BUFFALO, N.Y. For years, parents of children with high blood lead concentrations have been advised by health experts to provide their kids foods rich in iron, calcium and vitamin C.

The research behind these dietary recommendations, however, is lacking, according to a new paper by a University at Buffalo researcher published online Tuesday (March 7) in the Journal of Pediatrics.

We dont have the right evidence base to be making these recommendations, says the papers author, Katarzyna Kordas, an associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health in UBs School of Public Health and Health Professions. We need to be more up front with parents to say we dont know whether this will work.

The impetus for the paper came when a health worker contacted Kordas to inquire about dietary suggestions she could offer families affected by lead exposure. The case worker asked if there was such a thing as a lead diet, or food-based approaches that would effectively lower childrens blood lead concentrations. Kordas said to her knowledge none existed.

That call was an important aha moment for me as a researcher. This is a critical question we need to ask. If people in the field are asking what they should be recommending to parents, we as researchers need to examine that, says Kordas, PhD, who has studied the health effects of exposure to various metals and chemicals both in the U.S. and abroad.

In addition, the Flint water crisis, in which high levels of lead were discovered in the water supply in that Michigan city in 2014, showed that lead remains an issue in the U.S., albeit not as significant as it once was.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide some of the most commonly referenced suggestions on managing elevated blood lead levels in children. The CDC recommends eating foods rich in iron, calcium and vitamin C. Overall, though, its very vague, so its not surprising that there is some confusion out there, Kordas said.

Kordas notes that the intent of her paper is not to criticize the CDC, which, she says, made its recommendations based on the evidence available in 2002 and when the guidelines were updated in 2012.

Its not that these recommendations are bad or that they wont work. But if recommendations are being made based on diet or foods, there should be evidence backing that up, and the evidence is very limited. If the recommendation is that you should be eating iron-rich foods or red meat, there should be studies that have evaluated whether that will work. There is no such thing, Kordas says.

Unlike other divalent elements (meaning they have a +2 charge), such as iron, zinc and calcium, lead is a poisonous metal that has no positive benefits in the human body. But it still finds ways to get in. Lead is the great mimicker, Kordas explains. It uses the transport systems these other divalent elements use to get into our systems.

Because of the way these other elements interact with and, in some cases, counteract lead, public health experts surmised that diets rich in these nutrients might help a person reduce their blood lead levels. But, Kordas says, Theres a difference between saying Im going to try this even though I dont know if it will work and Im going to try it because I believe that its going to work. I dont think its just semantics.

The only telltale signs of lead exposure in children occur at extremely high levels well above the actionable threshold of 5 milligrams per deciliter which is why its important that parents have their kids tested for it at a pediatricians office. Still, between 2004 and 2010, only 1o to 18 percent of children in the U.S. were tested for lead exposure, according to the CDC.

The threat of lead exposure has waned in the U.S. with the elimination of paints and gasoline that once contained the element. However, the nations aging infrastructure think corroding pipes and other plumbing materials underscores the fact that lead remains a public health problem, as evidenced in Flint, Michigan, three years ago, Kordas says.

Flint made a lot of people realize that lead continues to be a problem, and its clearly something that frontline health workers are still facing and need information on.

Originally posted here:
Evidence lacking to support 'lead diet' - University at Buffalo - UB News Center

Bob Lieske enjoys an athletic background. He ran Grandmas and the Twin Cities marathons, skied the American Birkebeiner, and he carried the moniker Long Bob while patrolling the net in local coed sand volleyball circles well into his 50s.

Lieske is now 70 and engages different physical challenges. He struggles at times with his gait and balance, and he has occasional hand tremors. This past Wednesday he confronted those challenges by moving through various yoga poses like the cat-cow and the bird-dog, accompanied by relaxing, New Age-type music. He also engaged in more rigorous workouts like simulated ladder climbing and boxing, these under brighter lights and stimulating tunes including James Browns I Feel Good.

Lieske experienced these two apparently disparate workouts in a single room during a single class. Lieske has Parkinsons disease, and as part of his fight against the illness he attends Yoga for Parkinsons, a weekly class taught by Ellen Dovre at The Yoga Center of Eau Claire.

This is a pretty different kind of yoga class, Dovre told me Wednesday after allowing me to observe the class.

For one thing, normal yoga classes are quiet. We make noise, especially when were working on fitness, which is why no one teaches yoga classes in there while were here, she said, gesturing to an empty adjacent yoga room. And in a typical fitness class, you wouldnt have this much work on breathing, stretching, calming the yoga aspects.

In developing the class, unique in Eau Claire, Dovre drew on her background she holds a masters degree in physical therapy and is a certified yoga instructor and visited other cities to research yoga classes focused on Parkinsons patients.

I wanted to combine the best of what I knew would be beneficial from yoga with what I knew would be beneficial from being a physical therapist, she said.

Parkinsons disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system. There is no absolute test to diagnose it, and theres no known cure. Doctors diagnose it by basically eliminating all other possible causes of the symptoms, which can include rigid muscles, slowed movement, and impaired posture and balance. Treatments include medications, diet and a heavy emphasis on exercise.

I hesitate sometimes when Im doing something, kind of come to a stop, Lieske told me recently in describing one symptom of the disease known as freezing. My train of thought of what Im doing kind of drifts away. And I have to watch when Im walking to pick up my feet. I have stumbled twice.

Lieske was diagnosed with Parkinsons about four years ago. He learned about the special yoga class while participating in a BIG for LIFE physical therapy program at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital. It pertains to exaggerating all your movements, he said. Move, move, move.

Everybody experiences Parkinsons differently, Dovre said, but when you think about it, everything seems to be drawn inward; walking in short, shuffling steps, small gestures, small voice. Were trying to reprogram the brain to move big again, which would actually be moving normally.

The Parkinsons yoga class is divided into three parts. Participants start out seated in chairs performing a variety of stretching exercises to natural light and soft music. Next, the class stands, the lights come up, the music shifts to up-tempo, and Dovre leads them through a variety of broad, exaggerated movements, often accompanied by the group counting out the reps in loud, united voices.

Finally, the class lies down on yoga mats, the lights dim, the music softens, and Dovre leads them through a variety of breathing and relaxation exercises.

Its getting everybody safely warmed up so we can do the big stuff in the middle, and then easing back, calming down both the body and the mind, Dovre said.

Another participant Wednesday was Ken Berg, 66, a retired Eau Claire County sheriffs captain. Berg went to his doctor a couple years ago because his voice was getting softer and his handwriting was deteriorating. Doctors eliminated every possible cause other than Parkinsons.

Berg heard about Dovres class, came once out of curiosity and has been coming back ever since.

If someone told me four years ago Id be going to a yoga class , he told me with a wry smile, leaving the rest unspoken. But I came, and I just got hooked.

Between medications, diet and exercise, the symptoms that Berg first experienced have diminished considerably. But hes still a yoga class regular.

The class for me is about prevention of symptoms that are yet to come, he said. Theres prevention, and theres also camaraderie, because this is the only place I go where I see anyone else who I know is a Parkinsons patient.

That sense of fellowship was obvious as the group members joked with each other as they prepared for the class or patiently waited for someone with more complex physical challenges to complete an exercise. Many have been coming to the class every week since it was first offered several years ago.The members often give each other a hard time if someone skips a session, Dovre said.

Lieske lived in Eau Claire when the class first started. He has since moved to Menomonie, but his wife, Vicki, drives him back to Eau Claire weekly to attend the class.

The people in the class do become close to each other, I think in part because we do share that common diagnosis, he said. We dont talk much about specifics, but we understand things about each other that other people might not.

Lieske acknowledged the emotional toll of his journey into Parkinsons. Hes had to give up captaining his own sailboat out of Bayfield. He no longer drives a car.

That one hit me the worst, he said.

He then spoke of another benefit of the yoga class, one which he struggled to articulate but hinted at the inner peace considered one goal of the practice of yoga.

Theres a psychological part to it too, he said. The movement, the concentration: If Im feeling kind of crummy, and I go to the class, when its over, I feel better. I feel brighter.

Contact: 715-830-5926, dan.lyksett@ecpc.com, @ECPC_DanL on Twitter

-

Call Ellen Dovre at 715-831-6030 for more info on Yoga for Parkinsons at The Yoga Center of Eau Claire

Read more:
They feel good: Goal of yoga class for people with Parkinson's disease is to transform their small, inward world ... - Leader-Telegram

The concept of The Paleo Diet, in its simplest form, is dont eat anything a caveman couldnt eatas if they possessed some long-forgotten nutritional knowledge of whats good to eat and whats not. But a new study suggests that paleolithic people ate just about anything. If they had gotten the chance to dive-bomb a bag of Doritos, they would have.

The study, led by Laura Weyrich from the University of Adelaide, confirms what you may have already been thinking. Cavemen ate whatever they could find in order to survive, or so says their DNA. Some ate a lot of meat, like woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep. Others had entirely vegetarian diets, munching on mushrooms, pine nuts, tree bark, and moss. Weyrich explains to The Atlantic:

When people talk about the Paleo diet, thats not paleo, thats just non-carb. The true paleo diet is eating whatevers out there in the environment.

Neanderthals were adaptable and versatile, but they lived in extremely harsh conditions. There was no room to be picky. The Paleo Diet recommends you avoid foods like grains, legumes, potatoes, and dairy, but a Neanderthal would probably be thrilled to eat those. Their version of a paleo diet was if its edible, eat it or die. Of course, none of this means there arent benefits to subscribing to such a diet. If you like The Paleo Dietor one of its many offshootsand it helps you accomplish your nutrition goals, by all means, do it. Just keep in mind that it doesnt line up with the ways paleo people actually ate.

Link:
Your Paleo Diet Isn't Actually Paleo - Lifehacker - Lifehacker

It is well established that a poor diet can raise the risk of cardiovascular death. New research, however, sheds light on the leading dietary risk factors for death from cardiovascular disease, as well as how many cardiovascular deaths these risk factors equate to.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an umbrella term for conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels. These include heart attack, heart disease, heart failure, and stroke.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), CVD is the leading cause of death across the globe. In 2012, CVD was the cause of around 17.5 million global deaths, accounting for around 31 percent of all deaths that year.

How does diet contribute to the burden of CVD death in the United States?

Dr. Ashkan Afshin, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, and colleagues sought to answer this question with their new study.

Results were recently presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health 2017 Scientific Sessions, held in Portland, OR.

The researchers used data from a variety of global sources to reach their findings, including 1990-2012 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and food availability data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The team then looked at the number of CVD deaths that occurred in the U.S. in 2015 and used a systematic approach to quantify how certain dietary factors contributed to these deaths.

The researchers calculated that both a lack of healthful foods and high intake of unhealthful foods contributed to more than 415,000 CVD deaths in the U.S. in 2015. Of these deaths, more than 222,000 occurred in men and more than 193,000 occurred in women.

The team found that low intake of nuts and seeds and a low intake of vegetables were the two leading dietary risk factors for CVD death, accounting for 11.6 percent and 11.5 percent of deaths, respectively.

A low intake of whole grains accounted for 10.4 percent of CVD deaths, while excess salt intake was responsible for around 9 percent of CVD deaths.

Dr. Afshin and colleagues say that their findings show that adopting a healthful diet could help to save tens of thousands of lives every year.

"Low intake of healthy foods such as nuts, vegetables, whole grains, and fruits combined with higher intake of unhealthy dietary components, such as salt and trans-fat, is a major contributor to deaths from cardiovascular disease in the United States.

Our results show that nearly half of cardiovascular disease deaths in the United States can be prevented by improving diet."

Dr. Ashkan Afshin

Learn how a Mediterranean diet could reduce the risk of CVD.

See the original post here:
Poor diet to blame for almost half of CVD deaths - Medical News Today

Newser

Researchers See Drawback to Gluten-Free Diet Newser One is that the gluten-free versions of foods that are typically made with gluten (cereals, cakes, crackers) often have lots of sugar, and thus attempting to go gluten-free could inadvertently result in a less healthy diet. One thing that could help: A ... The Surprising Health Risk Of Your Gluten-Free DietMen's Health Gluten-Free Diets Actually Increase Risks of Type 2 DiabetesNewsweek Downside to Gluten-Free Diets: Diabetes Risk?WebMD Medical News Today -Popular Science -Healthline all 72 news articles »

Continue reading here:
Researchers See Drawback to Gluten-Free Diet - Newser

When I mean a Water Buffalo Diet, I don't mean that you eat like one. I merely use this title as a way to classify and to correct misconceptions of diets that are high in liquid. What I call Water Buffalo Diets are those that make you wallow in water or other liquids, depriving you of essential nutrition.

You know how it starts. After a particularly unending weekend of binge eating and binge drinking, you decide to turn over a new leaf or compensate for all the indulgences. You then decide to take the extreme step - liquid diet. It is actually quite bad for you. It doesn't matter whether it's juices, soups or water.

I once had a client who came into my clinic after completing a liquid diet. It comprised lime water, reduced food intake and drinking more than four litres of water every day. Needless to say, the weight she lost came right back, and then some more. I'll tell you what I told her: if you are on a liquid diet no matter what that liquid may be you will be almost completely starved of carbs, proteins and fats, all of which are crucial for your health. And, get this, crucial for long-lasting weight loss plans.

Go here to see the original:
The water buffalo diet - Times of India

At While We Were Young. Photo: Noah Fecks

Warby Parker alum Jen Rubio is the co-founder of Away, which specializes in simple, stylish luggage. Since her business is less than 2 years old, Rubio is very much in start-up mode this week, she moved her team to a larger office, held meetings with investors, and worked on a Sunday night (with the help of RedFarm). She also ate pasta all around New York even for breakfast, one day and made good use of the citys many delivery services. Read all about it in this weeks Grub Street Diet.

Thursday, March 2Rubys is in my neighborhood, and I walk past it every day on my way to work, but they dont open till 9 a.m. So I always have my phone, ready to order right when they open. And I always get the mushroom scramble, which is so good.

And then, after the photo shoot that morning, I ordered a Sweetgreen salad for lunch, but it basically just sat on my desk all afternoon. I have a real love-hate relationship with lunch. Im either at a really great lunch meeting, or I just forget to eat.

But that was fine, because later in the day I took my PR team to dinner at Charlie Bird. I love taking the team out for dinner, because we basically order one of everything. Although, I did try to order the $95 rib eye, and that got vetoed as being too intense. But we did have literally one of everything on the menu except for that.

Friday, March 3 I love holding meetings at the Crosby Street Hotel. I do this thing where I tend to over-order for breakfast, and then Im really sleepy. But that day, I just got the porridge with mangoes.

It was actually moving day for Away on Friday. We moved from Soho to Noho. I was basically running errands all day, so I picked up a salad from Sweetgreen; but, mysteriously, I got back home and realized that I probably left my salad on a shelf at Duane Reade. I ended up ordering from Mimi Chengs instead; instead of snacking like a normal person, I often get dumplings as a snack.

Im obsessed with Sugarfish in Los Angeles, where I go once a month, and I eat at Sugarfish once or twice a week when Im there. It just opened here in Flatiron, but its impossible to get into. I tried to go there for dinner with my boyfriend on Friday, but it was a three- or four-hour wait, so we just gave up and ordered in from Uncle Boons. The crab fried rice is my favorite. And the rotisserie chicken is out of this world.

Saturday, March 4With a colleague and a friend, I braved the cold and went on a dim-sum tour in Flushing. This friend is a dim-sum connoisseur and took us all around. I had big plans to go to the Armory Show, but I ate so much that I got sick and had to skip it. I was incapacitated from all the dim sum.

But I have another friend whos starting this company called Collection Coffee. He came over that afternoon and gave me some of his new coffee beans and an espresso machine to try, so he taught me how to use that. I normally go to Gasoline Alley for coffee. I ended up skipping dinner on Saturday because I had drunk so much coffee, and I still felt sick from the dim sum!

Sunday, March 5 My good friends were in town from L.A., so I went to 11 Howard, where they were staying, in sweatpants to just lie in bed and order room service. And I love 11 Howard to death, but its room service just comes in takeout containers its not like the full room-service experience that you want. So half an hour after, we were still hungry. We ended up walking a few blocks up to Sant Ambroeus, and had a second breakfast there. They all got breakfast foods, but Im having a real pasta moment. I basically stopped eating pasta for a couple months, and now Im back in full force. I mean, thank god.

It was 11:45 in the morning, and everyone around me was eating eggs, and I had the spaghetti carbonara for breakfast. It was amazing. And whenever Im there, I always order pancakes for the table. After my two breakfasts, I ended up at the Bowery Hotel for a weekend work session over tea, which turned into 4 p.m. drinks, and we ended up ordering food from Gemma to our table. I love their little crostinis, and I always get the pesto pasta.

At this point, Id had a breakfast and two pastas, and a lot of Old Fashioneds. But it was still pretty early. By the time I had left, it was only 6:30 p.m. Normally on Sundays, I just like to prep for the week ahead, and my co-founder, Steph, and I have a tradition of getting RedFarm. I got the three-chili chicken and the pork-and-crab soup dumplings. It was a little extravagant for ordering in, but it was so good.

Monday, March 6 I was like, Okay, Im going to be healthy! I went to Greecologies, which is around the corner from my apartment, and I got Greek yogurt with rose-petal honey. I mean, obviously, Ive never eaten a rose, but it was just incredible. It tastes like a rose does, I think. And then I went next door to Cha Cha Matcha, which is such a hot spot right now, but when you go really early, all the cool kids that go there arent always up yet. So its bearable and easy, and you dont have to wait 20 minutes for a coconut-matcha latte.

Monday was our first day in the new office, which was super exciting. I had a full day of meetings, so I ended up ordering in from Hu Kitchen. I always order a chocolate bar, so no matter how healthy my order is, I end up eating an entire bar of chocolate before the days over. I like the one with quinoa puffs. I also had an avocado smoothie and chicken soup. I still felt good about myself for getting healthy Paleo food.

We just launched a collaboration with Pop & Suki, so we had a launch dinner at this new restaurant in the West Village called While We Were Young. Its tiny; it probably only seats about 30, but it has pastel hues, which are perfect because we launched a pink suitcase. I had tuna tartare and squid-ink spaghetti. Can I really say I had pasta again? Everyone was drinking ros because it was pink.

Tuesday, March 7 Our new office is on Fourth and Lafayette, so were right across from Lafayette, the restaurant, which is a great place for breakfast meetings. I got a smoked-salmon Benedict, and they do it with this amazing brioche bun on the side and its smoked-salmon hash in a skillet. Its one of my favorite breakfasts in the city.

A few hours later, I actually had a lunch meeting at Lafayette again, and I got a rotisserie-chicken salad. This was a pretty serious business meeting with one of our investors. So, you know, I got the salad. We were having a pretty intense business talk, and then a waiter walked past, and he was holding a bowl of their black macaroni with rock shrimp and tomato sauce. And we both looked at it, and were like, Should we get that for the table? So this serious business lunch turned into us literally splitting a bowl of pasta. Another bowl of pasta. I do work out.

We do a dinner with every team every quarter. Im not going to name the place, but we had a very subpar dinner at an Italian place. The service was terrible. They randomly brought out a birthday cake, and we thought maybe they brought it to the wrong table, but it was nobodys birthday in the whole restaurant. We were confused. Beforehand, I had walked past Hecho en Dumbo, and they make this amazing stuffed pepper, and that was all I could think about at this Italian place. I did have another pasta sampler, though, because Im embarrassing, and I have to eat pasta three times a day.

Wednesday, March 8Were being featured in an AmEx commercial, and the hair and makeup team came to my apartment. I was trying to be a good host at 6 in the morning, so I showed off my newfound espresso skills and bought a bunch of pastries, but I was basically the only one who ate them. I showed up to the shoot with crumbs in my hair, and everyone was like, Whats wrong with you?

Later, we had our board meeting, and we ordered in from the Smile some rotisserie chicken and the cauliflower. But then, I did that thing where youre just talking the whole time, so you dont really get to eat. I ended up ordering chicken fingers from Dirty Bird.

For dinner, I went to a dinner hosted by Karlie Kloss at Two Hands, and then I was off to the airport after that. This is kind of embarrassing, but I have this airport tradition at JFK Terminal 4: I always go to Buffalo Wild Wings, and I always get snack-size boneless, hot barbecue wings. Its a little much right before you get on a plane, but I just cant walk past Wild Wings without eating there.

This makes 71 franchisees that have settled labor violations with New York State.

11 tastemakers on their favorite glasses for water, juice, or iced tea.

Come see inside, what we do, the real lives of the men and women who work here.

Once again, the chain will invite customers to doodle on a blank canvas.

It appears that a new era of congeelike chao, turmeric-oil-stained catfish, and pillowy, empanada-like bnh gi is upon us.

The family-owned store wanted to pay tribute to the legacy of its most famous employee.

So this serious business lunch turned into us literally splitting a bowl of pasta.

Theyll be no more after March 17.

So much dripping chocolate.

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The definition of this sacred New York dining institution has changed over the years, but the best steakhouses share certain time-honored qualities.

Where to find a very quick sushi meal for just under $30.

The flavors include riffs on Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, and Cocoa Krispies.

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Read more here:
Start-up Founder Jen Rubio Eats Pasta Multiple Times a Day - Grub Street