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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2008)
S"e*CommunH, < CHA-MAY WEEYA - MEDICINETALK Hea|th< Out-of-Area Health Care The next eall-in date for pre-authorization is Jan. 2. Calls are answered starting at 8 a.m. in the order received. Be sure to register for health care before this date. Only one authorization per year per tribal member is allowed. Members have a choice of selecting medical, dental, vision or hearing services. Numbers to call: 541-444-1236 or 800-628-5720. Happy New Year’s! 2008 is a good lime to quit smoking for the rest of your life. Contact DeAnna Pearl or a provider at 541-444-1030 or 800-648-0449. - OR - Call the Oregon Quit Line at 877-270-6867. Land for the new gym has been cleared near the Fitness Center building. Toothtalk ;HE3SEi3IEi3IE;3lii3IEi3l by Mary Ellen Volansky, RDH, MS Healthy Eating for the Coming New Year? When you are deciding what to have for supper, do you consider how much time it will take to cook your meal? Whether you have every food needed at home? Whether what your stomach is craving is also healthy? My main concern, usually, is how many dishes will it take to prepare this meal? There are the cooking dishes, the containers the food is now stored in, pots and pans for cooking, the serving dishes and plates. All those dishes and containers will have to be washed ... eventually. I have been known to not cook something based solely on the amount of energy and time it will take me to clean up ... as in the last dish stacked in the sink to dry. A like-minded friend once told me that hand towel drying of dishes was nclean, that air-drying was best. Are . etting a clear picture of my culi nary iru nations? Reading labels is important and boring. So my inclination is to purchase those things 1 know about, someone has told me a product is good (then lead the label) or I have already read the label. The latter ‘ituation is most likely where my sb ppmg and thus my cook ing practices arise. OK, so I’m lazy. After working all day, “lazy” about cooking becomes a necessity. So I asked tribal staff to share what were their favorite healthful foods, trying but not always succeed ing in keeping oral health in mind. First, one subject came up about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). What is it? Fructose is a sugar found naturally in fruit that makes it taste sweet. Sweet ening foods with fructose is done “by diabetics because fructose doesn't stimulate the production of insulin, so blood sugar levels remain stable.”1 16 • Siletz News • High fructose corn syrup is, more or less, not the same as fructose found in fruit. HFCS is made from cornstarch. This chemical process changes corn starch into fructose and glucose? Most agree the main problem with HFCS is there is too much of it in our diet, especially the beverages we consume soda pop, canned beverages, cook ies, etc. It’s used because it's cheaper than sugar. The Corn Refiners Association lists the following as “benefits" of HFCS. It gives breads/rolls, cookies and breakfast cereals a “superior browning." It also gives a “soft texture" to chewy cookies, breakfast bars and other baked goods. HFCS promotes freshness, as it “inhibits microbial spoilage.” Consumption of HFCS increased more than 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990. far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group. The increased use of HFCS in the United States mirrors the rapid in crease in obesity."1 These numbers are two separate observations of data taken from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pres ently. there is not enough evidence to confirm a direct relationship between HFCS consumption and the increase in obesity happening in this country. What can you do? Read more la bels. Check out the Web pages listed at the end of this article. Google words such as: HFCS, obesity, high fructose corn syrup, fructose, diabetes, etc. Then decide for yourself. Below are the recommendations of foods from tribal staff. If you have favorites to recommend, write to Toothtalk@ctsi.nsn.us, and share them. If you are willing, add a com January 2008 ment about why you like that product. I'll put your ideas in future Toothtalks. Staff Recommendations Go-gurt, as Alison Noble pointed out, is promoted for young children. Misty Reed added that the tube con tainer is for eating the contents with out a spoon. The reason that Alison doesn't recommend Go-gurl is that “its First ingredient is sugar." An item listed first in the “Contents” section of a product's label means it's the most abundant item in that food. Misty suggested diluting fruit juices with water, 50:50 or 75:25. This will cut the sugar content, the sweetness, and extend the volume. Misty recom mends buying Juicy Juice products or Tree Top apple juice. My favorite is popcorn. Orville Redenbacher has a plastic bowl for popping corn in the microwave, as easy as packaged corn without the ad ditives, cholesterol or salt. Of course, you then add butter and popcorn salt (finer grained than table salt) for flavor. My belief/hope is that real butter is healthier than chemical flavoring (Have you ever wondered what “real butter flavoring” is made from?). Salt is added to taste. Thus, salt would be there either way. There is the chore of washing the plastic bowl ... this hasn't stopped me so far. Dr. Molly Francis recommended most Quaker products, except the ones with frosting. These instant oatmeals do have added sugar, but they are still on her list. She also highly recom mends Martinelli's sparkling cider drinks, 100 percent fruit juice (not al cohol) - they tend to be on sale this time of year. Diane Tripp recommends avocados with Wheat Thins, almonds roasted with salt. Charlie Butler’s favor health ful food is bananas. Bonnie McAlpine “loves” brussel sprouts and asparagus. She also is in agreement with Dr. Francis about oatmeal. Bonnie's ver sion is home-cooked with raisins. Sunshine Keck. Selina Rilatos and Erin Hume all recommend smoked salmon. Erin offered smoked salmon “on a stick.” Does smoked salmon re ally come on a stick? These same people agree about fresh fruits and vegetables, all of them, any time of the day - they must be raw ver sions. Selina’s favorite is “pomegranates, including pomegranate lemonade.” Jody Greene likes salad with ev erything in it. She has a twist that I had not heard of, hot rice on top. Most ev eryone liked nuts. Chasta Marceau likes cashews. Sharon Mason likes roasted almonds, Healthy Bars, and most fruits and vegetables. Alison offers string cheese, raw nuts, apple slices and fruit juice. She is with everyone about diluting juice with water. Alison wanted to clarify - one serving is 6-8 ounces. She would give this at meals or at other times where it is consumed al one sitting (not sipped over time). Another product confusion, for me anyway, is why foods low in fat have high sugar. Foods low in sugar have high fat content. And products pro moted as “healthy” usually cost more! Have a Happy and Healthy New Year! I www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi7fschronicle/ archive/2004/02/l 8/FDGS24VKMH1 .DTI. San Francisco Chronicle 2 Corn Refiners Association. 2007 3 www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/79/4/537, page 2, 1 l/3()/2(X)7
