This Week's Healthy SC Challenge Tips

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
Summer may bring to mind outdoor picnics with hot dogs and chips, but a Purdue University expert says the season also provides the perfect opportunity to plan delicious, healthy meals.

"I think it's almost easier for people to eat healthfully during the warmer months than it is at any other time of year," says Laura Palmer, a Cooperative Extension Service specialist in foods and nutrition and a registered dietitian. "The abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, combined with the chance to grill foods, offers many tasty alternatives to the high-fat foods we might associate with summer."

Palmer offers the following suggestions for making the most of summer with foods that are both appetizing and nutritious:

-Be meat savvy. Choose lean cuts of beef, including round, sirloin and loin cuts. Tenderize the meat to increase flavor and texture without adding fat. Marinate in salsa, low-calorie salad dressing, wine or citrus juices. Grilled chicken breasts, turkey tenders and lamb kabobs also make great alternatives to high-sodium hot dogs and hamburgers.

-Aim for variety. Kick up the health factor of grilling with vegetables and fruits. Cooking vegetables on the grill adds flavor. Make kabobs with fruit and grill on low heat until the fruit is hot and slightly golden. These healthy snacks also make consuming the recommended daily fruit and vegetable intake simple.

-Don't forget to stay hydrated. Summer heat can cause dehydration. Water is the best option when temperatures soar, but you can add slices of lemons or strawberries for natural flavor.

-Make eating healthy a priority this summer by focusing on simple snacks that don't take much prep work. Keep fresh berries in the refrigerator to add to salads, yogurt and ice creams. Wash fresh green beans to dip in yogurt or low-fat cottage cheese. Keep healthy extras, like lettuce and tomatoes, in your produce bin. Try homemade popsicles by freezing 100 percent juice. Cut up raw vegetables to serve with low-fat dips. Fruit smoothies are a snap to make. Just toss some fresh fruit, yogurt and milk in your blender. Your options for healthy summer eating are limited only by your imagination.
-The Department of Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University, www.medicalnewstoday.com


Physical Activity
Stay active without succumbing to heat. South Carolina's summertime combination of high heat and dripping humidity can deter even the most ardent devotees of fitness and prompt them to seek the coolness of indoor air-conditioning. Total hibernation during hot weather, though, can set one on the path to an inactive lifestyle. A better way to stay active is to work around summer's heat just as we do winter's cold.

It is important, however, to pay attention to the weather and the effects of heat and humidity on the body. High heat and humidity can make exercising dangerous because many of the body's cooling mechanisms can be overwhelmed under these conditions.

The Institute for Aerobic Research recommends adding the temperature and the percent humidity to calculate a heat stress index. If the total equals 160 or less, it is safe to exercise. A total between 161 and 175 indicates caution should be used in exercising. Above that, exercise may be dangerous. For example, if the outside temperature is 90 degrees F and the relative humidity is 70 percent, the total is 160 and conditions for exercise are safe. However, if the temperature is again 90 degrees F but the humidity is 90 percent, the total is 180, dangerous conditions for outside exercise.

Hot, humid weather may result in heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Heat exhaustion usually starts with dehydration. Symptoms are profuse sweating, cool and moist skin, rapid and weak pulse, weakness, dizziness, headache and nausea.

Heat stroke occurs when the body has lost the ability to cool itself. Signs are hot, dry, flushed skin, rapid and pounding pulse, elevated blood pressure and deliriousness.

To prevent heat related injuries:

-Acclimatize slowly to heat conditions. That is, go out in the cooler times of the day, gradually increasing the amount of time and temperatures in which you are active.
-Wear lightweight, loosely woven or airy clothing that is light in color as well.
-Drink plenty of water before, during and after activity to prevent dehydration.
-Reduce the intensity of activity to a more comfortable level. For example, walk slower or jog fewer miles.
-Check the heat stress index before beginning exercise and use appropriate caution if it is over 180.

Ideas for active summer fun:

-Get wet - get out the sprinkler and join the kids in running through it.
-Wash the car if you have to do something productive.
-Play with water balloons or squirt guns. Go on, it'll be fun.
-Go canoeing or tubing on one of our beautiful Missouri streams.
-Take the kids or grandkids to a water park and play all day.
-Splash in a neighborhood or community pool.
-Play games like Marco Polo, water volleyball, raft races, or challenge the kids to pick up soft toys like plastic rings you toss into the pool.
-Be active without getting wet - mall walk, put some exercise equipment in the cool basement and use it, crank up the stereo a notch and dance, try a new exercise video or get out an old favorite - and move!
-Linda Rellergert, Nutrition Specialist in St. Charles County University of Missouri Extension, www.missouriefamilies.org


Tobacco
One in three smokers die early because of their smoking. They die of heart disease, stroke, cancer and emphysema. At one time smoking seemed "cool," but it has become less and less desirable.

What's more, research shows that secondhand smoke, the smoke from other people's cigarettes, can harm the health of nonsmokers. Breathing in another person's smoke can cause many breathing problems in children and cancer and heart disease in adults. The trend now is for public places and work places to go smoke-free. This should help smokers make the move to quit and keep everyone's lungs healthier.

Cigarettes are so much a part of the American scene that many people think of them as "normal." They are easy to buy and inexpensive compared to other drugs. But cigarettes aren't normal. They are very addictive and can cause sickness and death.
-American Lung Association, www.lungusa.org