Nutrition and your health Nutrition and your health blog

To start fighting inflammation and the risks it brings, you should lose excess weight — even just 5 percent of your body weight, exercise regularly, adjust your diet to avoid foods that increase inflammation and work in more anti-inflammatory foods.

Some of the best anti-inflammatory foods include:

• Fish, canola oil, walnuts — good sources of omega 3.

• Olive oil, peanut oil, nuts and avocados — rich in monounsaturated fats that also improve the body’s cholesterol balance.

• Fruits, vegetables, whole grains — antioxidant powerhouses that calm inflammation. Look for produce with deeper or brighter colors, which have the most antioxidants.

• Herbs, spices, teas — concentrated antioxidant sources, especially cinnamon, curry, dill, oregano, ginger, and rosemary. Most teas, including green, black, white and oolong, burst with antioxidants.

Is inflammation making you sick? Inflammation can be a good and bad thing depending on the scenario.

When you stub your toe, your body’s immune system kicks in to increase blood circulation to the injured area, create heat to fight infection, and send white blood cells and other chemicals to fight off bacteria and repair damaged cells. That’s good.

But when your body continues to produce inflammation under the radar, studies are showing it puts you at high risk for health problems, including heart disease and cancer. And more information is being revealed every day about the negative effects of chronic inflammation on our health.

Inflammation can be triggered by conditions such as chronic back pain and even gum disease. Excess weight — especially around the belly — also increases inflammation because body fat produces hormones and secretes substances that can trigger inflammation.

Saturated fat, trans fats, omega-6 polyunsaturated fats (not to be confused with healthful omega-3), sugar and other simple carbs all are linked with higher levels of inflammation.

Are you sitting down reading this? Stand up! Scientists have found that sitting shuts off the circulation of a fat-absorbing enzyme called lipase, leading to obesity, heart disease and other health problems. So parking your back end is like parking your body’s fat-burning machine.

When lipase distribution is turned off by sitting, fat re-circulates in the bloodstream and is stored as body fat or goes on to clog arteries and cause other health problems. Studies are showing that rates of heart disease, diabetes and obesity are doubled or even tripled in people who sit a lot.

But by simply standing up, you engage muscles and promote lipase distribution, which kick starts the body to process fat and cholesterol. Standing up also uses blood glucose and may discourage the development of diabetes. In addition, standing improves your HDL, or good cholesterol, levels and burns an extra 60 calories an hour.

Don’t take this threat to your health sitting down. Avoid the chair! Choose standing over sitting whenever you can. Here are some ideas:

• Rather than sitting down to talk on the phone, stand up and look out the window, wipe the counter, or pace the floor.

• When you’re watching TV, you can still be productive. Stand up to fold clothes, dust the entertainment center, straighten up the room or simply stand in front of the TV (as long as you’re not blocking anyone’s view!).

• At children’s sporting events, leave the folding chair in your car and stand to watch the game instead. You’ll probably see more of the action that way!

• If you have a desk job, take frequent breaks to stand and walk around. Do your filing, note making, organizing and phone calls standing up at your desk rather than tethered to a chair.

As the media churns out bad news like a factory of doom, you may literally feel your shoulders tensing, your stomach knotting and your brow furrowing. This kind of stress is no joke — it’s not healthy for you mentally or physically. The good news is there’s a happy antidote: laughter may just be the best medicine!

A little amusement therapy can go a long way to easing stress and improving both mental and physical health. Consider these eight stress-busting benefits of laughter.

1. Laughter is known to reduce the levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, while the brain boosts production of happy hormones like endorphins. It also causes the body to produce natural pain killers. At the same time, laughter strengthens the immune system to better protect you from the health-ravaging effects of stress.

2. Laughter helps you “let it all out.” Have you ever laughed so hard you cried? Afterwards, you feel a relaxed sense of release. So tickle that funny bone whenever possible!

3. Laughter also distracts you from feelings of anger, guilt and worry. Even if you have to fake smiles and laughter at first, it often leads to the real thing. Start with the corners of your mouth and work up from there.

4. Laughter can change your perspective to help you better handle stress. Taking a lighter, more positive approach to problems through humor can help you see events more as a challenge rather than a stress-inducing threat. Finding the humor in your life can help you cope — and give you some hilarious stories to share if you work at it!

5. Your laughter helps others around you, which in turn makes you feel even better. It’s a happy snowball effect because laughter truly is contagious! When you laugh you raise the mood-bar in a social situation and connect more with others. And those connections of support and friendship are stress-reducers, too. Get chuckling and watch the place light up.

6. Even just anticipating laughter reduces stress hormones, according to current research. So make plans to watch something funny and you’re already reaping the benefits of laughter. Then when you actually watch something funny and laugh along, your health benefits have doubled!

7. Laughter is even good exercise. A hearty belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, abs and shoulders while it also gives your heart a work out. It also stimulates the lungs and circulation, which can relieve that knot in your stomach. And it gives your cheeks a healthy pink flush, too!

8. Laughter is free! In these tough economic times, who doesn’t like that? Get together with friends more often and laughter is sure to follow. Get creative to work more fun (and funnies) into your life. Read a humor book. (Who can’t smile at Erma Bombeck’s wit — it’s still relevant today?) Giggle with the comedies on TV and ditch the dark and depressing shows. (And skip the news entirely.)

9. To ride out these tough economic times and other hurdles in life, simply laugh in the face of stress. You may just start a laughter revolution!

Long work weeks are interfering with sleep for millions of Americans, according to a new study released by the National Sleep Foundation on March 3, 2008. The survey of 1,000 people showed that most of us average just six hours and 40 minutes of sleep a night, far below the seven and a half to eight hours recommended by medical experts.

Workday stress plays a key role in robbing people of restful, restorative sleep. But a healthy diet could help defuse the effects of stress once your head hits the pillow. Foods that boost the neurotransmitter serotonin can actually promote sleep. These include:

* Whole grains, such as whole wheat, brown rice and oats. Try a bedtime snack high in complex carbohydrates to help ease your way to dreamland.

* Milk with honey. Milk contains tryptophan, which converts to serotonin in the body and helps promote the deep stages of sleep. Turkey, egg whites and tuna also contain tryptophan.

* B Vitamins, especially B6 and B12, help reduce stress that can lead to trouble sleeping. Whole grains, wheat germ, tuna, walnuts, peanuts, bananas, sunflower seeds, and blackstrap molasses are all rich in B vitamins.

* Magnesium can also help reduce the stress and nervousness that interfere with sleep. Magnesium-rich foods include kelp, wheat bran, almonds, cashews and blackstrap.

While some foods can improve sleep, others can make sleep difficult or even impossible. Foods to avoid at bedtime include:

* Coffee and other caffeine-containing foods, such as chocolate, cocoa, soft drinks and some over-the-counter and prescription medications.

* Spicy foods that may cause gastrointestinal reflux or heartburn.

* Overly sweet or fatty foods that can also cause indigestion and/or bloating.

* Alcohol. Although it can make you feel sleepy at first, alcohol disturbs sleep patterns later in the night.