Craft Hope

Help Provide Safe Birthing Kits to Women in Haiti

For Craft Hope's first project this year we are going back to Haiti. Project 11 will benefit Konbit Sante, a wonderful organization that has, for nearly ten years, worked to provide the education and resources necessary to improve capacity within the public health system of Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city.  Even before the earthquake, Haiti’s health statistics were dismal, and now the need is even greater.  Shockingly, one in eight Haitian children dies before the age of five, and their maternal mortality rate is 1,400 deaths for every 100,000 –a  reflection of the fact that the majority of the population lives in poverty/on less than a dollar a day. Only one in every 10,000 Haitians has access to a physician.
For the past three years, Konbit Sante has been spearheading a family planning and maternal health project in the most needy neighborhoods of Cap-Haitien that includes working more closely to support trained birth attendants (TBAs) who attend the vast majority of births in the community. They began supplying them with safe birthing kits to use in their deliveries. TBAs attend the vast majority of births in Haiti and have no formal medical training to speak of.  The kits represent a “value added” component to their services, offer a measure of status, and are well received. There is ample evidence internationally that the kits can reduce infant and maternal mortality.
When you simply need a clean piece of plastic sheeting, a clean piece of string, a new razor blade, an alcohol wipe, and hand sanitizer to save lives during delivery, it is humbling. When you can send a message of hope and solidarity with mothers in Haiti by including a hand made receiving blanket, it is empowering.  We may not be able to change much about the challenging reality faced by mothers and children in Haiti, but we CAN do this. And it will matter.
So for Project 11 we are going to provide safe birthing kits to Konbit Sante. This project will include some handmade items and some store bought. This is a great project for a group as many of these things are purchased in bulk.
Contents of safe birthing kit:

• 1 small bar of soap (updated 1/16/2011)
• 1 piece of clean plastic sheeting (3 feet wide by 4 feet long)
• 1 piece of clean string, 24 inches long
• 1 packet alcohol wipe
• 1 set of sterile latex gloves
• 1 packet (or travel container) Purelle
• 1 handmade tote bag

Optional:

• receiving blanket–36 inches square
• small “stuffy” toy

*** updated 1/16/2011 – We have received some great questions about the contents of the delivery kits. For more specifics about the contents, please go to this post where we have answered your questions. Thanks!
Konbit Sante is asking for pre-assembled birthing kits. You can buy the supplies (or request donations from local businesses), wrap them in the plastic sheeting, and put them all in a handmade bag. The receiving blanket and toy are optional, but are a very sweet touch that we hope you include. That blanket is the first blanket that sweet baby will be wrapped in. Both of these items are the handmade part of the birthing kits and show a little extra love for the newborn baby.
This simple bag will save lives in Haiti, and making the commitment to creating it will add meaning to your own. When the need is so great and our own lives are so full, it is difficult to know where to start.  The simplicity of this project gives us the perfect way to become involved–make a contribution to helping start out a baby’s life safely.
The deadline for Project 11 is March 1, 2011.
Please mail your complete bag to:
Konbit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership
362 US Route 1
Falmouth, ME  04105
USA

Easy ways to enhance cancer fighting effects of broccoli

A new study suggested that some simple procedures could enhance the cancer fighting ability of broccoli. The green vegetable is already known to diminish the threat of developing many slayer diseases. The tasty green vegetable is already advertized as innate speculate drug to fend off cancer counting bowel, skin, breast and stomach cancer.



The latest study conducted by research team from the University of Illinois proposes that the therapeutic influence of broccoli can be improved by faintly altering the technique in which the vegetable is cooked now. It is advised that not to overcook broccoli because it destroys the enzyme called myrosinase.


It is vital to the formation of the cancer killing composite Sulforaphane (SFN). There present a high-flying isothiocyanate (SFN) in cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower, brussels, broccoli and cabbage. The compound imitates the functioning of chemotherapy drugs taxol and vincristine, destroying cancer cells that replicate the highest.


The study also recommends that joining broccoli sprouts with broccoli can make their cancer-preventing talents more influential. According to Elizabeth Jeffery, professor of nutrition at University of Illinois broccoli, prepared properly, is a tremendously powerful cancer-fighting mediator. Three to five portions a week are sufficient to have an effect. To maximize benefits of broccoli, the enzyme myrosinase should to be present.


Steaming broccoli for two to four minutes is the ideal way to protect the enzyme as wells as nutrients of the vegetable. Numerous health conscious people use supplements of broccoli powder in recipes to improve their nutrition. However, such people do not know that they are not receiving adequate nutrients because the supplements often do not contain this essential enzyme, added Prof Jeffery.


Broccoli sprouts comprise myrosinase in profusion. The powder of broccoli frequently comprises the antecedent to sulforaphane without the enzyme which would enhance its healthy benefits, explained Jenna Cramer, co-author of the study reported the study published in Medindia.

Is Green Tea good for health?

The health effects of tea have been examined ever since the first infusion of Camellia sunensis about 4700 years ago in China .The legendary emperor Shennong claimed in The Divine Farmer,s Herb-Root Classic that Camellia sinensis infusions were useful for treating conditions including tumors ,abscesses, bladder ailments and lethargy.


 Some studies have been made of the other types of tea derived from Camellia sinensis, such as white, oolong and black tea. Green tea has been claimed to be helpful for atherosclerosis, LDL  cholesterol , cancer , inflammatory bowel disease , diabetes ,liver disease ,weight loss ,neurodegenerative diseases and even halitosis.



What makes green tea so special?


The secret of green tea lies in the fact it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue.


Other Benefits:


Increases metabolic rate:
Clinical trials conducted by the University of Geneva and the University of Birmingham indicate that green tea raises metabolic rates, speeds up fat oxidation and improves insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.


Lowers chances of cognitive impairment:
A 2006 study showed that elderly Japanese people who consumed more than 2 cups of green tea a day had a 50 percent lower chance of having cognitive impairment, in comparison to those who drank fewer than 2 cups a day, or who consumed other tested beverages .This is probably due to the effect of EGCG, which passes through the blood-brain barrier.


Effects on HIV:
A recent study appearing in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology was the subject of an article on BBC News. It stated that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) found in green tea can lead to the inhibition of HIV binding and may be used as a complementary therapy for HIV patients, but qualified it by noting that "It is not a cure, and nor is it a safe way to avoid infection, however, we suggest that it should be used in combination with conventional medicines to improve quality of life for those infected.


Effects on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD):
The polyphenols in green tea have been shown to reduce intestinal inflammation in mouse models of IBD.


For Burning of calories:
New evidence is emerging that green tea can even help dieters. In November, 1999, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the results of a study at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Researchers found that men who were given a combination of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine or a placebo.


Prevent tooth decay:
Green tea can even help prevent tooth decay! Just as its bacteria-destroying abilities can help prevent food poisoning, it can also kill the bacteria that cause dental plaque.


Harmful Effects :
To date, the only negative side effect reported from drinking green tea is insomnia due to the fact that it contains caffeine. However, green tea contains less caffeine than coffee: there are approximately thirty to sixty mg. of caffeine in six - eight ounces of tea, compared to over one-hundred mg. in eight ounces of coffee.

Tom Yum Goong - Hot & Sour Soup

It's -24°c outside right now.  Perfect weather for soup!

Fish or Chicken Stock:

1 pound fish bones (sole cod or other white fish), OR 1 chicken carcass, broken into pieces OR 1 pack of chicken wings (We used a whole chicken but kept aside the breasts and thighs etc. )
1 onion, quartered
1-inch piece fresh ginger, bruised
1 lime leaf
6 cilantro stems, stalks and roots bruised
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Wash your fish or chicken bones in cold water first.  Place in a saucepan and cover with 6 cups water.
2. Bring to a boil, skim if necessary.
3. Add the onion, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaf, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.  Return to a boil, turn heat down and simmer for 20 minutes only (no lid), for the fish stock.  For the chicken stock- simmer half covered for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat.
4. Cool, strain into a clean pot and get ready to make the soup. 

Hot & Sour Soup

Ingredients:

3 cups chicken (or fish) stock
1 1/2 cups water
1 lemongrass stem
4 red bird's eye chilies, seeded and finely sliced
1-inch piece galangal, peeled and finely sliced
3 lime leaves, torn into pieces
1 ready cleaned squid tube, cut into rings
1/2 pound cooked shrimp  (shelled is easier to eat obviously)
4 button mushrooms, sliced
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp. sucanat (sugar)
3 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 red chili, seeded and finely sliced for garnish
cilantro leaves for garnish

Directions:

1. Place the stock in a large saucepan with the water.  Heat gently.
2. Trim the root from the lemongrass and slice the bottom 2 inch section into very fine slices.  Bruise the remaining stalk and add all this to the stock with the chilies, galangal, and the torn limes leaves.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
4. Remove the bruised lemongrass, add the shrimp, squid rings, and the mushrooms, then add the lemon juice, sugar, and fish sauce a bit at a time until you have the right balance of flavours.
5. Serve in bowls with red chili slices and cilantro garish.

I chose to start with a chicken stock rather than a fish stock and it was very delicious!  This soup is of course HOT and SOUR so be aware of the number of chilies you use.  Use less than I have if you can't take the heat.  :)

Sunday Penance breakfast

Last night was fun.  I had a girlfriend "date" and we went out for (gluten free/dairy free for me) pizza and plenty of wine.  As I am a bit of a newbie wine drinker, it's possible that I overindulged just a bit.  (My wonderful fellah Buckarooken picked us up and drove us home at the end of the night.  Isn't he a peach!)
My penance- well for starters this is no time for greasy breakfast.  The calories from the wine alone last night!  Oy.  So I began my day with a delicious but low calorie hot breakfast.

Organic Brown Rice flakes cook up in minutes.  I added some delicious fresh pineapple pieces, a few nuts and topped it off with a little brown rice milk.  Hardly penance at all really.

Vitamin Supplements, To Stay Healthy

Vitamins

Are you looking forward to find the best health supplements available? Are you interested in taking vitamins for your daily nourishment? If your answer is yes, then the below information can help you in your search for those supplements. Vitamins are substances that your body needs to grow and develop normally. There are 13 vitamins your body needs. They are vitamins A, C, D, E, K and the B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and folate). You can usually get all your vitamins from the foods you eat. Your body can also make vitamins D and K. People who eat a vegetarian diet may need to take a vitamin B12 supplement.Each vitamin has specific jobs. If you have low levels of certain vitamins, you may develop a deficiency disease. For example, if you don't get enough vitamin D, you could develop rickets. Some vitamins may help prevent medical problems. Vitamin A prevents night blindness.

Every year more and more individuals are consuming nutritional supplements without even noticing any benefit. At this point of time, some individuals have come into conclusion that the supplements they are taking are not truly giving them benefits. For this reason, most of them have chosen to completely stop taking supplements. Although some of them still chose to continue hoping that they can still benefit from the supplements even though at the back of their minds it can be impossible. The key to benefiting from these supplements is to properly choose the proper supplements that will provide you with your nutritional requirements.

Your body requires enough nutrients to be healthy. If you think that health supplements and vitamins are not making you improve at all, it is because that they are still not enough to supply what your body requires. For example, multivitamins consists of herbal extracts, amino acids, enzymes, minerals and more. The most effective supplements must consist of over 50 to 60 ingredients of various kinds. Those nutrients if combined together can produced a synergic effect thus boosting the multivitamins’ effectively. For example, when green tea and gingko biloba are combined together you can be sure that your brain function and alertness will increase. You may have sharper brain. Furthermore, it rarely appears right to take individual nutrients and supplements that focus on one health concern. Most health maladies are cause of the absence or lack in many different nutrients and getting a wide spectrum supplement is one ideal way to make sure that your body is getting the nutrients it requires.

Vitamin

If you have eye concern, for instance, you should look for supplements that contain the ingredients zeaxanthin and lutein. However, there are actually more than a dozen nutrients that can help you strengthen your eyes and protect it from cataracts and macular degeneration. Only some, if any eye supplements will hold all of these required nutrients. But there are ideal multivitamins that will have these and other necessary ingredients. Another reason why most individuals are not able to benefit from their supplements is that their supplements actually contain synthetic ingredients, instead of natural. Synthetic vitamins can be a source of strain and stress to the body as it attempts to absorb them. According to the recent study, there is a high rate of death among individuals taking health supplements and vitamins that contain synthetic ingredients than those who did not consume any form of supplement. So, search for natural components first before you take any supplement.

 Natural ingredients are easily absorbed by the body just like the foods we take. Another great benefit of natural ingredients is that they contain micro and nutrients that synthetic ingredients do not possess. Now, you know that there can be a big difference in the quality of health supplements and vitamins that you are taking. Make sure that you look for broad spectrum of supplements that contain all of the natural components with scientific evidence concerning its formulation. With this, you can be able to avoid ineffective vitamins that many individuals are consuming without noticing any advantage.

Importance Of Breakfast For Students

Skipping breakfast is one of those harmful habitsthat all of us have subjected ourselves to at some point of time in our life, especially during the times we were students. The excuses vary from “I am late”, “I really need to lose some weight” to “Gee, I don’t feel hungry!” But little did we realize the importance of breakfast then. So, for those who are still students and have kids who are student here is a chance to discover theimportance of breakfast for students!

1. Break fast, means breaking of fast and it is important for students because you are actually refueling yourself after a whole night of fasting. 
   
   Close to 8-9 hours without food means that your body needs energy for breathing, for normal heart related activities and also for the brain to function normally! Importance of breakfast as a meal for students cannot be overlooked here as they need a large amount of energy to function effectively through a normal school day.
2. Morning is the best time to study as you grasp more during the waking hours of dawn. But you need your breakfast to use this study time effectively as your brain requires an abundant supply of fuel it can use easily like glucose to function well.
3. Studies have proved that students, who do eat breakfast, do well in school/college and haveexcellent academic records. They also display better psychosocial functioning and they don’t experience anxiety problems and almost never display restlessness and lack of attentiveness. This is because breakfast produces energy that helps student in their learning process by helping with heightened concentration, increased memory  and retention power and even higher problem solving abilities!
4. On the other hand students who ignore the importance of breakfast, exhibit physical problems like, headache, sleepiness, stomach pain, muscle fatigue and psychosocial problems like indecisiveness, anger, anxiety, irritability, unhappiness, nervousness, lethargy, hostility etc. This in turn hinders their learning process. In short students who don’t have breakfast are only functioning at 75 percent of their actual potential!
5. One of the serious consequences of overlooking the importance of breakfast by students isincreased vulnerability to various diseases because of decreased immunity. You are also at a higher risk of developing gastroenteritis and other digestive problems.
6. If you avoid breakfast because you believe that it will help you slim down, think again! Avoiding breakfast can actually lead to obesity! Yes, when you don’t have breakfast regularly, your body reacts to it by switching to the starvation mode, where in the body starts taking in anything you take in later on and stores it up as fat because your body is not sure when it will get the required fuel again! This means that the fat stores up and is not converted to energy! Also lack of a proper breakfast can result in the indulgence in unhealthy eating habits! On the other hand, students who eat breakfast have a lower BMI and there is a lesser chance that they will indulge in binge eating foods, like, fast foods and other unhealthy food.

Tips for a perfect breakfast

A perfect breakfast for students should have proteins, calcium, vitamin B6, vitamin A, zinc and iron. It should contain very little sodium, salt and sugar. High fibre cereal, milk/yoghurt and fresh fruits  or even a veg omelet with bran muffin and low fat milk or any fruit juice will do. Here are a few healthy breakfast recipes.

How To Sneak Vegetables Into Your Diet

We've all heard it before:  eat your vegetables.  Never the entree and always the appetizer, vegetables seem to be the category of food that most often gets pushed around the plate.  Sure, they're not as exciting as that juicy piece of meat or that heavenly piece of bread.  Even a plate of fruit is sexier than a plate of vegetables.  So why, you might ask, do we have to eat our vegetables?  


Quite simply, vegetables are good for you.



Full of fibre and precious antioxidants, vegetables are nature's solution to preventing chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.  Eating a diet full of brightly coloured vegetables ensures that your digestive tract works at an optimal pace.  They also make you feel fuller and aid in weight loss.   Are there any other foods that contain all of these benefits in such a low calorie package?  Likely not. 


Health Canada recommends eating a minimum of 5 servings of vegetables and fruit per day; however the average person consumes nearly half that.  How can we make it easier to include more vegetables into your diet? 


Here are some suggestions beyond just eating plain old salad: 


1.  Buy frozen vegetable blends. 


Contrary to popular belief, frozen vegetables have just as much nutritional value as fresh vegetables.  In fact, sometimes frozen vegetables have even more vitamins and minerals per serving because these vegetables are harvested and frozen when they are at their peak in nutritional value. 


The convenience of using frozen vegetable blends is parallel to none.  You no longer need to use that huge celery bunch in one night.  Wastage is minimal as you only use what you need, and then place it back into your freezer for another night.  If you are single, or do not have a large family to cook for, it can be expensive to buy many different vegetables for a single vegetable dish.  Using these blends allow you to eat a larger variety of vegetables without having to spend a fortune.


My favourite blend is the Far East Blend from Green Giant.  Snow peas, bamboo, crunchy water chestnuts and broccoli!  Just add some oyster sauce and a touch of garlic oil, microwave for 2 minutes, and you have nutritious "fast food."


You can also make your own vegetable blends by picking a variety of fresh veggies, cutting them up, and then freezing them in individual ziploc bags for use later on. 

2.  Drink your vegetables.


You know those V8 commercials?  They're true, you have no excuse.  I like the low-sodium V8. Vegetables can also easily be hidden in shakes and smoothies.  Make your smoothies with 60% fruit and 40% vegetables.  Spinach is the easiest to disguise, with no impact on the delicious fruity taste of a smoothie. 


3.  Make a vegetable soup.


For all you vegetable haters, this is the easiest way to increase your vegetable intake without changing your diet significantly.  You can make a huge pot of vegetable soup that contains more than your recommended daily servings of vegetables in one sitting!  It's so easy, all you need is an assortment of vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, onions, leeks), a blender, and some sort of soup stock (vegetable, chicken, onion).  Throw them in a pot, boil for 20 minutes, and then blend into a thin puree.  I also add red curry paste and a touch of coconut milk in my soups.  Delicious!


Alternatively, if you are making a broth soup, just throw some frozen or fresh vegetables into your soup while heating to make it healthier. 


4.  Shred your vegetables. 


Shredding your vegetables makes it easy to hide in a variety of different types of food.  Instead of just using lettuce as a topping for your burger, add some shredded carrot, zucchini, mushrooms or spinach as a garnish.  Throw shredded veggies into your pasta sauce or chili.  I like using tons of red/green/yellow peppers and spinach in my pasta sauces.  The following vegan recipe is also a great alternative to red or creamy sauces, using plenty of vegetables:


Blend 1 package of spinach and 1 bunch of fresh basil with 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1/2 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp of agave nectar or maple syrup, 3 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp of salt and pepper to taste.  Toss with 1/2 cup of pine nuts and add to freshly cooked whole grain pasta.  Super quick, super easy, and very healthy. 


5.  Make a vegetable dip. 


That huge bag of baby spinach looks intimidating, but have you ever thrown it into your blender?  It becomes less than half a cup!  Instead of hummus, make a delicious dip with vegetables, like red pepper or spinach dip. 


Here's an easy recipe:
1 bag of baby spinach
1/2 cup of vegan mayonnaise or low fat mayo or low fat yogurt
1 packet of onion soup mix


Throw it into your blender or hand puree, and you will have a nutritious dip for your chips, carrots, and pita bread. 


Just on a side note, it's actually clinically been proven that babies who were breastfed as a child for 5 months or longer are less likely to reject their vegetables as toddlers.  This is due to the transmission of flavour in breast milk--if the mother has a varied diet, the baby is familiar with the taste of vegetables by the time they are introduced to solid foods. 


Hope that helps, this blog is dedicated to my friend Kenny, who requested a blog on "vegetables."

4 Life-Saving Supplements

As dietitian, it has always been a challenge to recommend dietary supplements to patients as the old-fashioned principle of dietetics stems from obtaining all of your nutrients from food. 


We now know that this is nearly impossible for most people. 


Our diet, especially a typical Western diet, simply cannot provide us with enough of the essential vitamins and minerals proven to obtain optimal health.  In fact, Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating has recently been revised to include a recommendation for vitamin D supplementation. This is a huge step in the right direction for the future of dietetics. 



The following 4 supplements are clinically proven to improve your health and fight off chronic diseases. 


1.  Multivitamin. 


No matter how great you think you eat or how complete your diet is, everyone should be taking a multivitamin.  It simply provides nutritional insurance to make sure that you are obtaining your recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of certain vitamins and minerals.  There is greater benefit to taking a multivitamin than not taking one;  however, I do recommend to look for the following when choosing a multivitamin: 
   
   a.  Make sure it has lower levels of beta-carotene and Vitamin A.  If you are a smoker, do not choose a product that has a high level of beta-carotene in it  (> 5000 IU), as high levels of beta carotene has been shown to accelerate the development of lung cancer.  Vitamin A is one of the rare vitamins that can build up in your liver and cause toxicity, so make sure that your multivitamin does not contain more than 1000 IU of Vitamin A.  It has also been linked to hip fractures later on in life. 


   b.   If you have allergies or any dietary restrictions, make sure you choose a multivitamin that lists all of their non-medicinal ingredients.  In Canada, it is not mandatory to include such a list on the product packaging.  Many companies do not include this list, and often consumers will choose a product thinking that it does not include a particular ingredient.  For example, gelatin is not required to be listed on the product; however, in Canada, all multivitamins that contain Vitamin A has gelatin in it, derived from the same raw materials.


2. Vitamin D.


200 IU, 400 IU, 1000 IU, 2000 IU, and now 4000 IU?  How much is enough?  The current recommendations are far too low for the typical Canadian diet.  We also live above the 40th latitude of the earth, and therefore, do not get the proper sun exposure needed to produce Vitamin D in our bodies.  Along with strengthening our bones, Vitamin D has also been related to almost every immune-related chronic disease, such as multiple sclerosis and lupus.  It has also been shown to reduce incidence of certain types of cancers. 


Instead of testing for Vitamin D deficiency, many physicians that I work with now simply assume that a patient if deficient in Vitamin D unless they are being supplemented.  Because it is relatively inexpensive, (pennies per tablet), Vitamin D should be on everyone's list of must-have supplements.  I take 2000 IU of Vitamin D3 per day. 

3.  Omega-3


Smooth skin, lubricated joints, lowered cholesterol, are there any more reasons to take these anti-inflammatory supplements?  For those of you that have read my previous entries, you know how adamant I am about taking an Omega-3 supplement.  Not a complete 3-6-9 supplement, just an Omega 3.  You get enough omega-6 and omega-9 through diet, and it is the ideal ratio between 3/6/9 that has the most beneficial effect. 


At University of Guelph, I had a professor  who dedicated 90% of his lectures to the benefits of omega-3 and the avoidance of trans fats, particularly in frozen breakfast waffles.  For those of you who had the same professor, I doubt that you ever ate a frozen breakfast waffle ever again. 


4.  Calcium


"Osteoporosis is a pediatric disease with geriatric consequences."

Unless you eat plenty of dairy products, the majority of Canadians need a calcium supplement.  This mighty mineral is necessary for the prevention of osteoporosis, one of the most debilitating diseases in our lifetime.  Having worked at a nursing home during the years of my internship, I have seen the consequences of brittle and frail bones, and if you could do something to prevent it, you would. 


Calcium supplements are simply not just for little old women.  In fact, at the age of 9 to 18, you need 1300 mg of calcium per day, almost the same as a post-menopausal woman.  What we need to do is build our bones to be the strongest possible while we are young, so when bone loss occurs (it's inevitable), it will not reduce our bones to paper-thin densities. 


We are continually building our bones up to the age of 30, so anything after that is simply maintenance.  And not just women get osteoporosis, 1 in 8 men have osteoporosis too.  It's an important mineral for everyone, at every age. 


These are my basic magic 4 supplements, what I believe almost everyone should be taking as a baseline for ensuring optimal health.

Safeguard Your Heart

The latest findings on heart disease are nothing unexpected: It's the number one killer of American men, claiming a life about every 30 seconds. Most young, fit guys shuffle statistics like these into a mental file titled, "Doesn't apply to me." But no matter how old (or young) you are, the only way to stay on top of your game is to know your risk factors and take the right steps to avoid problems down the road. We talked with two heart experts to find out everything you need to know to guarantee your ticker stays stronger longer. 

In Your 20s

"There's a common problem among men in their twenties," says Dr. Eric Topol, M.D., a practicing cardiologist at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. "They don't know they're vulnerable [to heart disease]." Your twenties are the prefect time to establish heart-healthy diet and exercise habits that'll extend your expiration date. That means 30 minutes of exercise five times a week and maintaining a healthy weight and cholesterol level—LDL below 130 mg/dL, HDL of at least 40 mg/dL, according to Dr. Topol. 


Every 20-something average Joe needs an annual physical to evaluate HDL and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting lipid profile, blood pressure, and family history. If the checkup goes well, one appointment is enough to clear your conscious. But if you're an athlete or you hit the weight room more than five times a week, ask your doctor for an echocardiogram to ensure you don't have a heart abnormality," says Dr. John Elefteriades, M.D., the chief of cardiac surgery at Yale University. 

"If you have a silent aneurism (one that doesn't cause you to feel symptoms), you're susceptible to internal splitting of the aorta," Dr. Elefteriades says. An echocardiogram is the only way to detect this problem. The test also spots dilated cardiomyopathy (a condition of heart failure in which the heart gets stretched too big and too thin) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (an inherited condition where the heart muscle is overgrown). 

Your 20s Checklist:

• 30 minutes of exercise five times a week
• Annual physicals
• Echocardiogram
• Cholesterol: LDL less than 130 mg/dL and HDL greater than 40 mg/dL
• Blood pressure: 119/79 mm HG or lower
• Lipid profile: Triglycerides less than 150 mg/dL

In Your 30s

Although most heart conditions are strongly hereditary, they don't always manifest as early as your twenties, Dr. Elefteriades said. So along with your standard health check, schedule another echocardiogram 10 years after the first one—especially if you're regularly weight lifting, wrestling, playing football, or participating in any sport with short bursts of activity. 

Men older than 35 should also have an electrocardiogram (EKG), which traces the electrical waves of the heart, every 5 years. This test may show evidence of hardening of the heart's arteries (arthrosclerosis)—a preventable and treatable condition that restricts blood flow and may cause a blood clot. 

Your 30s Checklist:

• 30 minutes of exercise five times a week
• Annual physicals
• Echocardiogram, 10 years after the first
• Electrocardiogram (EKG), if older than 35
• Cholesterol: LDL less than 130 mg/dL and HDL greater than 40 mg/dL
• Blood pressure: 119/79 mm HG or lower
• Lipid profile: Triglycerides less than 150 mg/dL

In Your 40s

When you hit 40, your doctor should start monitoring the overall degree of inflammation within your body with C-reactive protein (CRP) testing. The higher your CRP level, the higher your risk of cardiovascular disease. But there's no need to make an extra appointment for this one—the same simple blood test that checks your cholesterol levels measures CRP levels. The best way to keep CRP levels in check? Regular exercise and being at the right body weight. 

Your 40s Checklist:

• 30 minutes of exercise five times a week
• Annual physicals
• Echocardiogram, 10 years after your last one
• EKG, 5 years after your last one
• Cholesterol: LDL less than 130 mg/dL and HDL greater than 40 mg/dL
• Blood pressure: 119/79 mm HG or lower
• Lipid profile: Triglycerides less than 150 mg/dL
• C-reactive protein: Less than 1 mg per liter

In Your 50s

Fifty is the typical age when some men can develop coronary heart disease, according to Dr. Topol. The prevention prescription? An exercise stress test. This test, sometimes called a treadmill test, monitors how well your heart handles work. As you walk or pedal on an exercise machine, the electrical activity of your heart and your blood pressure are measured. As your body works harder during the test, it requires more oxygen, so the heart must pump more blood. 

The test will help pick up subtle arteriosclerosis (blockage of the coronary arteries), and determine the cause of any chest pain and the exercise capacity of your heart. A stress test isn't a necessary for men younger than fifty unless you have a strong family history of heart disease, according to Dr. Elefteriades. 

Your 50s Checklist:

• 30 minutes of exercise five times a week
• Annual physicals
• Echocardiogram, 10 years after your last one
• EKG, 5 years after your last one
• Exercise stress test
• Cholesterol: LDL less than 130 mg/dL and HDL greater than 40 mg/dL
• Blood pressure: 119/79 mm HG or lower
• Lipid profile: Triglycerides less than 150 mg/dL
• C-reactive protein: Less than 1 mg per liter

At Every Age 

If you experience chest pain or shortness of breath due to exertion, get to the hospital right away. These are the two primary symptoms of heart disease and should never go unchecked. "Men are deniers," Dr. Elefteriades says. "It's usually someone else in their lives—wife, girlfriend, mom—that forces them to confront symptoms." Other warning signs to speak up about are light-headedness and heart palpitations (an abnormal heart beat).

The Domino's Effect

A few weeks after Domino's Pizza CEO J. Patrick Doyle traveled to New Delhi for the opening of the company's 9,000th franchise, he unveiled the next phase in the master strategy for global pizza domination. The company will establish a foothold of restaurants in Malaysia while doubling the number of U.K. locations by 2017. "We're in 65 countries right now," says Doyle. "We're not seeing many places where it doesn't make sense for Domino's pizza to go."



Pizza is the world's most popular food, and that enormous appetite is fueling what has recently become a transnational melee for market share and profits among four players: Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Little Caesars. On the face of it, this intense competition for the dough we spend on dough sounds like a good thing. We eventually bite into better-tasting pizza that's made faster and sold cheaper. "Pizza is as economical to buy now as it was back in the '80s, if not more so," says Jennifer Litz, editor of PizzaMarketplace.com, an online trade publication for the industry.


But what if that large pie delivered to your doorstep costs more than you think? A number of economists, sociologists, and food scholars claim that the $36 billion-a-year success of Big Pizza has ominous undertones and implications that reach far beyond weighty matters like deciding between extra cheese and anchovies. They argue that the unrelenting push for ever-cheaper pizza ingredients is hurting the planet and driving small and medium-size farms out of business. Some of these farmers feel they have no choice but to move to the megacities sprouting across the globe. Once relocated to urban slums, many find themselves among the estimated 1.1 billion people earning less than $1 a day, an amount that makes it hard to survive, let alone afford Domino's recent special offer of $5.99 a pie for two medium pizzas. Of the farmers that decide to stay put, some opt for a quicker death, at their own hand.


"We are faced with two possible futures," says sociologist Harriet Friedmann, Ph.D., a professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto. "One is a diversity of crops, of cultures, and of cuisines that can inhabit ecosystems sustainably and produce healthy food for urban centers. The other is long-distance food from nowhere, monocultural systems that aren't sustainable, and simplified diets, especially for the poor. Global pizza typifies the second option."


Another outspoken opponent of the circumstances underlying the worldwide pizza trade has been Philip McMichael, Ph.D., a professor of development sociology at Cornell University. He believes that the combined processes of bioindustrialization, the ever-increasing reliance of agro-industry on fossil fuels, and the relentless search for the most rapidly expanding overseas markets has led to a phenomenon he calls "the food regime." The machinations that lie behind this new world order perform very well when it comes to churning out profits for transnational corporations, but that success comes at considerable social and economic expense, says McMichael. "It's undermining people who make their living off the land everywhere."


While I can understand acute hysteria and mass terror when it comes to melting icecaps, oil slicks the size of Arkansas, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with his finger on the trigger of a nuke, I haven't quite gotten my arms around the pizza apocalypse. So I decided to start my investigation at the beginning of the pizza chain, at the place from which a Domino's pie springs forth. I inch my rental car through a dismal-looking industrial park outside Detroit and pull up in front of a low-slung, nondescript building that houses one of Domino's 17 U.S. dough factories.




Way back in 1960, Domino's founders, brothers Tom and James Monaghan, purchased their first pizza joint not all that far from this forsaken stretch of Michigan frost and weed. Today the chain employs more than 10,000 people, and its 2010 fiscal revenue topped $236 million.


I'm met at the dough factory by public relations manager Chris Brandon, an enthusiastic 20-something who leads the way into an antiseptic dough-making room of clattering conveyor belts, industrial mixers, precision dough cutters, and metal detectors. It turns out that each lump of Domino's pizza dough must be x-rayed before it can be released into a litigious world, just in case a tooth-crushing twist of metal or stomach-puncturing screw might have fallen off the assembly line and dropped into the mix.


I approach a stainless-steel tureen that comes up to my chest, and watch as a carefully calibrated stream of water flushes into the bowl. After the water comes an autodispensed dose of soy crush--more commonly known as vegetable oil--that turns the liquid a dull yellow. Then 500 pounds of industrial flour explodes out of yet another stainless-steel pipe to join the fun. Through billowing clouds of white I catch a glimpse of the computer that runs the proprietary Domino's software. "Step #17," reads the screen. "Adding Flour."


Clearly this is high-tech bioindustrialization at its finest.


Soon it's time for a lifting machine to hoist the quarter-ton glob of dough 15 feet into the air, and then for a tilting machine to tip the entire concoction out of the tureen and into an extremely large stainless-steel hopper. "It's going to miss the bowl," I say.


"It may look that way," Brandon reassures me, "but it never misses." The dough slithers out of the tureen and into the center of the hopper; he smiles.


But a few minutes later, the next 500-pound batch hits the metal ledge of the hopper, teeters off the side, and unceremoniously plops onto the factory floor. Red lights flash, alarm bells ring, and the production line jolts to a halt.


For the first time in recorded history, a batch of Domino's pizza dough has missed the bowl.


Brandon ushers me away from the slow-spreading ooze and through automatic doors to a warehouse perfused with the aroma of meat, garlic, and onions. We stride past pallet after pallet of dressings and spices and uncountable cases of "Pizza Sauce Ready to Use" produced by a company called Paradise Tomato Kitchens. No doubt, Domino's swallows up quite a few of the world's tomatoes.


This demand has led to megafarms like the one in Yolo County, one of the largest process tomato producers of California. A vast, perfectly geometric 10,000 acres of mud is spiked with tomato seedlings that will eventually yield 120,000 tons of "process tomatoes"--the kind that become commercial pizza sauce. An operation like this is not replicable in the fields of the developing world. The furrows have been dug by GPS-guided tractors, the seedlings irrigated by an underground drip often spiked with a nitrogen fertilizer called UN-32. And the process tomatoes themselves are high-tech, high-yield hybrids known as AB2, Sun 6366, and Asgrow 410.


For the past hundred years or so, the ever-escalating technology of growing, harvesting, slicing, dicing, and pureeing has enabled process tomato to metastasize into the vegetable world's greatest international commodity, with the bulk of the red stuff spurting from the stainless-steel condensers of factories owned by some of the biggest names in global food, names such as Del Monte, Heinz, and Unilever.


Of course, there are those who defend the efficiencies of the homogenized paste: "The founding of Paradise Tomato Kitchens was rooted in innovation and technology," the company's CEO, Ron Peters, tells me in an e-mail. "With the economic challenges our customer base faces, it is our mission to help be the driving engine in our shared success."


It may come as no surprise that the customer base and the economic challenges that concern Peters and Paradise Tomato Kitchens belong to Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Little Caesars--not to the world's tomato growers. Indeed, as Big Pizza's preference for globalized sauce has matured, many of the other farmers who used to make a living growing and selling tomatoes have been pushed out of business.

In Ghana, for example, locally harvested tomatoes were once a staple. But tomato concentrate has destroyed the market there--not to mention the lives of the nearly 2 million people involved in tomato cultivation in one region of the country. Despite Ghana's farming tradition, it has become the world's second-largest importer of process tomatoes, after Germany. As a result, according to the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, more than 700 tomato farmers have gone belly-up.


"We do not get good prices for the little harvest," said Comfort Mantey, a tomato farmer in the Ghanaian community of Matsekope, when she was interviewed for a report on poverty in the region. "The traders tell us their customers now mix fresh tomatoes with imported tomato paste."


Another tomato farmer, Martin Pwayidi, defaulted on the $2,000 loan he had secured from a bank and sunk into his 4 acres in 2008; no one would buy locally grown tomatoes from him. "I lost everything," said Pwayidi to one African news outlet. "There was absolutely no reason to live."


Sadly, this is the same conclusion arrived at by many of Pwayidi's neighbors: Annual waves of suicides have washed across Ghana's northern growing regions as some desperate farmers ingested the insecticide they no longer needed for their tomatoes.


The most expensive ingredient of any pizza pie is neither the dough nor the sauce, but the cheese. About half the U.S. milk supply is used to manufacture cheese, and last year's 10 billion pounds broke all previous production records. Mozzarella recently topped Cheddar as the most popular cheese variety. And where does all that mozzarella go? Onto your pizza, of course.


Every shred of Domino's mozzarella cheese comes from a Denver-based company called Leprino Foods, the world's largest producer of the gooey pie topping, with sales estimated at $2.6 billion in 2009. At one point, the company held more patents related to mozzarella than anyone else in the industry. Leprino also happens to be one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, and its employees are notorious for not speaking to the press. "We'd prefer to stay under the radar," a Leprino vice president told the Denver Business Journal several years back.


My own repeated attempts to contact James Leprino, the mozzarella billionaire the Denver Post once dubbed "Denver's Biggest Cheese," took me up a ladder of increasingly paranoid cheese executives until I found someone who was quite willing to talk to me for an hour--completely off the record.


According to the most recent data, Leprino must buy an astonishing 5 to 7 percent of the total available U.S. milk in order to supply mozzarella to Domino's and Pizza Hut and everybody else in global pizza. Put another way, one out of every 20 American milk cows must be dedicated to the production of Leprino's mozzarella. Paradoxically, it is Leprino's demand for milk that has driven dairy farmers to the wall.


It may come as a surprise that such a thing as a global cheese market exists, and that 40-pound blocks of Cheddar are traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). But ever since Ronald Reagan put an end to inflation-adjusted milk pricing, mozzarella prices have been linked to trading on the CME. And that means the day-to-day dollar-and-cent fluctuations of industrial cheese have been put in the hands of the biggest buyers of milk--corporations like Leprino, Kraft, and Dean Foods.


"Farmers need to be valued economically," says the University of Toronto's Friedmann, but insider cheese trading has allowed the largest processors to force the price of milk into a downward spiral, as lower prices mean greater profits for the processors. In 2008, for example, a cooperative called the Dairy Farmers of America paid a civil penalty of $12 million for trying to manipulate cheese prices. And as cheese industrialists buy more and more milk to make the mozzarella to supply the world's pizza purveyors, the ever-sinking price of milk has had a nasty effect on those without whom there would be no milk, no mozzarella, and no pizza.


"Farmers have never received less money for their milk," says John Bunting, a dairyman from the western foothills of the Catskills, in New York State, who also writes a blog that focuses on the plight of dairy farmers. For instance, the area where Bunting lives used to be rich in milk production; as the price of milk has touched bottom, though, it has been plagued by debt and bankruptcy. "There is no one in the country making a living milking cows," he says. "Not this year, and not last year, either. I get calls every day from just plain desperate farmers. Nobody knows what to do."


Of course, as the country's small dairy farmers head into bankruptcy, the largest producers of cheese have prospered. "Kraft and Leprino are on tight margins," says Bunting. "But they have so many units running past the cash register that Jimmy Leprino can get rich."


Last year was the worst in at least 30 years for small-scale dairymen, who lost money on every cow on every day of every month, says Bunting. Despite the losses, one upstate New York farmer, Dean Pierson, refused to let go of the 51 milking cows on the land his father had bought. Instead, Pierson took a small-caliber rifle and went through the barn he had built and shot each of his cows through the head. Then he sat down on a chair and put a bullet through his chest.


"The milk-pricing system is truly an attack on the family farm," says Bunting, "and truly an attack on the family that operates the farm." And as more and more dairy farmers become impoverished, the self-destructive illogic of global pizza becomes ever more obvious: The day I speak to Bunting, he tells me that five huge dairy operations in the Texas panhandle have filed for bankruptcy.


Leprino's website boasts, "Our customers benefit from the innovation and economies of scale we provide." That is, until the drive to provide high-volume pie topping at the lowest possible cost shuts off Leprino's milk pipeline for good.


"The system is breaking down," says Bunting. "And no one seems to be paying attention."