Health and Fitness News

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.

Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here.

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A Good Muffin Doesn’t Have to Be Bad for You
Julia Moskin, New York Times

The New American Breakfast is, no doubt, a wonderful thing. Bone broth, green juice, salmon jerky and medium-chain triglyceride oils will soon make us a faster, thinner and sharper nation. The Old American Breakfast — with sweet indulgences like sticky buns, doughnuts, pancakes and waffles — has been labeled hazmat by nutrition authorities, and rightly so.

But some of us still hold this truth to be self-evident: Sugar and starch are the best possible companions for morning coffee.

Muffins can be a happy compromise between old and new, especially if you make them yourself. This master recipe for whole grain berry muffins is both extremely flexible and extremely rewarding. They are sweet but not sugary, packed with whole grains but not dense, and reasonably rich in fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. And they freeze beautifully; these muffins can go from a 300-degree oven to the weekday breakfast table (or the car) in about 20 minutes. If baked right, they even have the high-domed, crunchy top that is, as everyone knows, the best part.Muffins can be a happy compromise between old and new, especially if you make them yourself. This master recipe for whole grain berry muffins is both extremely flexible and extremely rewarding. They are sweet but not sugary, packed with whole grains but not dense, and reasonably rich in fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. And they freeze beautifully; these muffins can go from a 300-degree oven to the weekday breakfast table (or the car) in about 20 minutes. If baked right, they even have the high-domed, crunchy top that is, as everyone knows, the best part.

Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins With Orange Streusel

It is sweet but not sugary, packed with whole grains but not dense, and reasonably rich in fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. The fresh berries and nuts are interchangeable with dried fruit, coconut or sunflower seeds.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins With Crumble Topping

If you’d like, stir a handful of dried cranberries or 1/4 cup chopped walnuts into the batter for added texture and crunch.

Upside-Down Caramel-Apple Muffins

Its small, individual size encourages the fruit to condense and caramelize as it bakes. Then, when you unmold the muffin, the fruit transforms into a glistening crown of an irresistible sticky topping.

Whole Wheat Muffins

Pancreatic Cancer Is Actually 4 Different Diseases

A new genomic analysis of over 450 pancreatic tumors reveals that the cancer may be more accurately classified as four different diseases, each with its own characteristics and survival rates.

This insight provides potential new avenues for treatment, as patients and doctors may one day be able to customize targeted treatments based on the type of pancreatic cancer they have.

Four distinct subcategories of the disease were identified by researchers from the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research: squamous, pancreatic progenitor, immunogenic and aberrantly differentiated endocrine exocrine, or ADEX.

Transgender kids have good mental health when allowed to be themselves

Transgender kids who transform their appearance to match their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth may not necessarily experience mental health problems more often than other children, a small U.S. study suggests.

Compared with their gender-conforming peers, these transgender children were no more likely to have depression and only slightly more prone to anxiety symptoms.

“This finding is quite surprising given that, to date, nearly all studies of young gender diverse kids show that they have much higher rates of depression and anxiety than other children,” said lead study author Kristina Olson, director of the TransYouth Project at the University of Washington.

New York City officials aim to ban smokeless tobacco at sports venues

The New York City Health Department is backing legislation that would ban smokeless tobacco from all ticketed sports arenas, including Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.

At a hearing Thursday on several anti-smoking bills, the health department’s senior legal counsel, Kevin Schroth, said every year roughly 415,000 kids nationwide try smokeless tobacco. He said young people repeatedly see professional athletes, particularly baseball players, use chewing tobacco and that makes it socially acceptable.

Similar bans have already been enacted in Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco ballparks.

Lawmakers are also targeting hookah bars by considering legislation that would add the non-tobacco shisha used in the water pipes to the city’s smoking ban.

‘Unacceptable’ Number Of Kids With Bad Teeth

Overall, there have been 128,558 cases of children aged 10 and under needing one or more teeth out since 2011.

Data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre shows there were 14,445 cases among children aged five and under from 1 April, 2014 to 31 March, 2015.

Among those aged six to 10, there were a further 19,336 cases.

Overall in 2014/15, there were 33,781 cases – up from 32,741 in 2013/14, 31,275 in 2012/13 and 30,761 in 2011/12.

Professor Nigel Hunt, Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, said the overall 9.81% increase was “unacceptable”.

Study links obesity to poor memory

Obese and overweight individuals perform worse in memory tests compared to individuals with healthy weight, according to a new study conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge. The study team found that people with higher BMI performed worse on a test for episodic memory. Detailed research paper has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

The ability to recall was lower among individuals with higher body mass index (BMI), according to the study team. The study was funded by Medical Research Council, Girton College and James S. McDonnell Foundation.

The study team added that their study was conducted on a small group of individuals. For the current study, 50 participants between age group 18-35 were recruited. Study participants had BMI varying between 18 and 51. Individuals with BMI less than 25 were considered lean while those above 25 were considered overweight or obese. One study published two weeks back has questioned the importance of BMI factor as well.