You can find this book and more at the UNT Dallas Library. To reserve this book now click here.
Monday, June 27, 2016
New Book: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
You can find this book and more at the UNT Dallas Library. To reserve this book now click here.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Vitamin D for Athletes: Why Athletes Need It to Perform and How to Get Enough
It definitely feels like summer outside, and while the sun is out and shining, it's important to talk about a vitamin we actually get more of by spending time outside - Vitamin D!
Vitamin D comes in 2 forms: D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol), and can be found in foods, supplements, and we get it from sun exposure.
Vitamin D is often known for its important role in bone development and maintenance and deficiency has serious health consequences for bone health. Rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults are the two bone-related diseases caused by severe vitamin D deficiency. Severe deficiency and rickets has become rare in children after milk starting getting fortified with Vitamin D in the 1930's.
Vitamin D plays other roles beyond bone health, though - it has functions in gene expression, muscular function, immunity, wound healing, and cardiovascular health.
Most people are getting enough Vitamin D to prevent severe deficiency and bone health issues, but modest deficiency is common, and some people who are more likely to have a vitamin D deficiency include:- People who spend a lot of time indoors during the day
- People who cover their skin or wear sunscreen at all times when outside
- People with darker skin
- People who live in the northern states of the U.S. or Canada (fewer hours of sunlight, and further from the equator)
- Older people
- People who are obese
Very few foods are naturally high in vitamin D.
On the last blog, we mentioned that vitamin D will be listed on the new Nutrition Facts Label in the future because people really aren't getting enough of it. Many foods, such as milk, orange juice, yogurt, and ready-to-eat cereals are actually fortified with vitamin D, meaning it is added during processing, but the foods that are naturally high in vitamin D are rare.
Those naturally vitamin-D rich foods include fatty fish (salmon, mackeral, tuna), fish liver oils, egg yolks, beef liver, cheese, and some muschrooms.
For many people, sun exposure is their primary source of Vitamin D.
Ultravoilet-B (UVB) radiation stimulates vitamin D3 to be produced in the epidermis of the skin, but factors such as season, time of day, cloud cover, smog, skin color and sunscreen use effect vitamin D synthesis from UV exposure.
Some vitamin D researchers have recommended exposing face, arms, legs or back without sunscreen for 5-30 minutes during peak sunlight hours (between 10AM - 3PM) several times per week. This doesn't mean tanning or burning your skin, and less time outdoors is needed in the summer, and this goes against the the Skin Cancer Foundation, who cautions against this sun exposure in order to get Vitamin D - using sunscreen, covering up and limiting sun exposure and UV radiation from tanning beds is important for preventing skin cancer.
At the end of the day, you can always get Vitamin D through vitamin D-fortified foods and vitamins.
A blood test for serum concentration of 25(OH)D is the best indicator of vitamin D status, and the Institute of Medicine claims that:
- People are at risk for deficiency if serum 25(OH)D levels are <30 li="" ml="" ng="" nmol="">
- Levels ≥50 nmol/L (≥20 ng/mL) are suffient for good bone healthy for almost all individuals
Vitamin D for Athletes
It is estimated that about 1 billion people of all ages are vitamin D insufficient or deficient, and athletes aren't immune to vitamin D deficiency. Studies examining vitamin D status in NFL players have shown that a significant number of players had deficient or insufficient vitamin D levels (especially amongst African American football players), making vitamin D intake a focus for many teams.Many collegiate and professional sports teams are supplementing their athletes with vitamin D, and providing foods such as fortified cereals to their diets to prevent Vitamin D insuffiency.
We know that vitamin D plays a role in muscle and cardiovasular function, helps keep bones healthy and strong, and helps keep immune systems working effectively, so if making an effort to keep vitamin D levels high can keep athletes healthy, it might be worth looking into.
Monday, June 13, 2016
New Book: Performing hybridity by May Joseph and Jennifer Fink
Amid the modern-day complexities of migration and exile, immigration and repatriation, notions of stable national identity give way to ideas about cultural "hybridity". The authors represented in this volume use different forms of performative writing to question this process, to ask how the production of new political identities destabilizes ideas about gender, sexuality, and the nation in the public sphere.Contributors use forms such as the essay, poem, photography, and case study to examine historically specific cases in which the notion of hybridity recasts our ideas of identity and performance: the struggle for Aboriginal land rights in Australia; Bahian carnival; the creolization and pidginization of language in the Caribbean world; queer videos; and others.
Friday, June 10, 2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
New Book: Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre is the story of a small, plain-faced, intelligent, and passionate English orphan. Jane is abused by her aunt and cousin and then attends a harsh charity school. Through it all she remains strong and determinedly refuses to allow a cruel world to crush her independence or her strength of will. A masterful story of a woman's quest for freedom and love. Jane Eyre is partly autobiographical, and Charlotte Brontë filled it with social criticism and sinister Gothic elements. A must read for anyone wishing to celebrate the indomitable strength of will or encourage it in their growing children.
Friday, June 3, 2016
New Book: When the Beat was Born written by Laban Carrick Hill, Illustrated by Theodore Taylor III.
The Texas Bluebonnet Award (TBA) is the book award selected by Texas school children. Intended to encourage reading among 3rd to 6th grade students, the Texas Library Association selects twenty notable books of which students must read or listen to at least fie on the list in order to be eligible to vote. Over 152,000 children voted for the award which means that the students read at least 760,000 books in order to decide on the winner!
The 2016 TBA recipient was Laban Carrick Hill and Theodore Taylor III for their book When the Beat was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop. This children’s book focused on a young boy who grew up to influence the development of hip-hop and help define the hip-hop culture. Upon learning that his book won the award author Laban Carrick Hill said “I want to thank everyone down in Texas, especially the 153,000 kids who came out and read all the books on the list and voted for their favorite…” the illustrator Theodore Taylor the third, shared similar sentiments when the announcement of their success was given.
You can find this book and more at the UNT Dallas Library. To reserve this book today click here.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
The Nutrition Facts Label Got a Makeover: Check Out What's New!
Have you every looked at the Nutrition Facts Label on a product and scratched your head over what it listed as a serving?
For example, who listed a serving of ice cream as ONLY half a cup? Why are there more than one servings listed in a seemingly "snack sized" bag of chips, soda, or granola bar, when a person would likely open the package and eat it all at once?
Those numbers are about to change, as the FDA just finalized the new Nutrition Facts Label, giving a makeover to the 20-year-old Nutrition Facts Label design.
The Sanford Sports Nutrition Blog previously wrote about the proposed new food label when it was developed in 2014, but now the label is finalized, and most food manufacturers will have until July 2018 to switch over to the new label.
Updates to the New Label
- The calorie count is bigger, and the serving size will be in bold.
- The serving size is changing reflects a serving that Americans are actually eating (Again, have you actually ever measured out 1/2 a cup of ice cream? Or drank only 1/2 of a bottle of a beverage that says it contains 2 servings?)
- Added sugars will be added to the label, which shows how much sugar is added to the food during processing (versus sugar found naturally in fruit and dairy products).
- "Calories from Fat" will be eliminated, as more people need to be focusing on the types of fats they're consuming, not just the amount. (Focus more on healthy fats, avoiding trans fats).
- Different daily value percentages for sodium, fiber, and vitamin D to reflect the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines amounts.
- Actual amounts of vitamins (versus the old label that only listed percentages) and changes to WHICH vitamins are listed. Vitamin D and Potassium are now listed (instead of Vitamin C and Vitamin A) because the majority of people aren't getting enough of those key nutrients.
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| U.S. Food and Drug Administration |
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| Old label (Left) vs. New Label (Right) The Food and Drug Administration |
The Nutrition Facts Label is important for active people and athletes, and this "Athlete's Guide to the Nutrition Facts Label" goes through what you should be looking for on the label. The new design should make healthy eating a little easier by being able to choose between comparable products with different nutrition.
Note: As a dietitian who works with athletes, I am excited to see the "Added Sugars" on the label. Many athletes need a diet rich in carbohydrates, but sometimes they're relying on that quick energy from sports bars and drinks to fuel their training and performance, and get stuck in the habit of eating those high-sugar foods all the time, when they should be eating more vegetables, fruits and whole grains and lean protein to fuel themselves outside of training. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020 have emphasized how much sugar Americans are eating, including sugar in seemingly "healthy" foods like whole grain cereals or yogurts. This added part of the new label makes it easier to compare packaged products and choose more nutritious options!
What do you think of the new label?
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