Watching
the sugar in your diet can help you control your weight and
potentially avoid serious chronic health problems, for example, heart
disease and diabetes.
You
might be surprised at how many of the “healthy” foods you eat
contain sugar. Energy bars, fruit, flavored yogurt — all “good”
foods but many of them have a lot of sugar. Step one is to read
labels carefully and opt for products that are lower in sugar.
For
many people, cutting back on sugar-sweetened beverages is an easy way
to reduce sugar intake. Giving up juices and soft drinks can be
tough, but here are few ways to get started:
What
about artificial sweeteners?
Artificial
sweeteners — for example, acesulfame, aspartame, saccharin,
sucralose — give you the sweetness of sugar with virtually none of
the calories. Most people who use artificial sweeteners or choose
foods or beverages made with them do so because they want to lose
weight. And for a lot of people, they do help. But some research
suggests that the use of artificial sweeteners may actually promote
weight gain.
Artificial
sweeteners are hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than table
sugar. People who use these sweeteners often may desensitize
themselves to sweetness. If that happens, they may find healthful but
not-so-sweet foods such as fruits and vegetables unappetizing by
comparison. Calories removed from the diet by swapping sugar for
sweeteners may re-enter in the form of refined carbohydrates (like
those found in crackers, chips, pastries, and the like) and unhealthy
saturated and trans fats.
If
artificial sweeteners are helping you lose weight or keep it off,
great. If they don’t seem to be helping, or if you don’t need to
lose weight, you may be better off simply trying to cut back on the
added sugar in your diet.
(Courtesy:Health beat of Harvard Medical School)
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Chemical Dependency and Aging
Most people look forward to the golden years, but after age 75 many medical issues arise that can compromise quality of life. Philip E. Kolski, LCSW, program manager of Outpatient Services at Mills-Peninsula’s Behavioral Health Services Center Opens new window sees many seniors struggling to manage chronic pain that keeps them from living the life they want. “Joint and back pain is especially prevalent among seniors,” he says. According to the National Institutes of Health, about half of older Americans living on their own have chronic pain. Typically, to manage this pain, doctors prescribe opioid pain medications. “When these medications are taken over time, people can develop a tolerance for the medication,” Kolski says. “When that happens, either their dosage has to increase, they have to find an alternate way of coping with the pain such as acupuncture, or they have to stop taking the medication, go through withdrawal and start a new opiate.” While de...
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