Banana Oat Breakfast Cookie

Ingredients

* Nonstick cooking spray
* 1 large banana, mashed (1/2 cup)
* 1/2 cup chunky natural peanut butter (unsalted and unsweetened) or regular chunky peanut butter
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 cup rolled oats
* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup dried cranberries or raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat two cookie sheets with cooking spray; set aside. In a large bowl, stir together banana, peanut butter, honey, and vanilla. In a small bowl, combine oats, flour, milk powder, cinnamon, and baking soda. Stir the oat mixture into the banana mixture until combined. Stir in dried cranberries.

Using a 1/4-cup measure, drop mounds of dough 3 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. With a thin metal or small plastic spatula dipped in water, flatten and spread each mound of dough to a 2 3/4-inch round, about 1/2-inch thick. Once baked, each cookie will be about 3-1/2 to 4 inches in diameter.

Bake, one sheet at a time, for 14 to 16 minutes or until browned. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container or resealable plastic bag for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months; thaw before serving.

Nutrition facts per serving:

* Servings Per Recipe 12 breakfast cookies
* Calories 227
* Total Fat (g) 6
* Saturated Fat (g) 1
* Cholesterol (mg) 0
* Sodium (mg) 77
* Carbohydrate (g) 37
* Fiber (g) 4
* Protein (g) 6
*Percent Daily Values are base on a 2,000 calorie diet

Find the original recipe at Heart Healthy Online

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I think I might make the cookie a little smaller than called for above. I'm also not sure if the serving size is one cookie or even how many cookies are in a batch. Yes, I see the nutrition information says "Servings Per Recipe 12 breakfast cookies", and it probably means the recipe makes 12 cookies, and that there is one cookie per serving, but it might be 2 cookies to a serving. It's just not crystal clear to me. I need things like this to be very clear.

It also seems like this would be a rather dry cookie. One commenter at Heart Healthy Online suggested substituting applesauce for the banana. Other suggestions were also made.

I used to make a peanut butter cookie and substituted wheat germ for half the flour and half the sugar. Made it just a little healthier and a little less sweet. Turned out very nice.

If you do substitute, do like for like - a dry ingredient for another dry ingredient, wet for wet (applesauce for banana). But, you probably know that already.

Eat Breakfast and Lose Weight

Our diet doctor and weight-loss book author Melina Jampolis shares her heart-healthy formula for building breakfasts that help you lose weight and boost your metabolism.

By Melina Jampolis, M.D.

Skipping breakfast may seem like an easy way to cut calories if you're dieting, but it actually makes it harder for you to lose weight and keep it off. The National Weight Control Registry-one of the largest ongoing studies of successful weight-losers-has found that the majority of people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for five years or more eat breakfast every day of the week.

There are three important reasons for eating breakfast:

Read the rest of the article at Heart Healthy Online

I found a new site

today. FitSugar.com A rather interesting site. I've found a couple of good ideas:

cooking grains in juices instead of water

using different types of grains,

adding chopped veggies to the grain. Not necessarily a new idea, but a good one.

measure and weigh your food.

I have a feeling FitSugar will be a new favorite of mine.

Sleep More, Weigh Less—Are the Studies True?

Sleep More, Weigh Less—Are the Studies True?

By Linda Vongkhamchanh | June 08, 2009

A new study from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine revealed today that people who deprive themselves of sleep gain weight despite a decrease in appetite and food consumption. In a world where even cell phones could potentially give you cancer, are they trying to tell us that our calorie-counting and healthy eating go completely out the window just because we have busy lives, preventing us from getting our recommended 7-8 hours snooze each night? If that’s the case, life’s not fair—bring on the donuts if we’re already doomed to obesity. Why not live it up while you can?

Read the rest of the article here

The Flat Belly Diet

this seems to be the latest "diet" to hit the market. It was apparently developed by Prevention magazine.

I'm not saying it's a fad, or that it won't work. I just don't know enough about it. I have to say I'm intrigued. I'm always intrigued in something new if only because it's new. New studies are coming out every day, so there's new information out all the time. That doesn't mean it's good. It just means that it's something new. And that new idea might be what gives one person the motivation to lose weight and become healthier. Of course, just because it's new doesn't mean it's good. We learned that lesson with the New Coke.

My hardest area to take off the fat is the waistline. I know I'm not alone. I also know that fat around the internal organs cause them to work harder, or less efficiently. The heart has to work harder to beat, the lungs to provide oxygen, the arteries and veins to transport blood and oxygen, not to mention the nutrients to the various cells, tissues, and organs, kidneys to cleanse the blood, the liver to do whatever it is the liver does (know it's important, I just don't remember what the liver does right now!)

Anyway, it's the fat around the midsection that's really hard to get rid of and the Fat Belly Diet is designed to do just that. It promises weight loss around the mid-section (the belly) without doing crunches! Now, this has me intrigued. Thirty minutes a day of exercise, alternating types - apparently one day is walking - (cardio) (walking? Right up my alley!), the next strength.

I'd love to have some input from my loyal readers. Have you tried it? Did it work?

What Your Waist Size Reveals

Use a simple tape measure to determine if your belly fat is helping--or hurting--your health

Flat Belly Diet experts and scientists have known for years that excess body fat isn’t good for you. Obesity (which means “overfat”), is considered as deadly as smoking, according to some analyses. Traditionally obesity was determined by the number on a scale or, a bit more accurately, by taking the Body Mass Index (BMI), which calculates your body size while trying to account for bone mass. If your BMI is over 30, you’re considered obese.

One of the problems with the BMI, however, is that it doesn’t take into account muscle mass (as a result, some athletes with low body fat and a high percentage of muscle mass would be computed as obese, when clearly they aren’t).

More recently, however, studies have begun to show that while obesity isn’t good, carrying excess body fat specifically around your belly is really, really bad.

In research published in the medical journal Lancet, doctors concluded that a person's waist measurement is a more accurate forecaster of heart attacks than the body mass index (BMI). The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have set a waist measurement cutoff point at above 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men--no matter how much you actually weigh--as an unhealthy sign of excess visceral fat, the dangerous hidden fat that surrounds vital organs deep inside your body.

Another measurement that is slightly more targeted to belly fat is the waist-to-hip ratio, which reflects the concentration of fat around your belly as opposed to around your hips or thighs. Analyzing data from 27,000 people in 52 countries, scientists found that heart attack sufferers had similar BMIs, but higher waist-to-hip ratios, than those who’d never had a heart attack.

Measuring Your Waist: Two Ways

The waist-to-hip ratio compares the measurement of the narrowest part of your waist to the broadest section of your hips. Your waist measurement should be taken in the spot that falls between the ribcage and the hipbone as viewed from the front.

Your hip measurement is truest if you turn sideways to the mirror and make sure you incorporate your derriere in the measurement. Now, divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. For example, a woman with a 30-inch waist and 37-inch hips has a waist/hip ratio of 0.81.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a healthy waist-to-hip ratio for women should not exceed 0.8.

Measuring Visceral Fat: High Tech Methods

As we understand more about visceral fat and the various chronic--even deadly--diseases it can cause, researchers are developing increasingly more accurate, and expensive, ways to measure it. The latest test (as of December, 2007), is one that detects levels of a protein called RBP4 (retinol binding protein 4), which is produced in higher quantities in visceral fat compared with subcutaneous fat (the kind of fat you can see on your body when you “pinch an inch.”). In overweight people, blood levels of RBP4 are double or triple the amount compared with normal-weight people. But other tests are used, including:

CT (CAT) Scan

MRI

Sonogram/Ultrasound

DXA

The scary part is that you don’t have to be overweight to have too much visceral fat inside your body, putting your health at risk. This understanding is relatively new, and describes those who are thin on the outside but have excess fat on the inside. It’s hard to imagine that one could be thin and fat at the same time, but Jimmy Bell, PhD, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London, has shown that it is possible. Dr. Bell and his team have been using MRI machines to scan nearly 800 people in an effort to produce what they call “fat maps.” His findings will surprise you: About 45 percent of the thin women and 65 percent of the slim men he tested carried excess visceral fat. Because the Flat Belly Diet is designed to help you reduce levels of dangerous belly fat, you can follow it even if you don’t need to lose pounds.

More on Plantar's Fasciitis

From Wikipedia:

Many different treatments have been effective. Without treatment resolution may be delayed for up to and over a year.[2] Initial treatment includes stretching of the Achilles tendon and plantar fascia, keeping off the foot as much as possible, weight loss, arch support and heel lifts, and taping.

There are a few simple maneuvers that may bring relief without need for further intervention.[3] Many sports medicine practitioners suggest placing a frozen bag of corn or even a cold beverage can under the affected foot and rolling it back and forth using the foot. This method provides a stretch and an ice massage simultaneously.

However, if these strategies are ineffective, the problem may require referral for Physiotherapy. The mainstays of Physiotherapy include myofascial release and scar tissue breakdown of the plantar fascia, and supervised stretching. People with plantar fasciitis should be careful to wear supportive and stable shoes. They should avoid open-back shoes, sandals, and flip-flops.

To relieve pain and inflammation, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and ibuprofen are often used but are of limited benefit.[4]. It's important to lessen activities which place more pressure on the balls of the feet because these increase tension in the plantar fascia. This is counter-intuitive because the pain is in the heel, and the heel is often sensitive to pressure which causes some people who have plantar fasciitis to walk on the balls of their feet.

Local injection of corticosteroids often gives temporary or permanent relief, but may be painful, especially if not combined with a local anesthetic and injected slowly with a small-diameter needle.[5] Recurrence rates may be lower if injection is performed under ultrasound guidance.[6] Repeated steroid injections may result in rupture of the plantar fascia. This may actually improve pain initially, but has deleterious long-term consequences.

In cases of chronic plantar fasciitis of at least 10 months duration, one recent study has shown high success rates with a stretch of the plantar fascia.[7][8][9]

Pain with first steps of the day can be markedly reduced by stretching the plantar fascia and Achilles tendon before getting out of bed. Night splints can be used to keep the foot in a dorsi-flexed position during sleep to improve calf muscle flexibility and decrease morning pain. These have many different designs, some of which may be hard and may press on the origin of the plantar fascia. Softer, custom devices, of plastizote, poron, or leather, may be more helpful. Orthoses should always be broken in slowly.

Recently, extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) has been used with some success for symptoms lasting more than 6 months.[10] The treatment is a nonsurgical procedure, but is painful, and should be done either under sedation, or with local anaesthesia either with or without intravenous sedation (twilight sedation). Local anaesthesia by injection of drugs into the area can also be painful, and may incur the risks of neuritis, bleeding, and infection. ESWT re-inflames the area and in doing so increases blood flow to the area as a means to heal the area. It can take as long as six months following the procedure to see results. Results are variable, and one 2002 study reported ESWT for plantar fasciitis had no benefit.[11][12]

Most often plantar fasciitis improves within one year of beginning non-surgical treatment, without any long-term problems. Surgery is sometimes required, and is successful about 95% of the time.

Surgery

Surgery carries the risk of nerve injury, infection, rupture of the plantar fascia, and failure of the pain to improve.[13] Surgical procedures, such as plantar fascia release, are a last resort, and often lead to further complications such as a lowering of the arch and pain in the supero-lateral side of the foot due to compression of the cuboid bone.[14] An ultrasound guided needle fasciotomy can be used as a minimally invasive surgical intervention for plantar fasciitis. A needle is inserted into the plantar fascia and moved back and forwards to disrupt the fibrous tissue.[15]

Coblation surgery (aka Topaz procedure) has been used successfully in the treatment of recalcitrant plantar fasciitis. This procedure utilizes radiofrequency ablation and is a minimally invasive procedure.[16]

1. a b Barrett, Stephen L.; Robert O'Malley (1999). "Plantar fasciitis and other causes of heel pain". American Family Physician 59 (8): 2200–6. PMID 10221305.

2. Young, Craig C.; Rutherford, Darin S. and Mark W. Niedfeldt (2001). "Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis". American Family Physician 63 (3): 467–74,477–8.

3. Patel, NH; Holman, JR (February 2007), "Plantar Fasciitis: Office Management", Consultant 47 (2)

4. Lynch, D.; Goforth, W., Martin, J., Odom, R., Preece, C., & Kottor M. (1998). "Conservative treatment of plantar fasciitis. A prospective study". Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association 88 (8): 375–380. PMID 9735623.

5. Genc, Hakan; Meryem Saracoglu, Bans Nacir, Hatice Rana Erdem and Mahmut Kacar (2005). "Long-term ultrasonographic follow-up of plantar fasciitis patients treated with steroid injection". Joint Bone Spine 72 (1): 61–5. doi:10.1016/j.jbspin.2004.03.006. PMID 15681250.

6. Tsai, Wen-Chung; Chih-Chin Hsu, Carl P. C. Chen, Max J. L. Chen, Tung-Yang Yu, Ying-Jen Chen (2006). "Plantar fasciitis treated with local steroid injection: comparison between sonographic and palpation guidance". Journal of Clinical Ultrasound 34 (1): 12–16. doi:10.1002/jcu.20177. PMID 16353228.

7. Digiovanni, Benedict F.; Deborah A. Nawoczenski, Daniel P. Malay, Petra A. Graci, Taryn T. Williams, Gregory E. Wilding, and Judith F. Baumhauer (2006). "Plantar fascia-specific stretching exercise improves outcomes in patients with chronic plantar fasciitis. A prospective clinical trial with two-year follow-up". The Journal of bone and joint surgery (American) 88 (8): 1775–81. doi:10.2106/JBJS.E.01281. PMID 16882901.

8. Crawford, F (2004). "Plantar heel pain and fasciitis". Clinical Evidence (11): 1589–602. PMID 15652071.

9. "BestBets: Is Ultrasound effective in the treatment of plantar fasciitis?". Retrieved on December 6, 2008.

10. Norris, Donald M.; Kimberly M. Eickmeier and Bruce R. Werber (2005). "Effectiveness of Extracorporeal Shockwave Treatment in 353 Patients with Chronic Plantar Fasciitis". Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association 95 (6): 517–524. PMID 16291842.

11. http://prolotherapy.org/article.asp?prolotherapy=74

12. Buchbinder, R, et al. (2002). "Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy for Plantar Fasciitis:A Randomized Controlled Trial.". Journal of the American Medical Association 228: 1364–1372. doi:10.1001/jama.288.11.1364.

13. Kauffman, Jeffrey (2006-09-21). "Plantar fasciitis". MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. National Institutes of Health.

14. "Endoscopic Plantar Fasciotomies / Heel Pain". FootLaw.com.

15. "Treatment of recalcitrant plantar fasciitis by sonographically-guided needle fasciotomy". Am College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons.

16. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00189592