Packaging puzzled? Learn to decipher food labels

Are you lost when it comes to understanding the nutritional values on packaged foods? From special ingredients to sodium servings, TODAY nutritionist Joy Bauer identifies the important parts of labels and how they can help you make smarter, healthier choices:

Serving size/servings per container
Look here first. All the other information on the label is based on a single serving, so you need to know the size of a single serving, and how many servings are contained in the package. You may be surprised. Some packages look small, but they could contain two or more servings.

Calories
If you are watching your weight (as most of us are), calories are key. This number is the total number of calories in a single serving. If you eat two servings, multiply the number of calories by two — if you eat three servings, multiply the number of calories by three, and so on.

Calories from fat
This tells you the number of calories in a single serving that come from fat (1 gram of fat = 9 calories, so “calories from fat” is derived by taking the “total fat” in grams and multiplying by 9). Some foods — such as margarines and oils — are all fat, so this number will be the same as the total number of calories. Other foods, like breakfast cereals and bread, are mainly carbohydrate and have very little fat, so this number will be low.

Total fat
This section specifies the amount of total fat in one serving. Based on a 2,000-calorie diet, you should aim for no more than 65 grams total fat per day (that’s no more than 30 percent of total calories coming from fat). Fats are displayed in grams. To convert to calories from fat, multiply by 9.

Underneath “total fat,” you’ll find the amounts of the two most dangerous types of fats — saturated fats and trans fats.

Saturated fat
It’s more important to know how much saturated fat is in a product than total fat. That’s because too much saturated fat has been shown to increase the risk for heart disease. The fewer grams of saturated fat on a label, the better!

For a product to be considered “low saturated fat,” it must have 1 gram or less. But most products have much more. Thus, as a general rule of thumb, select prepared entrée meals that are 4 grams saturated fat or less — and side dishes and snacks that are 2 grams saturated fat or less.

You’ll want to be extra careful to keep your collective saturated fat below 7 percent of your total calories (based on a 2,000-calorie diet, that’s no more than 15 grams of saturated fat for the day).

Percent daily value — for fat
You’ll notice there is a second number for total fat and saturated fat — “percent daily value.” This shows what percent of your total daily calories (based on a 2,000-calorie diet) is contained in one serving. The daily value fat percent reflects the following recommendations: no more than 30 percent of your total calories should come from “total fat” — that’s no more than 65 grams — and no more than 10 percent (20 grams) should come from saturated fat. But I say aim for a lower overall intake from saturated fat (no more than 7 percent of total calories). And remember, these are cumulative, so keep track of and add all your fat percentages throughout the day.

Trans fat
There is no safe amount of trans fats, so aim to get as few grams per day as possible. Trans fat has been shown to increase bad cholesterol and lower the good cholesterol (double whammy).

Cholesterol
Only animal products contain cholesterol, so don’t get too excited if your breakfast cereal or favorite peanut butter doesn’t have any. The American Heart Association recommends consuming less than 300 milligrams per day. To keep track of your daily totals, you can add the milligrams of cholesterol for all foods you eat, or add the numbers specified by percent daily value, being careful not to eat more than 100 percent during the day.

Sodium
This tells you the amount of salt in a single serving. Aim to get a daily total of 2,300 milligrams or less per day. To keep track of your daily total, you can add the milligrams sodium for all foods you eat. If you are salt-sensitive or have high blood pressure, your doctor may recommend that you restrict your sodium intake even more.

For a product to be officially considered “low sodium,” it must provide no more than 140 milligrams per serving. But some snack foods and most prepared meals have much more. As a general rule of thumb, healthy main meals should provide no more than 600 milligrams sodium and packaged side dishes no more than 400 milligrams.

Carbohydrate
If you’re diabetic, you’ll need to be aware of the total carbohydrate in every product you eat. However, people with normal functioning blood sugar levels can strictly focus on limiting refined sugar and increasing dietary fiber — two subcategories listed underneath total carbohydrate.

Sugars
Sugars are low-quality carbohydrates and should be limited (unless they’re naturally occurring in fruit and dairy). The USDA recommends limiting “added sugars” — from packaged foods and sugar/honey/jelly packets — to no more than 40 grams per day (that’s 10 teaspoons, since there are 4 grams per teaspoon). That’s 8 percent of your total calories, if you’re following a 2,000-calorie diet.

Dietary fiber
Experts recommend that you get 25 to 35 grams of total fiber daily. Products are considered a good source of fiber when they provide 2.5-4.9 grams per serving. Products that provide 5+ grams of fiber are officially considered high-fiber foods. The label will sometimes specify the amounts of soluble fiber and insoluble fiber, which may be of interest to people fighting diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

The “percent daily value” for total carbohydrate and dietary fiber help you to gauge how much a serving will contribute to your personal goals. The standard is based on a 2,000-calorie diet that strives for 60 percent of calories from total carbohydrates, and 25 grams of total dietary fiber.

Protein
Take your weight in pounds and divide it in half. That’s approximately how many grams of protein you should eat per day. This listing will help you figure out how much protein is contained in packaged goods.

Vitamins and minerals
Below the thick dividing line under “protein” is the space for listing significant vitamins and minerals and the percent of the recommended daily value contained in one serving. This can be helpful if you are looking to boost your intake of particular nutrients (for example, calcium, vitamin C, etc.).

Calorie guide
Some larger food labels also contain an informational section that lists the calories per gram for fat (9 calories per gram), carbohydrate (4 calories per gram), protein (4 calories per gram) and alcohol (7 calories per gram). This is just informational; it does not describe anything about the food.

Ingredients
Somewhere outside the Nutrition Facts box is a list of ingredients, in descending order of predominance according to weight. That means that the first food listed is the most abundant (by weight).

Special notations
Look for special notations that might tell you more about the product, such as “enriched” or “fortified” (which tells you that extra vitamins or minerals have been added, or replaced after processing), or “contains wheat ingredients” (which tells you it isn’t safe for people with celiac disease or wheat sensitivities), or “may contain peanuts” (as a warning to people with peanut allergies).

Contact information
All labels must include a way for you to contact the company, such as the company name, address, telephone number and/or Web site address. Don’t hesitate to contact a company if you have questions about its products.

Eating well and staying active on the road

Without access to their local supermarket or their favorite Pilates DVD, travelers often find themselves subsisting on greasy fast food and abandoning their usual exercise routines to sit for long hours on planes or buses. Vegetarian, organic, low carb, low cal, low fat — no matter what diet you’re on, there’s a good chance that it went down the tubes on your last vacation.

But believe it or not, it is possible to eat well on a cross-country road trip, to stay active without access to a gym and even to go on a cruise without gaining 5 or 10 pounds. You can eat healthy and stay active no matter what kind of trip you’re taking.

On the plane
There’s no more captive audience than a plane full of air travelers, particularly those on long international flights. But just because you’re stuck on a plane doesn’t mean you’re stuck eating the congealed meat and starchy sides the airlines call food. (That’s if your airline serves meals at all — check out Which Airlines Still Serve Meals? to learn more.)

Your first line of defense against unhealthy airline menus is to bring what food you can from home. TSA security rules prohibit passengers from taking liquids and gels in excess of three ounces through airport security checkpoints, but solid snacks like bananas, apples, trail mix, nuts, carrots, celery sticks and energy bars should pass muster. Pack a few of these in your carry-on and skip the airline’s salty snacks.

Once you’ve passed through security, anything you buy at the airport may be brought on your flight, so this is your chance to stock up on bottled water and buy a salad or sandwich to eat for dinner on the plane. Airports have begun adding more healthy dining options to their standard array of fast food, according to a recent survey by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Susan Levin, a PCRM dietician, recommends seeking out vegetarian dishes that are “low in fat and high in fiber” — like a bean burrito or a veggie sandwich.

In flight, skip the alcohol and soft drinks — both can dehydrate you. Water is always your best bet for staying hydrated and sticking to your diet.

On the road
Long hours of sitting in the car and eating fast food at every rest stop can derail a diet faster than you can say “road trip.” How can you break the cycle? First, take McDonald’s off the menu. Before you set forth on your journey, fill a cooler with healthy snacks like fruit, raw veggies and sandwiches from home, and then restock your stash along the way with offerings from local grocery stores. Don’t forget the bottled water! (Save money and the environment by purchasing gallon jugs of water to use to refill your bottles.)

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Bypass rest stops and seek out independent cafes and restaurants — not only will you eat better, but you’ll also meet locals and get a better flavor of the town you’re in. For help finding local eateries, we recommend “ Healthy Highways: The Traveler’s Guide to Healthy Eating,” which lists health food stores and vegetarian restaurants across the country — it’s especially helpful for those in search of organic options. California Healthy is a similar resource for the Golden State. If all else fails and you find yourself at a fast food restaurant, use our Rest Stop Survival Guide to choose the healthiest options from the menu.

On particularly long car trips, be sure to stop at least once a day for an exercise break. Check your road map for nearby national, state or local parks where you can go for a hike, or spend some time exploring a new town or city by foot.

At the hotel
When choosing a hotel, look for one that offers a fitness center or pool — and then use them once you get there! Many major booking sites, including Travelocity and Orbitz, allow you to customize your search to show only hotels that offer certain fitness amenities.

If your hotel doesn’t have a gym, why not bring your own? We don’t advise trying to squeeze a set of dumbbells into your suitcase, but it’s easy enough to pack a resistance band or to download an exercise program onto your MP3 player so that you can work out in your room. (iTRAIN is one of several companies providing downloadable workouts.) As a lower-tech option, you can always jog in place in front of the TV for half an hour, make your own exercise routine of jumping jacks and squats, or do some early-morning stretches or stomach crunches before heading out for the day.

You may also want to consider booking a hotel room with a kitchenette or even renting a house or apartment so that you can do your own cooking. This will save you money on food and give you more control over your diet. If you choose to eat at the hotel instead, be sure to take a careful look at what kind of dining options are available. Several hotel chains eliminated trans fats from all menus in the past year or two, including Loews and Omni.

At sea
Cruise ships have a well-deserved reputation as bastions of gluttony, with food, food and more food available all day long from breakfast to the midnight buffet. Luckily, amid all the pizza, creamy pastas and self-serve ice cream, most cruise lines also offer lighter and healthier options with reduced fat, sodium and/or carbs. For example, Carnival has a fleetwide “spa menu,” while Princess offers “spa options” in its main dining rooms for cruisers watching their calories. Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean eliminated trans fats from all its menus in 2007.

Along with overeating, cruisers have also traditionally faced the temptation to laze around by the pool instead of staying active — but on today’s ships, there’s no reason not to exercise if you have the motivation. Nearly all modern vessels have a gym and jogging track at the bare minimum, and most also offer a number of fitness classes (yoga, aerobics, etc.) that passengers can take throughout their cruise.

Newer ships, particularly those in the Royal Caribbean fleet, have everything from ice skating rinks and rock-climbing walls to bowling alleys and boxing rings. But here’s perhaps the simplest way to get in a little extra exercise: don’t take the elevator. Most modern-day mega-ships have so many decks that jogging up or down the stairs every time you need to get somewhere will easily help you burn a few extra calories.

Off the ship, choose active shore excursions — like hiking or kayaking around a Caribbean island rather than touring it by motorcoach, or snorkeling instead of lying on the beach all day. Do enough physical activity during the day, and maybe you can even treat yourself to one night at the midnight buffet!

At your destination
The possibilities for active getaways around the world are almost limitless — think skiing in the Alps, horseback riding in Montana or canoeing down the Amazon River. But even if you’re not up for that much outdoor adventure, there’s a lot more you can do than just sit on a bus and passively take in the scenery.

For example, you can see Europe by bicycle with BikeToursDirect, which offers both guided and self-guided tours through 30 countries, including Italy, France, Austria and Portugal. You’ll cycle along scenic river banks, past vineyards and through medieval towns, combining all-day exercise with a more intimate look at the European countryside than you could ever get from the seat of a bus. For more, see Bike Tours and Trips.

A similar opportunity is available for joggers in cities across the U.S. with American Running Guides and NYC RUN. Personalized routes take runners through Greenwich Village, across the Golden Gate Bridge or through Red Rock Canyon (a 15-mile drive outside Las Vegas), to name just a few.

Jogging and biking aside, you can’t go wrong with good old-fashioned walking. There’s no better way to experience a city than on foot, so take time to walk between major attractions rather than jumping on a bus or a subway. You’ll experience the flavor of different neighborhoods and be able to duck into any cafe or shop that strikes your fancy along the way.

A note on eating internationally
We’ve mentioned salads as a great healthy option when you’re on the road, but if you’re in a developing country where your risk of food- or water-borne illness is high, you’ll want to pass on raw fruits and vegetables. Instead, try to find dishes that feature cooked vegetables, and make sure they’re served piping hot. Similarly, while water remains your healthiest beverage option, you’ll want to be sure that your drinking supply is safe, particularly if you’re traveling in a third world country. For more information, check out Food Safety and Drinking Water Safety.

Parent-Only Treatment May Be Equally Effective for Children Who Are Obese

ScienceDaily (Oct. 21, 2010) — A study led by a researcher at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine indicates that parent-only treatments for childhood obesity work equally as well as plans that include parents and child, while at the same time more cost effective and potentially easier for families.

The results were published in the advanced online edition of the journal Obesity.

Kerri N. Boutelle, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at UC San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, and colleagues set out to assess whether parent-only groups are an equally viable method for weight loss.

“Our results showed that the parent-only group was not inferior in terms of child weight loss, parent weight loss and child physical activity,” said Boutelle. “While further research is needed, our work suggests that parent-only groups are a viable method for providing childhood obesity treatment.”

Recent data suggests at 31 percent of children in the United States are overweight or obese, or between four and five million children. Current treatment programs generally require participation by both parents and children in a plan that combines nutrition education and exercise with behavior therapy techniques.

“Parents are the most significant people in a child’s environment, serving as the first and most important teachers,” said Boutelle “Since they play a significant role in any weight-loss program for children, we wondered if the same results could be achieved by working with just the parents, without the child coming to the clinic.”

The researchers looked at eighty parent-child groups with an 8 to 12-year-old overweight or obese child, and randomly assigned families into parent-only or parent + child treatment programs for five months. Child and parent body size, child caloric intake and child physical activity were assessed at baseline, post-treatment and at a six-month follow up visit.

The results showed that the parent-only group provided similar results in child weight loss and other relevant outcomes. Since parent-only treatments are successfully used to deliver treatments for other child behavioral issues, this approach to instilling better nutrition and exercise habits in children — designed to result in weight loss — could also prove to be an effective treatment model.

Boutelle has received another grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct this study with 150 families and follow them for 18 months. This larger study will be recruiting families for the next three years.

Additional contributors to the study include Guy Cafri, UCSD Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, and Scott J. Crown, University of Minnesota. The study was supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Climbing Obesity Rates Threaten U.S. National Security by Hampering Military Recruitment

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2010) — At a time when American military forces are stretched thin overseas, a growing number of potential recruits are too fat to enlist, according to an analysis by Cornell economists.

In the past half-century, the number of women of military age who exceed the U.S. Army’s enlistment standards for weight-for-height and body fat percentage has more than tripled. For military-age men, the figure has more than doubled. As of 2007-08, 5.7 million men, or nearly 12 percent, and 16.5 million women, about 35 percent, of military age are ineligible for duty because they are overweight or obese, estimate John Cawley, associate professor of policy analysis and management, and economics doctoral student Catherine Maclean.

The findings, published in September by the National Bureau of Economic Research in a working paper titled “Unfit for Service: The Implications of Rising Obesity for U.S. Military Recruitment,” are cause for alarm for the military branches (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps), which together must attract some 184,000 new service members each year. Fewer able-bodied recruits could also lead the Pentagon to limit its use of troops and rely instead on unmanned aircraft and private security companies to carry out missions, the paper notes.

“Almost one in four applicants to the military are rejected for being overweight or obese — it’s the most common reason for medical disqualification,” Cawley said. “With an active war in Afghanistan and continuing operations in Iraq, it is well-known that the military is struggling to recruit and retain soldiers. Having a smaller pool of men and women who are fit enough to serve adds to the strain and creates even more problems for national defense.”

Cawley and Maclean also found stark disparities in fitness levels of potential recruits based on race, income and college education. Compared with white females, black and Hispanic females are less likely to meet the weight standards, for instance, making it difficult for the military to achieve its diversity goals.

The study follows a similar report last spring by retired generals and admirals, which noted that more than one-fourth of young adults are medically ineligible for service. But Cawley and Maclean chart the climbing obesity rates over a much longer period, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys spanning 1959-2008. Moreover, the Cornell study estimates the number of civilians who meet the body fat requirements of each military branch, which had not been tracked previously. “We also accessed weight and height records measured by medical professionals, which are more accurate than self-reported data,” said Maclean.

Military brass have limited options to fix the problem, Cawley said. They could relax the height-for-weight and body fat standards, but Cawley warned of additional costs to treat obesity-related conditions and associated absenteeism. “Military spending on obesity is over $1 billion annually already,” Cawley said. “It’s more than the military spends on treating tobacco- and alcohol-related illness combined.”

One solution could be to institute more lenient weight standards for noncombat troops. “A computer programmer or cook may not need to have the same level of physical fitness as an infantryman,” Cawley said.

Ultimately, Cawley said, the steep decline in military-eligible men and women illustrates the hidden costs of obesity.

“It’s another example of the underappreciated public consequences of obesity,” Cawley said. “We tend to think of obesity as a personal, individual health problem. But the fact that U.S. military leaders view it as a threat to national security and military readiness shows its far-reaching impact.”

Mathematical Model Helps Marathoners Pace Themselves to a Strong Finish

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2010) — Most marathon runners know they need to consume carbohydrates before and during a race, but many don’t have a good fueling strategy. Now, one dedicated marathoner — an MD/PhD student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology — has taken a more rigorous approach to calculating just how much carbohydrate a runner needs to fuel him or herself through 26.2 miles, and what pace that runner can reasonably expect to sustain.

The result is a new model, described in the Oct. 21 issue of the journal PLoS Computational Biology, which allows runners to calculate personalized targets using an estimate of their aerobic capacity.

The Harvard-MIT scientist, Benjamin Rapoport, was inspired by his experience in the 2005 New York Marathon. As he entered Manhattan for the last several miles of the race, his legs just didn’t want to keep up the pace. He was experiencing a common phenomenon among marathoners, known as “hitting the wall.” Essentially, the body runs out of fuel, forcing the runner to slow down dramatically.

“You feel like you’re not going anywhere,” says Rapoport. “It’s a big psychological letdown, because you feel powerless. You can’t will yourself to run any faster.”

Of the hundreds of thousands of people who run a marathon each year, more than 40 percent hit the figurative wall, and 1 to 2 percent drop out before finishing.

During strenuous exercise such as running, the body relies on carbohydrates for most of its energy, even though fat stores are usually much larger. Most of those carbohydrates come from glycogen stored in the liver and in the leg muscles. A small amount of glucose is also present in the blood.

Hitting the wall occurs when those stored carbohydrates are completely depleted, forcing the body to start burning fat. When that happens, the runner’s pace can drop about 30 percent, and ketones, the byproducts of fat metabolism, start building up in the body, causing pain and fatigue.

“People think hitting the wall is inevitable, but it’s not,” says Rapoport, who has run 18 marathons, including a personal best of 2:55 at this year’s Boston Marathon. “In order to avoid it, you need to know what your capabilities are. You need to set a target pace that will get you to the finish without hitting the wall. Once you do that, you need to make sure you appropriately carbo-load.”

To create his new model, Rapoport identified two fundamental physiologic factors that limit performance in endurance runners: aerobic capacity and the ability of the leg muscles to store carbohydrates as glycogen. Aerobic capacity, also known as VO2max, is a measure of how much oxygen the body can transport to the muscles and consume during aerobic exercise. Oxygen is critical to muscle performance because glucose can only be broken down completely in the presence of oxygen.

The average untrained male’s VO2max of 45 ml/kg/min can be boosted with training, and elite marathoners often have VO2max in excess of 75 ml/kg/min. Measuring exact VO2max requires a treadmill stress test at maximum effort, but it can be estimated by measuring heart rate while running at a constant pace on a treadmill.

Using Rapoport’s model, any runner training for a marathon who estimates his or her VO2max can figure out a range of paces, including the fastest safe pace he or she can sustain without hitting the wall. For example, a man with a VO2max of 60 ml/kg/min could run the race in 3:10 without consuming any carbs during the race.

A VO2max of 60 ml/kg/min is about the highest that most men can attain through training, and 3:10 happens to be a gold standard in marathoning: It’s the time men age 18 to 34 must achieve to qualify for the Boston Marathon. For women of the same age, the qualifying time is 3:40, which is also the time that Rapoport’s model predicts for a runner with a VO2max of 52 ml/kg/min, about the highest level the average woman can attain through training.

The model’s predictions also depend on the runner’s leg muscle mass, because larger muscles can store more glycogen. In the examples above, those finishing times assume that the runner’s leg muscles make up at least 7.5 percent of his or her body mass, which is true of most people. For men, the values typically range from 14 to 27.5 percent, and in women, they range from 18 to 22.5 percent.

Rapoport’s model also allows runners to calculate how much carbohydrate they need to consume during the race if they want to run a faster pace without hitting the wall. For example, a runner with VO2max of 50 ml/kg/min who wanted to achieve the 3:10 Boston Marathon qualifying time would need to consume 10 calories of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight (about 700 calories for a 154-lb. runner), assuming that his legs make up at least 15 percent of his body mass.

While physiological models like Rapoport’s can help runners plan for their races, Rapoport says that other factors such as mental toughness and course terrain also play important roles in how a runner will perform in any given marathon. One of the most important things a runner should do during a marathon is stick to his or her target pace, Rapoport advises. When runners start out too fast, they burn a higher percentage of carbohydrates, increasing the risk of hitting the wall.

“Once you figure out your target pace, you have to stay at it,” he says. “People sometimes get too excited or change their game plan on the day of the race, and that’s a tactical mistake.”

Men Perspire, Women Glow: Men Are More Efficient at Sweating, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2010) — Women have to work harder than men in order to start sweating, while men are more effective sweaters during exercise, according to new research published in the journal Experimental Physiology.

The study by Japanese scientists at Osaka International University and Kobe University looked at differences between men and women’s sweating response to changes in exercise intensity. The researchers asked four groups of subjects (trained and untrained females, trained and untrained males) to cycle continuously for an hour in a controlled climate with increasing intensity intervals.

The results showed that men are more efficient at sweating. While exercise training improves sweating in both sexes, the degree of improvement is greater in men, with the difference becoming even more pronounced as the level of exercise intensity increases. The untrained females had the worst sweating response of all requiring a higher body temperature than the other groups (or work intensity) to begin sweating. In other words, women need to get hotter than men before they get sweaty.

The study’s coordinator Yoshimitsu Inoue commented: ‘It appears that women are at a disadvantage when they need to sweat a lot during exercise, especially in hot conditions.’

Previous studies have demonstrated that men have a higher sweat output than women, in part because testosterone is believed to enhance the sweating response. Physical training is known to decrease the body’s core temperature threshold for the activation of the sweating response, which works to the athlete’s advantage and allows them to perform longer. This is the first study, however, to investigate the sex differences in the effects of physical training on the sweating response during exercise.

The findings have implications for exercise and heat tolerance in humans, including shedding light on why the sexes cope differently with extremes of temperature like heat waves.

Inoue believes there may be an evolutionary reason why men and women have evolved to sweat differently. ‘Women generally have less body fluid than men and may become dehydrated more easily,’ he explains. ‘Therefore the lower sweat loss in women may be an adaptation strategy that attaches importance to survival in a hot environment, while the higher sweat rate in men may be a strategy for greater efficiency of action or labour.’

Inoue says future studies will look more closely at the relationship between reproductive hormones and the sweating response as well as the effectiveness of different kinds of sweat (sweat that evaporates and cools versus sweat that drops off).

In the meantime, Inoue advises women should take more care than men in hot conditions. But he adds, ‘Both men and women can acclimate themselves better to heat if they exercise regularly before a heat wave comes.’

Men Perspire, Women Glow: Men Are More Efficient at Sweating, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2010) — Women have to work harder than men in order to start sweating, while men are more effective sweaters during exercise, according to new research published in the journal Experimental Physiology.

The study by Japanese scientists at Osaka International University and Kobe University looked at differences between men and women’s sweating response to changes in exercise intensity. The researchers asked four groups of subjects (trained and untrained females, trained and untrained males) to cycle continuously for an hour in a controlled climate with increasing intensity intervals.

The results showed that men are more efficient at sweating. While exercise training improves sweating in both sexes, the degree of improvement is greater in men, with the difference becoming even more pronounced as the level of exercise intensity increases. The untrained females had the worst sweating response of all requiring a higher body temperature than the other groups (or work intensity) to begin sweating. In other words, women need to get hotter than men before they get sweaty.

The study’s coordinator Yoshimitsu Inoue commented: ‘It appears that women are at a disadvantage when they need to sweat a lot during exercise, especially in hot conditions.’

Previous studies have demonstrated that men have a higher sweat output than women, in part because testosterone is believed to enhance the sweating response. Physical training is known to decrease the body’s core temperature threshold for the activation of the sweating response, which works to the athlete’s advantage and allows them to perform longer. This is the first study, however, to investigate the sex differences in the effects of physical training on the sweating response during exercise.

The findings have implications for exercise and heat tolerance in humans, including shedding light on why the sexes cope differently with extremes of temperature like heat waves.

Inoue believes there may be an evolutionary reason why men and women have evolved to sweat differently. ‘Women generally have less body fluid than men and may become dehydrated more easily,’ he explains. ‘Therefore the lower sweat loss in women may be an adaptation strategy that attaches importance to survival in a hot environment, while the higher sweat rate in men may be a strategy for greater efficiency of action or labour.’

Inoue says future studies will look more closely at the relationship between reproductive hormones and the sweating response as well as the effectiveness of different kinds of sweat (sweat that evaporates and cools versus sweat that drops off).

In the meantime, Inoue advises women should take more care than men in hot conditions. But he adds, ‘Both men and women can acclimate themselves better to heat if they exercise regularly before a heat wave comes.

New York preps for battle against salt

NEW YORK — First, it was a ban on artery-clogging trans fats. Then calories were posted on menus. Now the New York City health department is taking on salt.

City officials are meeting with food makers and restaurants to discuss reducing the amount of salt in common foods such as soup, pasta sauce, salad dressing and bread.

About three-quarters of the salt Americans eat comes from prepared and processed food, not from the salt shaker. That’s why New York officials want the food industry to help cut back.

“It’s very hard for an individual to do this on their own,” said Dr. Lynn Silver, an assistant commissioner in the health department.

The department has shown its clout with bans on artificial trans fats and rules forcing chain restaurants to post calorie counts. To comply, fast food chains changed their recipes nationwide, and other cities and states have enacted similar policies.

Some manufacturers said getting rid of trans fats took work, and reducing salt has its own difficulties.

Unlike sugar, there’s no substitute for salt. Cream soups — like that casserole favorite cream of mushroom — are the biggest challenge, said George Dowdie, head of research and development for Campbell Soup Co. The soup maker, which has been cutting salt for years, is in the talks with New York.

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By fall, Campbell Soup plans to have more than 90 lower-sodium soups available. That includes its first soup, tomato, which will have almost a third less salt.

The industry hopes salt reduction remains voluntary.

“Literally freight cars full of salt have been removed from these products gradually over time,” said Robert Earl, vice president of science policy, nutrition and health for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “It has to be done carefully — gradually and incremental over time.”

Too much salt raises blood pressure, and high blood pressure raises the risk of heart disease. A recent analysis showed that for every gram of salt cut, as many as 250,000 cases of heart disease and 200,000 deaths could be prevented over a decade.

“Very, very small changes in diet could have dramatic effects,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a researcher with the University of California, San Francisco.

For its salt initiative, New York has recruited public health agencies and medical groups across the country. The campaign — with a goal of cutting salt intake by at least 20 percent in five years — is modeled on a plan carried out in Britain. That effort set voluntary salt reduction targets for 85 categories of processed foods.

“Companies have been very innovative,” said Corinne Vaughan, of Britain’s Food Standards Agency. “And they have been very good at making what are quite huge reductions in salt levels.”

Salt in pasta sauces has been cut by nearly a third, and soups by about one-quarter, she said. Some foods have been more challenging, she said, citing bacon, cheeses and packaged bread. With less salt, the dough is sticky and harder to process, she said. Salt is used mostly for flavoring but can also help preserve some foods and gives others texture.

Some British companies have also put “traffic light” labels on package fronts — green for low-salt, for example — so shoppers can “make a choice at a glance,” Vaughan said.

Everyone needs some salt — or sodium chloride — for good health. The daily recommended amount for Americans is about a teaspoon, or 2,300 milligrams of sodium. But many people consume twice that amount. A Big Mac alone has 1,040 milligrams.

A recent government report showed that seven out of 10 adults should be eating even less than the recommended amount — about 1,500 milligrams. That includes anyone with high blood pressure, everyone over 40, and African-Americans, who are at greater risk than whites for high blood pressure.

The prospect of government intervention bothers some, and some critics note that not everyone is sensitive to salt. A few others contend there is not enough scientific evidence that reducing salt really drives down heart problems or deaths.

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But many in the medical and public health field are firmly behind the idea.

“When you’ve got groups … all saying we need to reduce salt, the evidence is exceedingly strong, you don’t do more trials,” said Dr. Stephen Havas, an adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s medical school and a former American Medical Association vice president.

In the meantime, the Food and Drug Administration is considering a request that the government regulate salt content. An Institute of Medicine committee is also looking at ways to reduce salt consumption. The FDA says it is waiting for that committee report, due next year, before deciding the regulation issue.

Bibbins-Domingo, the University of California researcher, and her colleagues say their findings support efforts to lower salt levels, either voluntarily or through regulation.

She said her patients with high blood pressure struggle to cut down on salt. They give up potato chips, french fries and salty nuts, but end up eating processed foods like soups and pasta that can also have a lot of salt, she said.

“I realized how hard it is for patients who want to make those changes,” she said.

 

Study Finds Watermelon Lowers Blood Pressure

No matter how you slice it, watermelon has a lot going for it sweet, low calorie, high fiber, nutrient rich and now, there’s more. Evidence from a pilot study led by food scientists at The Florida State University suggests that watermelon can be an effective natural weapon against prehypertension, a precursor to cardiovascular disease.

It is the first investigation of its kind in humans. FSU Assistant Professor Arturo Figueroa and Professor Bahram H. Arjmandi found that when six grams of the amino acid L-citrulline/L-arginine from watermelon extract was administered daily for six weeks, there was improved arterial function and consequently lowered aortic blood pressure in all nine of their prehypertensive subjects (four men and five postmenopausal women, ages 51-57).

“We are the first to document improved aortic hemodynamics in prehypertensive but otherwise healthy middle-aged men and women receiving therapeutic doses of watermelon,” Figueroa said. “These findings suggest that this ‘functional food’ has a vasodilatory effect, and one that may prevent prehypertension from progressing to full-blown hypertension, a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes.

“Given the encouraging evidence generated by this preliminary study, we hope to continue the research and include a much larger group of participants in the next round,” he said.

Why watermelon?

“Watermelon is the richest edible natural source of L-citrulline, which is closely related to L-arginine, the amino acid required for the formation of nitric oxide essential to the regulation of vascular tone and healthy blood pressure,” Figueroa said.

Once in the body, the L-citrulline is converted into L-arginine. Simply consuming L-arginine as a dietary supplement isn’t an option for many hypertensive adults, said Figueroa, because it can cause nausea, gastrointestinal tract discomfort, and diarrhea.

In contrast, watermelon is well tolerated. Participants in the Florida State pilot study reported no adverse effects. And, in addition to the vascular benefits of citrulline, watermelon provides abundant vitamin A, B6, C, fiber, potassium and lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. Watermelon may even help to reduce serum glucose levels, according to Arjmandi.

“Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States,” Arjmandi said. “Generally, Americans have been more concerned about their blood cholesterol levels and dietary cholesterol intakes rather than their overall cardiovascular health risk factors leading to CVD, such as obesity and vascular dysfunction characterized by arterial stiffening and thickness issues that functional foods such as watermelon can help to mitigate.

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“By functional foods,” said Arjmandi, “we mean those foods scientifically shown to have health-promoting or disease-preventing properties, above and beyond the other intrinsically healthy nutrients they also supply.”

Figueroa said oral L-citrulline supplementation might allow a reduced dosage of antihypertensive drugs necessary to control blood pressure.

“Even better, it may prevent the progression from prehypertension to hypertension in the first place,” he said.

While watermelon or watermelon extract is the best natural source for L-citrulline, it is also available in the synthetic form in pills, which Figueroa used in a previous study of younger, male subjects. That investigation showed that four weeks of L-citrulline slowed or weakened the increase in aortic blood pressure in response to cold exposure. It was an important finding, said Figueroa, since there is a greater occurrence of myocardial infarction associated with hypertension during the cold winter months.

“Individuals with increased blood pressure and arterial stiffness especially those who are older and those with chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes would benefit from L-citrulline in either the synthetic or natural (watermelon) form,” Figueroa said. “The optimal dose appears to be four to six grams a day.”

Approximately 60 percent of U.S. adults are prehypertensive or hypertensive. Prehypertension is characterized by systolic blood pressure readings of 120-139 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) over diastolic pressure of 80-89 mm Hg. “Systolic” refers to the blood pressure when the heart is contracting. “Diastolic” reflects the blood pressure when the heart is in a period of relaxation and expansion.

Findings from Figueroa’s latest pilot study at Florida State are described in the American Journal of Hypertension. A copy of the paper (“Effects of Watermelon Supplementation on Aortic Blood Pressure and Wave Reflection in Individuals With Prehypertension: A Pilot Study”) can be accessed online.

The paper’s lead author, Figueroa holds a medical degree, a doctoral degree in physiological sciences, and a master’s degree in sports medicine. He has been a faculty member in the Florida State University Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences since 2004. Figueroa’s coauthor and colleague Arjmandi serves as chairman of the department, which is a part of Florida State’s interdisciplinary College of Human Sciences. Arjmandi also is the author or coauthor of an extensive body of published research on the health benefits of prunes and other functional foods.

Coauthors of the Figueroa-Arjmandi paper in the American Journal of Hypertension are Marcos A. Sanchez-Gonzalez, a Florida State doctoral student in exercise physiology, and Penelope Perkins-Veazie, a horticulture professor at North Carolina State University.

Interested in Yoga??

Our Mind/Body classes focus on improving your flexibility, strength and balance while enhancing your posture, coordination and mental focus.

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YOGA

Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Within Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy and to the goal towards which that school directs its practices. In Jainism, yoga is the sum total of all activities — mental, verbal and physical. Listed below is a list of classes taught by a few of our top notch trainers.  VINYASA Vinyasa Yoga uses the breath to link Yoga poses together to create a smooth and energetic practice that is strengthening, relaxing, and invigorating all at once. Employing the technique of connecting postures, this class focuses on breathing and movement, making it almost dance-like. HATHA & HATHA FLOW Traditional Hatha Yoga is a holistic yogic path, including moral disciplines, physical postures (asana), purification procedures, poses, yogic breathing, and meditation. The Hatha yoga predominantly practiced in the West consists of mostly asanas understood as physical exercises. It is also recognized as a stress-reducing practice. Hatha Flow uses body postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation (dyana) to obtain a sound, healthy body and a clear, peaceful mind. GENTLE YOGA Focuses on body awareness. You will learn how to move to prevent injury, create more openness in the joints and build strength and stability. INTEGRATIVE YOGA Great class for all levels. Focus on body alignment and breathing to develop the mind and body in a harmonious way to achieve strength, flexibility and relaxation. You will leave the class with a more fluid body, a quieter mind and a happier heart. YOGA FLEX Invigorate your mind, body and spirit while developing strength, flexibility, and balance. You will leave feeling relaxed, clear minded, and rejuvenated.

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PILATE’S

Pilate’s is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilate’s in Germany. As of 2005, there were 11 million people who practice the discipline regularly and 14,000 instructors in the United States.  Pilate’s called his method Contrology (from control and Greek), because he believed his method uses the mind to control the muscles. The program focuses on the core postural muscles which help keep the body balanced and which are essential to providing support for the spine. In particular, Pilate’s exercises teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, and aim to strengthen the deep torso muscles. PILATES REFORMER The Reformer is a popular, versatile and user-friendly Pilate’s apparatus! The benefits of Pilate’s Reformer training is: Enhanced body awareness and control. Increase of strength, flexibility, and coordination. Improved balance, posture, and body alignment.