6 Tips for Mindful Eating

“Food just tastes better when eating mindfully.”

— Dr. Dale

From 6 Tips for Mindful Eating

With the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life, sometimes it seems nearly impossible to eat intentionally (especially when some of your meals are on the go!). Nevertheless, research shows that mindful eating can lead to greater awareness of how and why you are eating. This enhanced awareness may reduce “mindless eating” and subsequently help with weight management. Mindful eating may even help you have a more satisfying eating experience. Here are 6 quick tips that you can use to start eating more mindfully.

1] Turn Off or Silence Your Devices

Even when eating from home, this can help minimize distractions. Those texts, tweets, emails, and posts will still be there once you’ve finished. Take the time to relax and enjoy your food without all the interruptions.

2] Take a Moment to Clear Your Head

Appreciate the food that’s in front of you. It takes a lot to prepare and produce the food you’re about to eat. Slow down your pace and pause for a moment of gratitude.

3] Use Your Senses

Mindful eating involves all 5 senses, so take note of the appearance, aroma, textures, flavors, and sounds of your food. You may notice more about the food than you ever have before!

4] Name the Flavors

As you eat your meal or snack, consider the 5 basic tastes and which you are experiencing. The 5 basic tastes are umami, bitter, sweet, salty, and sour. Sometimes foods contain more than one — can you tell the difference?

5] Notice the Texture

Is the bite crunchy or creamy? Is it dry or moist? Paying attention to the texture of each bite you take may help make your eating experience more intentional. Maybe you’ll discover you prefer crunchy and dry over creamy and moist.

6] Set Down the Fork

In between bites, place your utensils down on your plate to help slow your pace. Mindful eating is an experience, not a race! This habit may help prevent overeating as well.

Mindful eating doesn’t always require a quiet space at home. Use these tips to practice mindful eating anywhere, even on the go! Whether you’re eating a meal, enjoying a snack, or indulging in a treat, mindful eating can help make your eating experience more satisfying with every intentional bite.

Healthy Lifestyle Extended Survival After Colon Cancer Diagnosis

“An interesting read about the importance of a healthy lifestyle while fighting colon cancer.”

— Dr. Dale

From Healthy Lifestyle Extended Survival After Colon Cancer Diagnosis

Patients with stage III colon cancer who maintained a healthy lifestyle during and after treatment had a 42% reduced risk for death and a trend for a lower chance of recurrence compared with patients with less healthy lifestyles, according to the results of a study (abstract 10006) presented during a press conference ahead of the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

The definition of healthy lifestyle was based on guidelines called “Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines for Cancer Survivors” released by the American Cancer Society; the guidelines include recommendations for maintaining a healthy body weight; engaging in physical activity; and eating a diet high in whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, and low in red or processed meats, with only moderate alcohol intake.

“Individuals often seek information on what they can do to lower risk of cancer recurrence, including changes to lifestyle,” said Erin Van Blarigan, ScD, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, during the press conference. “The American Cancer Society released guidelines based on scientific studies but it is not known if patients who followed these guidelines actually lived longer.”

The prospective study included 992 patients with stage III colon cancer enrolled in an adjuvant chemotherapy trial from 1999 to 2001. Patients were enrolled within 8 weeks of surgery and received 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy. The trial assessed lifestyle twice using validated surveys. Patients were assigned a score from 0 to 6 (0 = no healthy behaviors) that measured the degree to which their lifestyle matched the American Cancer Society guidelines.

With a median follow-up of 7 years, there were 335 cancer recurrences and 299 deaths. Compared with 26% of patients with the least healthy lifestyle (score 0–1), the 9% of patients with the healthiest lifestyle (score 5–6) had a 42% lower risk for death (hazard ratio [HR], 0.58; 95% CI, 0.34–0.99; P = .01 for trend). They also had a trend toward improved disease-free survival (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.45–1.06; P = .03 for trend).

Alcohol consumption is included in the guidelines for cancer prevention, but not cancer survivors. When alcohol was included in the lifestyle score, the adjusted HRs for patients with 6–8 points compared with 0–2 points were 0.49 for overall survival (P = .002 for trend), 0.58 for disease-free survival (P = .01 for trend), and 0.64 for recurrence-free survival (P = .05 for trend).

Commenting on the results of the study, ASCO President Daniel F. Hayes, MD, said, “It should be emphasized that the authors are not suggesting that a healthy lifestyle alone should be considered a substitute for standard chemotherapy and other treatments for colon cancer, which have dramatically improved survival. Rather, patients with colon cancer should be optimistic, and they should eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly, which may not only keep them healthier, but may also further decrease the chances of the cancer coming back.”

More that 1 in 5 U.S. adults are infected with cancer-causing HPV, CDC report says

“Important information reported by the CDC.”

— Dr. Dale

From More that 1 in 5 U.S. adults are infected with cancer-causing HPV, CDC report says 

During a recent two-year period, almost 23 percent of U.S. adults ages 18 to 59 had a type of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) that put them at high risk of certain cancers, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Thursday.

That percentage jumped to more than 42 percent during 2013 to 2014 if any type of genital HPV was included, the CDC found. In both groups, prevalence was higher in men than in women.

“We tend to overlook the fact that 20 percent of us are carrying the virus that can cause cancer,” said Geraldine McQuillan, lead author of the report and a senior infectious-disease epidemiologist in the Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. “People really need to realize that this is a serious concern.”

This is the first data CDC has compiled on HPV rates among men. Its previous research among teen girls and women looked at far fewer strains of the virus and included a younger, narrower age range — and, perhaps because of that, found a lower prevalence of high-risk HPV.

“What we know is that cervical cancer rates have remained relatively stable, but that being said, HPV-related cancer rates have been increasing,” said Lois Ramondetta, a professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. HPV has been linked to throat, tonsil, anal, vaginal and penile cancers as well as cervical cancer. The HPV vaccine can protect people from infection.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. The CDC estimates that nearly 80 million people are infected and that about 14 million new infections occur annually among teenagers and adults. Most of these go away on their own, typically without even causing symptoms, but some HPV strains can lead to genital warts and cancer. Each year, 31,000 men and women are diagnosed with cancers caused by HPV — which, in most cases, would have been preventable with the HPV vaccine, according to the CDC.

The CDC recommends HPV vaccinations for youths ages 11 to 12 so that they are protected before potential exposure to the virus through sexual contact. Vaccination rates have been increasing, but they still lag for boys and girls.

Lingering misconceptions and fears are among the reasons for the lower use of HPV vaccination, said Electra Paskett, a cancer control researcher at Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center. Some people still think vaccination encourages youth to become promiscuous. “The way [the vaccine] was introduced in Australia and the United Kingdom was as a cancer vaccine, which is truly what it is. It is a cancer vaccine,” Paskett said.

The CDC report also addresses oral HPV infections. From 2011 to 2014, their prevalence was 7 percent among those aged 18 to 69, it found. As with genital HPV, rates were higher for men than women overall and in all racial and ethnic groups. The same disparities also were found among those groups: Asians had the lowest rates and blacks had the highest rates.