The shape of things

I read this article today about how no states in the U.S. are doing well or even "satisfactory" in terms of women's health. The research looked at 27 measures of women's health (including breast cancer screening, obesity, diabetes, access to health care, etc.) Sadly, every state in America is doing a bad job.

Only three states received a "satisfactory minus" grade - Vermont, Minnesota, and Mass.

Twelve states FAILED: Misssissippi last, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, Alabama and Indiana, and the District of Columbia.

Interestingly Colorado has the second lowest rate for obesity (behind Hawaii), the least trouble with high blood pressure, and the lowest diabetes rates. (I hope to one day live in Colorado, FYI).

So what does this mean? In my opinion, it means that us women need to take our health in our own hands. Many of these health measures are situations that are in our hands. You can watch your blood pressure, you can watch your weight, you can ask your doctor to screen for breast and colon cancer, etc.

Click here to see how your state ranked with an interactive map and the full report card.

My state, Louisiana, did terribly in the "Prevention" category. We failed in 4 of the 6 prevention categories (physical activity, smoking, obese and eating five fruits/veggies).

Some of the stats that stood out to me for my state were:

• 42% of black women do not get any physical activity in Louisiana
  
• Only 18% of women 18-44  eat 5 fruits/veggies a day (that means 82% DON'T!)
• The percent of obese women in Louisiana jumped 4.4% in just three years (up to almost 30%)!
• More than 60% of women over 65 in Louisiana have high blood pressure
• Louisiana only received a grade of satisfactory in mammograms and annual dental visits (2 out of 27 categories)

Check out how your state stands up and don't sit back and let our states determine our health - we obviously need to take it in our own hands AND encourage our leaders to make women's health a priority.

Every year about two times during the year the fashion industry has about a month of back-to-back fashion weeks in NYC, London, Milan, etc. And it seems like inevitably the discussion of young and thin models returns to the mainstream media and then quickly fades away. 

A lot of times these articles consist of "they are too thin, they are too young" and that's about it. But today I read an interesting article in the NY Times Style section about thin and young models. This sentence was at the end of the article, and I love it:

"It will be worth reminding the fashion industry that there is good science demonstrating that when you starve an animal, you make it a lot more vulnerable to self-abuse."

Basically the article looks at the same topics - the models are getting younger and thinner - but then it divulges into the nasty habits that models take up - as part of the job. Obviously to be that thin, you diet. And when you diet - unhealthyfully - you want to supress your appetite so you smoke. And studies have shown that smoking is a gateway drug. So next you take some Vicodin, which is ultimately a painkiller, but also has the great (note the sarcasm) effect of supressing appetite. And THEN you turn to the steroid Clenbuterol which is used by athlets and HORSES! to reduce body fat. EEK. 

(Source: Mat Szwajkos/Getty Images)

Which ultimately leads us back to the sentence - starving them makes them vulnerable to self abuse. 

Now, don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that the fashion industry needs to do a 360 and only let size 20 models down the runway. That's not my point. And I also don't think they should ban size zeros because it could unfairly target girls who are a size zero and also have a healthy bmi.

My point is that there is obviously no regulation of these young and mostly uneducated girls and there needs to be. No matter how sexy and sultry they look on the runway - a lot of them are 16 years old - and if at 16 years old I had been modeling, flying around the world meeting fabulous people and partying, I definitely would have needed SOMEONE to ground me and say, Stephanie - you need to clean up your act or you won't last long in this life. 

Ultimately, we should want these young girls to "last long in their lives" more than in their short-lived careers (having an 8 year career in modeling these days is basically unheard of). What are your thoughts?

I found a bunch of interesting articles about food today and wanted to share them with all of you (in brief format of course). So here it goes:

1. Vitamin C Can't Cure Cancer Common Cold - (Talk about an alliteration) Anyway - you know how everytime you start to get the sniffles we automatically hand you a glass of OJ. Well apparently that just doesn't work. Vitamin C taken after a cold starts does not make the cold shorter or cure the cold. If you take Vitamin C as a preventive measure it only slightly shortens the duration of a cold (about 8% in adults). So what is a better way to prevent colds?? Wash your HANDS regularly and carefully. It's so simple.

2. Fruits and Veggies Don't stop cancers return - This study tried to see if eating a "mega-diet" of fruits and veggies (well over the FDA's recommendation) would help breast cancer survivors ward off a cancer relapse. Unfortunately it did not. The next step? Try to see if exercise wards off a relapse. So if you or a loved one is a breast cancer survivor, there's no need to go "overboard on fruits and veggies"

3. Curry Ingredient may fight Alzheimer's Disease - the spice turmeric found in Curry powder appears to stimulate a specific response against Alzheimer's symptoms. Of course, the large dosages of turmeric may be more than a normal person can consume - but there is evidence that people who eat a lot of foods with curry may be less prone to cancer and Alzheimer's. Ever cooked with curry? Try these recipes:

(Pardon moi for the bad links earlier)
Wolfgang Puck's Curried Chicken Satay - yum-o
Spiced Shrimp - uses Turmeric
Middle Eastern Lamb Burgers - I haven't made this one, but I have the ingredients to make it tonight!

4. Why fruits and veggies go bad quickly - could the explanation be as simple as just placing them next to one another? Fit sugar wrote a great piece today on how some fruits and vegetables emit an odorless and colorless gas that can prematurely decay other fruits and veggies. Read about it here to find out how to make your refrigerator gas-free. :) It just may help you get your recommended daily value of fruits and veggies because it will let your produce last longer.

5. Weight training for heart disease - People with heart disease not only benefit from cardio, they also benefit from moderate weight training. Read the article for some great tips on how to get started in weight training.

The New York Times featured an article recently about Alcohol on a Health Kick. I don't know about you, but when I read that I thought "oxy-moron"

Apparently the new "trend" especially in NYC is to create health-ful cocktails. Meaning using vegetables and fruits instead of high-fructose corn syrup to sweeten your drink. Some restaurants are going all out putting pomegranate and pureed cucumber into drinks.

The critics of this say it's still alcohol, it will still have the same affects as any other alcoholic beverage and that a cocktail should be "a little bit naughty" not a chore. I love that one.

But the proponents of it say it's better than having a syrup filled vodka drink. Much like it's better to have grass-fed local steak than hormone injected caged steak. And researchers found recently that adding alcohol to strawberries and blackberries actually increased their antioxidant capacity. Now that's interesting.

My view? To be honest I'd rather a glass of wine than any kind of liquor any day, but if I were at a place that was serving an interesting "antioxidant-filled" strawberry pomegranate creation, I'd order that way before I'd order some super-sweet syrupy drink.

What do you think? 

I've found some more interesting health news that works best in the "brief" format.

1. The first one I'll feature is definitely my favorite: Wine may curb cavities! This study was done by Italian researchers, go figure... us Italians like our wine, right? Well now there may be yet another reason to keep drinking that one glass a night. Read the article for more info.
   
   
2. If you're one of the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic constipation, going to the drug store to get laxatives isn't the best way to treat your problem. Getting enough fluid in your body is way more important. This article outlines how much fluid is needed and why water could be the answer to your ailment.
   
   
3. Want to stop smoking? Need to lower your blood pressure? Want to start exercising more? New research shows that by tackling all these problems at once, you might have a better chance at successfully changing your behavior. Read about it here.
   
   
4. Pregnant? Eat your Omega-3s (found in fish like salmon, sardine, and tuna and fish oil) and it may hike your baby's IQ. It's funny though, because I though pregnant women should limit fish intake because of mercury levels?

And now this is just adorable. I saw it on FitSugar. Look at the picture below and guess who is happy with themselves for putting in a great workout... (Click on the picture to find out who it is!)

Find out who it is here. 

A restaurant trade group sued New York City over what they feel is an unconstitutional law that would require some restaurants to list calories counts on their menu boards next to items.

The group feels that the law is unfair since it only applies only to a small group of restaurants - which targets big national fast food chains - most of them already have made efforts to tell the public about the nutrition of their menu items.

As much as I'm for being open and honest about nutritional value of restaurant food - I agree with the trade group. If there's going to be a law about posting nutritional facts, it needs to apply to all restaurants.

I also don't think it is necessary to post the content smack-dab on the menu board or on the menu. Instead, I believe, the information should be in the form of a pamphlet that interested diners can glance over.

But I want to know what you think? Do you agree with the group suing the city? Do you think calorie counts should be screaming at you from the menu?

Need to read more... check out the article

I found some interesting health-related articles today. I'll post briefly about a few of them:

1. Doctors now say that there are symptoms that point to ovarian cancer (in the past they thought you couldn't detect the cancer until later stages). If you or any of our loved ones experience these symptoms daily for a few weeks, please go to the doctor. Read an article about it.

Experts say these health problems may be symptoms of ovarian cancer:

• Bloating
• Pelvic or abdominal pain
• Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly
• Feeling a frequent or urgent need to urinate

2. This past weekend a teenager died of an overdose of muscle cream - the scariest part is that she didn't ingest it orally, she just used too much on her leg muscles following a grueling cross country training regime. Some doctors and experts are urging the FDA to require "BenGay" and "IcyHot" to have stronger labels that warn of this overdose (this is the first death they've ever documented from muscle cream). Currently the labels only say to stop using them if "condition worsens or symptoms persist for more than seven days." Read about it here.

 

3. An expert panel calls for pediatricians to stop using "fuzzy language" with obese children. The panel made recommendations that children and their family should be told that they have a medical condition and it is called obesity and the doctors should work with the families to help the children get to a healthy weight.

I agree. We need to stop sugar-coating this epidemic. If kids and their parents aren't told of the risks involved of being obese, they will continue to be obese into adulthood - most likely. This paragraph from the article was pretty shocking:

• "About 17 percent of U.S. children are obese and one-third are overweight, using the committee's recommended definitions. Those numbers are rising, putting children at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems and other ailments more commonly found in adults" Read the article here.

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