Top Ten Reasons Why Consulting with an RD Can Benefit You

American Dietetic Association’s Top Ten Reasons
Why Consulting with a Registered Dietitian Can Benefit You

1. You have diabetes, cardiovascular problems or high blood pressure.
An RD serves as an integral part of your health-care team by helping you safely change your eating plan without compromising taste or nutrition.

2. You are thinking of having or have had gastric bypass surgery.
A registered dietitian will help you learn to eat again. Since your stomach can only manage small servings, it’s a challenge to get the right amount of nutrients in your body. An RD will work with you and your physician to develop an eating plan for your new needs.

3. You have digestive problems.
A registered dietitian will work with your physician to help fine-tune your diet so you are not aggravating your condition with fried foods, too much caffeine or carbonation.

4. You’re pregnant or trying to get pregnant.
A registered dietitian can help make sure you get nutrients like folate, especially during the first three months of pregnancy, lowering your newborn’s risk for neural tube or spinal cord defects.

5. You need guidance and confidence for breastfeeding your baby.
A registered dietitian can help make sure you’re getting enough iron, vitamin D, fluoride and B vitamins for you and your little one.

6. Your teenager has issues with food and eating healthfully.
A registered dietitian can assist with eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and overweight issues.

7. You need to gain or lose weight.
A registered dietitian can suggest additional calorie sources for healthy weight gain or a restricted-calorie eating plan plus regular physical activity for weight loss while still eating all your favorite foods.

8. You’re caring for an aging parent.
A registered dietitian can help with food or drug interaction, proper hydration, special diets for hypertension and changing taste buds as you age.

9. You want to eat smarter.
A registered dietitian can help you sort through misinformation; learn how to read labels at the supermarket; discover that healthy cooking is inexpensive, learn how to eat out without ruining your eating plan and how to resist workplace temptations.

10. You want to improve your performance in sports.
A registered dietitian can help you set goals to achieve results — whether you’re running a marathon, skiing or jogging with your dog.

With approximately 70,000 members, the American Dietetic Association is the nation’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. ADA serves the public by promoting optimal nutrition, health and well-being. To locate a registered dietitian in your area, visit the American Dietetic Association at www.eatright.org/.
National Nutrition Month®, created in 1973 and celebrated each March, helps promote healthful eating and provides consumers with practical nutrition guidance.

Insulin Pump Blogs

I have noticed a sharp increase in the number of insulin pump consults I receive. I believe that every insulin pumper should have a support group. But since that is not always possible I wanted to post a list of blogs that would be beneficial. All of them are excellent.


insulin pump demystified -A writer on an insulin pump.

Six Until Me - The life and times of an insulin pump wearer.

Diabetes Mine - This blogger is very knowledgeable about pumps.

Scott's Journal - Another personal favorite.

Hanselman - More of a technical blog but the blogger does wear a pump.

Candid Diabetes - Pumping with attitude!

Stick It - Brand new to the world of pumping.

Also, I have just added a group at www.IowaAvenue.com specifically for insulin pumpers called “Insulin Pumpers Count” Just register for Iowa Avenue and join the group.

Should I use Iodized Salt?

EWG and Public Health

Environmental Working Group and Public Health:

The mission of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment.

EWG specializes in providing useful resources (like Skin Deep and the Shoppers' Guide to Pesticides in Produce) to consumers while simultaneously pushing for national policy change.


Here is a link to the Health/Toxics Section. I encourage everyone to subscribe to their newsletter and blog.

Sicko, Michael Moore, Canada and Health Care

Today I decided to check out some information about the movie “Sicko” by Michael Moore and found the following health care facts regarding Canada:

Facts & Figures
DID YOU KNOW...

Canada spends only $3,165 per capita on health care, compared to over $7,000 per capita in the United States.
Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services

The life expectancy in Canada is three years longer than in the United States.
Source: World Health Organization

The infant mortality rate in Canada is 5.0 per thousand, compared with 7.0 per thousand in the United States.
Source: World Health Organization

24 percent of Americans did not seek medical care because of cost, compared to 5 percent in Canada.
Source: 'Inequities In Health Care: A Five-Country Survey,' Health Affairs.

There are nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance, compared with none in Canada.
Source: Centers for Disease Control

The median waiting time in Canada is only three weeks for diagnostic tests and only four weeks for specialist visits and non-emergency surgery.
Source: Statistics Canada

70 to 80 percent of Canadians feel their wait times are acceptable.
Source: Statistics Canada

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/canadian-waiting-room/facts-figures/

A scene at a Canadian waiting room:

Comments are welcome and encouraged.

Toxic Teflon

Did you know that Teflon has been linked to cancer and birth defects?

Eight U.S. companies, including giant DuPont Co., agreed on January 25, 2007 to virtually eliminate a harmful chemical used to make Teflon from all consumer products coated with the nonstick material.

Although the chemical would still be used to manufacture Teflon and similar products, processes will be developed to ensure that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) would not be released into the environment from finished products or manufacturing plants.

PFOA -- a key processing agent in making nonstick and stain-resistant materials -- has been linked to cancer and birth defects in animals and is in the blood of 95 percent of Americans, including pregnant women. It has also been found in the blood of marine organisms and Arctic polar bears.

The voluntary pact, which was crafted by the Environmental Protection Agency, will force companies to reduce manufacturing emissions of PFOA by 95 percent by no later than 2010. They will also have to reduce trace amounts of the compound in consumer products by 95 percent during the same period and virtually eliminate them by 2015.

The agreement will dramatically reduce the extent to which PFOA shows up in a wide variety of everyday products, including pizza boxes, nonstick pans and microwave-popcorn bags.

The move, which came just a month after DuPont reached a $16.5 million settlement with EPA over the company's failure to report possible health risks associated with PFOA, drew applause from environmental groups that have frequently criticized both the administration and DuPont.
Scientific studies have not established a link between using products containing trace amounts of PFOA, such as microwave-popcorn bags or nonstick pans, and elevated cancer levels.

Several other companies agreed to reduce public exposure to the chemical, including 3M Co., Ciba and Clariant Corp. But DuPont, which settled a class-action suit accusing it of contaminating drinking water in Ohio and West Virginia communities near its plant in Parkersburg, W.Va., has attracted the most public scrutiny over its PFOA use.

William Bailey III, who was born in 1981 with multiple birth defects while his mother, Sue, was working with the chemical at the Parkersburg plant, said he will "be watching" to see if the chemical giant complies with the new agreement.

"They're trying to save face," said Bailey, who is suing DuPont over his birth defects.

Excerpt from an article written by Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer

Plastic can Release Potentially Harmful Chemicals

I found this on a USDA Fact Sheet:

Containers & Wraps in the Microwave

• Only use cookware that is specially manufactured for use in the microwave oven. Glass, ceramic containers, and all plastics should be labeled for microwave oven use.
• Plastic storage containers such as margarine tubs, take-out containers, whipped topping bowls, and other one-time use containers should not be used in microwave ovens. These containers can warp or melt, possibly causing harmful chemicals to migrate into the food.
• Microwave plastic wraps, wax paper, cooking bags, parchment paper, and white microwave-safe paper towels should be safe to use. Do not let plastic wrap touch foods during microwaving.
• Never use thin plastic storage bags, brown paper or plastic grocery bags, newspapers, or aluminum foil in the microwave oven.

The U.S. Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR) had this to say:

Exposing plastic bottles to boiling water can release a potentially harmful chemical 55 times faster than normal.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is found in the plastics that make up water bottles, baby bottles, and other food and drink packaging. It acts as an environmental estrogen and can disrupt the function of the endocrine system.
Exposure to BPA presents some risk to development and reproduction, although it's unclear at what level that harm begins to occur.
"There isn't a real answer," said study senior author Scott Belcher, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Cincinnati. "There seems to be a current difference of opinion between the scientific research field and the folks doing risk assessment. If you were to sum it up in an easy, relatively conservative way, the scientific data points to some reason for caution at low concentrations. There really isn't much information regarding the effects on human populations directly."
Belcher's findings appear in the Jan. 30 issue of the journal Toxicology Letters.
Animal experiments have suggested that BPA may mimic the female sex hormone estradiol. The fear has been that exposure to BPA can cause birth defects and developmental problems. In addition, exposure to BPA has been blamed for a variety of other problems, including cancer, diabetes, obesity and attention-deficit disorder.
Exposure to BPA can occur through direct contact or by exposure to food or drink that has been in contact with material containing BPA.
Previous studies had found that repeatedly scrubbing, washing and boiling polycarbonate baby bottles could cause them to release BPA.
Belcher was asked if he used plastics and he said that he avoided them as a personal choice.

Source: Medline Plus