10 nutrition mistakes even really healthy people make

“A helpful article about eating healthy.”

— Dr. Dale

From 10 nutrition mistakes even really healthy people make  

Even when you try your best to eat well, it’s difficult to know everything about nutrition. I often talk with clients who believe they are making good choices and don’t realize that little oversights stand in their way of optimal health. Here’s a top 10 list of common but easy-to-repair nutrition mistakes. 

You add whole flaxseeds to your breakfast

Flaxseeds are filled with omega-3 fats, fiber and lignans (antioxidants), which all benefit heart health. But whole flaxseeds may pass through the intestines undigested, which means you’ll miss out on the health benefits inside the seed. Buy ground flax seeds instead, or put them in a coffee or spice grinder. 

You blend a nutritious smoothie, but it’s a calorie bomb

It’s easy to toss a combination of superfoods into a blender. Blueberries, cashew butter, chia, kale, bananas and coconut milk sound like a dreamy breakfast elixir, but these concoctions can quickly become calorie bombs. Keep smoothies in the 300-calorie range by serving smaller portions (about 8-12 ounces), using more vegetables than fruit, and by going easy on the high-calorie nuts and seeds. 

You take your supplements with coffee

Caffeine from coffee can hinder your body’s ability to absorb some of the vitamins and minerals in your supplements, including calcium, iron, B-vitamins and vitamin D. And it’s not just coffee — beverages such as tea and cola contain caffeine, too. Enjoy your coffee about an hour before taking your supplements, and swallow pills with water instead.

You use regular canned beans for your meatless meals

Beans are an amazing source of fiber and protein, but canned varieties may have close to 1,000 mg of sodium per cup — that’s two-thirds of what you need in an entire day! Look for cans that say “no-salt-added” or “low-sodium.” If you can’t find them, drain and rinse your canned beans, which will eliminate about 40 percent of the sodium. 

To cut back on sugar, you cut out fruit

The top source of sugar in the American diet is sweetened beverages, not fruit. Sugary soft drinks have no beneficial nutrients, while fruit has fiber, vitamins and protective antioxidants. Plus, we don’t tend to overeat fruit, but do tend to drink too much soda. Consider how much easier it is to down a 20-ounce soda, as opposed to eating six bananas at one time. Both pack 16 teaspoons of sugar. Choose fruit and skip the soda.

You trust claims like ‘low-fat’ and ‘sugar-free’

For many years, we’ve relied on label claims that tell us what our food doesn’t contain – fat, sugar, gluten.It’s more important to look at what the food does contain. Ultra-processed foods may be fat-free or sugar-free, but also loaded with preservatives or refined ingredients. Read ingredient lists and choose foods that are as close to nature as possible.

You drink almond milk for calcium but don’t shake the carton first

Milk alternatives made from soy, almonds, cashews, rice, etc. are often fortified with calcium and vitamin D. But the added nutrients don’t stay in the liquid very well, and tend to sink to the bottom of the container. If you drink without shaking first, you can’t reap the benefits of the added vitamins and minerals. Shake well before serving. 

You skip the dressing on salad

Vegetables contain fat-soluble vitamins A, E and K, and a host of antioxidants that require fat to be absorbed. If you skip the oil and vinegar, you miss out on key nutrients from the salad. Serve your greens with oil-based dressing, nuts, seeds or avocado to dramatically boost your body’s ability to soak up the veggies’ beneficial nutrients . 

You miss out on probiotics by buying the wrong type of yogurt

Yogurt is fermented milk, and fermented foods contain probiotics. So, logic would dictate that all yogurts are probiotic-rich, but unfortunately that’s not the case. If yogurt has been heated or pasteurized, probiotics are destroyed and may not be added back in. Look for the words “live active cultures,” or check ingredient lists for names of specific probiotics (lactobacillus acidophilus, L bulgaricus, etc.) to ensure you’re getting these beneficial bacteria, which aid digestion and support the immune system. 

You refuel with sports drinks

Sports drinks are meant to replace fluid and electrolytes that are lost when you sweat excessively, and are suitable after endurance sports like a soccer game or marathon. But the extra sugar and salt in sports drinks are not needed for casual exercise with minimal perspiration. After a stroll, hydrating with water is the best choice.

Zika virus is here to stay. Here's how California is preparing for that new reality

“Information to keep in mind this summer.”

— Dr. Dale

From Zika virus is here to stay. Here's how California is preparing for that new reality 

Jason Farned set down a clear container in the middle of a table. The people gathered around leaned forward to peer at the tiny, zooming blurs trapped inside.

“The deadliest creature in the world is the mosquito,” said Farned, who works for the San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District, a government agency that manages insect populations. By some estimates, mosquitoes transmit diseases that kill more people each year than any other creature.

The ones Farned brought to this recent meeting in El Monte were Aedes mosquitoes — the kind that spread Zika virus, the disease discovered last year to cause birth defects.

Though no one has contracted Zika virus from a mosquito in California, hundreds of residents have been infected in other countries and then returned to the state. All it would take for the disease to start spreading here is for an Aedes mosquito to bite an infected traveler and then another person, experts say.

It’s been a year since the World Health Organization declared Zika an international public health emergency, but officials are still far from eliminating the virus. Winter has slowed its worldwide spread, but rising temperatures in the spring are bound to bring more cases.

And because a vaccine won’t be ready for years, California mosquito-control and health officials are making plans to battle Zika every summer for the foreseeable future.

“Unfortunately, we’re able to adjust to the new normal that now includes Zika, but we have to remember that there are people behind the statistics — babies, pregnant women,” said Dr. Edward McCabe, chief medical officer for the March of Dimes. “We cannot let down our guard.”

The first line of defense against Zika is mosquito control, officials say.

The disease is transmitted only by Aedes mosquitoes, which aren’t native to the Americas. But the insects showed up in El Monte in shipments of bamboo from Southeast Asia about 15 years ago. The local vector control agency assigned seven people to work full time to try to get rid of the incredibly resilient bugs, Farned said. 

“No community anywhere on the planet has successfully been able to eradicate them. We were really trying to be the first,” he said. “They’re pretty much here to stay.”

The mosquitoes are now found in 12 counties in California, with particularly dense infestations in the San Gabriel Valley.

Farned has enlisted the help of the Buddhist organization Tzu Chi to try to spread the word about Aedes mosquitoes in the region. The recent meeting included a dozen volunteers who collectively spoke Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay and Vietnamese in addition to English.

Part of the reason Aedes mosquitoes are so intractable is because spraying pesticides doesn’t work on them as well as it does on the Culex mosquitoes that Californians are more familiar with, officials say.

The only tactic that’s proved successful in curbing Aedes populations is sending workers door-to-door to check every home for standing water. It’s a tedious task because Aedes mosquitoes can breed in “anything from a bottlecap to a jacuzzi,” said Gimena Ruedas, an assistant vector ecologist with the San Gabriel Valley vector agency.

The insects need only a few drops of water to reproduce, and can even survive inside people’s homes. Their eggs can tolerate months of drought, waiting for rain to hatch.

On a recent morning, Ruedas and her colleague Javier Romo scoured backyards in East Pasadena searching for the mosquitoes and their eggs, which are barely visible to the human eye. Ruedas and Romo get called when homeowners notice the small mosquitoes, usually because they were bitten in the daytime, characteristic of Aedes.

The two looked inside storm drains and fountains and shined flashlights on the lips of upturned pots. Any pool of water as big as a teaspoon could be a danger. Ruedas said she once saw mosquitoes breeding in water droplets collected in a dried-up leaf.

“We cannot go to every single house and look for every single bottle cap,” Ruedas said. 

Pilot projects in El Monte and the Central Valley have tried to curb mosquito populations by releasing male Aedes aegypti that are infected with a bacteria that prevents their eggs from hatching. The efforts had positive results, but these new methods will likely require federal approval and take several months before they’re widespread. 

Officials say that at the very least, the attention around Zika virus has made people more aware of the invasive mosquitoes, which can also transmit deadly diseases such as dengue and chikungunya. Vector control agencies had been sounding the alarm about Aedes mosquitoes since they arrived in California, but didn’t get much traction until Zika came on the scene.

The Zika outbreak began in Brazil last year but then spread to dozens of countries, including the United States. Mosquitoes in parts of Florida and Texas began transmitting the virus.

That has yet to happen in California, which doesn’t have such high mosquito populations. But there is a lot of travel between California and countries with outbreaks, such as Mexico and Guatemala, which increases the risk; 479 Californians have contracted Zika elsewhere, and three babies in California whose mothers were infected with the virus have been born with birth defects.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is setting up surveillance sites at clinics in areas that could be susceptible to a local outbreak, including the San Gabriel Valley and East L.A., said the department’s Dr. Rachel Civen. If patients show up with Zika symptoms, they would be encouraged to get tested, she said. 

Still, it would probably take a while for officials to find out if there were an outbreak in California. Zika symptoms are usually too mild to make someone seek out medical treatment, and only 20% of those infected have symptoms at all. Many people would have to get Zika before one of them was sick enough to go to a doctor to be tested, she said.

Zika virus has kept health officials on their toes across the country. Most doctors had never heard of the virus before last year, and information about the virus rapidly evolves. Since the early reports linked Zika to microcephaly, scientists have discovered the primarily mosquito-borne virus can also be sexually transmitted, cause the neurological disorder Guillan-Barre and also damage adult brains. 

“It’s pretty stressful — things are not ideal,” Civen said. But the constant stream of new findings means health officials are able to provide up-to-date recommendations to help keep people safe, she said. 

Civen said it’s too early to know whether there will eventually be a case of Zika in L.A. It depends on the weather and how big outbreaks in other countries will be this year. Regardless, a different threat could be around the corner, she said, especially considering how much people travel between different parts of the world.

“It may not be Zika, it may be some other virus,” she said. 

The Mind-Body Connection: Reducing Chronic Pain

“An interesting article that highlights the importance of mind-body connection.”

— Dr. Dale

From The Mind-Body Connection: Reducing Chronic Pain 

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health say that 50 per cent of older adults who live independently, and 75-85 per cent of those in assisted living facilities, have chronic pain.

Chronic pain can affect our sleep, appetite, mobility, mental health and our ability to live on our own. Unfortunately, it's so common that many patients and physicians consider chronic pain a normal part of aging.

According to American Pain Society, more than half of persistent pain sufferers have been living with their pain for more than five years, and experience their pain almost six days a week. However, a growing body of research indicates that chronic pain, such as fibromyalgia, sciatic nerve pain and lower back pain, is not something we should take for granted, and that it may be connected to non-age-related issues like loneliness, chronic stress and anxiety. In other words, there may be a stronger mind-body connection than we think.

Placebos and Nocebos

Lissa Rankin, MD, author of the best-selling book, Mind Over Medicine - Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself (find it here), is both a physician and patient who radically changed her life and healed her own body. She believes the mind-body connection deserves more credit than traditional medicine gives it. In an interview with Lifetime Daily, Dr. Rankin explains why.

"Chronic pain is the body's way of calling for help," said Rankin. "The placebo effect (where a fake medical treatment improves a patient's symptoms or cures their condition) is proof of the mind's ability to impact our health. "When patients believe they've received a treatment that will heal them, even if it's only a placebo, they often experience relief from their symptoms, and healing."

Similarly, when patients experience negative outcomes from fake medical treatments, or negative suggestions made by medical staff, they experience a "nocebo" effect. While some view this as medical quackery, Rankin disagrees. "The nocebo effect shows that our ability to develop and recover from disease and chronic pain depends in large part on what we think and believe, how we live and who we surround ourselves with."

Ted J. Kaptchuk is Professor of Medicine and Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Mass. According to Kaptchuk, a host of studies show just how powerful placebos and nocebos can be.

"The placebo effect includes everything that surrounds the health care experience that can influence patient outcomes -- from a positive doctor-patient interaction to the power of imagination, hope, trust, persuasion and compassion," said Kaptchuk. "Placebos can stimulate an array of physiological responses, including changes in the brain's chemical activity, that alleviate pain, depression, anxiety, and fatigue.

"Other studies have shown that placebos address symptoms of illnesses like Parkinson's disease, asthma, irritable bowel disease, and benign prostatic hyperplasia," Kaptchuk continued. "Placebos have also been proven to augment the effectiveness of existing medicines and procedures, making them more powerful."

What Makes a Body Healthy? 

Rankin says that a healthy body is the product of a healthy life filled with strong and supportive relationships, fulfilling work, a sense of purpose, healthy outlets for creativity, spirituality and sexuality, a safe living environment, stable finances and solid mental health, all lived within a framework of love, service, gratitude and pleasure.

When one or more of those elements is out of whack, as they are for many older adults, it creates imbalances that impact the rest of your life and ultimately your health.

"Countless studies confirm that among older patients, psychosocial determinants like the presence of strong social ties and supportive friendships, along with feelings of control and purpose, are inextricably linked not only with health but also with life expectancy," Rankin said. "In fact, they may be even more important than more traditional health determinants like a healthy diet, exercise and health care.

"In countries where people live the longest, older adults have strong family and community bonds, active social lives and rich spiritual experiences," she added. "They enjoy greater longevity even if they drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and eat foods that are deemed to be 'unhealthy.'"

What Makes a Body Unhealthy?

Rankin suggests that the body creates symptoms and illnesses as motivators for change. "The body starts communicating via whispers -- subtle physical symptoms like a headache or lower back pain," she said. "If we ignore these whispers, the body begins to yell and that's when you face serious illness."

Life lived out of balance creates stress, which causes the adrenal glands to release cortisol (the stress hormone). Under normal conditions, stress hormones are only released at times of danger and they return to normal levels when danger is over.

But many people live with so much stress that cortisol levels remain abnormally high. That raises prolactin levels, which increases the body's sensitivity to pain. When nerve endings, bones and muscle fibers are chronically bathed in stress hormones, they become hypersensitive to the point where even minor pain can feel excruciating. Autoimmune functions deteriorate, inflammation occurs and chronic pain develops.

The good news, Rankin says, is that a "mind over medicine" approach to chronic painis highly effective. "When people work on improving their relationships, creative outlets, spirituality, sex life, environment and finances, they change their thoughts, beliefs and feelings," she explained. "They dial down stress responses and shift the nervous system into relaxation responses. Cortisol levels drop. Endorphins, the body's natural pain relievers, are released."

How to Cultivate a Healthier Mind-Body Connection

Rankin developed a diagnostic and treatment wellness model she calls the Whole Health Cairn. A cairn is a stack of balanced stones that stands as a memorial or landmark. In Mind Over Medicine she writes, "Like a cairn, the body is awe-inspiringly strong and resilient, and at the same time, fragile and easy to tip out of balance. If whole health is a stack of balanced stones, the body is the stone on top, the most precarious, the most likely to tumble if other stones shift."

Rankin recommends taking a good look at your life to diagnose the root causes of your stress responses. She also recommends that you practice what she calls "radical self care." Get support, believe you can heal, and seek out appropriate medical care to address your body's health needs as a whole.