This Week's Healthy SC Challenge Tips 06/18/2008

This Week's Healthy SC Challenge Tips

First Family Encourages Healthy Changes in Nutrition, Exercise and Tobacco Use

Columbia, S.C. – June 18, 2008 - The Healthy SC Challenge is the Sanford family’s effort to get all South Carolinians to do just a little more to live a healthier lifestyle. The tips are designed to encourage individuals and communities to live healthier lifestyles in three categories - nutrition, exercise and help to quit smoking. The tips can also be found on the challenge’s website, www.healthysc.gov.

Healthy Tips

Nutrition

Squash are fleshy vegetables protected by a hard rind. They belong to the plant family that includes melons and cucumbers. Among substances present in summer squash are phytochemicals, coumarins and flavonoids. The skin and rind of summer squash are rich in the nutrient beta-carotene, but the fleshy portion of this vegetable is not. To gain the full nutritional benefits of this vegetable, the skins or rinds must be eaten. Even though some varieties grow on vines while others grow on bushes, squash are commonly divided into the two groups, summer and winter. There are several types of summer squash, but zucchini is

the most popular summer squash purchased in the United States. Summer squash come in many different colors and shapes. The different varieties of squash can be used interchangeable in most recipes, because most squash are similar in texture and flavor.

* Choose squash that are firm and fairly heavy for their size, otherwise they may be dry and cottony inside.  Look for squash that have bright, glossy exteriors. Avoid buying squash that have nicks or bruises on their skins or ones that have soft spots.

* Place summer squash in plastic bags and store in the refrigerator. Fresh summer squash should keep for up to a week. Thicker-shinned varieties such as chayote will stay fresh for two weeks or longer.

* It is easy to make summer squash part of your 5 A Day Plan, and even more so when you know it is free of fat, sodium, and cholesterol, and low in calories and high in vitamin C. Try cooking several varieties of summer squash together. This will make a colorful side dish. Try adding some of your favorite seasonings (dill, lemon juice or lemon pepper, Creole, chili powder) to summer squash that has been steamed, sautéed, or grilled. Squash can be used to make great tasting casseroles or in fast stir fry. Sliced or grated raw squash can be a wonderful addition to your favorite salad. Add sliced squash with dried tomatoes to rice

when you cook it. Add yellow and zucchini squash to your next vegetable tray. Grated summer squash makes a good substitute for carrots in a carrot cake.  www.foodreference.com

Physical Activity

Are you working out at an appropriate intensity level? The Cooper Aerobics Center suggests a simple Target Heart Rate formula you can use any time, anywhere, to see if your exercise sessions are in a range that will allow you to reach your aerobic fitness goals without pushing yourself too hard.  First… Subtract your age in years from 220. This gives you the maximal heart beats per minute doctors would typically expect for someone your age. Then . . . Multiply the resulting number by 75 percent to find the median number of heart beats per minute when in your ideal exercise intensity zone. Your target heart rate zone is a range between 10 beats per minute below and above the median number. For example, a 40-year-old would go through these steps. 220 minus 40= 180. Then, 180 X .75 = 135 beats per minute.

He or she would want to keep the heart rate above 125 and below 145 during exercise.

-The Cooper Aerobics Center, www.cooperaerobics.com

Tobacco

Anxiety is usually measured as an increase in muscle tension as well as an increased sensitivity to muscle tension. Laboratory research shows that the anxiety produced from quitting tobacco may be due to temporary changes in your brain chemistry. There is some evidence that tobacco use reduces anxiety, so some of the anxiety you feel when you quit is actually what nonsmokers normally experience. Most of the anxiety you feel immediately after you quit is due to temporary changes. If anxiety occurs, it will usually begin within the first day, peak in the first couple of weeks, and disappear within a month.  -National Cancer Institute, www.cancer.gov

-#####-

The Healthy SC Challenge is an outcome-based, cooperative effort aimed at encouraging individuals, communities and organizations across the state to show shared responsibility in developing innovative ways to improve the health of South Carolina's citizens. For more information about the Healthy SC Challenge, please visit www.healthysc.gov, or call 803-74772.