Friday, September 5, 2014
Ten Reasons To Eat More Veggies And Fruits
Hey I have no problem stating the obvious! As long as it means a healthier, happier life for you! All US Sports Online Strength and Conditioning Programs come with our state-of-the-art nutritional planning software program. Click here to to get your program today!
Medical Tribune
The American Institute for Cancer Research, Washington, D.C., has compiled a list of "ten good reasons" to eat more vegetables and fruits. Topping the list is cancer prevention.
Benefit number 4 of veggies and fruits is they lower blood pressure levels. Many people think blood pressure can be controlled only through eating a low-salt diet and controlling weight. Yet several studies in which people followed a high vegetable and fruit diet achieved a significant drop in blood pressure. How? Researchers believe potassium and magnesium in these foods should be credited.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Risks From Concussion Injury In Sports Underestimated
Neck Strengthening is an integral part of many of the US Sports Online Strength and Conditioning Programs. Train for safety and enhanced performance the right way. Click here and fill out the free fitness profile form to get started. -Nate
(MSNBC News Services, Two or more significant blows to the head while playing sports can harm teen-agers,thinking abilities for years to come, according to studies that suggest such injuries are more common and more serious than some coaches and parents might think.
THREE SEPARATE sports injury studies highlighting the risks from concussions were published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. This is a major public health issue that has been given short shrift, said Michael W. Collins, a neuropsychologist at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and a leader of one of the studies. And this is information parents should know.
A concussion is any alteration in mental function after a blow to the head, said Collins. Signs or symptoms may be subtle, a headache, dizziness, difficulty with balance or memory, confusion or a personality change.
HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES
One of the studies, conducted by researchers at Med Sports Systems in Iowa City, Iowa, did not explore the effects of concussions but only how often they occurred in football, wrestling, soccer, basketball, softball, baseball, field hockey and volleyball at 235 high schools nationwide from 1995-96 through 1997-98.
There were 1,219 concussions, 63 percent of them in football, and 99 students suffered two or more, said researchers led by John W. Powell, a professor of kinesiology and an athletic trainer at Michigan State University. The researchers estimated that more than 62,800 concussions occur among high school students nationwide annually in the sports they studied. Researchers also reported that sideline tests for concussion may miss many cases of mild brain injury in high school and college athletes, with possible long-term effects on their mental functioning.
While many athletic trainers spot and appropriately manage head injuries on the field, according to Collins, some schools, particularly in rural areas, may rely on the judgment of coaches who are unaware of the more subtle signs of concussion, such as headache, dizziness or confusion. Many people believe concussion means the loss of consciousness, he said. So when athletes aren't knocked out, they're put back in the game.
FOOTBALL PLAYERS
Collins led a study of 393 college football players from four universities that looked at the risk factors for poor recovery from a mild brain injury. His team found that about one in three had suffered a concussion at some time in the past and one in five had suffered two or more.
Those who had suffered two or more were significantly more likely to report continuing problems with headaches, sleep and concentration, and they scored significantly worse on paper-and-pencil tests of the ability to learn words, to think quickly and to handle complex tasks.
Further, players who had learning disorders, 13.5 percent of the sample, fared even worse if they had two or more concussions, suggesting that the disorders make the brain especially vulnerable to jarring injuries. About 12 percent of all collegians have learning disorders, research has shown. "If they have a learning disability, if they have one concussion, you should be a lot more cautious in returning them to game conditions and practices after their first concussion, said an expert not involved in the studies, Jeffrey T. Barth, chief of medical psychology and neuropsychology at the University of Virginia.
He said the research on the prevalence of concussions among high school students confirms previous work but is by far the largest study, and it highlights a problem that, has been kind of ignored over the years. Most emphasis on managing concussion has been at college and pro levels, he said.
Animal research suggests that the youthful brain remains vulnerable after a first concussion for a longer time than a mature brain does, so a high school athlete may need a much longer recovery time from a concussion before returning to play than a college player or a pro, Barth said.
REPEATED BLOWS IN SOCCER
A third article in the journal reported that amateur soccer players scored lower on tests of memory and planning than other amateur athletes did, and that repeated blows to the head may be the culprit. Dutch researchers at the St. Anna Hospital in Geldrop compared the results of brain functioning tests of 33 amateur soccer players with those from 27 middle-distance runners and swimmers. Thirty-nine percent of the soccer players showed impaired performance on tests that measured planning abilities compared to 13 percent in the other group of athletes. On memory tests, 27 percent of the soccer players showed impairment compared to 7 percent of the swimmers and runners. Of the soccer players studied 27 percent had suffered one concussion during their playing career and 23 percent reported a history of two to five concussions. The median number of balls, headed, in a match was 8.5 among those studied.
While some research has implicated, heading, the ball, Barth and other experts believe the more likely explanation is the frequent collisions between players and players, heads hitting the ground or a goalpost.
According to a study published earlier this year in the same journal, Americans suffer about one million traumatic brain injuries each year, resulting in more than 50,000 deaths and about 80,000 long-term disabilities. About 30 percent of these are sports-related.
The Associated Press, Reuters and the Medical Tribune News Service contributed to this report.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Excess calories, not sugar, make people fat
Simple equation: If you burn more calories than you intake, Your 'trained body' has to adapt, by buring fat. All US Sports Online Strength and Conditioning Programs come with our state-of-the-art nutritional meal planning software. Sign Up Today. Try it FREE
-Nate
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- There is no link between obesity and sugar intake, according to two studies presented this week at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity annual meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.
"The bottom line is increased calories are the culprit" behind obesity, not sugar, Dr. Maureen Storey said in an interview with Reuters Health. "Choosing smaller portions is difficult," she added, but "people need to eat less and exercise more."
Storey and Dr. Rich Forshee, of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, studied data from a survey conducted by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). They constructed a model that estimated how closely people follow the USDA Food Guide Pyramid, and the percentage of the US recommended daily allowance of selected nutrients they consume, based on the amount of added sugars, carbohydrates, protein, fat, and alcohol they consume.
According to the model, "added sugars have a minimal... negative effect on consumption of most of the food groups and nutrients," Storey and Forshee report. The researchers found that alcohol had a much larger negative effect on diet than sugars.
"According to our model, it would take 1,695 additional grams of added sugars or 43.5 (12 oz.) cans of soda pop to replace one serving of dairy foods," the investigators explain. In comparison, "an additional 182 grams of alcohol, the equivalent of 14 (12 oz.) cans of beer or 18 (3.5 oz.) glasses of red wine, reduced the predicted number of dairy servings by one."
"Pragmatically, added sugars have virtually no effect on diet quality whereas other dietary components, such as alcohol, have a relatively greater negative impact on diet quality," Storey and Forshee conclude.
In the second study, Dr. D.R. Keast and colleagues, of the Michigan State University in East Lansing, asked nearly 16,000 adults about their consumption of sugar, fat, carbohydrates, and total calories. They also measured the participants' body mass index (weight divided by height).
Keast's group reports that obese adults consumed fewer total calories than non-obese adults, but fat made up a higher percentage of their calories. The obese adults obtained a lower percentage of their calories from carbohydrates and total sugars than the non-obese adults.
These results held true in both men and women, the investigators say. The research team concludes that there is a "seesaw" relationship between sugars and fat: as fat intake goes up, body mass index goes up, but as sugar intake goes up, body mass intake goes down.
new pizza recipe!
Today I have a new, simple pizza recipe for you that the entire family will love. With the kids back in school, and life going full-speed-ahead, it's so important to have quick, wholesome and nutritious dinner recipes on hand that everyone will enjoy.
That was what motivated me to create my Family Friendly Fat Burning Meals Program. I had a need for nutritious recipes and meal plans that my family would actually eat, and not just push around on their plate.
This downloadable program has 110 family friendly fat burning recipes and a complete eight-week menu for you and your family that are easy to prepare and taste amazing!
Wholesome and fat burning meals can be just as delicious (if not MORE delicious) than what you had planned to serve for dinner tonight. Try it out tonight and see for yourself ---> Family Friendly Fat Burning Meals
And for pizza night, I just came up with a new, wholesome recipe. Get the recipe and watch the video here ---> Pepperoni Pizza Recipe
Until next time...keep up your healthy cooking and eating!
Happy Cooking :)
Diana Keuilian
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