With temperatures on the rise, it’s important to stay hydrated and replenish your electrolytes. Whether you exercise intensely or your child participates in an outdoor sport or you’re a construction worker with a physically demanding job, you’re at risk of dehydration and loss of electrolytes.

The ever increasing list of fad diets welcomes our newest member: Raspberry ketones. HCG, you are barely hanging on by a thread.
Raspberry ketones are a natural phenolic compound that are responsible for the heavenly aroma of red raspberries. They (allegedly) increased both the expression and secretion of adiponectin. Higher adiponectin equals lower levels of body fat. What has brought them out into the public conscience recently is the recent endorsement of them by the one and only Dr. Oz. These are usually taken in pill form, twice per day at a cost of roughly $50-70 per month. 
A website that sells this product quotes Wikipedia: (according to Wikipedia, “prevent high-fat-diet-induced elevations in body weight.”) What it leaves out is the following statement: However, no effects on body weight were observed with doses up to 200 times greater than the estimated intake in humans. Although products containing this compound are marketed for weight loss, there is no clinical evidence for this effect in humans.
This is an unbelievably hard to resist product. First, although these ketones have been known for more than 40 years, they are exciting and new in the world of weight loss. Not only that, but most products that sell them put delicious looking raspberries on their packaging, making it look enticing. Combine that with Dr. Oz’s blessing and you may have trouble even finding this product on the shelves.
The website also has this required statement: “Caution: Do not exceed the recommended dose. Pregnant or nursing mothers, children under 18 and individuals with a known medical condition should consult a physician before using this or any dietary supplement. Keep out of reach of children. Do not use if the inner seal is damaged or broken. Store in a cool, dry place. Food supplements should not be used as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet.”
What about eating actual raspberries? Or better yet, eat all different kinds of berries everyday. Are they expensive? Maybe a little pricey, especially when out of season, but they can be purchased frozen all year. Raspberries are high in fiber and the whole raspberries are an antioxidant powerhouse and worth much more per ounce than a pill could ever be worth and without the “warnings” on the label.


Leslie Patricelli didn’t keep junk food in the house when her three kids were toddlers, but the goofy, bald baby in her board book “Yummy Yucky” grins from ear to ear over chocolate sauce and cookies.
The prolific picture book writer also included pepperoni pizza as a positive, acknowledging in a recent interview that some of her empty calorie imagery for kids too young to seek out sugary and fatty foods on their own have earned her a kvetch or two from parents.
“If I were to do it again I would probably make a few different choices, but I don’t think I would leave everything out,” said Patricelli, in Hailey, Idaho. “All you have to do is watch a kid eat a piece of cake to know that they’re in heaven.”
Heaven, indeed, especially when it comes to an abundance of frothy pink cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies and candy in books aimed squarely at babies, toddlers and preschoolers who may not be intimate with the meaning of moderation.
But some authors and publishers are focused on creating alternatives to c-is-for-cupcake picture books for parents struggling to promote broccoli. Even Cookie Monster sometimes eats smarter, chowing down on celery and demonstrating smaller portions of his namesake treats in “Ding Dong, Elmo’s Here!” and other books from the folks on “Sesame Street.”
“Food is everywhere kids turn,” said Betsy Loredo, executive editor for Sesame Workshop’s publishing group. “So it’s natural for us to want to think of ways we can integrate that and make choices that are healthier. We try to go for at least equity.”
“Sesame Street,” with an appearance by obesity fighter and first lady Michelle Obama, took on nutrition and exercise as an initiative back in 2004. The effort expanded to other divisions and special projects that included distribution of kits to six million families and child care centers offering ways to eat healthy on a budget and educate parents on the difference between “sometime food” and “anytime food.”
With the childhood obesity rate tripling in the past 30 years to 1 in 3 children in the United States overweight or obese, books with healthy eating pictures and messages may not be everything, but they’re something, advocates said.
Sesame Workshop, for instance, concluded in a 2010 study that when children are shown fruits and vegetables linked with favorite characters from the show they choose those foods at a much higher rate and eat more of them, according to Sesame researcher Jennifer Kotler.
Even broccoli, she laughed.
“Something happens between 3 and 5 where there’s a growing awareness of what healthy means. Where 3-year-olds like the foods they like, 5-year-olds know things they might choose might not always be the healthiest,” Kotler said. 
David Goldbeck in Woodstock, N.Y., isn’t an absolutist, but he does care about what kids see in their books when it comes to food. He wants more of them to eat fruits and vegetables, so he co-wrote an alphabet book that puts broccoli and yams in equally healthy company.
The Michigan Fitness Foundation, which is home to that state’s Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports, uses Goldbeck’s “The ABC’s of Fruits and Vegetables and Beyond” in take-home book bags that are part of a health literacy program in more than 400 public elementary schools, said Marci Kelly Scott, the organization’s vice president for health programs.
The book includes an alphabet format with illustrations (E is for eggplant!) but also history, fun facts and recipes for older kids. Scott ordered 500 of the books in 2008 and routinely reorders to keep up her supplies.
In this alphabet world, C is for carrots, D is for date, as in the “desert fruit found in Kuwait,” and O is for organic.


Do your kids love chocolate milk? It may have more calories on average than you thought.

In the United States the average kid (age 8-18) spends 7.5 hours a day in front of a screen or on the phone. To counter sedentary living patterns, national physical activity guidelines for youth have been developed. The guidelines call for at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day for children and teens. The guidelines are based on the amount of physical activity necessary to promote good fitness, health, and wellness. Only 29 percent of high school students meet the 60-minute daily guideline and 14 percent don’t do any physical activity that causes them to breathe hard or that increases heart rate on any day during the week.

If your goal is to lose weight, look and feel your best and live a healthy, vibrant life, be aware of the damaging additives and synthetic chemicals in the foods you buy and eat. Seventy-five percent of the average American diet is from processed and packaged foods, which equates to approximately 10 pounds of additives eaten annually.

If the number of failed New Year’s resolutions are any indication, eating healthy in a fast-paced world still isn’t all that easy.

When Jay Mesinger heard about a study seeking Golden Retrievers to help fight canine cancer, he immediately signed up 2-year-old Louie.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the No. 1 cause of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. The top risk factors, hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking, diabetes and obesity are poorly treated, often with toxic pharmaceutical drugs, and most patients never reach their goals. There are also more than 400 coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors and mediators now proven.

We are all familiar with the fact that chemicals, particularly pesticides and herbicides, have negative side effects. The United States and international government agencies have acknowledged that different pesticides have been linked to a variety of health problems including hormonal disruption, skin, eye and lung irritation, birth defects, weight gain, nervous system toxicity and cancer. Many times, the negative effects of pesticides can take a long time to show, and by the time symptoms are clear, a lot of damage may have already been done.

I’ll admit it. It’s hard to stick to a New Year’s resolution of getting into shape. At this point in the new year, some of us have given up, some of us are dropping off our new workout commitments.

Millie brings joy to all who meet her

After the holidays thousands of people make New Year’s resolutions. Included at the top of this list is getting healthier, fitter and losing weight. The majority of people who make New Year’s resolutions give up on their goals within four to six weeks.

Everyone could use a little help keeping those New Year’s resolutions to slim down. But if it means the government limiting junk food, the response is an overwhelming, “No.”

The Affordable Care Act strengthened Medicare in important ways. Signed in 2010, the federal health law already has provided free preventive health benefits to millions of people with Medicare, and saved billions of dollars for those who hit the gap in their Part D prescription drug coverage.

4825 E. Warner Road

Just when I thought I was running out of topics to inspire me, a magazine article about “finding your happy weight” caught my attention. Voila — the writing inspiration flowed like water.

Cardiovascular fitness is generally considered to be the most important component of health-related physical fitness. Other commonly used terms for cardiovascular fitness include cardiorespiratory endurance, aerobic fitness, and aerobic capacity. The national youth physical fitness test (FITNESSGRAM), developed at the Cooper Institute in Dallas, is now offered as a cooperative program with the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition (PCFSN) and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD). The recommended test for youth in the FITNESSGRAM battery is called the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER).