Spring Into Action

It appears winter is behind us (fingers crossed!). Short sleeves, ice cream, and warm nights aren’t the only reasons to get excited for spring. The season also brings surprisingly great health benefits as well.

Of the many benefits that encompass spring, Everyday Health narrowed it down to six things that should excite you and your health.

  1. Extra Daylight
    • Lack of Vitamin D can put your bones at risk, but during the spring you can soak up all the nutrients your body needs. (Remember to take precautions in order to balance healthy sun exposure versus burning.)
    • Extra sunlight serves as a natural mood booster and helps with seasonal depression some people suffer from during the dark fall and winter months.
  2. Healthier Home
    • Spring time means spring cleaning. Not only is it a great calorie burning exercise, but the cleaning of your home, car, office, and other areas can rid you of bacteria that may free you from spring colds and help seize control of your allergies.
  3. Spring-cleaned Diet
    • Around the warmer months you’ll find yourself eating less and going out more.
    • When you do eat, there are more healthy options available since many fresh fruits and vegetables are ripe for the taking.
    • Look for your spring produce at your local farmer’s market.
  4. Outdoor Exercise
    • With warmer temperatures you’re more inclined to explore the outdoors.
    • Studies have shown time outdoors helps with reduced stress and lowering blood pressure.
    • Warmer weather also offers more opportunity for outdoor exercises (e.g. runs, walks, swimming, etc.)
  5. No winter skin
    • Gone are the days of dry skin and with the added vitamin D you’ll surely be moisturized.
  6. Spring Break
    • These are the best times for vacations. Whether near home or getting away, getaways are great ways to manage stress and has been linked to reduced risks of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease.

As you see, there’s plenty to enjoy during these upcoming months, but be sure to keep your health as a priority. Reach out to your doctor if your experiencing any changes during these times, so you make the best of this season.

Healthy and Affordable Shopping

Grocery shopping can seem overwhelming especially as you are getting used to eating and preparing foods in a new way. It can be especially difficult on a budget. My belief is that investing in healthy food is investing in your health. I recently shared some tips with my patients at our R-Health Cherry Hill Healthy Shopping on a Budget event. Here are some of my favorite pieces of advice.

First let’s broadly define “healthy” as there are many controversies.  However, let’s focus on key elements of agreement.  They are: eating whole unprocessed foods, especially fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, avoiding empty carbohydrates such as those in sweets and refined flours, avoiding additives including chemicals and added sugar and salt, avoiding pesticides, antibiotics and hormones and getting adequate amounts of healthy fat, protein, and fiber.

Reading labels is empowering! It takes extra time at first, but once you know the products that are right for you, shopping will get faster again.  Not all food labels are helpful in making decisions.  For example, “natural” does not have a clear definition that is regulated by the FDA.  Companies can label their food natural and it still contain high fructose corn syrup for example. Also, beware of Heart-healthy statements as well as they can have plenty of refined carbohydrates that raise your blood sugar and trigger inflammation.  A few things to think about food labels in general.

  • Ingredient list: QUICK HINT – look for names you can pronounce and foods you have in your own kitchen.
  • MANY OF THE BEST CHOICES WILL NOT HAVE A LABEL – Think the produce section!
  • Calories: Not all calories are created equal – don’t worry so much about the calorie count, when you are able to get rid of processed foods usually you can trust your body to tell you when you have had enough.
    • Your body processes a Twinkie much differently and with different metabolic effects than a handful of nuts even though they have the same amount of calories.
  • Check the portion size. (Sodium content can be misleading when that tiny can of soup has 2.5 servings!)
  • Watch for fats
    • Buy healthy fats – nuts, seeds, olive oil, etc. and avoid trans fats
    • Foods can be labeled as having 0 gm of fat or trans fats if they have ½ gram or less.
  • Fiber is good for your body, especially for healthy gut bacteria
  • Watch for additives especially sugar and salts
    • New guidelines now ensure labels now contain “added sugars”
    • Try to avoid concentrated natural sugar in high quantities too (e.g. fruit juice or dried fruit)
    • Work on sticking to the recommended limits of no more than 6 tsp of added sugar for women and children and 9 tsp for men per day
    • For salts, much of the sodium and added sugar comes from salts and sugar added to processed foods. This helps the food industry to make the food more addictive. Read labels carefully and cook home-made meals whenever possible.
    • Look for chemical additives or artificial flavors/colors. You might be surprised when you first start reading labels to find how much more is in your can of beans, tomato sauce, or yogurt than you thought.

Saving money on anything usually requires planning ahead.  Look at circulars for sales and make a meal plan for the week.  Look online and in magazines for great ideas for your palate and budget.  Try searching “clean eating on a budget.”  On our grocery trip we toured Aldi.  Not only does this grocery store offer healthy natural (their Simply Nature labels are verified by a third party) and organic options, but surveys show Aldi’s prices on average contain 20% more savings than larger retail stores.  Remember to bring a quarter and your own shopping bags.

Other cost saving tips:  If you have the time, avoid pre-cut servings.  Stock up on nonperishable and frozen items when on sale, and shop frequently for perishable items so they don’t spoil before you can use them.  Try looking above and below eye level, compare store brands, and of course not shopping while hungry are other cost saving tips.

Also know when to invest in organic produce and when to save on conventionally grown produce. According to the Environmental Working Group’s 2017 list below are products to look for.

  • DIRTY DOZENFruits and Vegetables with the most pesticides (Shop organic when possible for these!)
    • Strawberries
    • Apples
    • Peaches
    • Pears
    • Spinach
    • Tomatoes
    • Celery
    • Potatoes
    • Sweet bell peppers
  • CLEAN 15Fruits and Vegetables with the least pesticides (Okay to buy conventionally grown produce for these!)
    • Pineapples
    • Mangoes
    • Papayas
    • Honeydew Melon
    • Kiwi
    • Cauliflower
    • Eggplant
    • Sweet Corn
    • Cabbage
    • Avocadoes

Hopefully this is a good start for your next grocery store trip.  Please feel free to reach out to your R-Health doctor for more information and if you have specific medical conditions for your doctor to get you on the best health and nutrition plan.

Patrollin’ Your Colon

There are many leading causes of death, chief among them is cancer. Among the cancers specifically, the third most common, and second leading cause of death is colorectal cancer. This is one of many reasons March is recognized as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Affecting people of all races and ages, the goal is to spread awareness while encouraging people to take preventable actions to help reduce the development of this cancer.

In 2017, FightColorectalCancer.org shared a document highlighting a few facts about colorectal cancer:

  1. 1/20 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer
  2. People with a first-degree relative with colon cancer are between 2-3 times more likely to develop this cancer
    • 25% of people diagnosed have a family history
  3. 1/3 people are not up to date on their colorectal cancer screenings
    • 23 million people have not been screened
  4. 60% of colorectal cancer deaths could have been prevented
    • Evidence shows that screening tests reduced the number of colorectal cancer cases and deaths

Before discussing the screenings, it’s important to also identify some signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer. Though many can be caused from other conditions or go unnoticed, with the help of the American Cancer Society we’ve identified a few symptoms to look out for.

  • Change in bowel habits (E.g. diarrhea, constipation, or narrowing of the stool)
  • Rectal bleeding with bright red blood
  • Feeling that you need to have a bowl movement, but aren’t relieved by one
  • Blood in the stool
  • Weakness and fatigue or unintentional weight loss

Though most of these cases happen over the age of 50, if you experience any of these symptoms, be sure to visit your doctor immediately. Additionally, one of the best ways to lower your risk of these symptoms is through screening tests. These tests can find polyps or other traces of colorectal cancer. The CDC recommended the four following screening tests:

  1. Stool Test – used to checked for blood in the stool; encouraged every 1-3 years.
    • gFOBT
    • FIT
    • FIT-DNA
  2. Flexible Sigmoidoscopy – used to check for polyps inside rectum and lower colon; encouraged every 5 years
  3. Colonoscopy – similar to the previous tests, used as a follow up to search for anything unusual found in previous test; encouraged every 10 years
  4. CT Colonography – a virtual colonoscopy used to produce images of entire colon; encouraged every 5 years.

As you see there’s many tests that serve different purposes. However, to discover which test is best for you, be sure to speak with your doctor. Not only will they best analyze the test most suitable for you, but they can also aid in forming a timetable that keeps you up to date with your screenings and thus keeping you healthy.