Tag Archives: health benefits

Rickets Is Still a Concern for Canadian Infants

Rickets is a common childhood disease in developing countries. But did you know that it is still a health concern amongst infants in Canada?

Rickets is a bone disease that primarily affects infants and toddlers. It is caused by severe Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is needed for bone growth and development.

Without adequate amounts of vitamin D, bones become soft and weak, which can lead to rickets. Symptoms of rickets include susceptibility to fractures, stunted growth, thickened wrists and ankles, bowed legs and knock knees.

What are the risk factors for rickets?

  • Inadequate vitamin D intake of the mother during pregnancy (e.g., lack of prenatal vitamins, avoidance of dairy products, limited exposure to sunlight).
  • Inadequate vitamin D intake after birth (e.g., exclusive breast-feeding without supplementation, avoidance of dairy products, limited exposure to sunlight).

Rickets is easily prevented. You can protect your baby from developing rickets by ensuring that your baby receives adequate amounts of vitamin D, both during pregnancy and after birth.

During pregnancy. Health Canada recommends that pregnant women consume 600 IU of vitamin D each day – through diet and/or supplementation – to meet their own vitamin D requirements. It is also recommended that pregnant women take prenatal vitamins to allow the baby’s body to build up vitamin D stores before birth.

After birth. Health Canada recommends that babies under the age of 1 year should consume 400 IU of vitamin D each day, and those between 1 and 3 years of age should consume 600 IU of vitamin D each day – through diet and/or supplementation. Provide baby formulas, cow’s milk, and milk alternatives that are fortified with vitamin D. Infants who are exclusively breast-fed should be given 400 IU of vitamin D daily through supplementation, as breast milk is very low in vitamin D.

http://www.metronews.ca/life/health/2017/11/07/rickets-still-striking-canadian-kids.html

How to Survive the Workplace Eating Environment

Are workplace birthdays, meetings and events sabotaging your weight loss goals?

You try so hard to stick to your healthy eating plan… But there’s another birthday cake tomorrow… The team is ordering pizza on Friday… Your co-worker loves to bring in baked goods and treats every week… You’re all-day meeting provides muffins, bagels, cookies and soft drinks for meals and snacks.

It seems like there’s no way to avoid high-sugar and high-fat foods – that sabotage your healthy eating plan and make you feel like you’ll never reach your weight loss goals.

Use the following tips to take control of your workplace eating environment so that you can stick to your healthy eating plan and reach your weight loss goals:

  • Celebrate birthdays just once each month for everyone with a birthday that month. That’s just one birthday cake each month, instead of one – or more – each week.
  • When the team is ordering pizza, order salad as well. Have just one piece of pizza along with salad. Or skip the pizza and bring your own lunch.
  • Skip sweets at meetings and events – opt for fruit instead.
  • Choose water instead of sugar sweetened beverages such as soft drinks and juices.
  • Eat a healthy snack before the meeting or bring it with you (e.g., yogurt & fruit; cheese & crackers; small handful of nuts; protein bar).
  • Bring your own small healthy treat so that you can avoid the treats in the break room.
  • Get everyone involved – start a workplace healthy eating challenge.
  • If you are hosting a meeting or event that includes meals and/or snacks:
    • provide healthy options – such as a light lunch including salads and sandwiches or wraps filled with vegetables and protein (chicken, cheese, eggs, beans, lentils)
    • provide fresh fruit and yogurt for dessert
    • provide pitchers of water rather than soft drinks and juices

5 No-Fail Strategies to Cut Calories

Sugar and cream in your coffee, gravy on your mashed potatoes, creamy dressing on your salad… Calories can add up quickly! And if you don’t use up those calories, they’ll end up being stored as fat.

But there are easy ways to cut calories from your diet, without eating less or going hungry. The following are just 5 no-fail strategies that can help you reduce your total calorie intake each day.

  1. Eat More Vegetables. Fill up on vegetables to help you feel full. Vegetables are very low in calories, yet packed full of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre. You really can’t go wrong with eating more vegetables.
  2. Balance Your Meals. Fill at least ½ of your plate with vegetables, then fill ¼ with protein and ¼ with carbohydrates. This way, you’ll get the nutrients you need without an overload of calories from oversized protein and carbohydrate portions.
  3. Ease off on Batters, Sauces, Gravies and Other Added Fats. Quite often, a very healthy, low-calorie food becomes a high-calorie, fat laden mess because of what’s added to it. Caesar salad, battered fish, potato skins anyone? A salad, fish and potato with skin should be healthy options, right? Watch all those added fats – they add a lot calories!
  4. Use Smaller Plates. Dinner plates have gotten a lot larger over the years – and, like most of us, you likely fill your plate no matter the size. Stick to smaller plates to help keep your portion sizes in check.
  5. Manage Your Appetite. Eat regular meals and snacks throughout the day to avoid getting too hungry, which often leads to overeating. Ever notice that when you’re really hungry you tend to crave high sugar and/or high-fat foods? You’re less likely to choose the side salad instead of fries when you’re famished.
  6. Don’t Drink Your Calories. Liquid calories don’t make you feel full, but they do add up quickly. So don’t sabotage your goals with a boatload of liquid calories. Sorry, this also includes alcohol. If you get bored with drinking water, add flavour by adding a lemon or lime wedge or experiment with other fruits such as berries.

 

Vitamin D and type I Diabetes

Recent research, published in the journal Diabetes, indicates that vitamin D may help decrease the risk of type I diabetes.

Researchers found that children who were genetically susceptible to type I diabetes had reduced risk of developing the disease with higher levels of vitamin D.

With type I diabetes, the body does not produce adequate amounts of insulin, which is needed to regulate blood glucose levels. Type I diabetes most often develops in childhood; however, it can develop at any age.

In light of these recent research findings, let’s review the best sources of Vitamin D.

The Sun. The best source of vitamin D is the sun. Vitamin D is often called the sunshine vitamin because our skin makes vitamin D through sun exposure.

Dietary Vitamin D. We can also get vitamin D from food; however, there are only a limited number of foods that provide vitamin D. These include:

  • fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, sardines and tuna
  • egg yolks
  • fortified foods such as cow’s milk, yogurts and cheese made with fortified milk, goats milk, some milk alternatives (e.g., soy beverages), orange juice, margarine and infant formula

To consume adequate amounts of vitamin D, Canada’s Food Guide recommends that everyone over 2 years of age drink 500 mL (2 cups) of milk or fortified dairy alternative beverage daily.

Vitamin D Supplements. We can also get vitamin D through supplements. Vitamin D supplementation may be required for those who:

  • do not get enough sun exposure to produce adequate amounts of vitamin D (due to staying indoors or living in higher latitudes such as Canada), and/or
  • do not consume enough dietary vitamin D.

Due to Canada’s higher latitudes, Health Canada recommends that all Canadians over the age of 50 take a daily vitamin D supplement of 400 IU.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319850.php

Christmas Stress Relief

Christmas can be a very stressful time of year.

Here are some tips and advice to make your Christmas as stress-free as possible.

Do not let the festive season get you down; follow the tips and advice, relax and enjoy yourself.

Plan Ahead: start making a list of things you need to do for Christmas early. Try to prioritize the items on your list. Delegate the responsibility for certain tasks to other family members since this will reduce your workload.

Shop Online: Shop online from the comfort of your own home, and you will not only save time and be less stressed, but will probably save money too. Always make sure you buy from a reputable online retailers, and check that they can deliver before the big day.

Have Realistic Expectations: The best way to control stress is to control expectations. If each day has a realistic to-do list, there will be success at the end of the day, rather than failure. Keep it simple.

Slow Down: If you are feeling stressed, close your eyes and watch your breath. When multi-tasking gets out of hand, stop and refocus on mindfulness.

Enjoy some ME Time: Do not become so involved with holiday preparations that you forget to take care of yourself. Running yourself ragged completely diminishes the joy of the holidays and turns celebration into hard labor.

Christmas Cards: Start your Christmas cards early or change the tradition of mailing Christmas cards. Many people are switching the traditional Christmas card in the mail, instead using social media to send Holiday greetings, i.e. Facebook or email.

Set a Spending Budget: To help prevent stress over money, plan ahead, review your finances, and come up with a realistic budget for gifts. You can also get creative and think of gift ideas that do not involve money.

Have Fun: Focus on fun and relaxation, rather than on creating the perfect table or moment, and you will see your holiday stress melt away.

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/avoid-christmas-stress.html

Freestyle Libre Flash System Glucose Monitoring System

The first of its kind system, Freestyle Libre eliminates the need for routine finger sticks, requires no finger stick calibrations, and reads glucose levels through a sensor that can be worn on the back of the upper arm for up to 14 days.

How the Freestyle Libre System works:

With Abbott’s Freestyle Libre System Canadians with diabetes now have a convenient, less painful alternative to get a glucose reading.

The disposable sensor is worn on the back of the upper arm. The system measures glucose every minute in intertidal fluid through a small filament that is inserted just under the skin and held in place with a small adhesive pad. The sensor can read glucose levels through clothing making tested more convenient and discreet.

Freestyle-Libre system is clinically proven to be accurate and consistent over a 14 day period, without the need for finger stick calibration.

The ability for patients to easily obtain reliable and detailed self-glucose measurement, including current levels and trend direction of glucose without routine finger sticks, provides the person with diabetes valuable insights into their care.

As a Type 2 diabetic, I am excited to try this revolutionary new glucose-sensing technology, and I will definitely be ordering one soon,

Abbott’s Freestyle Libre System is now available for pre-order online only at myfreestyle.ca. at a cost of $49 for the reader, and $89 for each sensor(each sensor lasts for 14 days)

Abbott has secured inclusion of the product in the reimbursement coverage plan of select Canadian insurers who will notify their members upon product availability.

Why choose the Freestyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring System?

  • Convenient
  • Discreet
  • Easy
  • User-friendly
  • Requires no finger prick calibration
  • Designed to stay on the body for up to 14 days
  • Water resistant
  • Small size (35mm x5 mm)

http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/freestyle-libre-system-for-people-with-diabetes-available-for-pre-order-in-canada-639171423.html

Managing Menu Costs in Long-Term Care

In most Canadian provinces, the Ministry of Health establishes a raw food cost allowance for long-term care facilities.  In Ontario, the current raw food cost allowance for long-term care facilities is $8.33 per resident per day, plus $.12 per resident per day for eligible therapeutic food supplements. This allowance must provide for three nutritious meals and three nutritious snacks per day. A small portion of this amount must also cover sample plates, second servings and food waste.

With the continual rising food costs, creating menus that fit within these raw food cost allowances can be challenging!

How do you ensure that your menus fall within the raw food cost allowance, while meeting the nutritional needs of your residents? Do you have a system in place to calculate the daily average cost of your menu?

With our mitrition software solution, you can easily generate a report to quickly analyse your menu costs. Each food item within the system has an associated cost based on the supplier. Therefore, each menu item and recipe has an associated cost, which is automatically generated. Simply click on the cost tab to quickly view the cost per serving, as well as the total cost of the item or recipe per yield.

As you build your menu within the system, the menu cost is automatically generated. Once your menu is built, simply run a cost report analysis on your menu to get a detailed cost report.

With this detailed menu cost information at your fingertips, you can quickly scroll through the document to find any meals or days where the cost may be too high. For any items or recipes that are too high in cost, simply search through the system for suitable substitutions. With just a few clicks of the mouse, you can make your menu substitutions, then generate a new menu cost report analysis.

My Go-to Meals… That Are Quick, Simple and Healthy!

I don’t generally spend a lot of time in the kitchen – but I also don’t eat out, order in, eat fast food or use convenience and prepared foods.

So what do I eat? Here are some of my quick, simple and healthy go-to meals.

Breakfast: I usually have a protein smoothie made with a vanilla flavoured vegan protein powder mixed in water or almond milk, fruit (apple, berries or frozen fruit), a source of fibre (ground flaxseed or chai seed) and some healthy fat (about ¼ avocado or a tbsp. of olive oil). I also add cinnamon, ginger and turmeric for flavour… And their health benefits.

Lunch: I often have a leafy salad with a variety of raw veggies, sprinkle of dried fruit, nuts and/or seeds, and a protein source such as boiled egg or canned fish.

I sometimes have tuna salad, a slice of toast or a few crackers, and some raw vegetables (usually tomato and cucumber).

Or I may have tortilla chips with hummus and raw vegetables, and a piece of fruit.

Dinner: I eat a lot of fish. I usually coat it with a mix of cornstarch, pepper, salt and paprika, and pan-fry. If it’s not fish, it’s likely chicken – which I roast in the oven. With the fish or chicken, I typically have roasted, boiled or raw vegetables.

I often make a stir-fry using a variety of raw or frozen vegetables, and chicken or shrimp for the protein. I sometimes eat the stir-fry on its own, or with rice or quinoa.

I sometimes make a pot of chili. I usually have a few tortilla chips or a piece of homemade cornbread on the side.

When I do cook, I always cook enough for 2-3 meals, or more. This way, I don’t have to cook for the next day or two, or I freeze some of the leftovers. So whenever I don’t feel like cooking, there’s always something available and ready to go.

 

Do You Suffer from Migraines?

If you suffer from migraines – as I do occasionally – this will sound familiar…

  • Throbbing pain on one side of your head that gets worse when you move around
  • Nausea
  • Sensitivity to bright lights and loud noises
  • and the need to lie down in a dark quiet room

These are my typical migraine symptoms. Other symptoms can include:

  • Vomiting
  • Vision or hearing disturbances
  • Sensitivity to smells
  • Dizziness

If you don’t suffer from migraines, it may be difficult to understand the difference between a migraine and a regular headache.

A migraine is more severe than a regular headache, can be very painful, and can last up to 72 hours. Many migraine sufferers cannot carry out their daily activities once a migraine comes on – activities such as working or driving a car can become impossible.

What causes a migraine?

Migraines can be triggered by certain foods, drinks or food additives, or by environmental factors – each person has their own trigger or variety of triggers.

Some common food related migraine triggers include:

  • Alcohol (especially red wine, beer and sherry)
  • Chocolate
  • Artificial sweeteners (e.g., aspartame and sucralose)
  • Sulphites (e.g., dried fruit, canned vegetables, jam, wine and beer)
  • Monosodium glutamate (MSG) (e.g., Chinese food, soy sauce, some salad dressings)
  • Aged and fermented cheeses (e.g., blue cheese, feta, Swiss, parmesan)
  • Smoked and pickled foods
  • Canned soups
  • Canned, cured, or processed meats
  • Certain beans such as chickpeas, fava, broad, lima and pinto
  • Fatty foods

Other common migraine triggers include:

  • Not eating enough, fasting or skipping meals
  • Not drinking enough fluids and becoming dehydrated
  • Not getting enough sleep – or getting too much sleep
  • Bright or flickering light
  • Loud noises
  • Changes in weather
  • Strong scents
  • Allergic reactions
  • Caffeine withdrawal
  • Stress
  • Certain medications (e.g., birth control pills).

Some people can avoid migraines by knowing their triggers. Two of my common triggers are not eating enough (especially earlier in the day) and being dehydrated. These are two triggers that are easily fixed, and now I don’t get migraines nearly as often as I used to.

If you’re not sure what your triggers are, try keeping a diary of your food and fluid intake, sleeping patterns and other potential triggers, and when you get migraines – there may be certain things you can change or avoid to help reduce your risk of developing a migraine.

 

https://www.eatrightontario.ca/en/Articles/Men-s-Health/Migraine-and-headaches.aspx