February 12th, 2010 by Nancy Brown, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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What is it about our culture that encourages newer and riskier ways to challenge our health? Public health folks have become very concerned about the latest challenge – alcoholic energy drinks. These are prepackaged beverage with alcohol and caffeine, as well as other stimulants, that look like other energy drinks but carry a much more powerful, and dangerous, punch!
There were 500 new energy drink products introduced worldwide in 2006 with average sales topping $3.2 billion. These products are targeting youth by creating brand confusion with nonalcoholic versions; providing a cheap alternative to mixing energy drinks with alcohol; and using youth-friendly grassroots and viral marketing. The names of these products say it all – Rockstar, Sparks, and Tilt. Read more »
This post, Why You Shouldn’t Mix Energy Drinks With Alcohol, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..
February 5th, 2010 by Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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Bloomberg recently posted that the New York school system is going to eliminate whole milk from their cafeterias to cut calories. 4.6 billion calories and 422 billion grams of fat will be eliminated from the menu by this plan. A good plan for the kids involved. Well, at least a good start.
As the post notes, schools nationwide are working diligently to tweak menus and offer healthier alternatives for kids in all grades from elementary school to high school. Some schools, such as the school district my kids attend, use electronic payment systems where parents can log-on to see what their kids have purchased. We’ve found this helpful at times to remind our kids about healthy alternatives and how to order a healthy lunch, especially on days when they find them selves either completely ravenous or with little time, which can easily happen in a typical school day. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Gwenn Is In*
December 27th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Tips
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Regular readers know that I’ve been promoting healthy lifestyle choices since this blog’s inception. In fact, I even used to lead a weight loss group called “Lose 20 pounds with Dr. Val.” I’ve often joked that because of the law of the conservation of mass, when someone loses weight, someone else must “find” it. And well, I guess I realized – looking towards 2010 – that I had found some of that weight myself!
If healthcare reform debates teach us one thing, it’s this: the future of healthcare coverage is uncertain for all of us, so the most important thing we can do is avoid needing it (if at all possible)! Time to turn that into a New Year’s resolution… so here’s what we can do: Read more »
December 21st, 2009 by Joseph Scherger, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Research
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You would expect that diet sodas would help you lose weight since they have no or minimal calories. Drinking a diet soda rather than a regular soda saves you all that sugar, right? Many people develop diet soda drinking habits due to several factors, the caffeine, the sweetness or just wanting to drink something without the calories.
The link between diet sodas and weight is not what you might expect. Reviewed recently in the medical journal JAMA (Dec. 9, 2009), a major heart study showed that people who drank more than 21 diet sodas per week had twice the risk of becoming overweight or obese compared with people who don’t drink diet soda. In another major study, daily consumption of diet soda was associated with a 67% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes (cause by excess weight). Drinking diet sodas gives you the same “sweet tooth” behavior as other sweets and actually results in people eating more calories than if they stayed away from sweets in general. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at eDocAmerica*
December 20th, 2009 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
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Hi there. I’m addicted to pineapple.
This week, I’ll be five months pregnant, and it seems like the vitamin C cravings I had early on in my pregnancy are back with a vengeance. Orange juice (yes, with pulp), kiwi fruit, apples, raisins (even though they’re low in it, I still want them), and pineapple. To the point where Chris and I bought a pineapple at the grocery store last week and I ate half of it in two days time. What’s good is that, for whatever reason, my blood sugars aren’t rebelling against this fruit overload. (Different from cute overload, where hamsters play the trumpet.) Before the BSparl invasion, I had things like oatmeal timed out with precision, so that I could eat something with 30 grams of carbs in it without a spike, but just one apple could cause my numbers to go berserk. Now? Oatmeal is hard to predict, but I can nosh on a whole bowl of fruit salad, estimate the carbs, and coast in the low 100’s for NO REASON.
Pregnancy and type 1 diabetes is a very peculiar combination. /digression Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
