Tag: #choosewellness

Dental Health

Nutrition & Dental Health

by Jessica Wetzig, posted in Articles

How is nutrition related to oral/dental health?

According to the American Dental Association, those who eat foods containing calcium and phosphorous are less likely to develop gum disease. Calcium is a prime ingredient for preventing tooth decay, especially for growing children.

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (https://www.eatright.org) Foods for Optimum Oral Health are:

Calcium-rich foods, such as low-fat or fat-free milk, yogurt and cheese, and fortified soymilk help promote strong teeth and bones. Other sources of calcium include tofu (made with calcium sulfate), canned salmon, almonds and some dark green leafy vegetables.

Phosphorus, a mineral found in eggs, fish, lean meat, dairy, nuts and beans is good for strong teeth.

Vitamin C promotes gum health, so eat plenty of sources, including citrus fruits, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, potatoes and spinach.

The consumption of sugars has been associated with an increased risk of developing dental caries. Frequent consumption of acidic food and beverages is associated with an increased risk of erosive tooth wear.

According to the Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org), you can protect my oral health by:

To protect your oral health, practice good oral hygiene daily.

Brush your teeth at least twice a day for two minutes each time. Use a soft-bristled brush and fluoride toothpaste.

Floss daily.

Use mouthwash to remove food particles left after brushing and flossing.

Eat a healthy diet and limit sugary food and drinks.

Replace your toothbrush every three to four months, or sooner if bristles are splayed or worn.

Schedule regular dental checkups and cleanings. Also, contact your dentist as soon as an oral health problem arises.

Avoid tobacco use.

Healthy Aging

Featured by Jessica Wetzig, posted in Articles

September is Healthy Aging® Month and the time to get started on better health practices and provides inspiration and practical ideas for adults, ages 45-plus, to improve their physical, mental, social and financial well-being.

To get you started on re-inventing yourself, here are some ideas from the editors of Healthy Aging® Magazine (www.healthyaging.net). Maybe you will find some that will help you think outside the box.

10 Tips for Rein­vent­ing Your­self dur­ing Sep­tem­ber Is Healthy Aging Month: 

  1. Do not act your age or at least what you think your cur­rent age should act like. What was your best year so far? 28? 40? Now? Pic­ture your­self at that age and be it. Some peo­ple may say this is denial, but we say it’s pos­i­tive think­ing and goes a long way toward feel­ing bet­ter about your­self. (Tip:  Don’t keep look­ing in the mir­ror, just FEEL IT!)
  2. Be pos­i­tive in your con­ver­sa­tions and your actions every day. When you catch your­self com­plain­ing, check your­self right there and change the con­ver­sa­tion to some­thing pos­i­tive. (Tip: Stop watch­ing the police reports on the local news).
  3. Have neg­a­tive friends who com­plain all of the time and con­stantly talk about how awful every­thing is? Drop them. As cruel as that may sound, dis­tance your­self from peo­ple who do not have a pos­i­tive out­look on life. They will only depress you and stop you from mov­ing for­ward. Sur­round your­self with ener­getic, happy, pos­i­tive peo­ple of all ages and you will be hap­pier too. (Tip: Smile often. It’s con­ta­gious and wards off naysayers.)
  4. Walk like a vibrant, healthy per­son. Come on. You can prob­a­bly do it. Ana­lyze your gait. Do you walk slowly because you have just become lazy or, per­haps, have a fear of falling? (Tip: Make a con­scious effort to take big strides, walk with your heel first, and wear com­fort­able shoes.)
  5. Stand up straight! You can knock off the appear­ance of a few extra years with this trick your mother kept try­ing to tell you. Look at your­self in the mir­ror. Are you hold­ing your stom­ach in, have your shoul­ders back, chin up? Check out how much bet­ter your neck looks! Fix your stance and prac­tice it every day, all day until it is nat­ural. You will look great and feel bet­ter. (Tip: Your waist­line will look trim­mer if you fol­low this advice.)
  6. How’s your smile? Research shows peo­ple who smile more often are hap­pier. Your teeth are just as impor­tant to your good health as the rest of your body. Not only is it the first thing peo­ple notice, but good oral health is a gate­way to your over­all well-being. (Tip: Go to the den­tist reg­u­larly and look into teeth whiten­ing. Noth­ing says old more than yel­low­ing teeth!)
  7. Lonely? Stop brood­ing and com­plain­ing about hav­ing no friends or fam­ily. Do some­thing about it now. Right this minute. Pick up the phone, land­line, or cell and make a call to do one or more of the fol­low­ing: Vol­un­teer your time, Take a class,  Invite some­one to meet for lunch, brunch, din­ner, or cof­fee. (Tip: Vol­un­teer at the local pub­lic school to stay in touch with younger peo­ple and to keep cur­rent on trends, take a com­puter class or a tuto­r­ial ses­sion at your cell phone store to keep up with tech­nol­ogy, choose a new per­son every week for your din­ing out.)
  8. Start walk­ing not only for your health but to see the neigh­bors. Have a dog? You’ll be amazed how the dog can be a con­ver­sa­tion starter. (Tip: If you don’t have time for a dog, go to your local ani­mal shel­ter and vol­un­teer. You will be thrilled by the puppy love!)
  9. Make this month the time to set up your annual phys­i­cal and other health screen­ings. Go to the appoint­ments and then, hope­fully, you can stop wor­ry­ing about ail­ments for a while.
  10. Find your inner artist. Who says tak­ing music lessons is for young school chil­dren? You may have an artist lurk­ing inside you just wait­ing to be tapped.  Have you always wanted to play the piano, vio­lin, or tuba? Have you ever won­dered if you could paint a por­trait or scenic in oil? What about work­ing in wood? (Tip: Sign up now for fall art or music classes and dis­cover your inner artist!)

Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month

Featured by Jessica Wetzig, posted in Articles

August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month. Prevent Blindness at https://preventblindness.org/ is a resource for child eye health. You can help raise awareness of children’s vision and eye health as kids head back to school.  The key message is that healthy vision contributes to children’s school readiness, ability to learn, overall healthy development and ability to reach motor developmental milestones and that vision screening and eye care are essential components of a Strong Vision Health System of Care.

Children’s Eye Health and Safety Awareness Month Resources

Resources for Parents and Caregivers

We have no better opportunity to educate parents and caregivers on school-readiness, vision screening, injury protection, sports eye safety, and signs of eye problems than during August as kids head back to school. Here is an example of resources Prevent Blindness can offer for parents and caregivers:

-Getting children ready for school: https://www.preventblindness.org/getting-your-childready-school

-Signs of eye problems: https://www.preventblindness.org/signs-possible-eye-problemschildren

-Vision screening and eye exams: https://www.preventblindness.org/understanding-visionscreenings-and-eye-examinations

-Injury protection: https://www.preventblindness.org/protect-your-child-eye-injuries.

-Sports eye safety: https://www.preventblindness.org/sports-eye-safety

– Financial Assistance for Eye Care: https://www.preventblindness.org/vision-care-financialassistance-information

Summer Health & Sun Care

Featured by Jessica Wetzig, posted in Articles

One of the most important health tips during the summer months is to make sure you are consuming enough water to stay hydrated. Being adequately hydrated is essential for reaching optimal health and wellness. There are so many benefits that water provides for your body. Some of those benefits include regulating body temperature, protecting for your tissues and joints, preventing constipation, improving skin complexion and maximizing physical performance.

Below are a few ways to increase your water consumption:

• Keep a reusable water bottle with you

• Replace other beverages with water

• Drink one glass of water before each meal or at certain times each day. Set a reminder on your phone if you need to!

If you are one of those people that does not necessarily like the taste of water or easily gets bored only drinking water below are some tips to help you increase your water intake as well:

• Eat fruits and vegetables. These foods already have water in them so by eating more fruits and vegetables it not only increases your consumption of those essential vitamins and minerals but also helps you stay hydrated

• Try coconut water or sparkling water

• Add cucumber, strawberries, lemon or other fresh fruit or vegetables to your water for a refreshing twist

• Try popsicles or smoothies but make sure to watch the amount ofsugar you are consuming with these options

• Unsweetened tea can be a low sugar option to increase your water intake

Healthy Cooking

Men’s Health Month

by Jessica Wetzig, posted in Articles

Men need to pay attention to their own set of nutritional demands. Many problems caused in part by nutrition are common to both men and women, such as cardiac disease, obesity, and diabetes. In general, absolute nutritional requirements in men are greater than in women, simply because men as a population are larger and have more muscle mass than women.

Top Men Health Focuses:

1.Calories- men are typically taller, have more muscle mass and weigh more than women, so they typically require more calories. Visit www.myplate.gov to figure your individualized calorie needs.

2.Protein- men’s protein needs may be proportionally greater, especially if a man is physically active.

3.Nutrient Dense Diet- Quality nutrients are important to maintain men’s immune function and overall health, as well as preventing bone loss, eyesight loss, and muscle loss

4.Calcium- Calcium is as important for men as it is for women. Osteoporosis tends to be looked at as a “woman’s disease,” but men can be susceptible to osteoporosis too.

Basic eating principles for a proper diet

1.Eat a wide variety of foods: plenty of colorful vegetables, legumes/beans, fruit, grain(cereal) foods – mostly whole grain and high fiber varieties, lean meats and poultry ,fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, milk, yogurt,, cheese or their alternatives, mostly reduced fat.

2.Drink plenty of water.

3.Limit foods high in saturated fat, such as biscuits, cakes, pastries, pies, processed meats, fried foods, sausage, and bacon. Replace high fat foods containing mostly saturated fat with foods containing mostly polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. Swap butter, cream, cooking margarine, coconut and palm oil with unsaturated fats from oils, spreads, nut butters and pastes, and avocado.

4.Limit foods and drinks containing added salt, and don’t add salt to foods in cooking or at the table.

5.Limit foods and drinks containing added sugars, such as sugar-sweetened soft drinks, fruit drinks, vitamin waters, energy and sports drinks.

6.Limit alcohol. (Drink no more than two standard drinks a day, on average, and no more than four standard drinks on any single occasion.)

Family Meals Month

by Annemarie Taylor, posted in Articles

Every September is National Family Meals Month which is a national campaign whose goal is encourage families to eat more meals together.

The Family Meals Movement started in 2015 and has grown rapidly because of the positive social and health benefits that can occur by increasing the meals eaten together every week. According to the FMI Foundation there are multiple benefits to regular family meals such as:

  • Higher grades and self-esteem
  • Prosocial behaviors into adulthood such as sharing, fairness and respect
  • Children are less likely to suffer from obesity
  • Higher fruit and vegetable intakes
  • Adolescents are less likely to show symptoms of violence, depression, and suicide as well as less likely to abuse drugs, run away and engage in other risky behaviors

Adolescents who have infrequent family meals are:

  • 3.5 times more likely to abuse prescription or illegal drugs
  • 3 times more likely to have used marijuana
  • More than 2.5 times more likely to have used tobacco
  • 1.5 times more likely to have used alcohol

The goal of this movement is simple, for families to pledge to have one more meal together a week.

Check out the National Family Meals website, https://www.fmi.org/family-meals-movement/about , for more information as well as resources, recipes and much more. 

Summer Food Safety

by Annemarie Taylor, posted in Articles

While summer is a great time to spend quality time outdoors with friends and family, these events can lead to serious illness if the food is not properly handled. The warmer temperatures lead to an increase in food poisoning cases because these germs thrive and grow well under these conditions. Here are a few tips to keep your loved ones safe while enjoying the sun.

  • Refrigerate perishable foods within 1 hour if it is 90 degrees or warmer when you are shopping for groceries or eating outside
  • When grilling, throw out marinades or sauces that have touched raw meats or meat juices
  • Always use clean utensils and plates to remove cooked foods from the grill. Do not use the same utensils or plates because it can lead to cross contamination
  • Bring hand sanitizer or wipes to clean your hands before preparing or eating food if there is not access to a sink
  • Always bring a food thermometer to make sure your meat is cooked to the proper temperature to ensure it is safe to eat. Check out this website for all of the temperatures foods should be cooked to: https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/safe-minimum-cooking-temperature