Breastfeeding is a scientifically proven way to reduce risk of disease and create a healthy future for kids and moms. But not all moms get breastfeeding support they need. Latina moms especially have less support for breastfeeding in hospitals, the workplace, and early child care settings than their white peers, according to a new Rivard Report article by Amanda Merck of Salud America!, a national Latino child health network funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and based at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Merck's article highlights ways to increase breastfeeding support for Latina and all moms: Baby Café. Norma Sifuentes and Diana Montano, two San Antonio health workers, took advantage of a funding opportunity to create Baby Café. The facility is a ...
Researchers from the U.K. have found a correlation between being overweight or obese (a condition that affects close to 80% of Latino adults) to the loss of white matter in the brain, BBC News reports. According to researchers the reduction of white matter in the brain “represents around a decade of brain aging.” For the study, investigators looked at data from 473 adults ages 20-87 and found that obesity had the most impact on the brains of middle-aged adults. “Middle-aged adults who were overweight or obese had a white matter volume that was comparable to those of lean adults who were 10 years older; for example, the white matter volume of a 50-year-old overweight adult was on par with that of a 60-year-old lean adult,” researchers ...
Weight gain is among the main worries for the majority of pregnant women, but healthy weight gain is more important than you may think, according to a new study by Kaiser Permanente (KP). According to KP's study pre-pregnancy and excessive weight gain during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of children becoming overweight at age 2. The study also found that breastfeeding for at least six months helped reduce the likelihood of a child being overweight at age 2. Other key findings: Children whose mothers gain excess weight or have elevated blood sugar during their pregnancies are more likely to become overweight or obese during their first decade of life.
Daughters of overweight mothers who develop gestational diabetes are significantly more likely to experience ...
Spending too much time in front of the TV may increase your risk of dying from a blood clot in the lung, the American Heart News reports. A Japanese study tracked 86,000 people for 19 years, and 59 died of a pulmonary embolism. This condition, stemming from inactivity, is caused by blood clots that travel to the lungs from the legs. Researchers found that pulmonary embolism death increased by: 70% among those who watched TV 2.5-4.9 hours (versus those who watched less than 2.5 hours)
40% for each additional 2 hours of daily TV watching.
2.5 times among those who watched TV 5 or more hours. Although the study examined Japanese adults, the findings may be very relevant for U.S. adults, who watch far more TV. U.S. Latinos may face an especially high risk. Latino ...
If you sit for too long, 10+ hours to be exact, you may be at risk for heart disease—a condition that affects millions of Latinos in the U.S., according to a new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center, Univision reports. For their research investigators studied 700,00 adults for over 11 years and concluded that those who spend 10 or more hours a day sitting or lying down increased their risk for heart disease and the longer you sit the higher the risk. “We would like to encourage people to maintain an active lifestyle and avoid prolonged sitting", lead researcher Ambarish Pandey told Univision. To lower your risk experts recommend that you do at least 30 minutes a day of physical activity and that workplaces offer standing desks to their ...
Do you know how many calories are in an ice cold beer? Soon, you’ll have the answer right in front of you. The National Beer Institute recently announced that all breweries will soon begin labeling their beers with number of calories per serving, Yahoo News reports. “This decision is a response to an announcement by the Beer Institute, which encouraged member companies to begin labeling their products with specific information, such as ingredients, calories, protein, fat, and alcohol volume, as per request of the consumer.” If you can’t wait to know how many calories are in your beer of choice the Center for Science in the Public Interest has posted the calorie counts of the most popular alcoholic drinks ...
By Dr. Patricia Braun, MD, MPH, FAAP Campaign For Dental Health SaludToday Guest Blogger We often hear about different ways to eat. More protein, less protein, more fat, less fat. It can be confusing. One thing isn’t confusing: we need to reduce the amount of sugar we eat and drink. Added sugars are playing a bigger and bigger role in making our nation unhealthy. Consuming added sugar causes cavities, weight gain and obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Tooth decay is the most common chronic condition in childhood and leads to pain, tooth loss, a lower quality of life, and is expensive to treat. And obesity, in our nation’s children has become an enormous health problem, especially for Latino ...
For decades artificial sweeteners have been a sugar substitute especially among Latinos who have diabetes, but according to a new study, sugar alternatives may cause people to eat more and sleep less, Univision reports. For their research, investigators from Australia gave sucralose (a chemical present in many artificial sweeteners) to fruit flies and mice and discovered that both of these animals consumed more calories than those animals in a real sugar diet. According to the investigators artificial sweeteners cause a neuronal disequilibrium when the brain is tricked into thinking the body is consuming real sugar but the calories are not existent; thus forcing the brain to send the message to the body to eat more. “These results show us that food 'sugar-free' are not as good ...
By Chef Leticia Moreinos SaludToday Guest Blogger As a native of Brazil, I’m thrilled that Brazilian culture and food will get an international spotlight as Rio de Janeiro opens its doors for two weeks to athletes and spectators in celebration of the XXXI Olympic Games in August in the Cidade Maravilhosa (Marvelous City). Like many Latin American countries, food is an important part of Brazilian culture. As a child growing up in Rio, I have fond memories of accompanying my mother and grandmother to the markets in search of the freshest fruits and vegetables and the finest cuts of meat. The kitchen was (and still is) the center of family gatherings and because of this, my passion for food and cooking was born. Throughout my career as a chef, Brazilian cuisine has been the ...
