Fresh takes

You do have time

Forget what you think you know about exercise guidelines, and toss out the notion that success means expensive classes or gym memberships. New research shows that it’s acceptable to accumulate exercise in short bursts throughout the week, says Tim Church, M.D., Director of Preventative Medicine at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

For the first time last October, the federal government released official guidelines on how much exercise adults need. The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans advises 30 minutes a day, five days a week. But the report suggests individuals can meet this goal in smaller chunks. Deliberately parking away from the workplace and hoofing it for 10 minutes, walking for 10 minutes during lunch, then taking a 10-minute family walk in the evening would provide the same health benefits as 30 continuous minutes in a gym. A similar message is incorporated in Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana’s “2 Step” public health campaign, created with Pennington’s help, which advises simply “Eat Right, Move More.”

“The emphasis is on being active, and the take-home message is that these things add up to huge health benefits,” says Church, whose own study on post-menopausal women, published last May, confirmed the effectiveness of 10-minute activity sessions.

How can you tell if you’re accumulating enough activity? Church advises an inexpensive, old-fashioned step counter. Shoot for between seven and eight thousand steps a day.—Maggie Heyn Richardson

Luxe vs. less skin care

Ever wonder why you’re paying $35 for 6.7 oz. of skin cleanser in a beautiful designer bottle? Dermatologist Dr. Ava Shamban and Procter & Gamble scientist Mary Begovic Johnson helped TotalBeauty.com compare products with similar ingredients that are very different in cost, revealing that in many cases you can get similar results with a drugstore brand. Example: Buy Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew Anti-Sun-Damage Daily Moisturizer SPF 28 at $13 instead of Wei East Multi-tasking Day Cream SPF 15 at $38. The experts report, “The formula and scent of the expensive product are luxurious, but lycopene in the drugstore brand is fat-soluble, which helps the lotion penetrate the skin. That plus a higher SPF rating and a touch of vitamin C make it a must-have.” But of course, some of those high-end products are full of high-end benefits. Find out what products to splurge on and when to save your hard-earned dollars at www.totalbeauty.com under “How-tos & Quick Tips.”—Jerry Martin

iCan!

If you’re already glued to your iPhone anyway, try the Lose It! app to simplify calorie counting. This free—that’s right, free!—app takes your height, weight, age, activity level and all sorts of other information to create a customized caloric intake counter. You can set goals based on how much you want to lose and how much time you’re going to give yourself to lose it. And just in case you are more visually oriented, you can see how much of your daily intake you have consumed in bar graph form.

To be fair, it is just a tad like having to weigh in each time you eat something—the app icon on the iPhone home screen actually looks like a scale. And while it is great that it recognizes major chain restaurants and store brand foods when you enter them, it is incredibly frightening to see just how bad for you that Krispy Kreme donut actually is.

On the flip side, it is totally satisfying to be able to enter your workouts into the calculator too. The tiny little program recognizes all sorts of cardio and strength training. It can even calculate how many calories you burned at yoga, Pilates or spin class without skipping a beat. And when you enter your workouts, it subtracts the calories you burned from your total daily intake.

It’s like having a food diary with you at all times—i.e., no more excuses about forgetting to write down junk food because you didn’t have your “journal” with you. Like any kind of workout or weight loss tool, it’s only worth it if you commit, log in and lose it. Check out the app in the iTunes App Store or at loseit.com.—Olivia Watkins

1.8 million Number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed in the U.S. in 2007.

A healthy dose of skepticism

Sometimes talking the talk just isn’t enough. Beginning on Oct. 1, 2007, LSU AgCenter chancellor Bill Richardson turned his own health and body into his school’s No. 1 public relations tool by methodically following the nutrition and exercise guidelines being put out by the AgCenter’s nutrition educators. The result: By Oct. 1, 2008, Richardson had changed bad eating habits, lost 40 pounds and inspired both his employees and the public. To keep on track and show the world—and the AgCenter staff—it could be done, he went public with his experiences by writing a daily blog, which included responses to his concerns and questions by a team of nutritionists. The blog averaged more than 1,000 page views per month. “I’m convinced the blog not only saved some lives, but also extended the length of and added quality to the lives of many others,” Richardson wrote in his final post. To read the blog, go to www.lsuagcenter.com and click on “Chancellor’s Challenge.”—J.M.

Walking the walk

It pays to be vigilant about the foods you eat, but it also pays to look beyond fads, trends, word-of-mouth and fancy packaging. Do some extra research to find out what’s backed up by science and what’s just clever marketing that is intended to make foods sound “healthy.” Examples:

Diet soda. According to Marie Claire’s weight loss IQ quiz, “People who quaff sugar-free soft drinks are 41% more likely to gain weight than people who drink regular sodas, according to a University of Texas study. Experts speculate the body isn’t fooled by zero-calorie sweets and that it actually searches for sugary foods to make up for calories it expected to get.”

Fat-free dressing. “You do save on calories when you take out the fat, but many fat-free dressings are loaded with sugar, and offer zero nutrition. In one study, people eating full-fat salad dressing absorbed twice the nutrients of those using reduced-fat dressing,” reports Marie Claire.

Margarine. “In their haste to remove saturated fat from butter, margarine makers created a monster—a soft, spreadable sludge loaded with trans-fats, a dangerous lipid with more concerning links to heart disease than saturated fat. Stick with the real stuff, but pick up whipped butter from brands like Land O’ Lakes instead,” say the authors of the bestseller Eat This, Not That!—J.M.

Diabetes beat

Experts continue to sound the alarm about the coming diabetes disaster in the United States. Nearly 13% of Americans age 20 and older have diabetes, but 40% of them have not been diagnosed, according to epidemiologists from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose study released in late January includes newly available data from an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test. Diabetes is especially common in the elderly: nearly one-third of those age 65 and older have the disease. An additional 30% of adults have pre-diabetes, a condition marked by elevated blood sugar that is not yet in the diabetic range.

“These findings have grave implications for our health care system, which is already struggling to provide care for millions of diabetes patients,” said Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. “Of paramount importance is the need to curb the obesity epidemic, which is the main factor driving the rise in type 2 diabetes.”

People over age 45 should be tested for pre-diabetes or diabetes, the NIH advised. Those younger than 45 who are overweight and have another risk factor, such as high blood pressure, should ask their health care provider about testing.—J.M.

Boob jab

Women who are interested in breast enhancement but who are also averse to surgery may soon have an alternative. Some cosmetic surgeons are offering non-invasive breast shaping procedures through a new product called Macrolane.

According to Cosmetic Surgery Today, “Macrolane injections for breast augmentation have become increasingly popular in recent years as a solution for creating fuller, plumper-looking breasts. Macrolane is a dermal filler procedure performed under local anesthetic, and involves injecting the breast with a clear, hyaluronic gel.” The dermal filler was developed by Swedish scientists specifically for breast augmentation and is currently only available in the UK and Europe. (Canadian approval is expected this year, but clinical trials in the U.S. are still a few years off.) Average cost ranges between $4,000 and $7,000 per treatment.

Results are instant and there are no bandages or scars involved, though we did read an account by one woman who reported significant pain during the 48 hours after the injection. The hyaluronic acid is eventually metabolized by the body, so patients who undergo the Macrolane procedure may choose to have maintenance treatments 12-18 months after the initial treatment to maintain their breast size.—J.M.

Happy trails

If residents of East Baton Rouge Parish felt safe walking or riding bikes on local streets and roadways, would they choose these alternatives modes of transportation? Gil Penalosa, executive director of Walk and Bike for Life, a world-renowned trail planner, says yes. He made his comments to nearly 200 people at a BREC Foundation event Jan. 26 to discuss the future of trail development in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Penalosa used examples of cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe to illustrate his point that people might prefer an alternative to driving. Portland, Ore., and Boulder, Col., are examples of cities that implemented changes and made room for pedestrian and cyclist traffic.

Ted Jack, BREC director of planning and engineering, said pedestrian walkways and trails are in demand here. “The first trails built since passing the ‘Imagine Your Parks’ proposal are proving quite popular. Walking paths have been built at Anna T. Jordan and City-Brooks Community parks and several neighborhood parks,” Jack said. Other efforts, such as the Wards-Dawson Creek Pathway and a new trail head at Farr Park, are moving forward.