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.
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As terrific as homemade granola tastes, its texture often lacks the thick, crunchy clusters found in store-bought versions. This recipe is an exception, filled with crisp, sweet clumps of oats, coconut flakes and seeds. The secret is grinding a portion of the oats and coconut into flour, which helps bind the ingredients together. Feel free to mix up the spices, nuts and seeds to taste, and to add dried fruit or chocolate chips after it cools if you like. Granola is adaptable, so make it the way you like it. You can also cut the brown sugar in half. The granola will be less sweet and less cluster-packed but still quite satisfying.
~ Melissa Clark ~
In terms of the liquid, water worked. But since it didn’t add anything flavor-wise, I experimented with the likes of apple cider, orange juice, kombucha and coconut water before finally settling on coconut milk for its very gentle sweetness. Almond milk also works, in which case you could add a drop of almond extract to the mix.
These bars are more chewy than crunchy, and will fit well into a child’s lunch bag or a grown-up’s breakfast plate.
And feel free to add chopped dried fruit at the end, stirring it into the granola mix while it’s still warm. If you want to add spices, stir a mix of ground cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom into the honey mixture before baking.
Feel free to use oats marked gluten-free if you’d like, and if you don’t have flaky sea salt, kosher salt is fine; just use slightly less.
You could substitute a dried fruit purée (directions are in the notes) for the honey and brown sugar, providing a complex twist on the binding agents. You could add chocolate. Coconut. The possibilities are endless.
Blue Bell recalls mislabeled ice cream over allergy concerns
Blue Bell Creameries is recalling select lots of Rocky Road pint packages mistakenly filled with Cookies n’ Cream ice cream at its flagship Brenham plant.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Cookies ‘n Cream ice cream contains soy and wheat not listed on the Rocky Road packages, which could cause serious and potentially life-threatening reactions to allergic consumers.
The company says no illnesses have been reported so far.
Risk For Heart Failure, Atrial Fibrillation Rises As Temperature Drops: Study
People who experience significant temperature drops particularly during cold weather are more likely to suffer heart failure and an irregularity in their heartbeats known as atrial fibrillation, a new study says.
Cardiologist Dr. Abhishek Deshmukh and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota set out to discover the seasonal differences involved strokes and heart attacks. They examined various factors that were present in patients in the United States who were hospitalized because of heart failure and atrial fibrillation.
The team found that hospitalization rates were at their highest during cooler months of the year, particularly in February.
Blood Thinning Drug Warfarin May Increase Risk of Dementia
Atrial fibrillation patients treated long term with the blood-thinning drug Warfarin may be at greater risk for dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and vascular dementia, according to a new study by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.
Atrial fibrillation is the most common type of arrhythmia, which is an abnormality in the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat. During an arrhythmia, the heart can beat too quickly, too slowly, or with an irregular rhythm. Incidence rates of atrial fibrillation are growing dramatically as the population gets older.
Statins Might Protect People With Narrowed Leg Arteries
Cholesterol-lowering statins may spare people with narrowed leg arteries from the possibility of amputation and even death, a new study suggests.
The higher the dose of these drugs, the lower the risk of both outcomes, the researchers found.
“PAD, a narrowing of the peripheral arteries to the legs, stomach, arms and head, is the next cardiovascular epidemic,” said study author Dr. Shipra Arya. She is an assistant professor in the division of vascular surgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
CDC: 30% of antibiotic prescriptions unnecessary
New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pew Research Center suggest patients are being way over-prescribed.
The research indicates that one in three outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary and the over-medication is leading to the rise of super bugs that are antibiotic resistant.
The CDC is now calling on doctors to cut in half the unnecessary prescriptions for antibiotics within four years.
Many doctors say they’re pressured by parents who want antibiotics for their sick children.