Sound Medicine -- June 22, 2002

Barbara Lewis and Dr. Kathy Miller talk to physicians and researchers about:

An alternative food pyramid
A heart-healthy chef

CycleBeads for birth control

An alternative food pyramid

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regularly updates the food pyramid, which represents national nutritional recommendations. Walter Willett, MD, a Harvard University physician, has given the familiar pyramid a radical update. His new food pyramid gets rave reviews as well as criticism. Dr. Walter Willett is the author of the book, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy.

Simply put, Dr. Willet explains, the old USDA food pyramid isn't scientifically supported. We know today that some fats are good for us, he explains, and that carbohydrates are very caloric. Dr. Willet talks about potential health effects of USDA pyramid, including blood sugar fluctuations and overeating and diabetes type II. Willet discusses the importance of exercise, the base of his pyramid, and the dangers of transfat, the "stealth" fat, which is worse for health than saturated fats. He talks about his recommendation for moderate alcohol consumption and for taking daily multivitamins.

Dr. Willett is chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Resources

Read a discussion and comparison of food pyramids from the Harvard School of Public Health, which endorses Dr. Willett's proposals.

Read the most recent USDA guidelines for healthy eating. The USDA pyramid is discussed in detail. Find out, for example, what constitutes a serving of recommended foods.

Heart-healthy chef

We'd all be willing to eat healthier if healthy meals were easy to prepare and tasted good. We meet chef and cookbook author Wendell Fowler, who, once a heavy drinker and 100 pounds overweight, battled severe heart problems to get where he is today, a chef whose life-mission is to convert people around him to heart-healthy eating.

Fowler, who gradually became a vegetarian, says changing the way he looked at food improved his physical health and mental state. He talks about developing a new outlook toward food. He also discusses making substitutions for fatty ingredients and advocates the Mediterranean diet.

Resources

Wendell Fowler's cookbook, Eat Right, Now!, is from Guild Press, Emmis Publishing. Besides offering healthy recipes and nutritional advice, he divulges secrets from the world of catering, having worked as a chef for many NBA teams.

Read more about the international "Slow Food" movement that Fowler mentions, a non-profit group that promotes rediscovering the pleasures of everyday life by slowing down and learning to appreciate the convivial traditions of the table.

CycleBeads for birth control

Sometimes it makes sense to keep things simple and natural. Using CycleBeads is a new way to implement one of the oldest methods of birth control, the rhythm, or Standard Days, method. The CycleBeads necklace allows women to track their monthly cycle and easily see when they are most and least fertile. It may seem naïve in this era of genetic breakthroughs, but reproductive health experts working in many cultures have found that the Cycle Beads method doesn't intrude upon religious and cultural restrictions.

Here to discuss the method is Victoria Jennings, PhD, director of the Institute for Reproductive Health at the Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Jennings is an anthropologist whose academic interests lead her to studying health behavior and culture change.

Dr. Jennings explains how women use the colored beads to identify the fertile days of their menstrual cycle. She talks in detail about her studies with CycleBeads, including efficacy rates (only 5% failure), the surprising eagerness of women try this method, and how her group disseminates the beads in various countries.

Resources

At the Institute for Reproductive Health Web site you can read about the Standard Days Method of birth control. Also find Dr. Jennings' full report on the efficacy of the using CycleBeads and the Standard Days Method.
Get more information on CycleBeads, including where to purchase them, from the Cycle Technologies Web site.

Read a short article on the study, "A fixed formula to define the fertile window of the menstrual cycle as the basis of a simple method of natural family planning." Authors Marcos Arévalo, Irit Sinai, and Victoria Jennings. Contraception, 1999, Vol. 60, No. 6, p.357-360.

Upcoming program:
Join us on June 29 when Dr. Cary Mitchell of Purdue University talks about "space farming," sustaining life in outer space.

Call or email us with questions about Hepatitis B and organ donation, both topics for our July 6th program.

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email: soundmed@iu.edu

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a. stress
b. spicy and fatty foods
c. bacteria

What's the answer?

We correct two common first-aid myths that somehow endure. Do you think minor wounds heal better exposed to the air? Do you put ice or butter on minor burns?

• 2 ½ pounds of baby red or Yukon Gold potatoes
• ¼ C. chopped fresh basil
• ¼ C. chopped fresh parsley
• 1 C. diced fresh tomatoes
• 1 C. kernel corn
• Virgin olive oil
• 4 thinly sliced green onions (First smash with the side of a broadsided knife.)
• ½ C. rice vinegar
• Sea salt to taste
• Cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Thoroughly scrub and wash the potatoes in warm soapy water. Rinse. Quarter the potatoes and toss them into a round-sided mixing bowl, then lightly coat with olive oil, salt and pepper. Don't drown them in oil.

Place potatoes on a shallow pan. Set on the oven's middle rack. Roast for about 45 minutes or until fork tender and golden. Do not overcook!

Return potatoes to the mixing bowl. Add 3 T. olive oil and the remaining ingredients. Gently mix while the potatoes are still warm using a wooden or plastic spoon. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature.

For an entree, add diced grilled chicken or salmon
strips for an appealing presentation. Serve
with a green salad, whole wheat bread, and a glass of cholesterol-lowering red wine.