Australian and New Zealand Researchers from University of Adelide, CSIRO and Massey University have discovered the ability for people to taste fat. This sixth sense of taste other than sweet, salt, sour, bitter, umami (ability to taste proteins/aminoacids) which the human tongue can detect has been concluded to hold the key for reducing obesity.

The most interesting part of the research is that while all the participants could detect fats in the food, some were much better at it than others. So the researches then determined whether such sharper fat tasting abilities corresponded to higher fat consumption and the results showed that they actually did- the higher the person’s fat-tasting sensitivity, the fewer fatty foods the person consumed which led to lower body mass index.

The research team of Dr.Russell Keast and PhD student Jessica Stewart said that the taste threshold for fat differed from person to person and some people had more sensitivity while others did do not.The research team also developed a screening procedure which can test the ability of people to taste a range of fatty acids which are most commonly found in foods.

Dr.Keast mentioned that-

“With fats being accessible and commonly consumed in diets today, this suggests that our taste system have become desensitized to the taste of fat over time, leaving some people more susceptible to overeating fatty foods. “

He also said-

“we are now interested in understanding why some people are more sensitive and other are not, which we believe will lead to ways of helping people lower their fat intakes and aide development of new low fat foods and diets.”

Study source Deakin University

Some years back, a couple of Danish epidemiologists wondered why Greenland’s native Inuit had such a low rate of heart attacks when their diet actually consisted of fatty whale and seal meat. When the two researchers flew to the land and collected blood samples from the natives, they found that the cholesterol levels of these Greenlanders were good but not good enough to explain their healthy hearts. But on further studies, they found a fatty acid called the omega-3 fatty acids in the blood for the first time ever and this explained the healthy hearts.

It was deemed since then that omega-3 fatty acids or popularly known as fish oil had a protective effect on the heart and Americans today spend almost $3 billion on nutritional supplements and foods fortified with omega-3 fatty acids.

But how much of fish oils supplementation is good for your health and what are the effects of “over-fishing”?

First of all, we need to understand the two different types of Omega fatty acids- Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. These polyunsaturated fats are also called the essential fatty acids because they are essential for health but cannot be made by our body. So, we have to obtain them from our food. Omega-3 fatty acid is abundant in fatty fish (such as salmon, mackerel and sardines) , fish oils and in walnuts, flaxseed oil and canola oil. Omega-6 fatty acids are found in more plentiful dietary sources including cereals, whole grain breads, most vegetable oils, eggs, poultry and baked goods.

The most important aspect of consuming omega fatty acids is to balance both the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. The recommended dietary intake of 3-Omega fatty acids is 3grams a day which is generally 3 servings of fatty fish every week and the intake of Omega-3’s should be four time more than Omega-6’s.

This recommendation is due to the fact that Omega-3 has all sorts of benefits beyond heart health including brain and eye development in kids and helping ease depression. There is even a study which shows that young people with signs of mental illness can be spared from developing full blown schizophrenia with Omega-3’s.Unfortunately a typical American diet provides at least 10-30 times more Omega 6-fatty acids than the Omega-3’s and so it becomes a necessity to supplement by fish oil to reach the appropriate ratio.

Studies have shown that fish oils pill supplementation can modestly decrease a person’s chance of dying in patients with heart disease. These fats act as mild blood thinners and act in reducing the risk of sudden cardiac arrest by improving the electrical conductivity of heart cells. Even in healthy people, fish oil intake has shown to protect the heart. The American Heart Association recommends that healthy people eat omega-3 fatty acids containing fish at least twice a week.

So, choosing a fish oil supplement is critical. It is important to pick foods supplemented with a type of Omega-3 fatty acid called EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (decosahexanoic acid). Research has shown that fish oil containing these two fatty acids protect the hearts of people who already have cardiovascular disease and may also have benefits in healthier people at risk for cardiovascular disease.

But, most of the foods at the supermarket are supplemented with Alpha-lenoleic acid (ALA) instead of EPA or DHA. Research shows that ALA does not have the same kind of benefit because the body does a poor job of converting ALA to EPA. So it is essential to make sure that your supplement contains EPA or DHA and not ALA.

Although they are generally considered safe, in some people who bruise easily or have a bleeding disorder or taking a blood-thinning medication , care should be taken while supplementation as it can sometimes cause more bleeding. Some studies have shown that over fishing (more than 3grams of Omega-3 fatty acids per day which is equal to 3 servings of fish every day) may raise the risk for stroke caused by bleeding in the brain.

People who start using fish oil supplements might experience bloating or diarrhea at first which resolves quickly. It is a good idea to opt for a time released variety of these supplements. Also, remember that the FDA does not regulate these supplements so always talk to your doctor before you start off on a supplement. Cardiologists also remind that the benefits of fish oil should not be overplayed as they do not replace other well-proven medicines such as cholesterol-lowering drugs so do not neglect your other medications on the account of taking fish oil supplements.

For more information on fish oil supplementation visit-

Omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil, alpha-linolenic acid

Cancer Screening

“Screening, in medicine, is a strategy used in a population to detect a disease in individuals without signs or symptoms of that disease. Unlike most medicine, in screening, tests are performed on those without any clinical indication of disease.”

Screening is one of the methods used in preventive medicine to detect and hit a particular cancer or disease at its budding stages. It is a powerful strategy to reduce mortality from cancers and it has been proven to be an useful tool again and again to detect cancers at a very early stage. But the immediate question arises- How early is early?

A recent report suggests a significant increase in the number of these screening tests. It states that too many cancer screenings, too many heart tests and too many cesarean sections are being performed even though unnecessary- too many Americans are being over treated.

The present day American society relate tests to good health care and prevention. Prevention is all that your mother told you- eat right, exercise well, get enough sleep and don’t smoke- but people have slowly equated prevention to administering new screening tests. So who is to blame for an increasing number of unnecessary screening tests? Is it the doctors who stretch their preventive medicine prowess or the patients who have become so accustomed to a culture of medical awareness that they insist on extensive screening tests and treatments?

May be, it is a combination of both. The ever changing guidelines from National Institutes seem smudged and as tens and thousands of people are routinely screened for cancers and other diseases, the financial costs to the society is huge other than considering the harmful effects of some of these tests.
We have to remember- More care is not necessarily better care! Recently, a New England Journal of Medicine Study suggested that too many patients are getting angiograms (an invasive imaging test for heart disease) when they really don’t need them; and often too many times, doctors are opting for a repeat cesarean delivery in pregnant women after a first C-section.

Just last week, the American Cancer Society put more doubt into the guidelines suggesting routine PSA testing for prostate cancer. A few months ago, there were groups recommending against regular mammograms for women in their 40s as well as fewer pap tests for screening for cervical cancer.
The debate is paramount- even among experts, as to how much routine screening is actually beneficial and saves lives?

Sometimes, these screening procedures can detect very slow growing tumors- too slow to cause any harm- resulting in their treatment and thus causing harmful side effects and other medical complications from drugs. For Instance, the treatment of a prostate cancer which may be too slow-growing to be life threatening can mean incontinence and impotence! Other than causing such deadly complications, at times, screening procedures tend to give false positive results which ultimately lead to more invasive procedures involving much higher risks.

On the other side of the table, health professionals and advocacy groups argue about the improvement of survival chances and claim that saving even a few lives is worth the cost of routinely testing tens of thousands of people.

But some expert doctors believe this is bad science or think that this is a path of least resistance often taken by health professionals to protect themselves from lawsuits- a way of defensive medicine! Health professionals like Dr.Gilbert Welch, an Internist and a health outcome researcher from Dartmouth University say that doctors often order the test or a procedure as the fee-for-service compensates them for it. Likewise, he also points out the fact that the easily available medical information in media and on the internet has led patients to demand for routine tests- even though it is not necessary.

So what is the solution to this? What should you do as a patient? Is there any definite answer for this? Unfortunately, there are just guidelines and no single answer to any of these lingering questions. But, it all funnels down to the most important aspect of health care- the communication between the doctor and the patient.

Sit down with your doctor and talk extensively about your individual disease risk, not just the population risk. Discuss the pros and cons of testing and the possible harms of the test itself. Research the test before hand, research your family history and present it to your doctor. Not all cancers are the same and not every cancer presents in the same way in every person. Take help of the recommended online resources out there including the National Institute of Health and the American Cancer Society for information about screening procedures.

Doing all this can not only save you from unnecessarily complications, but keep you at bay from spending your hard-earned resources and time. And always remember the simple rules of prevention- eat right, sleep right, exercise right and don’t smoke.

For more information about screening procedures- visit these sites

American Cancer Society-http://www.cancer.org/docroot/home/index.asp

National Cancer Institute from National Institutes of Health-http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/screening

There had always been a constant source of aggravation between the sexes about how can men so easily forget anniversaries, birthdays or as a matter of fact- any important date.Research shows that this tendency is not because men are not bothered to be remembered, but it is because during middle-age, absentmindedness is more a male problem!

A report from the Institute of Education, University of London suggests that at the age of 50, a woman’s verbal memory is superior to their male counterparts. This result came up after a survey of more than 9000 middle aged British men and women which showed women scoring higher in listening and recollection tests.

According to the authors Matthew Brown and Brian Dodgeon-

“This was quite a surprising result, since women turning 50 tend to do worse: another study has shown that during the menopause women do not do so well.”

The participants were subjected to four tests in which the first test involved listening to 10 common words being read out and recalling out as many as possible in two minutes. The second test required them to list the same 10 words after five minutes. In both these tests, women scored better than men by an average of 5%-8%.

The third test involved crossing out as many P’s and ‘W’s from a page filled with random letters. Women were less accurate in this test compared to men, but scanned the page faster than men. The final test required participants to name as many animals as they could in one minute and both men and women could name an average 22 animals in the given time.

The tested participants were members of the National Child Development Study who have been tracked since their birth in 1958. They were tested when they were 16 and now the latest tests conducted will help predict the impact of health, diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol and depression on their mental abilities. The initial test result analysis shows that participants did better on all tests who exercised regularly at least once a month compared to those who did not. Similarly, non-smokers outperformed smokers in one of the ‘word recall’ test.

The authors said-

“although measuring gender differences was not the central purpose of the tests, the differences between men and women were interesting.”

If you were from the 60s or the 70s and among the 20 million Americans who have experienced the bizarre psychedelic trip of LSD, then you must have also heard about the medicinal properties of this substance.

Dubbed as the most potent drug in the world, LSD or Lysergic acid diethylamide or simply known as ‘acid’ on the streets can cause severe psychological effects on the brain, altering the serotonin receptors and triggering some parts of your brain to an overdrive mode. Colloquially known as the ‘trip’, the sensations which follow the ingestion of this drug range wildly from person to person depending on their previous experiences, their state of mind and environment and their social settings. Some people have referred their ‘trip’ to be an out of the world experience while many experience a psycho emotional ‘trip’ which is similar to a walking nightmare leading to deadly consequences.

After its discovery in 1938 its potency was understood as one that causes significant changes in mind and behavior. It was therefore released as a psychiatric drug in 1947. Beginning in the 1950s the US Central Intelligence Agency began a research program named MKULTRA where LSD was administered to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors and other professionals to study their reactions.

But its potency was so great that one ounce of this colorless, odorless crystallized substance could be used to dose 30000 people clearly ringing bells for its potential for misuse. The dosage is measured in micrograms or a millionth of a gram with typical doses ranging between 200 and 1000 micrograms which can supposedly take you on a ‘trip’ for as long as 24 hour period.

Soon, LSD became central to the counterculture of the 1960s and US Food and Drug Administration banned the drug in 1963 announcing it as a Schedule 1 in the U.S., meaning that it is illegal to produce, possess or purchase it without a DEA license.

But then, what about its purported medicinal properties of the 1950s and the 1960s?

Many studies have proven LSD’s effectiveness in treatment of cluster headaches, alcoholism, cancer pain and psychotherapy. The most famous study being the one conducted by Harvard Medical School psychiatrist and researcher Dr.John Halpern, who showed that nearly 53 people were cured of their cluster headaches when given LSD or Psilocybin, the active substance present in some mushrooms (also a known psychedelic drug).

Now, that’s something cluster headache patients can really use to their advantage, considering the pain and torture they go through during their headache attacks. Of course, they know there is no cure for their headaches, but this relief from their miserable pain can be a big band aid- a big one indeed.
Similarly many distinguished academics and widely respected institutions are giving this drug a closer look. LSD has proven effective in the treatment of anxiety in end of life terminally ill cancer patients. It gives them a sense of feeling right during their last days of life. They become calm, they ask for what they want and communicate well, at the same with some relief of pain. This aspect is looked at seriously by Swiss researchers who are using LSD in combination with psychotherapy for these patients.

Finally, the Medical community does not consider LSD as an addictive substance and would like to dwell deeper into its medical benefits of psychedelic drugs like LSD and use it to prescribe in a controlled manner. But the social, historical and the community experiences of these drugs have always countered every medical efforts to bring new therapeutic benefits for some debilitating problems.

Are you among those who think that certain people are destined to get cancers and no matter what they do, nothing can change their fate? Well, if you are of that school of thought listen to the experts- they say NO, it’s just not right.

According to a study conducted by the American Institute of Cancer Research, at least 45% of people think preventing cancer is impossible or highly unlikely and nothing can be done about it. And this percentage is even higher when it comes to people who have genes that predispose them to certain cancers.

But experts say that even people who have such predisposing factors might be able to reduce their risk of cancer significantly by following these three simple but very effective life style changes.

1) Eating a healthy diet

2) Maintaining a healthy weight

3) Exercising regularly

Really, how difficult is it to do the above three if it guarantees you a longer life with a lowered chance of developing cancers?

The data is absolutely clear. A significant drop in the occurrence of cancers can be achieved by making these three changes. It is pretty straightforward- increased weight leads to an increased risk of cancers so reduce your weight. Eat healthy to cause a reduction in your weight and be physical active since physical activity, regardless of weight, can decrease the risk of many cancers like breast cancer.

The American Institute of Cancer Research in collaboration with the Word Cancer Research Fund released a report called the Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer : A global Perspective after reviewing more than 7000 studies on cancer. Obviously they cannot go wrong when they say follow these recommendations and you have greatly reduced your chances of developing cancer.

This is what they recommend and it really sums up everything you have ever heard or read about healthy lifestyle-

1) Weight- Maintain a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 21 and 23 and avoid gaining any weight. It is true that BMI up to 24.9 is considered normal but the lower BMI can reduce your risk for cancers.

2) Exercise- A minimum recommendation of moderate activity like brisk walking or cycling for at least 30 minutes every day. The ideal recommendations are 30 minutes of vigorous exercise daily or 60 minutes of moderate exercise. So take your doggy out for that walk or put on your jogging shoes and try to at least get that minimum 30 minutes of exercise per day.

3) Diet- Eating healthy is the mantra here. But many people have questions as to what is eating healthy? it can be defined as a diet consisting mostly of plant based foods like vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Avoid sugary and processed foods and minimize fast food intake along with the intake of red meat. Keep the consumption of red meat to not more than 18 ounces a week. Keep your salt intake to less than 2.4 grams a day and limit alcohol consumption to one drink a day for women or two drinks a day for men. Don’t rely on supplements, the food from your nutrients is enough to keep you away from cancers.

That’s it, these are the only three rules of a healthy cancer free life. All it requires is a little motivation and lots of determination. But the payoff is surely big!! Some people might give up early thinking that their weight is way too far from the healthy weight range, but every effort made towards dropping your weight is well worth it in the years to come and you will thank yourself once you start seeing the results. It is a challenge just like everything else- your life, your job, your relationships! when you can tackle them, you can do the easiest of them all..eat right and exercise! isn’t it?

It is important to understand that for people who have family histories of cancers, they might have to go an extra mile to achieve these three recommendations and be more aggressive. Talk to your doctor about any family history of cancers, any type, and ask your doctor whether there are tests which could assess the risk for developing that type of cancer.

So finally, developing cancer is not left to fate or destiny. It can be greatly manipulated by making some simple changes to your lifestyle..so do yourself a favor and start today. It is never too late to start.

Share this information to all your friends and family and let me know what you think about it. Ask me questions if you want to discuss about cancer prevention.

Ever wanted to know what your “sixth sense” is like? Ever wanted to know what real hallucinations are? No, I am not talking about the schizophrenic kind of hallucinations or those caused by prescription drugs or dumping weed into your system… I am talking about experiencing real sensory hallucinations by playing a practical joke on your brain.

Well, did I say practical joke? At first it surely seems that way, but soon you will realize the power of your brain by this simple experiment which is called the Ganzfield Procedure. This is a well known procedure used to induce hallucinations in parapsychology experiments and you do not need a complex laboratory to do this stuff.

The Ganzfield Procedure-

Start off by turning on the radio to a station playing static. Lie down on a couch and place half ping-pong balls on your eyes just like in the picture. Within a few minutes, you will start experiencing a bizarre set of sensory distortions otherwise known as hallucinations. some people might hear voices or see a dead relative or animals. Some people might even find themselves stranded in the middle of a ocean or the unknown world.

Scientists have clearly been able to find out why these perceptual distortions occur and where they occur but they haven’t been able to find out the reason for what a person can see or hear. Studies have reported a variety of hallucinating experiences by individuals going through this experiment- some very striking.

The area of your brain that kicks out these distortions turns out to be your sensory cortex. Your cortex is addicted to perceiving sensations, so when it is deprived of its sensations by the static noise and half ping pong balls, your brain conjures up its own- resulting in these hallucinations. Amazing! isn’t it?

These experiments are the most recent ones in Parapsychology for testing the existence of affecting factors of telepathy- which is defined as the paranormal acquisition of information concerning the thoughts, feelings of activity of another person.

Parapsychologists such as Dean Radin and Daryl J Bem claim that the results of these experiments are one of the strongest evidence for telepathy to date and have published their results in the special issue of neuropsychology and paranormal experiences and beliefs. They say that there is significant deviation from randomness supporting their evidence but their critics like Susan Blackmore and Ray Hyman call for further studies before these results could be scientifically accepted.

Finally..

Whatever may be the case, when I first read about it my curious mind got the best of me and I sat down with my headphones and a severed ping-pong ball. And what happened next was- truly bizarre and amazing….

Let me know what your experiences are if you ever wanna try it out! I will leave you with this BBC video about the Ganzfield Experiment which is directed by Keith McCarthy and was presented at the London Short Film Festival of 2010.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Have you ever tried fasting for 24 hours at a stretch? and by fasting- I mean eating absolutely nothing but drinking only water. One of the ways Gandhi brought India its freedom was by fasting at least 17 times during his lifetime, a couple of them lasting as long as three weeks each. Well, leaving a political reason or a biblical reason for fasting aside, studies have confirmed again and again that it can be one of the best ways to retune your body .

But what actually happens to your body when you fast? why is it so good for your health ?

To answer that, we need to understand what happens in a ‘fed’ state. The ‘fed’ state is referred to a period following a meal when your body is full of nutrients and ‘fasting’ state is referred to when the body is dwindling of its energy resources.

Let’s turn our attention to new born babies to understand these phenomena. New born babies do not have the capacity to store food so that is the reason why they cannot sleep through the night without eating every few hours. The food they consume is immediately used up as energy mainly from the carbohydrates and fats. Since they do not have stored energy residues, the transition from fed to fasting state is rapid- sometimes within three to four hours.

But, in an adult, the liver converts excess carbohydrate or fat intake into stored glycogen or stored fat. So, the transition between the fed and the fasting state is much longer as the body starts digging for stored forms of energy after the first four hours of fed state. There are mainly three of these stored forms of energy- the glycogen (sugars) , amino acids (protein) and the fat.

The first to be used up is the glycogen-

Glycogen is a polysaccharide form of glucose- which simply means biochemically, it is a multiple form of the simplest sugar- glucose. It is stored in two different parts of our body, the muscle and the liver. The muscle glycogen is owned by that particular muscle and is available only to that muscle – which means that the triceps cannot tap into the glycogen stores of your biceps or abdomen muscles.

On the other hand, the liver glycogen is used up by all the body cells for energy and its biggest consumer is the brain. In fact, brain uses up nearly 60 percent of the body’s sugars so most of the liver glycogen is redirected to the brain by digesting that glycogen to glucose.

Fasting for 24 hours can speedily deplete the stores of glycogen present in our body- especially liver starting from as early as four hours from your ‘fed’ state, i.e. your last meal. How about the muscle glycogen then? Yes, there is depletion of muscle glycogen too since we need glucose to do our daily activities and a simple 24 hour fasting can bring down muscle glycogen by as much as 50%.

Now did I just say your body loses muscle glycogen? well, before any bodybuilders in the room faint over this, let me remind you that muscle glycogen is not the same as your hard earned muscle protein. So, there is nothing to fret about as long as you fast in short term periods- preferably around 24 hrs once a week.

The next to go are the proteins and then the fats-

So, once the glycogen is run out of our bodies, the body turns its attention towards amino acids- the building blocks of proteins. And the best place to find this is our muscles- of course. The muscle has readily available amino acids which can be converted into glucose right away in the liver and this way, the brain is never depleted of the needed glucose. But, this happens only after the first 15-16 hours of fasting and actual muscle proteins do not break down until the body reaches a stage of ‘long term’ fasting- generally within two days.

So, what are the benefits of short term fasting-

First of all, depletion of the glycogen stores from our bodies causes suppression of insulin, which can reduce the taste for sugar. So sugar can become something that you would be less fond of taking when you go through these cycles of short-term fasting. As the secretion of insulin is suppressed, the pancreas (which secretes insulin) is rested which benefits our bodies both short-term and also long-term in reducing the risk for diabetes.

The suppression of insulin and presence of glucagon can also benefit in lowering blood pressure as several studies indicate.By resting our digestive system for short periods, we do not produce all the byproducts of digestion- including some dangerous free radicals which are created as a result of converting food into energy. These are the same free radicals which can attack the cells and damage them thus leading to aging. So starvation up to short periods of time can lead to delaying of aging.

According to Mark Mattson from the National Institute of Aging, even limiting calories has this beneficial effect and his statements are backed up by studies in rats and mice which were starved for 24 hours every other day. These fasted rats had a reduction in disease when compared with those fed normal daily diets. According to Mattson, eating less sends a message to body cells to conserve and use energy in a more efficient way- similar to the proven method of building muscle when they are stressed by exercise.

Other than this, some short-term studies have also shown that fasting reduces cancer risks as well as have beneficial effects on the brain- protecting against Alzheimer’s and stroke. But, according to experts, fasting should be kept to windows of 18-24 hours once a week to gain the most out of it. Long term fasting can be harmful to our body- mainly because of the muscle breakdown. After the body uses up all of its stored glucose to make energy, the muscle becomes the target and potentially toxic proteins are released. These proteins partly contain nitrogen and an excess of nitrogen can affect the kidneys and the liver.

Though there is a general agreement over the long term benefits of short term fasting up to 24 hours, starvation or long term fasting ( up to 21 days) should be done under medical supervision after appropriate planning and understanding the health risks of such fasting. Such fasting, termed Medical Fasting is composed of various psychological and medical complications. This is a good article on Medical Fasting..Read More about it here…

A recent study conducted by an international group of researchers from the US, Sweden and Iceland on a cancer patient’s risk of suicide and heart attack concluded that men who received a cancer diagnosis were 90% more likely to commit suicide in the following year. This study was one of the largest of its kind results were analyzed from data gathered between 1979 and 2004 on 342,000 men who were recently told they had prostate cancer.

The study also showed that men with prostate cancer- more so in the advanced stages, were also at a higher risk of dying from a heart attack or other cardiovascular events within the first year, with the risk being the most in the first month of diagnosis..

A cancer diagnosis causing a risk of a cardiovascular event is related to the acute stress event- similar to the loss of a loved one, or some other disaster triggering a heart event.

An interesting factor in this study is that this increased suicide and heart risk was more in men diagnosed with cancer before the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test became available in the 1980s. The early diagnosis of the tumor by PSA screening and effective treatments which developed in the 1980s showed a drop in the suicide rates in the post -PSA era.

But none the less, even earlier detection by PSA screening can cause significant psychological stress, though lesser than breaking the news about advanced tumor. So physicians should always be aware of any history of depression or mental illnesses in their cancer patients and provide the appropriate counselling or support as a part of their cancer care.

According to the co-author of this study, Lorelei Mucci, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston-

we think the diagnosis of cancer is a teachable moment, when clinicians need to really be involved in thinking not only, what am I going to do to treat this cancer, but the total person.

Mucci found that giving the diagnosis in the presence of their families were less likely to kill themselves than those who bore the news alone.
The importance of social support network needs to be underscored in easing the stress of cancer diagnosis and help living with it- though it may not take away the cancer completely.

Read more about this article here..

Diagnosed with diabetes? Having troubles deciding between all the food choices out there? Are you tired about all the talk about “good” carbs, “bad” carbs but still unable to control your blood sugar levels? Well, you are not alone!!

Here are a few solutions to your sugar problems which can help you make decisions while you are in the kitchen, in the cafeteria or out having dinner. Remember, these small decisions play a major role in whether or not your sugar level stays on a balanced scale thus lowering a host of major health problems…

1. FIBER- your friend for life

We all know about the health benefits of fruits and vegetables in your diet. But to reduce weight and control your blood sugar, a significant number of studies show that fiber, particularly the kind found in oat meals and apples beats everyone to the top….

The ADA (American Diabetes Association) has recently recommended 50 grams a day of fiber for people with diabetes- yes, a whooping 50 grams!! But how do we get there? Read this article about fiber supplementation…

The US Food and Nutrition Board set up recommended fiber intake for healthy men and women- follow these and you will steer away from a lot of deadly health problems-

Men < 50 years- 35 grams of fiber
Men >50 years- 30 grams of fiber
Women <50 years- 25 grams of fiber
Women >50 years- 31 grams of fiber

Also remember, the soluble kind of fiber is what you want to munch upon- like oranges, papaya, prunes, raisins, oatmeal, granola, zucchini, oat bran and foods like apple pulp, strawberries, barley and peas.

To get the most- strive hard for five servings of vegetables and four of fruit daily with a huge variety to serve your taste buds. That would include a fresh fruit for breakfast, a generously sized salad (equal to two servings) and fruit for lunch and two veggies and a fruit for dessert…simple? It really isn’t hard…if you put your mind to it.

Remember; avoid frozen vegetables with breading or sauces since they contain high carbohydrates, sodium and Trans fats.

2. Grain, grain and more grain

True. It cannot be stressed more. It’s the holy grail of a healthy life style. Recent studies have proved that diets high in whole grains are linked to less diabetes as well as cut the risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer…now, that’s a lot of benefits!!

A very famous study from Finnish researchers showed that cereal grains like rolled oats, rye, barley and millet had a 61% lower risk of type2 diabetes. Here are some ways you can adopt to prepare whole grains in your diet…

1) Avoid white wheat or white flour- it’s similar to sugar. Instead eat whole wheat bread or whole grain rye bread.

2) Select whole grain pastas- whole wheat or made with amaranth, quinoa or Japanese buckwheat noodles known as Soba noodles.

3) Stuff peppers with beans, mushrooms or celery

4) Mix one cup of cooked whole millet into each pound of ground meat for a healthier meat loaf.

5) For a healthy salad, mix quinoa, cucumbers, tomatoes and minced garlic and dress with olive oil and lemon juice.

Remember, the charm of whole grains lies in the fact that they are digested and absorbed slowly, leading to less insulin demand. Also other components of whole grain such as lignans, tocotrienols and phytic acids are responsible for its various health benefits.

3. Make peace with PEAS

And beans, too. They are rich in fiber and also lower cholesterol levels and folate- which lower homocysteine, another risk factor for heart disease.

Eat beans five or more times a week. They help adding protein along with fibers to your diet. Use all kinds of beans as they are both tasty and form a wide array of healthy food ingredients. Remember, if you use canned beans, rinse them thoroughly first- they contain high sodium liquid.

4. Understand the power of the plate

Follow these “plate rules” to calculate your protein and carbohydrate needs and watch your body weight shed down in front of your eyes along with lowering your risk of diabetes, cancer and other diseases.

1) Breakfast plates-
• Whole grain cereal and milk topped with fruit.
• Three egg-whites with whole grain toast and fruit.

2) Lunch Plates-
• Sandwich filled with two or three slices of lean meat, salad, fruit salad or veggies
• Black beans, lentils, or other bean based soup with a salad or side dish of veggies.

3) Dinner Plates-
• Traditional meat and potatoes, salad or cooked veggies (one half of the plate), deck of cards size piece of fish, poultry or lean meat (one thirst to one quarter of the plate)
• Stir-fry- three quarters vegetables and one quarter meat, poultry or sea food.

Remember, the basic rule of the plate is filling half of your plate with vegetables and/or fruits and the remainder with roughly equal amount of starch and high protein food.

5. Control your PORTIONS

Mammoth portions not only add extra calories to your diet, but also add more fat, sugar and salt. That’s the reason it gets difficult to trim our waistlines since we indulge in eating by piling up our plates with hill sized portions. One quick solution to this is to read the serving sizes on the food labels and learn what one serving of a particular food really is.

You might want to consider these guidelines- one serving of meat is 3 ½ ounces and fits in the palm of your hand. Similarly, one serving of whole grain pasta is ½ cup. Here are some important considerations.

1. Serve food from the stove rather than the table. Having to get up for another plateful will remind you to pass up seconds.

2. Measure out one serving of chips or cookies and keep the rest away instead of taking the whole bag while watching TV.

3. Have the right “tools”. A measuring cup, measuring spoons, measuring glasses for liquids and other equivalent measuring devices. Put them in an easy convenient spot in the kitchen and make sure you use them.

4. Have a tall slim glass to sip from rather than a short wide glass. A study from Massachusetts has shown that adults poured 19 percent more and kids poured a massive 74 percent more in short wide glasses. But they still assumed that they were drinking less.

Remember, these simple practices will go a long way in controlling your weight gain and help you shed weight and control your blood sugar levels.

6. Keep a tight FAT budget

On an 1800 calorie diet with no more than 25-30 percent of calories coming from fat, we should get 50-60 grams of fat, that too good fat like the unsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids.

But in the United States, inspite of the low-fat food campaigns running over its craziness, an average woman consumes about 65 grams of fat- way too much. Use these fat-busting tactics for your health benefits-

1. Spread the fat- spread it along the day and it will help you absorb the fat soluble nutrients from vegetables and fruit.

2. Let go of the butter when cooking vegetables, instead use wine, lemon, orange or tomato juice.

3. Remember, your body needs fat to function- so don’t strip of it completely, get the right fats in the right amounts.

4. Make a switch- from high fat meats like ribs, sausage, higher fat beef, pork and lamb to leaner cuts like skinless chicken, turkey breast, fish , lean pork or USDA choice or Select cuts of beef- each of these have about 3 grams of fat per serving.

5. Get used to eating low fat cheese. It could add up to a lot of savings from fat.

6. More egg whites, less yolk. Two Whole eggs have a combined content of 5 grams where as two egg whites have less than 1.

7. Avoid the salad dressing ladle at the salad bar. Use regular spoons instead of a scoopful- that saves 24 grams of fat!!

8. Get the safest fats from the sea- omega-3 fatty acids help lower bad LDL cholesterol, raise good HDL cholesterol, lower triglycerides and also may reduce the risk of blood clots. That’s a whole bundle of good news for everyone, both healthy and diabetics prone to heart disease. Good sources include salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring, anchovies, rainbow trout and bluefish.

7. Say hurray to NUTS

You are in luck if you like to crunch walnuts, pistachios or almonds or spread them on your whole grain bread. Nut eaters cut their risk of diabetes by 20-30 percent, according to a study by Harvard researchers. You might wonder…why? The simple reason being nut eaters eat less the rest of the day!!

Nuts are packed with high calories- so these simple tactics can be beneficial

1. Substitute 1 table spoon of slivered almonds for ¼ cup of low fiber cereal.

2. Do not use snack bags of flavored nuts if there are “partially hydrogenated oils” as an ingredient list- they are Trans fat.

3. Use an empty Altoid tin knocking as a measure for serving almonds. This is a trick from Michelle Wien, DrPH,RD, who found out that almond intake may help you stick to your diet.

8. Kick the Trans fats out-

Starting in 2006, food labels list the levels of unhealthy trans fats which gunk up arteries and increases the risk of heart diseases. But there is a caveat to this recommendation.

Under these guidelines put forward by the US Food and Drug Administration, any food with less than 0.5 grams of trans fats can be listed as zero trans fats.

That means, if a food item has 0.4 grams of trans fats and a person consumes three to four servings of the food product, he or she is unwittingly consuming around a gram of trans fats. This amount is significantly raise risk of heart disease as they increase LDL cholesterol.

According to the FDA estimates, Americans consumes an average of 5.8 grams of Trans fats per day – way too much of trans fats.

So what can you do about this? Well, look for the ingredient list of any food item which states zero trans fats. If it has “partially hydrogenated oils” it contains some trans fats- less than 0.5 grams per serving. So how do we know if we should use it or not.

The higher up the list you find these ingredient, the more Trans fats it contains still keeping it below 0.5 grams. So, strive to nullify your trans fat intake by looking at the ingredient list and making better choices. Read more about trans fats here..

9. Moderate your Salt Intake-

According to Myron Weinberger, MD director of the Hypertension Research Center at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, there is a benefit from a moderate amount of sodium intake- 2400 milligrams a day- 11/4 teaspoons from all sources. But the average American gets about 3400 milligrams of sodium intake.

Cutting back on your salt intake can reduce the high blood pressure and if it is normal now, reduce the risk of developing later in life. Blood pressure can be a major determinant of developing prediabetes, diabetes as a part of the metabolic syndrome.

Easy tactics to cut down salt are-
1. Omit salt from recipes- or reduce by 25% by using Kosher or coarse salt.

2. Remove shakers off your kitchen table, or switch to lighter salt with 50 percent less sodium or use a salt substitute.

3. Use alternatives for seasoning- try spice blend as Mrs. Dash or lemon squirt.
4. Try unsalted chips, reduced salt pretzels and condiments instead.

5) Check the labels- aim for foods less than 200 milligrams of salt servings and avoid those more than 800 milligrams.

6. Rinse canned foods thoroughly.

7. Choose processed foods with less than 5 percent of the daily value for sodium in each serving.

8. When using antacids, read the labels since they can be high in sodium. Consult the pharmacist for lower sodium options.

10. Always think before you drink

The key is moderation- diabetes or No diabetes. A drink is one 4- ounce glass of wine, one 12 ounce bottle of beer or a drink made with 1 ½ ounces of distilled liquor. Heavier drinking can become a nightmare for diabetics and can worsen the complications of diabetes.

If you are already diabetic- follow these American Diabetes Association guidelines.

1. Ask your registered dietitian or certified diabetes educator about fitting a glass of wine now and then.

2. Let your doctor know about your drinking frequency before he prescribes the diabetes medication.

3. Test your sugar levels to assess if you need to eat something before or as you drink, or not drink at all.

4. If you are already on diabetic medications, drink alcohol with a snack or a meal. Raw vegetables with a low fat yogurt dip, baked chips or fat free chips can help.

5. If you are on insulin, drink alcohol with and in addition to your usual meal plan.

6. Drink beverages with low alcohol and sugar. Light beer and dry wines are good choices.

7. Choose sugar free mixers like diet soft drinks, diet tonic, club soda or water.

8. Keep away from alcohol if you have triglycerides as many diabetics do. Alcohol encourages the production of triglycerides and makes matters worse.

These are just some of the few solutions to your sugar problems which will allow you to gain control of your diabetes and prevent major complications. The key to success is motivation and having a positive attitude towards your diagnosis. With a little bit of education and determination your journey will be a lot easier than you ever thought…

Good luck to all your efforts…Please do leave me comments and inputs…