Thank You: Grand Rounds 4.39

Thank you David Khorram at Mariana's Eye for hosting Grand Rounds 4.39 this week and including a post from Teen health 411 encouraging people to try a soda free summer.

This week was very interesting and fun to read. It is amazing how much blogging goes on in a week, and your headlines were great!

Photo credit: Ed Bierman

Labels: Grand Rounds, Healthline, Nutrition

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Sugar and a Soda Free Summer

The SF Bay Area is gearing up to have a "Soda Free Summer!" Six counties are being encouraged by the public health department and many community-based organizations to learn about the health risks associated with soda consumption and help families avoid soda.

Soda, along with sweetened teas and sports drinks are seen as a key cause of the nation's obesity trends, particularly in youth. Studies have shown that the extra calories from soda and other sweetened drinks leads to weight gain because they do not satisfy people's hunger, therefore they are just extra calories.

The Center for Weight and Health at U.C. Berkeley reports that sugared beverage consumption has increased 500% in the last 50 years, at the same time that obesity and diabetes rates have skyrocketed.

Rethink Your Drink! One medium triple thick chocolate shake from McDonalds has 21 teaspoons of sugar in it. One 20 oz. bottle of coke has over 16 teaspoons of sugar in it. Sunny Delight (16 oz) has 15 teaspoons of sugar in it. And lest you think water is good for you, Vitamin Water (20 oz) has 8 teaspoons of sugar in it (the same amount of sugar as a Snickers Bar).

You can calculate how many teaspoons of sugar are in your food or drink using this:
Fact: 4 grams (g) of sugar = 1 teaspoon of sugar
Math: Amount of sugar on label times (x) servings per container = total grams of sugar
Answer: Total grams of sugar divided by 4 = teaspoons of sugar in your food

Alternatives to soda include water with some fresh mint leaves or a slice of orange, lemon or lime and smoothies with non-fat yogurt and fresh fruit, low-fat or non-fat milk.

For educators, you can get sugar savvy curriculum materials in English and Spanish at the Bay Area Nutrition & Physical Activity Collaborative (banpac), and the soda free summer site has family materials in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese.

Have fun being healthier this summer!

Photo credit: whalesalad

Labels: Healthline, Nutrition, Parenting

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Thank You - Grand Rounds 4.35

Thank you #1 Dinosaur at Musings of a Dinosaur for hosting Grand Rounds 4.35 this week and including my post about a new nutritional resource to help teens, or anyone, deciding to eat fast food restaurants.

This week was very interesting and a great way to start my morning!

Photo Credit: edbierman

Labels: Grand Rounds, Healthline, Nutrition

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Free Fast-Food Nutritional Details

Oh, I wish I would quit learning about nutrition. The more I learn, the less I can eat out!

If you want to know about the nutritional information of more than 400 chain and fast-food restaurant choices and healthier alternatives at that restaurant - there is a new free website called "Wellternatives," that you should check out. You can also use your phone to get there - by sending a text message to 878787 with the word "diet" followed by the name of a chain restaurant and a menu item.

This new site launched recently by Wellsphere.com is totally easy to use and really interesting. This web site seems to have been created in reaction to the fact that consumers want nutritional information that will support making healthy choices and attempts to get laws enacted that require restaurants to provide it - keep getting stalled or vetoed by our elected officials.

To test the site, I compared hamburgers at Jack-in-the-Box, McDonalds, and Wendys, with the following results:

Burgers
Jumbo Jack 598 (Calories) 51.3 (Carbs/gm) 34.6 (Fat/gm) 2.5 (Fiber/gm)
Big Mac 539 (Calories) 45.0 (Carbs/gm) 29.0 (Fat/gm) 3.0 (Fiber/gm)
Baconater 839 (Calories) 38.0 (Carbs/gm) 51.0 (Fat/gm) 1.0 (Fiber/gm)
Ultimate Cheeseburger 1011 (Calories) 52.7 (Carbs/gm) 71.4 (Fat/gm) 2.1 (Fiber/gm)

Alternatives Suggested
Hamburger Deluxe (with cheese) 462 (Calories) 33.1 (Carbs/gm) 27.8 (Fat/gm) 1.6 (Fiber/gm)
Double Cheeseburger 439 (Calories) 34.0 (Carbs/gm) 23.0 (Fat/gm) 2.0 (Fiber/gm)
Jr. Cheeseburger 319 (Calories) 34.0 (Carbs/gm) 13.0 (Fat/gm) 1.0 (Fiber/gm)
Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger 428 (Calories) 30.5 (Carbs/gm) 25.4 (Fat/gm) 1.1 (Fiber/gm)

Not only is the nutritional information available at this site, but you can use something called wellphone to get all sorts of support to reach your health goals. I hope you enjoy using this amazing new resource.

Photo credit: ebrull

Labels: Healthline, Nutrition

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Thank You - Grand Rounds 4.34

Thank you David E. Williams at the Health Business Blog for hosting Grand Rounds 4.34 this week and including my post about the Care and Feeding of Adolescents.

This week had some very interesting posts included and I loved all the humor!

Photo credit: edbierman

Labels: Grand Rounds, Healthline, Nutrition

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Carbohydrate Counting at Starbucks: Teens Beware

Teens and obesity is going to be a theme this week, so while my daughters and I were frequenting Starbucks last week I made the mistake of picking up a brochure called "Nutrition by the Cup." We learned that there are 87,000 different drink combinations available at Starbucks, and as the brochure states, "choice is a big part of any healthy lifestyle."

Out of those 87,000 combination, there are only 20 choices listed in the brochure that are under 200 calories - excuse me? Yes folks, most of what my kids consider fair game at Starbucks are enough carbohydrates and calories to be complete meals - or even two meals. So, back to those drinks under 200 calories ... they include plain brewed coffee and tea, nonfat caramel macchiatos (140 calories), steamed apple juice (170 calories), nonfat iced vanilla lattes (120 calories), and a coffee frappuccino (180 calories).

But oh no, those are not the things we go to Starbucks for, we like the mocha frappuccinos, and now we know that the venti size packs in 380 calories and 78 grams of carbohydrates. For those of who who do not count carbs, that is more than a meal consisting of roasted chicken, broccoli, mashed potatoes and gravy, and homemade bread.

So, I try a healthy one - how about a venti soymilk vanilla latte - well, that gives me only 300 calories and a mere 52 grams of carbohydrates - so, with a heavy sigh, I guess I'll stick to the plain brewed coffee.

The moral of the story, is teens beware - you may be undoing healthy choices by not knowing what's in your favorite drinks. Be conscious! Be healthy!

Resources
www.mypyramid.gov
www.nationaldairycouncil.org

Photo credit: Once and Future

Labels: Healthline, Nutrition, Obesity

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