People’s Pharmacy: The hidden hazards of health care. 2D
T H U R S D A Y , D E C E M B E R 15 , 2011
HealthToday Diabetic dining
SECTION D
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NUTRITION
Starchy food linked to cancer
Another reason to avoid the carbs: Researchers reported Thursday that increased carbohydrate intake was associated with a higher rate of breast cancer recurrence in survivors of the disease. Starch intake seemed to be particularly influential, they said, accounting for 48 percent of changes in the women’s carbohydrate intake. “ Women who increased their starch intake over one year were at a much likelier risk for recurring,” team leader Jennifer Emond, a doctoral student in public health at the University of California-San Diego, said in a statement. Emond and her colleagues looked at data from the Women’s Health Eating and Living (WHEL) Dietary Intervention Trial. About 3,000 breast cancer survivors participated in an annual phone interview over the course of seven years, reporting to WHEL researchers everything they had eaten in the last 24 hours. For the starch study, the researchers looked at food recall interviews at the beginning and after one year from 2,651 women. They found that the initial carbohydrate intake was 233 grams per day. Women who had a recurrence of their cancer increased their carb intake by 2.3 grams per day, on average. Women who did not have a recurrence decreased carb intake by 2.7 grams per day, on average. The increased risk was limited to women with lower-grade tumors. The researchers said that the discovery called for more study of limiting starch intake in women with breast cancer. The team presented its fi ndings at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center-American Association for Cancer Research San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. — McClatchy Newspapers
-TIP HEALTHY FOOD SWAPS
Portion size aside, some holiday favorites start off far worse for your waistline than others. “It’s not uncommon to gain a full pound — or more — during the holiday season,” said Gloria Tsang, a registered dietician and author of the new book Go UnDiet. Some swaps to consider: ■ Crab cake appetizers typically are made with mayonnaise and bread crumbs, and fried. Replace them — and items served in puff pastries — with shrimp cocktail. ■ Candy canes are pure sugar and won’t fi ll you up. To satisfy a sweet tooth, choose small squares of dark chocolate, which have nutritionally valuable antioxidants. ■ Eggnog often is packed with calories and sugar, as are pina coladas, daiquiris and cocktails with liqueurs such as Baileys Irish Cream or Kahlua. Toast with champagne or hot chocolate made with low-fat milk. ■ Spinach and artichoke dip sounds healthy but is usually fatheavy with mayonnaise, sour cream and cream cheese. Serve a vegetable salsa instead. ■ Croissants and biscuits seem light and fluffy, but that’s thanks to sugar and butter packed within their layers of dough. Go with wholegrain dinner rolls. ■ Shortbread cookies are crumbly because of high fat content. Ginger snaps are generally healthier. ■ Cheesecake can pack lots of fat; while recipes vary, pumpkin pie tends to be a smarter choice and also offers fiber and antioxidants. Top it with fat-free whipped cream or whipped evaporated milk. ■ Gravy tends to be high in fat, calories and salt. Make or buy lowfat versions. One idea is to dilute cream of chicken soup — look for a low-calorie, low-sodium product — with some skim milk. ■ Mashed potatoes are high in carbohydrates, but mashed cauliflower has a similar texture. Moisten it with canned chicken broth instead of butter. — McClatchy Newspapers
STAFF ILLUSTRATION | ANTHONY BRATINA
Restricted diets can be difficult to maintain during the holiday season By Lydia Seabol Avant Staff Writer
TUSCALOOSA he holidays can be difficult for anyone on a restricted diet. It can be particularly hard for people with diabetes. Holiday parties, large family dinners and potluck events make it easy to forget about diets, even though it’s vitally important that people with diabetes keep what they eat in check and watch their blood sugar, said Susan Saylor and Melissa Viehe, dieticians at DCH Regional Medical Center. “It’s important not to skip meals but not to eat too much either,” Saylor said. “It’s all about moderation.” Instead of overindulging at one meal, diabetics are advised to eat small meals, snack often and eat many green vegetables, the dieticians said. If they want to indulge in a cupcake, that’s fine, but it means they should substitute that for another carbohydrate they
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TIPS FOR HOLIDAY EATING ■ Focus on friends and family instead of food. ■ Don’t overdo it at parties. Eat slowly and keep portions in check. ■ Eat before meals. Make sure you don’t skip meals or healthy snacks. ■ Bring food you like to parties. It’s easy to bring a favorite diabetesfriendly dish. ■ Drink alcohol in moderation. Remember to eat something before an evening of drinking. ■ Stay active. ■ If you overindulge, get back on track. Stop eating. Exercise and monitor your blood glucose levels. Resume your usual eating habits the next day. Source: American Diabetes Association
would otherwise eat during the day and eat small portions. Overeating risks blood sugar rising too high.
“If you eat so much at one meal that you aren’t hungry for the next, then you’ve eaten too much,” Viehe said. Instead, keep portions small and have a healthy snack in between meals. If you think you have eaten too much, try to exercise and do some kind of physical activity afterward, she suggested. “Try to get out and move a lot,” Viehe said. “You can drop your sugar 40 to 50 points by walking just 10 minutes.” If going to a holiday party, eat a small meal before the party and if it’s a potluck event, bring a vegetable dish that you know you can eat, Viehe and Saylor said. During holiday parties laden with food, don’t stand by the food table. Instead, try to focus on the company and avoid eating. Alcohol should also be consumed in moderation and drunk only with food. Another problem for diabetics during the holidays is not eating at all. Being in too much of a hurry to eat,
or skipping meals after eating a very large meal are bad. “When you are so busy and shopping all day, people tend to skip meals, but we don’t want diabetics to skip meals,” Viehe said. “You have to stop and eat something.” Tuscaloosa resident Meritha Stewart has had Type II diabetes for about seven years. Eating during the holidays hasn’t been a problem for Stewart, who says she’s not fond of sweets anyway. To help keep her diet in check, Stewart said she’s skipping the traditional holiday menu this Christmas season. Instead, her family will be eating Greek and Mediterranean fare. “I have been doing a Mediterranean diet book because we like it and it’s easy to stay within your daily requirement,” Stewart said. “So we just decided to have Mediterranean food this Christmas.” The main thing to remember, Stewart said, is portion control and to avoid eating too much of any one thing.