Issue 147

5111 Kali Era, Virodhi Year, Phalguna month
2066 Vikramarka Era, Virodhi Year, Phalguna month
1930 Salivahana Era, Virodhi Year, Phalguna month
2010 AD, March

Contents

Home

Management
AJIN

TSJ

MS

Vegetarian Links

Disclaimer

Soliciataion

Contact

VPC

More Links

Vedah

	Diet and Exercise Turmeric Green Tea Bitter Melon Hottest Chili Pepper Fish Contaminated with Mercury in the US Obesity Risks, Risk Factors and Prevention Breast Feeding	Miscellaneous Prostate Screening Vaccine Myths Cause Problems Healthy Men Have the Most Sex	Recipes Soy Paneer Stuffed Bitter Gourd Recipe

Diet and Exercise

Turmeric
Turmeric powder is a very common ingredient in India cooking in various curries and rice dishes. Turmeric has been used in Ayurveda (knowledge of life), the Indian traditional medicine, as a medicine for ages.

In a study published in the journal Gut, Austrian scientists found that feeding the compound curcumin to mice reduced the types of inflammation that can cause liver cell damage, blockage and scarring. Previous research has suggested that curcumin, which gives turmeric its bright yellow color, has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties which may be helpful in fighting disease. Some studies have indicated it can suppress cancer tumors and that people who eat lots of curry may be less prone to the disease, although curcumin loses its anti-cancer attributes quickly when it is ingested.

Green Tea
Green Tea is credited with numerous health benefits such as alleviating chronic degenerative conditions such as osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and stroke. The latest discovery comes from the Chinese University in Hong Kong where researchers discovered that by regularly drinking Green tea it can offer protection against common eye diseases such as glaucoma. One of the principle reasons why Green tea is so beneficial is that the harvested leaves are steamed briefly in order to make them pliable and soft but without changing their colour. This makes Green tea the least processed of all teas and therefore the catechins, the active agent responsible for many of the health benefits, are far more concentrated than in other teas.

Bitter Melon
A common vegetable known as bitter melon is looking like a hopeful candidate in the cancer war. Bitter melon is a regular feature of Indian and Chinese cooking. Also known as Karela, it is extremely bitter when eaten raw, but is much liked as a cooked vegetable dish.
Already, bitter melon juice is drank or powder taken by many Indians in order to control diabetes. This recent research now shows that under lab conditions this same vegetable “triggers a chain of events on a cellular level that stops breast cancer cells from multiplying and also kills them.” The study is to be published in the Cancer Research journal.

Hottest Chili Pepper
Native to the Assam region of northeastern India, the bhut jolokia pepper measures 1,001,304 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), nearly twice as hot as Red Savina (577,000). Your average jalapeno pepper is only 10,000 SHUs. In 2007, the Guinness Book of World Records certified the bhut jolokia pepper as the world’s hottest chili pepper. It’s worth noting that “bhut jolokia” translates as “ghost chile.”
The Indian Army is developing a “chili grenade.” Packed with bhut jolokia peppers (aka the world’s hottest chili pepper), these special grenades will be used as non-lethal munition.

Fish Contaminated with Mercury in the US
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) discovered last year that every fish tested had mercury contamination. The study involved testing fish from 291 freshwater streams located right across the United States. Incredibly 100percent of the fish tested were contaminated with mercury. The main source of mercury contamination is by industrial processes that involve mercury and that emit their waste in the form of atmospheric emissions. The chief culprit is burning of coal for electricity. The mercury contaminants drop from the sky and settle onto the land, gradually making their way into rivers, lakes and finally the ocean. In these places it enters the aquatic food chain.

Mercury builds up into greeter concentrations in the predators of the food chain including humans. As it is a potent neurotoxin it can affect the developing nervous systems of foetuses and children. It can also affect adults severely. It would not be surprising that in the United States it is the consumption of shellfish and fish that is the top cause of human mercury poisoning. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE57J01420090820

Obesity Risks, Risk Factors and Prevention
Twenty percent of black and Hispanic children ages 2 to 19 are obese, versus 15 percent of whites, recent government data show. In a new study, risk factors examined included: mothers smoking during pregnancy; unusually rapid weight gain in young infants; starting solid food before 4 months; mothers' routinely pressuring young kids to eat more; children sleeping less than 12 hours daily between 6 months and 2 years; and allowing very young kids to have sugary drinks, fast-food, and TVs in their rooms. Minorities were at higher risk than whites for nearly every one. The odds of obesity appear stacked against black and Hispanic children starting even before birth, the provocative new research suggests. The findings help explain disproportionately high obesity rates in minority children. Family income is often a factor, but so are cultural customs and beliefs, the study authors said. They examined more than a dozen circumstances that can increase chances of obesity, and almost every one was more common in black and Hispanic children than in whites.

Women could reduce their risk of breast cancer up to one-third with simple life changes, researchers said in Spain. Fat cells produce estrogen, which makes most breast cancers grow. Experts at the conference cited estimates from the International Agency for Research on Cancer. This agency estimates that 25% to 30% of breast cancers could be avoided if women were thinner and exercised more. It's not clear that losing weight helps as much as remaining thin all along. Experts also said that having more than two drinks a day can increase breast cancer risk by 4% to 10%.

Research will continue to produce drugs and technology to treat heart disease, but if further progress is to be made, it will have to come from the patient, doctors say. What's underscoring the prevention message now is that doctors and researchers have made enormous progress fighting heart disease over the past two decades, but most of that has been through medical treatment, not because of what the majority of the population has done to prevent it.

Heart disease prevention may need to be treated with public policy just as infectious diseases have been in the past. When people were dying of cholera and typhoid, cities built sewages to stop the spread of disease. A century ago, governments helped build the first public hospitals. Fighting obesity and diabetes and high blood pressure, all health risks associated with heart disease, is a societal question, not an individual question. Now, governments should be doing something for educating citizens about healthy eating and lifestyle changes: eat less and healthy (more vegetables & fruits), more exercise more and no alcohol.

To help Americans in this regard, the sweeping health reform law passed by Congress this month will make nutrition facts available at most chain restaurants. The new standard will apply everywhere. It will replace a growing number of state and city laws. Restaurants with at least 20 locations will have to comply. Calories and nutrients must be listed on a menu or menu board. They can't just appear on a website or poster. The law gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration one year to write specific rules for restaurants to follow.

Getting regular exercise is the most effective way for elderly people to reduce the risk and rate of falls, according to a systematic review of clinical trials cited by the Federal Association of Prevention and Health Promotion (BVPG), an independent German not-for-profit group. Normal-weight women who want to prevent weight gain as they age need to do an hour a day of moderate-intensity physical activity such as brisk walking, a study shows.

Breast Feeding
Breast-feeding benefits both mothers and their babies. Breast milk contains antibodies that can protect newborns from infections, and studies have found breast-fed babies are less likely to become overweight than infants who are fed with formula. According to a CDC study, Hispanic women continue to breast-feed the most, with more than 80 percent initiating breast-feeding right after birth and 45 percent continuing at least six months later. But, white women have a much higher rate in Alaska, Colorado and New Mexico, and a slightly higher rate in California, Oregon and about a half-dozen other Western states.

The study echoed earlier research that generally found lower breast-feeding rates in younger women, low-income women and those with less education. It also repeated findings that breast-feeding rates are lowest in black women. State figures revealed some variation from place to place. The gap between black women and other groups was far more dramatic in the South. In three states - Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi - the percentage of women who tried breast-feeding was 35 percent or lower, less than half the national average. The highest breast-feeding rate was for white women in the District of Columbia. About 97 percent said they initiated breast-feeding, and 80 percent continued it for at least six months.

Miscellaneous

Prostate Screening
Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in American men. An estimated 192,000 new cases and 27,000 deaths from it occurred last year in the United States. But it is a slow-growing cancer in many cases, and depending on a man's age, he may be more likely to die of something else. Prostate cancer screening became a medical norm in the 1990s. But, major studies have suggested routine screening doesn't save lives and often leads to worry and unnecessary treatment. The cancer society’s new guidelines back away from that doctors should offer prostate screening. Instead, the society says some evidence indicates periodic screening can save lives but that there are significant uncertainties about the overall value of finding prostate cancer early. Screening should not take place, the new advice says, unless a patient is fully informed of the trade-offs. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Detection/PSA

Vaccine Myths Cause Problems
In 2008, unvaccinated school-age children contributed to measles outbreaks in California, Illinois, Washington, Arizona and New York. Fear of a vaccine-autism connection stems from a flawed and speculative 1998 study that recently was retracted by a British medical journal. The retraction came after a council that regulates Britain's doctors ruled the study's author acted dishonestly and unethically. Much has been written about research that has failed to find a link between vaccines and autism. Mainstream advocacy groups like Autism Speaks strongly encourage parents to vaccinate their children.

Most parents continue to follow the advice of their children's doctors, according to a study based on a survey of 1,552 parents. Extensive research has found no connection between autism and vaccines. However, unfortunately, one in four U.S. parents believes some vaccines cause autism in healthy children. The new study is based on a University of Michigan survey of parents a year ago, long before the retraction of the 1998 study.

Healthy Men Have the Most Sex
Healthy adults are more likely to have sex in old age, a study appeared in the British Medical Journal. Men are more likely than women to be interested in sex and to have a good sex life. It found that 55-year-old men in very good or excellent health could look forward to 5 to 7 more years of active sex life than those in poorer health. Healthier women gained 3 to 6 years of active sex life. Overall, men were more interested in sex than women, and the gap increased with age. Among people ages 75 to 85, about 39% of men and 17% of women said they were sexually active. About 41% of men said they were interested in sex, compared with 11% of women. But women were more likely to be widows, and the gender gap on sexual activity was narrower among people who had partners.

Recipes

Soy Paneer
Ingredients: 2 tbsp water; 1 tbsp nutritional yeast; 1 tsp Dijon or whole grain mustard; 3/4 tsp onion powder; 1/2 tsp garlic powder; 1/4 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp curry powder (optional); 1 block firm or extra-firm tofu, well-pressed; oil for frying
Preparation: Make sure your tofu is well pressed before beginning. In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except tofu until smooth and creamy. Add tofu, and coat well with sauce. Allow to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.
Heat a bit of oil in a sautee or frying pan. Add tofu, coating with any extra sauce, to make sure all the sauce is used, and fry for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden. Use your tofu paneer as a substitute in any Indian recipe that calls for paneer.
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianindianrecipes/r/paneer1.htm?nl=1

Stuffed Bitter Gourd Recipe
Ingredients: 4 medium-sized karelas/ bitter melon; 1/2 cup vegetable/ canola/ sunflower; cooking oil; 1 tbsp saunf/ fennel seeds; 3 large onions chopped very fine; 1 tbsp garlic paste; 3 large tomatoes chopped very fine; 1 tbsp tomato sauce; 1/2 tsp turmeric powder; 1/2 tsp red chilli powder (optional); 1 tsp coriander powder; 1 tsp cumin powder; Salt

Preparation: Wash the karelas. Cut off top and tail. Slit them through lengthwise leaving 1/2" from top and bottom ends so that the two halves do not separate. Carefully, use a spoon to scoop out the pith. Discard the pith. Put 4 cups of water in a deep vessel and add 1 tbsp of salt to it. Mix to dissolve salt. Put the karelas in this salt water and set up to boil. When water comes to a boil, simmer and cook till the karela skin begins to get soft. Remove from water, drain well and keep aside on a plate to cool.

In a separate pan, heat 2-3 tbsps of cooking oil. Add the saunf/ fennel seed to the oil and fry till spluttering stops. Now add the onions and fry till soft. Add the garlic and fry for 2 minutes. Now add the tomato and cook till pulpy. Add the tomato sauce, turmeric, red chilli, coriander, and cumin powders and salt to taste. Mix well. Fry for 8-10 minutes, stirring often to prevent from burning. Turn off fire and allow mixture to cool completely. Fill this mixture in the pre-cooked karelas. Tie with a string (to prevent filling from spilling out) and keep aside. Heat 3-4 tbsp of oil in a pan on medium flame. Add the karelas to the oil and fry till crispy. Now turn and fry the same way on the other side. Add more cooking oil if required. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep on paper towels. Serve with rice and Daal of your choice.
http://indianfood.about.com/od/vegetarianrecipes/r/bharvaankarela.htm

Health and Nutrition

Issue 147