Womens Reproductive Health

This article will tell how to eat healthy for life and avoid the fad diets.

• If you consume more calories than your body needs each day, your body will store the excess energy as fat. In today’s society, that excess body fat is unnecessary. We are no longer gatherers. Your next meal is as close as your local grocery store and we do not need extra energy stores to hold us over till the next meal.

• Eating healthy will give you some health benefits, but you will not achieve the full benefits possible unless you exercise. Exercising doesn’t have to be hard, and you don’t even have to break a sweat. Just going for a short 30 minute walk four times a week will greatly improve your health.

• Use extra virgin olive oil when cooking. It is purer, and is better for your heart than other kinds of olive oil. The darker the better. Furthermore, “light” olive oil has as many Calories as extra virgin olive oil — the “light” refers to the color and flavor intensity. Unfortunately, though, using extra virgin olive oil when cooking at higher temperatures ruins the flavors that make it “extra virgin”. But olive oil is not necessarily the most healthy oil, canola oil may be better.

• This takes patience. You won’t see a drastic drop in your cholesterol level or weight or increase in your energy level immediately. You need to give the changes in diet some time to kick in.

• Have a positive and upbeat attitude. If you start your new diet thinking “This is something I have to do,” instead of “This is something I want to do,” then you’ve already failed before you started.

• Adding whole, unrefined grains to the diet can add valuable vitamins and minerals that would otherwise be lost, however it can completely upset our digestion as well. Many animals that eat grains have four stomachs they use to digest them adequately, and ferment them so they can uptake nutrients. Humans have only one stomach, and if you introduce grains without first fermenting or sprouting them you may experience digestive upsets. There are various anti nutrients in grains (like phytic acid) and enzyme inhibitors that will prevent mineral absorption and lead to deficiencies and digestive problems. To remedy this, take oatmeal and soak it the night before in a little bit of yogurt. This will make it taste slightly sour, but make it more digestible. Sourdough bread is also another good example.

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  Lettuce is a great choice of natural fiber, and can taste great with the proper healthy dressings. You can make a great salad with nuts, raisins, and whole wheat croutons. Mix it in a bowl so it’s evenly distributed and place it on top of a salad. Use a sugar free and low carb balsamic dressing; it has less than 1 gram of carbohydrates and 0 Calories. The head of lettuce is 21 Calories, plus the nuts and raisins and whole wheat croutons which could range depending on size but for this example we will estimate 100 Calories, bringing you a very low calorie and filling meal for only ~120 Calories.

• Smoothies are great for breakfast. Combine the following:
  • banana
  • 4 medium-size strawberries
  • 1/2 cup of skim milk or soy milk

• Choose wheat (brown) bread instead of white bread. Processed carbohydrates such as those found in white bread are harder to draw nutrients from, and therefore are seen as empty Calories.

• For protein, try substituting beans for higher calorie foods like boneless skinless chicken breasts, or tuna. Not only will you be getting additional phytochemicals from the plant based protein, it will not have the harmful saturated fat content. Remember that even an orange has more than 5% of its calories from protein!

• Carry water with you at all times. Try to drink water in place of soft drinks and other flavored beverages. A good rule of thumb is to drink half your body weight in ounces per day.

• Non-fat yogurt can make a great snack, and its healthy bacteria can help with various stomach problems.

• Consider eating organic. Organic food isn’t made with the use of a lot of harmful chemicals, or other harmful processes. Not only is organic food good for you, but it is sustainable and good for the environment too! Other foods can be extremely harmful to the environment.

• Read the labels on everything you eat. Do not just buy something because it is marketed as being “healthy.” Lots of companies trying to sell their food off as healthy when really it is full of high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, trans fats, and hidden sugars. This is also the best way to learn about a product. It gives you almost all the information about that product you’ll ever need. If you’re trying to lose weight, try to choose foods with low calories. If you want to gain weight for a football team or some such reason, you are going to choose food with lots of calories. However, too many calories, not enough exercise, and eating too much at one time, can make you fat.

The Board of Directors of the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center have recognized six outstanding employees in 2008. The winners were selected from a group nominated by Health Center personnel. Recommendations were based on several reasons including dedication, commitment to the community, and service well beyond what is required. In the Annual Employee Recognition Ceremony held at the Whaling Museum, Rose Yates, Board Chair, thanked everyone who makes the Health Center as great as it is and referred to all the employees as special people. Those recognized this year include the friendly and assuring voice you hear at the other end of the telephone line, the nurse who willingly helps wherever needed, the secretary who makes sure the patients are cared for in a timely manner, the maintenance person who makes sure the campus is safe for all, the Doctor whose unfailing first priority is the patientxs care, and the clerk who generously volunteers in the various efforts that benefit the community. These everyday heroes that were recognized are:
Viviana Abreu, Billing ClerkKerry Chavez, Pediatric Unit SecretaryRoy Filkins, MaintenanceJames Hayes, NP, Infectious DiseaseDianne Lowe, Switchboard SupervisorDonald Middleton, MD, Director of Urgent Care

The Greater New Bedford Community Health Center has been invited to present its experience in establishing an Occupational Medicine Program for the underserved Greater New Bedford community at the National Summit of Clinicians for Health Care Justice. The program is under the direction Ismail Nabeel, MD, MPH who will present the abstract entitled Changing Healthcare Practice: Building a healthy work force in a resource poor setting is no longer a broken promise. He will be able to showcase the pioneering work of the program at GNBCHC and the novel tracking system for surveillance of occupational related injuries in a medically underserved population.

The conference will be held October 23-25, 2008 in Washington, DC. It is expected to provide an opportunity for clinicians to explore cutting edge solutions and to be a part of the vital efforts to make quality health care for the underserved a reality.

The Greater New Bedford Community Health Center has been selected as one of two Health Centers in Massachusetts to participate in the Occupational Health Surveillance program. By combining Public Health and Health Center objectives, individuals subjected to work related injuries and exposures can receive treatment for those conditions as well as receive primary care and a whole range of services.

The surveillance program involves collecting information on work-related injuries and illnesses, using the information to develop intervention and preventive programs, and educating workers, employers, and health care providers in occupational health problems in medically underserved communities. Workplace health conditions include asthma, needlesticks, musculoskeletal injuries, lead poisoning, burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, and occupational cancer.

The Greater New Bedford Community Health Center continues to explore funding sources to support these efforts.

The surveillance program at GNBCHC is under the direction of Ismail Nabeel, MD who is a member of the Infectious Disease team. Dr. Nabeel is Board certified in Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine. He not only lectures on occupational health conditions at the Health Center but has also trained Park Service Rangers and volunteers in hazard communication during Summerfest. and has provided training for fishermen. He is a visiting scholar at Harvard School of Public Health. He has presented lectures to judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island on work related issues in HIV positive patients. Dr. Nabeel is a member of the Department of Public Health Advisory Board for Occupational Health Surveillance.

The Wellness Center at the Greater New Bedford community Health Center will open July 1, 2008. Programs include Weight Management, Smoking Cessation, and Diabetes Education. The Wellness Center will be open to the public and area businesses, and may expand to include future collaborations with the YMCA and other agencies.