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Women's Health Archive
Articles
How to cut back on sugar and salt
Most Americans consume much more than the recommended levels of sugar and salt. However, you can retrain your palate to be satisfied with less of both.
听Image: tsvibrav/iStock
If you own a sugar bowl and a saltshaker, you may be wondering if you should ever fill them again. The panelists crafting the 2015鈥�2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans emphasized that we're consuming much more sugar and salt than is healthy for us and have advised us to pare our intakes of both considerably. That said, they have acknowledged that the sugar bowl and saltshaker aren't the principal villains at the dining table. About 80% of the sugar and salt we eat is added to packaged and commercially prepared foods.
What are added sugars?
Reducing your sugar intake
Although beverages are the most important source of added sugars, they aren't the only ones. There are additional ways to reduce your intake of added sugars, and it doesn't have to mean giving up desserts. Here are several ideas for reducing the amount of sugar in your diet, targeting sugary drinks just as a first step:
Give your taste buds time to adjust. If you're in the habit of having two spoonful's of sugar in your coffee or tea, for instance, start by going to one-and-a-half for a week, then down to one. If sodas are part of your regular routine, cut your consumption by one a week, then two.
Adapt your recipes. You can make your favorite recipes less sugary by reducing a little bit at a time鈥攖ry using one-quarter less sugar than the recipe calls for, then one-third鈥攔ight up until you notice the difference. You may come to prefer the less-sweet variation.
Reach for fruit rather than juice. Squeezing fruit breaks down the cells and releases sugar into the juice, so that it enters the bloodstream more rapidly. Moreover, a glass of juice is usually the caloric equivalent of three whole fruits. Instead of drinking fruit juice, eat a piece of fresh fruit. You can make fruit drinkable and still preserve its fiber by blending it with almond milk or low-fat yogurt in a smoothie. If you just can't give up juice, make it 100% fruit juice that is not sweetened and limit the amount to a 4-ounce glass.
Check your cereal box. If you enjoy cold cereal or instant oatmeal for breakfast, look at the labels and choose one with minimal added sugar. It's also worth noting that cereals made with refined grains are quickly broken down into sugars in the body. To wean yourself off your favorite cereal, try combining it with a whole-grain, high-fiber cereal, and add fruit.
What about salt?
Cutting down on salt
Even if you ban salt from your table, it is still easy to exceed the sodium limit. To avoid doing so, try the following:
Eat mostly fresh foods. Most of the sodium we eat comes from restaurant meals and processed foods, including canned vegetables and soups, pasta sauces, frozen entr茅es, lunch meats, and snack foods. If you start with unsalted, fresh foods and prepare them yourself, you can exercise better control over your sodium intake.
Take care with condiments. Sodium is found in many condiments besides ordinary table salt鈥攊ncluding soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salad dressings, ketchup, seasoned salts, pickles, and olives. Baking soda, baking powder, and monosodium glutamate (MSG) also contain sodium.
Read the labels. The Nutrition Facts label on packaged food lists milligrams of sodium per serving, so it's important to note how many servings the container holds. The percent daily value is based on 2,300 mg, so if your own daily sodium limit is lower, the amount of sodium in a serving is actually a higher percentage than the label indicates. Be aware that some over-the-counter drugs also contain sodium.
Speak up. When dining out, ask to have your food prepared with less salt. You can also ask for a lemon or lime wedge to add more flavor to your food.
Spice it up. Cut back on salt by using more herbs and spices like basil, coriander, cumin, cayenne, powdered mustard, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, and turmeric. You might try making your own blends of spices and herbs to use along with lemon or lime juice or flavored vinegars.
Seek out specialty salts. Some kosher and gourmet salts contain less sodium than standard iodized table salt; check the Nutrition Facts label to make sure.
The good news
Mobile app reduces stress incontinence episodes in small trial
Women who used Tät, a smartphone app, did more pelvic floor exercises and had greater reductions in episodes of stress incontinence.
Weight-related stroke risk varies for different stroke types, analysis finds
In an observational study of 1.3 million women, excess weight was linked to an increased risk of strokes caused by blood clots but a lower risk of strokes caused by bleeding.
Throughout life, heart attacks are twice as common in men than women
Throughout life, men seem to be twice as likely to have a heart attack as women. This risk appears to persist even after accounting for risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Six things you should know about breast cancer risk
There's no one big way to reduce your risk for breast cancer, but a combination of approaches could make a difference.
In recent years the statistical picture of breast cancer has brightened, thanks to early detection and advances in treatment. More tumors are being caught at an early stage; the rise in incidence of the disease has slowed; and the death rate has dropped. Nevertheless, breast cancer is still the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women and the second most likely (after lung cancer) to take their lives.
Data aside, breast cancer looms large in our health concerns because most of us know it personally. Some of us have had the disease ourselves, and others have experienced it through friends or relatives. Particularly unsettling is its seeming randomness: Nothing seems to explain why one woman develops breast cancer and another doesn't. Granted, family history and certain gene mutations can substantially increase risk. But such factors aren't involved in most breast cancers. Moreover, we can't do much about them, or about many of the other risks associated with the disease, including older age (the 10-year risk of developing breast cancer jumps from 1 in 48 at age 40 to 1 in 26 at age 60), early menarche (first menstrual period), having no children (or bearing the first at a later age), and late menopause.
Your mom was right: 鈥淢orning sickness鈥� means a lower chance of miscarriage
A majority of women experience some sort of nausea (morning sickness) during pregnancy. Many have speculated that nausea is a good sign that indicates a healthy pregnancy. Until recently, there was little solid evidence to support this belief, but a recent study suggests there is some truth to this old wives’ tale.
Can hormonal birth control trigger depression?
Research from Denmark found an association between the use of hormonal birth control and an increased likelihood of depression. While the risk of depression among women using hormonal forms of birth control was clearly increased, the overall number of women affected was small and was found to be highest in women under 20.
Why sitting may be hazardous to your health
Interrupting sedentary time with short bouts of exercise may diminish the dangers of inactivity.
听Image: Image_Source_/iStock
Every time we think we have a handle on all the things that are bad for us, another one is added to the list. A few years ago, researchers put inactivity on the roster of major health risks. "Everybody knows smoking is bad for your health. But what isn't common knowledge is that physical inactivity is as powerful a risk factor as smoking," says Dr. I-Min Lee, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lee, who has studied the effects of exercise for more than a decade, was one of the first to identify inactivity as a health hazard.
Dr. Lee was among the experts contributing to a special issue on health and exercise of the British journal The Lancet commemorating the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She and her colleagues pored over reports from scores of large observational studies conducted worldwide in which participants answered questions about their lifestyles, including their levels of physical activity, and were then followed over a period of years to see how they fared. When the researchers compared the health outcomes of participants who were inactive鈥攖hose getting less than 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise鈥攖o those who got more exercise, they found that inactivity alone counted for an increased risk of breast and colon cancers as well as heart disease and diabetes. They computed that inactivity was responsible for more than five million deaths a year worldwide, about the same as the number of deaths attributable to smoking.
Dry skin? Moisturizers can help
Many products are designed to absorb water into the skin, keep it from evaporating, or both.
Image: Bigstock
If you grew up watching Doris Day movies, you may have assumed she was privy to skin treatments that weren't available to the general public. However, as she revealed in her autobiography, Vaseline (petrolatum) was the key to keeping her skin soft and smooth.
Things have changed quite a bit in the last 50 years. Petrolatum is still a popular staple, but there is now a dizzying array of newer moisturizers, many with a baffling list of ingredients on their labels. However, they all are designed to either add moisture to the skin or keep it there. Many do both. "Think of moisturizers as putting a barrier between your skin and the cold, dry air," says Dr. Kenneth Arndt, professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and faculty editor for the 天博体育 Publications Special Health Report Skin Care and Repair (.)
The longer you carry extra pounds, the higher your cancer risk, study suggests
Degree and duration of overweight were linked with an increased risk of several cancers among 74,000 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative.

Salmonella is sneaky: Watch out

Two jobs may lower the odds of dying from Alzheimer's disease 鈥� but why?

Mastitis: What to do when your breasts are painfully inflamed

How 鈥� and why 鈥� to fit more fiber and fermented food into your meals

UTI in older women: Why postmenopausal women are susceptible to urinary tract infection, and what to do about it

Can a routine vaccine prevent dementia?

Some adults may need a measles booster shot. Who should get one and why?

Less butter, more plant oils, longer life?

Healthier planet, healthier people

Counting steps is good 鈥� is combining steps and heart rate better?
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