Healthy Oats Recipes and Cooking Tips

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Overnight Oatmeal

Here is an easy way to serve a crowd a hearty breakfast before facing the elements for a day of winter sports. You can assemble it in the slow cooker in the evenin g and wake up to a bowl of hot, nourishing oatmeal. The slow cooker eliminates the need for constant stirring and ensures an exceptionally creamy consistency. It is important to use steel-cut oats; old-fashioned oats become too soft during slow-cooking.

Recipe:

8 servings, 1 cup each

Active Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 7 to 8 hours (slow-cooker time) - 1 hour 35 minutes (stovetop time)

Ingredients

• 8 cups water
• 2 cups steel-cut oats, (see Ingredient note)
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Preparation

1. Combine water, oats, dried cranberries, dried apricots and salt in a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker. Turn heat to low. Put the lid on and cook until the oats are tender and the porridge is creamy, 7 to 8 hours. Stovetop Variati on Halve the above recipe to accommodate the size of most double boilers: Combine 4 cups water, 1 cup steel-cut oats, 3 tablespoons dried cranberries, 3 tablespoons dried apricots and 1/8 teaspoon salt in the top of a double boiler. Cover and cook over boiling water for about 1 1/2 hours, checking the water level in the bottom of the double boiler from time to time.

Tips & Notes

• Ingredient Note: Steel-cut oats, sometimes labeled "Irish oatmeal," look like small pebbles. They are toasted oat groats—the oat kernel that has been removed from the husk that have been cut in 2 or 3 pieces. Do not substitute regular rolled oats, which have a shorter cooking time, in the slow-cooker oatmeal recipe.

Nutrition

Per serving : 193 Calories; 3 g Fat; 1 g Mono; 34 g Carbohydrates; 6 g Protein; 9 g Fiber; 77 mg Sodium; 195 mg Potassium

2 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 2 starch, 1/2 fruit

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Multi-Grain Waffles

Traditional waffles are a butter-laden, high-carb indulgence, but they make the transition to good fats and smart carbs beautifully, yielding crisp, nutty-tasting waffles with all the sweet pleasure of the original. The batter can also be used for pancakes.

8 servings, 2 waffles each

Active Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ, or cornmeal
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Mix buttermilk and oats in a medium bowl; let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, wheat germ (or cornmeal), baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Stir eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla into the oat mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients; mix with a rubber spatula just until moistened.
4. Coat a waffle iron with cooking spray and preheat. Spoon in enough batter to cover three-fourths of the surface (about 2/3 cup for an 8-by-8-inch waffle iron). Cook until waffles are crisp and golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Repeat with remaining batter.

Tips & Notes

• Make Ahead Tip: Wrap any leftovers individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 1 month. Reheat in a toaster or toaster oven.

Nutrition

Per serving : 188 Calories; 4 g Fat; 1 g Sat; 2 g Mono; 55 mg Cholesterol; 30 g Carbohydrates; 8 g Protein; 3 g Fiber; 328 mg Sodium; 227 mg Potassium

2 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 1 1/2 starch, 1/4 reduced-fat milk, 1/2 lean protein, 1/2 fat

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Iron

What does it do?

Iron is a critical mineral in the body. Iron is required to transport oxygen from the lungs to the cells in the body and for oxygen storage in the muscles. And, although iron is one of the most abundant elements on earth, it is also one of the most frequently observed deficiencies in the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of iron deficiency in the U.S. is about 2 percent in adult men, 9 to 12 percent in non-Hispanic white women and nearly 20 percent in black and Mexican-American women.

What are the best food sources?

There are two forms of iron in the diet: heme and nonheme. In foods from animal sources, such as meat, poultry and fish, about half the iron is heme iron and the rest is nonheme. Iron from dairy foods, eggs and plant-based foods is entirely nonheme. Iron is better absorbed by the body from heme sources. Vitamin C also improves absorption of both forms of iron when consumed at the same meal. Fortified products, such as breads, cereals and breakfast bars, can contribute significant amounts of nonheme iron to the diet. For example, some fortified cereals can contain up to 24 mg of iron per 1-cup serving.

What happens if you don’t get enough?

Inadequate dietary iron results in iron deficiency anemia, the most common nutritional deficiency in the world. Symptoms include fatigue, reduced cognitive function, increased risk of infection and delayed development in infants. Iron deficiency anemia can also be the result of impaired iron absorption or iron loss due to blood loss from menstruation, injury and gastrointestinal bleeding. Iron deficiency is more common among infants, toddlers, teenage girls, women of childbearing age and vegetarians. Iron intake requirements are 1.8 times higher for vegetarians because nonheme iron is not absorbed as well as heme iron.

What happens if you get too much?

It’s not likely that you’ll get too much iron from dietary sources. However, high doses from supplements could cause harmful effects, ranging from gastrointestinal effects, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, to cardiovascular, nervous system, kidney and liver effects. Children should never be given iron supplements unless under the guidance of a physician or qualified health professional. Iron toxicity (from high doses of supplements) in children can rapidly result in severe long-term effects or death.

People with the following conditions may be at risk of harmful effects due to high iron intakes and therefore should not consume excess amounts of iron: hereditary hemochromatosis (a condition that causes the body to absorb and store too much iron), chronic alcoholism, liver disease, iron-loading abnormalities and certain genetic disorders. Additionally, it is recommended that adult men and postmenopausal women avoid iron supplements and highly fortified foods because of their greater risk for iron overload, a condition that leads to iron accumulation in the body.

How much do you need?

The following table lists the recommended intake for healthy people based on current scientific information.

Life Stage Group	Age Range	Recommended Dietary Allowance/Adequate Intake	Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL)
Infants	0-6 mo.	0.27*	40
Infants	7-12 mo.	11	40
Children	1-3 yr.	7	40
Children	4-8 yr.	10	40
Males	9-13 yr.	8	40
Males	14-18 yr.	11	40
Males	19-30 yr.	8	45
Males	31-50 yr.	8	45
Males	51-70 yr.	8	45
Males	> 70 yr.	8	45
Females	9-13 yr.	8	40
Females	14-18 yr.	15	45
Females	19-30 yr.	18	45
Females	31-50 yr.	18	45
Females	51-70 yr.	8	45
Females	> 70 yr.	8	45
Pregnancy	<>	27	45
Pregnancy	19-30 yr.	27	45
Pregnancy	31-50 yr.	27	45
Lactation	<>	10	45
Lactation	19-30 yr.	9	45
Lactation	31-50 yr.	9	45

NOTE: The table is adapted from the Dietary Reference Intakes reports. Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), when available, are in bold type; Adequate Intakes (AIs) are followed by an asterisk(*). RDAs and AIs may both be used as goals for individual intake. RDAs are set to meet the needs of almost all individuals (97 to 98 percent) in a group. For healthy breastfed infants, the AI is the mean intake. The AI for other life stage and gender groups is believed to cover the needs of all individuals in the group, but lack of data means the percentage of individuals covered by this intake cannot be specified with confidence.
UL = The maximum level of daily nutrient intake that is likely to pose no risk of adverse effects. Unless otherwise specified, the UL represents total intake from food, water and supplements.

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Best brain foods for every age

SuperFoods for Your Brain

Posted Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 12:38 pm PDT

September means that many of us are getting back to school or back to work or back to looking for work -- all of which require a whole lot of braininess. To support this big brain storm, I checked in with our friends at EatingWell, to see what they suggest for smart eating. They got back to me with the best brain food to eat during each stage of life...

The Best Brain Food for Infants and Babies:

Iron. By 5 or 6 months, babies have used up the iron stores they're born with and need to get iron from food or supplements to support brain development.
Food solutions: Iron-fortified cereals. Try these iron-rich recipes.

The Best Brain Food for Children and Teens:

School-aged children should start their day with low-glycemic-index breakfast foods. (They need morning fuel.) Food solutions: Bran cereals, oatmeal or whole-wheat bagels. Try these oat-filled recipes.

The Best Brain Food for Young Adults:

Got iron? 10 percent of women are anemic, and new studies show that being even mildly iron-deficient affects learning, memory, and attention. Luckily, restoring iron levels to normal also restores cognitive function.
Food solutions: Dark leafy greens, beans, meat or soy. Try these leafy green recipes.

The Best Brain Food for Older Adults:

Eat your antioxidants. People who eat more brightly colored fruits and leafy vegetables have less cognitive decline than those who don't; antioxidants in produce may mop up free radicals and protect neurons from damage.
Food solutions: Berries and other fruits, greens and turmeric (which contains curcumin). Try these antioxidant-rich recipes.

The Best Brain Food for Pregnant Women:

Pregnant women who eat fatty fish, such as salmon, during their third trimester of pregnancy have babies who tend to perform better on cognitive tasks. Researchers think the omega-3 fatty acid DHA is needed during this time to build neurons and their connections.
Food solutions: Salmon and other fatty fish, DHA-fortified eggs and yogurt. Try these healthy salmon recipes.

-Check out these brain-boosting recipes to incorporate all the foods above into your diet.

-But smarts are not everything. Here are some rules on how eat for happiness.

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Dangerous bacteria found on U.S. beaches

Dangerous staph germs found at West Coast beaches

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione, Ap Medical Writer – Sat Sep 12, 3:02 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Dangerous staph bacteria have been found in sand and water for the first time at five public beaches along the coast of Washington, and scientists think the state is not the only one with this problem.

The germ is MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — a hard-to-treat bug once rarely seen outside of hospitals but that increasingly is spreading in ordinary community settings such as schools, locker rooms and gyms.

An employee displays a bacteria strain inside a petri dish containing agar jelly for bacterial culture in a microbiological laboratory in Berlin March 1, 2008.

REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

The germ causes nasty skin infections as well as pneumonia and other life-threatening problems. It spreads mostly through human contact. Little is known about environmental sources that also may harbor the germ.

Finding it at the beach suggests one place that people may be picking it up, said Marilyn Roberts, a microbiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"We don't know the risk" for any individual going to a beach, she said. "But the fact that we found these organisms suggests that the level is much higher than we had thought."

She presented results Saturday at an American Society for Microbiology conference in California. Last year, her team reported finding a different type of bacteria, enterococci, at five West Coast beaches. And earlier this year, University of Miami researchers reported finding staph bacteria in four out of 10 ocean water samples collected by hundreds of bathers at a South Florida beach.

Many communities also commonly restrict bathing at beaches because of contamination with fecal bacteria.

In the new study, researchers tested 10 beaches in Washington along the West Coast and in Puget Sound from February to September 2008. Staph bacteria were found at nine of them, including five with MRSA. The strains resembled the highly resistant ones usually seen in hospitals, rather than the milder strains acquired in community settings, Roberts said.

No staph was found in samples from two beaches in southern California.

People should not avoid beaches or be afraid to enjoy them, scientists say.

"It's probably prudent to shower when you come out" to lower the risk of bacteria staying on the skin, said Dr. Lance Peterson, a microbiologist at NorthShore University Health System in Evanston, Ill.

"Make sure you get all the sand off," and cover any open cuts or scrapes before playing in the sand, Roberts added. Digging in the sand or being buried in it seems to raise the risk of infection, she said.

___

On the Net:

Microbiology meeting: http://www.icaac.org/

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Pfizer whistleblower's ordeal reaps big rewards

On Thursday September 3, 2009, 12:59 pm EDT
By Bill Berkrot

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Taking on corporate giants can feel like tilting at windmills, but John Kopchinski's six-year legal battle against Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE - News) just made him a rich man.

The Gulf War veteran and former Pfizer sales representative will earn more than $51.5 million as a result of his whistleblower lawsuit against the world's biggest drugmaker and the record penalty the company must pay the U.S. government for its massive marketing transgressions.

The unassuming Texas resident celebrated his windfall by having a family portrait photograph taken Wednesday morning.

"We're going to be staying right here in San Antonio in the same house, and my wife tells me when we go to the movies we're still getting one tub of popcorn -- the large tub," Kopchinski said in a telephone interview.

Kopchinski, appalled by Pfizer's tactics in selling the pain drug Bextra, filed a "qui tam" lawsuit in 2003, sparking federal and state probes that led to Wednesday's agreement by the company to pay $2.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties and plead guilty to a felony charge for promoting Bextra and 12 other drugs for unapproved uses and doses.

"In the Army I was expected to protect people at all costs," Kopchinski said in a statement. "At Pfizer I was expected to increase profits at all costs, even when sales meant endangering lives.

"I couldn't do that," added Kopchinski, 45, who was fired by Pfizer in March of 2003, two years before the company pulled Bextra from the market over concerns it raised the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

At the time of his dismissal after raising his concerns with the company, Kopchinski had a baby son and his wife was pregnant with twins. He went from earning about $125,000 a year to living off his retirement fund before landing a job with an insurance company for $40,000 a year.

"It was a lot of stress on the family. I pretty much depleted my entire 401(k)," he said.

"The last six years have been pretty hard, so going forward it's going to be pretty much easier," said Kopchinski, noting that college for his young children "is taken care of."

Erika Kelton, Kopchinski's lead attorney from the firm of Phillips & Cohen LLP, said large rewards are justified because of what whistleblowers must endure, often for many years, after complaints within the company go unheeded.

"Particularly in pharma, it's no secret that it's an industry that can blackball former employees," Kelton said, "so the reward is important both to encourage people to step forward and to recognize that their contributions are huge."

Kopchinski and five other whistleblowers will earn more than $102 million in payments from the U.S. government under the False Claims Act through which individuals can reap rewards for exposing corporate wrongdoing.

"The use of whistleblowers has really opened up the keys to the kingdom in terms of what's going on in these companies," said Dean Zerbe, senior counsel for the National Whistleblower Center and a partner at the law firm of Zerbe, Fingeret, Frank and Jadav in Washington.

"You'd never find out what's happening without this kind of reward structure," Zerbe said.

Kopchinski was hired by former Pfizer CEO Edward Pratt in 1992 after carrying out a correspondence with him while serving as a platoon leader in a military police company on the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait border during the Gulf War.

Under a later Pfizer regime, he was selling the epilepsy drug Neurontin when a previous whistleblower suit was filed against the company over similar illegal promotion tactics that led to stiff penalties and a form of corporate probation.

At the time he was told by managers that the Neurontin suit would be in the news and any physicians who asked questions should be told it was just complaints from a disgruntled former employee, Kopchinski said. Ironically, after filing the Bextra suit, "I was the disgruntled former employee," he said.

"What you see here is a company which essentially had a culture of corruption," said Patrick Burns, a spokesman for Taxpayers Against Fraud, a U.S. nonprofit organization that helps connect whistleblowers with attorneys on False Claims Act cases. He called the $2.3 billion settlement "a jaw-dropping amount of money."

The size of the whistleblower rewards announced Wednesday are already having an impact.

"I'm seeing it first-hand myself. I've gotten phone calls this morning," said Zerbe, who was approached by an employee of a hospital who claimed that it was overbilling the government, including charging for products it had received for free.

Despite the potential for huge rewards, however, life can be hellish for whistleblowers.

"If this was so easy everyone would be a millionaire," Burns said.

(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Gary Hill.)

Feds Hit Pfizer with a $2.3 Billion Fine

• By Catherine Arnst
• On Friday September 4, 2009, 8:08 am EDT

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE - News) will pay a record $2.3 billion fine and plead guilty to one felony count to settle federal criminal and civil charges that it illegally promoted its Bextra painkiller and other drugs. The fine had been first reported back in January, but Justice Dept. officials disclosed details of the settlement on Sept. 2 in a splashy news conference that served as a pointed warning to other drug companies that it plans to come down hard on the industry for fraudulent marketing.

Government attorneys noted this is actually the fourth settlement with Pfizer or one of its subsidiaries since 2002 over illegal marketing, but the fines for those cases totaled only $513 million. Those previous actions, though, factored into the severe penalties levied this time around. "This civil settlement and plea agreement by Pfizer represent yet another example of what penalties will be faced when a pharmaceutical company puts profits ahead of patient health," said Assistant Attorney General Tony West.

President Obama has been battling perceptions that he has been too soft on drug companies ever since the White House acknowledged this summer that it promised to block congressional efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices in return for a pharmaceutical industry promise of $80 billion in savings on drug sales to senior citizens. The fact that Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sibelius headed Wednesday's news conference was widely seen in Washington as a very public Presidential stamp of approval on the Pfizer deal. HHS "will continue to seek opportunities to work with its government partners to prosecute fraud wherever we can find it," she said.

Lavish Blandishments

The settlement stems from a four-year investigation instigated by six whistleblowers, who between them will receive $102 million from the federal fines. The complaint charged that Pfizer sent doctors on all-expense-paid trips to resorts, gave out free massages, and paid kickbacks to doctors, all to get them to prescribe its drugs for off-label uses. Although it is legal for physicians to write such prescriptions, and a common practice, companies are barred from actually promoting their drugs for purposes other than those that have won Food & Drug Administration approval.

Bextra, which was removed from the market in 2005 over safety concerns, was one of four drugs covered by the charges. Pfizer was also accused of fraudulently marketing the anti-psychotic drug Geodon, the antibiotic Zyvox, and the epilepsy treatment Lyrica.

The company will pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the U.S., while Pharmacia, acquired by Pfizer in 2003, will pay an additional $105 million. Pfizer will also pay $1 billion to resolve civil claims and agreed to enter a "corporate integrity agreement" with HHS that will monitor future marketing activities.

The agreement resolves all material matters with the Justice Dept. and "gives us a very important opportunity to put final closure" on the fraudulent marketing charges, said Pfizer General Counsel Amy W. Schulman. The company already charged the $2.3 billion fine to its 2008 fourth-quarter earnings and said it would have no additional charges from the case. However, it will write off a further $33 million in charges in the third quarter related to a settlement with 42 states regarding promotional materials for Geodon.

Affordable Fine

"It's an ugly blemish for Pfizer, but at least it's essentially over. And while $2.3 billion ain't chicken feed, it's affordable," said Carol Levenson, research director at Gimme Credit, a corporate-bonds research service. The settlement had little effect on Pfizer's stock price -- shares closed 10% lower on Wednesday, at 16.28.

The affordability of the fines is a problem regulators face in deterring such activity, say industry critics. If a drug generates billions of dollars each year in sales, fines totaling even $1 billion do not offset the money to be made from off-label marketing. "Time will tell" whether the Pfizer fine will stop other companies from unlawful promotions, said Scott Simmer, an attorney with Blank Rome who represents three of the whistleblowers involved in the settlement. "I do believe these practices are endemic throughout the industry."

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Tips for better sleep

Trouble Sleeping? Just Breathe

by LIVESTRONG.COM, on Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:27pm PDT
By Brad Kearns

If your mind is racing and you are having difficulty falling asleep, a few minutes of simple but effective breathing exercises can help calm your nervous system on a chemical level and lead to greater success in hitting the sack. The awareness and control of breath has been a central component of yoga, martial arts and Taoism for thousands of years. There are dozens of different methods and exercises you can explore through a good teacher or book. The practice of breath control in yoga is called pranayama. I'll detail a simple pranayama exercise here that is particularly effective for falling asleep called alternate nostril breathing (that's "nadi shodana" for the Sanskrit posse out there).

Alternate nostril breathing is a great way to clear obstructed nostrils, balance the yin and yang energy of the body and focusing the busy mind on the present for a deliberate and calming exercise. When our nostrils are unobstructed, we involuntarily alternate breathing through one or the other about every two hours. Breathing through your right nostril stimulates the left side of the brain (intellectual, analytical, rational thought) and prepares the body for physical action (yang energy). Breathing through your left nostril stimulates the right side of the brain (creative, emotional thought) and prepares the body for passive mental activity (yin energy). If both nostrils are not clear, breathing will become imbalanced and so will the energy in your body.

When you are feeling restless at bedtime, head outside (weather permitting obviously, but even in wintertime, you can certainly spend a couple minutes on a balcony or porch in brisk air), sit in a comfortable chair and begin the exercise. You will likely have a really hard time focusing your mind on only the breathing exercise. Establish a rule that whenever your mind wanders away from the breathing exercise to other random thoughts, you have to start over. With practice, you'll develop the esteemed ability to relax and center -- not just to calm the mind for bed but any time the stresses of life are closing in.

Alternate nostril breathing is performed as follows: Take one hand up to your face for blocking nostrils. For example, your right thumb will close off your right nostril while your right index or middle finger will close off your left nostril. Block off the right nostril and inhale fully (notice how your inhale and exhale will be slower since you are only using one nostril). Pause at the completion of your inhale and switch nostrils by using your finger to block the left nostril and releasing your thumb from the right nostril. Exhale through the right nostril, inhale through the right nostril, then pause and switch to exhale through the left nostril. Thus, you switch nostrils in the middle of the breath cycle. To complete a cycle of 10 breaths, count each inhale/exhale as one. After your complete your breathing session, you can return to bed with a calm brain and hopefully induce a good night's sleep.

For more information on How to Sleep Better, visit LIVESTRONG.COM.

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Burn 9 Times More Fat (and Other Secrets)

By Lucy Danziger, SELF Editor-in-Chief - Posted on Mon, Aug 03, 2009, 12:37 pm PDT

I'll admit it: There are times when it feels impossible to get my body or mind pumped up to work out. And though the summer weather means you have more outdoor options--including swimming and biking--there are also more distractions to sap your workout resolve (napping in a hammock, for example). To help rev your engines, try these tips. They'll keep you moving, the calories sizzling and the numbers on the scale inching in the direction you want: down!

Switch up your routine: Changing what you do not only busts motivation-killing monotony, but it also helps you break through any body plateau. Exercisers who alternated moderate- and high-intensity cardio intervals burned nine times more fat than the moderate-only group in a study at Laval University in Quebec. When you're toning, change the number of reps and the amount of weight you use between strength sessions. Doing bicep curls? Try this: One day you do 10 reps with 10-pound weights, and then the next 20 reps with 5-pound weights or whatever weight feels right to you.

Know there IS time: Instead of doubting you can squeeze in a sweat session, simply go for a run or hit the gym. A study from the University of Alberta in Edmonton found it's key for women to just start moving rather than overthink it.

Tune out: Spending more than two hours a day watching TV can increase your risk for obesity by 23 percent, a study from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston indicates. To keep your risk in check, make sure you exercise 30 minutes for every two hours you watch television. If you can't tear yourself away, tape or TiVo your favorite shows. That way you can fly past the commercials (especially those for food) and get through shows quickly; use the time you save to take a brisk walk around your neighborhood or hop on a stationary bike. Better yet, pop in a workout video (find great ones at Self.com) and make the time you spend in front of the tube really count for something.

Find a friend: Research shows that people with support exercise more regularly. Make a standing date with a pal to help yourself stay on track.

Home is where the heart pumps: People who utilize cardio machines in their abodes were more likely to consistently use them than people without equipment, a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association. No treadmill in your basement? Pop in a workout DVD and get moving.

Keep it up: Going two days without working out is enough to cause the size of fat cells to increase by 25 percent, according to research at the University of Missouri at Columbia. Aim for at least 30 minutes a day (more if you're attempting to drop pounds), and do a mix of cardio and strength exercises.

Give it time: It takes six weeks to see significant results on a weight loss plan, even though your body experiences positive cellular and molecular changes as soon as you begin to eat better and exercise more. You may only see little changes day to day--but stick with it! It IS working! After roughly 42 days, those incremental losses will add up to a big, motivating drop on the scale. In one study of 300 dieters who exercised 30 minutes daily, those who were overweight or obese lost up to 16 pounds by the six-week mark. The lesson: Don't be discouraged if you fail to see results quickly--your body is busy adjusting to your changed habits and will produce positive news soon.

Score more workout advice plus cool ideas for new workouts at Self.com's Fresh Fitness Tips blog.


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Stricter labeling urged for bottled water

By EMILY FREDRIX, AP Food Industry Writer Emily Fredrix, Ap Food Industry Writer – Wed Jul 8, 7:41 pm ET

Consumers know less about the water they pay dearly for in bottles than what they can drink almost for free from the tap because the two are regulated differently, congressional investigators and nonprofit researchers say in new reports.

Both the Government Accountability Office and the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, recommend in reports released Wednesday that bottled water be labeled with the same level of information municipal water providers must disclose.

The researchers urged Americans to make bottled water "a distant second choice" to filtered tap water because there isn't enough information about bottled water. The working group recommends purifying tap water with a commercial filter, however.

Both reports were released at a congressional subcommittee Wednesday morning.

Bottled water — an industry worth about $16 billion in sales last year — has been suffering lately as colleges, communities and some governments take measures to limit or ban its consumption. As employers, they are motivated by cost savings and environmental concern because the bottles often are not recycled.

Bottled water sales were growing by double-digit percentages for years and were helping buoy the U.S. beverage industry overall. But they were flat last year, according to trade publication Beverage Digest.

Beverage Digest editor John Sicher said some consumers are turning on the tap during the recession simply because it's cheaper.

From 1997 to 2007, the amount of bottled water consumed per person in the U.S. more than doubled, from 13.4 gallons to 29.3 gallons, the GAO report said.

The issue before a subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee was less about waste and water quality concerns and more about the mechanics of regulating bottled water.

As a food product, bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and required to show nutrition information and ingredients on its labels. Municipal water is under the control of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The two agencies have similar standards for water quality, but the FDA has less authority to enforce them, the GAO said, and the environmental agency requires much more testing.

Subcommittee chairman Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said the subcommittee was requesting information Wednesday from a dozen bottled water companies on their water sources, treatment methods and two years' results of contaminant testing. It was not immediately clear which companies were being contacted.

"Consumers may not realize that many regulations that apply to municipalities responsible for tap water do not apply to companies that produce bottled water," he said in statements opening the hearing.

The GAO noted the FDA has yet to set standards for DEHP, one of several chemicals known as phthalates that are found in many household products, while the EPA limits the presence of phthalates in tap water.

In a survey of officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the GAO found they think consumers are misinformed about bottled water.

"Many replied that consumers often believe that bottled water is safer or healthier than tap water," according to the GAO report.

The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group said in its report that consumers do not get enough information to determine which water is best for them.

Both groups said some bottled water brands include the same information required of tap water providers on either labels or company Web sites.

The GAO called for more research but said the FDA should start by requiring that bottled water labels tell consumers where to find out more.

Community water systems must distribute annual reports about their water's source, contaminants and possible health concerns.

Consumers should know where all their water comes from, how it is treated and what is found in it, said Richard Wiles, senior vice president for policy and communications for the Environmental Working Group.

"If the municipal tap water systems can tell their customers this information, you would think that bottled water companies that charge 1,000 times more for this water could also let consumers know the same thing," he told The Associated Press.

The bottled water industry's trade group, the International Bottled Water Association, planned to testify Wednesday that the product, — subject to the same regulation as other soft drinks, teas, juices and other beverages — is safe. Additional standards apply for bottled water products labeled as "purified water" or "spring water," among other labels, because they must prove a connection to those sources, according to planned testimony from Joseph Doss, president and chief executive of the International Bottled Water Association.

Doss said consumers can learn about bottled water by contacting the company, reading its Web site and visiting sites run by state governments.

State safeguards for bottled water often exceed the federal, though they are less stringent than for tap water, the GAO wrote.

The trade group declined to comment on the reports before they are released.

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Is gaming good for the mind?

by Ben Silverman
July 2 12:40 P.M.

Remember training your brain through games? Since bursting onto the scene a few years ago in Nintendo's hit Brain Training games, the concept of gaming our way to bigger, better cortexes has flamed out a bit, due largely to a flood of poorly-made, copycat titles and the dwindling of the belief that this sort of thing actually makes you smarter.

But while consumers have shifted away from the pseudo-educational genre, scientists have dropped it under a microscope in the hope of gleaning some insight into exactly how games affect the mind.

And according to some recent studies, it turns out that playing video games not only stimulates those synapses, but might actually make you a sharper thinker after all.

Courtesy of a $1.2 million grant, researchers from North Carolina State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology are hard at work studying whether or not video game playing can boost thinking skills and memory in the elderly. Rather than simply determining if certain games increase certain brain functions, the team is hoping to first identify the qualities that make a game good for the brain, then use that information to build a prototype brain game from the ground up.

The game best suited for the job? Oddly enough, it's EA's critically-acclaimed Boom Blox games. Dr. Anne McLaughlin, assistant professor of psychology at NC State, believes the Wii puzzle-party franchise contains three fundamental brain-strengthening qualities -- attentional demand, novelty and social interaction -- key to making a great brain game.

"For example, if we find that novelty and attentional demand improve cognition, we'll then develop a game that focuses on that," she said.

While McLaughlin and her crew aim to help grandparents stay sharp, other are examining what effects gaming will have on the next generation. A recent article in Scientific American targets "plasticity," or the brain's ability to dynamically change in response to experiences. Children are more susceptible to this kind of change, which means that the kinds of games they play could have different effects on their adult skill sets.

So which games are best for kids? That depends on what they want to be when they grow up. A study at the University of Rochester indicates that playing action games can increase hand-eye coordination and sharpen vision, while playing games like The Sims 2 might improve social interactions and even make people more empathetic. So if Johnny wants to be a fighter pilot, he might want to play some Wii Sports Resort instead of Wii Music.

Plus, you know, it's just a better game. And it doesn't take a big brain to figure that out.

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Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) - Topic Overview

What is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)?

Vertigo is the feeling that you are spinning or the world is spinning around you. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is caused by a problem in the inner ear. It usually causes brief vertigo spells that come and go.

For some people, BPPV goes away by itself in a few weeks. But it can come back again.

BPPV is not a sign of a serious health problem.

What causes BPPV?

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Happiness: 3 amazing tips from the world's oldest case study

We’ve all heard countless studies, articles and TV interviews on happiness. But the other day I stumbled upon something that is just now being revealed to the media for the first time.* It's a 72 year old study that began all the way back in 1937 when 268 Harvard University sophomores were asked to participate in a study measuring “a formula-some mix of love, work, and adaptation-for a good life.” And while many of those who were college sophomores in 1937 are now dying or in their fading twilight, this study continues to be diligently maintained to this very day.

And never before has science been able to report such fascinating and thoroughly time-tested results on happiness. Following are 3 powerful lessons from this study.

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6 Essential Flat-Belly Foods

By David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding - Posted on Fri, Jun 19, 2009, 12:57 pm PDT

It's summertime—are you in swimsuit shape?

Even if you've spent the past months dieting yourself into fit form, a few poor food choices each week can quickly add up to a juggernaut of jiggle well before Labor Day. Don't believe us? Consider the caloric damage of typical summer activities—weekly backyard BBQs provide pounds of juicy burgers topped with gobs of high-calorie condiments; ice cream dates offer options of double and triple scoops, smothered in sugar-packed and fat-blasted toppings; and seasonal drink choices (the kind you add umbrellas to and sip from faux-coconuts) guarantee you'll wash it all down with hundreds of extra calories. Not exactly flat-belly fare.

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DOH: Low-level flu outbreak in Metro Manila

Philstar.com - Wednesday, June 24

MANILA, Philippines - Health Secretary Francisco Duque III confirmed yesterday there is now a “low-level community outbreak” of Influenza A(H1N1) virus in Metro Manila, even as 28 individuals were added to the list of cases in the country, raising the total to 473.
Duque said those affected by the low-level outbreak are mostly areas in Quezon City, Parañaque City and Manila.
But he clarified that there is no “huge clustering of cases” in any community in the metropolis.

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Australia warns Aborigines at high swine flu risk

AFP - Wednesday, June 24

MELBOURNE (AFP) - – Australia on Tuesday warned Aborigines may be at high risk from swine flu and rushed medical supplies to remote indigenous communities, as the country announced its second death linked to the virus.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said high disease rates among Aborigines, who suffer the country's worst poverty and ill health, could make them particularly vulnerable.
"We know many of the chronic diseases that they suffer from are indicators that swine flu may actually hit them harder than some others in the community," she told public radio.
A 26-year-old Aboriginal man with swine flu and other medical problems died in Adelaide on Friday, setting alarm bells ringing about the virus's possible impact on the indigenous community.
On Tuesday, officials said a non-Aboriginal man, 35, who had swine flu and "significant underlying medical problems" had died in Victoria of apparent respiratory failure at the weekend.

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Australia records third swine flu-related death

MELBOURNE, Australia – An official says a 50-year-old woman with life-threatening cancer has become the third Australian to die with swine flu.
Victoria state Health Minister Daniel Andrews says the woman was admitted to a Melbourne hospital on Saturday with respiratory illness and died on Wednesday.
Authorities are not certain whether any of the three swine flu-related deaths in Australia since Friday were directly caused by the virus, because all of them had other serious illnesses.

Woman with swine flu dies in Philippines

By TERESA CEROJANO,Associated Press Writer - Tuesday, June 23

MANILA, Philippines – A 49-year-old woman with swine flu died in the Philippines in the country's first death related to the virus, an official said Monday as infections continued to climb across the region.
The pandemic flu strain is hurting tourism in some areas, with New Zealand reporting a sharp drop in visitors.
The Philippines death, officially from heart failure, marks the second in the Asia-Pacific region linked to swine flu, after a man in Australia died Friday.
Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the woman's chronic heart disease was aggravated by pneumonia. She started to have flu-like symptoms such as dry cough, fever, chills and difficulty breathing two days before her death on Friday.
A throat swab revealed she was also infected with the swine flu virus.
Duque said health authorities cannot conclude that the death is due to H1N1.

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How not to contain a virus

IT is a good thing indeed that the A(H1N1) virus that hit the Philippines is not deadly. As of last Sunday, the Department of Health (DOH) has reported 428 A(H1N1) cases in the country. Not one of those so far infected has died, thankfully, because the A(H1N1) cases that were transported and readily transmitted here is, according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd, are just mild, consistent with most other A(H1N1) cases in other countries.

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Diabetes: 8 facts that can save your life

If you are diabetic and reading this article, chances are your blood sugar is not controlled. Having a slightly elevated blood sugar level is not good for you. Should you be worried? Yes. Should you go for changes in your life? Yes, because new studies have shown that your pancreas get damaged even with borderline blood sugar levels. Here are more facts.

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