4 Healthy Tips from a Woman Who Eats for a Living

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To a foodie (or anyone, really), Gail Simmons is living the dream. As a trained culinary expert, critic, cookbook author, and judge on Bravo’s Top Chef, it’s literally her job to eat delectable food on the daily. But let’s face it: Plenty of that food isn’t the healthiest. So how in the world does she stay fit? We caught up with Simmons at the Food & Wine Best New Chefs event to find out her secrets.

Don’t clean your plate

Yes, it’s Simmons’ job to eat, but that doesn’t mean she’s devouring every last morsel of every meal. “You don’t need to finish everything on your plate,” said Simmons. “On Top Chef, it’s all about tasting, not eating the whole dish—I mean, you couldn’t possibly!” she said, laughing. When you dine out, she recommends dividing your meal in two, and either sharing half of it with a friend, or boxing it up for tasty leftovers. When it comes to super decadent food (we’re looking at you, chocolate lava cake), Simmons suggests taking a bite or two for the taste, to avoid going overboard.

RELATED: 12 Weight-Loss Secrets From Celebrity Chefs

Never stop moving

“I feel like if part of my job is to eat, then the other part is to stay healthy,” Simmons said. “I consider it part of my job to exercise.” So she fits in movement whenever possible, by walking to work, for example, or choosing to take the stairs. She’s also serious about prioritizing her gym time. “If it’s not on my schedule to work out, things will come up and I’ll never get a chance.”

Stock a smart pantry

Although she’s bombarded by rich food during the day, Simmons knows super healthy food awaits her at home. “You can’t always control what you’re inundated with by the world every day,” she said. “But you can make a choice about what’s in your fridge and your pantry.” Simmons and her family “don’t bring anything bad into the house”—meaning they keep sugary and processed foods out of sight and out of mind. “Because, if they’re there, we’ll eat them,” she explained. “You don’t want to be too tempted.”

RELATED: 9 Tips From Celebrity Chefs for Heart-Healthy Cooking

Make your healthy meals flavorful

Food doesn’t need to be fussy in order to taste good, Gail explained. When she cooks for her family, she always uses simple, healthy ingredients like grilled vegetables, lean protein, quinoa, and faro. Her key to making those meals delicious and satisfying? Tons of seasoning! Think fresh herbs and spices, lemon juice and vinegar, and plenty of hot sauce. “You want to add things that will up the flavor, but still keep your food healthy,” she said.

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High-Dose Radiation May Be No Better for Low-Risk Prostate Cancer

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Higher doses of radiation may not benefit low-risk prostate cancer patients, a new review suggests.

“In the field of radiation oncology, we often assume that the highest dose that the body can tolerate will be most effective at killing cancer,” said senior study author Dr. Robert Den, a researcher at Thomas Jefferson University’s cancer center in Philadelphia.

“Our results argue that this may not be the case, at least not with lower-risk prostate cancer patients,” Den added in a university news release.

The researchers reviewed 12 studies that assessed the use of external beam radiation treatment for men with localized prostate cancer. The clinical trials included more than 6,800 patients.

As patients received higher doses of radiation, there was a drop in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, which are used to monitor prostate cancer. However, higher doses of radiation did not lead to lower rates of prostate cancer spreading to other parts of the body or higher survival rates over the long-term.

The study was published online recently in the American Journal of Clinical Oncology.

“It’s important to check our assumptions,” said Adam Dicker, chair of radiation oncology at the university’s medical college.

“This study suggests that our reliance on the PSA test as a proxy for patient outcomes may not as useful as many researchers thought,” he said. “This has broad implications for the design of future clinical trials and the interpretation of current and previous studies.”

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about prostate cancer.

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Women Twice as Likely to Die From Severe Heart Attack, Study Finds

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women are up to twice as likely as men to die from the most dangerous type of heart attack, a worldwide study finds.

Although death rates have fallen, there are still significant survival differences after what’s called ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), according to the Yale University-led team of investigators.

The study “highlights that there is a gender discrepancy between men and women in mortality outcomes with STEMI,” study first author Hyon Jae Lee said in a Yale news release.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 700,000 STEMI patients in 29 countries and six geographic regions. In all those regions, they found that appropriate treatment was delayed for women and that the in-hospital death rate for women was double that of men. Also, women were 70 percent more likely to die at 30 days, six months and one year after the heart attack.

The findings were presented Monday at an American College of Cardiology meeting in Chicago. Until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, the findings should be considered preliminary.

“All countries were affected, even here in the United States and Europe, where there are STEMI initiatives that are meant to optimize care for everybody,” Lee said. “That highlights the need to delve into this question and figure out why women have twofold higher mortality rate than men.”

The gender gap is likely due to differences in awareness about STEMI symptoms, access to care and risk factors, the researchers said. For example, women tend to be older when they suffer this type of heart attack and to have a higher number of other health problems, such as diabetes.

From the time of hospital arrival, compared to men, women experienced an average delay of 5.3 minutes before blood flow to the heart was restored, the researchers discovered. This is significant, they said, noting survival hinges on minimizing treatment time.

More information

The U.S. Office on Women’s Health has more about heart attack.

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Study Sees No Link Between Common Epilepsy Drug, Certain Birth Defects

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Despite initial concern from early studies, taking the epilepsy drug lamotrigine (Lamictal) during pregnancy may not raise the risk for certain birth defects, a large new study finds.

“An initial study of this drug showed an increased risk for cleft lip or cleft palate, but a number of other studies since have not, and our previous study showed an increased risk of clubfoot,” said study author Helen Dolk, of Ulster University, in Northern Ireland.

However, the new study, which had “a much larger population size — more than double the size of our previous study” — has found no significant links, Dolk said in a news release from the journal Neurology.

The research, funded by the drug’s maker, Glaxo Smith Kline, was published April 6 in the journal.

In addition to being prescribed to control epileptic seizures, lamotrigine is used to prevent mood swings in people with bipolar disorder, the study authors said.

Controlling epilepsy during pregnancy is important because seizures may harm the fetus, the researchers noted.

Dolk’s team analyzed data on more than 10 million births over 16 years, including almost 227,000 babies with birth defects. Among those babies were 147 whose mothers took lamotrigine during the first trimester of pregnancy and had nongenetic birth defects.

Babies born with cleft lip, cleft palate or clubfoot were not significantly more likely than those with other birth defects to have been born to mothers who took lamotrigine in the first trimester of pregnancy, the study found.

In the general populations, one in every 700 babies is born with cleft lip or cleft palate, and nearly one in every 1,000 is born with clubfoot.

“We cannot exclude a small risk, but we estimate the excess risk of cleft lip or cleft palate among babies exposed to the drug to be less than one in every 550 babies,” Dolk said.

“Since excess risks of cleft lip or palate have been reported for a variety of anti-epileptic drugs, we recommend that for all mothers with epilepsy, whatever their drug exposure, special attention be given to examining the baby for cleft palate,” she added.

Also, Dolk stressed that “we did not have specific information on lamotrigine dosage, so additional study is recommended, especially of high doses.”

One expert believes the findings should reassure women with epilepsy.

Dr. Sean Hwang said the study was based on a “large multinational database, and [is] a significant contribution” to the literature on this issue.

“As this study reaffirms, lamotrigine [used alone] currently appears to be the safest anti-epileptic drug in pregnancy,” said Hwang, an attending neurologist at Northwell Health’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Center in Great Neck, N.Y.

However, he stressed that “the study was not designed to re-evaluate the overall risk of congenital malformations occurring with lamotrigine use in pregnancy, which has been observed to be slightly higher than in the general population.

“As the authors indicated, it also was not designed to assess dose-related effects, which has been shown in some studies to be an important risk factor,” Hwang said.

More information

The Epilepsy Foundation has more on epilepsy and pregnancy.

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Gene May Raise Melanoma Risk, Even Without Sun Exposure

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A new study hints that genetics could play a role in the development of melanoma even if people don’t get a lot of sunburns.

But some U.S. experts say people shouldn’t take this news as an excuse to bake themselves in the sun, which is considered a major cause of the often-deadly skin cancer.

“There should be no change to the current recommendations to adopt sun-safe behaviors for melanoma prevention,” cautioned Neil Box. He is an assistant professor with the department of dermatology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and was not involved with the new study.

However, another expert, dermatologist Dr. Jeffrey Salomon, said genetics do seem to play a role in melanoma. So-called BRAF gene mutations have been linked to between 40 and 60 percent of melanomas, he noted, and “newly released medications targeting this mutation are having significant results.” Salomon is an assistant clinical professor of surgery at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.

The new study, which took place in Austria, was led by Dr. Judith Wendt from the Medical University of Vienna. Her team examined variations in the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene, which affects skin pigmentation. Researchers have previously linked the gene to melanoma, with red-haired people at highest risk.

Wendt’s team examined the genes of nearly a thousand people with melanoma and 800 similar people who didn’t have the skin cancer. The average age of participants was 59 years, and there were roughly equal numbers of men and women.

The investigators found that 47 percent of those with melanoma reported more than 12 sunburns in their lives, compared to 31 percent of the others showing that sun exposure is key to the disease.

However, the team also found that 41 percent of the melanoma patients had two or more variants of the gene, compared to just 29 percent of the others.

According to the study authors, the findings raise questions about whether people with the gene variations are at higher risk for melanoma, regardless of their sun exposure.

The study doesn’t say how many people in general have the gene variants — those in the study were all from Austria, which has a largely white population — and the researchers didn’t return requests for further information.

Box, the University of Colorado professor, said the study has weaknesses.

“We cannot be sure that the findings are all that they are touted to be,” he said, in part because people don’t tend to accurately remember their sunburns. Other approaches, like asking about vacations at the water, are better, he added.

What now?

“The general public should still make every effort at sun safety, particularly those . . . with red hair color,” the vast majority of whom have these kinds of gene variations, Box explained.

Salomon, the Yale professor, said certain genetic variations appear to actually raise the danger from sun exposure because they may reduce the amount of protective pigmentation in the skin.

If that happens, people become more susceptible to skin damage from the sun’s UV rays, he said. As a result, Salomon added, sun exposure remains “the major risk factor for these people to develop melanoma.”

As for preventing or treating melanoma, Salomon said the findings could lead to research into further targeting the genetic variations.

The study was published in the April 6 online edition of JAMA Dermatology.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about melanoma.

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U.S. Moving Money From Ebola Fund to Help Fight Zika

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The Obama administration is shifting $589 million in funding to prepare for likely outbreaks of Zika virus in the United States during the upcoming mosquito season, senior officials announced Wednesday.

The money includes $510 million originally intended for fighting the Ebola virus, which officials said remains a global health threat.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said the transferred money will support state-level mosquito-control efforts and Zika surveillance. It will also boost laboratory testing for Zika; fund efforts to develop diagnostic tests and potential vaccines; and pay for response efforts in Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory where the Zika virus currently is most active.

Health officials believe it’s only a matter of time before Zika — which is linked to serious birth defects — becomes active in the mainland United States, passing from person to person via mosquito bites, Burwell said.

“We believe that there will likely be local transmission in the continental U.S. in the spring and summer months,” Burwell said.

The administration took this step after Congress failed to act on a $1.9 billion emergency funding request from President Barack Obama to combat Zika, said Shaun Donovan, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The nation’s public health response to Zika needs to begin before the Aedes aegypti, the mosquito most likely to transmit the virus, begins its breeding season this spring, Donovan said.

As of April 1, there are 672 confirmed cases of Zika in U.S. states and territories, Burwell said. However, none of the cases in the continental United States have occurred due to local transmission of the virus via mosquito bite. Most of these infections were acquired while traveling outside the country.

Texas, Florida and Hawaii are the states most at risk for local transmission of Zika, Burwell said. However, the Aedes aegypti ranges as far north as San Francisco, Kansas City and New York City, and uncontrolled outbreaks down South could lead to a Zika epidemic, officials fear.

“We should not play with fire here,” Donovan said. “We should not risk the outbreak spreading and getting out of control before Congress acts.”

But these transferred funds are not enough to fully pay for Zika response in the United States this year. “Without the full amount of requested emergency supplemental funding, many activities that need to start right now will have to be delayed, or curtailed or stopped within months,” Donovan said.

For example, Burwell said, mosquito control efforts might falter, or vaccine and diagnostic test development could stall for lack of funding if the well runs dry.

Officials also won’t have the money to help fund efforts in other countries to contain Zika, making the virus’s spread to the United States even more likely, said Heather Higginbottom, deputy secretary for management and resources at the U.S. Department of State.

“Without the full emergency supplemental funding, we will not be able to effectively enhance the ability of Zika-affected countries to combat mosquitoes, control transmission, and support affected populations,” Higginbottom said.

In addition, the money shift could undermine U.S. efforts to contain Ebola, Burwell said.

Ebola killed 11,323 people during a prolonged outbreak in West Africa that began in March 2014, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus continues to simmer there, with 12 cases of Ebola currently occurring in Liberia and Guinea, officials said.

“We face two real global health challenges, Ebola and Zika, and we don’t have the option to set one aside to pursue the other,” Burwell said.

Zika does not cause most people to get sick. Only one of every five people with a Zika infection develops any symptoms, which include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes, the CDC says.

But the virus could pose a serious risk to unborn children. Mounting evidence has shown that some pregnant women infected with Zika have given birth to children with microcephaly, a birth defect involving abnormally small growth of the head and brain, Burwell said.

Raising and caring for just one child with microcephaly can cost as much as $10 million, Burwell said, and so far 64 pregnant women have been confirmed with Zika infection in U.S. states and territories.

More information

For more on Zika virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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This Indiana Teen Explained to Her Teacher Why BMI is Total BS

Opioid Painkiller May Be New Treatment for Heroin Addicts

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Hydromorphone — an opioid painkiller — may be another treatment option for heroin addiction, a new Canadian study suggests.

The research included more than 200 heroin addicts in Vancouver. They hadn’t responded to commonly used treatments such as methadone or suboxone. This was the first study to assess the effectiveness of hydromorphone in treating heroin addiction, the researchers noted.

The participants were randomly selected to receive injections of either hydromorphone or diacetylmorphine (pharmaceutical-grade prescription heroin). The injections were given in a clinic under the supervision of a health care professional.

“Providing injectable opioids in specialized clinics under supervision ensures safety of both the patients and the community, and the provision of comprehensive care,” lead investigator Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, from the University of British Columbia, said in a school news release.

After six months, patients in both groups reported far fewer days of street heroin and other opioid use (three to five days a month). At the start of the study, patients in both groups reported almost daily use.

The participants also reported a large reduction in the number of days when they committed crimes. At the start of the study, volunteers were involved in illegal activities an average of about 14 days. During the study, that number dropped to less than four days, the research showed.

And nearly 80 percent of patients in both groups were still in treatment at six months, the study found.

Injections of both drugs were safe when given in the clinic. During the study, more than 88,000 injections were given. But, there were only 14 overdoses and 11 seizures. All were successfully managed in the clinic. These problems might have been deadly if they had occurred on the street, the researchers noted.

“Hydromorphone is a widely available licensed pain medication. Our study shows that hydromorphone is as effective as diacetylmorphine, providing a licensed alternative to treat severe opioid use disorder,” Oviedo-Joekes said.

Diacetylmorphine isn’t available in many countries, Dr. Patricia Daly explained in the news release. She’s chief medical officer at Vancouver Coastal Health.

“Hydromorphone has a significant advantage as a legal, licensed pain medication,” Daly added.

Methadone and buprenorphine/naloxone are current heroin addiction treatment options, and they’re effective for many people, Daly said. But, “No single treatment is effective for all individuals. Every person with severe opioid use disorder left untreated is at high risk of serious illness and premature death,” she added.

Last December, the CDC announced that fatal drug overdoses had reached record highs in the United States — driven largely by the abuse of prescription painkillers and heroin. Many abusers use both.

According to that December report, more than 47,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdose in 2014, a 14 percent jump from the previous year.

The new study findings were published April 6 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about heroin.

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Diabetes Cases Quadruple Worldwide Since 1980: Report

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The number of adults worldwide with diabetes has quadrupled in the past 35 years, a new report shows.

Climbing from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014, the increases were particularly severe in low- and middle-income countries such as China and India, the researchers noted.

Global diabetes rates rose from just over 4 percent to 9 percent among men, and from 5 percent to almost 8 percent among women, the findings showed.

The price tag for treating and managing the disease and its complications now totals $825 billion a year, the report found.

“Diabetes has become a defining issue for global public health. An aging population, and rising levels of obesity, mean that the number of people with diabetes has increased dramatically,” said senior study author Majid Ezzati, a professor at Imperial College, London.

The statistics were not divided between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. But, 85 percent to 95 percent of adult diabetes cases are type 2. So, the significant increase is likely due to a rise in type 2 diabetes, which is often linked to obesity, according to the study authors.

The report is published in the April 6 issue of The Lancet.

“Obesity is the most important risk factor for type 2 diabetes and our attempts to control rising rates of obesity have so far not proved successful,” Ezzati said in a journal news release.

“Identifying people who are at high risk of diabetes should be a particular priority since the onset can be prevented or delayed through lifestyle changes, diet or medication,” Ezzati added.

Compared to Western Europe, diabetes rates rose much more sharply in low- and middle-income countries, such as China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Pakistan. No country had a major drop in diabetes rates, the study authors said.

In the United States, just over 8 percent of men and more than 6 percent of women had diabetes in 2014. That translated to rankings of 114th for men and 146th for women in the world, according to the report.

But the number of U.S. men with diabetes has increased by more than two-thirds since 1980, when 4.7 percent had the disease. Among women, just over 4 percent had diabetes in 1980.

The new estimates, released ahead of World Health Day on April 7, are from an analysis of 751 studies that included more than 4 million adults in different regions of the world.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Etienne Krug, from the World Health Organization, wrote that the findings “sound the alarm for large-scale, effective action to reduce the health and economic impact of diabetes. Improvements in prevention and management, together with better surveillance, should be prioritized in response to this call.”

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about diabetes.

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Restaurants Cut Calories in Kids’ Meals, Study Finds

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Popular restaurants have cut calories in children’s meals and are offering some healthier side dishes, such as fruits and vegetables, a new study reports.

But, the researchers added, while these restaurants appear to be making some progress in providing lower-calorie menu options, the meals are still packed with too much salt and fat.

“The industry has started to make some changes, but it’s focusing mostly on calories. Improvements are needed to consistently offer healthier combinations,” said study co-author Christina Economos. She is an associate professor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition in Boston.

The investigators looked at online nutrition information for children’s meal options in 2014. The research included the 10 most popular fast-food outlets: Arby’s, Burger King, Chik-Fil-A, Dairy Queen, Jack-in-the-Box, KFC, McDonald’s, Sonic, Subway and Wendy’s. It also included the 10 most popular sit-down restaurant chains: Applebee’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili’s, Denny’s, IHOP, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Red Robin and TGI Friday’s.

The study focused on the numerous combinations that children could create from the options for their meals at each restaurant. For example, a burger and fries could come with a variety of soft drink options.

According to the results, 72 percent of fast-food meals and 63 percent of sit-down meals had 600 calories or less, meaning they met recommended calorie guidelines. The researchers believe these options offer fewer calories than in the past.

“We can encourage parents to look at the menus and the nutrition numbers, and try to construct meals that fall within that 600-calorie guideline,” Economos said.

However, only 32 percent of meal combinations at fast-food restaurants and 22 percent of those at sit-down restaurants met guidelines for fat, saturated fat and salt (sodium), as well as calories. In both types of restaurants, “the calorie target was most frequently met, and the sodium target the least,” the study authors reported.

The researchers declined to identify which restaurants did the best and worst. Timing is one reason, Economos said: “If we were to single out a restaurant and finger point, they may have made some changes in the last month.”

High levels of fat contribute to obesity, which is a major problem among kids in the United States. But why is salt an issue when children don’t tend to get salt-related health problems, such as high blood pressure?

“When we’re providing kids with high-sodium meals, we’re encouraging them to develop a preference for those foods,” Economos said.

“No one would want to have a lot of sodium up to age 18 and then be restricted. We need to expose kids to less sodium in their younger years so they can continue that behavior into older years,” she said.

Besides calorie counts that appear to be decreasing, there’s good news with the presence of fruit and veggies as sides in children’s meals, Economos said.

“You didn’t see them a decade ago in many of the restaurants. There’s definitely a shift happening, and we’re excited about their availability,” she added.

The study comes with several caveats, however. For example, the study didn’t look at what kids actually eat. And the study assumed the nutrition information was accurate. Plus, it didn’t include details about free add-ons such as drink refills, toppings and dressings, the study authors said.

While more research is needed to figure out what kids order and eat, Economos said, it’s still clear that “there are healthier options out there for kids.”

So, how do parents get their kids to make better choices?

“We can eat in restaurants and still maintain a good dietary pattern, but it requires some effort to be informed,” said Dr. Robert Murray, professor of human nutrition at Ohio State University.

He recommends that families mix and match items from five groups — fruits, vegetables, grains/whole grains, dairy, and quality proteins — at each meal.

“A hamburger or cheeseburger that has lettuce or spinach, tomato or salsa, and a whole grain bun — without the other sauces, bacon, or frills that run up calories — can be easily balanced using a side of fruit or veggie, perhaps a baked rather than fried potato,” he said. “A milk or flavored milk, or iced tea, rather than soft drinks can help immensely.”

As for the big picture, Murray said “restaurants can help shape the American eating pattern toward more healthful ends by moving toward lower calorie items and smaller portions, and including more diverse entrees and nutritious sides.”

The study appears in the April issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

More information

For more about children’s nutrition, try Nutrition.gov.

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