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Pragmatic Obots Unite

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POU Weekly Health Thread

February 15, 2012 by Miranda 21 Comments

The African Heritage Food Pyramid

It may be controversial to suggest that African Americans need a food pyramid tailor-made for them, but then again, this group has experienced the greatest surge in obesity and related illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes.

Getting back to home-cooked basic dishes — based on staples from the American South, Caribbean, South America, and, yes, Africa — was the thought behind the new African heritage diet pyramid created by Oldways, a nonprofit nutrition education organization based in Boston.

Just like Oldways’ Mediterranean diet pyramid and the federal government’s My Plate, the African diet pyramid focuses on fruits and vegetables — with greens including collard, mustard, and kale taking the most prominent spot at the base of the pyramid, which means they should be eaten at every meal. Fruits such as papayas, bananas, and watermelon, and root vegetables such as sweet potatoes and carrots are directly above and should also be eaten in plentiful amounts.

Dairy, though, is found near the top — right under sweets — with recommendations to eat limited amounts, once a day or several times a week. That’s in striking contrast to the federal government’s recommendation to drink milk or eat dairy with every meal, which has come under fire from Harvard nutrition experts.
The emphasis on less dairy is a nod to lactose intolerance, according to Oldways, which affects up to 75 percent of African Americans.

“We worked with culinary historians to put this pyramid together, drawing on foods that are central to traditions such as greens, yams, homemade marinades, seafood, and to a lesser extent poultry, dairy, and meats,” said Oldways president Sara Baer-Sinnott.

What about all those deep-fried foods that are hallmarks of Southern cooking?
“Crisco isn’t exactly ancient,” said Baer-Sinnott, “so we emphasized preparing foods in a healthier way” by baking, grilling, and broiling — all methods that harken back to centuries past when obesity was rare in black communities.

In choosing a panel of nutritionists, historians, and sociologists to put the pyramid together, Baer-Sinnott added, “our idea was that heritage would be a motivator for change. We needed to try something new because other things don’t seem to be working.”

Just how much impact the new pyramid will have remains to be seen, but registered dietitian Vivien Morris, who helped develop it, told me it has been well received by African-American church groups that she’s met with in the Boston area.

“I think a lot of people are eager to get back to their common roots,” she said. “I grew up in North Carolina, and we used to keep sweet potatoes around as a dessert food. We snacked on peanuts and always had kale since it had such a long growing season.”

Yesterday, Oldways announced that it received a $100,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation to get the word out about the new pyramid via supermarket tours, cooking classes, and nutrition lectures to be held in Boston and elsewhere.

h/t The Boston Globe

Filed Under: Health and Fitness Tagged With: African heritage diet pyramid, African Heritage Health, Food Pyramid, Mediterranean diet pyramid, My Plate, POU Weekly Health Thread

P.O.U Weekly Health Thread

August 31, 2011 by Miranda 21 Comments

Every Wednesday, P.O.U. will discuss a health trend, or provide information on various topics regarding mental, physical and emotional well being. This is an open thread to also allow the community to share tips on nutritious meals, exercise tips and overall health. SO please share, share, SHARE!

So what’s been happening in Health News this week? Apparently a little jogging goes a long way.

Jogging beats weight lifting for losing belly fat
Aerobic exercise is better than resistance training if you want to lose the belly fat that poses a serious threat to your health, researchers say.

That’s the finding of their eight-month study that compared the effectiveness of aerobic exercise (such as jogging), resistance training (such as weight lifting), or a combination of the two activities in 196 overweight, sedentary adults aged 18 to 70.
The participants in the aerobic group did the equivalent of 12 miles of jogging per week at 80 percent maximum heart rate, while those in the resistance group did three sets of eight to 12 repetitions three times per week.
The Duke University Medical Center researchers looked at how these types of exercise reduced the fat that’s deep within the abdomen and fills the spaces between internal organs. This type of fat — called visceral and liver fat — is associated with increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and some types of cancer.
Aerobic exercise significantly reduced visceral and liver fat and improved risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, such as insulin resistance, liver enzymes and triglyceride levels. Resistance training didn’t deliver these benefits. Aerobic exercise plus resistance training achieved results similar to aerobic exercise alone, the investigators found.
“Resistance training is great for improving strength and increasing lean body mass,” lead author and exercise physiologist Cris Slentz said in a Duke news release. “But if you are overweight, which two-thirds of the population is, and you want to lose belly fat, aerobic exercise is the better choice because it burns more calories.”
Aerobic exercise burned 67 percent more calories than resistance training, the researchers found.
The study was published in the Aug. 25 issue of the American Journal of Physiology.

Soooooo…the family that jogs together, lives longer together!

But:
Don’t just get out there and try and jog right out the gate….walk before you run
Always have plenty of water, dehydration leads to more problems than belly fat ever will
Don’t give up, and don’t think you HAVE to jog – walk, bike, just MOVE – be ACTIVE

Filed Under: Health and Fitness Tagged With: Exercise, Health News, Let's Move, Nutrition, Physical Fitness

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