CSA: Community Supported Agriculture

Yesterday during the sale, one of our customers introduced and told me about CSA: community supported agriculture. CSA is a way for people to buy local foods directly from a farmer. People who buy from CSA are offered certain advantages, such as fresh food, knowledge of where the food came from and who they are buying from, and new ways of being exposed to new vegetables. This sounds like a great way of buying fresh food and perhaps, a possible project or direction for future service learning classes.

Phone Applications Help to Detect Cancer

A new phone application can now actually detect different types of cancers that one may be developing. There are different applications for skin cancer, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer. The article that I am sharing, speaks of detecting skin cancer. In class, we spoke about how many people do not go to the doctors for checkups for many reasons, such as the lack of time or insurance. By downloading, these applications, people can easily diagnose cancer or at least take pictures of any suspicions. After taking pictures of any moles or parts of the skin that people may be suspicious of, they can send them over to doctors and experts.

Diet and Cancer

Heres another link....theres a quiz to see how healthy your diet is. Maybe we can also include this link in the guide

Paulina

Cancer and Physical Activity

Hi All,

Maybe we can provide this link in our guide book for more info :)

-Paulina

Face facts: Too much sugar can cause wrinkles

Hello Goodnight,

I found another reason why we should limit our intake of sugar. It leads to WRINKLES!!! According to the article, eating sugary products leads the skin to look dull and life-less all because of the "chemical experiments" that the sugar undergoes with the proteins in our skin.

The article states that the sugar that we ingest binds to proteins found in our bloodstream to form AGE's (advanced glycation end products. The more AGE's that are accumulated, the more damaged proteins you have. The proteins that are affected in the skin are elastin and collagen( I hear about these proteins a lot when it comes to companies selling their anti-aging skin products). It makes the usually "springy and resilient" proteins dry and brittle which leads to wrinkles and sagging skin.

The good news is that the effects start showing around 35, but its best to start developing good eating habits until then.

The article goes on to say that AGE's also deactivate the bodies natural anti-oxidant enzymes. So more wrinkles can occur!! This article even tells you how to avoid the sugars and how to reverse the wrinkles you have already got.

Enjoy your night

FDA is Addressing the Nutrition Labeling of Vending Items

How many of you can actually say you visibly see the nutrition label of items displayed in a vending machine??? Not many I assume......well there's hope, the FDA food labeling and standards staff will be leading a session next week regarding this issue. Under last year's healthcare reform, the disclosure of calories in food items being sold is mandated to be visible in all restaurants, fast food franchises AND even vending machines. I personally have yet to see any calories posted in clear view when I stare into a vending machine, but according to this article the FDA will be discussing the appropriate medium for communicating the message to consumers.

Meeting for Class

Hello All! Just wanted to remind you all that we will be meeting Thursday at 12pm in Biology Resource Center in MR to discuss our projects & the Earth Day event. Meet whoever you need to meet [Wellness Center, CBO's, etc.] before the meeting so that we have an idea of who we can get help from [pamphlets, test tubes w/ salt/sugar] and create flyers so we can show the professor and Jyoti in the event they want samples. Also, practice what you will say to students and staff and we can do a role play at the meeting Thursday. Let's be very productive!!! :)

Nutrition and activity quiz Are you living smart?

I found this quiz on the American Cancer Society web page.

This seemed interesting.

The questions are based on the what you eat and how physically active you are.

I want to know if it would be a good idea to put this quiz in the guide.

And if you want to know where you are standing take the quiz.

America's Top 10 Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants

Hey Guys,

I found this article that talks about restaurants that are healthy to eat in if your out of the house. Some of these restaurants include Panera Bread, Au Bon Pain, Chipotle and even McDonalds( ranked at #8). The website has some recommendations for healthy meals to order there. They also issue warnings about some of the unhealthy foods to avoid at the restaurant.

This could be a great guide if your out with you friends and want to be a healthy eater.

Enjoy!!

Top 10 underappreciated superfoods

Hello Guys,

I found this article about some common foods found is the grocery store that can improve the health and even reduce a persons chance of cancer. They include foods such as sunflower seeds, black pepper, sesame seeds and canned tomatoes. It lists the properties that each of these food products have that make them "superfoods". For example black pepper possesses a compound called capsaicin that has ani-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects.

Color your diet

Hey everyone,

This is something that Mike mentioned in our last week class and we the recipe group thought of including this idea in our section. The article discusses about healthy reasons to eat a rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables. It is said that keeping the habit of at least 3 to 4 different colors or variety of fruits and vegetables on the plate can guide to live a healthy lifestyle.

Recipes Group

I know this is a little late in the game but I came across these pages in the Jan. issue of Good Housekeeping. I think the way they present these healthy recipes will really help catch the reader's attention...check these out and I hope they help you.

The Effects of Exercise on Cancer

Here's an interesting article about the basic effects of physical activity on cancer. It briefly discusses overall cancer as well as colon and breast cancer. Studies have shown stronger correlations between exercise and colon cancer and breat cancer. Enjoy :) Paulina Sayegh

ABC Channel: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

I just saw that Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution will premiere tomorrow night on ABC at 8pm. Jamie Oliver is a chef aimed at educating parents and children about the obesity, diabetes and heart disease problems facing today's generation due to the food they are consuming. Food Revolution is a tv series which invites viewers to take a stand on how they eat and the way they look at food. I strongly recommend watching an episode or reading up more on Jamie's work.

Addition to Nutrition Label Group

Hello Everyone, Our group will be using the info Michael suggested about portion size to better explain serving sizes and calories from MyPyramid. We will be using tips from a powerpoint presentation we found off of this website to incorporate into our publisher. Info from here can also be of use to the recipe group and physical activity group. They tell how portion size has changed over the years and how the calories have increased for certain food [ex. for physical activity group: it says how long you would have to rake leaves to burn off 210 calories using the example of a bagle and more].........[ex. for recipe group: it says how much of each major food group we need to consume on a 2000 calorie diet and gives you the equivalents.........you can use this info for your intro along w/ the food plate concept]. Please take time to look at this website and download the powerpoint and ACTUALLY USE the info. to improve OUR healthy living guide!!!

Promoting Healthy Eating by Banning Toys from Happy Meals

Obesity is one of the leading causes of cancer development. Many parents, after a hard day of work, are tired and unwilling to prepare meals for an hour. Instead, they choose easy, unhealthy options such as fast foods. Recently, Queens Councilman has expressed that he would like to ban McDonald's from putting toys into Happy Meals. This way, the food will seem less appealing and desirable to kids and will help fight obesity. Comrie mentions that once the food meets certain health guidelines, McDonald's can start placing the toys back into the meals. However, McDonald's claims that kids only eat at the restaurant three times a month, an amount that is not causing obesity. What are your opinions of this law?

Additional information for Physical Activity group.

Hey Everyone, I found a website that explains physical activity guidelines for Americans. It categorizes different physical activity risk level from lower to higher. The guidelines are for different age groups such as 6-17 and for 65 years and older. These guidlines are specifically targeted to increase the activity level and to minize the risk level as well. As for the older adults with chronic conditions, a good way to get aerobic activity is by simply walking. Let me know what you guys think and I hope this was helpful for your project research.

Top 10 Anti-Cancer Foods

Hello. Here is a list of the top 10 anti-cancer foods, which include tomatoes, blueberries, red cabbage/beats, spinach, garlic, whole wheat, oranges, strawberries, and beans. It would be nice to incorporate these foods in the different recipes. The article also explains why these foods are healthy and stop tumor development. For example, beets contain a rich amount of flavenoids, an antioxidant reasonable to retarding the growth of cancer cells. These ingredients can be found in any grocery store in Harlem and many recipes that are easy to make can be found that use these ingredients.

Advice for Recipe Group

Alana has posted a list of healthy alternatives that the recipe group can use to select recipes for the health guide. A technique the recipe group can use to present the different recipes involves utilizing the plate method. For example, the recipe group can place a picture of the plate in the center of the page, letting the public to know about the appropriate portion sizes. Different vegetable, carbohydrate, and meat recipes can be added around the page which correspond to the different sections of the plate. Also, you can easily mention substitutes. This may be a more convenient method to present different recipes in healthy portions.

Physical Activity and Exercise

Hey guys, I found a great article that highlights the importance of physical activity. This may come to use for the group that is focusing on the exercise portion of the health guide. I especially found the "Bottom Line" portion of page 3 to be key and liked how it went straight to the point regarding the importance of exercise.

Materials We Can Use In Our Guide

Hello All, Given the recent email on our overall progress as a group, I strongly encourage you all to start emailing at least one person from each group a template of your work so far. Come Thursday, we need to show a unified and cohesive product and be as productive as possible. If for any reason you need help [using publisher to format your work, I am more than willing to help]. On another note, I came across a pdf file from American Institute for Cancer Research where they present their Recommendations for Cancer Prevention in a very simple and understandable manner [we should use it as a model to convey our message or as an example for explaining certain things we are having difficulty to do in our own words]. Please click on the title and it will take you to the link.

Alternatives for the recipe group

Hey Guys,

These are the healthy alternatives that we came up with for the people of Harlem.

Food Alternatives

Foods to Avoid	Foods to eat instead
Whole Milk	1% or fat-free milk
Evaporated whole milk	· Low-fat (1%) · Reduced-fat (2%) or · Fat-free evaporated (skim) milk
Butter (being used as an spread)	· 0% trans fat spread · Olive oil (as a dip for bread)
Cheese	Reduced fat and cholesterol cheese
Sour Cream	Plain low-fat yogurt
Cream Cheese	Low-fat cream cheese
Crackers with cheese	Whole wheat crackers with low fat peanut butter
Coffee cream (½ and ½) or nondairy creamer (liquid, powder)	· Low-fat (1%) or reduced-fat (2%) milk · Fat-free dry milk powder
Pasta with white sauce(alfredo)	Pasta with red sauce (marinara)
Pasta with cheese sauce	Pasta with vegetables(primavera)
Granola	· Bran flakes or crispy rice · Cooked grits or oatmeal · Reduced fat granola
Ramen Noodles	Brown rice or noodles (spaghetti, macaroni, vermicelli)
Fried potato fries	Baked sweet potato fries
Ice-cream	· Low fat frozen yogurt · Sorbet, Sherbet · Frozen fruit bars
Custards or puddings(made with whole milk)	· Use skim or reduced fat milk to make the custards or pudding
Whole eggs	· Egg whites · Egg Substitutes
Ground beef	Extra lean ground beef
Steak(beef)	Salmon, halibut, fresh tuna
Chicken with the skin on	Chicken with the skin removed
Hot dogs	Low-fat or reduced fat hot dogs
Chorizo sausage	· Turkey sausage(well drained) · Vegetarian sausage(made with tofu)
Oil packed tuna	Water packed tuna
Cold Cuts and Deli meat	Lean low fat turkey breast
Donuts, sweet rolls, muffins, scones, or pastries	English muffins, bagels, reduced-fat or fat-free muffins or scones (choose lowest calorie variety)
Cake (such as pound, chocolate, yellow)	Cake (angel food, white, gingerbread)
Cookies	Reduced-fat or fat-free cookies (graham crackers, ginger snaps, fig bars) (choose lowest calorie variety)
Fudge Sauce	Chocolate syrup
Chips (fried) for a snack	· Home made trail mix that uses unsalted peanuts, almonds, pecans, most other nuts, raisins, cranberry raisins.
Cheese Dip, Guacamole dip, refried beans	· Fresh Salsa · Guacamole
Gravy( made with fat and milk)	Gravy made with water of fat-free milk
Whipped cream	· Whipped cream made from skim milk
Canned cream soups	Broth based soups

Processed foods linked with lower IQ in children:study

Morning Guys,

Guess what, I found another reason why we shouldn't eat foods high in fat and sugars. This study suggests that children who have diets high in fat and sugars have a lower IQ at age 8.5 than their counterparts who had diets high in nutrients and vitamins.

The study believes that from birth to the age of three is the optimum time that children should be taking in these nutrients. After age three their diets have been shown to have no impact on their IQ growth.

Furthermore, some studies have suggested that when pregnant, expectant mothers should be ingesting these nutrients and vitamins to help in the progression of brain development for their fetus.

Read and enjoy!!!

Alana Lewis

Lettuce make over your salad

Hello Goodnight,

This article is about how to make the healthiest salads possible. These tips are given by Monica Reinagel, MS, LN,CNS and author of a book on how to have a healthy diet . She gives excellent tips on what to add and what ingredients to just walk on by for the tastiest and healthiest salads possible.

For example she says that we should "pile on" the greens, spinach, cabbage,tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, shredded carrots, mushrooms, onions, garbanzo beans, celery and hot peppers. All very good stuff that contain nutrients and vitamins to remain healthy.

To "sparingly" add the cheeses, avocado, olives, three-bean salads and raisins.

And to "walk on by" the croutons, bacon bits, and the oh-so-decadent creamy dressings.


I thought this could help the recipe group come up with an original salad that they could possibly name in honor of the service learning class.


Alana