Imagine having dysphagia, which makes it difficult to swallow food. Or celiac disease, which puts anything containing wheat or gluten off limits. Even people with diabetes and obesity often face miserable choices in the grocery store. They’re the audience for MenuDirect, a business that home-delivers prepared foods for people with medical problems. Entrees such as gluten-free pizza cost $5. Steak processed to be easy to swallow is available for $3 per serving. Call 888-636-8123 for help choosing a menu. The flash-frozen foods are delivered overnight across the country for a flat fee of $10. Now that’s takeout.
title: “Focus On Health” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-20” author: “Phil Banks”
BEHAVIOR Violence and Video: A Separate Peace Many studies have shown that video violence can lead to serious real-life aggression in kids. But until now few people have looked at the possible effects of reducing screen time. In a study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Stanford researchers asked third- and fourth-grade students to go cold turkey from TV and videogames for 10 days and then limit themselves to seven hours a week. After eight months, children who avoided the video mayhem were rated as far less aggressive than a control group of kids who kept their old viewing habits. BLOOD PRESSUREThe Breast Is Best Is further proof needed of the value of mother’s milk? It’s well known that breast-feeding helps kids avoid infections and probably even develop smarter brains. Now a new study in The Lancet says it might also help prevent heart disease, by keeping blood pressure lower later in life. English researchers examined 130 kids between the ages of 13 and 16, born prematurely in a London hospital and monitored closely ever since. The 66 children who had been fed breast milk had a mean arterial-blood-pressure rate four points lower than the kids who’d been fed formula as preemies. The researchers don’t know why formula leads to such significantly higher blood pressure, although they say it’s not due to excess sodium or fat in the mix. And further studies need to be done of full-term babies to see if the difference between milk and formula still holds. But the study is more evidence that breast milk is not only the cheapest but also the healthiest food for your baby. VITAMINSRead the Label, But Then Read This That morning multivitamin might not be as healthful as you think, say chemical analysts at Consumerlab.com, a company that subjects claims by food-supplement manufacturers to rigorous tests. The lab recently assayed 27 multivitamin brands and found that one third didn’t contain what the label promised. One children’s multi had 150 percent of the vitamin A listed, making it far more potent than recommended, and two adult multis had only 40 percent of the vitamin A claimed. A prenatal multi promised 25 percent more folic acid than it contained–troubling for a vitamin used to prevent serious birth defects. The full results can be viewed for $3.95 at Consumerlab.com–cheaper than vitiated vitamins, and more useful, too.
