Juicer relocation project

I’ve been having a discussion with spunkyblonde about giving her my old juicer, and it occurred to me that many of you who started out with juicers may have moved on to a fancier juicer or to the Vitamix or Blendtec. Some of you, like me, may have an old juicer taking up valuable counter space.

What if we did a juicer relocation program? You could even sell them at discount instead of giving them away – after all, they’re not cheap. Anyone who’s interested in donating (or selling), let me know in the comment section. After that, people who want one can say what they’d be willing to pay for one (and work out the details of shipping.)

It’s also okay if everyone thinks this is a lame idea and decides to pass on it.

Delayed puberty linked to low bone mass in adults.

Researchers at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles determined that the onset of puberty was the primary influence on adult bone mineral density, but length of puberty did not affect bone density at all.

The study involved 78 girls and 84 boys, all of whom had just entered puberty, and followed them until they reached sexual maturity.

“Puberty has a significant role in bone development,” explained Dr. Gilsanz. “During this time, bones lengthen and increase in density. At the end of puberty the epiphyseal plates close, terminating the ability of the bones to lengthen. When this occurs, the teenager has reached their maximum adult height and peak bone mass. We found that early puberty was associated with greater bone mass while later puberty resulted in less.”

Here’s where meddling with mother nature can get you in trouble:  right now, if a kid is short, sometimes doctors will suppress hormones pharmacologically to delay puberty so that the kid can grow taller. This results of this study suggest the kid may be taller at the cost of bone density. Hm.

I wonder — will they stop medically postponing puberty? Or given this knowledge, will they try to take some kind of steps to postpone puberty, but then beef up bones as much as possible afterwards? You can read it here.

I think I was 11 or 12 when I started puberty. It was the summer after 6th grade. Is that late, or early, or on-time? I shudder when I read about 7 year old girls hitting puberty. Does this mean they will have bones of steel?

Bigger breakfast may mean a bigger you

When I was in college, and in fact all through my adult years, the standard wisdom about breakfast was that you should eat a big one, and that would prevent snacking later in the day. The logic went something like you’d be full of nutritious food and would therefore not be tempted to snack on empty calories found in vending machines between breakfast and lunch.

I was more in the Carnation Instant Breakfast camp. Or cup of yogurt camp. I felt that a big breakfast (aside from guaranteeing I would snooze throughout math class) would do nothing to curb my eating. I’d just eat a big breakfast and everything else I normally ate, meaning I’d be a bigger me. Even today, I am not big on breakfast. Or at least not big on breakfast for breakfast. I generally have a smoothie or juice of some kind and don’t get around to actually eating until 1:00 p.m. or so. But then I also sleep quite late (because I stay up quite late.) Let’s face it, I’m operating in a different time zone.

Anyway — science has at last backed me up. Sorry, IHop. The Rooty-Tooty-Fresh-N-Fruity Breakfast will have to remain off the menu for me.

By the way

… in light of the article on HRT and how starting Prempro earlier increases the risk for breast cancer, isn’t it beyond ironic that women who take Prempro to lessen their menopause symptoms, are the same women who would have a lower risk for breast cancer, but because of that crap-tastic drug, end up more likely to get breast cancer.

Can you imagine how furious those women are going to be if they read both of these studies?!!  Can you imagine?!!

Earlier hormone therapy elevates breast cancer risk

According to an article in The New York Times about this recently released study. Now before everyone freaks out about HRT, it should be noted — it should be noted in letters ten feet high in blazing, neon lights — that once again, the hormone replacement drug in question is Prempro. Why in tarnation are they still making and marketing this horrible drug? Why? Whywhywhywhywhy??

In response to the new study, Pfizer had this to say:

Pfizer, which makes Prempro, issued a statement saying it took the new findings seriously, but questioned the mortality figures.

Because breast cancer doesn’t really matter unless you die from it, right? It’s like a little head cold or something. Jerks.

More on the “calcium from green foods” debate

After posting about Jane Brody’s recent article on calcium and vitamin D — the one where she basically terrifies people about eating broccoli, kale, spinach, etc., and seems to push cow juice — I got an email from the Healthy Librarian. (If you guys haven’t visited that site, it’s great. There’s a permanent link on the right hand side of my blog as well, so you don’t always have to hunt for this post in order to find her.)

Debby mentioned Scott Stoll M.D’s excellent article on plants sources of calcium, which can be found here. She also sent along this great picture that shows the calcium absorption rate of different foods. Because in the end, it doesn’t really matter how much calcium a food contains. What counts if how much of that calcium is available for your body to absorb. So guess who would win in a fist-fight, kale or milk? If you guessed kale, you are correct. You know what the real shocker is? Brussels sprouts.  They have a 64% absorption ratio, as opposed to kale at 40-59% and milk with a lowly 32%. Boo to the moo.

Lastly, Debby included two quotes from WH Foods website (ironically the same two quotes which I posted in the comments section on the Jane Brody post – great minds think alike! And use the same Google sources!)

On the topic of kale and oxalates:

Kale is among a small number of foods that contain measurable amounts of oxalates, naturally occurring substances found in plants, animals, and human beings. When oxalates become too concentrated in body fluids, they can crystallize and cause health problems. For this reason, individuals with already existing and untreated kidney or gallbladder problems may want to avoid eating kale. Laboratory studies have shown that oxalates may also interfere with absorption of calcium from the body. Yet, in every peer-reviewed research study we’ve seen, the ability of oxalates to lower calcium absorption is relatively small and definitely does not outweigh the ability of oxalate-containing foods to contribute calcium to the meal plan. If your digestive tract is healthy, and you do a good job of chewing and relaxing while you enjoy your meals, you will get significant benefits - including absorption of calcium – from calcium-rich foods plant foods that also contain oxalic acid.Ordinarily, a healthcare practitioner would not discourage a person focused on ensuring that they are meeting their calcium requirements from eating these nutrient-rich foods because of their oxalate content.

On the subject of kale and thyroid function / goiters:

Kale is sometimes referred to as a “goitrogenic” food. Yet, contrary to popular belief, according to the latest studies, foods themselves-kale included-are not “goitrogenic” in the sense of causing goiter whenever they are consumed, or even when they are consumed in excess. In fact, most foods that are commonly called “goitrogenic”-such as the cruciferous vegetables (including kale, broccoli, and cauliflower) and soyfoods-do not interfere with thyroid function in healthy persons even when they are consumed on a daily basis. Nor is it scientifically correct to say that foods “contain goitrogens,” at least not if you are thinking about goitrogens as a category of substances like proteins, carbohydrates, or vitamins. With respect to the health of our thyroid gland, all that can be contained in a food are nutrients that provide us with a variety of health benefits but which, under certain circumstances, can also interfere with thyroid function. The term “goitrogenic food” makes it sound as if something is wrong with the food, but that is simply not the case. What causes problems for certain individuals is not the food itself but the mismatched nature of certain substances within the food to their unique health circumstances. For more, see an An Up-to-Date Look at Goitrogenic Substances in Food.

Here’s the link for the above quotes.

Women who have hot flashes are less likely to get breast cancer

This news makes me somewhat less annoyed about waking up at 3:30 every morning, drenched in sweat, the sheets soaked thru. A really unpleasant feeling when it’s -13 outside and 55 inside. But there you have it. The research is new, but the findings are “robust” in terms of the numbers to back it up. You can read the article here. They caution that just because you have hot flashes, that does not mean you can skip your mammogram or yearly check ups. Don’t get cocky.

Central heating is making us fat?

Scientist think it might play a role. They say that when temperatures are lower, we shiver to keep warm, and this burns more calories. But even if it’s not so cold that we’re shivering – - say you keep the thermostat in the low 60′s (like we do because we’re cheap), your body undergoes something called thermogenesis. And thermogenesis (they believe) may burn something called brown fat as its fuel. Adults carry brown fat in their back and their necks. The article states:

Unlike regular fat, which stores excess energy and calories, brown fat acts like an internal furnace that consumes lots of calories, but it has to be activated first — and cold temperatures do that.

So these British researchers put forth this theory that our toasty warm homes are part of what is making us fatter. It goes like this:

The researchers found that since central heating became commonplace in the 1960s, room temperatures have increased slowly but steadily in both the United States and Britain. In both countries, obesity has also been on the rise.

The average temperature of living rooms in Britain, around 64.9 degrees Fahrenheit in 1978, had risen to 70.3 degrees by 2008. Bedrooms, kept at 59 degrees in 1978, were up to 65.3 by 1996, the last year figures were available.

In the United States, living rooms have long been heated to just over 70 degrees in the winter, at least when the house is occupied. Bedroom temperatures continue to rise and were up to 68 as of 2005, from 66.7 in 1987.

“What’s particularly noticeable is that people are heating the whole of their house,” said Fiona Johnson, a research fellow at University College London and the paper’s lead author. “In the past they would heat the main living areas, and the bedrooms might be cold at night.” That means people no longer have to adjust to different temperatures as they move through the house.

The article goes on to say that we make matter worse by driving everywhere… in heated cars… and that children spend less time playing outdoors. They say that the brown fat is a use it or lose it kind of thing. If you’re not using it (i.e., if you don’t need it), it just goes away. It says babies have a lot of brown fat and that our levels of brown fat decrease over time. But they said that they’ve done studies where they put people in a 60-degree room in lightweight fabric – about the weight of hospital scrubs – and they burn between 100 and 200 more calories per day, 3,500 more over the course of three weeks (which equals a pound of weight.) They say that putting on a sweater diminished the effect. And then they say that it’s hard to make people sit in a 60-degree room.

Without a sweater? No freaking way. Although I used to have to do that regularly. It was called “the word processing pool” and it was in a law firm. All the word processors must’ve been going through menopause or something, because they kept it so cold in that room, you could see your breath. No wonder I was so skinny then. By brown fat was heating me up and making me burn calories.

At the apartment, we have no control over the heat. It used to be fairly Saharan in there come winter. But now that the landlord is trying to get us to leave, it’s rare that I don’t need a sweater. In the country, we used to keep the thermostat at 55 and just burn wood, instead of ever using the heater. Upstairs would be in the high 60s / low 70s, and downstairs would hover between 53 and 57. Hubby’s office used to be downstairs. Poor hubby.

In the last year, we’ve gotten soft. We tend to set it at 65. When the hubby isn’t here, I might go as low as 60. But boy does that make getting out of bed brutal.

Winter doldrums

I have a bad case of them. Although, we did get a bit of good news about our sales tax situation. The state is forgiving the late penalties as well. They also told me that any reservations we had that lasted a week or longer are exempt from sales tax, and that I was doing myself a disservice by not breaking that down in my reporting. So I just resubmitted those figures. It will save us almost 50% in what we owe. Yay.

As for the rib, I don’t think it’s broken. I don’t even think it’s a rib. I think it’s a muscular thing. If it were a bone, I think it would hurt all the time. This only hurts when I’m using force, like if I go into plank (think push up, for the non-yoga people), or if I pull something towards me (has to be heavy to hurt). I can raise my arms overhead without pain, but if I stretch while doing that, it’s an owie. I’m trying to take it easy, but it’s difficult. And for those of you who are going to tell me to go to a doctor, I won’t. If it is a rib, all they’ll do is wrap it. And I’ve already got Ace bandages on it now. I pop an Advil every now and then, but for the most part I’m just cruising through it.

But it does make me wonder how on earth people who have real pain deal with it? I mean in the scope of things, this is nothing. But it colors my whole day.

Besides that, it has been in the negative degrees here. Specially, -4, -7, then -13. Who needs that? I can’t whine too much because I know there are places in the world called North Dakota and Manitoba and Siberia. But can I at least whine a little bit?

What do you guys do to exercise when you can’t get out (because of ice or extreme cold)? How do you make yourself exercise when you’re feeling a little pilky (my word for acting like a pill while being sickly)? Are there ways you trick yourselves into doing things?

And does winter bug other people as much as it bugs me? I need to move to Arizona.

Also, if I took this site to Facebook, would you guys “Like It”? Is anyone here on facebook?

I’m listening to conservative commentator David Brooks on NPR

He gave a speech at the Commonwealth Club earlier this week. This is an amazing discussion. So wonderfully nuanced. And when he talks about our youth today (30 and under), he makes me feel so much hope. He talks about how we need to be personally willing to make sacrifices in order to keep our nation from bankruptcy, and how he hopes a national movement might be coming for fiscal responsibility. That in this day and age where our military men and women are dying over in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is unpatriotic for us to not be willing to let go of our home mortgage deductions in order to ensure fiscal solvency.

He also talks about the polarization in politics and ways to reframe and reorganize to move beyond that.

I really enjoy listening to him.

If you go to this link, there is video there. But I’m hoping they’re going to post a podcast link soon, if someone wants to listen to it.