*NOTE * make sure you jot this down
IT PAYS TO BE HEALTHY START EARLY, EAT HEALTHY PET ROCKS PET PALS
INSIDE THIS ISSUE HEALTH
13 It pays to be well
17 Start early, eat right
46 million Americans
The best way to stay
aged 19-29 are withouth
well is to eat healthy. Dr.
healthcare. See what
Andrew Larson, M.D.
Wilcox has to say about
tells us what foods to
our behavior.
avoid and the best foods to snack on. As it turns out, treating day-to-day ailments is easier than you think
Recipes Power up your breakfast. Meals
DEPARTMENTS
19 The 10 Spot: healthy trends + tips Make your healthy journey worth wile and fun! Check out these hot items on the market
24 fitness guide Bicycles built for you!
and snacks to go!
35 meal makeover Sick of the plain ol’ turkey and cheese? Liven up your lunch
36 mind over matter Sweet Dreams: Take a peek at our five-step action plan for a better nights sleep.
SPACE
30 PET rocks
40 Pet pals
We Americans have never
Thinking about getting a
met a single-serve package
pet for your small space?
we didn’t like. Read on
The ten best dogs for
to find out how you can
apartment life and the
reuse some of the 50 billion
ones to avoid.
bottles of water we drain each year.
48 home fixes Smart tips for your everyday lives.
50 listing your pros and cons Brita filter vs. Tap water. Which is a better fit for you?
55 skill set Fix that hole in the wall. Ways to get around those unfortunate happenings
38 take action Take the Filter For Good Pledge to help reduce water bottle waste. In the spotlight, Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray show us how they recycle water bottles.
13
* NOTE
IT PAYS TO BE WELL Darren Willcox is the executive director of the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform. He thinks we should base health-insurance premiums on the user behavior
AT THE CORE of our nation’s health care crisis is the rapid growth in costs. At the core of any solution, then, is reducing those costs so that the fortysix million Americans without insurance today have access to affordable coverage. up the cost of health care? Research shows that fifty to seventy percent of all health care costs are caused by behavior and by chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart conditions. By simply lowering obesity rates, for example, we could avoid $60 billion in annual medical costs and gain back $254 billion in productivity. SO WHAT DRIVES
14
* NOTE
MORE THAN HALF of all Americans
WHY SHOULD WE CARE? Adults
suffer from one or more chronic conditions that are closely tied to behavior. Prevention and wellness programs, meanwhile, give people incentives to improve their habits and their health. Whether it’s installing an exercise facility at an office, providing financial rewards for smoking cessation efforts, or developing a product to help patients better manage their care, there are countless creative programs that can be designed. Many businesses across the country have started such efforts, and the result is lower costs and better health. We need to ensure that this concept becomes apart of any reform plan on the national level.
ages 19 to 29 are the fastest growing age group among people who lack health insurance in the United States. In fact, 14 million young adults are without health care. A recent GAO report estimates that 20% of college students are uninsured. Therefore, it is important that the context of the college health setting is also considered as policymakers deliberate on the many complex issues involved in reforming our national health care system.
THE UNITED STATES SPENDS
ON HEALTHCARE ANNUALLY 15
* NOTE
COST OF BREAKDOWN BY TYPE OF EXPENDITURE
PERCENTAGE BREAKDOWN BY SOURCE OF FUNDS:
$169.3 BILLION NURSING HOMES
$621.7 BILLION CLINICAL SERVICES
$611.6 BILLION HOSPITAL
36% PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE $338.6 BILLION OTHER
35% FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
15% OUT OF POCKET PAYMENTS 11% STATE & LOCAL GOVERNMENT $258.8 BILLION MEDICAL PRODUCTS AND DRUGS
4% OTHER PRIVATE FUNDS
16
* NOTE
THE TEN SPOT SNACKS 4
They’re under 200 calories, healthy, satisfying, and pro-approved―what’s not to love? A 1.3-ounce bag of Glenny’s Soy Crisps.
1
Energy bar containing at least four grams of protein
3 Van’s AllNatural Multigrain Waffle with fruit preserves (or
5
2 Handful of almonds mixed with dried tart cherries or blueberries.
19
* NOTE
Three cups of air-popped popcorn sprinkled with dark chocolate
9 6
One wholewheat English muffin with peanut butter.
Hard-boiled egg with freshly ground black pepper.
8
Apple slices dipped in a tablespoon of almond butter.
7 10
Two slices of low-sodium deli turkey and a handful of grapes.
Rye melba toast with low-fat cream cheese and dried cran-
20
* NOTE
BREAKFAST The most important meal of the day: 9 quick and easy meals
BREAKFAST The most important meal of the day: 9 quick and easy meals
To keep your energy up, improve
alert and happy. You don’t have
your mood and rev up your me-
the ability to modulate your blood
tabolism, eat protein for breakfast,
sugar. Appetite increases, and you
says MARK WILLIAMS, M.D.,
find yourself seeking out more
author of Ultra-Metabolism.
sugar and coffee.” Skip the cereal
“Most people start off in a way that
and instead serve up some eggs,
sets them up for disater. When you
whole-grain toast with nut butter,
eat only carbs, you don’t have the
scrambled tofu, lean meat or fish,
amino acids needed to feel focused,
or a protein shake.
Recipes
Nutty Breakfast Parfai Makes 6 servings
MIX OATS AND WALNUTS in 13 x 9
x 2-inch (33 x 23 x 5 cm) baking pan. Combine 1/4 cup (50 mL) of the maple syrup and butter in small heavy saucepan. Bring to boil. Pour maple syrup mixture over oat mixture; stir to blend well. Bake 10 minutes at 375째F (190째C) oven, stirring occasionally. Bake until mixture is golden and crisp, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes longer. Cool granola completely in pan. (Can be prepared one week ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.) GENTLY TOSS STRAWBERRIES,
peaches, blueberries, kiwifruit and remaining maple syrup in large bowl to blend. Divide half of the fruit mixture among 6 parfait or wine glasses. Sprinkle each parfait with half the granola mixture, dividing equally. Top each with half of the yogourt. Repeat layers. Serve immediately. .
Ingrediets 1-1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped 1/3 cup pure maple syrup, divided 2 tsp butter 2 cups sliced hulled strawberries 2 cups thinly sliced, peeled peaches 1 cup blueberries 1 cup cubed peeled kiwifruit 2 cups non-fat plain yogurt
NUTRIENTS PER SERVING 10.4 g protein, 9.8 g fat, 56 g carbohydrates, 2.1
mg iron, 193 mg calcium, 80 mg sodium, 6.7 g fibre, 338 calories. Excellent
source of vitamin C, folacin, magnesium and zinc.
BREAKFAST
Plain Doughnut With Chocolate Milk A plain cake-style doughnut is usually a better choice than a bakery muffin. At Dunkin’ Donuts, for instance, an oldfashioned doughnut has 280 calories, while a corn muffin has 510 calories. Add fiber by eating ¼ cup of almonds or dried fruit. Instead of coffee, try 8 ounces of low-fat chocolate milk.
Strawberry Shake In a cocktail shaker, combine a packet of vanilla or strawberry instant-breakfast powder (look for the nosugar-added kind, such as Carnation) and 1 cup of lowfat strawberry cow’s milk or soy milk. (You can also mix this the night before.) If you have time, use a blender to add strawberries or a frozen banana, for extra fiber, and a scoop of protein powder, such as GeniSoy Natural.
Recipes
Morning Pizza
Peanut Butter Waffle
You could have a slice of last night’s pizza. Or you could try a more sophisticated spin: Take a slice of crusty bread, spread it with 3 tablespoons of low-fat ricotta, and add tomatoes. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil (about one teaspoon) and a little salt and pepper. Broiling is optional.
Instead of dousing a wholegrain or bran toaster waffle in syrup, cut the sugar and boost the protein and fiber by spreading it with 2 tbsp tablespoons of peanut butter. You can also sprinkle on 1 tablespoon of raisins, sesame seeds, or extra peanuts for even more fiber, which helps deliver the meal’s nutrients slowly and steadily.
BREAKFAST
Egg McMuffin
Cereal “Sundae”
Yes, you read that right. If you must eat fast food in the morning, get an Egg McMuffin at McDonald’s. At 300 calories, it’s not an outrageous meal. Plus it has a good amount of lean protein from the egg and he Canadian bacon. To trim empty calories, remove the top half of the muffin. For additional fiber, add a fresh orange.
A bowl of fiber-rich bran flakes (about 1½ cups) with 8 ounces of low-fat milk is nearly the perfect breakfast. Make it portable by replacing the milk with lemon or vanilla yogurt and mixing it in a to-go container. Increase the fiber and vitamins by adding ¼ cup of nuts or fresh or dried fruit, such as chopped pecans or blueberries.
Recipes
Huevos Rancheros
Energy Bars
One of the most portable proteins is a hard-cooked egg, but it has no fiber or carbohydrates. So slice it, then roll it in an 8-inch whole-wheat tortilla with a piece of Canadian bacon or lean ham and, if you like, a ½-ounce slice of cheese. Add a tablespoon of salsa for a shot of flavor and a smidgen of vitamin C.
To substitute for a meal, an energy bar should have at least 3 to 5 grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein. Odwalla, Kashi GoLean, and TruSoy are all good options. Because cereal bars rarely have more than 2 grams of protein, you might be better off adding a stick of GoGurt! and a sleeve of peanuts.
RE
LI
FE
PET ROCKS 2
1
NE
never met a single-
AQ
ST
UA
FI
LE
NA
PU
We Americans have serve package we didn’t like. Read on to find out how you can reuse some
608.6 gl
of the 50 billion bottles of water we
+20.2%
506.4 gl
613.1 gl
-11.7%
541.1 gl
drain each year.
THE PUBLIC’S GROWING HABIT of drinking water for
health reasons is impressive. Figures purporting to show the fate of the ubiquitous plastic bottles holding that water are not. Recycling is the word of our time, but the followthrough with these plastic bottles is a different matter. Too few find their way into recycling, according to figures compiled by organizations dedicated to raising public awareness about the problem.
30
* NOTE
Eight out of 10 plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or end up in a landfill, according to the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a Washington-based nonprofit. More than 50 billion beverage cans and bottles have been landfilled, littered
and incinerated in the country so far this year, the organization says on its Web site. Groups such as CRI are behind moves in various states to legislate deposit fees, called bottle bills, on beverages sold in recyclable bottles. The idea behind such bills is to make it easier to capture beverage bottles and cans for recycling because the money provides an incentive for users to return them to the source, usually a retail store. Other groups, such as the originators of a Refill Not Landfill campaign aimed at reducing disposable waterbottle waste, are the manufacturers of more solid, reusable beverage containers.
NE 5
AL
PO 4
DA 3
2007
PI
LA
SA
NI
ND
SP
SP
RI
RI
NG
NG
S
S
2008
10 9 8 7
-4.0%
563.4 gl 540.6 gl
6
2.0%
448.9 gl 440.1 gl
5
-0.9%
4 330.0 gl 326.9 gl
3 2 1 0 millions of gallons
The waste problem is increasingly a hazard not only in this country, but worldwide, these groups say. Advocacy groups say people who claim the superiority of bottled water over free, old-fashioned tap water need to rethink their priorities on environmental grounds alone. Private and taxpayer-supported public recycling programs are not as numerous as the count of bottles of water for sale, leaving unanswered the question of where all those plastic empties end up. Not everyone bothers to recycle every bottle he or she buys. Rules about what can be recycled often are not clear or not spelled out in appropriate settings. The matter is further complicated by assertions that certain plastics sold as water carriers -- even plastics used in more resilient, longer-lasting containers -- may cause harm. Some scientists have warned that these plastics can leak toxins into the water, and they, there-
fore, urge the public to be more savvy about the kind of containers they choose for carrying water and other liquids. Overall, it’s agreed that plastic bottles are far less of an environmental menace than plastic bags, at least from the point of view of litter. The most popular commercial brands of water are bottled in containers made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and are recyclable, as are the ubiquitous bags, according to Robert Krebs, director of communications for the plastics division of the American Chemistry Council. He maintains that bags and food-service containers aren’t collected by many municipal authorities because they may contain food residue that attracts rats.
31
* NOTE
50,000, 32
* NOTE
EIGHT OUT OF 10
landfill, according to
50 billion beverage
so far this year, the
plastic water bottles
the Container Recy-
cans and bottles
organization says on
used in the United
cling Institute (CRI),
have been landfilled,
its Web site.
States become gar-
a Washington-based
littered and inciner-
bage or end up in a
nonprofit. More than
ated in the country
000,000 33
* NOTE
PET ROCKS EVEN IF EVERY BOTTLE WERE RECYCLED , the very existence of plastic bottles raises another issue. Namely, the amount of oil needed to make those bottles equals about 15 million barrels a year, or enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year, according to the Earth Policy Institute, another Washington-based nonprofit. (Mr. Krebs argues that such a statistic is misleading on grounds that seventy percent of plastics come from natural gas, not from oil.)
Grocery stores and bottlers in the business of selling bottled water object to much of the bottle bill legislation, notes Betty McLaughlin, CRI’s executive director. On a more positive slant, she finds the public more attuned to recycling and ready to discourage littering by sometimes asking even strangers to pick up after themselves. When it comes to substitutes for plastic bottles, Ms. McLaughlin favors glass, which, of course, isn’t nearly as convenient or portable -- two reasons why sales of water in plastic bottles have surged. Other choices include stainless steel and aluminum bottles, against which scientists have no objections, says Pete Myers, a co-author of “Our Stolen Future” and founder of the nonprofit Environmental Health Sciences in Charlottesville. When necessary, he reuses a PET plastic water bottle several times without worrying about the bacteria count on an unsterilized bottle. His main worry about the battle of the bottles, he says, is the composition of a polycarbonate plastic, “the one found in some of the popular rigid sports bottles.” Chemists, he says, have reported that its molecular makeup allows for a dioxin to leach into any liquid it holds. He uses a stainless steel canister from Klean Kanteen as well as a Nalgene product made from polypropylene. The bulk of Klean Kanteen customers “are those with concern about the environment,” reports
34
* NOTE
Jeff Cresswell, operations manager of the Chico, Calif., firm.“Business is growing exponentially,” he says. The company claims to be the first to push the idea of stainless steel, which he calls “a proven product that is tested to be inert, toxin free and easy to clean.” Plus, he adds, “it is 100 percent recyclable if you ever need to do that. But if you buy one of our bottles, you probably lose it before you have to recycle.” Founded three years ago, the company began in response to research indicating that certain plastics could leach harmful chemicals and cause a potential health hazard. It also saw its mission as helping curb the evergrowing demand and consumption of bottled water, the statistics for which, he says, “are ridiculous.” Stainless steel and aluminum containers are found far more commonly in Europe, says Eric Hansen, senior marketing manager for Nalgene Outdoor Products of Rochester, N.Y., which originated the Refill Not Landfill campaign. “Over here, we resist the cold metal as something we are not used to,” he says. The company, which is part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, originally intended the campaign to correspond with National Drinking Water Week earlier this month. The plan was to invite people to take an online pledge not to drink bottled water for a period of time and help save on waste. Proceeds from the sale of a commemorative Nalgene bottle went to a nonprofit called Native Energy, which helps build American Indian, farmer-owned community-based renewable energy projects. Promotion materials state that “on average, one person uses 166 disposable plastic water bottles a year,” a figure derived, Mr. Hansen says, from Beverage Marketing Corp. statistics.“The tricky part for all of us is to combat this throwaway mentality and not care what happens. Once you change behavior, it is no big deal,” he asserts.“It has been used for five decades, and studies show no negative effects,” Mr. Hansen says.
A l l U. S. P E T wa t e r b ra n d s
+0.3%
5229.9 gl 5213.0 gl
41,771.6
MILLION BOTTLES SOLD PER YEAR
35
* NOTE
TAKE ACTION REDUCE Take the pledge to reduce bottled water waste! You can make a difference.
One week = 24 million bottles saved One month = 112 million bottles saved One year = 1.328 billion bottles saved
WHAT CAN YOU DO? To help reduce
FACTS In the United States in 2006,
LINKS
the amount of waste disposable water bottles contribute to landfills each year, take the Filter For Good pledge and commit to stop drinking bottled water for a week, a month, a year or forever.
bottled water consumption reached a record 8.3 billion gallons, 185 million gallons of which was imported. The total amount spent on bottled water was over $11 billion.
Container Recycling Institute
Making small changes towards a big difference. Filter For Good’s mission is to reduce the amount of waste disposable water bottles contribute to landfills each year.
In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energyefficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels. Nearly a quarter of all bottled water crosses national borders to reach consumers, transported by boat, train, and truck. Earth Policy Institute
On average, one person uses 166 disposable plastic water bottles each year. You can help reduce your bottled water usage by taking the Refill Not Landfill pledge. By taking the pledge you will help reduce the bottled water industry’s burden on our environment. To put it in perspective and to validate the pledge we have estimated that if everyone in New York City were to use a reusable water bottle for one week, for one month, or for one year it would make a significant difference in reducing waste. So the good news is that there’s a small change YOU can make to help reduce this unnecessary waste.
38
* NOTE
Beverage Marketing Corp.
It costs more money to drink bottled water than to put gas in your car--up to five time more --due mainly to its packaging and transportation. Earth Policy Institute Bottled water companies do not have to release their water-testing results to the public, whereas municipalities do. Natural Resources Defense Council
Earth Policy Institute National Resources Defense Council U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Bottled Water Blues www.drinktap.org
TAKE ACTION SPOTLIGHT Britta Riley, 32 and Rebecca Bray, 35
IN FEBRUARY 2009 , through a
residency at Eyebeam, Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray began to build and test the first Window Farms prototype. Growing food inside NY apartments is a challenge, but within reach. The foundational knowledge base is emerging through working with agricultural, architectural and other specialists, collecting sensor data, and reinterpreting hydroponics research conducted by NASA scientists and marijuana farmers. We have been researching and developing
hydroponic designs that are inexpensive and made from relatively inexpensive materials. The working prototype is a drip system made from recycled water bottles, holding 25 plants. Beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, arugula, basil, lettuce and kale are thriving. While completing the first Prototype in mid-April, we invited a dozen “Pioneers� to join us in creating Window Farms. We asked them to approach the project like a night class, devoting one night a
week for two months. We showed them our prototype and presented the DIY research and development we did so far and invited them to build on our research to create their own designs. Currently, the Pioneers are designing their systems. Their innovative ideas are adding to the knowledgebase about DIY hydroponics.
39
* NOTE
NOTE I2 fall