Archive | March, 2010

Mindless eating: 8 reasons women eat when we’re not even hungry

28 Mar

Cornell University researcher and food psychologist Dr. Brian Wansink knows that there are other reasons to eat besides just being hungry.

Dr. Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, a book described by CBC television as the “Freakonomics of Food“, says:

“If we knew why we ate the way we do, we could eat a little less, eat a little healthier, and enjoy it a lot more.”

He is talking about that bag of corn chips your hand keeps dipping into while you watch TV, or that big 13-inch dinner plate you load up – whether you’re hungry or not.

He says that we make about 200 food decisions a day, like:

  • Should I have coffee?
  • Should I put milk in it?
  • Whole or skim?
  • Should I butter my toast before I spread the peanut butter on?
  • Do I pour my orange juice into a short, wide glass (you’ll drink more)
  • or a tall, narrow glass (you’ll drink less)?

He also cites these eight factors that can influence what goes into our mouths that have nothing at all to do with hunger. Do any of these sound familiar to you?   (more…)

How flexible work hours can lower your blood pressure

24 Mar

All working mothers already know this intuitively, but now we have some British academics who confirm what we’ve always suspected: flexible work schedules have a positive effect on our health.  In fact, researchers at Durham University report that just being able to self-schedule working hours was found to have positive impacts on a number of health outcomes including blood pressure, sleep and mental health.

All three outcomes can be important risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease, so this research has important ramifications for women interested in improving heart health by reducing day to day stress.

Stress is often defined as a fight-or-flight response: a moment when your body produces stress hormones in preparation for fighting your stress or running away from it. This stress response was quite useful for people thousands of years ago when facing those sabre-toothed tigers or other deadly threats.

Today, your body responds to stress and perceived danger in much the same way. But instead of confronting wild animals, women may face ongoing stressful events such as trying to get the whole family up and out the door on time every morning, being stuck in rush hour traffic, or juggling household management To Do lists.  (more…)

Heart-smart food rules: your dietary dos and don’ts

20 Mar

 

Author and foodie Michael Pollan asked and answered this question of his New York Times readers last year: “How did humans manage to choose foods and stay healthy before there were nutrition experts and food pyramids or breakfast cereals promising to improve your child’s focus or restaurant portions bigger than your head?

“We relied on culture, which is another way of saying: on the accumulated wisdom of the tribe.”

Curious about the wisdom of other people’s tribes, Pollan asked his NYT readers to send him their own favourite rules for eating well. Within days, he received over 2,500 responses, including gems like:

“If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you are not hungry.”

Here are just 20 of the food rules he liked best.

What’s your best food rule for eating well?  Share it with us!

 

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Four minutes that will do your heart good!

16 Mar

Here’s what salon.com said about this short piece of street theatre:  “It managed to punch right through my cynicism and show me that good things are still out there, and there are good people in the world.  In a small way, I have a deeper understanding of what it is to be human because of the actions of 200 fellow humans in a train station in Belgium.”

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Hospital food: the best reason to keep your heart healthy and avoid hospitalization

12 Mar

The first real food served to me in the hospital’s Coronary Care Unit after my heart attack was a cold roast beef sandwich on doughy white bread.  I was surprised (red meat for a heart attack survivor?) but also hungry, so I managed to scarf it down.

In August, I was back in hospital for another cardiac procedure, and again my first meal was another sandwich: this time, a single unadorned, slimy, food-style processed cheese slice on that same doughy white bread.

This is what’s being served in a hospital cardiac unit? What are they thinking?  (more…)

‘Women-only’ cardiac rehabilitation curbs depression for heart attack survivors

8 Mar

On any given day, women are vastly outnumbered by men at cardiac rehabilitation – when they show up at all. Women who do attend while recovering from a heart attack often say they don’t like working out in the cardiac rehab gym alongside so many men – in fact, there’s usually a one-to-five ratio of women to men. To address this concern and attract more women heart attack survivors, some programs are now offering female-only cardiac rehab sessions.

This is a good thing, as we know that a cardiac rehab program can help survivors gradually improve their physical fitness, learn about nutrition, meet other heart patients, and get support to quit smoking, lose weight or make other heart-healthy lifestyle changes to improve heart health.

Depression is another factor that can keep us away from cardiac rehab.  Depression often follows a heart disease diagnosis (Mayo Clinic cardiologists tell us that up to 65% of survivors suffer depression, yet fewer than 10% are appropriately diagnosed).  Depression is also in general twice as likely to affect women as men. Depression interferes with how well we can stick with important lifestyle modifications following a cardiac event,  as well as our willingness to even bother showing up for cardiac rehabilitation.

It turns out that a major benefit of attending and completing a cardiac rehab program after a heart attack is that symptoms of depression actually improved among women who participated in a motivationally-enhanced cardiac rehabilitation program exclusively for women, according to a presentation at November’s American Heart Association’s annual scientific meetings.  (more…)

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