Category Archives: Diet And Food

Following a diet that mimics fasting may reduce risk factors for disease in generally healthy people, according to a small study.

Dr. Min Wei of UCLA's Longevity Institute and colleagues tested the effects of the fasting-mimicking diet on various risk factors for diabetes, heart disease, cancer or other conditions.

The diet (FMD; brand name ProLon) is low in calories, sugars and protein but high in unsaturated fats. Forty-eight study participants ate normally for three months while 52 ate FMD for five days each month and ate normally the rest of the time. After three months, the groups switched regimens. Although all participants were considered healthy, some had high blood pressure, low levels of "good" cholesterol, and other risk factors.

A total of 71 people completed the study, which was published in Science Translational Medicine. Body mass index, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol improved with FMD, but mainly for those who were already at risk. Side effects were mild, including fatigue, weakness and headaches.

Wei and Dr. Valter Longo of the University of California, San Diego, said in an interview published in the journal that while "the great majority" of participants had one or more risk factors for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease or cancer, "FDA trials will be necessary to demonstrate whether periodic FMD is effective in disease prevention and treatment."

Dr. Joseph Antoun, CEO of L-Nutra, Inc., which produces FMD, told Reuters Health by email that FMD "is intended for use by individuals who want to optimize their health and wellbeing, by overweight or obese individuals who want to manage their weight in an easy and healthy way, and by people who have abnormal levels of biomarkers for aging and age-related conditions."

That said, Antoun acknowledged that if you have common conditions associated with overweight and obesity such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, you should not use FMD without a doctor's approval.

The product also should not be used by children under 18 or pregnant or nursing women. And it's not for you if you have certain metabolic diseases, liver or kidney disorders that may be affected by the very low glucose and protein content of the diet, or if you have nut or soy allergies. What's more, it "should never be combined with glucose-lowering drugs, such as metformin or insulin," according to Antoun.

Registered dietitian Ashlea Braun of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus pointed out that researchers compared the fasting-mimicking diet to participants' usual diet. "Therefore, we don't yet know how this diet stands up against long-standing approaches already shown to be beneficial, such as the Mediterranean or DASH Diet."

"It's not clear if (FMD) enables individuals to consistently meet all micronutrient requirements," she told Reuters Health by email. "It's also not known how this type of restrictive diet affects muscle mass in the long term, and what impact this has on various indicators of health."

"Although there is some evidence showing these type of restrictive diets can help 'jump start' people considering lifestyle changes, more research is definitely needed before this is recommended for individuals," Braun concluded.

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'Fasting-mimicking' diet said to reduce risk factors for aging - Fox News

We do not always need a definitive RCT to know what we know; and I make a living running such trials. Suppose you wanted to know with something nearing certainty what specific dietary pattern was best for human health. How would you proceed?

First, you would need to define best in an operational (i.e., measurable) way. Does best mean lowers LDL in the short term, or does it mean raises HDL, or both? Does it mean it lowers inflammatory markers, or insulin, or blood glucose, or blood pressure? Does it mean all of these, or does it mean something else? Is the short term one month, or three, or a year?

I dont think any of these, or anything like them, really satisfies what we think we mean when we say best for health. I think the intended meaning of that is actually rather clear: the combination of longevity, and vitality. Years in life, and life in years, if you will. I think a diet is best for health and yes, I have wrestled with this very issue before if it fuels a long, robust life free of preventable chronic diseases (e.g., heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, dementia, etc.) and obesity, and endows us with the energy both mental and physical- to do all we want and aspire to do. That, I think, is a robust definition of best for health.

We are obligated to wrestle comparably with the operational definition of a specific diet. Low fat, or low carb dont mean much. A low fat diet could be rich in beans and lentils, or made up exclusively of lollipops. A low carb diet could cut out refined starch and added sugar, or exclude all fruits and vegetables. Lets not belabor this, and simply concede that the relevant test to prove that one, specific dietary prescription (e.g., the Ornish diet, or the South Beach diet, or the DASH diet, etc.) is best is to establish optimized versions of the various contenders, from vegan to Paleo, and put them up against one another directly.

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And now our tribulations begin. As we noted at the start, our outcome is the combination of longevity and vitality. To get at longevity, we need a very long trial; in fact, our trial needs to last a lifetime. So, just to get started, we are toying with the notion of a randomized trial running for 80 to 100 years.

Since we are comparing optimal versions of diets reasonably under consideration for best diet laurels, we may anticipate that our study participants are apt to be healthier, and longer-lived in general than the population at large, consuming the lamentable typical American diet.

Thats a problem too. If our entire study sample does well, it raises the bar to show that one of our diets is truly, meaningfully better than another. The smaller the difference we are seeking, the larger the sample size we need to find it. That now means we need not only a RCT unprecedented in length, but unprecedented in size, too. We need to randomize tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands to study the effects of competing diets on vitality and longevity at a cost that is staggering to contemplate, and would certainly run into the billions of dollars.

This study has not been done. This study will not be done. But, so what?

Lets contrast our ostensible need for this RCT to how we know what we know about putting out house fires. There has never been, to the best of my knowledge, a RCT to show that water is a better choice than gasoline. Do you think we need such a trial, to establish the legitimacy of the basic theme (i.e., use water) of the right approach? Would you, and your home, be willing to participate in such a trial when you call 911 knowing you might randomly be assigned to the gasoline arm of the study?

I trust we agree that observation, experience, and sense serve to establish beyond the realm of reasonable (or, even, any) doubt that water is generally good for putting out house fires, and gasolinenot so much.

My friends diet is the same. The want of a RCT addressing this kind of water versus that does not mire us in perpetual cluelessness about the basic approach to putting out fires. Sure, we could do RCTs to add to what we know, but the want of such studies does not expunge what we already know based on empirical evidence, long experience, observation, and sense.

A diet comprised principally of minimally processed vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils and pulses, nuts, seeds, with plain water preferentially for thirst is the best theme for human and planetary health alike, and runs commonly through all the legitimate, specific contestants, just as water is the best theme when aiming a fire hose. To conclude otherwise is to misconstrue the utility of randomized trials, succumb to their tyranny, and lose our way in a bog of tribulations.

Dr. David L. Katz, http://www.davidkatzmd.com; is founder, True Health Initiative.

Excerpt from:
Dr. David Katz, Preventative Medicine: Diet Trial Tribulations - New Haven Register

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The study, conducted by a research group of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, has analysed the diet of Muslim individuals at the Tauste (Zaragoza) site and has determined the differences existing in diet according to sex and age. This piece of work is part of the PhD thesis being written up by the geologist Iranzu Laura Guede about diet and mobility in the medieval period in the north of the Iberian Peninsula.

This study has applied techniques belonging to geology to address the unknowns that have arisen in other disciplines such as archaeology or anthropology at the archaeological site at Tauste (Zaragoza). Excavations carried out in this municipality disinterred the skeletons of 44 Muslim individuals who lived between the 8th and 10th centuries. On the basis of this discovery, a research group from the UPV/EHUs Department of Mineralogy and Petrology in the Geology Section undertook to analyse dental samples of these human remains to establish the diet of this medieval Muslim community.

The researcher Guede used the technique of laser ablation to carry out targeted analyses of the teeth. One of the features of this technique is that the sample does not need a lot of preparation and that, furthermore, it is not particularly aggressive on the fossil remains. So it allows such remains, which in archaeology are limited, to be conserved, thus preserving them for future studies.

The chemical results have uncovered the existence of considerable differences in the food of adult men compared with that of women and younger people. It has been confirmed that adult males ate more protein of animal origin than the women and younger people, whose diets were richer in pulses and vegetables.

The analyses carried out by this research group have to be anchored in the studies of historians, anthropologists and the archaeologists themselves. Numerical data on their own indicate nothing, but they are essential for supporting the hypotheses and discoveries of archaeologists and historians, stressed Dr Zuluaga, one of the supervisors of Guedes PhD thesis. That is why, even if we cannot find out exactly the origin of the animal protein through these analyses, we can assume that it came above all from sheep and goats on the basis of written texts and anthropological knowledge about medieval Muslim society.

In this respect, studies of this type provide proof that we are what we eat, according to Samuel Epstein (1951), a geologist famous for developing methods for analysing stable isotopes. What we eat goes on to form part of our bodies and provides us with very valuable information that ends up recorded in us, in this case in our teeth.

The study has focussed on the dentine as it is, according to the geologist Iranzu Guede, more suitable than dental enamel for establishing diet: the chemical composition of the dentine is gradually remodelled throughout our lives and that is why the elements that form part of our diet are recorded during the final years of peoples lives.

Besides the food issue, the research has also made other very interesting discoveries such as high lead concentrations in the dentine of four individuals. The concentration of lead is so high that it suggests that they were poisoned by this element, stressed this young researcher. The origin of this element is anthropogenic and, according to various studies, could be due to the work they did involving the handling of lead minerals, possibly in the production of glazes for ceramics.

The mystery of the woman with the earring

Among the individuals found stands out a woman who was buried with an earring. This is a very curious fact as Muslims never buried anyone with jewels or other elements belonging to their lifetimes, explained Iranzu Guede. According to the mobility studies that this PhD student is carrying out, it has been possible to confirm that this woman was born in the town of Tauste, lived outside it for a long time and then returned a few years before her death, although the reasons for her journey will always remain unknown.

This research has also been able to show that this Muslim community was a stable community since, with the exception of two foreign men and women, most of the people were born and died in Tauste.

Site with 4,500 individuals

This site was discovered as a result of work carried out on the public thoroughfare of the municipality; subsequently, the cultural association El Patiaz carried out various interventions between 2010 and 2013. The excavations were conducted under the supervision of the archaeologist Francisco Javier Gutirrez, who believes there could be up to 4,500 graves across the two hectares that may have been occupied by this necropolis. The anthropological study of the human remains discovered has been carried out by the anthropologist Miriam Pina.

At the same time, carbon 14 dating establishes that this population lived between the 8th and 10th centuries during a febrile era following the conquest by the Muslims. In fact, these pieces of research have been essential in confirming the Muslim presence in a settlement in which their existence had been unknown.

The study by Iranzu Guede is part of her PhD thesis supervised by Dr Maria Cruz Zuluaga and Dr Luis ngel Ortega and which studies the mobility and diet in different settlements during the Middle Ages in the north of the Iberian Peninsula.

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Diet and mobility end up recorded in our bones and in our teeth - HeritageDaily

Want to be sure youre eating enough protein to maintain your muscle mass? Be careful about which sources you choose. Here are four common sources of protein that our dietitians believe will do you more harm than good:

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy

Hot dogs, bacon, sausage and other processed meats may be your guilty pleasure. But their price tag for your health is high.

Hot dogs have very little nutrition for the amount of calories youre consuming, and contain only a small amount of poor-quality protein, says Emily Bostin MS, RDN, LD. Theyre loaded with preservatives and contain mechanically separated meat (pink slime), she notes.

Adds Julia Zumpano, RD, LD, Hot dogs and other processed meats such as salami, pepperoni, and sausage generally contain less protein than a piece of fresh lean meat or fish.

Their high saturated fat and sodium content raises cholesterol and blood pressure, and encourages weight gain.

Most worrisome of all, processed meats are considered carcinogenic. Many contain nitrates or nitrites, which studies link to several cancers. Regularly eating processed meats is correlated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer.

Eating lots of red meat meaning beef, pork and lamb can be hazardous for your health.

Grain-fed red meat is the worst source of protein, due to its high saturated fat content and impact on the environment, says Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD.

Research links diets high in red meat to a higher risk ofheart attackandstroke. The World Health Organization has also named red meats probable carcinogens because they are associated mainly with colon cancer, but also with pancreatic, prostate and other cancers.

And since cattle consume more than 30 percent of the worlds grains, beef is not an efficient source of protein. Cattle also contribute significantly to greenhouse gases.

If you must eat red meat, do so sparingly, and choose grass-fed meats. They are lower in fat, and research shows they contain 50 percent more omega-3 fats than conventionally fed animals, she says.

Add protein powder to your smoothie every morning? Be sure to read the ingredients first. All protein powders are not created equal, says Brigid Titgemeier, MS, RDN, LD.

The protein base can be whey, casein, beef, collagen, hemp, pea or rice.

But some protein powders are also loaded with added sugar, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, etc., she says. And because they are regulated as supplements and not food, protein powders may also contain fillers, binders, colors, flavoring and preservatives.

She recommends choosing a high-quality product that is in line with your eating principals. If youre vegetarian, youll want plant-based protein. If you have a dairy intolerance or allergy, youll want to avoid whey.

As a general rule, she recommends looking for organic protein powders that have few ingredients, and no added sugars, artificial sweeteners, preservatives or fillers.

Are you a cheese lover? Relying chiefly on dairy for your protein has pitfalls. It may be wise to cut back if you want to avoid weight gain.

Most dairy products contain some animal protein: 7 grams in 1 ounce of cheddar cheese, 8 grams in 1 cup of milk, 9 to 17 grams in 8 ounces of yogurt.

But a single ounce of cheddar cheese also has 6 grams of saturated fat.

Its easy to overdo portions of this high-fat protein food, says Anna Taylor, MS, RD, LD. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend the average diet include no more than 22 grams per day, and those fat grams add up.

Adds Alax Neiswonger, RD, LD, Excess weight increases your risk of diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease and other health problems.

Lower-fat cheese can have a place in a healthy diet when used in moderation, says Ms. Taylor. She suggests no more than 1 ounce per day.

More protein does not always provider greater benefit, notes Ms. Titgemeier. Too much protein can cause problems with dehydration and can accelerate kidney disease. And more protein may not equal more muscle when youre getting more than you need.

Avoid these unhealthy options when trying to boost protein in your diet. Instead, focus on getting the right amount of protein from the most nutritious sources.

The rest is here:
Protein: The 4 Worst Ways to Beef Up Your Diet - Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic (blog)

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Dangers Of Gluten-Free Diet 5newsonline.com HEALTHWATCH - People who eat a gluten-free diet may be at risk for increased exposure to arsenic and mercury. Scientists found that people who reported eating gluten-free foods had higher concentrations of arsenic in their urine and mercury in their ... Gluten-free diet: What's allowed, what's not?News8000.com - WKBT Toxic metal at higher concentrations in gluten-free food?Fox News The hidden health risk in gluten-free dietsWell+Good I4U News -Tech Times -LWW Journals all 45 news articles »

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Dangers Of Gluten-Free Diet - 5newsonline.com

12 ways to make dieting easier Men's Fitness "To be successful in the long run, I don't think absolute restriction is all that important," Mazur says. Rather, it's more important to find balance, moderate, and take the time to fit in those foods you really enjoy. "Take an 80/20 approach," he ...

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12 ways to make dieting easier - Men's Fitness

Its common knowledge that eating sugar does no favors for a body. But is sugar having worse effects than just adding empty calories to our diets?

Award winning investigative science journalist and cofounder of the Nutrition Science Initiative Gary Taubes discusses the detrimental effects that excessive sugar consumption has on people, and how excessive may be actually a lot lower than you might think. Taubes is the author of the new book, "The Case Against Sugar."

For years, dietary fat and salt shouldered the blame for causing heart disease and high blood pressure. But, according to Taubes, the body of evidence supporting that blame is insubstantial. Instead, he points to another culprit: sugar.

Taubes attributes the rise in sugar consumption and subsequent rise in obesity and diabetes in the U.S. to the increased popularity of low fat diets that often substituted fat for sugar in the 1980s.

Coinciding with the beginning of the [obesity] epidemic, [refined sugars and grains] had become in effect heart healthy diet foods, Taubes said. The government was even pushing the food industry to create low fat products, and in order to make those low fat products tasty, the food industry was replacing the fat with sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Taubes distinguishes between added sugars and naturally occurring sugars, like those you might get from fruits or vegetables.

For instance, when we consume the sugar in an apple, a medium sized apple, about 85 percent water, what isnt water is fiber, which we dont digest, and then sugar and fructose, Taubes said. Most of the apple is water and fiber, which slows down the digestion of the sugars. When you eat an apple you get a relatively small dose of sugar and you digest it slowly.

Taubes emphasizes the importance of acknowledging that a diet that might benefit one individual might not benefit another. He is of the somewhat controversial belief that people who suffer from obesity or diabetes should avoid eating fruit altogether, because, according to him, the negative effects from the sugar and carbohydrates in the fruit will outweigh the benefits.

We give public health advice in this country to everyone equally as though they all should be eating the same diet, Taubes said. One of the things Ive been arguing is that in obesity and diabetes, even though fruit would be harmless if not benevolent to a marathon runner, its not doing any favors to an obese or diabetic individual.

For those who arent obese or diabetic, Taubes acknowledges that a little bit of added sugar is not hazardous, but he doesnt encourage it. He likens the philosophy of everything in moderation to allowing recovering cigarette addicts to continue to smoke, so long as they dont go overboard.

Smokers will tell you, they cant imagine life without cigarettes any more than the rest of us can imagine life without smoking, Taubes said. We dont say too many cigarettes cause lung cancer, we say cigarettes cause lung cancer. We dont advise smokers to smoke in moderation, we advise smokers not to smoke.

Taubes holds what he calls another controversial opinion: that reducing overall caloric intake wont decrease weight. Rather, he places the blame for causing people to be overweight on the type of calories consumed, an unsurprising opinion for the author of a book titled Good Calories, Bad Calories. Specifically, Taubes says the calories that pack on pounds are those from refined carbs and, of course, sugar. He recommends opting for a high-fat, low-carb diet along the lines of the Atkins diet instead.

Taubes is cautiously optimistic about the future of high-fat, low-carb diets, with some doctors already embracing the diet. In order for it to become fully mainstream, he says, medical organizations will have to acknowledge that they made mistakes. He says finds it difficult to imagine theyll do so, but remains positive that the diet will catch on.

Im hoping this will be revolution from the bottom up, because patients and individuals can go on these diets and see how well they work themselves, Taubes said. Physicians can see that they can finally make their patients healthy rather than giving them drugs to resolve their symptoms.

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Subtracting added sugar: Society's sweet addiction and how to fight it - WRVO Public Media

ENID, Okla. Exercise, fruit and vegetables, lean meat and whole grains are all keys to fighting obesity.

There are a couple of different perspectives in the fight, said John Friedl, physical activity and nutrition manager for Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Theres the individual level, at which individuals should take in a balanced diet and be physically active up to the recommendations, he said.

But then theres also things outside of the kind of individual responsibility that go to how are citizens of the communities we live in, the state that we live in, how do we start to re-shape the environment to where it really promotes health and wellness, rather than promoting an unhealthy lifestyle to where we have to go out of our way to be healthy?Friedlsaid.We want people being physically active, but theres also the responsibility of communities of this state to give people a healthy environment so that its not as hard to be healthy.

Recommendations on eating and exercise can be found at shape yourfutureok.com. The website, maintained by OSDH, is in collaborationwith Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust. Its a clearinghouse of information with links to other places to be healthy, but its all vetted through physical activity and nutrition experts, he said.

Its kind of an easier way to make sure that what youre looking at is actually valid and not just pulled off the internet from anywhere,Friedlsaid.

Another source is the U.S. Department of Agriculture website.

Its all the things most of us have been taught all our life. The fruits and vegetables, the lean meat and good, whole grains is the foundation of really what we should be taking in,he said.

Children need age-appropriate physical activities,Friedlsaid.

Along with shapeyourfutureok.com, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website provides guidelines for children.

Obviously, if a younger child doesnt have the coordination to partake in an activity, they shouldnt be doing that physical activity,he said.

Children under age 18 need about an hour a day of moderate, vigorous physical activity.

Their heart should be going just a little bit faster, they should really be breathing just a little bit harder. Its not a casual walk. Adults need 30 minutes on most days of the week, with the combination of cardiovascular exercises like jogging, biking, swimming, but also some strength-training exercises. So it could be bodyweight exercises, it could be lifting some weights, but to really help build those muscles. Then you also want some flexibility training in there to do some light stretching to make sure your muscles dont get too tight. Children need all three types of those as well, but at an age appropriate level, he said.

If the weight status of an individual is so high they really need to lose some weight, and burn more calories and adjust intake, it has to be a balanced, slow approach,Friedl said.

Not the, How rapidly can we lose this? Thats not really a healthy way to lose weight, he said.

Long-term, fad diets are really not successful, and really not healthy,Friedlsaid.

I think we all have the examples of somebody thats gone on a fad diet and rapidly in one to two to three weeks seen some success in losing some weight. Initially, oftentimes people can lose some weight, just because its different, just because its a reduction in calories. But in the long term, theres a reason theyre all fad diets, he said. In the long term, its really not a sustainable diet, its really not a sustainable level of calories to take in, and so after that initial drop, you tend to kind of see things level off and possibly even kind of regain some of the weight as your body adjusts to that current intake of calories.

Or its just unsustainable to eat whatever the fad has to eat every day for the next 20 to 30 years of your life; theres no way you can actually live that way. In the long term, fad diets really arent successful. Again, thats why theyre fad diets and not ongoing diets. Thats why the balanced fruit and vegetables, lean proteins and whole wheats, as far as carbohydrates, is really kind of sustained because its something that people really can do. It is maintainable, where these fad diets, its just not a sustainable way to survive and exist in the environment that we live in.

Depending on the type of diet, there are some inherent dangers.

The focus on a particular type of food, or a particular type of substance to take in, then if youre not taking in that balance ... youre not getting the vitamins, and minerals and things that your body really needs to function. You can lose the weight, you can survive on it for a little while, but your body doesnt really work properly, and eventually some of the body systems start to shut down or slow down, and you just dont feel good and youre not operating at a high level,Friedlsaid. Just like if you never get your oil changed in your car, it can run for a little while, but the damage youre doing to that engine oftentimes isnt reversible.

You can take in the one thing theyre telling you to eat all the time, but if youre not getting the protein you need, your muscles arent developing, theyre starting to break down; your organs are made of muscle, so the organs start to break down, theyre not functioning the way you need to.

The body does not process a multivitamin quite the same as eating fruits and vegetables, he said.

You dont want to restrict your body from getting something thats a healthy nutrient,Friedlsaid. Thats one of the things that oftentimes we talk about. What are the bad things that I should be avoiding? The high sugars, the fats, those things. And thats a good conversation to have, but on the flip side its, What do I really need to take in to be healthy? What do I need to take in to be well? Thats where we look at that balance of those macronutrients, the carbohydrates, the proteins, the dairies, but then also those other chemicals that are in a variety of fruits and vegetables. Getting a different array of colors in your fruits and vegetables kind of comes with different vitamins and minerals.

Making sure youre really taking in a variety of fruits and vegetables, a variety of meat or protein sources and some good, healthy carbohydrates really keeps your body taking in what you need so you can really function at your best.

The rest is here:
Expert shares keys to fighting obesity - Enid News & Eagle

Bye Bye Bao Bao: As America says goodbye, panda work continues Smithsonian Insider (blog) Lounging inside a specially outfitted crate aboard a panda-branded jet departing Dulles International Airport, Bao Bao will be served her usual bamboo, apple and sweet potato diet and soothed by the familiar faces and voices of her keepers to ease her ... and more »

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Bye Bye Bao Bao: As America says goodbye, panda work continues - Smithsonian Insider (blog)

Commentary By Amanda Merck, MPH | 10 hours ago

Kathryn Boyd-Batstone / Rivard Report

Runners charge up one of the many uphills along the Mission Reach trail.

Updated 2 hours ago

For San Antonio tobe at itshealthiest, its residentsneed and deserve safe places to move more and sit less.

However, there is inequity in the citysplaces designated for walking, biking, playing, and being active. City officials mustlook beyond maps of facility locations to the context of real people trying to make healthy life choices.

For example, a map of the Howard W. Peak Greenway Trail System shows an emerald necklace going around and through San Antonio. Yet, these trails are only open from sunrise to sunset, which means they are open less than 12 hours per day for six months out of the year.

Many working families striving tobe more active and less sedentaryare unable to access the trails within this limited window. Southside residents, in particular, face additional barriers because the southern-most access point of the Mission Trail off Villamain Road is only open between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Thats why I asked the San Antonio mayoral candidates about their plans to solve this inequity at the recent town hall forum hosted by the Rivard Report at the Pearl Stable.

What are you going to do to transform our incredible trail system from a recreational facility to a health and transportation facility that is safe and accessible for everyone? I asked Mayor Ivy Taylor, District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg, and Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Manuel Medina.

Listen to their full responses to the questions here.

Heres a quick snapshot of their responses:

I dont know about the hours that it should be open or not, because certainly we also want to make sure that anyone thats out there is safe, Taylor said.

It needs to [be] more than just a system that connects one park to another, Nirenberg said.

We need to make it easier for people to get to them, Medina said.

None of the candidates mentioned expanding hours, lighting, or patrolling trails, but we cannot ignore the great need for access to safe, active places.

Why? Heres a quick biology lesson (from someone who is not a biologist):

Our cardiovascular system is our lifeline for delivering oxygen, vitamins, minerals, proteins, hormones, and other chemicals to our organs, muscles, bones, and all other tissues. It also is our lifeline for getting rid of carbon dioxide and other waste. Our veins and arteries are constantly squeezing and releasing vasoconstriction and vasodilation to pump our nutrient- or waste-filled blood. Like any muscle atrophies without use, our blood vessels lose function and become less effective without physical activity. However, the exact mechanism through which this occurs is complex and not fully understood.

Basically, sitting increases inflammation, which damages the inner walls of your vessels (endothelium). Moderately intense physical activity, however, preserves the inner walls of these vessels and prevents plaque buildup and hardening.

These benefits are separate from the numerous other benefits obtained from variousother chemical, molecular, and biological processes that occur when you are physically active, such as reduced risk for diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, osteoporosis, and manytypes of cancer.

The good news is that walking works regardless of weight status or diet, and you can walk or be active in short bursts throughout your day without having to depart from your normal daily routine.

If you have access to safe places, that is.

Educating people about the trails is moot when they are closed for half the day. Similarly, considering the trails as a resource for connectivity isnt painting a complete picture because they are only open part-time, which is counterproductive to the essences of connectivity.

Arecent SA2020 report identified four indicators in San Antonio that have stopped progressing or are going in the wrong direction: public transportation, obesity, air quality, and walkability. According to the report there is a need to continue to make both behavioral and systemic changes in our policies and infrastructure in order to make lasting change.

I hope our city leaders consider making lasting infrastructure changes.

In the case of our greenway trail system, the infrastructure is mostly in place, so its a matter of opening it to the public to use at whichever times accommodatetheir busy schedules.

Kathryn Boyd-Batstone / Rivard Report

Broadway Street was closed for Sclova so hundreds of bikers could safely ride the streets.

While there are incredible programs and events across the cityFitness in the Park, Sclova, Fit Pass, Fit Family Challenge, San Antonio Walks, Mobile Fit, Walk This Way, and many more permanent infrastructure like trails and sidewalks need to be safe and accessible year-round.

I also hope our leaders can distinguish the line between physical activity for health and for exercise or recreation, which are historically only accessible for the privileged and less available for residents living in underserved areas. Physical activity for health includes walking, biking, dancing, playing, skating, doing yoga, swimming, and many otheractivities.

People of color and low-income populations are disproportionately burdened by pedestrian injuries and deaths.

According to Salud America!s research review on active spaces and Latino kids, fewer Latinos (70%) than whites (82.5%) describe having neighborhoods with safe places for kids to walk and play.

Studies show that walkable neighborhoods provide many economic, safety, environmental, health, and social benefits; however, not all neighborhoods in San Antonio are created equal, with many low-income, predominantly Latino neighborhoods lacking safe, walkable infrastructure.

Inequity in access to safe places to walk, bike, and play can be seen on the South, West, and East sides of San Antonio. Lack of safe places to be active means people living in these areas face disparities in obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.

Some bright spots are occurring:In February 2017, State Rep.Celia Israel(D-Austin)proposed House Bill 1368 to lower the default speed limit in urban areas from 30 mph to 25 mph, as well as House Bill 1745 to allow cities to lower speed limits on certain highways withoutthe costly burdens mandated bycurrent legislation. Making it easier for cities to lower speed limits is critical because most crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists occur on arterial or collector roadways where default speeds are far greater than 30 mph.

District 5 Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales is leading the San Antonio Vision Zero initiative, with the goal to eliminate traffic fatalities, especially those of pedestrians.

According to SA2020, San Antonio continues to make progress on Complete Streets, but not at a rate great enough to meet the 2020 goal. When the City didnt meet Dignowity Hill residents standards for a street construction project, urban planners and residents got involved by requesting and successfully gaining more walkable streetscape elements.

Regardless, safe places to walk and be active are big part of public health and equity issues that need attention.

San Antonians would surely like to hearthat City leaders are working to improve equitable access to health facilities, includingexpanded hours, lighting, and safety. Research shows that scheduling park programs later in the evening keeps parks occupied bypeople engaging in beneficial activities, thusdeterring undesirable ones.

San Antonio has a new set of bond measureson the ballot in May.Its vital for community members to get involved and keep the focus on the real-life context in which these projects will be completed. Fifty-two plus miles of trails sounds great on paper and look awesome on a map, but if people cant walk their dogs on them before or after work, they representa missed opportunity.

Salud America! has a bank of resources and nationwide stories to help community members work with City leaders to increase access to safe places to walk and play, particularly in Latino communities.

Follow Salud America!on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest and register on our site. You can connect with local groups and organizations that are already working to make the healthy choice the easy choice, such asthe Active Living Council of San Antonio,a public-private partnership of policymakers, business leaders, school administrators, program providers, and community membersthatdeveloped the Active Living Plan for a Healthier San Antonio.Or you can learn from case studies of successful healthy change across the country.

Together, we canprioritize equitable access to safe, active places in San Antonio and beyond.

Amanda Merck is a content curator/research area specialist for Salud America! at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.

More:
Salud America!: On SA's Need for Safe, Accessible Recreation Spaces - Rivard Report