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Next meeting October 4th at the Day Hospital, Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm 9.00pm Speaker Lynn Banning will give a talk and demonstration on Yoga
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British Heart Foundation
To coincide with World Heart Day this year the British Heart Foundation is launching its Food4Thought 2 campaign aimed at changing the eating habits of 11-12 year olds. It is a fantastic way of contributing to this year's theme "How young is your heart?". They are launching Food4Thought 2 on Friday 22 September in the run up to the World Heart Day weekend, and expect to receive significant coverage in the media.
World Heart Day contact: Ms Maura Gillespie
Email: gillespiem@bhf.org.uk
World Heart Day press contact: Ms Annette Richardson
Email: richardsona@bhf.org.uk
Web site: www.bhf.org.uk
Email: richardsona@bhf.org.uk
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Wally’s Yarn
A man travelled to a neighbouring town for a job interview. He thought he knew where the firm was but when he got there he could not find it, so he parked his car and set off on foot.
He was parked near a large Victorian style building with a high wooden fence around it. He couldn’t see over the fence, but he could hear the sound of a large group of people wearily marching with heavy boots on. In time with the marching they were chanting something which sounded like, THIR--TEEN, and THIR--TEEN. It sounded strange, and he thought it might be some sort of military academy, and so carried on to keep his appointment.
He hadn’t gone far, and was still alongside the fence of the Victorian building where the people were chanting, when he stopped a woman to ask directions. She pointed out that he had made a simple mistake of being in London Road East when he needed London Road West. She also pointed out that as he had already parked his car it would be easier to leave it where it is and catch
a bus to the other end of London Road, as parking was limited and the buses passed in each direction, every 15 minutes. He decided to take the woman’s advice, but was still curious about the group of people chanting, and so asked what sort of building it was. She lowered her voice and told him that folk didn’t speak about the place very much, and very few locals had ever caught a glimpse of what went on behind the high fence. In these days of political correctness all she would say that it was a place for the more serious mentally and educationally challenged people, and that this was their exercise period, and they would be marching around the grounds,
As he waited for the bus he could still hear the chanting and clumping of boots on the other side of the fence THIR--TEEN, THIR--TEEN. He was thinking about what the woman had told him, and as he looked at the high fence wondering what else they maybe doing, he noticed the sun was shinning through a knothole about four feet off the ground, partly covered by some bushes.
Thinking he had found something no one else had seen he went over; stooped down, put his eye to the knothole. He had just got his eye up to the hole when all of a sudden someone poked a finger through the knothole and caught him right in the eye.
He reeled back, managed to catch his balance and stood up, with his hand over the very sore and watering eye. As he had caught his breath and realised what had happened,. he could still hear the clumping of heavy boots, but now the chant had changed to FOUR--TEEN, FOUR--TEEN, FOUR--TEEN.
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Drinking and eating: green tea + whole grains & fibre (lower cholesterol and hypertension).
Green tea continues to receive a very good press. Not long ago we passed on a report that suggested green tea could help weight loss. A new study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that green tea can actually play a very serious general role in preventing deaths in middle and late-middle age, and particularly help prevent deaths from heart disease. Many Japanese drink green tea and those that do are healthier in middle age. The study in north eastern Japan followed 40,530 adults (ages 40 to 79) for 11 years. Fewer deaths were recorded among the tea drinkers. (Kuriyama, S., et al "Green Tea Consumption and Mortality Due to Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, and All Causes in Japan: The Ohsaki Study"JAMA 2006; 296 (10): 1255-1266.) For some of us, also, it could be worth noting that last year there was a report of a small study where supplements of green tea extract were shown to seriously help men suffering early stage prostate cancer.
When we think about health and our heart disease, however, we should try to see the bigger picture and not focus just on individual nutrients. Japanese who eat traditional foods have lower cholesterol than us and suffer less heart disease. They eat much less fatty and dairy foods and more whole grain foods and traditionally put on less weight than us (that could be changing unfortunately as young people change their eating habits). We can also remember that it is easier for us to lose weight when we eat plenty of fibre. This means eating whole foods from plant sources, for example whole grains, as well as generous helpings of fruit, vegetables and beans or peas or lentils. A recent study looked specifically at the effect on higher than normal blood pressure (hypertension) when whole grains were introduced as a significant part of the daily intake (20% of calories/energy). The study also measured changes in body weight. Whole wheat/brown rice/barley reduced blood pressure and helped reduce weight in persons with mildly raised cholesterol. It is interesting that those on ‘whole grains’ ate slightly more calories yet lost more weight. “Whole-Grain Diets Reduce Blood Pressure in Mildly Hypercholesterolemic Men and Women”. Authors: K. Behall, et al., Diet and Human Performance Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture. Published in Journal of the American Dietetic Association,Volume 106, Issue 9 , September 2006, Pages 1445-1449.
My suggestion: try not to look at TV adverts for special ‘healthy’ (expensive) ‘cereals’, try some traditional cooking instead. Fibre is not difficult.
For those of you with internet access, particularly broadband there is a very useful site in America. http://www.pritikin.com/eperspective/0608/loweringCholesterol.shtml
I quote a tip on obtaining fibre (there are plenty of spices and herbs to flavour your food; I use cinnamon and ginger and a few soaked prunes and oat bran with porridge for example):
Breakfast:
A cup of hot oatmeal (5 grams of fibre)
2 cups of fresh fruit (5 grams)
A slice of 100% wholemeal toast (2.5 grams)
lunch:
A big green salad (5 grams of fibre)
½ cup of chick peas (garbanzo beans) on top of your salad (5 grams)
Baked potato (5 grams)
1 cup of fresh fruit (5 grams)
Tea / dinner/ supper:
Seafood optional (0 grams of fibre)
Lentil soup (5 grams)
Brown rice (2.5 grams)
2 servings of steamed vegetables (5 grams)
Fresh berries for dessert (2.5 grams)
PS. Berries
I hope you have some stashed away for winter.
They are all of them good for us.
Blackberries are just showing up as seriously ‘anti-cancer’, like other berries, but appear particularly potent. The study was again from the U.S. Agricultural Research Service and is published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. What is good for cancer prevention is good for heart and arteries, and vice versa.
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