Beacon Falls Public Library to host presentation on bobcats at senior center

BEACON FALLS - Learn how to coexist with our neighbor the bobcat in a presentation at Beacon Falls Senior Center, 57 N. Main St.

 Local wildlife expert Paul Colburn will join us with this informative talk and answer your questions about wild cats.

Call Beacon Falls Public Library to RSVP at 203-729-1441 or register on Eventbrite.

This presentation focuses on the history of bobcats in Connecticut, an overview of bobcat habitat, diet, behavior, reproduction, and current research efforts. 

Bobcat artifacts are shared with the audience. Mountain lions are discussed.

Colburn is a 2015 graduate of the Connecticut Master Wildlife Conservationist Program and a certified Master Wildlife Conservationist. 

The MWCP is a Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection adult education program that trains volunteers in the fields of wildlife management, natural history and interpretation. Colburn is a dedicated advocate for wildlife and is passionate about sharing his knowledge with others. 

He is particularly focused on teaching the basics of living responsibly with wildlife. He has provided hundreds of wildlife presentations for a wide variety of public and private organizations in all corners of the state. 

He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and served honorably in the United States Army.

This is shared from the Beacon Falls Public Library Facebook page.

Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in Derby seeks adults for study

Help Us Crack the Health Benefits of Eggs

DERBY - The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at Griffin Hospital is looking for adults to join a study comparing how the DASH diet, with or without eggs, affects heart health. 

The DASH diet features fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, poultry, and low-fat dairy products. It’s recommended by the American Heart Association for people at risk for cardiovascular disease.

You could qualify for the study if you:
• Are 18 years or older
• If a woman, must not currently be on hormone replacement therapy
• Have high blood cholesterol, but are not on any medication to control it

Volunteer roles during the study:
• Follow the DASH diet for 28 weeks
• During 8 of these weeks, you will also eat 2 eggs per day
• Visit Griffin Hospital in Derby 5 times for study assessments

Benefits of being in this study:
• Free nutrition guidance to follow the DASH diet
• Free 8-week supply of eggs
• Free bloodwork and blood vessel ultrasound tests
• Results provided to you upon request
• $600 payment over the course of the study

For more information, please call Rocky at 203-732-1125.

This is shared from Griffin Hospital's Facebook page.

Griffin Health to host oncology nutrition seminar at Quarry Walk in Oxford

 

Seymour Community Center to host virtual workshop on food-mood link

Free Virtual Workshop June 17th! The Food and Mood Connection 12:00 pm Are you one of the millions of yo-yo dieters who struggle with one diet after another, only to regain the pounds lost, plus some? Join Veteran personal trainer and intuitive eating coach Linda Gottlieb and learn how to use powerful introspective tools to help you give up dieting forever and immediately take control of your relationship with food and weight. Register Now Seymour Community Center Click Here for a List of Staff & Contact Information Administrative Office Hours Monday -Thursday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Friday 8 am--12 pm (203) 888 - 0406

Griffin Hospital in Derby seeks volunteers for vegan diet study

The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at Griffin Hospital in Derby seeks adult volunteers to take part in a study looking at how a vegan diet, with or without eggs, affects diet quality and heart health./ Contributed photo

DERBY - The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at Griffin Hospital is looking for adult volunteers to take part in a study looking at how a vegan diet, with or without eggs, affects diet quality and heart health.

Study participants will eat a plant-based diet for approximately five months, including eggs for six weeks.

The study team plans to enroll 35 adults in this study, including men who are 25 to 75 years old, and women up to 75 years of age who have gone through menopause, but are not on hormone replacement therapy. 

Those who qualify must be non-smokers, and have an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes based on certain criteria for this study.
Benefits for those who participate in this study include free study-related dietary counseling from a dietitian, free health testing, free eggs, grocery store gift cards to purchase vegan foods, and a total of $600 for completing the study.

For more information and to be considered for this study, call Rockiy at 203-732-1265 ext. 300.

This study is funded by the Egg Nutrition Center, the science and nutrition education division of the American Egg Board that sponsors health-related scientific research that is primarily focused on eggs.

This is a press release from Griffin Hospital.

Katz, other experts redefine protein quality metric

DERBY - The Director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at Griffin Hospital recently contributed to a report that redefines protein quality based on current scientific evidence.

Dr. David L. Katz. M.D., M.P.H., along with True Health Initiative and leading experts, published
“The Public Health Case for Modernizing the Definition of Protein Quality” in Advances in
Nutrition on May 8. The researchers then adapted this new definition of protein quality into a metric that can be applied to national food regulatory and labeling systems. 
The paper outlines why our current definition of protein quality is obsolete, inaccurate, and harmful to both human and planetary health.

Consumers depend on accurate nutrition information to make food choices that benefit their health and longevity. The current definition of protein quality does not account for the net health effect of protein foods and can promote foods that are in direct opposition to the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, human health and environmental sustainability. The True Health Initiative puts forth a new definition of protein quality that includes:

 The concentration of protein and individual amino acids in the food.

 Assessment of the evidence of health outcomes associated with consumption of the food.

 Assessment of potential environmental impacts of producing the food.

The application of this new metric has the potential to improve public health outcomes, cut healthcare costs and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable food system by increasing public perception of healthy, affordable and widely available protein sources.

The paper’s authors set forth to meet the urgent needs of public health. 

“There really is a perfect storm in modern culture driving misconceptions about protein. There is the idea that the more the better; there is the idea that you need to eat complete protein from animal foods like meat; and there is the idea that foods with the highest protein content are the highest quality food sources of protein. None of these is true,” Katz said. 
Katz is also the founder/director of the True Health Initiative.
What is true is that in the United States and in other developed economies, protein deficiency is not a prevailing health concern; far greater in the 21st century is the epidemic of costly, chronic illness that is directly preventable by changes in diet and lifestyle. 
Cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer have all been linked to unhealthy diets in general and excessive intake of red and processed meats in particular. 
In direct contrast, plant forward diets and diets that include: fish, nuts and seeds, have been linked to favorable health outcomes, reduced all-cause mortality and reduced cardiovascular mortality.

About The True Health Initiative

The True Health Initiative is a global coalition of world-renowned experts, converging to fight
fake facts or cherry picked data, challenging false narratives and working to create a world free of preventable disease while conjointly safeguarding planetary health. 
Studies have shown that nutrient content claims can increase consumers’ perception of a food’s overall healthfulness and are a desirable factor in food purchasing. 
Updating this metric to reflect the latest science gives consumers necessary, evidence-based information, enabling the public to make choices that improve health.


This is a press release from Griffin Hospital.

March challenge compels correspondent to confront chronic condition

I recently discovered a challenge as I was strolling along the Internet, and I may just give it a go.

It's the fifth annual PKD (polycystic kidney disease for those lucky enough not to be acquainted with it) Challenge for March, which is National Kidney Month. 
The goal is to raise awareness of the genetic disease.

As I wrote last October in a blog post here, PKD has played a major role in my late father's side of the family. 
Too many of my relatives were burdened with it, and coincidentally it was in the month of March in 1976 that my father passed away from complications of having PKD.

I inherited the disease and for the past year or so I've been trying to follow a diet that's low in sodium, protein, potassium, and phosphorus. It's not that easy - notice I said "trying."

The 31-day PKD Challenge starts Tuesday with a video that offers information about the disease. That should be easy enough to do!

My idea is that if I commit to writing regularly about the challenge I would be more likely to participate in it. We'll see.

I'm hoping someone who also has this disease will read this post and join the challenge, and/or contact me through the comments section. 
I'm interested in learning your story.

Here are some factoids to consider:

* It's always important to keep a sense of humor!