SOY STORY Over the past few years, we’ve added more soy into our diet. JoAnne makes a terrific tofu parmesan about once a month and we’ve come to enjoy meatless burgers made with soy, like the Impossible Burger. At the Thai restaurant we regularly visit, we’ve begun substituting tofu for chicken or shrimp in pad Thai and in curries. Also, at Japanese restaurants I always order a bowl of miso soup along with my sushi or baked roll. And edamame makes a great snack Soy foods are, of course, made from soybeans. The soybean is a legume because it grows...
FIBROMYALGIA IS FOR REAL I have two friends who had fibromyalgia for years. Each of them had pain and stiffness in their muscles and joints all over their body and were abnormally tired even after a full night’s sleep. Until very recently, their doctors couldn’t find either a cause or a physical reason for their symptoms. In fact, many doctors questioned if people with fibromyalgia symptoms even had a medical illness and instead suggested it was caused by psychological distress or general stress. But now scientists have finally begun to apprehend this malady which affects millions of older adults, especially...
EAT HEALTHIER WITH THE NEW NUTRITION FACTS LABEL Nutrition Facts labels: the old (on left) and new (on right) versions. Finally, after 26 years, we have a new nutrition facts label to help in choosing our food buys. This new label not only stresses up-to-date nutrition science, but also is more realistic and consumer-friendly. The new label is much easier to read because it now displays bigger bolder print including an impossible- to miss-calorie count. The old label listed vitamin A and C content in the food. However, most folks get enough of these. Now it lists vitamin D, which...
IS INTERMITTENT FASTING THE DIET FOR YOU? I’ve gone through the pros and cons of a number of diets in my past posts including the ketogenic diet, the MIND diet, and three years worth of Best Diet Rankings from U.S. News. This week I’d like to talk about a trendy diet that concentrates on when you eat rather than what you eat. It’s called intermittent fasting. There isn’t a whole lot of research on this diet, but what there is points to extensive health benefits. Intermittent fasting has been especially studied in rodents. If you feed rats just every other...
TOMATOES TODAY? One of the joys of summer is biting into a juicy sun-ripened tomato. It’s not only tasty, but also super good for you. Tomatoes are low-calorie, low-carb and full of disease-fighting nutrients. So, have you had your tomatoes today? Lycopene Tomatoes contain the antioxidant lycopene, which is responsible for their red color. Lycopene has been found to lower the risk of prostate, ovarian, lung and stomach cancers. It also lessens the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and metabolic syndrome. And lycopene and other nutrients in tomatoes also protect against eye conditions including cataracts and macular degeneration. Vitamins...
RUNNER’S KNEE DOESN’T HAVE TO END YOUR JOGGING, BIKING OR SKIING FUN One of the biggest reasons us older adults quit running, jogging or hiking is a condition commonly called runner’s knee. It’s an injury that many experience at some point in their lives and which causes some to give up an activity they once enjoyed. However, by learning more about how to prevent and treat it you may be able in time to return to your sport. Runner’s knee (or patellofemoral pain syndrome or illotibial band syndrome) is often an overuse injury. It can come from attempting too much...
THE LOW-FODMAP DIET COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE What do apples, mango, garlic, beans, onions, ice cream and honey have in common? These are some of the foods to which you may have a dietary intolerance and can cause irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). And if you have IBS, you could reduce your symptoms by going on the low-FODMAP diet. You may have never heard of FODMAP. It’s an acronym for four types of fermentable carbohydrates. To give you information on how to go about this diet, here are excerpts from a recent (July 30, 2020) Harvard Health Blog article by Emily...
KEEP UP YOUR ENERGY! During this continuing pandemic, it’s easy enough to let slide lifestyle habits that can sap your energy. If your gym is closed you might not be getting in your normal exercise routine. You may be eating more “comfort” food than usual. Or having an extra glass of wine or can of beer in the evening than you did pre-covid. Yet, it’s important to keep up your energy! In addition to hopefully avoiding coranavirus, you’ll also have less chance of getting the flu or pneumonia, having a coronary problem or developing diabetes just by attending to all...
YES, YOU CAN GET LYME DISEASE IN THE WEST A close friend of mine in the Bay Area had Lyme disease. And she had it for years. At first, doctors told her it was impossible she had the disease because “it doesn’t occur in California, only in the Midwest or Northeastern U.S.” Thus she didn’t get the early diagnosis and care she needed to successfully fight it. Though a short course of antibiotics cures most patients at early stages, later on the disease becomes far more difficult to identify and treat and can lead to chronic fatigue, muscle and joint...
TELEMEDICINE HAS ARRIVED The COVID-19 pandemic came upon us suddenly and life changed in just days. We not only had to learn how to—at least temporarily—shelter in place but also how to communicate with doctors through virtual visits or telemedicine. We’ve had the simplest form of telemedicine for quite awhile—the phone call. Now, we’ve added in visual technology—through using our computers and our smartphones. In this time of coronavirus, telemedicine has arrived. Here detailing some of its advantages is Meera Sunder, a primary care physician in Massachusetts, in the July 3, 2020 Harvard Health Blog post Making telemedicine more inclusive....
