Archive for the Category »health «

Aug
04th		   Road Trip: You wouldn’t believe what is in your pit stop meals!
Leave a Comment Category: Family Travel, Technology, Travel, health, restaurants, road trip Tags:

My husband and his buddy just took all of our kids camping for a couple days. Camping is a ton of work  -  I give him credit. So I’ll let him slide on the many fast food stops they made on the way there and back due to bathroom stops, hunger pains, and ah yes.. even a flat tire now and then.

Gotta love my 9 year old daughter though. She came home and said “Mom – you wouldn’t believe the disgusting fast food we saw – Del Taco has chicken nuggets filled with mac and cheese (translation: fried mac and cheese) and funnel cake fried french fries.”

That was a moment of pride. Although it still takes work to make my kids appreciate vegetables – even from our garden – this was a sign of a break through.

On this very topic, I was astonished to read an interesting article on how bad some of these meals can be at fast food, or chain restaurants that you may normally stop at while traveling. For instance, the Italian Classic sandwich at Quizno’s has 1370 calories…86 grams of fat (holy cow!).. and 4490 mg of sodium. (OMG  - the recommended amount is between 1500-2200!)

This info is right out of “Men’s Health” magazine – pretty entertaining stuff that will make you think twice before you order those cheese fries at Outback Steak House. Check it out: http://www.menshealth.com/20worst/worstfood.html.

Another interesting article is “The 10 Most Unhealthy Fast Food Items on America’s Menus” http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/06/15/the-10-most-unhealthy-fast-food-items-on-americas-menu/

But fear not you road warriors, moms and dads alike. There is a smart phone app to save you from fried food overloading. The “Good Food Near You” app lets you find healthy (or healthier anyway) meals near your locale. Type in your zip code and up will pop restaurant info and nutritional info about items.

You don’ t have to be neurotic about healthy food to enjoy this – sometimes if you had the knowledge of a healthier meal just around the corner, wouldn’t you choose it over the Kentucky Fried Chicken  right in front of you?

Go to the app store and search for “Good Foods Near You.” It isn’t perfect – users say that sometimes it merely lists the healthiest items at the fast food chains nearest you, instead of knowing of other alternatives. But that’s a start.  And… it’s free.

A Votre Sante!

 
Mar
29th		   Do Airport Body Scanners Raise Your Risk Of Cancer?
Leave a Comment Category: Travel, health Tags:

An ongoing concern….. Here I am posting the latest study reported in today’s Wall Street Journal:

A new analysis finds that full-body airport scanners don’t pose a significant health risk to passengers.

The article, published online Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, estimated the potential risks of the radiation emitted from so-called backscatter X-ray scanners, a commonly used machine. The Transportation Security Administration has installed nearly 500 full-body scanners in U.S. airports with an estimated 1,000 scanners to be installed by the end of the year.

Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco and one of the article’s authors, said the amount of radiation emitted by a full-body scan “is a drop in the bucket” compared to the amount of radiation used by X-rays and other medical-imaging procedures such as CT scans. The amount of radiation women would be exposed to from a mammogram is equal to 4,000 airport scans, while the amount from an abdominal CT scan would equal 200,000 airport scans.

Dr. Smith-Bindman said air travelers are exposed to far more radiation from flying, and that going through a full-body scan “is like one or two minutes on an airplane.” She noted everyone is exposed to radiation on a daily basis from the sun and the Earth. Flying increases the amount of radiation exposure from the sun.

The scanners deliver an additional amount of radiation that is equivalent to the amount of radiation received from three to nine minutes of daily living, the analysis found.

While much of the concern with the machines has focused on privacy because of their detailed body images, some scientists have questioned whether the machines are safe. Dr. Smith-Bindman said she was asked by the Archives of Internal Medicine to look at the radiation-safety issue. X-ray radiation can damage DNA, which can increase the risk of cancer. Although the amount of radiation emitted by the scanners is very low, Dr. Smith-Bindman says looking at cancer risks is relevant because even a small increase per person could translate into a number of cancers over a lifetime.

Dr. Smith-Bindman and Pratik Mehta, a student at UC, Berkeley, estimated the cancer risk associated with the amount of radiation used by the machines on travelers.

One calculation estimated that if 100 million passengers took 750 million flights a year, there would be an additional six cancers for that group over a lifetime attributed to the radiation from the scanners. However, the six cancers are on top of an estimated 40 million cancers that would likely occur among the 100 million passengers over a lifetime.

Another calculation looked at the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer among two million 5-year-old girls who would fly round-trip once a week for a year. It found one additional breast cancer per two million girls. This is on top of the 250,000 breast cancers that would be expected to develop over the course of the girls’ lifetimes.

“We conclude that there is no significant threat of radiation from the scans,” the authors write.

Write to Jennifer Corbett Dooren at jennifer.corbett-dooren@dowjones.com

 
Feb
09th		   Travel Tip Tuesday: Health Conscious Travelers: Mangia!
Leave a Comment Category: Technology, Travel, health, restaurants Tags: ,

Eating around the world can be tricky…especially if you are a vegetarian, vegan, or just a health conscious eater. But now there’s a website to help – www.happycow.net. It has a global directory that offers lists of specialty restaurants in various countries – from Croatia..to Bulgaria…to Sweden. If you are caught up in the Slow Food movement…. want to eat only organic… have allergies…or choose not to eat any dairy, the directory will list restaurants that offer a variety of options. Who knew you could find a vegan friendly, Ayurvedic pizzeria in Rome? Or a juice bar (wheat-grass on happycow.net makes sense…) in Paris?

I tested some of the samples by typing in my home town… admittedly, most of the restaurants that popped up are not ones I would choose to dine in while visiting top-chef-rich Los Angeles, but for those more dedicated to staying on their restricted diets, the restaurant choices are admittedly plentiful.

Personally, I prefer to try the authentic cuisine of the region and experiment with my palette while on vacation, but the website is still helpful. It is hard to eat clog-the-arteries-rich Fettuccine Alfredo every night. The website also gives you catch phrases in different languages that you might need in a restaurant – like “I don’t eat meat, fish, or chicken…” or “I am a vegan.”

For those of you who have diet-related new year’s resolutions… you don’t have to wait until the cows come home to eat healthy while traveling… it is right here: www.happycow.net

 
Dec
06th		   Don’t Let The Bed Bugs Bite
Leave a Comment Category: Packing, Staying Safe, Travel, health Tags: ,

A busy travel season is upon us – kids out of school and taking family trips for the holidays. At the same time, hotels have been infested with bed bugs – Across the U.S. we’ve seen bedbugs in upscale hotels, movie theaters, churches, hospitals, even clothing stores. I don’t want to post photos of the bodily damage these bloodsuckers can create – certainly not pleasant – but you can find those all over the internet.

Not to frighten you – but just be aware. You don’t want to be meal for these annoying pests while you sleep. The LA Times had a good article yesterday on how to protect yourself from the little varmints while traveling. You don’t want to mess with them, or bring them into your own home – they can live one year without feeding. Gross.

The National Pest Management Association recommends:

–Take along large plastic bags to hold suitcases during hotel stays. (While leaving them in your room.)

–Vacuum suitcases after returning from a trip. These guys like to travel too!

–Check bed sheets in hotel rooms or at home for telltale brown or red spots of dried excrement.

–Never bring second hand furniture, especially mattresses into a home unless they have been thoroughly examined.

–Inspect areas where pets sleep.

For more – www.pestworld.org and http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-bedbugs-20101204,0,3362775.story

Wishing you bug-free travels…

 
Mar
30th		   Travel Tip Tuesday: Gross! Be careful what you drink….
Leave a Comment Category: Travel, health

Maybe some of you are traveling for spring break…or booking a hotel for this summer. Nothing like a relaxing vacation…maybe sleep in a little…then make some coffee with your in-room coffee maker. But not so fast –  you may want to know what a recent hidden camera report found out about how some hotel maids clean your hotel glasses and coffee mugs!

If you never saw that hidden camera report from about two years ago, I thought is is worth bringing up again. Here are some of the astonishing and disgusting acts caught on tape:

–A maid wearing latex gloves cleans a toilet. With the same gloves, she then goes to the sink and cleans a used drinking glass…. smells the dirty washcloth left on the counter..and dries the glass with that used washcloth.

–Another maid sprayed a cleaning solution on the glasses that is labeled “do not drink.”

–And yet another maid simply rinses with water only the glass that was left with lipstick on the rim..and puts it back out for the next hotel guest.

That’ll make anyone think twice about using hotel room dishware – but get this. Doctors who were consulted after this study say you run the risk of contracting herpes, hepatitis, a staph infection, mononucleosis, and even flesh eating bacteria if you drink from the far from clean glasses.

If you have two minutes, you can watch the video for yourself: www.divinecaroline.com/22250/39039. It is also on youtube.com.

In the meantime, one solution would be to travel with your own collapsible water bottle…a BPA-free container that can fit in your luggage, purse, or back pocket. www.vapur.us An idea that is easier to swallow than disease ridden glasses from your hotel.