harry, and we talked to them for 15 minutes probably.

"She said she lost something like 100 pounds, and that its such a crazy positive experience."

The lucky holidaymaker added that Adele "seemed really confident" as she chatted to fans at Blanchards beach shack.

The Hello hitmaker went on to get pictures alongside Harry, but refrained from getting any solo shots as she was joined by her seven-year-old son Angelo.

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Adeledebuted her incredible weight loss at Drake's birthday party in October, just weeks after she filed for divorce from Simon Konecki.

She is said to have shed the pounds by working out with US trainer Dalton Wong, who also trains her friend Jennifer Lawrence - and following Joe Wicks's Body Coach plan.

A source told The Sun: Adeles been secretly working with these personal trainers.

Shes not the sort to exercise in front of others, so she follows regimes and plans at home, using their videos and tutorials."

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Earlier this week, The Sun revealed the star has also been working out with pilates instructorCamila Goodis.

She was introduced to the fitness professional by Robbie Williams' wife Adya.

Brazilian Camila has told how Adele hates exercise and believes her recent body transformationis down to 90 per cent dieting.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Camila said: I trainedAydafor a long time and it happens that they are good friends so I did Adele when she was there inRobbies house. I dont believe she liked exercise much but she has changed her lifestyle and I believe that 90 per cent was dieting.

Got a story? email digishowbiz@the-sun.co.uk or call us direct on 02077824220.

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Adeles trainer reveals 1,000 calories a day and green juice diet that helped her shed SEVEN stone - The Sun

TheWorld Health Organization(WHO) recently released alistof 13 urgent health challenges the world will face over next decade, which highlights a range of issues including climate change and health care equity.

According to WHO, the list provides an overview of "urgent, global health challenges" that WHO developed with help from experts around the world. WHO said the challenges included on the list "demand a response from more than just the health sector," adding, "Governments, communities, and international agencies must work together" to address these "critical" issues.

WHO said all of the challenges included on the list are urgent, and several are interlinked. As such, WHO did not list the challenges in any particular order.

1. Climate crisis

The world's climate crisis has major health implications, according to WHO, with air pollution alone killing an estimated seven million people annually. In addition, more than 25% of deaths from chronic respiratory disease, heart attack, lung cancer, and stroke are attributed to the same emissions responsible for global warming, WHO said. Climate change also worsens malnutrition and promotes the spread of infectious diseases, according to WHO.

To address the issue, WHO said it is working toward creating "a set of policy options for governments" that aim to lower the health risks associated with air pollution. The organization said, "Leaders in both the public and private sectors must work together to clean up our air and mitigate the health impacts of climate change."

10 easy opportunities to go greenand improve your bottom line

2. Health care delivery in areas of conflict and crisis

WHO noted that, in 2019, most of the disease outbreaks that required the organization's "highest level of response occurred in countries with protracted conflicts." WHO said it recorded a total of 978 attacks against health care workers or facilities in 11 countries last year, which resulted in 193 deaths. The conflicts also forced a record number of people to leave their homes, resulting in limited health care access for tens of millions of people, WHO said.

WHO noted that it is "working with countries and partners to strengthen health systems, improve preparedness, and expand the availability of long-term contingency financing for complex health emergencies." However, the group said "political solutions" are need "to resolve protracted conflicts, stop neglecting the weakest health systems, and protect health care workers and facilities from attacks."

Infographic: View a snapshot of health systems around the world

3. Health care equity

There are major discrepancies in the quality of people's health across socio-economic groups, WHO said. For example, WHO noted that there is an 18-year difference between the life expectancy of people in low- and high-income countries, as well as significant differences in life expectancies among people living within the same countries and cities. In addition, low- and middle-income countries face a disproportionately large burden of cancer, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases, which can quickly put a strain on the resources of low-income households.

WHO said it is working to address disparities in health equity by improving "child and maternal care, nutrition, gender equality, mental health, and access to adequate water and sanitation" and providing guidance on how countries can work to improve health care equity.

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4. Access to treatments

According to WHO, about one-third of people across the world lack access to essential health products such as diagnostic tools, medicines, and vaccines. Limited access to these products fuel drug resistance and threaten people's lives and health, according to WHO.

To address the issue, WHO said it will "sharpen its focus" on efforts to combat "substandard and falsified medical products; enhance[e] the capacity of low-income countries to assure the quality of medical products throughout the supply chain; and improve[e] access to diagnosis and treatment for noncommunicable diseases."

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5. Infectious disease prevention

HIV, sexually transmitted infections, viral hepatitis and other infectious diseases will kill an estimated four million people this year, accord to WHO. Vaccine-preventable diseases also are expected to kill thousands of people over the next decade.

Part of the reason why infectious diseases continue to spread is because of weak health systems in endemic countries and insufficient levels of financing, WHO said. As such, WHO said there is "an urgent need for greater political will and increased funding for essential health services; strengthening routine immunization; improving the quality and availability of data to inform planning, and more efforts to mitigate the effects of drug resistance."

Related: Where to start with antibiotic stewardship

6. Epidemic preparedness

An airborne and highly infectious virus pandemic "is inevitable," WHO said, but countries around the world continue to spend more on responding to these emergencies than preparing for them. This leaves countries unprepared for when another pandemic strikes and potentially threatens the lives of millions of people, according to WHO.

WHO said countries should invest in evidence-based practices to strengthen their health systems and protect populations from disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and other health emergencies.

Briefing: Make sure your disaster plan includes these key elements

7. Unsafe products

Nearly one-third of today's global disease burden is attributed to a lack of food, unsafe food, and unhealthy diets, according to WHO. WHO said while food insecurity and hunger continue to be an issue, there also is a growing number of people who have diets that are high in fat or sugar, leading to a rise in weight- and diet-related diseases. Further, there's been an increase in tobacco and e-cigarette use in most countries, raising additional health concerns.

WHO said it is looking to combat health risks related to unsafe foods and other products by "working with countries to develop evidence-based public policies, investments, and private sector reforms to reshape food systems and provide healthy and sustainable diets," and "to build political commitment and capacity to strengthen implementation of evidence-based tobacco control policies."

Report: Improve patient access to nutrition-reinforced diets

8. Underinvestment in health workers

There is a shortage of health workers around the world because of low pay and chronic underinvestment in health workers' education and employment, WHO said. According to WHO, the shortages negatively affect health systems' sustainability and jeopardize health and social care services. An additional 18 million health workers, including nine million nurses and midwives, will be needed across the world by 2030, according to WHO.

WHO said the World Health Assembly has designated 2020 as the "Year of the Nurse and the Midwife" in an effort to spur "action and encourage investment in education, skills, and jobs" for health care workers. In addition, WHO said it is working with countries to generate new investments to ensure health care workers are trained and paid "decent salaries."

Infographic: Use these 3 paths to help close the experience-complexity gap among nurses

9. Adolescent safety

Each year, more than one million adolescents ages 10 to 19 die, with road injuries, HIV, suicide, lower respiratory infections, and interpersonal violence leading as causes of death among teens. According to WHO, a number of factorsincluding harmful alcohol use, unprotected sex, and lack of physical activityincrease the risks of these types of death.

WHO said it will aim to promote mental health and curb harmful behaviors among adolescents in 2020 by issuing new guidance and working to bolster emergency trauma care.

Just released: Your behavioral health access playbook

10. Improving public trust of health care workers

The spread of misinformation, coupled with weakening trust of public institutions, is playing an increasing role in the health decisions patients make, according to WHO. But when patients trust health care systems, they are more likely to follow a health care workers' advice on how to stay healthy and are more likely to rely on health services, WHO said.

In order to bolster public trust in health care workers and systems, WHO said it is working to help countries "strengthen primary care" and to combat misinformation on social media platforms. Further, WHO added that "scientists and the public health community need to do a better job of listening to the communities they serve," and there is a need for investments "in better public health data information systems."

Report: How to create a consumer-focused digital strategy

11. Capitalizing on technological advancements

Breakthroughs in technology have revolutionized disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, WHO said, and genome editing, digital health technologies, and synthetic biology have the potential to solve a number of health problems.

However, WHO also noted that these technologies raise a number of questions regarding how they should be regulated and monitored. WHO cautioned that without the appropriate guardrails, these technological advancements have the potential to create new organisms and harm people, and said it is setting up new advisory committees to review evidence and provide guidance on the technologies.

Report: 8 clinical technologies with the potential to transform health care

12. Threat of anti-microbial resistance and other medicines

Anti-microbial resistance (AMR) has the potential to undo decades of medical advancements and has increased due to a number of factors, including limited access to quality and low-cost medications, the unregulated prescription and use of antibiotics, poor infection control, and more, WHO said.

The organization said it is working to combat AMR "by addressing its root causes, while advocating for research and development into new antibiotics."

Report: 7 imperatives to transform your quality strategy

13. Health care sanitation

Billions of people across the world live in communities without adequate sanitation services or potable water, which are major causes of disease. And about one-fourth of health care facilities across the world lack basic water services, which are critical to health systems, WHO said. A lack of water and other basic resources results in poor-quality care and increases the likelihood of infections, according to WHO.

To address the issue, WHO and its partners are working with low- and middle-income countries to improve hygiene, sanitation, and water conditions at the countries' health care facilities. WHO also is calling on all countries to ensure all health care facilities have basic hygiene, sanitation, and water services by 2030 (WHO, "Urgent health challenges for the next decade," 1/13).

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The 13 biggest threats to global health, according to WHO - The Daily Briefing

January is a time when our thoughts turn to our drinking habits, detoxes and whether we should be inhaling so much coffee.

As is human nature, we tend to overreact, setting ourselves drastic new health plans full ofstrict rules surrounding sugar, caffeine and carbs. No wonder that come the third week of January, we're collectively staring down the barrel of Quitter's Day Sunday the 19th this year when we're said to be most likely to give up on our resolutions.

Instead of chasing after tough goals, how aboutbecoming just healthy enough? Find a relaxed, intuitive and sustainable way of eating and exercising that doesnt require a huge amount of effort but, crucially, will still keep your health ticking over nicely. Here's how...

January diets are all about giant leaps forward, but when it comes to eating healthily, its the small steps in the right direction that keep you healthy, says dietitian Helen Bond. So rather than imposing strict rules on yourself, just eat these five food groups every day: high fibre wholegrain carbs, which will give you energy and feed your gut microbiome; a colourful mix of fruits and vegetables; something green with every meal; protein, whether its meat or plant-based;a little fat and oil. And drink enough water so your urine is a pale straw colour.

The rest is here:
Stop worrying about diets and detoxes: here's how to be 'healthy enough' - Telegraph.co.uk

Last summer, nine-time NBA All Star and two-time Olympic Gold medalist Chris Paul thought he finally might be slowing down. The 34-year-old point guard (now playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder) was entering his fifteenth season in the league, and he found himself balling next to 19 and 20 year olds. In other words: he was feeling slow.

Earlier that year, Paul had worked on the documentary The Game Changers, a controversial film, which Mens Health fact checked, about the dangers of carnivorous consumption habitsand the boons of plant-based alternatives. As a competitor, Paul wanted whatever advantage a new diet might grant. Plus, he wanted to see if he could do it. So Chris Paul passed on meat.

People on the internet always wanna judge my game, my body, my style, he told Mens Health in a recent video interview. Paul stopped by the Mens Health offices the day after a game in Brooklyn to face his internet opponents and plant-curious fans. The NBA All Star talked about his new, late-career energy, his decision to go plant, and why hed never trade bodies with Kevin Hart. (Dont worry; the two are friends.)

I chose a plant-based life. So far, so good. Not easy. But for me its working. I started plant-based in June. I went cold turkey. I tell you: I was itching. I thought I needed a chicken wing or something. But somehow I made it through. I had the opportunity to executive produce a move/documentary called Game Changers, which talks about plant-based diets and how it helps athletes. For me, being as competitive as I am, I looked at this and I was like: hold up, let me try this out. And I tried it, and the first thing that changes when you go plant basedand it might be too much informationis going to the rest room. It becomes a lot faster. A whole lot faster.

I do feel really good right now. I think the biggest change for me is the aches and pains of the season. I started working out and training and I got to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I thought, am I not lifting hard enough? Am I not training hard enough? Why am I not achy? I aint trying to say you have to stay with it, but give it a try.

"Last year was Houston. When I was in L.A., I wanted to end it there. Where I want to end my career is somewhere where youre appreciated. It sounds like a weird answer, but thats been the coolest part even right now in Oklahoma. I started my career there. Life happened and I ended up there, and its been great being back and around everyone."

"If you spent a day with me now, youd just be like: man, thats what youre eating? My cheat day meal now: I like cookies. Its so crazy being 34 and having teammates who are 19 and 20. Having to chase these guys around. Im always conscious of how much sugar Im getting. But understand, theres always a method to the madness. Theres a reason why I try to eat the way I do and be as disciplined as possible."

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NBA Star Chris Paul on His Plant-Based Diet and The Game Changers - menshealth.com

Impossible Food's "bleeding" fake burger is joined by a plant-based pork product this year.

Impossible Burgermade waves at CES last year, andImpossible PorkandSausage were the buzz ofCES 2020last week. ButImpossible Foodsis just one in a wave of plant-based "meat" producers, includingBeyond Meat andIncogmeatofrom Kellogg's Morningstar Farms, that feed a consumer frenzy for animal-free alternatives. Some eaters are scarfing down these new fake meats for the possible health benefits of a plant-based diet. For others, it's a desire to cut back their personal contribution to ourenvironmental doom.

But the demand for these fake meats is almost entirely driven by people who chow down on animals too.NPDGroup found 90% of plant-based-meat eaters also eat real meat on the regular, according to its study late last year.

Fake meat has long been associated with vegetarians, who don't eat animals, and vegans, who also nix other animal-derived items like dairy, eggs and honey. And fake meats likeImpossible BurgerandPorkpitch themselves as kosher and halal too -- religious diets that forbid eating pig and, in kosher's case, combinations of dairy and meat, which make real cheeseburgers out of the question.

But rather than tapping into a pent-up demand for these foods among vegetarian, halal and kosher eaters, those groups' aversions to eating these animals means they're pretty weirded out by the hyper-realistic fake stuff too.

Now playing: Watch this: Impossible unveils new plant-based pork

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That's all good with Impossible Foods. The Silicon Valley-based startup wants to eliminate the need for animals in the food supply by 2035. That may seem like a long time, but a baby born when Impossible Burger 2.0 launched would barely qualify for a driver's license at the point the world could give up eating animals for good, if Impossible Foods meets its goal.

People are flocking to these faux "bleeding" burgers or sham hams. Burger King just had its best quarter of sales growth in four years thanks to the Impossible Whopper, its parent company said in October. (Burger King will test an Impossible Croissan'wich with pig-free sausage next.) Financial services firmUBS projects the plant-based meat market will grow to $85 billion in 2030. That's trifling compared with Barclays' projection of a $140 billion market within the next decade.

But so far, fake meat doesn't appear to be displacing animals from Americans' diets.

"The country is not becoming more vegetarian or vegan," Darren Siefer, food and beverage industry analyst with NPD, said in an interview last week. "We see meat eaters saying, 'Hey, how else can I get protein in my diet without necessarily adding more meat?'"

As much as these fake meats are associated with vegetarians and vegans, and as often as plant-based alternatives are touted as kosher and halal, people who follow those dietary traditions don't have a gravitational pull to the fake versions of foods they're purposely rejecting.

My colleague Abrar Al-Heeti, a practicing Muslim who has never eaten pig (at least, not intentionally), was one of the first people to taste Impossible Pork before it debuted at CES. "This feels so wrong," she said of the experience, which made her feel queasy for hours.

I had a similar sensation eating Impossible Burger when it was unveiled last year at CES. I ate fake beef tartare in front of the chef who prepared it, who was innocently curious about my reaction while I tried to hide my rising revulsion. Standing face-to-face with him was the main thing that stopped me from spitting out the gooey, pink mass.

Since then, I've found I really enjoy the Impossible Burger served as an actual burger, but now that I can buy it in grocery stores, the raw "meat" still freaks me the hell out. I can't touch it or smell it without triggering an internal siren screaming at me to run away from this pile of dead animal tissue, even though it's mostly a heap of soy.

Impossible Burger sparked intense interest among kosher consumers when it launched last year, according to Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher, the world's largest kosher certification agency.

Apart from interest based on health, environmental or animal welfare reasons, kosher Jews seemed attracted to Impossible Burger for two reasons particular to their community, he said. First, the cost is attractive compared to kosher cow meat, which is often expensive because of the complexity of butchering and preparing it. Second, its plant-based nature meant Impossible Burger is exempt from rules against eating meat and dairy together, which extends to having to wait six hours after eating meat before eating dairy.

Impossible Pork is the latest plant-based meat from the company, unveiled at CES 2020.

But pork is likely to be different, Genack said in an interview last week. In the past when OU certified fake versions of a forbidden meat -- like fake shellfish made from fish or fake bacon -- the products tended to spark initial interest from kosher consumers that gave way to resistance. "It's not just a religious thing, it's a cultural thing," he said.

"We've been inculcated for millennia" against eating pigs, Genack added. "This is something that's been verboten and that we don't eat. It takes time for the person to absorb that this is synthetic, (that) it's not real pig."

It makes sense that 90% of people eating plant-based meats also eat animals, since it basically mirrors the dietary demographics of the US at large. It might seem startling to think the overwhelming majority of people eating plant-based alternatives are carnivorous, but unabashed meat eaters make up about 90% of the US population, according to Siefer's research. Only about 3% of the US is vegetarian or vegan, and another 7% to 8% say they're flexible or "flexitarian," eating meat sometimes and abstaining other times, he said.

Other studies indicate those numbers aren't changing much even as fake meat gains in popularity. Gallup stats show the percentage ofUS vegetariansand vegans has hardly moved over the last seven years. The number of Americans who say they'revegetarian has held unchanged at 5% from 2012 through the end of last year, according to Gallup, while 3% report being vegans, a barely-there increase from 2% in 2012.

Impossible Foodsitself says 95% of people who ate Impossible Burger last year had also eaten meat from an animal in the previous month. But NDP's and Gallup's research suggests fake meats aren't making progress yet to Impossible Foods' goals of reducing animal-meat consumption.

"It doesn't help the world for us to create pork product for someone who isn't going to eat pork from a pig anyway," Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown said at the unveiling of Impossible Pork at CES in Las Vegas last week. "It's important to realize what our mission is: A sale for us only counts if it comes at the expense of the animal-based food production industry."

But the company commissioned its own research last year indicating plant-based alternatives are taking root more among younger consumers. While only two out of 10 US baby boomers (age 55 and older) eat plant-based meat at least once a month, more than half of Gen Z consumers (age 18 to 24) do, according to the Impossible study in the second quarter of 2019.

And it suggested millennial parents (age 25 to 39) are introducing more plant-based foods to their families, according to the company: 72% of millennials with kids are eating plant-based meat more often than the previous year, versus 60% of millennials without kids.

That's still a long way from completely liberating animals from our dinner plates. But, hey, maybe the tides turn when decent fake bacon arrives.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Read more:
Impossible Burger's biggest eaters aren't the people you think - CNET

A recent survey of registered dietitians named the low-carbohydrate keto diet yet again as the most popular diet in the US. Powering this diet is fat, and loads of it up to a hefty 90 per cent of ones daily calories.

Its fans feed social media with before and after photos, crediting the diet for life-altering weight loss or other effects. They swirl butter into their coffee, load up on cheese and eat lonely burgers without its bestie, the bun.

The diet is hailed for dropping pounds, burning more calories, reducing hunger, managing diabetes, treating drug resistant epilepsy, improving blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as triglycerides, the major storage form of fat in the body. People have reported improved concentration, too.

What is a keto diet?

A typical ketogenic diet consists of at least 70 per cent of calories derived from fat, less than 10 per cent from carbs and less than 20 per cent from protein. That can mean chowing down on a lot of cheese, butter, eggs, nuts, salmon, bacon, olive oil, and non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, greens and spinach. The keto diet is vastly different from the USDA dietary recommendations of 45 to 65 per cent of total calories to be from carbohydrates, 20 to 35 per cent from fat, and 10 to 35 per cent from protein.

The goal of the ketogenic diet is to enter a state of ketosis through fat metabolism. In a ketogenic state, the body uses primarily fat for energy instead of carbohydrates; with low levels of carbohydrate, fats can be converted into ketones to fuel the body.

For ketosis, a typical adult must consume less than 20 to 50 grams of net carbohydrates total carbs minus fibre each day. Crossing that threshold is easy: a thick slice of bread adds 21 carbohydrates, a medium apple 25, and a cup of milk 12. Its not just bread and soda that are on the outs but high sugar fruit and starchy veggies like potatoes, as well as too much protein.

There are many ways to interpret the keto diet. Some people eat a salad with chicken, dressed in olive oil, while others feast on bacon washed down by diet soda, the kind of diet known as dirty keto. Thats eating anything, including processed foods, as long as your carbs are low enough and your fat high enough to achieve ketosis. The best diet is one that works for you, but if you want to try this, avoid trans fats such as margarine and limit saturated fat by consuming lean cuts of beef, skinless chicken breast and fatty fish like salmon. Reach for foods high in unsaturated fats such as avocado, nuts, seeds and olive oil.

Christopher Gardner, the lead author and a professor of medicine and nutrition scientist at Stanford Prevention Research Center, US, also says he sees one common misconception about keto: eating too much protein. Most amino acids in protein foods can be converted into glucose in the body, undermining efforts to keep carb intake low. It drives me nuts that people dont get it, he said when he sees people eat, for instance, steak after steak.

Can I lose weight on it?

For the first two to six months, theres evidence that a very low carbohydrate diet can help you lose more weight than the standard high carbohydrate, low fat diet, according to a new literature review of low-carb diets by the National Lipid Association.

By 12 months, that advantage is essentially gone, said Carol F. Kirkpatrick, director of USs Idaho State Universitys Wellness Center, and lead author of the new literature review. She said keto is best used to kick start a diet, before transitioning to a carb intake that you can adhere to for the longer term.

How long to see results?

For some, its the promised land of diets. Instead of cringing through carrot sticks, they can fill up on chorizo with scrambled eggs. Indeed, some evidence suggests that people feel less hungry while in ketosis, and have fewer cravings.

Thats why its become so popular for the general population, said Dr Mackenzie C. Cervenka, medical director of Johns Hopkins Hospitals Adult Epilepsy Diet Center in the US. Because once you are in ketosis, its easy to follow. Usually, it takes between one to four days to enter the state, doctors say, but it depends on many factors like activity level: a runner, for example, may sprint there faster than a couch potato.

The keto diet appears to deliver fast results: The first pounds seem to slip off. That can be seductive but its likely water weight. Then, dietitians say, its back to energy in minus energy out. You can gain weight on any diet if youre consuming 5,000 calories a day, according to Whitney Linsenmeyer, director of Saint Louis Universitys Didactic Program in Dietetics.

Its not like it is going to magically alter your metabolism to where calories dont matter, she said. And when resuming the carbs, that water weight returns.

Does it help with diabetes?

Yes. Carbohydrate is the biggest driver of blood sugar, said Dr William Yancy, director of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, who sees a lot of promise in the diet helping those with diabetes.

A new randomised clinical trial enrolled 263 adults with type 2 diabetes into group medical visits, with half receiving medication adjustment for better blood sugar control, and the others undergoing weight management counselling using a low carb diet. (All participants of the study had a BMI that fell within the range of overweight or obese.)

Both groups experienced lowered average blood sugar levels at the end of 48 weeks, according to findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine. However, the weight management group on the low carb diet slimmed down more, required less medication and had fewer problematic low blood sugar episodes.

For those with type 2 diabetes, a low carb diet seems to improve average blood sugar levels better in the first year than the high carbohydrate, low fat diet. After that time, the review by the US National Lipid Association found that difference almost disappears but with a very important benefit: the low carb participants were able to use less medication. People like that because they dont like to be on diabetes medicines, Dr Yancy said.

Are there side effects?

At first some can experience some stomach issues and GI distress. Ninety percent of calories from fat is probably going to be a shock to the system, said Linsenmeyer.

Its crucial, doctors say, to consult with a dietitian or physician, have cholesterol levels checked, and replenish the fluids and sodium lost by increased urination and the severe restriction of carbohydrates. If not, within two to four days of beginning the diet, that depletion may bring on keto flu dizziness, poor sleep and fatigue.

Carbohydrates have a lot of nutrients that can help us maintain our body function, said Carla Prado, director of the University of Albertas Human Nutrition Research Unit, US. Some people experience keto breath, a halitosis likely caused by the production of acetone, one of the ketone bodies.

Possible side effects for patients with epilepsy starting the diet include constipation, vomiting, fatigue, hypoglycemia, worsening reflux and increased frequency of seizures. The US National Lipid Association review urges patients with lipid disorders (high cholesterol or triglycerides), a history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (such as a heart attack or stroke), heart failure and kidney and liver disease to take caution if considering the diet. People on blood thinners should take extra care.

Whichever eating plan one chooses for 2020, certain recommendations are nearly universal: cut down on refined carbs and ultra-processed foods, and consume more whole foods, particularly non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli, asparagus, and spinach.

The optimal diet lies somewhere between what has been proposed historically the high carbohydrate, low fat diet and the ketogenic diet, said Dr Cervenka.

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Does the keto diet work? - Telegraph India