Not getting enough sleep at nights may be causing your junk food cravings, according to a study. After scanning 23 young adults after a normal night’s sleep and after a sleepless night researchers at UC Berkeley found “impaired activity in the sleep-deprived brain’s frontal lobe, which governs complex decision-making, but increased activity in deeper brain centers that respond to rewards. Moreover, the participants favored unhealthy snack and junk foods when they were sleep deprived.” “What we have discovered is that high-level brain regions required for complex judgments and decisions become blunted by a lack of sleep, while more primal brain structures that control motivation and desire are amplified,” said Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology and ...
Many restaurants offer the same sugary beverages on kids meals with unhealthy options like high-sugar sodas, lemonades and juices. Now Maryland lawmakers are considering a bill to help ban sodas and other sugary drinks from kids menu's in all restaurants. Wanting to help parents and kids make the healthy choice the easy choice, the bill would change kids menus to offer healthier choices like water, low-fat milk or 100 percent juices at regular price. "The choice that comes with 80 percent of restaurant kids' meals is a soda or a fruit punch, and in those cases families are always welcomed to ask for a healthy drink, but it sometimes costs $2 or $3 more to get a milk," Robi Rawl, the Sugar Free Kids Maryland Executive Director said in a recent article. According to the Center ...
Urbi(c)ulture Community Farms are making school lunches look a little more like a garden with their new school garden programs. Teachers plant alongside students, helping them understand what it takes to grow food, and be more open to eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Students harvest the fresh produce from the 6,500 square-foot garden to bring to the cafeteria for all students to try and enjoy.
The Need for Healthy Food
Awareness: Columbian Elementary School teacher Brenna Larson Brooks enjoyed gardening at home in Denver. She wanted to use her backyard for a food garden, so she reached out to Urbi(c)ulture Community Farms, a Denver nonprofit that turns donated land into gardens that grow food for the community. Urbi(c)ulture helped Brooks design and build her ...
Sugar has been a hot topic in the news. Recent research shows the negative health impacts such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. But does sugar impact kids' brains? A new study shows that not only does consumption of sweets and sugar filled products hurt the body, and cause oral health decay, but also consuming sugar can cause changes in the part of the brain that control emotional and cognitive function. The study was published in the Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, where researchers found that sugar water diets given to rats had the same effect on the brain as if rats were exposed to early life issues or abuse. Over consumption of sugary sweetened beverages is a concern especially for young children the researchers explained, as this can cause ...
Cancer is a top killer of Americans. While in some instances cancers are genetically inherited in the majority of cases, they’re preventable with a good diet and plenty of exercise. Here are top cancer-fighting superfoods, according to Health:
1. Berries
Berries are packed with phytonutrients, especially black berries which contain a high concentration of phytochemicals called anthocyanins. These "slow down growth of premalignant cells and keep new blood vessels from forming (and potentially feeding a cancerous tumor).”
2. Walnuts
Phytosrerois—cholesterol like molecules “have been shown to block estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells, possibly slowing the cells' growth.”
3. Beans
Researchers and numerous studies have found that black and navy beans can ...
Teenagers who eat fruits and vegetables high in fiber may significantly lower their risk of developing breast cancer (a leading cause of death among Latinas and other populations), later on in life, according to a new study, CBS News reports. Researchers at Harvard’s T.H Chen School of Public Health analyzed data from 44,000 women. They concluded that those who consumed about 28 grams of fiber a day “had a significantly lower risk of breast cancer before menopause compared with those who said they ate less than 15 grams a day.” "The results of this study emphasize the role of an early life high-fiber diet on prevention of breast cancer in later life. High consumption of foods rich in fiber such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains in early life may help to reduce breast ...
Across America, public health leaders in different states across the nation are pushing for various ways to address a rising childhood obesity epidemic. One big issue is sugary drinks. Sugary beverage consumption on a daily basis has been proven in research to be linked to higher risks of health related diseases. Follow #SaludTues to tweet with us on Feb. 2, 2016, as we unveil the results of a new study focusing on kids and sugary drinks. Participants will discuss problems, solutions, and new studies on sugary beverages and kids. We will share research packages that include helpful infographics. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Sugary Beverages & Kids”
DATE: Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016
TIME: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT)
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag ...
Two architecture and planning graduate students from the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) recognized good fruit from fruit trees were being left to rot in urban areas of San Antonio, Texas, where many families live in need of fresh foods. Working together for a class project, the friends created a blossoming non-profit to make sure families in need can access a variety of fresh fruit.
A Local Healthy Food Problem
Awareness/Learn: In summer 2013, UTSA grad student Melissa Federspill started a class focused on health planning, called “Health in the Built Environment.” Students in the class were advised to visualize solutions to inner-city health problems. The class analyzed a neighborhood close to campus, the Avenue to Guadalupe neighborhood in the West Side of San ...
Children who lived closer to supermarkets increased fruit and vegetable consumption and reduced their body mass index (BMI), according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health. Researchers examined about 500 children ages 6-12 with a BMI of or above the 95th percentile. There are other factors still needing further research. The researchers of the study suggest focusing on household income, other non-medical drivers of health, the drive to lose weight, and other factors, which could determine weight loss or gain, too. Having close access to fruits and vegetables has also been shown to assist families and help reduce the BMI of kids, studies show. To learn more about this study, click ...
