Quiz Answer: Vitamin C

The work of Linus Pauling in 1970 stimulated public interest in the use of large doses of Vitamin C to prevent the common cold.

Vitamin C: Where can you find it?

As I'm sure you know, oranges are a great source of vitamin C.  However, all citrus fruits as well as many other fruits and vegetables offer significant amounts of vitamin C.  Here are a few examples of foods and the amount of vitamin C they contain:

• Red Bell Pepper (1/2 cup) - 140mg
• Medium Orange - 70mg
• Strawberries (1/2 cup) - 50mg

What does it do?

• Helps to produce collagen, a connective tissue that strengthens muscles, bones, and other tissues so it helps with cuts and wounds.
• Helps keep capillary walls and blood vessels firm, protecting you from bruising.
• Helps with iron and folate absorption from plant sources of food.
• Protects from infection by stimulating the formation of antibodies.
• Works as an antioxidant to inhibit damage to body cells.
• Essential for many metabolic reactions.

What if you don't get enough?

Ever heard of scurvy?  A strange disease plagued sailors and pirates alike several hundred years ago.  A Brittish surgeon recommended stocking ships with lemons, oranges, and limes, lending the nickname "limeys" to to Brittish sailors.  This provided a cure because citrus fruits contain abundant amounts of vitamin C, a deficiency of which is the cause of scurvy.  Symptoms of scurvy include:

• Loose teeth.
• Dryness in mouth and eyes.
• Swollen gums.
• Loss of hair.
• Poor wound healing.
• Excessive bleeding.

Scurvy is not common in the developed world but deficiency can occur in people that don't eat vegetables or fruit, alcoholics, the elderly, and severely ill individuals.  Signs that you're not getting enough may include:

• Poor wound healing
• Frequent colds or infections
• Lung-related problems

What if you get too much?

• Most of the excess will be excreted in you urine.
• Abdominal pain and diarrhea. 
• May contribute to kidney stones.
• Iron toxicity for those with disorders of iron metabolism.

How much do you need?

• Infants 0-6 months: 40mg
• Infants 6 months-1 year: 50mg
• Children 1-3: 15mg
• Children 4-8: 25mg
• Preteens 9-13: 45mg
• Males 14-18: 75mg
• Females 14-18: 65mg
• Males 19 and above: 90mg
• Females 19 and above: 75mg
• Pregnant women under 18: 80mg
• Pregnant women 19 and above: 85mg
• Breastfeeding women under 18: 115mg
• Breastfeeding women 19 and above: 120mg

The maximum amount assumed to be safe for adults is 2000mg.

Where can I get more information?

Check out these great resources:

• Linus Pauling Institute: Micronutrient Information Center
  
• Vitamin C DRI Report (only for the excessively curious)

And the winner is...

Congratualations to everyone else who guessed corectly - JM, stick to your gut next time!

Christine was the first person to get the correct answer.
Congratulations Christine, you are officially a Smartie Pants!

Quiz Time

Okay, so I've been AWOL for the last couple of weeks because there is a lot of craziness going on in my life, some bad, but mostly good. I won't get into it, but be forewarned that it will continue for the next while so likely my posts are going to be less frequent.  That said, here is a quiz to help us get back into the swing of things!

The work of Linus Pauling in 1970 stimulated public interest in the use of large doses of what nutrient to prevent the common cold?

That's it, just leave your guess in the comments and I'll post the correct answer and grant the winner Smartypants status on Monday.

Quiz Answer

The following shows how many resolutions are maintained as time goes on:

1. Past the first week: 75%
2. Past 2 weeks: 71%
3. After one month: 64%
4. After 6 months: 46%

While a lot of people who make new years resolutions do break them, research done at the University of Scranton and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology shows that making resolutions is useful. People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don't explicitly make resolutions.

So if you've made resolutions, great! If not, don't worry, you can set goals for yourself any time of the year. The best way to ensure you reach your goals is to make them SMART:
Specific: don't make your goal too general.  Instead of saying 'get healthy', say 'lower my cholesterol'
Measurable: how will you know if you have reached your goal?  What do you want your cholesterol level to be?
Attainable: don't waste your time with impossible goals.  If you want to lose weight, don't think you are going to go from a size 20 to a size 4 in a couple of months.
Rewarding: make sure you have a reason to set this goal, otherwise you won't be motivated.  What will lower cholesterol or weight loss bring you?  Long term health can be your reward.
Time-Framed: set a deadline and mini deadlines.  If weight loss is your goal, you could aim for 1-2 pounds per week, and up to 10% of your weight over 6 months.

And the winner is...
Anonymous had the closest guess.
Congratulations Anonymous, your are officially a Smartie Pants! - but next time leave your name so you can prove it when you brag about your Smartie Pants status!

What goals and resolutions have you set for yourself?

Quiz Time

40 to 45% of American adults make one or more resolutions each year.

Among the top new years resolutions are resolutions about weight loss, exercise, and stopping to smoke.

Guess how many people maintain their resolutions over the following periods of time:

1. Past the first week 
2. Past 2 weeks
3. After one month
4. After 6 months

Leave your guess in the comments and I'll post the correct answer on Monday.  Whoever guesses closest will be granted Smartypants status.

Quiz Answer: Vitamin D

Vitamin D is commonly known as the sunshine vitamin.

Vitamin D: Where can you find it?
Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin because your body can make it after sunlight hits your skin.

• Just 10-15 minutes of sunlight on your hands, arms, and face, 2 to 3 a week between the hours of 8am and 4pm.
• People with darker skin need more exposure (30-60 minutes), and people with lighter skin need less.
• Be sure to apply sunscreen if you're out for longer than this.

In northern climates, especially north of the 50th latitude and during the winter, sunshine does not provide enough vitamin D so you need to rely on food sources:

• Fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, herring, sardines
• Milk (fortified with vitamin D in North America)
• Vitamin D fortified yogurt, cheese, orange juice, soy drinks, cereals - check the label

What does it do?

• Promotes the absorption of calcium and phosphorus and regulates how much calcium remains in the blood.
• Helps deposit these minerals in bones and teeth.
• Helps regulate cell growth.
• Involved in nerve and muscle function.
  
• Plays a role in immunity.
• May help protect against high blood pressure.
  

What if you don't get enough?

• Loss of bone mass as you age (osteoporosis).
• Softening bones (osteomalacia).
• Rickets or defective bone growth in children.

What if you get too much?

• Kidney stones or kidney damage.
• Weak muscles and bones.
• Excessive bleeding.

How much do you need?

• Everyone under the age of 50: 5 micrograms or 200 IU
• Adults over the age of 50: 10 micrograms or 400 IU
• Adults over the age of 70: 15 micrograms or 600 IU

Where can I get more information?
Check out these great resources:

• Get your D
• Vitamin D Council 
• Vitamin D UV Calculator 
• Vitamin D DRI Report (only for the excessively curious)

And the winner is...
Marc was the first to guess correctly - Vitamin D.
Congratulations Marc, your are officially a Smartie Pants!

Quiz Time

Fill in the blank.

________ is commonly known as the sunshine vitamin.

That's it, just leave your guess in the comments and I'll post the correct answer and grant the winner Smartypants status on Monday.

Quiz Answer

Okay, so your guesses were nowhere near correct, I'm disappointed but I guess I will have to take it upon myself to train you better!  The product those ingredients belong to is Nestle Toll House Refrigerated Sugar Cookie Dough.

What the ingredients mean:
Bleached enriched flour - not whole wheat, but some vitamins and minerals are added back, not the fiber, healthy fats, protein, and phytonutrients though, which is sad because phytonutrients have magical powers
Sugar
Partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils - trans fats
Water - this is a very important nutrient
Margarine
  (Soybean oil
   Partially hydrogenated soybean oil - oh look, more trans fats
   Water
   Salt
   Whey - by-product of cheese production
   Soy lecithin - it's an emulsifier so it keeps the dough all mixed together instead of separating
   Mono- and diglycerides - more emulsifiers
   Artificial flovor - shhh, it's a secret
   Beta-carotene color - a carrot would be better, but might taste strange in a sugar cookie - maybe not
   Vitamin A palmitate added - a synthetic form of vitamin A)
Eggs
Salt
Baking soda
Artificial flavors - more secrets`

Is there a better choice?
Healthy Eats has an easy recipe for sugar cookies with the following ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup orange juice
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Doesn't that sound so much better? and simpler? and more pronounceable? Go ahead, give their recipe a try, I dare you!

And the winner is...
Marc had the closest guess - bread?.
Congratulations Marc, your are officially a Smartie Pants!

Quiz Time

I think it is time for another ingredient quiz.  So, here is an ingredient list - it's your job to name the product it belongs to. I'll post the correct answer on Monday.

Leave your guess in the comments and be as specific as possible. Good luck!

Ingredients: 
Bleached enriched flour
  (Wheat flour
   Niacin
   Reduced iron
   Thiamin mononitrate
   Riboflavin
   Folic acid)
Sugar
Partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils
Water
Margarine
  (Soybean oil
   Partially hydrogenated soybean oil
   Water
   Salt
   Whey
   Soy lecithin
   Mono- and diglycerides
   Artificial flovor
   Beta-carotene color
   Vitamin A palmitate added)
Eggs
Salt
Baking soda
Artificial flavors

Made on equipment that also processes peanuts/nuts

Contains: Milk, Egg, Soy, Wheat ingredients

Quiz Answer

According to a study done by Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab, the average calorie count for a modern Thanksgiving dinner is 2057 kcal.

This is more than many of us need to consume over an entire day!  And that is just the dinner - not counting breakfast, lunch and appetizers.  (Get an estimate of your daily calorie needs at MyPyramid.gov)

It takes 12h 42min of Black Friday shopping to burn this many calories for a 150 lb person.
To estimate how long you would have to do other activities to burn off this many calories, see healthstatus.com, but be careful not to let the ads hurt your eyes.

And the winner is...
gravityfalls had the closest guess at 2100 kcal.
Congratulations gravityfalls, your are officially a Smartie Pants!

Quiz Time

Fill in the blank.

According to a study done by Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab, the average calorie count for a modern Thanksgiving dinner is ________ kcal.

Leave your guess in the comments and I'll post the correct answer on Monday.  Good luck!

The Tapeworm Diet

A Little About Tapeworms:
According to the Merck Manual, Tapeworm eggs may be ingested through food, water, or soil that is contaminated with feces.  Once the eggs are consumed, they develop into larvae which may migrate and form cysts in other tissues such as lungs, brain, or muscle.  Cysts in the brain can result in headaches, seizures, confusion, or other neurologic symptoms.  Cysts in the eyes may cause blindness and cysts on the spinal cord may cause muscle weakness or paralysis.  Cysts in other tissues can be found via MRI or CT scans but are usually not treated.  If there are symptoms related to cysts in the brain, corticosteroids may be given to reduce inflammation.  These drugs are not used to treat cysts in the eye or spinal cord because they can trigger severe inflammation that can damage nearby tissues. 

Tapeworm larvae can also be ingested by eating raw or undercooked meat.  The larvae develop into adult tapeworms in the intestines and can measure up to 50 feet and survive as long as 20 years as a result of consuming foods you eat.  Tapeworms in the intestines cause weight loss of 1 to 2 lbs per week but usually cause no other symptoms.  However, they may cause upper abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, or loss of appetite.  Fish tapeworms can cause anemia because they absorb vitamin B12.  Intestinal tapeworms are diagnosed by testing stool samples and are treated with praziquantel.  

Can you say easy diet plan?

The Tapeworm Diet:
The tapeworm diet was recently featured on an episode of the “Tyra Show.”  Here’s a clip from the show where two women talk about their willingness to ingest a tapeworm to lose weight and a man who sells tapeworms shows off his wares. 



The Plan:
Ingest a tapeworm cyst which will grow inside the digestive tract absorbing calories from your body causing you to lose 1 to 2 lbs per week.  Once you hit your target weight, you take an antibiotic to get rid of the tapeworm.

Pros:

• Easy weight loss
  

Cons:

• Not FDA approved
• Cannot be legally purchased or imported in the US
• Nutrient deficiencies and anemia as a result of the tapeworm stealing the host’s nutrients
• Potential upper abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, loss of appetite, death
• Medical intervention needed to get rid of the tapeworm
• Weight regain once the tapeworm is killed
• Yuck
  

Alternatives:
Healthy diet and physical activity as recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid.  See a Registered Dietitian for help in developing a personalized weight loss plan.

Quiz Time

This week's quiz shouldn't take to much brain power and should be pretty fun.  I send you to The Oatmeal to take their quiz called How Many Tapeworms Could Live in Your Stomach? 

Once you have completed the quiz, come back here and post your results in the comments.  Good luck!

Quiz Answer

Diabetes is a leading cause of kidney failure, blindness and amputations, and a major cause of heart disease and stroke.

November is American Diabetes Month
And it's a good thing too - nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes, and about 6 million of them are unaware of their disease. With obesity on the rise, millions more are at risk of developing diabetes.

Are you at risk?
These are some of the factors that increase your risk for diabetes.  If you have any of these risk factors, you should consider talking to your doctor about your risk and weather you should be tested.

• 45 years or older
• BMI higher than 25
• Parent, brother, or sister with diabetes
• African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Asian American or Pacific Islander background
  
• History of gestational diabetes or giving birth to a baby weighing 9 pounds or more
• Higher than normal blood sugar levels
  
• High blood pressure (above 140/90)
• HDL cholesterol less than 35 
• Triglyceride level higher than 250
• Physically activity less than three times a week
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

How can you prevent diabetes?
Guess what?  Although some of these risk factors are out of your control, you can change some of them.  Recent studies have shown that people at high risk for type 2 diabetes can prevent or delay the onset of the disease by losing 5 to 7 percent of their body weight if overweight. You can do that by eating healthier and getting moderate physical activity for 150 minutes each week or vigorous physical activity for 75 minutes each week.  For more information on how to prevent diabetes, check out the National Diabetes Education Program.

Do you already have diabetes?
If you have already been diagnosed with diabetes, talk to your doctor or a Registered Dietitian to help you determine the best course of action. 

Want more information about diabetes?
Check out some of these great resources:
Diabetes Act Now
National Diabetes Education Program
American Diabetes Association
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases 

And the winner is...

Jade!  Congratulations Jade, you are officially a Smartie Pants!

Quiz Time

Fill in the blank.

________ is a leading cause of kidney failure, blindness, and amputations, and is a major cause of heart disease and stroke.

Leave your guess in the comments and I'll post the correct answer on Monday.  Good luck!

Quiz Answer

The answers are...
1. Oatmeal: Grains (specifically whole grain)
2. Almonds: Meat and Beans AND Oils
3. Ice Cream: Milk AND Discretionary Calories*
4. Beer: Discretionary Calories**
5. Corn: Vegetables (specifically starchy vegetables)***
6. Avocado: Fruits and Oils
7. Peanut Butter: Meat and Beans AND Oils AND Discretionary Calories if it contains added sugar or fats.
8. Eggs: Meat and Beans
9. Black Beans: Meat and Beans OR Vegetables (specifically dry beans and peas)****
10. Bananas: Fruits

* You know that ice cream is full of fat.  Sadly this fat does not count as oils.  The fat in ice cream, when separated from the water and other components is solid a room temperature - think butter.  Oils are fats that are liquid at room temperature and contain essential fatty acids.  They are found mainly in plant foods and in fish.  Because these oils are necessary for health, there is an allowance for them in the food guide, separate from the discretionary calorie allowance.  Fats, such as those found in ice cream, count toward discretionary calories.  Fooducate wrote a great post yesterday explaining the ins and outs of oils so I'm not going to bother reinventing the wheel here, but check it out.

**I love that you guys tried to count beer as a grain.  It is not.  Although beer generally contains barley (a grain) and hops (a vegetable), these ingredients are in small enough quantities that counting them would be plain old furterating - a 12oz bottle of beer probably contains 1/100oz of barley - not worth counting.  But that doesn't mean that is isn't totally okay for occasional consumption, assuming you are healthy.  You just have to remember that it does count toward discretionary calories. 

***Corn and potatoes are both considered starchy vegetables, not grains, even though they often serve similar purposes to grains because of their high starch content. 

****Legumes such as black beans can count toward the Meat and Beans group or the Vegetables group - you can decide depending on what else you eat that day.  This is because although they are technically vegetables, cooked dry beans and peas are excellent sources of plant protein, and provide other nutrients such as iron and zinc like meats, poultry, and fish. Many people consider dry beans and peas as vegetarian alternatives for meat. However, they are also excellent sources of dietary fiber and nutrients such as folate that are found in vegetables.

And the winner is...
Dad, with a total of 10 correct answers - this is assuming I did a good job of correcting, but there is a reason I'm not a teacher.

Quiz Time

To which food group do each of the following items belong?  Check Inside the Pyramid to refresh your memory on the food groups and don't forget Discretionary Calories.  Remember, a food may count toward more than one group. For example, whole milk counts towards the Milk group AND Discretionary Calories.

Leave your guess in the comments and I'll post the correct answers on Monday.  Good luck!

1. Oatmeal
2. Almonds
3. Ice Cream
4. Beer
5. Corn
6. Avocado
7. Peanut Butter
8. Eggs
9. Black Beans
10. Bananas

Quiz Answer

Your guesses were very close, but the correct answer to the ingredient quiz is Dark Chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. The main difference between these and regular Reese's Peanut Butter Cups is that the in the regular ones, milk shows up before milk fat on the ingredient list, meaning there is more milk by weight.

Do you have leftover Halloween treats?  If you decide to keep them, don't put them out on the table - make sure you have to put a little thought into getting them instead of mindlessly snacking.  Brian Wansink, Ph.D found that placing your candy dish 6 feet away rather than within reach can save you a weight gain of 12 pounds a year!  Check out this video.  This also applies if you take them to work to share with your co-workers.

Another cool option is Halloween Candy Buy Back.  They buy back Halloween candy for $1 per pound, then send it to the troops overseas!  Check out www.halloweencandybuyback.com for more details.

Quiz Time

An old professor of mine used to give us an ingredient quiz every class and I thought it would be a great way to finish off the week.  How does it work?  I give you a list of ingredients, and you name the product they belong to.  I'll post the correct answer on Monday. 

What food product does this ingredient list belong to?  Leave your guess in the comments and be as specific as possible.  Good luck!

Ingredients:
Semi-sweet chocolate
  (Sugar
   Chocolate
   Cocoa butter
   Milk-fat
   Soy Lecithin
   Vanillin - artificial flavor
   PGPR - emulsifier
   Milk)
Peanuts
Sugar
Dextrose
Salt
TBHQ - preservative