Is It Better to Walk or Run?

Walking and running are the most popular physical activities for American adults. But whether one is preferable to the other in terms of improving health has long been debated. Now a variety of new studies that pitted running directly against walking are providing some answers. Their conclusion? It depends almost completely on what you are hoping to accomplish.
If, for instance, you are looking to control your weight — and shallowly or not, I am — running wins, going away. In a study published last month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, and unambiguously titled “Greater Weight Loss From Running than Walking,” researchers combed survey data from 15,237 walkers and 32,215 runners enrolled in the National Runners and Walkers Health Study — a large survey being conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.
Participants were asked about their weight, waist circumference, diets and typical weekly walking or running mileage both when they joined the study, and then again up to six years later.
The runners almost uniformly were thinner than the walkers when each joined the study. And they stayed that way throughout. Over the years, the runners maintained their body mass and waistlines far better than the walkers.
The difference was particularly notable among participants over 55. Runners in this age group were not running a lot and generally were barely expending more calories per week during exercise than older walkers. But their body mass indexes and waist circumferences remained significantly lower than those of age-matched walkers.
Why running should better aid weight management than walking is not altogether clear. It might seem obvious that running, being more strenuous then walking, burns more calories per hour. And that’s true. But in the Berkeley study and others, when energy expenditure was approximately matched — when walkers head out for hours of rambling and burn the same number of calories over the course of a week as runners — the runners seem able to control their weight better over the long term.
One reason may be running’s effect on appetite, as another intriguing, if small, study suggests. In the study, published last year in the Journal of Obesity, nine experienced female runners and 10 committed female walkers reported to the exercise physiology lab at the University of Wyoming on two separate occasions. On one day, the groups ran or walked on a treadmill for an hour. On the second day, they all rested for an hour. Throughout each session, researchers monitored their total energy expenditure. They also drew blood from their volunteers to check for levels of certain hormones related to appetite.
After both sessions, the volunteers were set free in a room with a laden buffet and told to eat at will.
The walkers turned out to be hungry, consuming about 50 calories more than they had burned during their hourlong treadmill stroll.
The runners, on the other hand, picked at their food, taking in almost 200 calories less than they had burned while running.
The runners also proved after exercise to have significantly higher blood levels of a hormone called peptide YY, which has been shown to suppress appetite. The walkers did not have increased peptide YY levels; their appetites remained hearty.
So to eat less, run first.
But on other measures of health, new science shows that walking can be at least as valuable as running — and in some instances, more so. A study published this month that again plumbed data from the Runners and Walkers Health Study found that both runners and walkers had equally diminished risks of developing age-related cataracts compared to sedentary people, an unexpected but excellent benefit of exercise.
And in perhaps the most comforting of the new studies, published last month in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology and again using numbers from the versatile Runners and Walkers Health Study, runners had far less risk of high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol profiles, diabetes and heart disease than their sedentary peers. But the walkers were doing even better. Runners, for instance, reduced their risk of heart disease by about 4.5 percent if they ran an hour a day. Walkers who expended the same amount of energy per day reduced their risk of heart disease by more than 9 percent.
Of course, few walkers match the energy expenditure of runners. “It’s fair to say that, if you plan to expend the same energy walking as running, you have to walk about one and a half times as far and that it takes about twice as long,” said Paul T. Williams, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and the lead author of all of the studies involving the surveys of runners and walkers.
On the other hand, people who begin walking are often more unhealthy than those who start running, and so their health benefits from the exercise can be commensurately greater.
“It bears repeating that either walking or running is healthier than not doing either,” Dr. Williams said, whatever your health goals.
For confirmation, consider one additional aspect of the appetite study. The volunteers in that experiment had sat quietly for an hour during one session, not exercising in any fashion, neither running nor walking. And afterward they were famished, consuming about 300 calories more than the meager few they had just burned.

Regular exercise releases brain chemicals key for memory, concentration, and mental sharpness

Looking to stop "brain fog" or frequent bouts of forgetfulness? Exercise turns out to be an excellent way to protect and enhance brain health

There's a lot you can do to prevent cognitive decline, or slow it down, or recover memory function that you might feel you have lost," says Dr. John Ratey, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

One key strategy is regular, moderately intense exercise. It helps maintain healthy blood pressure and weight, improves energy, lifts mood, lowers stress and anxiety, and keeps the heart healthy, all of which contribute to brain health. But exercise also stimulates brain regions that are involved in memory function to release a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF rewires memory circuits so they work better. "When you exercise and move around, you are using more brain cells," says Dr. Ratey, who is also the author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (2008). "Using more brain cells turns on genes to make more BDNF."

BDNF isn't available in a pill. Only the brain can make it, and only with regular exercise. That means 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, ideally five days a week. The threshold for brain benefit seems to be raising your heart rate to 70% of maximum. For men, the maximum heart rate is roughly 220 minus age.

Exercising once or twice a week is just not going to do it. "It's probably good for your body," Dr. Ratey says, "but it won't get you there in terms of the cognitive benefits. You also have to continue to do it to continue accruing the benefits."

3 posture tips to get the most out of a core workout

Good posture is important, even during exercise. Quick posture checks before and during a core exercise routine can help you avoid injury and squeeze the biggest benefit from your workout. Here is what you need to know:

1. Stand up straight. When instructions for an exercise ask you to stand up straight, that means keeping your:
   • chin parallel to the floor
   • shoulders even (roll them up, back, and down to help achieve this)
   • arms at your sides, elbows relaxed and even
   • abdominal muscles pulled in
   • hips even
   • knees even and pointing straight ahead
   • feet pointing straight ahead
   • body weight evenly distributed on both feet.
2. Stay in neutral. Neutral alignment means keeping your body in a straight line from head to toe except for the slight natural curves of the spine. Whether you’re standing or seated, that means your spine is not flexed or arched to overemphasize the curve of the lower back. One way to find neutral is to tip your pelvis forward as far as is comfortable, then tip it backward as far as is comfortable. Neutral is roughly in the middle. If you’re not used to standing or sitting up straight, it may take a while for this to feel natural. A neutral wrist is firm and straight, not bent upward or downward.
3. Get the angle. When angles appear in exercise instructions, visualize a 90-degree angle as an L. To visualize a 30-degree angle, mentally slice the 90-degree angle into thirds, or picture the distance between a clock's minute hand and hour hand at one o’clock.

Achieving and maintaining good posture during your workouts takes a little practice. If possible, look in a mirror when exercising. Try to take a few moments each day to practice better posture, too.

Does your diet deliver?

Focus on the big picture: eat a balanced diet that contains a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, dairy products, seafood, lean meats, and poultry. Focus on nutrient-dense foods like these, which are packed with vitamins and minerals relative to the number of calories they deliver, and you should be fine.

To really optimize your diet, keep these two additional tips in mind.

1. Limit liquid sugars. Soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, and other sugar-sweetened beverages can deliver up to 12 teaspoons of sugar in a single serving, with no other useful nutrients. These beverages offer no health or nutritional benefits. Worse, regular consumption of these drinks can increase your chances of becoming obese or developing diabetes — both of which raise your risk for heart disease and other chronic conditions. Unsweetened coffee or tea or sparkling water are better choices.
2. Cut back on refined carbohydrates. White bread, many breakfast cereals, packaged snack foods, and potato chips and French fries deliver mainly pure starch — which the body converts to sugar — with few other nutrients or fiber. Better choices are whole grains, breads made with whole grains, high-fiber breakfast cereals, brown rice, steel-cut oats, fruits and vegetables, and beans. A good general rule is to choose foods that have at least one gram of fiber for every 10 grams of carbohydrate. Even better, aim for a gram of fiber for every 5 grams of carbohydrate.

Exercise is good, not bad, for arthritis

When pain strikes, it’s human nature to avoid doing things that aggravate it. That’s certainly the case for people with arthritis, many of whom tend to avoid exercise when a hip, knee, ankle or other joint hurts. Although that strategy seems to make sense, it may harm more than help.

Taking a walk on most days of the week can actually ease arthritis pain and improve other symptoms. It’s also good for the heart, brain, and every other part of the body.

A national survey conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that more than half of people with arthritis (53%) didn’t walk at all for exercise, and 66% stepped out for less than 90 minutes a week. Only 23% meet the current recommendation for activity—walking for at least 150 minutes a week. Delaware had the highest percentage of regular walkers (31%) while Louisiana had the lowest (16%). When the CDC tallied walking for less than 90 minutes a week, Tennessee led the list, with 76% not walking that much per week, compared to 59% in the  District of Columbia.

This map shows the percentage of adults with arthritis in each state who walked less than 90 minutes per week during 2011.

The findings were published in the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, one of its contributions to Arthritis Awareness Month.

Beyond walking

Walking is good exercise for people with arthritis, but it isn’t the only one. A review of the benefits of exercise for people with osteoarthritis (the most common form of arthritis) found that strength training, water-based exercise, and balance therapy were the most helpful for reducing pain and improving function. “Swimming or bicycling tend to be better tolerated than other types of exercise among individuals with arthritis in the hips or knees,” says rheumatologist Dr. Robert H. Shmerling, associate professor of medicine at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Exercise programs aim to help people with arthritis:

• increase the range of motion in the affected joint
• strengthen muscles
• build endurance
• improve balance

You can create an exercise program of your own, with help from a trusted doctor, nurse, or physical therapist. Or you can try one that’s been developed by arthritis experts. Examples include the Fit and Strong! program from the University of Illinois at Chicago, or one of several programs developed by the Arthritis Foundation: its Exercise Program,Walk with Ease program, or Aquatics program.

The fatigue, pain, and stiffness caused by many types of arthritis present a barrier to exercise—but these are the same symptoms that tend to improve with regular exercise.

If you have arthritis and don’t currently exercise, start slow. Take a five-minute stroll around your block, swim, or workout on an exercise bicycle. Do it every day, and then gradually increase the time spent exercising or how hard you exercise, but not both at once. If you have heart disease or other health issues, check with your doctor before embarking on an exercise program.

“If exercise was a newly developed medicine, it would be a blockbuster,” says Dr. Shmerling. “It has an excellent safety profile, and enormous benefits for people with arthritis, heart disease, and a long and growing list of other health problems.”

Extra protein is a decent dietary choice, but don’t overdo it

The International Food Information Council Foundation reports that 50% of consumers are interested in including more protein in their diets and 37% believe protein helps with weight loss. A study in the May/June 2013 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that 43% of women surveyed are using the practice of eating more protein to prevent weight gain, and this strategy was associated with weight loss.

But just because people are doing something doesn’t make it healthy. I asked Dr. Michelle Hauser, a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School and a certified chef and nutrition educator, if it’s a good idea to eat extra protein and cut back on carbs.

“If you’re eating more protein but you have a good mix of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains to make up the rest of it, that’s fine,” Dr. Hauser told me. One of the advantages of eating more protein-rich foods is that people who do it also tend to eliminate overly processed carbohydrates, such as white breads and prepackaged foods like cookies and crackers. Such foods are rapidly digested and turned into blood sugar, and tend to be low in healthful nutrients.

But it isn’t necessary to eliminate all carbohydrates and focus only on protein. Such an eating strategy may have a short-term payoff for weight loss, but it may also come with some long-term risks.

Understanding protein

Protein is a critical part of our diet. We need it to build and repair cells, and make healthy muscles, organs, glands, and skin. Everyone needs a minimum amount each day. The Institute of Medicine recommends 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. For someone who weighs 150 pounds, that means 54 grams of protein per day. Another guideline is to make sure at least 15% of your daily calories come from protein.

How might more protein and fewer carbs in the diet make a difference for weight loss or weight control? “Protein takes more energy for you to digest than refined carbohydrates, and also gives your body a feeling of satiety,” says Dr. Hauser. Low-carb diets have been shown to help some people lose weight.

But over the long term, too much protein and too few carbohydrates may not be the healthiest plan. This kind of eating pattern has been linked to an increased risk of developing osteoporosis. That’s because digesting protein releases acids into the bloodstream. The body neutralizes these acids with calcium—which can be pulled from bone if necessary. Eating too much protein also makes the kidneys work harder. In healthy people, this usually doesn’t pose a problem. But those with kidney disease or diabetes (which is associated with kidney disease) need to watch their daily protein intake so they don’t overload their kidneys.

Depriving yourself of carbohydrates can also affect the brain and muscles, which need glucose (the fuel that comes from digesting carbs) to function efficiently. The fiber delivered by some carbohydrate-rich foods help bowels move. And remember that healthy sources of carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, come with a host of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.

Making wise protein choices

It’s okay to cut back on carbs and eat more protein, but make sure you’re also getting some carbs in your daily diet. “If you take any healthy diet, 40% to 60% of calories should come from unprocessed carbs,” says Dr. Hauser. For someone on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet, 40% would be 800 calories or 200 grams of carbs. (Note to self: increase servings of carbohydrates.)

But there are good carbs and bad carbs, as well as good proteins and bad proteins. Foods that deliver whole, unrefined carbs, like whole wheat, oats, quinoa, and the like, trump those made up of highly processed wheat or other grains. Lean meats, poultry, seafood, and plant sources of protein like beans and nuts are far more healthful than fatty meats and processed meats like sausage or deli meats.

The good-bad thing can be confusing, so Dr. Hauser suggests a few simple principles.

Pick the healthful trio. At each meal, include foods that deliver some fat, fiber, and protein. The fiber makes you feel full right away, the protein helps you stay full for longer, and the fat works with the hormones in your body to tell you to stop eating. Adding nuts to your diet is a good way to maintain weight because it has all three.

Avoid highly processed foods. The closer a food is to the way it started out, the longer it will take to digest, the gentler effect it will have on blood sugar, and the more nutrients it will contain.

Choose the most healthful sources of protein. Good protein-rich foods include fish, poultry, eggs, beans, legumes, nuts, tofu, and low-fat or non-fat dairy products.

These three strategies fit in with the Mediterranean and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diets. The DASH diet includes 2 or fewer servings of protein per day, mostly poultry or fish. “The Mediterranean diet uses protein from fish as a centerpiece of a meal, and other meats as more of a component of a meal,” says Dr. Hauser.

I had to ask if it’s important to spread carbs throughout the day or if it’s okay to limit them to one meal, the way I do. “If it makes you feel better to eat carbs at one meal a day versus spreading them throughout the day, that’s fine. You can scatter the carbs as you see fit,” says Dr. Hauser

Preserving the nutrients in your food with care

The various vitamins and minerals are susceptible to destruction by air, light, water, acid, alkali, heat, time and the action of enzymes in the foods themselves. However, you can cut losses and significantly increase your nutrient intake by the care you take in choosing, storing and cooking foods. What to Choose

Lean meats, skinless poultry and low-fat dairy products have more nutrients per calorie than their fattier versions. Whole grains (for example, whole wheat pasta, oatmeal, brown rice) have more nutrients than foods made from refined grains, even if they are enriched. Whole grain foods leavened with yeast have less phytate, which can inhibit the absorption of calcium, iron and zinc. Parboiled, or converted, white rice is more nutritious than regular white rice. Dark green leafy vegetables and deep-yellow vegetables have more vitamin A than lighter-colored ones.

Fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables have more nutrients than canned ones (canning may reduce the amount of some vitamins by half). But fresh is not necessarily better than frozen, since frozen foods are usually processed soon after picking whereas fresh foods may spend days in transport and storage (both in the store and at home) before being consumed. If you cannot shop often, frozen produce may be more nutritious than fresh. Cooked vegetables that are reheated after being kept in the refrigerator for two or three days lose more than half their vitamin C.

Look for produce that has been kept cold in the store, since cold inhibits nutrient-destructive enzymes and the loss of vitamin C. Except for pineapples, fruits ripened on the plant and in the sun have more vitamin C than those picked green. Tomatoes grown outdoors have twice the vitamin C of greenhouse tomatoes. Purchase produce that is free of bruises. Buy milk and margarine that are fortified with vitamin A and milk that has added vitamin D.

In buying processed foods, don't avoid additives that preserve nutrients: Sulfites increase the stability of vitamin C and A; ascorbic acid protects vitamins A and E, thiamin and folacin; the antioxidants BHA and BHT protect vitamins A and D. How to Handle and Store

In general, the longer food is stored in the refrigerator, freezer or cupboard, the greater the nutrient losses. Ripe fruits and vegetables are best kept cold until they are to be eaten. Ripe bananas can be stored in the refrigerator too. Orange juice can be kept refrigerated in a covered container for several days before any vitamin C is lost.

Store potatoes, canned foods and grain foods in a cool, dark, dry place, but don't refrigerate potatoes. Milk and bread should be kept in an opaque container to prevent destruction of riboflavin and vitamins A and D.

Frozen foods should be stored at or below 0 degrees. Wash produce quickly. Soaking washes away water-soluble vitamins and minerals. Refrigerate immediately all cooked foods that are not going to be eaten right away. Keep all fresh, cut and cooked foods well-wrapped to reduce exposure to air. Do not cap strawberries until they are ready to be eaten. How to Prepare

The three R's for nutrient preservation are to reduce the amount of water used in cooking, reduce the cooking time and reduce the surface area of the food that is exposed.

Waterless cooking, pressure cooking, steaming, stir-frying and microwaving are least destructive of nutrients. Frozen vegetables can be steamed. If food is cooked in water, add it to a small amount of boiling water, cover the pot and cook it rapidly. If possible, save the cooking water for making soup, sauces or gravy. Destructive enzymes are inactivated by heat so it is best to cook foods in a preheated pan or oven or in water that is already boiling. Don't wash rice before cooking it.

The smaller the pieces food is cut into, the greater the chances of losing nutrients. On the other hand, small pieces mean faster cooking. If possible, delay cutting up fruits and vegetables and preparing salads until shortly before they are to be cooked or served. Use acids in salad dressing (lemon or vinegar) to inhibit enzyme action, but do not cook green vegetables with baking soda since it destroys thiamin and vitamin C.

Cook potatoes in the skin and uncut. Frying leads to some loss of vitamin C but its main disadvantage is the increase in fat calories, which detract from the nutritive value of potatoes. Deep-fat frying also destroys vitamin E in vegetable oils.

Cooking in iron pots can destroy some vitamin C, but it can also add nutritious iron to the food, especially if the food is acidic. Unlined copper detroys vitamins C and E and folacin. Cooking utensils made of glass, stainless steel, aluminum or enamel or lined with a nonstick coating have no effect on nutrient content.

The longer meat is roasted, the more thiamin is lost. Use defatted pan drippings from meat and poultry to make gravy or soup.

Fact or Fiction: Raw veggies are healthier than cooked ones

Cooking is crucial to our diets. It helps us digest food without expending huge amounts of energy. It softens food, such as cellulose fiber and raw meat, that our small teeth, weak jaws and digestive systems aren't equipped to handle. And while we might hear from raw foodists that cooking kills vitamins and minerals in food (while also denaturing enzymes that aid digestion), it turns out raw vegetables are not always healthier.

A study published in The British Journal of Nutrition last year found that a group of 198 subjects who followed a strict raw food diet had normal levels of vitamin A and relatively high levels of beta-carotene (an antioxidant found in dark green and yellow fruits and vegetables), but low levels of the antioxidant lycopene.

Lycopene is a red pigment found predominantly in tomatoes and other rosy fruits such as watermelon, pink guava, red bell pepper and papaya. Several studies conducted in recent years (at Harvard Medical School, among others) have linked high intake of lycopene with a lower risk of cancer and heart attacks. Rui Hai Liu, an associate professor of food science at Cornell University who has researched lycopene, says that it may be an even more potent antioxidant than vitamin C. 

One 2002 study he did (published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry) found that cooking actually boosts the amount of lycopene in tomatoes. He tells ScientificAmerican.com that the level of one type of lycopene, cis-lycopene, in tomatoes rose 35 percent after he cooked them for 30 minutes at 190.4 degrees Fahrenheit (88 degrees Celsius). The reason, he says: the heat breaks down the plants' thick cell walls and aids the body's uptake of some nutrients that are bound to those cell walls.   

Cooked carrots, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, peppers and many other vegetables also supply more antioxidants, such as carotenoids and ferulic acid, to the body than they do when raw, Liu says. At least, that is, if they're boiled or steamed. A January 2008 report in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry said that boiling and steaming better preserves antioxidants, particularly carotenoid, in carrots, zucchini and broccoli, than frying, though boiling was deemed the best. The researchers studied the impact of the various cooking techniques on compounds such as carotenoids, ascorbic acid and polyphenols.

Deep fried foods are notorious sources of free radicals, caused by oil being continuously oxidized when it is heated at high temperatures. These radicals, which are highly reactive because they have at least one unpaired electron, can injure cells in the body. The antioxidants in the oil and the vegetables get used up during frying in stabilizing the cycle of oxidation.

Another study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 2002 showed that cooking carrots increases their level of beta-carotene. Beta-carotene belongs to a group of antioxidant substances called carotenoids, which give fruits and vegetables their red, yellow, and orange colorings. The body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A, which plays an important role in vision, reproduction, bone growth and regulating the immune system. 

The downside of cooking veggies, Liu says: it can destroy the vitamin C in them. He found that vitamin C levels declined by 10 percent in tomatoes cooked for two minutes—and 29 percent in tomatoes that were cooked for half an hour at 190.4 degrees F (88 degrees C). The reason is that Vitamin C, which is highly unstable, is easily degraded through oxidation, exposure to heat (it can increase the rate at which vitamin C reacts with oxygen in the air) and through cooking in water (it dissolves in water).  

Liu notes, however, that the trade-off may be worth it since vitamin C is prevalent in far more fruits and vegetables than is lycopene. Among them: broccoli, oranges, cauliflower, kale and carrots. Besides, cooked vegetables retain some of their vitamin C content.  

That said, research shows that some veggies, including broccoli, are healthier raw rather than cooked. According to a study in theJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in November 2007, heat damages the enzyme myrosinase, which breaks down glucosinates (compounds derived from glucose and an amino acid) in broccoli into a compound known as sulforaphane.

Research published in the journal Carcinogenesis in December 2008 found that sulforaphane might block the proliferation of and kill precancerous cells. A 2002 study in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences also found that sulforaphane may help fight the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which causes ulcers and increases a person's risk of stomach cancer.

On the other hand, indole, an organic compound, is formed when certain plants, particularly cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, are cooked. According to research in The Journal of Nutrition in 2001, indole helps kill precancerous cells before they turn malignant. And while boiling carrots was found to increase carotenoid levels, another study found that it leads to a total loss of polyphenols, a group of chemicals found in raw carrots. Specific polyphenols have been shown to have antioxidant properties and to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, according to a 2005 report in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Comparing the healthfulness of raw and cooked food is complicated, and there are still many mysteries surrounding how the different molecules in plants interact with the human body. The bottom line, says Liu, is to eat your veggies and fruits no matter how they're prepared.

"We cook them so they taste better," Liu says. "If they taste better, we're more likely to eat them." And that's the whole idea.

Really? The Claim: Fresh Produce Has More Nutrients Than Canned

THE FACTS

One way to make healthful meals more economical is to incorporate canned fruits and vegetables, which are often cheaper and more convenient than fresh produce. But does that mean sacrificing nutrients?

Thankfully, it does not. Studies show that like frozen produce, canned produce – provided it is free of added salt and sugars – has a nutrient value that is often as good as, if not better than, that of fresh produce.

Freshly picked fruits and vegetables typically do start with more vitamins and nutrients. But degradation occurs during shipping, and produce sold in many markets often sits on shelves or in storage for days before it reaches a shopper’s basket.

Canned produce can lose some of its nutritional value as well, particularly water-soluble nutrients like vitamins B and C. But over all, the nutrients in canned fruits and vegetables tend to be relatively stable because they are protected from the deteriorating effects of oxygen, a fact emphasized in an extensive report on the subject published in The Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture by researchers at the University of California, Davis.

“Fresh fruits and vegetables usually lose nutrients more rapidly than canned or frozen products,” the researchers wrote. “Losses of nutrients during fresh storage may be more substantial than consumers realize” and may not be reflected on nutrition labels.

At the end of the day, of course, either option is a healthy one.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Despite their reputation, canned fruits and vegetables retain many of their nutrients, in some cases better than fresh produce does.

5 Foods That Boost Immunity

• 
  Yogurt. Yogurt contains helpful germs called probiotics. You may already know that these critters live in your gut and can improve the way your body uses food. But they're also important in helping your body fight sickness. One study found that kids who had a yogurt drink had a 19% lower risk of colds, ear infections, and strep throat.
  
  
  What type of yogurt should you get? Heitlinger suggests looking for brands that say they contain live cultures. "If it's separated when you open it, and there's a little liquid on top, that's a good sign," he says.
  
• Kefir. This tart milk drink also packs lots of healthy probiotics. While the biting taste can be a surprise at first, it's catching on in the U.S. "You can buy it in single-size packages that you could pack in your kid's lunchbox," says Jennifer McDaniel, MS, RD, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. There isn’t much proof about kefir yet. But early research suggests it can help your immune system.
  
• Walnuts. Walnuts have healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for you in lots of ways. Experts believe that omega-3s help your body fight illness. One small study found omega-3s cut the number of respiratory infections in kids. Walnuts are easy to sprinkle into a snack mix or on cereal.
  
• Fruits and veggies. To help your immune system, McDaniel suggests aiming for ones that are high in vitamin C, like citrus fruits, strawberries, bell peppers, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. Experts aren’t entirely sure how much vitamin C helps colds and flu.
  
• Lean meats. You might not think of a leftover pork chop as a snack -- or that it would boost your body’s disease fighting system. But lean meats can help. First of all, they have protein, which is important for keeping up strength. Second, lean meats also contain zinc, which seems to help white blood cells fight off infections, McDaniel says

Super Nutrition for Kids

Vitamin A

Why kids need it: Vitamin A is key for kids' good eyesight, especially for color and night vision. It also gives their immune systems an infection-fighting boost.

Where to find it: Fill kids' plates with carrots and other orange vegetables and fruits -- like cantaloupe and sweet potatoes -- and fill their glasses with fortified milk.

B Vitamins

Why kids need them: Kids need B vitamins (or B complex), which include thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, B6, B12, and biotin, to make and use energy. Without enough B vitamins, kids can get anemia.

Where to find them: You can find Bs in just about every food group. Whole grains, fish, chicken, meat, leafy greens, and dairy are packed with them.

Vitamin C

Why kids need it: A daily helping of C helps ward off sneezes and sniffles by helping kids' bodies fight infections. It also speeds the healing of scrapes and other boo-boos.

Where to find it: Kids can drink a glass of orange juice or, better yet, eat an orange. Other fruits and vegetables are also great C sources. Try strawberries, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and sweet red peppers

Vitamin D

Why kids need it: For strong bones and teeth, kids need daily D. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium so it can build bones.

Where to find it: The skin makes vitamin D when the sun hits it. But because the UV rays that fuel vitamin D production also can cause cancer, watch getting your D from the sun. Instead, add fortified milk, cereal, tuna, or eggs to kids' diets.

Calcium

Why kids need it: Kids need calcium to build strong bones and teeth. Too little can lead to a higher chance of bone disease later in life.

Where to find it: Dairy is the best place to find calcium. A few servings of low-fat milk and yogurt every day should keep your kids' bones strong and healthy.

Choline

Why kids need it: Choline isn't a vitamin, but it's still an important nutrient. Cells need it for their shape, and the nervous system needs it to speed messages throughout the body.

Where to find it: Kids' bodies don't make their own choline, so they have to get this nutrient from foods like eggs, fish, beef, chicken, and broccoli.

Iron

Why kids need it: Iron isn't just for pumping in the gym. It also helps pump blood in the body. Iron is found in the part of red blood cells that moves oxygen to the rest of the body.

Where to find it: Beef up on lean meat, or give kids other iron-filled foods, like beans, dark leafy greens, and iron-fortified cereal.

Magnesium

Why kids need it: Magnesium is one of the building blocks of the body's cells, and it's important in making energy. A diet rich in magnesium also will keep your child's heart pumping strongly into adulthood.

Where to find it: Bran cereal, brown rice, tofu, beans, almonds, and other nuts are all rich sources of magnesium.

Potassium

Why kids need it: Almost every cell and organ in the body needs potassium to work as it should. Potassium also is important for blood pressure, keeping the heart pumping and the muscles working when kids are running around.

Where to find it: Bananas are loaded with potassium, but you also can find it in sweet potatoes, white beans, skim milk, and low-fat yogurt.

Zinc

Why kids need it: Zinc may help kids stop colds by helping their immune systems fight viruses and other disease-causing germs. The body needs zinc to grow and develop.

Where to find it: Chicken, beans, and fortified breakfast cereals are filled with zinc.

Don't just sit there. 'The chair is out to kill us,' a Mayo doctor says

Prolonged sitting is not what nature intended for us," says Dr. Camelia Davtyan, clinical professor of medicine and director of women's health at the UCLA Comprehensive Health Program.
"The chair is out to kill us," says James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.
Most of us have years of sitting experience, consider ourselves quite good at it and would swear that nature intended us to do it as much as possible.

But unfortunately, a good deal of data suggest that we're off our rockers to spend so much time on our rockers — as well as the vast variety of other seats where we're fond of parking our duffs. Here's a sampling of what scientists have learned about the insidious nature of sitting.
Repurposing gone awry
The human body was designed for walking, and people did a whole lot of that for millenniums. But lately, not so much. In general, scientists believe, Americans now sit for more than half of their waking hours. Sadly, the sitting position exerts forces on the body that it's not built to accommodate, Davtyan says, and so, as comfy as it may seem, couch potato-hood can lead to a host of woes, including poor circulation and assorted aches and pains.
Obe-sit-y epidemic?
We're not using much energy when we're sitting still, which is no doubt part of its appeal. But, of course, "not using much energy" is just another way of saying "not burning many calories," which is just another way of saying "watch out for extra pounds." "There is debate as to whether it is the chair or the knife and fork that have caused the increase in obesity rates," Levine writes in a 2012 article. A person with a desk job may burn 300 calories a day at work, he reports, but that same person might burn 2,300 calories a day in a job that requires considerable physical effort.
Assessing the damage
Sitting at your desk for hours on end, slaving away diligently, can increase your chances of getting a promotion — but also diabetes, heart disease or even an early grave. A study published in the journal Diabetologia in November 2012 analyzed the results of 18 studies with a total of nearly 800,000 participants. When comparing people who spent the most time sitting with those who spent the least time, researchers found increases in the risks of diabetes (112%), cardiovascular events (147%), death from cardiovascular causes (90%) and death from all causes (49%).
"Sitting is the new smoking," says Anup Kanodia, a physician and researcher at the Center for Personalized Health Care at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center. As evidence, he cites an Australian study published in October 2012 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that compared the two pastimes. Every hour of TV that people watch, presumably while sitting, cuts about 22 minutes from their life span, the study's authors calculated. By contrast, it's estimated that smokers shorten their lives by about 11 minutes per cigarette.
How can this happen? Not only is sitting lousy at calorie burning, but it has been shown to suppress the production of an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which is essential for turning bad cholesterol into good. Sitting can also lead to insulin resistance and, therefore, trouble metabolizing sugar. All these strikes against it help to explain, at least in part, its association with heart disease and diabetes.

Is exercise the solution? Suppose you do 100 sit-ups every morning. Can you safely sit back and rest on your laurels the rest of the day? Research says no. Despite the good it does for you in many ways, exercise is not a vaccine against the ills of sitting. Once you burn a bunch of calories, they're gone, of course. But it doesn't take long for some of the other beneficial effects of exercise to wear off and the detrimental effects of sitting to set in. For instance, lipase production can go down by 90% within hours, a 2008 study in the journal Diabetes found.
Is there any hope? There are ways of outwitting our penchant for sitting. Levine has a treadmill at his desk that he strolls on all day long. He made his own, but many models are commercially available. Indeed, whole lines of furniture have been developed to facilitate what David Kahl calls "active sitting."
It can take a while for people to adjust to this new way of sitting, says Kahl, who owns the Ergo Depot in Portland, Ore. "But in the end I haven't had anybody say, 'I can't do it.'"
There are simpler steps to take too — e.g., merely increasing the number of steps you take during the day. But can such small things really make a difference? A study published last year in Diabetes Care showed you can improve your glucose metabolism with a two-minute walk every 20 minutes.
Considerable anecdotal evidence points in the same direction. True, many — perhaps including you yourself — have done some of their best work while sitting at their desks. "That's where I shine," the late writer Robert Benchley once said. But many others have achieved remarkable success while standing up on the job, including Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway and Mark Twain.
And then there was Einstein, Levine notes: "He was riding a bike when he came up with e = mc²."

The Scientific 7-Minute Workout

An article in the May-June issue of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal gives a guideline of 12 exercises deploying only body weight, a chair and a wall.  It fulfills the latest mandates for high-intensity effort, which essentially combines a long run and a visit to the weight room into about seven minutes of steady discomfort — all of it based on science.
“There’s very good evidence” that high-intensity interval training provides “many of the fitness benefits of prolonged endurance training but in much less time,” says Chris Jordan, the director of exercise physiology at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, Fla., and co-author of the new article.
Work by scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and other institutions shows, for instance, that even a few minutes of training at an intensity approaching your maximum capacity produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding.
Interval training, though, requires intervals; the extremely intense activity must be intermingled with brief periods of recovery. In the program outlined by Mr. Jordan and his colleagues, this recovery is provided in part by a 10-second rest between exercises. But even more, he says, it’s accomplished by alternating an exercise that emphasizes the large muscles in the upper body with those in the lower body. During the intermezzo, the unexercised muscles have a moment to, metaphorically, catch their breath, which makes the order of the exercises important.

The exercises should be performed in rapid succession, allowing 30 seconds for each, while, throughout, the intensity hovers at about an 8 on a discomfort scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Jordan says. Those seven minutes should be, in a word, unpleasant. The upside is, after seven minutes, you’re done.

Body Fat Hardens Arteries After Middle Age

May 15, 2013 — Having too much body fat makes arteries become stiff after middle age, a new study has revealed.

In young people, blood vessels appear to be able to compensate for the effects of obesity. But after middle age, this adaptability is lost, and arteries become progressively stiffer as body fat rises – potentially increasing the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

The researchers suggest that the harmful effects of body fat may be related to the total number of years that a person is overweight in adulthood. Further research is needed to find out when the effects of obesity lead to irreversible damage to the heart and arteries, they said.
Obesity is known to be a major risk factor for heart disease, but the reasons for this are not fully understood.
Researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London scanned 200 volunteers to measure the speed of blood flow in the aorta, the biggest artery in the body. Blood travels more quickly in stiff vessels than in healthy elastic vessels, so this allowed them to work out how stiff the walls of the aorta were using an MRI scanner.
In young adults, those with more body fat had less stiff arteries. However, after the age of 50 increasing body fat was associated with stiffer arteries in both men and women.
Body fat percentage, which can be estimated by passing a small electric current through the body, was more closely linked with artery stiffness than body mass index, which is based just on weight and height. Men are on average about 21 per cent fat and women 31 per cent fat.
The research was funded by the MRC, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, and the British Heart Foundation, and published in the journal Hypertension.
Dr Declan O’Regan, who led the study, said: “The effects of having more fat seem to be different depending on your age. It looks like young people may be able to adapt to excess body fat, but by middle age the cumulative exposure to years of obesity may start to cause permanent damage to the arteries. One implication is that the potential beneficial effects of weight loss may depend on your age and how long you have been overweight. This is something we plan to study further.
“We don’t know for sure how body fat makes arteries stiffer, but we do know that certain metabolic products in the blood may progressively damage the elastic fibres in our blood vessels. Understanding these processes might help us to prevent the harmful effects of obesity.”

Mothers' Diets Have Biggest Influence On Children Eating Healthy, Study Suggests

Dec. 16, 2010 — As health professionals search for ways to combat the rise in obesity and promote healthy eating, new research reveals a mother's own eating habits -- and whether she views her child as a 'picky eater' -- has a huge impact on whether her child consumes enough fruits and vegetables.

A study by professor Mildred Horodynski of Michigan State University's College of Nursing looked at nearly 400 low-income women (black and non-Hispanic white) with children ages 1-3 enrolled in Early Head Start programs. Results show toddlers were less likely to consume fruits and vegetables four or more times a week if their mothers did not consume that amount or if their mothers viewed their children as picky eaters.
"What and how mothers eat is the most direct influence on what toddlers eat," Horodynski said. "Health professionals need to consider this when developing strategies to increase a child's consumption of healthy foods. Diets low in fruit and vegetables even at young ages pose increased risks for chronic diseases later in life."
The research was published recently in the journal Public Health Nursing.
When mothers viewed their children as picky eaters -- unwilling to try nonfamiliar foods -- a decrease also was seen in the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed.
"Perceptions of a toddler as a picky eater may be related to parenting style or culture," Horodynski said. "Mothers who viewed their children as picky eaters may be more lax in encouraging the consumption of fruits and vegetables."
Previous research shows that early repeated exposure to different types of foods is needed; up to 15 exposures may be needed before it can be determined if a child likes or dislikes a food.
Horodynski's study, which collected information from mothers from 28 Michigan counties, also revealed differences among race: Black mothers and toddlers did not consume as much fruits and vegetables as non-Hispanic whites, though a majority of all study subjects fell below recommended U.S. dietary guidelines.
"Special attention must be given to family-based approaches to incorporating fruits and vegetables into daily eating habits," she said. "Efforts to increase mothers' fruit and vegetable intake would result in more positive role modeling."
In addition, Horodynski said, public health nurses and other health professionals must play an important role in enhancing mothers' awareness of the importance of health eating.
"Mother needs to have the knowledge and confidence to make these healthy decisions for their children," she said.

Parents Shape Whether Their Children Learn To Eat Fruits And Vegetables

Aug. 13, 2008 — Providing fruits for snacks and serving vegetables at dinner can shape a preschooler's eating patterns for his or her lifetime.

To combat the increasing problem of childhood obesity, researchers are studying how to get preschoolers to eat more fruits and vegetables. According to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, one way is early home interventions — teaching parents how to create an environment where children reach for a banana instead of potato chips.
"We know that parents have tremendous influence over how many fruits and vegetables their children eat," says Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D., a professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. "When parents eat more fruits and vegetables, so do their children. When parents eat and give their children high fat snacks or soft drinks, children learn these eating patterns instead."
Haire-Joshu and researchers at Saint Louis University School of Public Health tested a program that taught parents in their homes how to provide preschool children easy access to more fruits and vegetables and examined whether changes in what the parents ate affected what their children consumed. The study was published in the July issue of the journal Preventive Medicine.
"This research shows that it's important to communicate with parents in real world settings," Haire-Joshu says. "They control the food environment for their young child. This environment is key to not only what children eat today but how they will eat in the future."
Past research has shown that diets high in fruits and vegetables are associated with a lower risk of obesity. Previous studies also have established that children learn to like and eat vegetables at a young age — before they turn five years old.
In this five-year study in rural, southeast Missouri, 1,306 parents and children between the ages of two and five participating in Parents As Teachers, a national parent education program, were randomly assigned to two groups. One group enrolled in the High 5 for Kids program, and the other group received standard visits from Parents as Teachers. In the High 5 for Kids group, parents first completed a pretest interview about fruit and vegetable consumption.
Parent educators then visited the home four times, providing examples of parent-child activities designed around nutrition, such as teaching the child the names and colors of various fruits and vegetables and having the child select a variety of fruits and vegetables for breakfast. At each visit, parents also received materials and informational handouts with suggestions for improving feeding practices and the food environment in the home. Many of these materials were tailored to the individual patterns of that parent, with suggestions for how to improve his or her specific intake and that of their child.
Additionally, children were given four High 5 for Kids sing-along-stories with audiocassettes and coloring books.
The same parent interviewed before the intervention completed a telephone survey to determine changes in the number of fruits and vegetables eaten and behaviors of both the preschool children and parent. The average time between the before and after intervention survey was seven months.
Parents in the High 5 for Kids group ate significantly more fruits and vegetables, and a change in the parent's servings of fruits and vegetables predicted a change in the child's diet, too. An increase of one fruit or vegetable serving per day in a parent was associated with an increase of half a fruit or vegetable serving per day in his or her child. These parents also reported an increase in fruit and vegetable knowledge and availability of fruits and vegetables in the home.
Although the High 5 for Kids program was effective in improving fruit and vegetable intake in children of normal weight, overweight children in this group did not eat more of these foods. "Overweight children have already been exposed to salty, sweet foods and learned to like them," says Haire-Joshu, who also holds an appointment at the School of Medicine as a professor. "To keep a child from becoming overweight, parents need to expose them early to a variety of healthy foods and offer the foods many times."
Haire-Joshu says many children today are taught patterns that lead to obesity. "We want families to provide their child with an environment in which they not only learn how to eat healthy but have the opportunity to practice what they learn," she says. "And by partnering with Parents As Teachers, we now can disseminate this program to their sites nationwide. This further impacts healthy eating patterns in parents and their preschool children.