Kansas Senior Press Service News ArticlesKansas Senior Press Service News ArticlesAs the temperatures rise, Americans fire up their grills for the ever-popular summertime backyard barbecue—with the prospect of higher consumption of red meat and processed meat. A recently published American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) report on diet and cancer prevention concludes that diets high in red meat, and especially processed meats such as hot dogs, are a cause of colorectal cancer.
Traditionally, “red meat” has meant beef, lamb, pork, and veal. Red meat recommendations and study findings are generally based on this traditional definition of red meat. Although pork may look “white” when cooked, its nutritional composition categorizes it as a red meat. And although venison may be similar to red meat, it is not included in the traditional definition of red meat because it has been considered wild game.
Compared to such clear and compelling risks linking red and processed meats with cancer, the risks associated with the grilling process itself should be of secondary concern. It is clear that grilling animal products (both red and white meats) causes potent carcinogens called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to arise within food.
These substances have been shown in laboratory experiments to trigger the cancer process. The AICR report concluded that there is limited but suggestive evidence that these substances factor in human cancer, providing one more reason to limit consumption of red and processed meat—however it is cooked.
The AICR recommends limiting red meat to no more than three ounces a day. But the evidence on diets high in processed meat is even more troubling: According to the AICR analysis of available evidence, every 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of processed meat eaten per day increases the risk for colorectal cancer by 42 percent. Because of this, AICR now advises avoiding hot dogs, along with sausages, bacon, ham, cold cuts, and other processed meats.
Try grilling something different this summer
Grilling vegetables and fruit produces no HCAs or PAHs, and thus poses no cancer risk. Diets high in plant foods are associated with reduced risk of several cancers. Some classic vegetable choices for grilling include asparagus, corn on the cob, onions, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, and eggplant. Most of these can be grilled whole, chopped and cooked in a grill basket, or cut into chunks and skewered to make vegetable kabobs. Brush or toss veggies with a small amount of olive oil and grill at medium-high heat. Most vegetables will be ready after three to five minutes per side. More dense vegetables, such as onions, sweet potatoes, and eggplant, may need double the grill time or more, depending on the size of the pieces.
You can even grill vegetables ahead and serve them cold on their own or in salads. Grilling brings out marvelous flavors in vegetables and will not create the cancer-causing substances that can be formed when meat and poultry are grilled.
For more information concerning red meat, check out “Facts About Red Meat,” a brochure available at www.aicr.org.
Source: American Institute for Cancer Research
How should we eat as we age? Which foods are likely to keep us most healthy, and which ones should we limit? Is it possible to eat well and stay within a healthy weight? These and other questions are addressed in “Eating Well As You Get Older,” a topic added to NIHSeniorHealth, the health and wellness Web site developed by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), both part of the National Institutes of Health.
“Eating well is vital at any age, but as you get older, your daily food choices can make an important difference in your health. Good nutrition is one component of an overall strategy to stay healthy,” says Richard J. Hodes, MD, director of the NIA, which developed the content for the topic on NIHSeniorHealth.
Eating a well-planned, balanced mix of healthful foods every day may help prevent heart disease, type 2 diabetes, bone loss, some kinds of cancer, and anemia. But eating healthfully may not always be easy for older adults. Changing appetites, slower metabolism, eating alone, buying ready-to-eat meals, and living on a fixed income can affect the quality of one’s food choices. Yet our need for nutritious foods does not diminish with age. In fact, as we age our bodies require essential nutrients to help us maintain function, and most of those nutrients are found in foods.
“It is important for older adults to select foods that provide them with the nutrients and energy they need for healthy, active living,” says Hodes.
In addition to learning how to make wise food choices, older adults who visit http://nihseniorhealth.gov/eatingwellasyougetolder/toc.html will find information about food labels, food safety, meal planning, food shopping, and ways to enhance the enjoyment of eating.
Health information on the Web
Older Americans (one of the fastest-growing age groups using the Internet) increasingly turn to the Web for health information. In fact, 68 percent of online seniors surf for health and medical information when they visit the Web. NIHSeniorHealth, which is based on the latest research on cognition and aging, features short, easy-to-read segments of information that can be accessed in a variety of formats, including large print, open-captioned videos, and audio. Additional topics coming soon to the site include Parkinson’s disease, complementary and alternative medicine, and leukemia.
Source: The National Institutes of Health
By Janet Sunderland
On Inauguration Day, a televised long-shot over Barack Obama’s shoulder showed the millions gathered below him in an epic image. That startled me; it was the image of a peaceful revolution.
In the days leading up to the inauguration, I’d heard commentators say this was the end of the baby boomer years and the 1960s consciousness that divided the country—and on that morning, I saw a healing taking place.
I participated in the cultural revolution of the ’60s, some of it entered peacefully but much of it birthed in violence. As we protested injustices in civil rights, Vietnam, and women’s rights, as we proclaimed our freedom in music, sexual mores, and clothing, we created a divide in society between those forcing change and those appalled by our arrogance and anger.
In the decades that followed, our country remained divided. The bitterness of the Vietnam War led to bitterness and anger against leaders. That led to the forced resignation of one president, created an opposing fierce political partisanship, and led to the impeachment trial of another.
At the same time, the Cultural Revolution progressed. Percentages of the population who considered justice, the environment, and alternative lifestyles paramount in their lives grew from about four percent in the 1960s to 40 percent by the late 1990s. But the percentage who valued money over everything else, including country, also grew hugely.
A revolution means an overthrow, or over-turning, of a system. So what does “peaceful revolution” mean? It means we now have a chance to heal the defeats and divisions that held us in different corners, glaring at one another. And it means that those of us who held the banner of the ’60s revolution all these years can put it down. We have come to a time of integration.
And yet, this time would not have come if that time had not happened. I don’t think any of us need to be ashamed of the passions we carried from that more violent revolution. At the same time, those who were angry at us for upsetting a way of life may now be able to see some value. In other words, the breaking apart had to happen in order to re-form into a “more perfect union,” a union that once more really cares about those less fortunate and sees the helpless as valuable citizens.
Today many are in pain and fear from shocks to our economic system—people out of work, families homeless, businesses closed. And even if none of that is happening to us personally, at the least we’ve curtailed spending, fearing for our future. It’s not an easy thing to look at this time of struggle and believe in its value.
This pervasive survival fear seems to have two outcomes: we shut down or we propel into action. The thing is, there’s no going back to the way things were. Just as in the cultural revolution of the ’60s, this new revolution is going to change our lives and our society forever.
The task, it seems, is to become active. And action can be accomplished in various ways. Buying an extra package of pasta or extra soup during each grocery trip will soon fill a bag to donate to a food pantry. Giving extra sheets and towels to a homeless shelter offers comfort. Small steps like these can show you how well off you really are. Tell your friends to do the same.
And if you are in crisis mode, open yourself to asking for help. Be willing to examine your fear and see where it can take you.
No one person can get us through this to where we need to go, not even our new president. In fact, he keeps saying just that. Changing our reaction to this challenging time can be as simple as remembering this: We are the peaceful revolution, and our work is to open our hearts and minds, and the hearts and minds of others, to new possibilities.
Janet Sunderland is a writer and clergy member in Kansas City, Mo.
By Dave Farson
Kansas Senior Press Service
Spring sneaks in from the bottom up. The forsythia bloom on winter’s edge, then shoots of grass appear in the cold’s residue. April’s rains produce waters that rush into creeks and rivers. The self-absorbed or busy eye can miss the entire drama.
Jonquils show up around houses while redbuds show off their timorous color amid the growing sea of green. The lilac emerges for its too-brief performance of perfume. I love the lilac but I cannot wholly trust it. How can we trust anything that is only here once a year and then for a short time?
Last in this phenomenal growth of green come the trees. Buds appear, then leaves, naked branches now hidden by a flowering skirt of many colors. To use a street phrase of long ago, the emerging spring is almost a head rush. Whoa, Dude! Far out!
The two of us sit in a restaurant and watch the young couple a few feet away. The blood begins pouring through veins and arteries at a faster pace. This, too, is a sign of spring. Love is in the air. Nature is protecting its own. He touches her gently on the face.
I know it is true, this rush of spring. Once upon a time, whenever I saw her or even thought of her, I felt this limitless passion for life. I was in love. But now, some 40 years after the race was run, I cannot feel what I once felt. The excitement of young love is gone. I can remember the words, but the feelings have moved on. The lyrics remain, but the beat is beyond me.
“Do you ever wish you were young again?” I ask her.
“Sometimes,” she replies.
There is a pause and then I say, “If I were to do it over again, I would probably be as stupid as I once was.”
“Can I be 16 again and know what I know now?” she asks.
“That would be cheating,” I say, and we both laugh.
We eat our dinner, we make small talk, we summarize the day. There is something both familiar and trusting in this everyday ritual. We talk. We share. There is a comfortable order in our lives. But in the booth across the aisle there is a frantic search for each other. Their energy pours out into the room like a swift-flowing spring river.
Those of us in the autumn or winter of our lives sometimes yearn for the energy of spring. What happened between spring and winter? Where did it all go? Did summer sneak by us as a thief in the night? To whom should we report the crime?
As we get ready for bed, she is coughing. She has what the folks used to call a “spring cold.” I watch her move about the room and I realize for the ten-thousandth time that she is not the girl she once was. I am sure she has watched me lose the battle to gravity and had similar thoughts. We may not be able to feel the spirit any longer, but we no longer have much to prove. There is no longer the urgency, and there is a comfort in that. There is a softness in the snowfall of winter. The creeks and rivers no longer run full-force downhill. In winter we have to watch our step, but there is the warmth of the house to be gained and there is a more subtle performance of whiteness where once was a profusion of color.
Remembering the couple in the restaurant, I tell myself I’m glad that I do not have to go through the courtship ritual again. Then I know that statement is a lie, because part of me misses spring terribly. But I look at her and I am content. She has been good for me. I have done my best for her. Although I am not the young man she married, I hope she sees that I have done my best. She is with me still. There is a satisfaction in the next breath.
I feel lucky to have a ticket for spring’s annual performance. I hope it will go on forever.
Dave Farson, of Overland Park, Kan., taught at Shawnee Mission North High School for 33 years. He is now a freelance writer.
These articles were made available by the Kansas Senior Press Service, a partnership of the Kansas Department on Aging and Johnson County Human Services & Aging.