Encouraging Health

A second case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in turkeys in a farm on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

The farm was one of four where culls were taking place because of fears of “dangerous contact” with the initial case at Redgrave Park Farm, discovered last week.

All 9,000 turkeys have already been slaughtered at the new infected premises, which is operated by the same company as the site of the first outbreak.

The site of the new infection, Hill Meadow Farm, Knettishall, on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, is outside the original 3km protection zone set up around Redgrave Park farm, but inside the wider restricted area which covers Suffolk and much of Norfolk.

The premises were identified as having “dangerous contact” with the initial outbreak last week because staff for Redgrave Poultry, the operator of all five sites where culls have taken place, moved between the farms.

Defra said the birds appeared healthy when they were first inspected, but a precautionary cull was completed on Saturday.

Acting chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said: “The laboratory test results highlight the importance of poultry keepers in the area being extremely vigilant.

“It is essential they practise the highest levels of biosecurity and report any suspicions of disease to their local animal health office.”

A new 3km protection zone has been set up around the farm, and an extended surveillance zone which surrounds both sites has also been established.

See First bird-flu vaccine ok’d for humans

h5n1 bird flu

h5n1 bird flu

Orange peel, pulp, or juice: Which one has the most vitamin C?

Orange pulp wins, according to the authors of the book SuperFoods HealthStyle. The pulp has twice as much vitamin C as the peel and 10 times as much as the juice. And here’s what all that nutrition means to your body.

Code Orange: Super Stuff
Oranges are one of nature’s superfoods, according to Steven G. Pratt, MD, and Kathy Matthews, authors of SuperFoods HealthStyle. Each orange packs over 60 flavonoids, 170 phytochemicals, and a healthy dose of vitamin C.

Good Stuff Keeps You Going
And all that healthy stuff in oranges may help prevent a host of health conditions, including arthritis, asthma, high blood pressure, blood clots, colds, and even cancer. Oranges have got you covered from A to Z.

New Ways to Go Orange
You could always grab an orange and just eat it whole. But for novel ways to squeeze more of this citrus beauty into your diet, try this

Orange & Avocado Salad

This colorful salad would be a welcome addition to a Mexican-inspired meal.

Makes 4 servings

ACTIVE TIME: 15 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 15 minutes

EASE OF PREPARATION: Easy

8 cups mixed salad greens
1 cup orange segments
1 avocado, diced
1/4 cup slivered red onion
1/2 cup Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Toss greens, orange segments, avocado and onion in a salad bowl. Toss with Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette.

Enjoy a heartwarming family tale while enjoying your morning orange.

orange, vitamin C, Avocado

orange, vitamin C, Avocado

Two long-touted sight savers could help your skin maintain that snap-back elastic quality of your youth. Know what they are?

Lutein and zeaxanthin — two carotenoids found in abundance in leafy greens, broccoli, zucchini, and other yellow-green veggies. So dive into that spinach salad for your vision and your visage.

Carotenoid Combo
Your skin naturally produces lutein and zeaxanthin — but getting a little extra from your diet couldn’t hurt, right? Especially given the fact that when women in a study took both carotenoids as supplements, their skin reaped youthful rewards like better hydration, improved elasticity, and increased protection against harmful ultraviolet rays. The effect was even greater when the women also used lotions with the nutrients.

Eye on the Prize
More research is needed to confirm the role lutein and zeaxanthin play in skin health. But the fact remains that a diet high in lutein- and zeaxanthin-rich foods can help protect your peepers.

skin, lutein, zeaxanthin

skin, lutein, zeaxanthin

You don’t have to go dry to be heart-healthy this holiday season.

Smother your mashed potatoes with a low-in-saturated-fat but high-in-taste Portobello Gravy instead. Your heart and your taste buds will be thankful for this rich, earthy, velvety gravy that can be made with portobello or shiitake mushrooms. Here’s how to do it.

Portobello Gravy
This recipe is a tried-and-true favorite from EatingWell — and it’s low in saturated fat, low in cholesterol, and low in carbs, too. Find other recipes at EatingWell.com.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups chopped cleaned portobello or shiitake mushrooms
2 1/4 cups vegetable broth
3 tablespoons tamari or reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon crumbled dried sage
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions
1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until they begin to release their juices, about 10 minutes.

2. Add broth, tamari (or soy sauce), thyme and sage; simmer for 10 minutes. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Stir into the sauce and simmer, stirring often, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes more. Season with pepper. If you prefer a smooth gravy, pass it through a fine sieve (discard mushrooms and onions). Serve hot.

Find other healthy recipes!

http://www.coachingcooking.com/

healthy cooking

healthy cooking

Scores sickened as mutated virus becoming more common, CDC says

A mutated version of a common cold virus has caused 10 deaths in the last 18 months, U.S. health officials said Thursday.

Adenoviruses usually cause respiratory infections that aren’t considered lethal. But a new variant has caused at least 140 illnesses in New York, Oregon, Washington and Texas, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The illness made headlines in Texas earlier this year, when a so-called boot camp flu sickened hundreds at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The most serious cases were blamed on the emerging virus and one 19-year-old trainee died.

“What really got people’s attention is these are healthy young adults landing in the hospital and, in some cases, the ICU,� said Dr. John Su, an infectious diseases investigator with the CDC.

There are more than 50 distinct types of adenoviruses tied to human illnesses. They are one cause of the common cold, and also trigger pneumonia and bronchitis. Severe illnesses are more likely in people with weaker immune systems.

Some adenoviruses have also been blamed for gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis and cystitis.

There are no good antiviral medications for adenoviruses. Patients usually are treated with aspirin, liquids and bed rest.

In the CDC report, the earliest case of the mutated virus was found in an infant girl in New York City, who died last year. The child seemed healthy right after birth, but then became dehydrated and lost appetite. She died 12 days after she was born.

Tests found that she been infected with a form of adenovirus, called Ad14, but with some little differences, Su said.

More common
It’s not clear how the changes made it more lethal, said Linda Gooding, an Emory University researcher who specializes in adenoviruses.

Earlier this year, hundreds of trainees at Lackland became ill with respiratory infections. Tests showed a variety of adenoviruses in the trainees, but at least 106 — and probably more — had the mutated form of Ad14, including five who ended up in an intensive care unit.

In April, Oregon health officials learned of a cluster of cases at a Portland-area hospital. They ultimately counted 31 cases, including seven who died with severe pneumonia. The next month, Washington state officials reported four hospitalized patients had the same mutated virus. One, who also had AIDS, died.

The Ad14 form of adenovirus was first identified in 1955. In 1969, it was blamed for a rash of illnesses in military recruits stationed in Europe, but it’s been detected rarely since then.

But it seems to growing more common. The strain accounted for 6 percent of adenovirus samples collected in 22 medical facilities in 2006, while none was seen the previous two years, according to a study published this month in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Parents! Check out http://www.parentingsites411.com/

mutated cold bug, parents

mutated cold bug, parents

A healthy diet is key when it comes to lowering your blood pressure

Optimal blood pressure is at or below 120/80 mm Hg.

If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor has probably already told you the basics. You can control blood pressure by getting to and maintaining a healthy weight; reducing your “bad� cholesterol (LDL) if it’s high; limiting the salt in your diet; exercising; and adding calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and potassium to your diet.

The following eight foods are among the best of the best when it comes to lowering your blood pressure.

Skim milk
Skim milk provides calcium and vitamin D, two nutrients that work as a team to help reduce blood pressure by about 3 to 10 percent. Although this doesn’t sound like much, it could add up to about 15 percent reduction in risk for cardiovascular disease.

Spinach, unsalted sunflower seeds, beans (black, white, navy, lima, pinto, kidney) Spinach, unsalted sunflower seeds and beans are all loaded with magnesium, a key ingredient for lowering and maintaining healthy blood pressure levels. These foods also provide lots of potassium, a primary nutrient in the fight against high blood pressure (see below).

Baked white potato, banana, soybeans
These three foods provide ample potassium. Your blood levels of potassium and sodium are inextricably linked. When potassium is low, the body retains sodium (and too much sodium raises blood pressure). When potassium is high, the body gets rid of sodium. Eating potassium-rich foods is important for maintaining a healthy balance of both minerals and, by extension, for keeping blood pressure low.

Important note: Do not take potassium supplements unless specifically prescribed by your doctor. Too much potassium will upset the balance, and could have serious, even life-threatening consequences.

Dark chocolate
Hooray for dark chocolate! Eating about 30 calories a day — that’s less than half an ounce of dark chocolate — was associated with a lowering of blood pressure without weight gain or other adverse effects, according to a study in the July 4, 2007, issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association).

Love Chocolate? Then try Limited Edition Snyders of Hanover Chocolate Pretzel Ice Cream

You don’t have to be smarter than a quiz-show fifth-grader to learn how to control the urge to eat. Just follow these ingenious tips to keep your appetite under wraps:

• Feed it protein for breakfast. You’ll be less hungry later on and end up eating 267 fewer calories during the day. At least that’s what happened on days when St. Louis University researchers gave overweight women two scrambled eggs and two slices of jelly-topped toast for breakfast rather than about half that protein.

• Make it climb a flight of stairs. At home, store the most tempting foods way out of reach. For instance, Cornell University food psychologist Brian Wansink, PhD, keeps his favorite soda in a basement fridge. “Half the time I’m too lazy to run down there to get it, so I drink the water in the kitchen.”

• Sleep on it. People who don’t get their 8 hours of ZZZs experience hormonal fluctuations that increase appetite, report researchers. Learn more about how sleep affects your diet.

• Give it something else to think about. When scientists scanned the brains of people eating different foods, they found that the brain reacts to fat in the mouth in much the same way that it responds to a pleasant aroma. So if you feel a craving coming on, apply your favorite scent.

• Never let it see a heaping plate. The more food that’s in front of you, the more you’ll eat. So at a restaurant, ask your waiter to pack up half of your meal before serving it to you, then eat the extras for lunch the next day.

• Put it under the lights. You consume fewer calories at a well-lit restaurant table than you do dining in a dark corner. “In the light, you’re more self-conscious and worry that other patrons are watching what you eat,” explains Wansink.

• Talk it down. Entertaining friends with a great story doesn’t give you much time to eat up, so you’ll probably still have food on your plate when they’re done. Once they’re finished, call it quits, too.

• Offer it a seat. If you sit down to snack — and use utensils and a plate — you’ll eat fewer calories at subsequent meals.

• Satisfy it with soup. Start lunch with about 130 calories worth of vegetable soup and you’ll eat 20% fewer calories overall during lunch, say Penn State experts.

• Give it little choice. Packages that contain assorted varieties of cookies, candy, dips, cheese, etc., make you want to try all the flavors. The effect is so powerful, says Wansink, that when people are given 10 colors of M&Ms to munch on, not 7, they eat 30% more!

Enjoy the outdoors? here’s another way!

appetite suppressant, decrease appetite, diet hints

appetite suppressant, decrease appetite, diet hints

No gym membership? No problem.

You’re living in the best gym in the world: your body.

It’s all you need to get stronger, leaner, and better equipped to grow younger. So put it to good use! Because the stronger your body, the longer and better your life. Here are two at-home, in-your-body workouts to try. No assembly required.

2 Workouts to Help YOU Stay Young
You can check out these workouts, and more, in the new book YOU: Staying Young, the latest offering from RealAge experts and best-selling authors Mehmet Oz, MD, and Michael Roizen, MD.

1. The You2 Workout
This workout will stretch and strengthen your muscles, which in turn not only helps you maintain a healthy weight but also does things like build stronger bones.

Instructions

2. Chi-Gong Workout
This 2000-year-old workout not only shapes your body but also helps you destress and keeps your energy levels high.

Instructions

body workout, chi-gong, you2 workout

body workout, chi-gong, you2 workout

Say bye-bye to mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and brownies. There’s a new kind of comfort food in town.

To feel better, eat plenty of foods rich in B vitamins. It can help stoke your feel-good fires, making it less likely you’ll be moody, irritable, impatient, or depressed. Here’s where to get your Bs.

Benefits of B Abound
Along with reversing moodiness, irritability, impatience, tension, anger, and depression, B vitamins may increase energy and promote a sense of well-being, writes Jack Challem in The Food-Mood Solution.

You can get all the B you need from a B-complex supplement or a multivitamin.

Or stock up on some of the best food sources of B:
For B1 (thiamin): wheat germ, peas, long-grain brown rice, lentils, pork, and whole-wheat bread
For B2 (riboflavin): fortified cereals, milk, almonds, and broccoli
For B3 (niacin): tuna, chicken, salmon, fortified cereals, and peanuts
For B5 (pantothenic acid): yogurt, avocadoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and chicken
For B6: fortified cereals, bananas, salmon, and spinach
For B12: chicken, turkey, milk, and eggs
For folate: fortified cereals, lentils, garbanzo beans, orange juice

Bananas are also Vitamin B rich:

Grab a banana and say bye-bye to Parkinson’s disease? Researchers say it could be so.

Bananas are rich in vitamin B6 — and very early research suggests that high levels of B6 may protect against Parkinson’s. Still, the news is not something to go bananas over just yet. The benefit applied only to smokers in the most recent study. But bananas and B6 do your body good in many other ways.

Vitamin B6 — along with folate and B12 — helps reduce levels of homocysteine, an amino acid. That’s good for your ticker, because too much homocysteine in the blood appears to up heart disease risk.

Homocysteine also appears to be toxic to nerve cells, and elevated levels have been linked to Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological disorder that causes muscles to become rigid and shake uncontrollably.

Could B vitamins be the answer? Among nearly 5,000 people studied recently, smokers whose B6 intake was highest were 50 percent less likely to develop the brain disorder over a nearly 10-year period, compared to smokers who consumed the least amount of the vitamin. And although all three members of the nutrient trio help lower homocysteine, only B6 intake — not folate or B12 — translated into reduced rates of Parkinson’s, suggesting the B vitamin may lower disease risk by some mechanism unrelated to the lowering of homocysteine.

What’s smoking got to do with it? Oddly enough, nicotine may actually protect nerve cells in some way, and B6 may help out in that process.

Of course, that’s no reason to light up. But it might be a good reason to peel a banana.

Here’s a great banana and peanut butter smoothie recipe!

vitamin B, banana

vitamin B, banana

Have you been eyeing the pooches at the pound?

Here’s something that might sway your decision: A four-legged friend may help you do more walking.

Dog owners may walk as much as 2 hours more a week than people without a furry friend. Makes sense. When Fido needs to get out and stretch his legs, he lets you know, and on go your walking shoes. Can’t have a dog? Here’s another way to get walking.

Staying Fit with Fido
Are you a dog lover? Can’t have a dog? Walk a friend’s dog, or volunteer to walk dogs at the local animal shelter. The bonus: Furry friends are natural stress reducers.

Watching videos of animal life may help you beat stress. In a study, people who watched 10 minutes of scaly, feathered, or furry footage experienced dips in both heart rate and blood pressure.

Be Prepared
Got a stressful event coming up, like an unpleasant dental procedure or a tough meeting at work? Watch a few minutes of a wildlife show before heading out of the house. After 10 minutes, you’ll not only have reduced your heart rate and blood pressure, but you’ll also have created a buffer against the physical effects of your upcoming nail-biter. The sound doesn’t even have to be on in order for you to reap the calming benefits of the video.

Contingency Plans
Of course, if you’re not an animal lover, having a pet you don’t like isn’t a boon to your stress-less plans. But not to worry. There are plenty of other ways to motivate yourself to walk more:

1. Make a walking date with a friend (It’s much harder to talk yourself out of it once you’ve committed to someone else.)
2. Find a virtual exercise buddy , and report your walking activities to him or her each day.
3. Splurge on a virtual trainer. They’ve now got wristwatch-sized GPS devices that do everything from measuring speed, distance, calories burned, and heart rate to letting you know when your pace has slacked off.
4. Register for a charity walk.
5. Remind yourself of the benefits.

Listen to music while you walk.

pets, dogs, walking, music

pets, dogs, walking, music