This Week’s Healthy SC Challenge Tips 06/26/08

First Family Encourages Healthy Changes in Nutrition, Exercise and Tobacco Use
Columbia, S.C. – June 26, 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

South Carolina ranks near the top nationally in several categories of fruit and vegetable
production. In a normal production year, South Carolina peaches rank second in the nation for the fresh market. South Carolina also ranks at or near the top nationally in fresh market production of leafy greens such as collards, kale, turnips, and mustard. In addition, items such as tomatoes and watermelon consistently rank in the top ten each year in overall production. The diversity of fruit and vegetable crops in our state continues to grow and the overall industry impact is in excess of 150 million dollars each year and that number continues to grow.

This month, be sure to enjoy local watermelons. The South Carolina watermelon harvest begins in mid-June and continues until late August. The majority of watermelons grown in South Carolina are from the lower coastal plains and northern sandhills. A 4" by 8" wedge of watermelon has only 115 calories and supplies vitamin A, vitamin C, and potassium. A fully mature watermelon will have a rind with a dull velvety bloom instead of a shiny surface. The underside (belly) of the melon will be a creamy color. The stem end and blossom end should be symmetrical in shape. Avoid watermelons that are bruised, cracked, and have decay.
-South Carolina Department of Agriculture, http://agriculture.sc.gov

Physical Activity

Fly-fishing provides emotional benefits to those coping with the challenges of cancer in ways that other activities don't. To outsmart a fish the pursuit requires a concentration that, unlike the
repetition of walking or biking, doesn't allow the mind to wander. This focus can serve as a
healing break from the consuming anxieties of illness. In addition, some of the physical benefits include:

• Strength and flexibility: The practice of casting can be especially helpful for women
with breast cancer who have problems with range of motion in the arm.
• Stamina: Walking along the water or wading in it gently increases cancer survivors'
endurance, especially after they finish their treatment, which often leaves them feeling
out of shape.
• Core power: Standing straight with stability while casting a line and fishing are musts
for good anglers. Maintaining alignment improves the trunk muscles, a particular benefit
to adults with cancer who can lose strength in this area during the course of illness.
• Dexterity: Manipulating a fly rod and tying flies can help improve hand movement,
which may be hindered as a result of cancer treatment.
• Hand-eye coordination: Casting and fly-tying boost hand-eye coordination, which is
sometimes diminished by cancer.
• Motor skills: The exercise and activities of fly-fishing (casting, walking, and fly-tying)
can help adults with cancer regain overall muscle movement.

When practiced consistently, the sport offers a variety of activity that is so consuming and
invigorating; the physical benefits are often absorbed without cancer survivors even realizing
they're making an effort. Fly-fishing is intense in a positive way, and it doesn't feel like exercise.
-Alternative Medicine Magazine

Tobacco

New moms get scant rest, and smokers may get less. Julie Mennella of the Monell Chemical
Senses Center in Philadelphia found that in a study of breastfed infants. For the study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, researchers monitored breastfed babies’ sleep for 3 and one half hours on two days. One day, their mothers smoked beforehand; the other, they didn’t. Researchers found that, on the day that infants breastfed from their mothers after they had smoked, the babies spent less time sleeping and they woke up from their naps sooner. Babies napped a half hour less when moms smoked, sleeping for 53 minutes. This could be because chemicals such as nicotine were passed through the milk, which also ends up tasting like tobacco.  -US Department of Health and Human Services

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.