Last month I joined my sister-in-law, Val, and my niece, Amira, for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Columbus, Ohio. The 5K run/walk raises money to fight breast cancer. And it got me thinking about how exercise itself can help prevent the disease.

Check out this info from the Komen Foundation:

• Gaining weight after menopause increases a woman’s risk for breast cancer

• Weight gain after the age of 18 may increase your risk for breast cancer

• If you have gained weight, weight loss may lower your risk for breast cancer

Of course, exercise helps fight weight gain, which in turn may lower your risk for the disease. Research shows being physically active lowers estrogen levels, fights obesity, and boosts the immune system’s ability to kill cancer cells or slow their growth.

Not all studies about exercise and breast cancer have the same results, but according to the Komen Foundation, women who are physically active on a regular basis seem to have about 20 percent lower risk of the disease compared to women who aren’t active regularly.

Oh, and there’s good news for girls like my niece, too, who turns 16 this week. I recently reported about a new study that finds being active as a teenager – even as early as age 12 – can help protect girls from breast cancer when they get older.

Go here to find out when there’s a Race for the Cure in your city. And remember, while you’re out there walking or running the 5K or doing whatever you do for exercise, you’re fighting fat and breast cancer.

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The food guide pyramid may have gotten a new look a few years ago, but Americans are still not getting the message. Instead of following the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPyramid guidelines to eat a diet filled with nutrients, a new report finds Americans prefer foods high in solid fats and added sugar.

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found we need to eat more fruits, vegetables and fat-free milk and much less solid fats and added sugar. For some reason, this doesn’t surprise me.

But I think this is really interesting – the study says we need to change the types of vegetables and grains we eat and include more dark-green and orange vegetables, beans and whole grains. Most of the vegetables (83 percent) Americans eat are in the starchy and other vegetables subgroup, like potatoes and tomatoes. And instead of getting the recommended half of our total grains from whole grains, we only get 10 percent.

The report also shows the most common high-calorie foods we eat and drink are sweetened carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, desserts like cakes, cookies, donuts and pies, non-skim dairy products and fatty meats.

The researchers say it might be better for food and nutrition experts to educate consumers about making the right choices within food groups instead of focusing on getting a certain number of servings from each group.

I sincerely hope that helps… but don’t people already know which foods are healthy and which ones are not? I think they do, but for whatever reason they just aren’t making the right choices. What do you think?

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Ladies – have you noticed that it’s hard to stay in shape as you get older? Does it seem like you have to work harder at it than men? Well, there’s a reason for that. New research shows women have a tougher time replacing the muscle we naturally lose as we get older because of the way our bodies react to food.

The study found post-menopausal women were less able to store protein in muscle than men – probably due to hormonal changes. And the female body’s response to food and exercise starts to go down in their mid- to late-60s. Women are especially at risk of losing muscle mass because they tend to have less muscle and more fat than men in early and middle age.

This makes it even more important for older women to combine resistance training with a diet high in protein to stay in shape.

“Rather than eating more, older people should focus on eating a higher proportion of protein in their everyday diet,” says study author Michael Rennie, The University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. “In conjunction with resistance exercise, this should help to reduce the loss of muscle mass over time.”

Of course, maintaining muscle is critical in reducing the risk of falls – a big cause of premature death in the elderly. Half of seniors who have a serious fall die within two years.

You can start by learning how to add weights to your workout right now. Don’t worry – you don’t have to go all out if this is something that’s new to you.

If you want to read the full study, it’s in the online issue of PLoS One.

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We know carrying extra weight around the stomach can increase the risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Now researchers say if you have a big belly… spare tire… abdominal fat (get the picture?) – when you’re in your 40s, you’re more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia in your senior years. With the obesity problem we have in this country, this could affect so many people.

“Considering that 50 percent of adults in this country have abdominal obesity, this is a disturbing finding,” says study author Rachel Whitmer, Ph.D., a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California. “It is well known that being overweight in midlife and beyond increases risk factors for disease. However, where one carries the weight – especially in midlife – appears to be an important predictor for dementia risk.”

The study measured abdominal fat in 6,583 people ages 40-45 in northern California. It found 16-percent of participants had dementia an average of 36 years later.

Those who were obese and had a big belly were 3.6 times more likely to develop dementia than people with a normal weight and belly size. Those who were overweight with a large stomach were 2.3 times more likely, and adults who were a healthy weight but still had belly fat were 1.9 times more at risk.

Research still needs to be done to determine exactly what causes the link between obesity and dementia. It is also possible that the link is not caused by belly fat itself, but by a person’s health-related behaviors… and that abdominal obesity is just one part of the overall picture.

No matter what, you should get rid of that spare tire. Whitmer says the good news is the type of fat that builds up around the belly is relatively easy to get rid of compared to fat in other parts of the body. But as with any extra weight, the key to shedding it is to exercise more and eat less.

You can see the study in the online issue of the journal, Neurology.

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It seems innocent enough – just using a little coffee creamer can’t hurt, right? After all, some nutrition labels list a measly 10 calories and half a gram of saturated fat per serving. But both your serving size and the labels might deceive you, according to a new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

CSPI finds Nestle rounds down the calories in its Original Coffee-mate powder – from 14.83 calories to 10 – and the 0.99 grams of saturated fat is rounded down to 0.5 grams per one teaspoon serving. But CSPI says most people actually use about a tablespoon.

“Anyone glancing at the Nutrition Facts label for most of these coffee creamers would have a false sense of security,” says Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

So, if you use one tablespoon of the Original Coffee-mate, it adds up to 45 calories and three grams of saturated fat – more than the 40 calories and 2.1 grams of saturated fat in two tablespoons of half & half. Three or four servings of coffee creamer a day and before you know it you’ve had half a day’s allotment of saturated fat.

The CSPI report finds some Coffee-mate products and other brands are lower in saturated and trans fat. But after reviewing several popular liquid and powder coffee creamers, the only “Best Bite” ratings (this means no partially hydrogenated oil, i.e. trans fat, and no more than 0.6 grams of saturated fat per serving) go to International Delight Fat Free and Silk liquid creamers… as well as plain old fat-free, 1%, 2%, or even whole milk, and fat-free half & half from Land O’Lakes and some store brands. Something to keep in mind before you refill your cup o’ Joe.

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