Eats « Weekly Gravy

People taking blood pressure medications have faced a frightening and bewildering series of pharmaceutical recalls in recent months, as trace amounts of cancer-causing chemicals have been discovered in individual batches of drugs. But experts from the nation’s leading heart groups are urging patients to remain calm, even as the recall list continues to grow. The trace amounts of carcinogens being found in these drugs don’t appear to pose an immediate cancer risk, and there are plenty of other medications on the market to help keep your blood pressure under control, said Craig Beavers. He is a member of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Cardiovascular Team Council. The recalls center around generic versions of angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) drugs. Losartan, valsartan and irbesartan are the ARB drugs for which specific lots have been recalled. “Medications in the ARB class are used primarily for hypertension and for heart failure, and the good news is there are a lot of other alternatives,” said Beavers, an assistant professor with the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. Concerned patients should talk to their doctor or pharmacist about transitioning to an alternative, said Dr. Robert Carey. He is an American Heart Association (AHA) spokesman and co-lead for high blood pressure guidelines issued jointly by the AHA and ACC. Most importantly, people should not just stop taking their blood pressure… read on >

Take-out pizza is the ultimate fast food — gooey cheese, salty sauce, fatty pepperoni, all baked on top of what’s basically white bread. But there’s no need to feel guilty about enjoying a hot slice once you’ve mastered a nutritious and delicious pizza makeover. Add just a few ingredients to your weekly shopping list. It can take less time than a trip to the drive-thru, but now your pizza will be healthy, too. Here’s what you’ll need: Choose a high quality 100-percent whole wheat crust to get fiber with every slice. Look for low-sodium jarred marinara sauce or simply buy a large can of diced tomatoes. Stock up on plenty of low-cal, high-fiber veggies like mushrooms, red bell pepper and baby spinach. If you like your pizza spicy, replace fatty pepperoni with red pepper flakes for heat. Low-fat mozzarella might seem a better way to go, but you’re only saving a few calories per ounce and, for most people, dairy fat isn’t the taboo it used to be. Just use less of it to limit the saturated fat. Even in small amounts, full-fat mozzarella tastes richer and helps you feel full. Try to find a freshly made ball of mozzarella. The pre-shredded bagged varieties have unwanted ingredients used to keep the shreds from clumping. (If you need to cut calories for weight loss, you can… read on >

(HealthDay News) — While energy drinks are promoted as products that increase energy and enhance performance, they also can put users at risk. From 2007 to 2011, energy-drink related emergency room visits doubled. Overconsumption of energy drinks can cause a host of issues, the U.S> National Institutes of Health says. The NIH warns that excessive consumption can result in: Sleep disturbances. Anxiety. Digestive problems. Dehydration.

High blood pressure is one of the most common medical conditions in the United States and one of the most treatable, an expert says. High blood pressure affects a third of adults ages 40-59 and nearly two-thirds of those 60 and older. “It’s something we check at almost every medical appointment, no matter what,” said Dr. Kevin Wile, a family medicine physician at Penn State Health in Hershey. “When we can detect it early, we can avoid complications.” Blood pressure measures how much force the blood places on artery walls each time a heart beats (systolic, the top number) and between beats (diastolic, the bottom number). New guidelines adopted last year by the American Heart Association and other health organizations define high blood pressure as 130/80 and over. Moderately high blood pressure rarely causes symptoms, so people are often unaware they have it. But those with severely high blood pressure may have headaches, fatigue, confusion, vision changes and chest pain. Those are “big red flags,” according to Wile. “If left untreated, it can lead to increased risk of a heart attack, heart failure, stroke and vision loss,” Wile warned in a Penn State news release. “It essentially has the ability to affect almost any organ in the body if you go a long time without controlling it.” Besides medication, treatment often means addressing lifestyle issues… read on >

When a social media “influencer” hawks junk food, young kids may be easily won over, a new study suggests. British researchers found that when children saw images of two famous YouTube “vloggers” simply holding junk food, they immediately showed a craving for cookies and candy. Unfortunately, they were not similarly swayed by images of those online stars with healthy foods. Experts said the findings point to the power of an insidious form of junk food marketing, in which companies pay social media influencers to feature their products. “Most parents are surprised this exists,” said Jennifer Harris, of the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. “They often have no idea how targeted their kids are when they’re online.” Harris, who was not involved in the study, conducts research on food marketing to kids. She said that in comparison to traditional advertising, it’s difficult to study the influence of social media on kids’ food preferences. “There isn’t a lot known about it, because it’s hard to track what kids are seeing on social media,” Harris explained. So she said she was “excited” to see the new findings, published online March 4 in the journal Pediatrics. They show, through an experimental design, how social media images can immediately influence kids’ food choices, Harris said. For the study, researchers from the University of Liverpool created… read on >

Your metabolism rate determines how fast you burn calories, and that can influence how fast you lose weight — and how easily you can gain it. After age 25, metabolism naturally slows by 5 percent every decade. So if you eat as much in your 40s as you did in your 20s, you’re going to add extra pounds — especially if you exercise less and lose muscle. In addition to weight training to maintain muscle, these tips from the American Council on Exercise can help. Stick to well-spaced meals at the same times each day. This lets your body know to expect fuel at regular intervals and prevents it from conserving calories and adding to fat stores. Calorie cutting is important if you need to lose weight, but reducing your intake to starvation levels also puts your body in conservation mode, slowing down metabolism. So rather than speeding up weight loss, starvation ultimately slows it. And that’s why it’s so easy to regain lost weight when you start eating normally: Your metabolism tends to stay slow. Dehydration can lead to a 2 percent drop in the number of calories burned, so drink at least 8 glasses of water throughout each day, and even more when you sweat a lot. Watch the alcohol. Besides adding empty calories to your diet, processing alcohol diverts the liver from… read on >

(HealthDay News) — From heart disease to arthritis, many major diseases have been linked to chronic inflammation. Favoring anti-inflammatory foods in your diet could reduce your risk of illness. Harvard Medical School recommends that anti-inflammatory diets include: Tomatoes. Olive oil. Nuts. Fatty fish, such as salmon and tuna. Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach and kale.

Fatigue can plague many people with multiple sclerosis (MS). But a small new study suggests a soothing cup of hot cocoa may bring some relief. Like dark chocolate, cocoa is rich in flavonoids, which are abundant in fruit and vegetables and have been linked with anti-inflammatory properties, explained researcher Shelly Coe, of the Center for Nutrition and Health at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom, and her colleagues. That anti-inflammatory power may help fight MS fatigue, the researchers believe. “Our study establishes that the use of dietary interventions is feasible and may offer possible long-term benefits to support fatigue management,” Coe said in a news release from the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. Her team published their findings online in the journal March 5. Prior research has suggested that dark chocolate, which is between 70 percent and 85 percent cocoa solids, appears to lessen fatigue in people with chronic fatigue syndrome, the British researchers noted. Would cocoa do the same for MS patients? To find out, Coe’s group tracked the symptoms of 40 adults recently diagnosed with the common “relapsing remitting” form of MS. Participants were asked to drink a cup of either high-flavonoid cocoa powder mixed with heated rice milk (19 people) or a low-flavonoid version (21 people), every day for six weeks. Small improvements in fatigue were seen in 11 of… read on >

It seems as though every day brings a new study on the merits — or the risks — of coffee. So what’s the real scoop? If you like drinking coffee simply for the pleasure of it, Harvard University research has found that sipping up to six cups a day is probably safe. Remember: Those are 8-ounce cups with about 100 milligrams of caffeine and little added milk and sweetener. A cafe drink can pack the equivalent of three cups, plus the fat and calories from any add-ins, so tally it accordingly. And it appears that coffee is not only “safe” to drink, it may also have actual health benefits, like protecting against diabetes, Parkinson’s and certain liver diseases. Coffee drinkers may also have a slightly lower risk of dying from heart disease compared to those who skip the java. How can a cup o’ joe have such wide-ranging effects? Coffee is much more than caffeine, with hundreds of different compounds, any of which can lead to a positive health outcome. While some studies have found an association between these benefits and drinking moderate amounts of coffee, even heavy coffee drinkers may benefit. A 2018 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at 500,000 people who drank one to eight cups a day. Researchers found that heavy coffee drinking was associated with a lower risk of… read on >

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved the nasal spray medication esketamine — a relative of the club drug and anesthetic ketamine — for use against severe depression. Sold as Spravato, the fast-acting drug becomes the first new type of medicine approved in years against an illness that plagues millions of Americans. In a statement, the FDA said Spravato should be used in conjunction with an antidepressant pill and is meant only for people whose depression has not responded to at least two other antidepressants. Spravato — a much less potent relative of the illicit club drug “Special K” — comes with other restrictions, the FDA said. Ketamine can induce dissociation (feeling disconnected from one’s surroundings) and sedation. Because Spravato might act similarly for a minority of patients, the FDA said safeguards are warranted. “Because of safety concerns, the drug will only be available through a restricted distribution system and it must be administered in a certified medical office where the health care provider can monitor the patient,” said Dr. Tiffany Farchione. She’s acting director of the Division of Psychiatry Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Patients will self-administer the nasal spray during visits to a medical clinic, and the spray cannot be taken home. A health care provider will monitor the patient until it is clear that he… read on >