Prices For Healthy Foods Are Getting Higher And Higher!

Healthy lifestyle is the key for heart disease prevention. This is an undeniable fact. But when we talk about healthy lifestyle, we cannot do away with healthy diet. In other words, healthy food forms an integrated part of our healthy life.

But regretfully, the prices of fruits and vegetables are now climbing faster than inflation, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, also revealed that junk food is actually getting cheaper.

The researchers examined the prices of 372 foods and beverages at Seattle supermarket chains in 2004 and 2006 and found that low-calorie and nutrient-rich foods, mainly fruits and vegetables, were far more expensive than sweets and snack foods, based on comparison of calorie for calorie. While the price of the lowest-calorie fruits and vegetables was more than US$18.16 (S$26.33) per 1,000 calories, the most calorie-rich foods cost US$1.76 per 1,000 calories.

In fact, the average price of the lowest-calorie foods, including green vegetables, tomatoes and berries, increased by almost 20 per cent over 2 years. In the same time period, there was a 2-per cent drop in the cost of the most calorie-laden fare, such as butter, potato chips, cookies and candy bars. The 20-per cent increase in the cost of the lowest-calorie foods may very likely put those Americans who need these healthful foods the most out of reach.

This study highlighted a key obstacle to healthy eating. In addition, the fact that calorie-dense foods are the least expensive and most resistant to inflation, may also help explain why the highest rates of obesity continue to be observed among groups of limited economic means.

The researchers urged Americans to change their personal behavior and the government to make policy shifts that can help people eat more healthful foods, such as changes in the way they subsidizes the agricultural industry.

Staying Fit Is The Way To Longevity!

Obesity may lead to many medical disorders like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, etc. that may ultimately lead one to death. Nevertheless, a group of researchers at the University of South Carolina has found that people over the age of 60 who exercise are fit to live longer than their sedentary peers, regardless of weight and body mass.

Staying fit seems to be the way to live longer!

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on December 4, 2007, showed that obesity and sedentary habits increased the risk of death in middle-aged adults. It tested the premise for the first time among older adults.

The researchers observed that fit individuals who were obese had a lower risk of all-cause mortality than did unfit normal-weight or lean individuals. Such data therefore suggested that fitness levels in older individuals influence the association of obesity to mortality.

The 1979-2001 research focused on the relation between cardiovascular fitness and adiposity and death rates among 2,063 adults aged 60 years and older. A total of 450 people who were older, less fit and at greater risk of heart disease than those who survived died during the study. Treadmill exercise was utilized to assess the physical fitness, while body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and percentage of body fat were used to measure obesity.

It is important to note that the researchers did not advocate that obesity and fat distribution should be ignored. They just wanted to alert people that they should look at other important things besides simple weight. Fitness is just one of them!

So start exercising! This was the advice given by the researchers to the out-of-shape older adults.

They recommended older adults should take up light to moderate exercise for duration of 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. It does not matter whether this will help lose a lot of weight. But, this certainly will help one keep fit and it will indeed improve one's health and function.

According to the study, 22 percent of the US population or 70 million people will be older than 65 years old.

Lifestyle Could Lead To Massive Death In Next Decade!

In a commentary published on November 21, 2007 in the British journal Nature, a master plan was unveiled by international health experts aiming to avert at least 36 million premature deaths worldwide from 'lifestyle' diseases by 2015.

It is expected that some 388 million people around the world, 80 percent of them come from poorer nations, will die over the next decade from non-communicable diseases if people preserve the current unhealthy lifestyle.

Based on the WHO (World Health Organization) data, 44 percent of the premature deaths will originate from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung disease and some cancers. This is twice as many as from all infectious diseases combined. The prevention of disability and death from chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs), however, is not receiving sufficient attention.

The researchers felt that by changing behavior and access to known drug treatments, most of the diseases targeted by the initiative could actually be avoided. For example, 17 million of the deaths that could be averted through the recommended measures would be among people under 70 years old. The initiative is supported by members of the Oxford Health Alliance, including the UK Medical Research Council, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Smoking, sedentary lifestyle and obesity are identified as the top culprits, but longer lifespan also play a role in some of the diseases.

Using the model on the Grand Challenges in Global Health programme targeting infectious disease, spearheaded in 2003 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the new 'Grand Challenges' effort lists 20 policy and research priorities to reduce the number of death from CNCDs.

Some of the recommendations include:

• Raising the 'political priority' of CNCDs and promoting healthy lifestyles;
• Strengthening regulations to discourage consumption of tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods;
• Developing codes to monitor responsible conduct in the food, beverage and restaurant industries;
• Studies that explore the links between CNCDs, poverty and urbanisation;
• Redistributing health care resources based on burden of diseases;
• Putting a big emphasis on prevention.

Reduce Your Salt Intake Now!

Salt is something that we need everyday for our food but it is also a 'poison' that could slowly lead us to death without any warning. This is because excessive sodium (the main component of salt) in our body will increase the chance of getting not only hypertension but also heart disease and stroke.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has, therefore, urged the US federal government to take immediate action to reduce excess salt in food. It is believed that this will help save thousands of lives in the future.

Research also shows that most Americans consume 2 to 3 times the amount of sodium required for the body. About 75 to 80 percent of their daily intake of sodium come from processed and restaurant foods. AMA believes that if the salt intake can be reduced by 50 percent over the next 10 years, at least 150,000 lives a year could be saved.

United States is not the first country to make such request to their citizens. Countries like Finland and Britain have already taken actions on salt and promising results have been seen.

No Salt Added Diet Will Help Lower Blood Pressure!

If one avoids pre-salted foods and does not add salt to foods, his or her blood pressure will be reduced by a modest but statistically significant amount. This is the finding of a study conducted by Shiraz University in Iran and published in the medical journal BMC Cardiovascular Disorders.

Blood pressure and 24-hour urinary sodium excretion in 60 individuals were assessed before and after instructing them to follow 'no salt added' diet for 6 weeks. 20 subjects who did not follow the diet were used as a control group. All of the subjects were similar in age, gender, weight, blood pressure, and initial urinary sodium excretion. The average age was 49, half were men, and all of the patients had mild to moderate hypertension.

After 6 weeks, a significant reduction in urinary sodium excretion was noted in those on the diet, compared with those not on the diet.

It was found that when the sodium content in the urine of their subjects was reduced by about 35 per cent, the daytime blood pressure was lowered by 12.1 mm Hg systolic and 6.8 mm Hg diastolic in patients with high blood pressure (hypertension) not taking anti-hypertensive medications. Blood pressure readings at night were found to be slightly lower.

The blood pressure reductions were seen even in the 50 per cent of the patients who consumed a medium amount (3 to 7 grams/day) of dietary salt and the 25 percent of the patients who ate 7 or more grams per day. Only 21 per cent of the subjects took less than 3 grams of salt daily.

The researchers concluded that these results do provide strong support for universal salt reduction in all hypertensive individuals. Since hypertension is a risk factor for heart disease, reducing blood pressure will mean the risk of developing heart disease can be reduced.

Nevertheless, they felt that a larger scale, population based studies is necessary to further evaluate the effect of a 'no salt added' diet.

Think Before Going For Weight Loss Surgery!

A new research, published in the Archives of Surgery, had shown that people who have undergone so-called bariatric surgery for obesity have a higher death rate than other people of the same age. The cause of death is due to suicide and coronary heart disease, in particular.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh studied the data for all Pennsylvania residents who underwent a bariatric operation such as stomach stapling or gastric bypass between 1995 and 2004. They then compared the number of death of these patients with that of those in the general population.

It was found that there were a total of 440 deaths after 16,683 weight loss procedures during the study period. Male gender and advancing age were both associated with the increased death rates.

For all age groups, the death rate was much higher in bariatric surgery patients than in the general population. But for patients between the age of 25 and 34, the difference was particularly pronounced. Their death rates for male and female patients were 13.8 and 5.0 per 1,000 persons per year, respectively. In comparison, the death rates in the general population were 1.3 and 0.6 per 1,000 persons per year.

Coronary heart disease was found to be the most common cause of death. 16 suicides were also found with 10 of them were women. Comparing with the data from the general population, researchers estimated that only 3 suicides deaths would have been expected in this number of people.

The researchers also suggested that a better control of high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and smoking, as well as efforts to prevent weight regain by diet and exercise, and psychological support to treat depression and prevent suicide could reduce the excess deaths after bariatric surgery.

Higher Risk Of Death After Heart Attack For Diabetics!

In the medical Journal "Heart", a group of researchers from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, reported that patients with diabetes have higher short- and long-term mortality rates after heart attack than those without diabetes. The pattern has remained even after modern therapeutic principles have been introduced.

A total of 70,882 people younger than the age of 80 years, 14873 of whom are diabetics, were assessed by the researchers for their death rates and treatment patterns in the periods of 1995 to 1998 and 1999 to 2002.

The data obtained from the study show that the 1-year mortality rate decreased from 16.6 per cent to 12.1 per cent in non-diabetic patients for the period between 1995 and 2002. In diabetic patients, 1-year mortality rates declined from 29.7 per cent to 19.7 per cent.

Nevertheless, heart attack patients with diabetes were more likely to die than those attack patients without diabetes. Diabetics had an adjusted relative 1-year mortality risk of 1.44 in 1995-1998 and 1.31 in 1999-2002 respectively.

Both the pre-admission and in-hospital treatment have no doubt improved. But because of their medical conditions, diabetic patients were less likely to receive immediate clot-busting therapy and revascularization procedures. They also less often received aspirin and lipid-lowering treatment at discharge.

According to the researchers, there are still plenty of opportunities for further improvements in the care of diabetic patients who suffer heart attack.

Excess mortality in heart attack patients with diabetes can partly due to the underlying co-illnesses, but it can also attributed to 'a less than optimal use of established treatment modalities, especially lipid-lowering therapy and early revascularization'.