Soccer Players

The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons offers these health tips for soccer players:

• Stay in good physical shape, even in the off-season, with regular exercise and strength training.
• Always warm up and stretch before playing.
• Always cool down and stretch after playing.
• Be sure to drink enough water before and during play.
• Always wear proper safety gear, including shin guards and shoes with ribbed soles or molded cleats.
• When the field is wet, use soccer balls made of synthetic, nonabsorbent materials, instead of leather.

Obese Youth and Gallstones

According to health information from the U.S Dept of Health and Human Services obese youth are an eight times higher risk of gallstones than youth who are not obese.

Young people should only rarely have gallstones. But doctors are treating more teens for the buildup of the hardened cholesterol-laden lumps in the gallbladder. Research finds that the risk of gallstones was higher in obese young people.

At Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena, research scientist Corinna Koebnick looked at medical records of 766 10- to 19-year-olds with gallstones, “Obese youths have a much higher risk – up to 8 times higher – than their normal-weight counterparts.” Koebnick shared that parents and kids should get together on eating right and being moreactive.

This health study in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

For a fun change for breakfast, try Banana in a Blanket.

Banana in a blanket is a breakfast that the kids can help prepare. There’s no cooking involved.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Instructions: Lay tortilla on a plate. Spread peanut butter evenly on the tortilla. Sprinkle cereal over peanut butter.

Peel and place banana on the tortilla and roll the tortilla. Drizzle maple syrup or honey on top.

Optional: garnish the banana in a blanket with more cereal on top.

Recipe from the Cool Fuel for Kids cookbook.

See More Kid-Friendly Recipes
Search All Our Fruit & Veggie Recipes

More women die from heart disease than from any other cause. In fact, one in four women in the United States dies from heart disease, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

“The risk of heart disease increases for everyone as they age,” says cardiologist Shari Targum, M.D., a medical officer at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “For women, the risk goes up after menopause, but younger women can also develop heart disease.”

FDA offers many resources to help educate women of all ages about the safe use of FDA-approved drugs and devices for the treatment and prevention of heart disease. FDA has fact sheets, videos, and other web-based tools on heart disease and conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure that may increase a woman’s risk for heart disease.

FDA created the “Heart Health for Women” site to connect women to FDA resources to support heart-healthy living. Visit the website at: www.fda.gov/womenshearthealth

“I encourage women of all ages to look to FDA for resources to help them reduce their risk for heart disease and make informed decisions about their health,” says Marsha Henderson, director of the Office of Women’s Health at FDA.

Heart Health for Women

When you think about heart disease, you probably imagine heart attacks and chest pain. But women need to know that heart health is about more than just heart attacks. Women need to take steps to reduce their risk for heart disease:

• Manage conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol that can increase your risk for heart disease.
• Learn to recognize the symptoms of a heart attack in women, including nausea, anxiety, an ache or feeling of tightness in the chest, and pain in the upper body.
• Use the Nutrition Label to make heart-healthy food choices.
• Daily use of aspirin is not right for everyone. Talk with a health care professional before you use aspirin as a way to prevent heart attacks.
• If you smoke, try to quit. See our booklet to learn more about medicines to help you quit.
• Talk to a health professional about whether you can participate in a clinical trial for a heart medication or procedure. Visit the FDA Patient Network to learn more about clinical trials.

Menopause and Heart Health

“Menopause does not cause heart disease,” says Targum. “But the decline in estrogen after menopause may be one of several factors in the increase in heart disease risk.” Other risks, such as weight gain, may also increase around the time of menopause.

Hormone therapy is used to treat some of the problems women have during menopause. “However, the American Heart Association recommends against using post-menopausal estrogen hormone replacement therapy to prevent heart disease,” says Targum.

Make a Plan, Take Action

Work with your health care team to make a plan for your heart health. Whatever your regimen, make sure to keep a list of your medicines and bring it with you to all of your appointments.

Eating out is supposed to be enjoyable. Yet, sometimes the food we eat in a restaurant makes us sick.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states that the Norovirus spread in restaurants accounts for two-thirds of all food poisoning outbreaks. The Norovirus, the leading cause of food poisoning outbreaks in the United States, sickens at least 20 million Americans a year with vomiting and diarrhea.

They CDC clarified that the Norovirus, often referred to as the “cruise ship virus,” is more often caused by infected restaurant workers than outbreaks on cruise ships, which only accounted for 1% of the more than 1,000 food-borne outbreaks examined by the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most outbreaks are the result of infected kitchen employees touching food with their bare hands, according to a CDC report. Restaurant workers need better hygiene practices if these outbreaks are to be prevented.

For the report, CDC researchers looked at Norovirus outbreaks caused by contaminated food from 2009 to 2012 and included in CDC’s National Outbreak Reporting System. Restaurants accounted for nearly two-thirds of the outbreaks, and catering or banquet facilities accounted for 17 percent. Among 520 of the outbreaks, food workers were implicated in 70 percent of the cases. Of these, 54 percent involved food workers touching ready-to-eat foods with their bare hands, according to the report.

Among 324 outbreaks in which a specific food was implicated, more than 90 percent of the contamination occurred during final preparation, such as making a sandwich with raw and already cooked ingredients. Another 75 percent occurred in foods eaten raw, such as leafy greens.

Tips for Preventing Food Poisoning When Eating Out

• Be careful of Salsa – The Center for Disease and Control says that salsa and guacamole are increasingly causing food poisoning since they are often made in large batches and not always refrigerated properly.
• Avoid Fish on Monday – If the chef bought  fish for Saturday night and didn’t sell out, then by Monday night, it is not so fresh.
• Check Out the Staff– Cooks and staff should not be wiping their hands on their uniform (which harbors bacteria that can spread to food). Dirty aprons are not a good sign.
• Avoid Buffets and Salad Bars – The Food Poison Journal puts it bluntly: eat at a salad bar at your own risk.  The Journal says this is one of the main places people get sick in a restaurant. Food in salad bars and buffets are rarely kept to the correct temperature. Also, lots of people touch both the food and the utensils.
• Beware of Specials – In high-end restaurants, specials can be great fresh meat or fish prepared using a unique recipe. In low-end restaurants, specials are sometimes a way to “fancy up”  meat or fish that’s been sitting around awhile so they can get rid of it.
• Smell Your Food – Your food has a funny odor or taste, send it back.
•  Chain Restaurants are Safer– According to MarketWatch, you’re statistically safer if you eat at a chain restaurant as they have much to lose if their diners get sick. Chains have the  resources to help manage food safety, as well as cleanliness standards that employees must maintain
• Send it back – If your meat is under-cooked, send it back.
• Be aware of the temperature of your food – If the food is supposed to be hot, it should be steaming. If cold, you should be able to feel the coolness. Lukewarm anything is not safe.

With all the concerns about children’s food consumption, and gaining unhealthy amounts of weight, the following guidelines, on what to feed children 4-8 years old, may prove helpful.

The guidelines are from WebMD (fit.webmd.com).

DAIRY

Total Servings a Day: 4

Look for reduced-fat, low-fat, or skim.

1 Serving Size

Milk

1/2 to 3/4 cup

Cheese

Choose 1:

• 2 to 3 dice-sized cheese cubes

• 1/2 to 1 slice packaged cheese

Yogurt

1/2 cup to 3/4 cup (4 to 6 oz)

PROTEIN

Total Servings a Day: 2

Make most meat choices lean or low-fat.

1 Serving Size

Meat, Fish, Poultry, or Meat Substitute

1 oz (about the 1/3 to 1/2 the size of an adult’s palm)

Tofu or Tempeh

1/2 cup

Egg

1 egg

4 Tbsp (about the size of your child’s fist)

Beans or Peas

Nuts (includes peanut butter)

2 Tbsp

VEGETABLES

Total Servings a Day: 4 to 8

Serve mostly green or brightly colored veggies.
Limit starchy veggies like potatoes.

1 Serving Size

3 to 4 Tbsp

Starchy Vegetables (like white potatoes)

Limit to 1 to 2 servings a day.

FRUIT

Total Servings a Day: 2

Raw fruit is best.

1 Serving Size

Choose 1:

• 1/2 to 1 small raw fruit

• Canned 4 to 6 Tbsp

Opt for fruit packed in water, juice, or light syrup
instead of heavy syrup.

4 to 6 oz total per day

Fruit Juice

GRAINS

Total Servings a Day: 4

Choose whole-grain options when possible.

1 Serving Size

Choose 1:

• 1 slice of bread

• 1/2 English muffin

• 1/2 Bagel

• 1/2 to 1 Tortilla

Cooked cereal

1/2 cup

Cold, Dry cereal

1 cup

Pasta, noodles, rice or grains

1/2 cup

Sources:

Pediatric Nutrition Handbook 6th edition, American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition. 2009.

American Cancer Society: “Controlling Portion Sizes.”

Let’s Move: “Healthy Families.”

A Parent’s Guide to Childhood Obesity, American Academy of Pediatrics. 2006.

© 2011 WebMD

fit.webmd.com