Health Items from Pages

To lose weight, limit ‘liquid calories’

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University studied the difference between a 100-calorie reduction in foods vs. a 100-calorie reduction in sweet drinks such as soda.

Study subjects who reduced calories from sweet drinks lost more weight than those who reduced the same number of calories from food.

Possibly because of metabolic differences, limiting “liquid calories” was more effective.

Get more fiber for better health: It’s easy

If you need fiber but don’t like broccoli, and black beans make you look the other way, you can skip them. There’s a big list of other foods to choose from.

Fiber helps to move food through your digestive system. On the way, it can improve your cholesterol numbers and lower your blood sugar. It also does things you don’t regularly talk about such as reducing the risk of constipation, hemorrhoids and diverticulosis.

Most Americans get only 15 grams of fiber a day instead of the 19 recommended for women and 38 for men. If you’re 51 or over, it’s 21 grams for women and 30 grams for men.
Fruits and nuts provide a gram or two per serving, but the Mayo Clinic says pears, apples, raspberries, bananas and oranges have 3 to 5 grams.
Among vegetables, you will get 4 to 5 grams from just a half cup of green beans, squash, baked beans or sweet potatoes.
Some common cereals are good choices. Two shredded wheat biscuits, for example, have 5.5 grams, and a cup of Post Raisin Bran has 7.1 grams.
If you really want to catch up on your fiber intake, some products are designed to do just that:

Kellogg’s All-Bran Buds, 1/3 cup, 12.9 grams
General Mills Fiber One, 1/2 cup, 14.2 grams
Post 100% Bran, 1/3 cup, 8.3 grams
Kashi GoLean, 1 cup, 10.2 grams
General Mills Fiber One, 1 bar, 9.0 grams

For a snack: 3 cups of popcorn has 3.3 grams.

Never exercised? Starting late still pays big dividends

You’ve heard about it, read about it, and vowed to start ... some day. Now you might think it’s pointless, but experts at Tufts University say it’s never too late to start exercising.

If you’re at mid life and your tennis shoes are just for show, you can still begin to get your body moving. Your condition will improve with every step along the way.

Check with your doctor to see what type of activity is recommended for you. With exercise, you will soon begin to feel stronger and you will improve your quality of life now and in years to come.

Over two decades, Swedish scientists studied a group of people including those who were new to exercise and those who exercised regularly. At the five-year point, those who were sedentary at the beginning of the program had the highest mortality rates.

After 10 years, however, people who began exercising at age 50 had a mortality risk as low as those who had exercised all their lives.