The Healthy Blogger

Choosing the right food

I was placed on hold talking to customer service and instead of just playing music, there were infomercial ads.  This particular one focused on eating healthy.  I was not able to hear all of it, but a couple of the advice given were sensible and reiterated some things I said previously.

If you’re concerned about your weight and would like to lose some, or if you just want to maintain a healthy diet, it can be very difficult to follow through when you’re dining out.   And, let’s face it, most of us get tired of eating the same things day in and day out, or struggling to come up with a good meal to fix every night.  So, occasionally, we do need to dine out.  But, there are ways to keep to your resolutions. 

The first suggestion is to order a soup like minestrone as a starter.  As I’ve mentioned before, eating a hearty soup does fill you up and the effect lasts longer than eating dry food and washing it down with water.  In effect, having this soup first prevents you from eating more in your main course.

The other suggestion is a little more interesting.  It involves eating seafood.  Of course, we know that fatty fish contains the good fat, omega-3, which is heart healthy.  But, according to this ad, omega-3 also boosts hormones in your brain to help with depression.  I’m not sure of the science behind this, but I guess it would be healthier than the typical comfort food.  So, if you’re feeling down, grab some mackerel sushi.

Fiber, prune juice, stool softeners, laxatives, exercise for constipation

Following on my issues about constipation.  I remember a colleague called in the maintenance man because the toilet was plugged up and she couldn’t unplug it.  He joked about the women in the office and suggested they added fiber to their diet.  She countered with, “But that would make it worse!”

Strange isn’t it that they recommend fiber for constipation?  There are reasons for it, but sometimes it seems counter-intuitive.  I guess it really depends on what the constipation problem is.  If someone produces large, hard stools, but has a hard time passing it, fiber might not be a good option.  Fiber bulks up stool and helps the bowels move.  However, if you already have bulky stools, you wouldn’t want to bulk it up some more.  If you have small, hard stools, fiber might help.

If stools are hard, some use stool softeners.  They are not laxatives in themselves, but because they sometimes soften stools too much, some people complain they get diarrhea.  Perhaps, the best suggestion for some of these people may be to drink more water.  Or even juices.  Some people feel apple or grape juice can induce diarrhea.  But, the one juice most people associate with bowel movements is prune juice.  Prune juice is probably ideal because it contains fiber and liquid. However, it does not work for everyone, either.  Of course, nothing is ever 100% guaranteed to work.  I’ve tried prune juice and sometimes, it can cause cramping when it takes effect.

I know lots of people who resort to over-the-counter laxatives.  Some people actually abuse them, because they wrongly assume they have constipation when it may not be.  Then, there are those anorexics who abuse them for the sole purpose of remaining thin.  However, you look at it, laxative abuse is dangerous.  For that matter, many doctors hate it when people use laxatives, especially when they don’t inform their doctors about their use.  It may interfere with other medications or cause other problems that may be misdiagnosed.

Regular exercise is also supposed to be good as it keeps the body fit and functioning properly.  Yet, how to gauge the effect of exercise is difficult.  I’m not a couch potato, but neither am I excessively active.  But, summer is here, so I should make a conscious effort to engage in real exercise every day.

Is bed-sharing cause of crib death?

Is bed-sharing harmful to babies?  According to experts, it may be.  There has been much concern about crib dead and they blame some of it on bed-sharing or sofa-sharing.  They point out that the babies at greatest risk are those of low birth weight, have respiratory problems, or if the parents smoke or drink alcohol.  Of course, their advice does make sense.  However, the babies at highest risk of crib death from bed-sharing also seem to be those at highest risk for crib death in any sense.  So, does bed-sharing really make a difference?

I will not go against medical advice in suggesting that it is OK, but even the experts say that a blanket warning to parents is not appropriate.  I will say that we shared our beds with our babies and they did not suffer from it.  Of course, they were and are healthy babies and we do not smoke or drink.  Therefore, we were at low risk to begin with.  I will not say that it was the most comfortable situation all the time, but we are no worse for wear.

There is still no explanation for much of sudden infant death.  When it first came to light, there was suggestion of child abuse.  Later, it was found to be much more mysterious, but sometimes showed signs of abuse from suffocation or “shaken baby”.  As it received more coverage, attention turned towards diagnosing some undetected physical problem.  So, we ended up with some heart and lung defects that can cause babies to suddenly stop breathing – called apnea.  Other causes came to light, such as reflux.  However, reflux came about (sometimes) due to medications given to treat apnea.  But, people forget that many of these physical conditions had been around even before SIDS or crib death came to attention.  Children born with birth defects were monitored carefully and if they did suffer negative consequences, it was not classified as crib death because there was a known cause for it.  SIDS was a diagnosis given to those babies who died under mysterious circumstances. 

Those circumstances remain mysterious, although multiple hypotheses have been forwarded.  Some say that babies sleeping on their stomachs may accidently suffocate when they roll their heads into their pillows and cannot roll them away again.  Or, when they roll their heads they compress arteries in the next that supply the brain.  Prior to this, it was recommended that babies sleep on their stomach because they breathe better that way.  The current recommendation is to keep them on their sides.  Other hypotheses include the presence of bacteria due to a change in the manufacturing of crib mattresses, excessive mucous in the nasal passages.  Other hypotheses include many medical conditions.  But, again, if there is a medical explanation for the death, it would not be classified as SIDS.  Until they can connect all the crib deaths with some distinct explanation, we will never know the real cause of SIDS.  Perhaps, what is classified under the umbrella of SIDS may be more than one condition.  But, surely, we should be able to start grouping these deaths into categories.  Statistics suggest that thousands of babies die of crib death every year.  Could there be that many different diagnoses to explain all these deaths in the end?

So, if we do not know the cause of crib death, what can we do to prevent it?  Really, there is nothing that can guarantee our children’s safety.  However, if expert advice does not sound harmful in any way, then it would be appropriate to follow it. If it goes against any of our fundamental beliefs, then it might be best to discuss it with the doctor before going against medical advice.  But, what about bed-sharing?  It is an individual decision and should be discussed with the doctor or midwife.  Of course, if a parent crushes their child, causing suffocation and death, it really is not crib death, is it?  It would be accidental death or neglect.