Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Marke

The pies are being removed from stores in three states because the British retailer discovered that a limited number of them were sold without declaring the presence of pecans.

There’s nothing wrong with the pecans, but individuals who have allergies to pecans run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products, the chain said.

The mislabeled pies all carry an “Enjoy by” date of NOV 21 and have been removed from all Fresh & Easy stores, the chain said. Fresh & Easy operates 11 markets in Orange County. (Map of O.C. Fresh & Easy stores.)

Looking for a good pumpkin pie? The Fast Food Maven blog recently conducted a blind taste test of four major brands. CLICK HERE to see results.

Post from: Healthy Living

Her goal was to put human faces on an otherwise wonky morning-long presentation of data points, bar graphs and speeches about the well-being of Orange County’s children. Caumiant played a homemade video of the long, long lines of people waiting for food at an outreach center in Orange. Another video followed, this one professionally done — a fundraising video up on the chapter’s homepage that showed a local woman, identified only as Rebecca. Her husband was laid off last year, plunging them into the growing ranks of middle-class families forced to swallow their pride and seek assistance.

“I never thought — ever thought — that I would be sitting there asking someone to help me with rent, to help me put food on my table, to help me not be homeless,” she said. “I felt like a failure, an absolute failure. I have this child who depends on me for everything, and I couldn’t provide the simplest things for him. It hurt me to the bone … it just hurt.”

Her message set the tone for the eighth annual Community Forum, a gathering of representatives from county government relief agencies and nonprofits to discuss the Conditions of Children in Orange County 2009 report. Turns out, kids here are generally better off than their counterparts elsewhere in California. But in the last few years there has been an erosion of progress in several areas, such as:

• Reports of child abuse rose 12 percent over the last year, to 41,119.
• The high school dropout rate among Hispanics was a staggering 62.4 percent in 2007-08.
• The number of known gang members is on the rise, from 1,766 in 2007 to 1,896 in 2008. And their ethnic makeup is changing: There are fewer Asians and whites and more Hispanics, says Dr. Eric Walsh, the county’s Director for Family Health Services.

Caumiant said her agency’s operating budget has been cut “really beyond the bone” because of falling donations. But it will be able to allocate the same funds to its various projects in 2010 as 2009.

“We fund over 80 agencies, and every single one of them says the need has doubled,” she said later.

Bill Steiner, a former county supervisor who founded the Orangewood Children’s Home and now is chairman of the Juvenile Justice Commission, said this economic climate is worse than anything he’s seen in his 40 years in the county. This recession makes the county’s 1994 bankruptcy debacle look like a “picnic,” he said.

“It’s almost like the perfect storm has hit all at once: unemployment, funding problems, social problems getting more exacerbated,” he said. “There were people today in this audience that were reeling from the realities they deal with every day, that are heartbroken to see programs reduced.”

Steiner was quick to add, however, that the culture of helping the needy has growing in the county over the decades, and, armed with the data in the report, philanthropists will work together to get help to the needy.

“I’m very optimistic, because I’m 73 years old, and I’ve been around and seen these phases where the sun always comes up every day,” he said.

(Photo courtesy of Cal State Fullerton)

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• School-lunch participation rises sharply in Orange County
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Post from: Healthy Living

The report mentioned that women experience unnecessary anxiety from  false positives and invasive testing. The doctors and scientists mention radiation exposure as a “minor concern.”

Dr. Susan Love, who runs a nonprofit breast cancer research foundation in Los Angeles, came under fire when she backed  the recommendations on her blog. She noted that in Europe women have screenings usually every other year after age 50, with similar results. Here’s an excerpt of her response after the backlash:

I hear your anger. I’m angry too. But not for the same reason. I’m angry because we’ve oversold the benefits of mammography to the extent that there is no longer room to look objectively at the evidence. I am angry that we still don’t know what causes breast cancer and how to prevent it.

Orange County women and doctors expressed outrage, calling the recommendation a step backward for women. Read their reaction here. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the findings were non-binding and that women should make health decisions in consultation with their doctors.

After the story ran, I received many calls and emails from doctors and breast cancer survivors who disagree with the report.  They say early detection saves lives and they’re worried that sending this message will make women less likely to go in for screening.

But what about the other side? The false-positive results, unnecessary imaging and biopsies.  Have you experienced undue stress from a breast cancer scare or had procedures you believe were unnecessary? Please share your thoughts below.

You can read the panel’s full report here.

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The research, led by John Anthony Bauer of Nationwide Children’s Hospital & Research Institute at Ohio State University, found that:

• There’s a link between the amount of secondhand smoke exposure and “markers” of vascular injury in toddlers (age 2-5). The link was twice as great in obese toddlers.
• Obese adolescents (age 9-18) exposed to secondhand smoke showed twice as much vascular injury as adolescents who were a normal weight.
• Toddlers had four times the risk of exposure as adolescents, even though they were around about the same level of secondhand smoke at home.
• Toddlers with smoke exposure were 30 percent more likely to have fewer circulating “vascular endothelial progenitor cells,” the cells involved in repairing and maintaining healthy blood vessels.

“The changes we detected in these groups of children are similar to changes that are well-recognized risks for heart disease in adults,” Bauer said in a statement. “This suggests that some aspects of adult heart disease may be initiated in early childhood, where prevention strategies may have great long-term impact.”

Mai-Tram Nguyen, a pediatrician who treats many toddlers at three clinics for low-income families in Orange County, says some parents who are smokers think, mistakenly, that if they smoke outside the house their children won’t be exposed to any smoke.

“They think that by smoking outside, it doesn’t affect their children,” sauid Nguyen, who works in San Jan Capistrano, Fullerton and La Habra at clinics that are part of the Coalition of Orange County Community Clinics. “But it’s still in their breath and in their clothes. So it does stick with them.”

Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke not only develop respiratory problems, they tend to have poor health habits in other areas because parents aren’t setting a good example, Nguyen said.

“Parents who are smokers, they lead a very sedentary life. There’s not too much exercise, and they’re not the best at taking care of their own bodies. So that does affect the child: They grow up in the environment of not eating healthy foods and not being a good role model.”

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Dr. Gregory Thomas and his colleague Dr. Michael Miyamoto, who both practice at Mission Internal Medical Group in Mission Viejo, joined two other Americans and a team of Egyptian experts in examining 20 mummies from the National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo earlier this year.

After running the remains through the tube of a CT scanning machine, they were able to identify heart or artery tissue in 16 of them (the hearts and other organs were sometimes removed during the “drying” process). Of those, nine showed evidence of hardened arteries, or atherosclerosis, which can lead to heart attack or stroke. The soft portions of the plaques that built up inside the ancient arteries were no longer there, but the researchers found calcium deposits that were left behind.

Thomas, who teaches at UC Irvine, said the research showed that softer portions of the plaque can be removed, but the calcified parts are there to stay. For thousands of years.

“You can slow it down, but you can’t stop it,” he said by phone Wednesday from his hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland, on his way back to the United States after celebrating the announcement of the findings with the team of Egyptian archaeologists in Cairo.

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association’s scientific meeting in Orlando, Fla., and were included in a letter to the editor to the Journal of the American Medical Association for Wednesday’s issue.

Heart disease had historically been considered a relatively recent phenomenon, but the mummy research is turning the conventional wisdom on its head.

The mummies all lived between 1,645 and 3,990 years ago. Evidence of heart disease was found in seven of the eight corpses who were determined to be 45 years or older, and in two of the eight mummies believed to be younger than 45. The oldest among them was Lady Rai, a nursemaid to Queen Nefertiti who lived between 1570 and 1530 B.C. and who likely died in her 30s.

Mummification was a time-consuming process reserved for the upper crust of Egyptian society. Historians know that their diet often included meat and salt, to preserve the food. But Thomas said he and his team were not allowed to scan the remains of pharaohs. The subjects they did examine were lower on the chain — a general, a cabinet minister, someone held in high esteem by the royals — and appeared to be of otherwise normal health.

“These weren’t the kings, they weren’t carried around on litters like Elizabeth Taylor was,” Thomas said. That means there likely is more to study about the way plaques build up.

Egyptian officials selected the first 10 mummies to be examined, but Thomas and his team got to pick the others. They walked through darkened hallways of the museum, lined with stacks of mummies and other artifacts.

“You felt like Indiana Jones, looking for mummies,” Thomas said. “You’re pinching yourself saying, ‘How did you get so lucky in life?’ ”

(Photo by Dr. Michael Miyamoto)

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• Six O.C. hospitals get stroke-center status
• Not so easy to get rid of salt in your diet
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Post from: Healthy Living

Two weeks ago, she experienced her first casualty when her 32-year-old daughter, Marie Portillo, died of the disease.

Read her powerful story here.

Post from: Healthy Living

But two persistent problems — air pollution and the high rate of uninsured citizens — are keeping California stuck in the middle of the pack.

The 20th annual survey — produced by United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention –  shows that California swapped places with Kansas, which fell from 23rd to 24th.

Vermont is No. 1, followed by Utah, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado, Maine and Rhode Island to round out the top 10. California once ranked a dismal 28th, in 1994, before climbing to a high of 18th, at which it held steady from 2003-05. But since then our state has fallen into the 20s and stayed there.

Why? Dr. Reed Tuckson, executive vice president and chief of medical affairs at United Health Group, said that the rate of uninsured is weighted heavily in the rankings. California’s rate is 18.4 percent, with only six states performing worse in that area.

“The thing that really jumps out is the uninsured rate,” Tuckson said of California’s statistical breakdown.

Marian Mulkey, senior program officer with the Oakland-based philanthropic organization California HealthCare Foundation, said the state’s “entrepreneurial economy,” filled with small businesses and self-employed workers, contributes to fewer employers offering health insurance here than in other states.

“It’s been documented that people without health coverage are less likely to have a regular source of care,” she said. “They’re more likely to delay seeking care when they need it. They’re more likely to live with health problems and die at earlier ages than people with coverage.”

Air pollution is the other area in which California performs poorly. The state has ranked at or near the bottom in recent years, and so it is again: It’s tied for last with Delaware, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Researchers found an estimated 13.9 micrograms of fine particles per cubic meter in the atmosphere. That’s down from 16.3 in 2005.

The states with the best air quality are Hawaii, Wyoming and North Dakota.

Another fascinating statistical area is obesity. The report paints a dire picture, stating that 27 percent of the U.S. population is now obese, compared with 11.6 percent in 1990, when the first health rankings were compiled.

California’s obesity rate is 24.2 percent, putting it ninth-best among the states, the same spot it was at in 2008. The most obese state is Mississippi (33.3 percent), followed by Alabama (32.2) and West Virginia (31.9). The least obese are Colorado (19.1), Connecticut and Massachusetts (both 21.4).

That nearly a quarter of Californians are obese, and that still puts the state among the best in the category, is a testament to the depth of the problem nationwide. In 2002, the state hit an all-time high of 30th in the rankings with 21.9 percent. California has mostly continued on an upward trajectory regarding obesity rate, but its ranking has dropped: Since 2005, the rate has gone from 22.2 percent to the current 24.2, but the ranking has been trimmed from 19th to 14th to 16th to ninth.

Here are two other areas where California performs well:

• Smoking. California ranks second-best in the country, with 14 percent of the population smoking, down from 15.2 percent three years ago. The national average is 18.3 percent. Utah had the best rate (9.3 percent), while West Virginia was the smokiest (26.5 percent).
• Infant mortality. The state reported 5.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, putting it fifth-best. Utah had the best rate (4.1), while Mississippi was worst (a startling 11.0).

And here are two areas in which it could improve:

• Infectious diseases. The state has improved dramatically in this area, falling from 26.7 cases per 100,000 people in 2005 to 22.2 in 2009. But it still ranks eighth-worst. North Dakota ranks best (2.4), while New York is worst (35.8). No surprise that the more populous states have a bigger problem.
• High school graduations. Seen as a future predictor of health, only 69.2 percent of incoming 9th-graders end up graduating in California, putting it 11th-worst. The best-performing state is Wisconsin (87.5), while the worst is Nevada (55.8).

Related posts:

• An even fatter future for the U.S.
• The states with the highest obesity rates
• The 2008 survey that had California behind Kansas
• SELF mag says O.C. women are fittest in America

Post from: Healthy Living

The National Dairy Council launched its $1 million campaign, called “Raise a Hand for Chocolate Milk,” with meticulous preparation. In addition to some quasi-celebrity moms (Rebecca Romijn, Angie Harmon) who praised chocolate milk in the ad campaign’s YouTube clip, several experts weighed in with their own justifications why choco should remain a staple of the school lunch menu: That kids wouldn’t drink white milk if choco were taken away; that all the same nutrients are present in both flavored and non-flavored milk; that studies show kids who drink flavored milk don’t gain any more weight, or ingest any more sugar or calories, in their overall diet than those who abstain.

But the heaviest hitter the campaign called off the bench was Dr. Robert D. Murray, director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He’s also chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on School Health, and in 2004 he authored the AAP’s policy statement condemning sugary sodas in schools.

“Pediatricians should work to eliminate sweetened drinks in schools,” he wrote then. Does this sound like a pro-chocolate and strawberry-milk treatise to you? But then he went on:

“This entails educating school authorities, patients, and patients’ parents about the health ramifications of soft drink consumption. Offerings such as real fruit and vegetable juices, water, and low-fat white or flavored milk (emphasis mine) provide students at all grade levels with healthful alternatives.”

Since that report is nearly six years old, I called Dr. Murray to ask him whether his views, or the views of the Council on School Health, had changed. The answer was no.

“The committee’s feeling is the same, that chocolate milk and other flavored milk represents a good nutritional option compared to almost any other option the child will select in its place,” he said.

Essentially, Murray said, the nutritional value children gained from milk outweighs the couple of teaspoons of sugar needed to make it palatable to a child. The same goes for other foods: Slathering carrots with ranch dressing or broccoli with melted cheese is acceptable if it means kids eat something they wouldn’t have eaten otherwise.

“I don’t want children to eat massive quantities of cheese, or salt or sugar,” Murray said. “But we’re allowed to have sugar in our diet, we’re allowed to have fat in our diet. It’s important for Americans to say, ‘If I eat saturated fat, I want something to be behind it that’s nutritious.’ ”

Caroline Steele, manager of clinical nutrition at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, agreed, saying that “when you look at childhood obesity, chocolate milk is not the problem.”

“Certainly, we know that lowfat milk is more nutritious than whole milk, and by adding chocolate we’re adding sugar,” she said. “But if they’re not drinking any milk, they’re not getting any of those nutrients. They’ve lost out.”

Some people aren’t buying it. The “renegade lunch lady” of Boulder, Colo., for one, disputes the notion that kids will refuse any drinks if they can’t get flavored, sugar-infused milk. Others say it’s simply counterproductive to offer a product with needlessly higher levels of calories and sugar. Still others say processed, pasteurized milk doesn’t belong on store shelves at all.

I bought three 8-ounce containers of Horizon organic prepackaged milk, the same size as the half-pint cartons common in schools: The chocolate had 180 calories, 5 grams of fat, and 27 grams of sugar. The vanilla was even sweeter, with 190 calories, 4.5 grams of fat and 29 grams of sugar. The regular reduced-fat milk had 120 calories, 4.5 grams of fat and 12 grams of sugar. Other kinds of flavored milk, like Nesquik, contain high-fructose corn syrup, which has become an enemy of nutritionists. (The 8.1-ounce container of ready-made Nesquik chocolate milk has 160 calories and 30g of sugar.)

I’m willing to accept Dr. Murray’s and Ms. Steele’s views, because they’re in earnest. But the ad campaign would be more credible if the dairy industry didn’t stand so much to lose (the Dairy Council says 54 percent of flavored milk sold is in schools), and if they could prove that there was a mass movement to remove it from menus.

Related posts:

• High-fructose corn syrup works to counter bad rap
• How to make a healthy school lunch
• Do helmet laws, free lunches make kids fatter?
• How much soda is consumed in O.C.?
• The states with the highest obesity rates

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Related posts:

• Doctor to share surplus swine flu shots with the county
• Eight O.C. adults died of swine flu last week
• Two pregnant women among 20 dead of swine flu in O.C.
• Where to find the swine flu vaccine
• My easy experience with the H1N1 vaccine
• Free swine flu clinics on Saturday open to more people
• Swine flu shots available for O.C. pregnant women
• California suspends thimerosal ban for H1N1 vaccines
• Common questions about the H1N1 vaccine

Post from: Healthy Living

“I think there’s a need for it and the county will distribute to other practitioners,” Abelowitz said.

Abelowitz opened up vaccination appointments to non-patients who fall within the guidelines after receiving 12,000 shots in two days from the state’s distributor. His office has been overwhelmed by the demand, even as other doctors have questioned why he received so much.

Orange County as a whole has received about 240,000 vaccines, far short of the 1.6 million needed for every resident who falls into a target group based on age, health status or occupation.

Some  searching for the vaccine were thrilled to find it through Abelowitz, but others were frustrated because they don’t have enough for their patients.

“This is such a travesty,” said Kim Holford, who manages a pediatric office in Long Beach that treats a high percentage of chronically ill kids. “It’s just unbelievable.”

In other swine flu related developments, the Health Care Agency released an updated composite of the 32 people who have died of swine flu complications.

Median age: 50

Pregnant women: 3

Children: 4

Underlying conditions: In one death, presence of underlying conditions was unknown. For the remaining 31, two were obese, which is not officially considered an underlying condition, but has been linked to a higher death rate in a state study. Five out of the 31 had no conditions that are considered risk factors for complications.

Examples of underlying health problems  include: diabetes, cancer, heart, lung, kidney and autoimmune conditions.

Related posts:

• Eight O.C. adults died of swine flu last week
• Two pregnant women among 20 dead of swine flu in O.C.
• Where to find the swine flu vaccine
• My easy experience with the H1N1 vaccine
• Free swine flu clinics on Saturday open to more people
• Swine flu shots available for O.C. pregnant women
• California suspends thimerosal ban for H1N1 vaccines
• Common questions about the H1N1 vaccine

Post from: Healthy Living