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Tag: health

  • Experts: Children Over One Year Old Do Not Need Formula Milk

    Experts: Children Over One Year Old Do Not Need Formula Milk

    Mr Corey Sta Maria’s five-year-old daughter takes formula milk twice a day, before breakfast and after dinner. He believes that the milk contributes to her overall well-being, especially her good immune system.

    “She has her milk alongside her meals, and it’s convenient, because she may not finish her food and we don’t know whether she’s getting enough nutrients,” said that 44-year-old sports marketer, who added he was not sure if he would continue to give her milk after she turns six in November. His younger daughter, who is just over two years old, also drinks formula milk three times a day.

    He continues to give them milk after a little experiment showed they did not like fresh cows’ milk, which nutritionists recommend after 12 months.

    To save on costs, his family drives over to Johor Baru, Malaysia, to stock up on their formula milk supply – which brings about savings of S$20 to S$30 a tin. They settled on a particular brand of milk after extensive research on its benefits and reviews from other parents.

    Formula milk came into the spotlight after parenting portal Babyment.com revealed prices of infant milk formula in Singapore increased by an average of about 27 per cent from December 2012 to March 2017. The average price of formula milk has more than doubled over the last decade to S$56.06 for a 900g tin, according to Singapore’s Department of Statistics.

    HEALTH CLAIMS A MARKETING PLOY: EXPERTS

    While parents may rely on health claims to choose a formula milk brand for their children, experts say such claims meant for children above one are a “marketing ploy” because the same nutrients can be found in everyday food.

    Referring to nutrients like docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), taurine and choline which are prominently promoted on milk tins, paediatric dietitian Meave Graham from Child Nutrition Singapore said: “These nutrients are found in breast milk and in normal balanced diets. Children do not need special supplements of these nutrients.”

    In fact, giving formula milk to picky eaters can worsen the situation.

    “The higher sugar level (in formula milk) gives a sweet taste and can be very filling, reducing interest in trying other foods. Formula milk offers no nutritional benefit over a balanced diet,” she said, stressing that formula milk is not recommended for children above 12 months.

    While these nutrients have become common in formula milk, Dr Han Wee Meng, head of nutrition and dietetics at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, said that there is more research on the role of choline in fetal brain development during pregnancy than in toddlers, and that taurine is removed during processing in formula milk. Since the late 1980s, the Food and Drug Administration in the United States permitted the addition of taurine to formula milk.

    These nutrients, along with DHA, arachidonic acid (AA) and lutein, have been promoted by milk manufacturers as giving health benefits like brain and eye development, healthy immune system and helping fat digestion.

    Continuing on formula milk beyond 12 months may make the child overly dependent on milk, which may impede the transition to eating family meals, Dr Han explained.

    “Formula milk may feel like an easier option for parents, especially when faced with difficulties to wean a child to a solid diet. However this may further perpetuate the feeding difficulties, as the child is given limited opportunities to learn and practise the necessary feeding skills,” she said.

    Dr Chua Mei Chien, head of neonatology at KKH, added that an infant who weans well and is having excessive formula milk intake can become obese. This carries a negative impact on long-term health with the child having a higher risk of developing metabolic conditions such as adult obesity, diabetes and heart disease, she said.

    Senior dietitian at National University Hospital Charlotte Lin said children above the age of one need nutrients that are similar to an adult but in smaller portions. These include macronutrients such as calories and protein, and micronutrients such as iron, zinc and calcium, she said.

    While Ms Lin said formula milk is useful if children are not able to eat solids very well, formula milk may contain extra sugar when compared to cows’ milk.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

     

  • Parents Beware! Stranger At Joo Chiat Complex Threatened To Harm My 3 Year Old Daughter

    Parents Beware! Stranger At Joo Chiat Complex Threatened To Harm My 3 Year Old Daughter

    Please Please Please!!!! Be careful all parents out there!!! This just happened to my biras earlier today.. Do take xtra care of our children..we dont know when and where it might happen again.. #sharingiscaring

    On 02/05/17, at about 1400hrs, I was sitting on the bench located at level 2 of Joo Chiat Complex, beside the lift lobby, with two of my children. One of them is my son, Yusuf Abayar, which is 5 months old, and the other is my daughter, Zaada As’isyah, which is 3 years old.

    While I was sitting at the bench, I was approached by an unknown male subject. He asked me the gender of my boy. I answered him. He started to mumble to himself whether he should buy raffia string or rope.

    He then said that he will buy the rope. After that, he looked at my daughter and said, ‘Aku ikat kaki kau lepas tu tangan kau, aku sumbat mulut kau kasi senyap. I will kill you’. In English, it basically means that “I will tie your hands and legs, I will stuff things in your mouth and I will silence you. I will kill you.’ After that, one of the aunty told me to follow her, in which I did and we walked away from the male subject. He did not follow.

    I do not know the male subject and have never seen him before. He is a Male Malay, about 50+ years old wearing Black T-Shirt and Black Jeans, with short curly black hair and he had one eye open and one eye seemingly closed when speaking to me. I was wearing a black dress an light brown flower scarf. I was carrying a baby carrier.

    I would like to state that there is a CCTV at the lift lobby area.

     

     

    Source: Sri Nurul

  • Fasting For Three Days Can Regenerate Entire Immune System, Study Finds

    Fasting For Three Days Can Regenerate Entire Immune System, Study Finds

    Fasting for as little as three days can regenerate the entire immune system, even in the elderly, scientists have found in a breakthrough described as “remarkable”.

    Although fasting diets have been criticised by nutritionists for being unhealthy, new research suggests starving the body kick-starts stem cells into producing new white blood cells, which fight off infection.

    Scientists at the University of Southern California say the discovery could be particularly beneficial for people suffering from damaged immune systems, such as cancer patients on chemotherapy.

    It could also help the elderly whose immune system becomes less effective as they age, making it harder for them to fight off even common diseases.

    The researchers say fasting “flips a regenerative switch” which prompts stem cells to create brand new white blood cells, essentially regenerating the entire immune system.

    “It gives the ‘OK’ for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system,” said Prof Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the University of California.

    “And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting.

    “Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or ageing, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system.”

    Prolonged fasting forces the body to use stores of glucose and fat but also breaks down a significant portion of white blood cells.

    During each cycle of fasting, this depletion of white blood cells induces changes that trigger stem cell-based regeneration of new immune system cells.

    In trials humans were asked to regularly fast for between two and four days over a six-month period.

    Scientists found that prolonged fasting also reduced the enzyme PKA, which is linked to ageing and a hormone which increases cancer risk and tumour growth.

    “We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system,” added Prof Longo.

    “When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged,” Dr Longo said.

    “What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started thinking, well, where does it come from?”

    Fasting for 72 hours also protected cancer patients against the toxic impact of chemotherapy.

    “While chemotherapy saves lives, it causes significant collateral damage to the immune system. The results of this study suggest that fasting may mitigate some of the harmful effects of chemotherapy,” said co-author Tanya Dorff, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital.

    “More clinical studies are needed, and any such dietary intervention should be undertaken only under the guidance of a physician.”

    “We are investigating the possibility that these effects are applicable to many different systems and organs, not just the immune system,” added Prof Longo.

    However, some British experts were sceptical of the research.

    Dr Graham Rook, emeritus professor of immunology at University College London, said the study sounded “improbable”.

    Chris Mason, Professor of Regenerative Medicine at UCL, said: “There is some interesting data here. It sees that fasting reduces the number and size of cells and then re-feeding at 72 hours saw a rebound.

    “That could be potentially useful because that is not such a long time that it would be terribly harmful to someone with cancer.

    “But I think the most sensible way forward would be to synthesize this effect with drugs. I am not sure fasting is the best idea. People are better eating on a regular basis.”

    Dr Longo added: “There is no evidence at all that fasting would be dangerous while there is strong evidence that it is beneficial.

    “I have received emails from hundreds of cancer patients who have combined chemo with fasting, many with the assistance of the oncologists.

    “Thus far the great majority have reported doing very well and only a few have reported some side effects including fainting and a temporary increase in liver markers. Clearly we need to finish the clinical trials, but it looks very promising.”

     

    Source: Telegraph

  • What You Should Eat If You Have High Cholesterol

    What You Should Eat If You Have High Cholesterol

    High fat, low fat, no carb, more carb – when it comes to getting information on eating to manage high blood cholesterol, confusion reigns.

    From recent trials that tested the impact of specific foods on blood cholesterol, it was found that eating more nuts, plant sterols (molecules found in plants), legumes and olive oil helps to lower blood cholesterol.

    The bad news? Junk foods raise blood cholesterol, especially bad cholesterol (LDL). Eating less lowers it.

    EAT PLANT STEROLS
AND MARGARINES

    Plant sterols are concentrated from plant sources and added to some commonly eaten foods such as margarines, spreads or milk.Plant sterols, or phytosterols, are chemically similar to blood cholesterol and are found in some plant foods, including nuts.

    Plant sterols compete with two other types of cholesterol for absorption in the gut – pre-made cholesterol, found in foods such as prawns; and cholesterol, which is made in your liver.

    This “competition” lowers the amount of cholesterol that ends up in your blood.

    A review concluded that 2g of plant sterols a day leads to an 8 to 10 per cent reduction in LDL cholesterol.

    The type of fat the plant sterols are mixed with is important.

    A meta-analysis of 32 randomised control trials, involving about 2,100 people, found bigger reductions in total cholesterol (a mix of good and bad types) and LDL cholesterol when plant sterols were added to margarines or spreads derived from canola or rapeseed oil, rather than sunflower or soya bean oil.

    EAT NUTS

    Nuts are high in protein and fat, but the amounts of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fat vary.

    In a review of 25 trials, eating 67g of nuts a day led to a 5.1 per cent reduction in total cholesterol and 7.4 per cent cut for LDL.

    People with higher LDL cholesterol or who were not overweight had a bigger improvement.

    Do note that half a cup of nuts contains 400 calories, so you need to eat nuts instead of another food, or eat less each day but have it every day.

    
USE OLIVE OIL

    Olive oil contains a high proportion of monounsaturated fat.

    More than 80 per cent of its compounds are lost during the refining process, so less refined varieties, such as virgin olive oil, are a better choice.

    A review of eight trials that involved 350 people consuming high phenolic olive oil found medium effects on lowering blood pressure and small effects on lowering oxidised LDL, with no significant effects on total or LDL cholesterol.

    Another trial randomly selected more than 7,400 men and women at high risk of heart disease to follow three diets: the Mediterranean diet plus extra-virgin olive oil, or Mediterranean diet plus nuts, or a control diet (low fat).

    Five years later, a follow-up showed that those in the olive oil and nut groups had a 30 per cent lower risk of heart attack, stroke or death from heart disease, compared to those on the control diet.

    In a recent trial, 47 men and women substituted 4.5 per cent of their usual food intake of olive oil or butter for five weeks, and then crossed over to the other group for another five weeks.

    Researchers found total and LDL cholesterol levels were significantly higher after consuming butter, compared to olive oil.

    EAT LEGUMES

    Legumes and pulses, including baked beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils and split peas, can help lower cholesterol levels.

    The results of 26 randomised control trials, which involved 1,037 people who had either normal or high cholesterol levels, were added together.

    The data showed LDL cholesterol was reduced by 5 per cent in response to eating 130g of pulses per day.

    This is equivalent to one small can of baked beans.

    Pulses are high in vegetable protein and fibre. They lower blood cholesterol in a number of ways.

    The soluble and insoluble fibres help lower cholesterol absorption in the gut and promote the growth of beneficial gut bacteria in the large bowel.

    Legumes and pulses take longer to digest, compared to processed foods. This means you tend to eat less when they are part of a meal.

    
AVOID JUNK FOOD

    In a study, it was found that people were able to make a number of small changes across a range of the foods that lower blood cholesterol levels.

    But the biggest change people made was cutting back on energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods (junk foods) and eating a wider variety of healthy foods.

    The benefits? They lost weight and lowered their cholesterol and blood pressure.

    A big study examined changes in diet-quality scores and heart disease risk in 29,000 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and 51,000 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (1986-2010).

    After four years of follow-up, almost 11,000 people had a heart disease “event”.

    Those who had the biggest improvement in their diet-quality score had a 7 to 8 per cent lower risk.

    When it comes to heart-disease risk factors, get your cholesterol and blood pressure checked the next time you see your doctor.

     

    Source: The New Paper

  • Cigarette Vending Machine Contradicts FairPrice Philosophy

    Cigarette Vending Machine Contradicts FairPrice Philosophy

    NTUC FairPrice was the first off the starting blocks with vending machines to sell and dispense cigarettes, even before the tobacco display ban takes effect (“NTUC FairPrice trials cigarette vending machine for tobacco display ban”; March 17).

    Its fast reaction to meet the new requirement, with its emphatic move to increase market share in this smoky business and break away from the pack, suggests that tobacco is a big revenue earner for FairPrice.

    Surely this is not “guided by the philosophy to do well in order to do good for the community” as promulgated on its corporate website, since tobacco kills thousands of smokers and passive smokers here annually.

    It is unconscionable for FairPrice, with its social mission, to not scale down its tobacco sales operations, which it is beefing up instead with a heavy investment.

    This runs counter to our national agenda to reduce the smoking rate.

    If this is not the case, we should hear from FairPrice whether its management has other noble intentions.

     

    This article written by Lim Teck Koon, was published in Voices, Today, on 22 Mar 2016.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com