Good News from the War on Cancer

Between 1990 and 2015, cancer death rates in the US have declined by about 25%. That's a big number and certainly very welcome news. The decline was seen across the board but most notable for lung, breast, prostate and colon cancers.

According to CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the reasons for this decline in death rates are advances in early detection and diagnosis, improved treatment options and changes in lifestyle and lower smoking rates.

While the specific impact varies with the type of cancer, "lifestyle factors including smoking, the typical high-fat, refined-sugar diet and physical inactivity account for the majority of cancer", according to the National Institutes for Health. The majority of cancers. Last I checked, most of us have 100% control over what we eat and whether or not we smoke. Maybe we should exercise it.

Five Popular Coffee Myths

In the USA, 64% of everyone age 18 and over drink at least one cup of coffee a day. That makes it big business. In 2016, the worldwide coffee market had revenue of just over $100B, representing consumption of 500 billion cups of coffee every year. As a commodity, the value of coffee is second only to petroleum. Unsurprisingly, this leads to an enormous amount of marketing misinformation and urban legend around the ubiquitous beverage.

Here are 5 popular things we all know about coffee that just ain't so.

1. Dark roast coffee has more caffeine than lighter roasts.
    All coffee contains the same amount of caffeine by weight. By
    volume - the way most of us measure our coffee - darker roasts
    actually have a lower caffeine content than more lightly roasted
    beans.

2. Dark roasted beans have a richer, more complex flavor than
    lighter roasts.
    According to coffee expert and blogger Denver Wilkenson, "When
    it comes to the roast of your coffee, while a great deal of it simply
    has to do with personal taste, don’t believe mass marketing that
    says the dark roast is the ultimate expression of quality coffee.
    It’s not. Dark roast simply means that the coffee bean has been
    roasted to a higher temperature and typically for a longer period
    of time. This causes all of the flavor molecules stored within the
    coffee beans-both the good and bad flavors-to be burnt away. By
    roasting so dark, the end consumer (you) can’t tell whether it’s a
    good bean or a bad bean because all the natural flavors have
    been turned to charcoal.

    This is not to say that dark roasts are worse that light. But the
    fact is that worldwide, only about 10% of coffee beans produced
    are of "excellent" quality. The other 90% are good, average or
    poor. Dark roasting disguises this inconvenient fact while
    marketing converts it into a benefit. So it goes.

3. Decaf is bad for you.
    This myth arises because when decaffeinated coffee was first
    developed the caffeine was chemically removed using benzene,
    a petrochemical now known to be carcinogenic. This is no
    longer the case. Manufacturers now use water, methylene
    chloride and ethyl acetate in vastly smaller amounts.

4. Coffee is bad for your heart.
    While unsure what the exact mechanism of action may be,
    recent reviews of multiple studies of coffee consumption have
    reached the exact opposite conclusion. Otherwise healthy
    people who consume a moderate amount of coffee -  3 to 5
    cups a day - have a 15% lower risk of a cardiovascular event
    than non-coffee drinkers.

5. Coffee will help you lose weight.
    The idea that caffeine aids in weight loss comes mostly from
    (surprise!) manufacturers of weight loss supplements. There
    are no independent clinical studies that show any relationship
    at all between weight loss and caffeine (let alone coffee)
    consumption.

The takeaway? Consumed in moderate amounts, coffee is not bad for you and in fact may have some small health benefits. Dark or light roast, regular or decaf seems to make no difference, so choose the kind you like and enjoy it.

5 Painless Ways to Cut Back on Sodium

Most of us struggle to keep our daily consumption of sodium within the recommended 2,300mg. According to the CDC, the average American is getting 3,136mg daily and a large part of the problem is that most of that - 71% - does not come from our salt shakers. It is mostly hidden away in the prepared foods and restaurant meals that we eat.

Even if you take pains to choose healthy foods, this hidden sodium can add up pretty quickly. Bread and baked goods, canned foods, salad dressings and many other regularly consumed foods contain far more sodium than we imagine.

Here are 5 steps that you can take to cut back without resigning yourself to bland, tasteless meals.

1. Cut back gradually, not all at once.
    Start switching to lower sodium versions of the products you
    already use, and adding just a but less salt to your meals. You
    may not even notice and, if you do, your taste will adjust
    surprisingly quickly. Example: I am a big V-8 fan. When I made
    the switch to the "low sodium" version, it tasted a little flat and
    watery. But within 2 weeks it tasted fine. Now if I try the regular
    version, it tastes like sea water it is so salty. Start slow and as
    your taste adjusts, cut back a little more.

2. Learn the language.
    Food labeling is designed to confuse and mislead you. Learn the
    language so that you know what you are getting. Read the
    nutrition facts label, and remember that everything is listed "per
    serving" so check the serving size. Here is how to decode the
    marketing babble.

    "Low Sodium" means  a serving contains 140mg or less of
     sodium.

    "Salt/Sodium Free" means less than 5mg per serving.

    "No Salt Added" means just that. None was added during
     processing. It does not mean the product contains no sodium.

    "Reduced Sodium" means there is 25% - 50% less sodium than
     is found in the regular product. So a canned soup that may
     have 800mg of sodium will still be providing 400mg to 600mg
     in its "reduced" version.

3. Compare options.
    It pays to compare sodium content across - and even within -
    brands. It can vary by as much as 100%.

4. Rinse canned foods.
    Yes, rinse them. Canned beans and vegetables can be very
    high in sodium. By rinsing them in a colander under water
    you can reduce the sodium constant by as much as 40%.
    Obviously this is a poor strategy for soups and sauces.

5. Don't use any salt in cooking.
    Instead of adding salt for flavor, try different herbs and
    spices. Garlic, oregano, basil, dried peppers, curries,
    turmeric and cumin all add a lot of flavor with no sodium.

If you sometimes think that markets and food companies deliberately try to mislead you, that is because they do. But with a little knowledge and a little effort, you outsmart them. Remember, its your health, not theirs.