The nutritional value of chia was known to the Aztecs. Now whole and ground chia seeds are being added to fruit drinks, snacks and cereals. They are baked into cookies and sprinkled on yogurt. Chia is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, protein, and fiber.
Mamma Chia products are in Whole Foods stores as well as bodegas and health and natural foods stores. They are now sold in Ralphs and Vons stores and will soon be in Albertsons. Janie Hoffman, founder of Mamma Chia fruit juices, was one of the first people to recognize chia’s potential as a food. She bought some chia seeds online and was quickly sold on their benefits. “I started incorporating it into everything I was eating,” she said. “Stir fries, yogurt, beverages — there really wasn’t anything in my kitchen that didn’t have chia in it.” Companies like Dole and Nature’s Path have also introduced chia products.
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Experts with the British Dietetic Association have evaluated several celebrity diet plans, which they noted were becoming “more extreme” and “increasingly involving medical intervention,” and listed the top five worst of 2012:
5. The Six-Week OMG Diet – Get Skinnier than All Your Friends
This book, authored by British writer Venice Fulton (a pseudonym for Paul Kannah), first suggests that one exercise first thing in the morning after drinking only black coffee. Exercising on an empty stomach has had some positive research on its ability to burn fat faster, but most experts suggest that a small snack may help you sustain the exercise session longer (you may not fatigue as easily), so in the end it is what you are most comfortable with.
Fulton also suggests continuing to fast up to three hours after exercise to continue the fat burn. This is not supported by nutritional science, which suggests eating within one hour after exercising encourages optimal recovery so that you can exercise regularly.
There is also some studies that support morning exercise as being the time least likely to be interrupted by other tasks, so people may stick with the program longer. Again, most fitness experts will say to find the time to exercise when is best for your individual schedule. The key being – just get out there!
While this component of the OMG diet isn’t too controversial, some of his other guidelines most certainly are. For example, to rev up your metabolism, Fulton suggests taking an ice bath every morning. While it is true that our bodies need to increase the amount of energy it uses to warm the body back to normal temperature, this effect does not last long, and likely does not make any difference in overall weight loss.
Mr. Fulton also is on the no-carb-whatsoever bandwagon. Even fruit is off-limits because the body “does not know the difference between chocolate cake and an apple.” While studies continue to go back and forth about reducing the amount of overall carbs currently recommended in the daily diet for optimal health, most experts would agree that chocolate cake is not the same as an apple, nutritionally speaking. A healthful diet consists of a variety of foods, such as whole grains, lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, beans and nuts/seeds.
4. The Alcorexia / Drunkorexia Diet
It is believed that there are several top models and other red carpet celebrities are fans of this very dangerous diet where you literally starve yourself during the day, saving the calories for alcohol later in the evening. In the US, individuals most likely to follow this type of eating pattern are college-age females who are bulimic and who binge drink.
Victoria Osborne, assistant professor of social work and public health at the University of Missouri who explored the practice of drunkorexia, has said, “depriving the brain of adequate nutrition and consuming large amounts of alcohol can be dangerous.” Both behaviors can lead to “short- and long-term cognitive problems” as well as an increased risk for alcohol poisoning and death.
3. The “Party Girl” IV Drip Diet
In clinical nutrition, parenteral nutrition (PN or TPN for total parenteral nutrition) is when a patient is fed through an intravenous drip because of their inability to eat normally. It is reserved for critical cases to prevent malnutrition when a patient cannot effectively use his or her gastrointestinal tract. There are potential complications, including an increased risk of infection.
So why would anyone willingly follow a plan that suggests eating nearly nothing all day and then going to a clinic for an IV nutrition drip? Apparently several celebrities have jumped on board with this quick weight loss “secret” in the days to weeks preceding an “important” event, so they can fit into a certain dress or pant size.
An IV drip, much like a nutritional supplement, does not supply the body with every nutrient it needs to be healthy. While you may lose a quick 15 pounds, there is no health advantage to be gained by following this fad diet.
2. The KEN (Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition) Diet
Again, certain “routes” of feeding patients clinically should not be options for healthy individuals. In addition to the IV drip diet above, some clinics will also offer enteral nutrition feedings, another option given to critically ill patients who cannot eat adequate amounts in the normal fashion.
Again, a dieter will eat nearly nothing for ten days (24 hours a day with only one hour off for bathing and dressing) while sporting a backpack filled with a liquid formula that is pumped into the body via a tube entering through the nose and ultimately ending in the stomach. This tube feeding is essentially a low calorie liquid diet, but without having to drink the formula orally.
KEN works by sending the body into “controlled starvation,” forcing it to use its own fat for energy. It is reported that a person can lose ten percent of their body weight in each 10-day cycle without hunger. Helen Bond comments, “It shocks me that people are willing to have naso-gastric (NG) tubes inserted in order to lose weight. Can you imagine walking into a meeting with an NG tube in your nose?”
1. Dukan Diet
Although around for several years in France, the Dukan Diet was introduced to the world by the bride of Prince William, Kate Middleton. She and her mother were reportedly following this extreme diet in preparation for the Royal Wedding. Other followers reportedly have included Jennifer Lopez and Gisele Bundchen.
The complex, four-cycle diet was created by French physician Pierre Dukan. Each cycle, beginning with a “no-carb, protein only” phase, restricts a certain food category which is said to lead to greater fat burning.
As with most diets, there is little solid evidence that this will lead to sustained, successful weight loss. In addition, the Dukan diet is so confusing, time-consuming, and rigid that for most of us, it is very hard to sustain for any real length of time. Even Dr. Dukan himself warns of lack of fatigue, constipation, and bad breath (due to ketogenesis).
The Bottom Line
As for these five and all other faddy weight loss gimmicks, Sian Porter, a consultant dietitian and spokesperson for the BDA, says: “As much as we all would love it to be the case, there is no magic solution to losing weight and keeping it off long term. There is no wonder diet you can follow without some associated nutritional or health risk and most are offering a short-term fix to a long term problem. It may be obvious, but if you want to lose weight you need to make healthier choices, eat a nutritionally balanced and varied diet with appropriately sized portions, and be physically active. In a nutshell the solution for most is to, eat fewer calories, make better choices and move a bit more!”
 
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You have two cows . . .
CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull -and build a herd of cows.
AMERICAN-STYLE ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You don’t have any cows. The bank will not lend you money to buy cows, because you don’t have any cows to put up as collateral. The price of milk goes up, and when you can no longer afford milk, you steal a bottle so your children won’t starve. You are arrested, charged with theft, disorderly conduct, interfering with government sophistries, and reckless endangerment of children. You are tried, convicted, and sentenced to Life Without Parole at the new Borden’s Federal Penitentiary.
HONG KONG CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly-listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax deduction for keeping five cows. The milk rights of six cows are transferred via a Panamanian intermediary to a Cayman Islands company secretly owned by the majority shareholder, who sells the rights to all seven cows’ milk back to the listed company. The annual report says that the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. Meanwhile, you kill the two cows because the fung shiu is bad.
COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You share two cows with your neighbors. You and your neighbors bicker about who has the most “ability” and who has the most “need”. Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk, and the cows die of starvation.
SOVIET REPUBLIC COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government seizes both and promises to provide you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. By the time you can see the store, there is no milk left, which doesn’t matter much, because what was there cost three times your monthly social credit, and was sour.
RUSSIAN FEDERATION COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the black market.
CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.
AMERICAN CORPORATIONISM: You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows using bioengineered hormones. You lobby an ignorant Congress so as to make sure that you do not have to label your milk products even if they cross state lines. You are surprised when one cow drops dead, but you work out a deal so that you can sell it to a renderer and feed it back to your herd. Some of the older second-cycle cows cannot be impregnated while others deliver twins that have to be killed and sold for pittance as vealers… You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.
ENRONIC CORPORATIONISM: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with the associated general offer so you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder, who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report states that the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. Nobody notices until after the election, when it becomes obvious that someone has to go. You take the CFO (Cow Finance Officer) out, drug it with a prescription somnambulant, and shoot it in the head with a pistol loaded with Rat Shot, from two feet away. The COWroner, who took six weeks to decide murdered children were drowned, takes less than 24 hours to declare the CFO a suicide. You celebrate by choking on a pretzel because you don’t have any milk to wash it down.
FRENCH CORPORATIONISM: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch and drink wine instead of milk. Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATIONISM: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school, and the suicide rate, although four times that of other countries, is low enough that the profits are still remarkable, even though you are embarrassed by the occasional public Hara-Cowri.
GERMAN CORPORATIONISM: You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATIONISM: You have two cows but you don’t know where they are. While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATIONISM: You have two cows. You count them and find you have five cows. You have some more vodka. You count them again and find you now have 42 cows. You count them again and when there turn out to be twelve cows, you stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka. You produce your 10th 5-year plan in the last 3 months. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
FLORIDA CORPORATIONISM: You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who like the brown one best, vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can’t figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best-looking one.
NEW YORK CORPORATIONISM: You have fifteen million cows. You have to choose which one will be the leader of the herd, so you pick some fat cow from Arkansas.
ENVIRONMENTALISM: You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.
FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.
FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you a glass of milk.
BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. The cows are cared for by former chicken farmers. You are assigned to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government says you will get as much milk and eggs the regulations say you should need, but the bureaucrats take it and sell it on the black market. The government denies the black market exists.
SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.
DEMOCRATIC SURREALISM: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office that put a tax on your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money, buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous. Barbara Streisand sings for you.
LIBERTARIAN SURREALISM: You have two cows. One has actually read the constitution, believes in it, and has some really good ideas about government. The cow runs for office, and while most people agree that the cow is the best candidate, nobody except the other cow votes for her because they think it would be “throwing their vote away.”
REPUBLICAN SURREALISM: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So?
TOTALITARIANISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.
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To address the challenges related to malnutrition in Namibia, Prime Minister Nahas Angula has established the Namibia Alliance for Improved Nutrition (NAFIN), a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder partnership aimed at ensuring that concerted, coordinated and collaborative efforts by the government and partners lead to a reduction and eventual elimination of malnutrition and improved food security in Namibia.
Until 2010, there was only one trained nutrition professional working for the Namibian government. Currently, there is no stand-alone nutrition course at the tertiary institutions in Namibia, with nutrition integrated only as a component of the nursing degree and the Masters in Public Health at the University of Namibia in the School of Nursing and Public Health.
The revised Nutrition and Food Security Policy will guide government and its partners in delivering evidence-based and cost-effective food and nutrition interventions.
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Imagine a world where nutritious food was freely available to all babies, thereby reducing their risk of illness and enabling them to develop into healthy adults. In fact, no imagination is required: human breast-milk is free, widely available and popular. In 2010 more than 80% of mothers surveyed for the Growing Up in New Zealand study planned to breastfeed their babies, mostly for at least six months. That’s great news, as exclusive breastfeeding for that period is the best start for babies, according to the World Health Organization.
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•Pumpkin and butternut squash are incredibly rich sources of antioxidants such as Vitamins A, C, E and B-complex and minerals such as calcium, copper, potassium and phosphorus. They are mildly sweet with a great nutty flavor. Both are very versatile and can be served in sweet or savory dishes such and soups, casseroles, pies, breads, muffins and more. They can be served hot or cold, and baked, stuffed, stewed or fried. Don’t forget about the pumpkin seeds (Pepitas). They can be roasted for a healthy snack.
•Apples come in various shapes and sizes and while low in calories, they are rich in dietary fiber and abundant in phytonutrients and antioxidants, and a good source of B-complex vitamins. Heat a cored apple in the microwave for a few minutes with a sprinkle of cinnamon for a warm and delicious dessert.
•Cranberries, typically harvested in the fall months, offer many health benefits. These little berries contain high amounts of phytochemicals and antioxidants such as Vitamins C and A. Their health benefits are highest when fresh, some is lost once processed. They can be used fresh or dried in salads, sorbets, muffins, pie-fillings, breads and ice cream. With the holidays coming up, we typically see them as sauces, jams or jellies.
•Pomegranates are considered by some as a “super fruit” due to their many health benefits. This fruit is a rich source of soluble and insoluble dietary fiber, a good source of Vitamin C, vital B-complex groups such as folate, pyridoxine, vitamin K, and minerals like calcium, copper, potassium and manganese. It can be enjoyed fresh or as a juice.
•Pears, available in many varieties, shapes and sizes, are also low in calories with good dietary fiber and a moderate source of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals necessary for optimal health. Don’t forget to try Asian Pears for a sweet and crispy treat.
•Beets, known for their rich red color, are a great source of antioxidants, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Raw beets are an excellent source of folate, however it decreases once this tuber is cooked. The top greens are also an excellent source of vitamin C. Beets are great hot or cold and can be roasted or boiled for a variety of serving methods. Once roasted, they have a wonderful, slightly sweet flavor and mix well with a roasted veggie medley.
•Eggplant is a versatile fall favorite that is a good source of fiber, folate, potassium, manganese, vitamins, C, K, and B complex. This vegetable can be used in casseroles, dips or dishes such as Eggplant Parmesan or ratatouille.
• Do not forget leafy green vegetables that are grown through fall. Collard greens, spinach, kale and Swiss chard are rich sources of antioxidants such as Vitamins C, A, K and B-complex. They also contain copper, calcium, potassium, iron, manganese and phosphorus. There are many ways to serve these healthful beauties such as raw in salads or cooked as side dish. Try kale chips instead of potato chips for a low calorie and healthy snack. Lightly spray clean leaves with olive oil and bake in the oven at 275 degrees for about 20 minutes until crispy. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and enjoy.
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Nutrition is often an integral part of the quality of life before, during and after a cancer diagnosis. One of the best things you can do before ever being diagnosed with cancer or before treatment starts (besides maintaining a healthy weight) is consuming a diet rich in antioxidants, which are cancer-cell fighting nutrients.
The best sources of antioxidants are fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The fiber in these foods will also help you fill up on fewer calories, essential for maintaining a healthy weight.
Increased cancer risk is also associated with excess weight and lack of sufficient physical activity (less than 150 minutes of physical activity per week).
To find out if you are overweight or obese, you must first find your body mass index. To calculate your BMI, take your weight in pounds, divide by your height in inches, and divide by your height in inches again. Finally, multiply this number by 703. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds and stand 66 inches tall (5 foot 6 inches), then your BMI is 24.2 (150 ÷ 66 ÷ 66 × 703 = 24.2), which is considered healthy.
If your BMI is less than 18.5, you are considered underweight; 18.5 to 24.9 is considered healthy, 25.0 to 29.9 is overweight and 30.0 or greater is obese. BMI is only an estimate, not a rule; however, it is a helpful tool in gauging whether your weight may be putting you at risk for developing cancer or other diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
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Across West Africa, families struggle to provide young children with sufficiently diversified diets composed of the nutritious foods needed to provide the essential amino acids as well as micro- and macro-nutrients required for proper growth and development.
Getting the right nutrients in the right quantity is of utmost importance for children’s health and nutrition. Good nutrition is therefore not just a matter of sufficient quantity, but also adequate quality of food. Without the right type of nutrients in the right quantity, a child’s body fails to grow properly, which can lead to stunting, wasting, and micronutrient deficiencies. The first two years of a child’s life are a particularly important period; because this is a time of rapid growth, children’s nutrient needs are high.
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