Extension News: Health Archives

The long nights are getting nippy, and homes across New Hampshire have turned up the heat. For many of us, that's meant firing up the woodstove.

Heating with wood makes sense economically for many households in New Hampshire, the nation's second most heavily-forested state (after Maine). But there's a major tradeoff involved when you rely on a woodstove for all or some of your home's winter heat: the woodstove requires much more work and attention than an automatic central heating system does.

To protect you, your family, your neighbors, and your property as you enjoy the warmth of New Hampshire's renewable energy source, brush up on the rules for wood-heat safety.

Late summer and early fall are the periods of greatest risk from Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile Virus (WNV) in New Hampshire.

Recently, health officials have reported finding an EEE-positive horse in Freedom and a WNV-positive batch of mosquitoes in Manchester.

These discoveries should serve as reminders to protect yourselves and your family members from mosquito bites at this time of year. The clothing you wear (how much skin is exposed) and time of outdoor activity (within an hour or two of dusk usually has the greatest mosquito activity) greatly affect your risk. Wearing insect repellent reduces the risk.

Learn more about both diseases and how to protect yourself

Learn more about insect repellents

Stay informed: New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services: Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile virus page

The extended period of near-record-breaking heat throughout much of New Hampshire poses special health risks to humans and animals. Learn what they are, how to prevent them, and where to find help.

Go here for an updated list of New Hampshire cooling centers.

Heat Wave Safety State Fire Marshall's advice on not overloading electrical circuits in an attempt to stay cool indoors.

Sun image, Kevin Dooley. Some rights reserved.

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is urging New Hampshire residents not to eat ground beef recently recalled due to possible contamination with O157:H7 E.coli bacteria.

The bacteria produce a toxin that's potentially deadly to people, especially young children and seniors. Three New Hampshire residents have been hospitalized because of illness suspected of being linked to the contaminated beef; one patient died of complications.

The meat has been sold statewide. Health officials ask residents to review all the information about the recall, then check their refrigerators and freezers for affected products and throw them away.

Each package containing recalled beef bears the number "EST. 492" inside the USDA mark of inspection or on the nutrition label.

Symptoms of E. coli illness include fever, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. If you have symptoms, call your doctor. Most people recover within 10 days, but a small percentage of people become extremely ill, with symptoms including hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which is characterized by the destruction of red blood cells and kidney failure. Most people recover from HUS, but it can be fatal.

For more information about this recall and a full list of recalled products, visit the USDA recall site.

If you have questions, call the DHHS Division of Public Health Services, Communicable Disease Control Section at 271-4496 or 1-800-852-3345 x4496.

Labels of recently recalled ground-beef products

Information on handling, storing, and preparing ground beef

Photo: yoppy, Some rights reserved.

Spring and summer "blooms" (rapid increase in concentrations) of a primitive group of organisms, the cyanobacteria (sometimes mistakenly referred to as "blue-green algae"), have been documented in New Hampshire lakes this year, focusing attention on the potential health threats from the toxins they produce.

The N.H. Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) posted beach advisories warning of cyanobacterial contamination in at least 21 lakes so far in 2009--a substantial increase over the 14 advisories posted last year.

Beneficial algae differ from toxin-producing cyanobacteria

Algae occur in all New Hampshire waters, providing oxygen and serving as an important food source that forms the base of the aquatic food chain. Occasional spring, summer and fall "blooms" (rapid increase in concentrations) of algae have been known to occur but are historically rare on all but a small percentage of New Hampshire lakes. It is also common during sunny, quiet summers to see cotton-candy-like green to almost white "clouds" of green filamentous algae floating in the shallows of the many lakes with aquatic plant beds.

But cyanobacteria, which used to be called "blue-green algae," produce a range of compounds toxic to humans, pets and wildlife. When present in large-enough concentrations, as are found typically during bloom events and when the surface populations are concentrated due to wind and water currents, toxin concentrations can reach levels of concern.

Potential human health effects from exposure to cyanotoxins

Long-term exposure to these toxins is suspected to cause chronic symptoms and ingestion of the toxins over long periods may possibly damage the liver, kidney and nervous system.

Short-term exposure to cyanotoxins through activities such as swimming and boating in cyanobacteria-contaminated water or showering in water drawn directly from contaminated lakes, may produce symptoms such as skin rashes, muscle pain, eye and ear inflammation or infection, nausea, disorientation, diarrhea and flu-like symptoms.

Cyanobacteria don't always produce significant quantities of toxin capable of producing symptoms like those described above. Only five of the common cyanobacteria in New Hampshire waters have been shown to produce at least one toxin.

Stay vigilant

While there have been no documented cases of negative human health effects from cyanotoxin exposure in New Hampshire, it is best to be vigilant and cautious. Keep pets and children (who are at greatest risk) away from any surface scums, "blooms" or underwater "mats" that are green, yellow-green or bluish green.

Other states have reported dog illnesses and deaths from cyanotoxins when dogs drank small volumes of heavily-contaminated water or licked contaminated water from their coats.

Everyone should heed the posted warning signs and keep aware of cyanobacteria beach advisories by checking the NHDES beach program Web site.

Current advisories are posted based on the amount of potentially toxin-producing cyanobacteria, rather than on any measured amount of toxins.

Researchers are currently investigating additional methods to predict toxin concentrations, but as any cyanobacteria bloom may produce more than one toxin and not all toxins are easily and quickly identified, the microscopic analysis, as is done for the advisories, is still the best option.

Learn more

NHDES Beach Program Lots of information on cyanobacteria, current beach advisories, and presentations from recent informational workshops.

NH Lakes Association Information on algal and cyanobacteria blooms.

UNH biotoxins lab Ongoing research to understand the role of biotoxins in aquatic systems and their importance as a threat to public health and water quality.

Cyanobacteria under the microscope Click on fourth picture down in the far right column.

Cyanotoxins and the health of domestic animals and humans Presentation by Dr. Jim Haney of the UNH Center for Freshwater Biology.

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has declared a public health threat in more than 50 southeastern and central New Hampshire communities because of the risk of the mosquito-borne illness Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE).

The emergency declaration loosens mosquito-control permitting requirements and releases mosquito-control funds to towns at greatest risk for EEE.

A serious disease in humans
EEE, a mosquito-spread disease of birds, sometimes gets transmitted (via mosquito bite) to horses and people. Although horses can be vaccinated against the illness, there's no vaccine or treatment for EEE in humans, which proves fatal in about a third of human cases.

In 2005, seven New Hampshire residents came down with the illness, two of whom died.

Mosquitoes active until cold weather arrives: protect yourself and your family
Mosquitoes will remain active until hard frost hits the area, and officials warn residents to protect themselves against mosquito bites by using repellent sprays and wearing long pants and shirts with long sleeves.

Learn more:

Eastern Equine Encephalitis, 2009 This 14-page fact sheet presents New Hampshire-specific information about this virus and how to protect yourself.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Eastern Equine Encephalitis fact sheet

New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Arboviral Illnesses fact sheet

Blacklegged ticks (formerly called deer ticks) are active now throughout much of New Hampshire. June is especially important, because the nymphs (immature forms) of blacklegged ticks are active, and they can transmit Lyme Disease more quickly than the adults.

American dog tick, which doesn't transmit Lyme Disease, will probably be active until some time in August (depends on rainfall).

If you suspect a tick has been biting more than a few hours, consider having it identified once you remove it. (Tweezers or forceps can help with the removal.).

To protect yourself:

• Avoid thick brush and tall grass when ticks are active.
• Use tick repellent on socks and pantlegs (or legs if you wear shorts).
• Check yourself for ticks at the end of the day; remember that they can crawl under your clothing, between your toes, and behind or on your ears.
• Remove attached ticks promptly.
.

New UNH Cooperative Extension publications that can help

Insect Repellents includes information on several new active ingredients, including some that work on ticks.

Biology and Management of Ticks in New Hampshire Comprehensive fact sheet has been updated and expanded to include much new information on diseases, tick species, and controls.

Alan Eaton, UNH Cooperative Extension entomology specialist

Photo credit (blacklegged tick biting): Alan Eaton

5-year-old school wellness program becomes HEALthy Schools

After five years of extraordinary success, UNH Cooperative Extension's Changing the Scene school wellness program has changed its name to HEALthy Schools: Healthy Eating and Active Living in New Hampshire Schools.

The program provides New Hampshire schools with resources, technical assistance, and peer support to help them improve their school nutrition and physical activity environments.

"We changed our name to reflect our close collaboration with the statewide HEAL (Healthy Eating, Active Living NH) initiative and other partners," says Valerie Long, Cooperative Extension nutrition education coordinator.

Since 2003, the program has worked with more than 580 school personnel in 330 Granite State schools and Head Start programs. More than 50,000 children have received the health-promoting benefits of changes their schools have made.

Learn more about HEALthy Schools

Cleaning out the refrigerator and checking your freezer for the safety of its contents don't often at rise to the top of your to-do list, but an extended power outage is a good time for these tasks.

These food safety tips can help:

• Keep appliance thermometers in the refrigerator and freezer at all times. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs need to be refrigerated at or below 40 degrees F. Frozen foods need to be stored at or below 0 degrees F. Digital, dial, or instant-read food thermometers and appliance thermometers will help you know if the food is at safe temperatures.


• If you don't have an appliance thermometer, you can insert an instant-read food thermometer into the food and check its temperature.


• Keeping an appliance thermometer in the freezer will help you evaluate the safety of frozen foods. When the power comes back on, check the thermometer. If the temperature reads 40 degrees F or below, the food is safe and may be refrozen.


• If you don't have a thermometer in the freezer, check each package of food individually. Food is safe to refreeze if it still contains ice crystals. Partial thawing and refreezing may reduce the quality of some food, but the food will remain safe to eat.


• Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature. The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed.


• For prolonged power outages, try to obtain dry or block ice to keep your refrigerator as cold as possible. Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic foot full freezer for two days. Use caution when handling dry ice.


• Storing food outside isn't a good idea, even though the outside temperature is below 40 degrees F. Frozen food can thaw if exposed to the sun's rays, even when the temperature is very cold. Since the outside temperature could vary hour by hour, refrigerated food may become too warm and bacteria that cause foodborne illness could grow.


• Additionally, perishable items left outside could be exposed to unsanitary conditions or to animals. Never eat food that has come in contact with an animal.


• Rather than putting the food outside, consider taking advantage of cold temperatures by making ice. Fill buckets, empty milk cartons or cans with water and leave them outside to freeze. Then put the homemade ice in your refrigerator, freezer, or coolers.


• Discard any perishable food (e.g., meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and leftovers) that have been above 40 degrees F for 2 hours. Be sure to discard any items in either the freezer or the refrigerator that have come into contact with raw meat juices.


• Remember, you can't rely on appearance or odor to tell you whether a food is still safe to eat.

When in doubt, throw it out! It's much safer to throw out $150 worth of food than to spend $1000+ for a visit to the emergency room. Think of it as a great way to make room in your refrigerator for all the extra holiday foods. Have a happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

By Alice Mullen, Family & Consumer Resources Educator

More information

• Keeping Food Safe During an Emergency
• Food and Water in an Emergency
• Food Security and Emergency Preparedness





Posted December 15, 2008

1. Buy a quick-read food thermometer, if you don't have one already. You can purchase one in the grocery store when you are shopping for your holiday meal ingredients.
2. Allow 1 pound of turkey per person.
3. Buy fresh turkey one to two days before you plan to cook it. Store it in the refrigerator at 40°F or below until cooking. Place it on a tray to catch any meat juices that might leak.
4. Thaw your frozen turkey in the refrigerator (40°F or below). Allow approximately 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds. A 16- to 20-pound turkey will take 4 to 5 days to defrost, so plan ahead. Place it on a tray to catch any meat juices that might leak.
5. Wash hands, utensils, the sink, and anything else that comes in contact with raw turkey and its juices with soap and water. Keep everything clean to prevent cross contamination and the spread of harmful foodborne bacteria.
6. Set your oven temperature no lower than 325°F. Roasting turkey at a temperature lower than 325° can make the turkey unsafe to eat.
7. Cook your stuffing outside the turkey in a casserole for optimum safety. Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of the stuffing. The stuffing must reach a safe minimum internal temperature of 165°F.
8. Cook your turkey to a minimum internal temperature of 165°F. An 18- to 20-pound turkey will take approximately 4 1/4 to 4/1/2 hours to cook.
9. Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast.
10. Remember the two-hour rule. Discard any turkey, stuffing, and gravy left out at room temperature longer than 2 hours.
11. Divide leftovers into smaller portions and store in small shallow containers. Cover containers, label, date and refrigerate or freeze.
12. Use refrigerated turkey and stuffing within 3 to 4 days. Use gravy within 1 to 2 days. If freezing leftovers, use within 2 to 6 months for best quality.
13. Reheat turkey and leftovers to an internal temperature of 165°F. To keep the turkey moist, add a little broth or water and cover.
14. Eat and enjoy your delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

Tornadoes touching down in New Hampshire, three-day blizzards, or ice storms that knock out power for several days are without question newsworthy.

However, media-distributed images of the devastating effects of a natural disaster may be confusing and difficult for children to understand.

Very young children may see the many reports on television in the days after the event and believe that the extreme weather event is continuing to occur day after day, unable to understand that these are the same images being repeated.

In addition, many children's families or friends have been directly or indirectly affected by the storms. When talking to children about traumatic events such as these, here are a few points to bear in mind.

• Remember that not talking about an event doesn't mean children aren't aware of it.
• Listen first, then use questions to help you understand your child's emotions and concerns. Ask: What are your thoughts about that? What made you think about that?
• Acknowledge feelings; recognize that children will express their feelings differently at different ages. Young children will express feelings through behavior, often reverting to younger behavior. They may become loud and aggressive or shy and withdrawn
• Answer children's questions as completely as possible appropriate to their age. Children may become anxious if they feel an adult is hiding something. Try not to give too much information. Provide simple, direct facts, while reassuring children as much as is possible.

• Take time to think about and cope with your own feelings.
• Be willing to discuss difficult issues with your children. You may not have all the answers, but give what information you do have and acknowledge the sad and complex nature of traumatic events
• Acknowledge children's feelings and perspectives
• Remember that routines and predictable structure are reassuring for children.
• Remember to take care of yourself during stressful times. Eat well and try to get some exercise.

For more information

Talking with children after a natural disaster
Importance of Talking for Helping Children During Natural Disasters
Real Words to Help Children Cope with Tragedy
Children as victims of natural disasters

Updated September 17, 2009

Last year 59,000 New Hampshire residents received more than $62 million in food stamp benefits, nearly all of which was spent supermarkets and convenience stores.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire fruit and vegetable growers have increasingly turned to marketing their crops directly to consumers through farmers' markets and farm stands. This summer, 75 or more New Hampshire communities will host farmers' markets.

Growers typically receive only about 20 percent of a retail shopper's food dollar, so direct marketing not only enables consumers to get fresh, locally grown food, but it also allows farmers to capture more of the profit.

In 2004, UNH Cooperative Extension received a three-year grant from the Northeast Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE) to connect food-stamp recipients with local growers by piloting the process of accepting food-stamp Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Cards at farmers' markets.

Demonstration projects at markets in Nashua, Manchester and Enfield proved that the process would work. Extension's Helen Costello (who now heads the N.H. Food Bank's Recipe for Success Program) then developed a manual for market managers and farmers' market managers and vendors.

Published this month, Accepting Food Stamp Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Cards at Farmers' Markets and Farm Stands: A Primer for Farmers and Market Managers highlights step by step the process by which an individual farmer or an entire market can become authorized to become a food stamp merchant, as well as listing the various ways to process transactions, the equipment needed for each, and other technical aspects needed to be successful.

Learn more

Download a copy of the manual

The New Hampshire food stamp program

N.H. farmers' markets

3rd annual Grazing Conference March 8

Interested in the whys and hows of raising meat and milk animals on pasture? Both beginners and experienced farmers can learn more about producing and marketing grass-fed products at this year's grazing conference, Grass-Fed: From Pasture to Plate, March 8 at the Common Man Inn in Plymouth.

The daylong event will feature two nationally known grazing experts: Jim Gerrish, author of Management-intensive Grazing and columnist for the Stockman-Grass Farmer, and Sarah Flack, a grazing specialist and organic farmer from Vermont.

Gerrish will deliver the keynote address on the topic of Yeah, but that will never work on my place! also lead two workshops: Stock Density-the Most Powerful Tool in the Grazier's Toolbox and Extending the Grazing Season for More Money in Your Pocket. Flack will conduct a two-part workshop on Getting Started with Managed Intensive Grazing.

The afternoon sessions will focus on marketing grass-fed products. Featured speakers include grass farmers Ridge Shinn, Matt & Beth LeClair, Jim & Adele Hayes, and Ed Jackson.

Conference sponsors: Granite State Graziers, Natural Resources Conservation Service and UNH Cooperative Extension.

Download a brochure containing full conference schedule and speaker bios.

Register for the conference online

Obesity-prevention Web site offers wide variety of information resources to Granite Staters

UNH Cooperative Extension (UNHCE) announces the launch of Lighten Up New Hampshire!, a health-promotion Web site designed to help Granite Staters working to address overweight and obesity.

Supporting the efforts of New Hampshire individuals, families, communities, schools, and health care professionals, the site features subsections containing the latest research-based information on food and nutrition, fitness, motivation, creating healthier communities, and resources for professionals. The site will also host interactive blogs and discussion forums.

"More than half the people in New Hampshire are obese or overweight, including about 20 percent of the state's children," says Charlene Baxter, who heads UNHCE's Family and Consumer Resources program. "Nationally, the annual direct and indirect costs associated with obesity add up to more than $231 billion."

"UNH Cooperative Extension has been reaching out to individuals, families and communities with health-promotion messages and programs for 91 years," Baxter continues. "This project expands the health education work we already do.

"We know the Web can serve as a powerful tool for organizing information and connecting people, yet no statewide Web site was collecting and integrating obesity-prevention resources specific to New Hampshire. We decided to create one."

A $215,000 grant from the HNH Foundation funded the Lighten Up New Hampshire! initiative. In addition to the Web site, the grant also funds the formation of a statewide Lighten Up NH! Alliance, a collaboration of agencies, organizations, and concerned individuals who will collectively continue to develop and expand the Lighten Up NH! Web site.

A sample of what site visitors can find at Lighten Up New Hampshire!

Community leaders might visit the Healthier Communities pages to download a worksheet on how to start a local wellness team.

Health professionals might want to check out the nation's top obesity research centers for information on the latest in obesity prevention and management.

And just about anyone might be interested in learning more about 10 healthy holiday foods, things to do and places to go in New Hampshire, or helpful resources for starting or maintaining an exercise program tailored to their stage of readiness or involvement.

Lost your oomph for exercise and healthful eating? Don't despair. Here's help.

Posted December 3, 2007

Changing the Scene launches Web page

Since 2003, Changing the Scene, UNH Cooperative Extension's school wellness initiative, has worked with school personnel in 403 New Hampshire schools and five Head Start programs, to help the schools improve their overall nutrition and fitness environment.

Based on a U.S. Department of Agriculture program, Changing the Scene works by enlisting school nurses, school lunch personnel, teachers and administrators to survey and improve the entire school environment, from school cafeteria meals to snacks served at classroom birthday celebrations, from expanding exercise opportunities for students and staff to reaching out with health and fitness messages to parents and the general public.

Three-quarters of participating schools have already taken significant steps that include buying fitness equipment, starting before-school walking programs, adding nutrition education to the curriculum, and developing newsletters to send home to parents.

Parents, educators, healthcare professionals and others who want to learn more about this health promotion effort, please stop by our Changing the Scene Web pages, where you'll find success stories from participating schools, sample newsletters, curriculum materials, tips on improving children's nutrition and increasing physical activity, and more

New Hampshire Partners in Education, a nonprofit promoting the efforts of volunteers and outside organizations that work with schools, has honored UNH Cooperative Extension's Awilda Muniz with a 2007 Gold Circle Award

Muniz, Hillsborough County program associate with the Nutrition Connections program, was recognized for her nutrition education work with third graders at the Ledge Street School in Nashua. Pilar Peigh, assistant principal from the Ledge Street School nominated Muniz for the award.

Ledge School teacher Bonnie Blaisdell said of the nutrition series, "Awilda's classes were always so motivating to the students. She used hands-on and fun materials. The students enjoyed all the healthy snacks she made with them. She stressed the importance of eating healthy food, and I've noticed this starting to make a difference in their choice of snacks. All of Awilda's lessons really involved the students. She made learning about nutrition and taking care of our bodies fun. We are looking forward to working with her again."

Congratulations, Awilda!

2 humans ill; horse dies of mosquito-borne viral illness

Two people in New Hampshire (Newton and Newfields) have fallen ill with Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and a horse has died of the disease. EEE is a mosquito-spread, viral disease of birds that sometimes gets transmitted (via mosquito bite) to horses and people.

Only a handful of the 47 species of mosquitoes in New Hampshire can transmit EEE. Although the chances of getting it are very low, the consequences can be serious. Symptoms in people range from mild flu-like illness to inflammation of the brain, coma, and death. The human death rate is 35 percent, and about 35 percent of people who survive have lasting neurological effects of some type.

Infected humans can't pass the disease to others by coughing, sneezing or other means.

People most at risk for contracting EEE: those younger than 15 or older than 50.

The EEE season runs from late August until the arrival of hard frost, typically late September to mid-October. Southeast Rockingham County is at highest risk for EEE, although southern Merrimack, southern Strafford, and possibly eastern Hillsborough have a slightly elevated risk.

Protect yourself: Reduce your risk of getting bitten:

• Use insect repellent containing either DEET or picaridin when you are outdoors.
• Wear clothing that doesn't expose lots of skin. Consider wearing net-like clothing that is stiff enough to stay away from your skin, such as Bug Baffler.
• Try to limit time spent outdoors within an hour or so of dusk or dawn, especially in areas with lots of mosquitoes.
• Mosquitoes that transmit EEE aren't very active in mid-day. An exception is if you walk through thick brush or woods. You disturb the vegetation on which they rest, so they will then fly to you and bite.
• Be sure that sleeping quarters have tight-fitting screens on doors and windows. This includes tents and other camping quarters.
• Limit your activity in areas near freshwater marshes with permanent vegetation, especially cattails.

For more on the subject, read our 13-page fact sheet, which contains links to much more information.

You may also want to check the latest information from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services.

By Dr. Alan T. Eaton, UNH Cooperative Extension entomology specialist

Protect yourself and your family

Reported cases of Lyme Disease in New Hampshire jumped from 271 in 2005 to 617 last year, according to the N.H. Division of Public Health Services.

Caused by a bite from an infected blacklegged tick (formerly known as the "deer tick"), the bacterial illness disease is treatable in its early stages, but can lead to serious complications if left untreated. UNH Cooperative Extension entomologist Alan Eaton says the worst time for bites is from May through mid -July, when young ticks, called nymphs, are biting.

"New Hampshire is home to many other species of ticks, but the others don't spread Lyme Disease," said Eaton. "The blacklegged tick itself becomes infected with Lyme Disease-causing bacteria by feeding on an infected reservoir host, an organism that carries high levels of the bacteria in its bloodstream. In New Hampshire, the primary reservoir host for Lyme disease is the white-footed mouse."

Blacklegged tick must feed a day or longer to infect
The ticks encounter hosts, including humans, by climbing on tall grass, shrubs or weeds, where they wait for something to come along, holding several legs outstretched. When they are touched by fur, hair, your skin or clothing, they grab on and climb aboard. Then they crawl around in search of an appropriate location on which to attach and feed. The attachment bite is usually painless and goes unnoticed. A blood meal takes several days to complete.

"Because it takes 30 or more hours for an adult blacklegged tick to infect you after it attaches to your body, doing a tick check every night before you go to bed will greatly reduce your chances of getting Lyme disease," said Eaton. "An adult blacklegged tick that's just begun to feed will appear about the size of a sesame seed, but it can reach the size of a small grape as it becomes engorged with your blood."

More infected ticks than expected
A study done in spring 2004 by Eaton and Eleanor Lacombe of the Maine Medical Center Research Institute, found the percentage of infected blacklegged ticks in N.H. was much higher than expected. Eaton said more than half the approximately 50 adult ticks sampled in Lee and Durham and more than 70 percent in Concord were infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease.

"Although reported cases of Lyme Disease have been concentrated around the Seacoast and in the southeastern part of the state, from eastern Hillsborough County through Rockingham and Strafford counties, there are many areas in the state where ticks have not been tested, and much about ticks is still unknown," Eaton says, urging all New Hampshire residents to take simple precautions to protect themselves.

Keep yourself safe
To reduce your chances of getting Lyme Disease, Eaton suggests the following:

• Tuck pant legs into socks before a trip into woods or fields.


• Check your entire body thoroughly for ticks after a day outdoors (common sites of attachment include the underarms, the groin, behind the knee, and the nape of the neck).


• Use insect repellent on socks and pant legs (most effective repellants contain either Deet, called n,n-dimethyl-m-toluamide, or picaridin).


• Wear light-colored clothing (to help locate ticks easily).


• Stay close to the center of trails (avoid brushing against vegetation).


• Keep grass mowed.


• Remove brush piles (brush provides animal nesting sites).

Since tick bites are painless, ticks are often discovered after they have begun to feed. To remove a tick, grasp it with tweezers only (bent "needle nose" tweezers work the best), around its head and close to the skin. Pull the tick out slowly and firmly. Disinfect the bite afterward with antiseptic.

If possible save the tick for identification. For proper identification place the tick in a stoppered vial and send or bring to:

UNH Cooperative Extension Arthropod Identification Laboratory
G28 Spaulding Hall
38 College Road
University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH 03824-3544

The lab charges $5.00 per specimen.

Symptoms of infection
Lyme Disease often, but not always, starts with a large, reddish, circular rash around or near a tick bite. The rash slowly expands and fades. Other symptoms include chills, fever, headache, fatigue, stiff neck, swollen glands, and muscle and/or joint pain.

If you have further questions about ticks in New Hampshire call the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, @ 603-271-4496 or 800-852-3345 x4496, or refer to Biology and Control of Ticks in New Hampshire

UNH Cooperative Extension has received a $215,000, three-year grant from the Healthy New Hampshire Foundation (HNHfoundation) to fund our Lighten Up New Hampshire! project, an initiative aimed at helping New Hampshire residents reach and maintain a healthy weight.

The grant will fund a comprehensive Web site of New Hampshire-specific resources and formation of a statewide Lighten Up NH! alliance of organizations and health professionals interested in reducing obesity in the Granite State.

“UNH Cooperative Extension has been reaching out to individuals, families and communities with health promotion messages and programs for 91 years,” says Charlene Baxter, who heads Extension’s Family and Consumer Resources program.

“The grant will allow us both to expand the health education work we already do that helps prevent obesity, and to connect people and programs statewide that aim at helping citizens reach and maintain a healthy weight.”


Obesity: a complex phenomenon
Obesity may soon challenge smoking as the nation's No.1 public health concern, says Colette Janson-Sand, a UNH associate professor and Extension nutrition specialist. “More than 65 percent of American adults classify themselves as overweight or obese, and the percentage of overweight children has doubled in the past 20 years - to 58 percent. The direct and indirect costs associated with obesity add up to more than $231 billion.”

“More than half the people in New Hampshire are obese or overweight, including 63 percent of food stamp recipients and about 20 percent of the state’s children,” says Janson-Sand.

“But below these alarming statistics, obesity emerges as an extremely complex problem that goes well beyond individual choices about food and exercise,” says Janson-Sand. “It involves dramatic changes in patterns of work and family life in recent decades, changes in land use and community design, competition for leisure time, jobs that require increasingly less manual labor, increasingly longer work hours. Today’s families spend half their food dollars eating out, where healthy food choices may be limited, and many Americans say their long work and commuting hours and their children’s schedules leave them no time for exercise. Many people live in neighborhoods without safe places to exercise, or in areas where they have limited access to healthful foods.”

The need: connecting New Hampshire people and programs
“We’ve had an interdisciplinary team looking at the many dimensions of the obesity issue for more than three years to find ways to expand our outreach, Baxter says. “Each of our team members knew of many first-rate local and statewide initiatives aimed at some aspect of the problem, but we realized the state lacked a program to make them visible to one another, and to connect all these people and programs in some meaningful way.

“We know the Web can serve as a powerful tool for organizing information and connecting people in interactive online communities of practice and interest, but no Web site currently collects and integrates all obesity resources specific to New Hampshire.” says Baxter.

She continues, “The site we envision will organize and integrate the best online resources in ways that individuals, parents, teachers, health professionals, and community leaders will find useful. So, community leaders might visit there to learn about approaches other communities have tried, health professionals to connect their patients with local programs, and individuals to find information and peer support. The alliance will help concerned professionals, organizations, and individuals connect with each other to share ideas, collaborate on programs, and maximize scarce resources.

“Extension works in communities throughout New Hampshire in nearly every dimension of human life. We’ve had a long history of establishing successful coalitions that bring together a wide array of people and organizations working toward a common goal,” says Baxter. “So forming the alliance seemed like a natural role for us to play in our statewide effort to tackle obesity.”

By Peg Boyles, Extension writer/editor

Current UNH Cooperative Extension health promotion outreach programs

• Changing the Scene A statewide program that recruits school nurses and school faculty to change the nutrition and fitness environment in their schools schools.
• Liveable, Walkable Communities
  Explore the vital role community design and development play in citizen health and well-being, including obesity prevention.
• Fact sheets, worksheets, newsletters and lessons A large and growing collection of useful information about improving your diet and becoming more physically active.
• 4-H Get up and Go Part of a larger statewide initiative, Walk New Hampshire (Walk NH) , 4-H Get Up and Go encourages parents and other adults to lace up their walking shoes and join their kids in a walk across New Hampshire.
• Nutrition Connections Nutrition and fitness education and support for income-eligible residents. Focuses on dietary quality, food resource management, shopping behavior, food safety, food security, and importance of physical activity.
• Matt’s story The story of how one family found help for a health problem from an Extension Nutrition Connections educator to solve individual helped nutrition outreach.
• Physical activity equipment, school breakfast programs, and school nutrition programs needs assessment Report to the HNH foundation of a statewide survey intended to help the foundation better direct grant money to elementary schools most in need.

During the holidays we traditionally think about providing food to those who can’t afford to provide for themselves. While the holidays are difficult for families with limited incomes, many families must search year-round for food from emergency sources, such as food pantries and soup kitchens.

The New Hampshire Food Bank, the only food bank in New Hampshire, knows the challenges of hunger all too well. Serving more than 350 soup kitchens, shelters, and food pantries throughout New Hampshire, the Food Bank distributed 3.9 million pounds of food last year—up from just over two million in 2004, according to Melanie Gosselin, the Food Bank’s executive director. By supporting the New Hampshire Food Bank, you are supporting an organization that “feeds the programs that feed the hungry.”

New Hampshire’s emergency food system: straining from the need
More than 95,000 people in New Hampshire live below the federal poverty guideline, $20,000 annual income for a family of four. An additional 120,000 people live in households with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level.

The majority of New Hampshire’s poor adults hold jobs, but earn low wages. From 2000 to 2005 New Hampshire experienced a loss of manufacturing jobs and an increase in low-wage retail jobs. We see this shift reflected in the rise in use of federal food assistance programs and food pantries.

Last year 56,338 people received food stamp benefits in New Hampshire, yet only 54 percent of the households eligible to receive the benefits choose to participate in the program. This lack of full participation in the federal nutrition assistance programs strains the already-burdened emergency food system. Even when families participate in the food stamp program, they must still rely to some extent on the emergency food system, since average monthly food assistance benefit per person is $80.56.
 
Studies reveal the extent of hunger and need in New Hampshire
America’s Second Harvest, the organization that provides networks for more than 800 food banks around the country conducted a national survey in 2005 to determine the extent of need in each state. Food pantries, shelters, and soup kitchens reported increases in requests for their services and survey respondents verified their need to visit one or more food pantries a month in order to meet their family’s nutritional needs. Here in New Hampshire:

• 45 percent of respondents said they had to choose to pay medical bills before food
• 42 percent choose to pay for utilities before food
• 27 percent reported paying for rent before food

The recently released New Hampshire’s Basic Needs and Livable Wage Study indicates that a family of four (two parents, two children, both parents working) must have an income of $48,625 to meet their basic needs—is two to two-and-a-half times more than the average low-wage employee earns annually. The study defines the basic needs as food, shelter, heating fuel, transportation, taxes, basic telephone service, childcare, healthcare, and some clothing allowances. It assumes the family prepares all of their food from home and doesn’t count cable television or internet services—living conditions most of us would consider stark at best.

These aren’t temporary statistics occurring only during the holidays. These figures persist throughout the year and are on the rise. Census and federal nutrition assistance program data show a steady increase in individuals and families looking for sources of food to meet their basic needs.

In October the United States Department of Agriculture released their 2005 Household Food Security Study, which indicates the percentage of people who have difficulty buying enough food for their families because they don’t have enough money. The USDA survey reports:

• Nearly 7 percent of New Hampshire households experience food insecurity because they don’t have money to buy enough food to meet their family’s nutritional needs.
  
  
• More than 2 percent report going without food for a number of days at some point during the year because they didn’t have enough money to buy food.

Need for emergency food supplies will continue
Unless these root causes of hunger and food insecurity change, many families in New Hampshire will continue to require emergency food assistance to meet minimum nutrition needs. You can support the New Hampshire Food Bank with donations of money, food, or time. The virtual food drive is a welcome effort to combat hunger in New Hampshire. Every dollar donated to the food bank has the buying power of four meals. Donations of food with high nutritional value and volunteering are all welcome sources of support.

By Helen E. Costello, MS, RD, LD, UNH Cooperative Extension Nutrition Connections Program Food Security Consultant

Costello chairs the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group of the America Dietetic Association and sits on the advisory councils for both the UNH Center for a Food Secure Future and the New Hampshire Food Bank.

For more information about hunger and food security in New Hampshire:

• Extension’s hunger and food security pages
• UNH Center for a Food-Secure Future
• New Hampshire Food Bank

Robin Abodeely, the school nurse for the 425-student Dr. Crisp Elementary School in Nashua, strolls into a first-grade classroom on “snack patrol.”

“Anybody have a healthy snack to show me today?” she asks. The hands shoot up.

“I brought grapes today!”

“I have a banana!”

“I have an apple!”

Since signing up for Changing the Scene, a USDA school nutrition program, offered to N.H. schools in an enhanced format through UNH Cooperative Extension, Abodeely evaluated her school’s nutrition and fitness habits and spearheaded formation of  a school wellness team, which has since instituted an impressive variety of changes, including:

• Setting up a “Super Snackers” bulletin board with photos of students “caught” eating nutritious food
• Offering nutrition information in the school’s monthly newsletter
• Sending a healthy snacks suggestion list home to parents
• Hosting a full-scale farmers’ market of locally grown foods during a school open house
• Holding a PTO Family Fun Night, complete with jumping rope, salsa dancing, obstacle courses and healthy snacks
• Developing a 20-minute before-school walking program for students, faculty, and parents

Nation/statewide obesity epidemic affects children
“Obesity has reached epidemic levels in the nation and in New Hampshire, rivaling smoking as the number one public health threat,” says UNH Extension nutrition specialist, Valerie Long. “Studies have documented dramatic increases in childhood obesity in recent decades, raising concerns that today’s overweight kids will develop serious chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers at an early age, burdening a health care system already stressed to the breaking point.”

Long cites these statistics:

• The latest Kids Count survey estimates 27 percent of New Hampshire children are overweight or obese.
• Public health authorities estimate that 36 percent of children born in the U.S. in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime.
• Sixty percent of overweight five- to 10 year-olds already have at least one risk factor for heart disease and 25 percent have two or more risk factors.
• Annual health costs directly associated with overweight and obesity among U.S. children more than tripled in the past two decades.

UNH Cooperative Extension steps in
“Getting to the root of a problem is what UNH Cooperative Extension does best, and when Extension nutrition educators wanted to begin improving the health of children in the state of New Hampshire, that’s just what we did,” says Extension nutrition specialist, Valerie Long.
“USDA had already developed a terrific program called Changing the Scene: Improving the School Nutrition Environment, with a toolkit of resources for local action. Since most children spend a large portion of their day at school, schools are a natural setting within which to influence the health and well-being of children and their families.

“We decided to target school nurses, because parents and community leaders respect nurses as child health advocates.” Says Long, “Collectively, they have the ability to reach large numbers of children. Nurses have knowledge in the areas of nutrition and exercise. They know a lot about the kids and the families of the kids in their schools.”

In early 2003 Long hired Martha Judson, a recently retired school nurse and past president of the NH School Nurses Association, to coordinate the program.

“I posted a note to the N.H. School Nurses’ Association listserv that we’d work with any school—at no cost to them,” says Judson. “I contacted a few schools I thought would have an interest, and then I hit the road, talking up the program one school at a time. Our timing was right. The data on the extent of childhood obesity had just begun making front page headlines.

“Most people call me to their schools because they know they have to do something,” Judson says. “Beginning in the 2006-2007 school year, the federal Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act will require all schools to form wellness teams and develop policy guidelines that promote student health through nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based wellness activities.

“Our UNH Extension version of Changing the Scene gives schools the help they need to jumpstart the process.”

Changing the Scene: benefits to schools
“The program delivers a lot of value,” says Judson. “In exchange for a commitment of a minimum of 30 hours a year working on the project, Changing the Scene offers participants:

• a tool for assessing their own nutrition and exercise programs
• guidelines for identifying, contacting, and working with all of the groups who need to be actively involved with the school wellness team
• a rich assortment of resources and teaching materials
• ongoing support they need to develop and implement plans for change tailored to their schools’ specific needs and constraints.
• training conferences throughout the year
• one-on-one mentoring and individual meetings with school nurses and wellness teams to keep them up-to-date on the latest nutrition and physical activity information
• tips for attracting media attention and working effectively with the media
• one-on-one mentoring and coaching
• an email listserv
• access to a dedicated Web site for group discussion and sharing resources
• newsletters schools can send home to parents, with a blank page the schools can use to promote their own programs

 
Schools large and small, north and south
To date, Judson says, more then 350 school personnel from 118 schools the length and breadth of New Hampshire have signed on with the Changing the Scene program since its inception in 2003. “About three-quarters of the schools involved have made some changes, and many have made significant change to improve their school nutrition and fitness environments,” she says.

For her part, Abodeely says, “I used the Changing the Scene assessment tool, which revealed that our school was actually pushing junk food. With the best of intent—parents and teachers just want kids to be happy—we had birthday parties with cupcakes and sodas, pizza parties with cakes for dessert, a 100th-Day-of-School party, which featured a mix of  a hundred different pieces of candy.”

“In April, 2004, we had our first wellness committee meeting: The team decided to be proactive, to educate rather than punish, and to promote wellbeing, good nutrition and exercise.

“We kicked off our 2004 school year open house with a farmers’ market in the school cafeteria, organized by Awilda Muniz of UNH Cooperative Extension’s Nutrition Connections program. Local farmers sold corn and apples under a big tent. It was a huge hit.”

“We’ve put up posters everywhere, and filled our classrooms with nutrition and fitness books and supplies.”

Abodeely says having support at the top really helped ensure the program got off on solid footing. “Our school principal at the time, Jennifer Seusing, whose office was decorated with M&M dispensers, said, ‘If we’re going to be a healthy school, then I have to set a healthy example.’ She hired a personal trainer, joined Weight Watchers, and lost 85 pounds.”

Warren Elementary
In some New Hampshire schools, the administrators themselves sign on with the program. Rose Darrow, principal at the 82-pupil, K-6 Warren Elementary School, enrolled her school in 2004.
 
“We do a lot of research-based activities at this school. We’re always doing research,” she says. “When Martha [Judson] contacted us two years ago offering a researched-based program, we jumped at the chance. We already realized child obesity was an up-and-coming problem.”

Darrow says a lot has changed at Warren Elementary in two years. “We serve only fruit for dessert most days now, and we’ve switched to mostly [whole] wheat bread. We’ve become peanut-free. Our cooks have interested in nutrition. They’ve done taste tests of different cheeses and vegetables and taken periodic surveys to see what the children like and don’t like.

“We learned the children wanted more salads in their lunches, so we’ve begun serving more salads,” says Darrow. “They also wanted to go back to white bread; we didn’t go along with that.
We still have soda in the vending machines, but I’m happy to say that water is our biggest seller. It’s a fine balance: We really want change, but we want the change to feel positive.”

Darrow says, “Our fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders are ‘walking across New Hampshire,’ out in the school yard. The school bought pedometers for every child in the program—they love their gadgets! The little ones aren’t officially enrolled in the program, but they follow along anyway.”

“Another change we’ve made: Teachers eat their own lunches in the cafeteria, modeling good eating behavior. The children see them taking their time eating and enjoying their food.

Darrow summarizes her school’s experience with the Changing the Scene program this way: “Overall, we’re more thoughtful than we used to be. That’s what it’s all about.”

Other UNH Cooperative Extension health promotion outreach programs

Liveable, Walkable Communities Explore the vital role community design and development play in citizen health and well-being, including obesity prevention.

4-H Get up and Go Part of a larger statewide initiative, Walk New Hampshire (Walk NH), 4-H Get Up and Go encourages parents and other adults to lace up their walking shoes and join their kids in a walk across New Hampshire.


Nutrition Connections Nutrition and fitness education and support for income-eligible residents. Focuses on dietary quality, food resource management, shopping behavior, food safety, food security, and importance of physical activity.


Matt’s story The story of how one family found help for a health problem from an Extension Nutrition Connections educator to solve individual helped nutrition outreach

Physical activity equipment, school breakfast programs, and school nutrition programs needs assessment Report to the HNH foundation of a statewide survey intended to help the foundation better direct grant money to elementary schools most in need.

by Peg Boyles, UNH Cooperative Extension writer/editor; map by Shirley Clark, MerrimackCounty Family & Consumer Resources/ Nutrition Connections administrative assistant.

For more information:

• To learn more about UNH Cooperative Extension’s Changing the Scene program, email Martha Judson.
  
• USDA Team Nutrition’s Changing the Scene Program (national program)
• Making It Happen! School Nutrition Success Stories

A series of booking photos (scroll to bottom of page) taken over a 10-year span shows an attractive, 28-year-old blonde who changes into a gaunt, sickly woman looking much older than her 37 years.

The woman’s health and appearance was drastically altered by her body’s addiction to methamphetamine, which Newsweek magazine, in its August, 2005, cover story, called “America’s most dangerous drug.”

New Hampshire has yet to see the large numbers of methamphetamine addicts that Western and Midwestern states have experienced. But law enforcement officials say New Hampshire’s large expanses of wilderness are attracting those who manufacture the drug. In fact, 12 of the 18 methamphetamine labs discovered in New England in 2004 and 2005 were located in New Hampshire, many of them in rural Grafton County.

The effects of meth
Methamphetamine, also known as meth, crystal, ice, fire, croak, crank, glass, crypto, and white cross, is a powerful stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It makes people feel euphoric; its high can last for six to eight hours or more. Unlike some drugs that can take years to form an addiction, meth can cause addiction from a single use.

But though they keep trying, many users find it impossible to replicate that first feeling of euphoria experienced after initial use. People addicted to meth may suffer irreparable brain damage, as well as other health problems, financial ruin, loss of family, and death.

When on an extended meth high (called “tweaking”) people lose interest in eating and sleeping. Their only goal is to keep the high going for as long as they can, sometimes for days. Paranoia, hallucinations, violent behavior, and psychosis are common. Meth addicts’ typical neglect of personal hygiene is compounded by the smell of meth in their perspiration, a smell described as “putrid.”

Dentists across the country are discovering “meth mouth” caused by long-term methamphetamine use. Symptoms include tooth decay and receding gums. While on meth, some users begin picking at their skin to rid their bodies of imaginary bugs. Perhaps the worst effect is permanent brain damage, as meth destroys the part of the brain that registers pleasure. Long-term meth users can no longer feel pleasure, no matter how much of the drug they use.

Effects on children
Addicted parents may abuse or neglect their children when under the influence of the meth. Some children become “cooking assistants” to parents manufacturing the drug. Others get injured when the “cooking” process erupts into fires or explosions.
Children growing up or around a meth lab may carry the remnants of the drug dust on their clothing and skin. When children are removed from their home, all their possessions must be destroyed because they too are contaminated.

The walls, floors, furniture, draperies and other furnishings in a home, apartment, or garage where methamphetamine is produced and where wastes are disposed typically require assessment and cleanup. The average cost of a cleanup is about $5,000, but can reach $150,000. Who should pay the bill for this cleanup? The building’s owner? The renter? The town? A federal agency? What happens when those resources are exhausted?

Environmental hazards
In addition to the human toll, methamphetamine also poses a hazard for the environment. Meth paraphernalia left on the open ground can contaminate the soil and water runoff can pollute surface waters, wetlands, and groundwater. In some areas of the country, runoff from meth manufacturing facilities has killed livestock and destroyed large areas of trees and vegetation.

Experts estimate that the manufacture of each pound of meth produces five to six pounds of hazardous wastes that often get disposed of illegally in the environment. To make matters more challenging, many of these sites are in residential settings. This means children and other occupants of the property, as well as nearby neighbors, may be exposed to hazardous chemicals and harmful gases during and after the cooking process.

Cheap and easy to manufacture
Meth is cheaply and easily manufactured from readily available ingredients such as decongestant tablets (pseudoephedrine), iodine, Drano, rubbing alcohol, salt, common matches, and commercial fertilizer. “Lab” equipment includes such common items as plastic tubing, Mason jars, coffee filters, soda bottles, blenders, camera batteries, propane cylinders, and hot plates, electric frying pans or camp stoves.

New Hampshire’s Attorney General and county attorneys, as well as local, state and federal law enforcement officials, have begun working together to keep the methamphetamine problem from escalating in New Hampshire. Despite relatively low numbers of meth users, the social and economic costs of meth addiction are high.

Farm and forest factories
Methamphetamine’s relative ease of manufacture has long range implications for communities and landowners. People who make methamphetamines may use secluded farm or forest land to hide their illegal activities. Landowners who frequently walk their land are less likely to become victims of unauthorized use of their land.

Here are a few tips to help landowners protect themselves and their property:

• Don’t accept cash for the use of your property.
• Know what happens on your property.
• Don’t bury, move, or examine any trash found on your property.
• If you discover the trappings of meth manufacturing: red-stained coffee filters, plastic bottles with attached tubing, empty cold-tablet packaging, don’t touch or move anything. You could be putting your health at risk. Don’t confront anyone involved in suspicious activity on your property. If your town has an anonymous reporting system, call that number. Report any suspicious activity on your land to local law enforcement officials, but leave the dangerous part to those who are specially trained for cleanup.

Inform yourself and take action
A recently formed New Hampshire Government Leaders Methamphetamine Task Force has developed a statewide strategy to keep meth use from growing in New Hampshire.

Local, state and federal officials are committed to getting and keeping methamphetamine issues in the open for citizens to learn more. As a community member, learn all you can about this drug and its devastating impacts. You can mobilize your fellow community members to become more aware of the dangers of methamphetamine, co-sponsor open forums and protect yourself and your family.

To learn more:

• How meth destroys the body
• Meth pharmacology (how it works in the body)
• Meth Q & A
• National Institute on Drug Abuse Infofacts: Methamphetamine
• New Hampshire Government Leaders Methamphetamine Task Force
• Photo gallery: Faces of meth

My daughter just came back from a five-week program UNH offers in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. The program offers two courses: one in Italian history and the other on the Mediterranean Diet, which examines Italy’s gastronomic culture.
 
Numerous research studies have shown the Mediterranean Diet to provide many health benefits. One study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003, involved some 22,000 people living in Greece. During this four-year study, researchers found that those people following a “Mediterranean Diet” were less likely to die from either heart disease or cancer.
 
So just what are the components of this healthful diet? First, an abundance of nutrient rich foods, especially fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds These foods are rich in fiber and antioxidants. In addition to cancer and heart disease prevention, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help keep obesity at bay, help reduce the incidence of stroke, prevent birth defects, and decrease one’s chances of developing cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

Your local farmer’s market is a good place to find fruits and vegetables harvested at the peak of ripeness and flavor. The diet is moderate in fat with olive oil as the major source. Some fat also is derived from nuts and seeds. Olive oil and nuts are excellent sources of monounsaturated fat, which can help lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol while increasing HDL cholesterol. They are also good sources of antioxidants including vitamin E.

Today, our grocery stores carry a variety of olive oils to suit every type of cooking.

Moderate amounts of fish, especially “oily fish” such as salmon, mackerel and tuna, is consumed, providing significant amounts of Omega 3 fatty acids, a type of polyunsaturated fat, which can also lower cholesterol.

The consumption of red meat is minimal, reducing intake of saturated fat that elevates cholesterol levels and LDL cholesterol. In addition, only low to moderate amounts of dairy products are eaten with cheese the primary choice. Cheese is usually an accompaniment or used as a condiment on foods. Using just a little of the hard cheeses, like a good parmesan, romano or asiago, can go a long way in adding flavor to a dish.

Consumption of eggs is also quite moderate with an average intake of four a week.
Italians drink a glass or two of wine a day with meals. Red wine is a rich source of flavonoids called phenolics - antioxidants that protect against heart disease by increasing HDL cholesterol and preventing blood clots from forming.

What is most impressive of this Mediterranean culture is the whole lifestyle that surrounds it. My daughter noticed how everything is so unhurried. Meals aren’t wolfed down but savored. Everything closes down for several hours in the afternoon. People walk a lot or ride bicycles. There are fewer work-saving amenities. This increase in physical activity and the decrease in stress do play an important part in the whole health picture along with the diet.

Summertime is a perfect time to consider trying the Mediterranean lifestyle. The abundance of fresh produce and the opportunity to relax a bit and include more physical activity in your day is one way to make it happen. There are some good books to get you started. These may be available at your local library. Try the Mediterranean Diet by Marissa Cloutier and try making some mouth-watering recipes from Mediterranean Diet cookbooks by Jeanette Seaver and Nancy Jenkins.

By Colette Janson-Sand Ph.D., RD, LD, Nutrition Specialist UNH Cooperative Extension

July, 2006

The disastrous floods of May have receded and most New Hampshire residents have cleaned up and returned to their flood-damaged homes.

But more than 300 New Hampshire families are waiting for help cleaning and sanitizing their homes to make them safe enough to live in. Some displaced families are living in cars and shelters.
 
“With the arrival of summer heat and humidity, we need to move fast to get ahead of the growth of mildew and other molds that can cause health problems for residents,” says Carole Totzkay-Sitar, a health educator with the Bureau of Emergency Management. “State health and safety officials need 200 volunteers to take the training and team up with experienced mold-mitigation teams already on the job.”

Molds threaten human health
“Families in Rockingham, Strafford, Merrimack, Hillsborough, Belknap, and Carroll Counties need immediate help,” Totzkay-Sitar says. “Failure to remove contaminated materials and to reduce moisture and humidity can present serious long-term health risks to the people who live there. Microorganisms that thrive in areas that are wet, damp, or retain water can cause disease, trigger allergic reactions and continue to damage household materials long after the floodwaters recede.”

“Mud Out” volunteer training
To boost volunteer recruitment, state health and emergency management officials, working through Volunteer NH!, have joined forces with southern New Hampshire church groups who’ve had experience organizing volunteers to go into homes to remove damaged contents, clean, and sanitize flooded premises. They plan to offer at least one “Mud Out” volunteer training in July, which will cover proper clothing, tools, safety, and health issues related to molds. All Mud Out volunteers will be teamed with an experienced “mudder.”

Volunteers must be at least 18 years old and healthy. They will need to sign a liability waiver, and provide their own protective equipment. For more information about becoming a Mud Out volunteer, call 1-800-780-8058.

Flood-damaged home? Take action now!
State officials encourage any resident whose home was flooded not to wait for FEMA funds, insurance payouts, or volunteer helpers before taking action to assess health and safety threats in their homes. If you have concerns about the health risks of molds, contact your family health care provider. For information about conducting a mold assessment or about mold removal, call Rhonda Martin at the Department of Environmental Services at 271-3911.

Links to written information about mold in homes:

• Mold in Your Home? (NH Department of Environmental Services flyer)
  
• NH Air Resources fact sheet
  
• A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture, and Your Home (US Environmental Protection Agency)
  

UNH Cooperative Extension has an array of information to help New Hampshire residents recover from multiple problems caused by this weekend’s floods.

Storm damage can leave behind debris-strewn areas, contaminated water, spoiled food, displaced wildlife and conditions, if not treated properly, may lead to health problems.

With rain totals reaching as high as 11 inches in some areas, and more on the way, residents must assume that all water sources are contaminated until proven safe. Food contaminated by flood waters should be handled carefully and a determination made on what to keep or discard.

Topics include staying safe, recovering from a power outage, restoring storm-damaged buildings, helping children cope with disaster, salvaging water-damaged belongings, financial recovery and more.

To those in the flood areas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urges residents to do the following immediately:

• If your home, apartment or business has suffered damage, call the insurance company or agent who handles your insurance right away to file a claim.
• Before entering a building, check for structural damage.
• Do not use matches, cigarette lighters or any other open flames once you’ve entered a damaged building, since gas may be trapped inside. Use a flashlight.
• Keep electricity off until an electrician has inspected your system for safety.
• Flood waters pick up sewage and chemicals from road, farms and businesses. If your home has been flooded, start cleaning up as soon as possible. Throw out foods and medicines that may have come in contact with flood waters.
• Boil water for drinking and food preparation vigorously for five minutes before using.

If you have additional questions, please contact your local Extension office. Please click on all our links for further advice.

Current Conditions in New Hampshire:

• Road conditions and travel alerts
• WMUR-TV Weather
  
• National Weather Service – Interactive Weather Information Service for NH
• NOAA - WaterWatch – current NH water resources conditions

General:

• American Red Cross (ARC)
  • Disaster Services
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – Floods
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
  • FEMA En Espanol
  • Guide to Disaster Assistance

Recovery:

• Food & Drinking Water Safety:
  • Food and Water in an Emergency (FEMA)
  • Food Security and Emergency Preparedness - Food Safety
    Inspection Service, USDA
  • Keeping Food Safe During an Emergency - fact sheet
  • N.H. Drinking Water Testing
    • Private well water testing
    • For other drinking water questions, call Bernie Lucey at (603) 271-2952
• Cleaning Household Utensils and Metals & Salvaging Papers
• Helping Children Cope With a Disaster
• Recovering From and Coping With Flood Damaged Property (FEMA)
  • After a Flood: The First Steps (PDF)
  • Returning Home
• Removing Odors from Refrigerators & Freezers
• Restoring Emotional Balance After a Disaster
• Saving Family Treasures Guidelines

Safety:

• Flood Safety (National Weather Service)
• Turn Around Don’t Drown (National Weather Service)

Many communities across our state are considering programs to monitor and/or control mosquito populations in response to last year’s outbreak of Eastern Equine Encephalitis, a viral disease spread by mosquitoes.

If your community is among those considering a mosquito-monitoring or mosquito-control program, or if you simply want detailed information about this complicated illness, check out this new 13-page information bulletin, Eastern Equine Encephalitis Could Return to New Hampshire this Summer,  by UNH Cooperative Extension entomologist Alan Eaton.

From Thanksgiving through Valentine’s Day, we Americans spike our long winter darkness with holidays, bowl games and other special events marked by feasting, food exchanges and a general celebration of abundance.

Yet, according to a report released November 19 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, last year 36.3 million Americans either went hungry or reported uncertainty about getting enough to eat at some point during the year. This figure includes 13 million children.

By national standards, New Hampshire , with the fourth-highest median household income in the nation, has a relatively low rate of hunger. Yet our state’s affluence masks the harsh truth that tens of thousands of Granite State residents can’t stretch their incomes to meet the basic food requirements for healthy living.

Hunger and food insecurity in New Hampshire

Although we don’t have hard data on hunger and food insecurity in New Hampshire , we can gauge its incidence through related indicators like these:

• A U.S. Census Bureau report issued last August estimated that 96,000 New Hampshire people lived below the federal poverty guidelines ($18, 850 for a family of four) at some point during 2003, up from 79, 200 in 2002 and 63,300 in 2000. Most of these people rely on a combination of government food assistance programs and emergency food providers to get enough to eat.
  
  
• The 2003 USDA Household Food security survey revealed that 45 percent of households reporting hunger or food insecurity have incomes above 130 percent of official poverty levels, meaning they probably don’t quality for federal food assistance programs.
  
  “We have real concerns for the thousands of people who earn just enough that they don’t qualify for food stamps and other government assistance programs,” says Val Long, Nutrition Coordinator for UNH Cooperative Extension’s Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program.
  
  “Steep increases in the costs of housing, fuel, transportation and healthcare, as well as food, haven’t been matched by increases in wages. A lot of working families have begun depending on emergency food pantries to feed their families. The emergency food system was intended to be just that: help for temporary emergencies. But people have begun relying on it chronically. That shouldn’t happen in the United States . It’s not an acceptable way to ensure that people are getting a nutritionally adequate diet that keeps them active and healthy.”
  
  
• In 2000, 36,266 New Hampshire residents received food stamps. By 2004, that number had risen to 48,449.
  
  
• Survey results released in December by the National Low Income Housing Coalition indicate that to afford the average two-bedroom apartment (including utilities) in New Hampshire , a worker must earn $16.75 per hour, more than three times the federal minimum wage.
  
  
• By the end of 2004, the New Hampshire Food Bank will have distributed about four million pounds of food to nonprofit and emergency food providers throughout New Hampshire —a million more pounds than last year, according to executive director Melanie Gosselin. “In one year, we expanded membership from 240 agencies to 342,” she says.

New Hampshire ’s emergency food providers

The federal government’s nutrition safety net, which includes the Food Stamp Program, the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program (WIC) and the School Meals Program, has traditionally built nutritious food and nutrition education into their programs.

In recent years, the net has frayed. Many low- and moderate-income people with incomes too high to qualify for food stamps and other government assistance programs can’t keep up with the escalating costs of housing, home heating fuel, and transportation. Responding to an increase in need, the state’s charitable emergency food system has grown dramatically in recent years.

Founded in 1984 as a program of Catholic Charities, the New Hampshire Food Bank serves as a centralized warehouse and distribution center for a network of nonprofit daycare centers, senior feeding sites, emergency food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

The New Hampshire Food Bank maintains an affiliation with a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks and perishable food “rescue operations” called America ’s Second Harvest . The nationwide organization takes advantage of its collective buying and bargaining power, and today serves local agencies that feed needy people in every county in the U.S.

The New Hampshire Food Bank receives food from grocery stores, wholesalers, farmers and individuals, as well as cash donations from individuals, organizations and a variety of fundraising activities. The Food Bank requires its members to acquire nonprofit status, have refrigeration if they plan to store perishable foods, and undergo periodic inspections that ensure safe food handling practices. Agencies preparing food onsite must have state-certified commercial kitchens.

Some emergency food facilities offer classes that promote nutrition and cooking skills to the agencies and their clients. For example, a nationwide program called Operation Frontline, pairs nutritionists with chefs from local restaurants to teach cooking skills and nutrition to clients of emergency food pantries. UNH Cooperative Extension Nutrition Connections staff in Hillsborough and Rockingham counties have collaborated with Operation Frontline to teach classes which deliver nutrition education to Food Stamp clients.

In addition, some food pantries provide other services that range from cash assistance to meet emergency needs for housing, fuel, clothing, and medicine, to job training and health screenings and clinics.

Observations from the field

Persis Gow, the bookkeeper for St. Paul ’s Church Food Pantry in Concord , has noticed an increase in demand on the pantry in recent years and months. “In January 2004, we served people from 25 surrounding towns. In November, we had people from 30 towns,” she says. “In 2001 we added 363 new families—people we’d never seen before. Already this year we’ve had 400 new families, with December figures not in yet. In 2001 we served 3688 children under 18; in 2004, to date, we’ve had 4228.

Gow says people who visit the pantry include elders, single parents, and people with disabilities. “But lately, I’ve noted an increase in the number of traditional, stable, working families—mother, father and children, all with the same last name,” she says. “That’s new.”

Dot Hunt has served as treasurer of St. John’s St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in Concord for the past 22 years. “There are at least 27 food pantries here in Merrimack County , and we’re all busy. Our numbers are up, with 400 new families this year. As many as 1200 individuals pass through each month,” she says. “We’re seeing more elderly, more working families and—what’s new for us—more single young people. Sometimes three or four single people will be living together and one will come in to get food for them all.”

Hunt says the pantry also provides emergency help with rent, medicine, fuel and clothing. “Usually I get about 12-14 requests a month for help with fuel and rent. But one month not too long ago, I had 60 calls. We’re seeing a lot of people facing eviction.”

2005 hunger study

In 2005, the N.H. Food Bank will participate in the Hunger in America Survey that America ’s Second Harvest conducts every four years. “This will be the first time New Hampshire has joined the survey,” says Erin Chamberlain, the N.H. Food Bank’s program services director. The two-part study will collect demographic data from face-to-face interviews with clients of emergency food pantries and soup kitchens, as well as from a survey of provider agencies themselves. “It will give us hard data about who is hungry in New Hampshire and how they deal with it,” says Chamberlain. “The study will also help us learn about what our member agencies are doing for the people in need and what more we could do for [the agencies].”

If you or someone you know needs food

If you face a family food emergency, or know someone who does, find the most available source of food. Call the Nutrition Connections staff person in your county or call your town hall and ask how and where to apply for local welfare. If you have children in school, go to the school nurse for help finding out whether your children qualify for free or reduced lunches. The New Hampshire Assistance Handbook offers sections on eligibility and how to sign up for food stamps WIC, and other government assistance programs.

If you want to help

Besides educating yourself about the extent of hunger and food insecurity in your own community, you can also participate in a local food drive, contribute cash to the Food Bank, or volunteer your time at a food pantry or soup kitchen.

Donating directly to the N.H. Food Bank instead of purchasing food products yourself increases the buying power of your donations. “A $10 donation to the N.H. Food Bank will buy 40 meals for hungry people,” says Gosselin. “Our buying power allows us to sell food to local pantries at only 18 cents a pound.”

Since most local pantries or soup kitchens run on volunteer labor, citizens can also consider donating time. Call to find out if an emergency food provider near you (link to list of emergency food providers) needs help.

Resources 

Nutrition Connections
This list connects you with UNH Cooperative Extension county staff who provide nutrition education to low-income individuals and families in New Hampshire. Staff can help connect you with emergency food resources.

New Hampshire Food Bank
New Hampshire ’s only food bank; warehouses and distributes food to a statewide network of 342 member agencies.

America ’s Second Harvest - America’s Food Bank Network
A nationwide network of more than 200 food banks and “food rescue” operations.

Serve New England
An “alternative to food shopping” that offers families of any income level deep discounts on major brand name foods in exchange for at least two hours of volunteer service each month. New Hampshire has 35 pick-up locations. You can buy a package of frozen meats, fresh fruits and vegetables at about half the grocery store price. No limit on how much food you can buy. Call 1-800-603-4855 for nearest location.

New Hampshire Assistance Handbook

Published in 2003, but updated for 2004, the handbook contains a listing of critical resources for people in need, including food assistance, shelters for the homeless and for battered women, nutrition education, legal assistance, fuel assistance, social services, and much more.

Kids Café
A service of the Salvation Army. Serves dinner to needy Manchester children, followed by an hour of crafts or games, four nights a week

The Paradox of Hunger and Obesity in America
Obese, but hungry and malnourished? This paper, issued jointly by Brandeis University ’s Center on Hunger and Poverty and the Food Research & Action Center , helps explain the apparent paradox of how dual threats of hunger and obesity can co-exist in individuals and families.

By Peg Boyles, UNH Cooperative Extension writer/editor, and Helen Costello, Food Security Coordinator

See also: "It can happen to anybody."

Parents of the 14,000 babies born each year in New Hampshire have many choices about how and where their babies will enter the world, and who will attend the birth.

These decisions affect the whole family. The birth attendant and setting can make all the difference in a birth experience that is satisfying to mom, dad, siblings, and the family’s newest member. The goal is to find the combination of birth method, birth setting and attendant that help laboring mothers and their partners feel most comfortable.

Who will attend your birth?

New Hampshire families have several options:

• A medical doctor—either a family doctor or obstetrician Obstetricians (OBs) are trained to handle high-risk pregnancies, and can perform surgery and other high-tech interventions when necessary. A few obstetricians perform elective, or on-demand caesareans for women who choose to have a surgical delivery for reasons other than medical necessity. Elective cesarean is a controversial choice and is something that parents should research carefully before making a decision.

• A Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) A special category of Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners, CNMs have taken advanced training in childbirth. Certified through the N.H. State Board of Nursing, CNMs usually work in group practices with obstetricians and attend births that take place in hospitals. CNMs support natural childbirth and tend to spend more time with women in labor than doctors do.

• A New Hampshire Certified Midwife (NHCM) An NHCM has specialized training in low-risk pregnancies, childbirth, and lactation and newborn care. NHCMs are certified by the state, and their training requirements and scope of practice are regulated by state statute. NHCMs accept only women with low-risk pregnancies. The same NHCM you see for prenatal care typically also attends your labor and birth.

• Unassisted childbirth Some women choose to give birth without a trained attendant, although they may ask close friends and family to help them during labor and delivery. Although pregnancy and childbirth are natural processes that rarely become medical conditions, those who choose to give birth without professional help take on a great responsibility. Like elective cesarean, unassisted birth is a controversial choice you should research carefully before making a decision.

Your choice of birth attendant will affect where you have your baby .

Family doctors, OBs, and CNMs work almost exclusively in hospitals, whereas NHCMs attend births in homes and free-standing birth centers licensed by the state but not affiliated with a hospital.

Research has shown that all settings can be equally safe, provided mothers have received adequate prenatal care, parents are well prepared, and birth attendants are well trained.

• You might choose a hospital if you are among the small number of women with a high-risk pregnancy, if you feel more comfortable knowing that emergency interventions are available on site, or if you know think you may want pain medication during labor.

• Homebirth is an option for women who feel more comfortable at home, knowing they won’t have to interrupt labor to drive to another place, follow a hospital’s routine, or interrupt their bonding with their newborn by leaving to go home. Homebirth works best when mothers feel confident in their ability and safe in their surroundings. Homebirth also requires different preparation from hospital birth.

• Birth centers are an option for only a few New Hampshire families, as two centers have closed recently. If you aren’t likely to need the high-tech interventions offered in hospitals, you might still prefer the security that comes from knowing the center is completely set up for birth and any emergencies that might arise. If you can afford a birth center birth, and you live within an hour of one, this could be an option for you.

How can you decide?

Talk to other families, especially those who share your values. Talk to families who have had their babies in hospitals, birth centers, and homes, with different types of attendants. Ask midwives for references if you don’t already know women who have given birth outside of a hospital. Ask what preparation each family made for the birth and what they wish they’d known ahead of time. You are looking for a good fit for you and your family.

Tour the hospital or free-standing birth center. Ask a lot of questions. You are looking both for good answers and a good attitude about parents who are involved in their own birth experience. In a hospital, the maternity nurses—not your OB or CNM—may provide most of your care.

Consider finances. Most insurance carriers cover hospital births attended by medical doctors or CNMs, though you should check your terms of coverage before you become pregnant. Although N.H. Medicaid and some smaller carriers cover births attended by NHCMs at home or in a birth center, the major health insurance carriers in New Hampshire don’t.

A bill (SB 175) introduced during this legislative session would have required all insurance companies to cover midwife-attended out-of-hospital births, a service N.H. Medicaid and some smaller insurance companies already cover.

Although the bill passed the full Senate, and the House Commerce Committee voted 14-7 to recommend passage, the House sent it back to committee for further study and revision. Supporters expect to reintroduce a revised version of the bill in January, 2006.

Homebirths cost around $2000, birth-center births a little more. Hospital births may cost four or five times as much, but if you are not on Medicaid or covered by one of the small health insurance companies offering out-of-hospital coverage, you probably will have to pay for an out-of-hospital birth out of pocket.

You can change your mind. Birth attendants need enough time to assess your well-being and preparation for birth before your baby is due. You’ll want to have your birth attendant and setting arranged by early in your third trimester if possible. But you need time to assess your own decisions about where to have your baby and who will attend your birth.

Keep learning and talking to other parents and birth providers. You may you may discover available alternatives you didn’t know about, and change your mind about how and where you want to have your baby, and who will attend the birth.

Links:

• MaternityWise
• Listening to Mothers Report
• New Hampshire Midwives Association
• Baby-friendly Hospitals Initiative
• Baby-friendly Hospitals in New Hampshire:
  • Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Lebanon
  • St. Joseph ’s Hospital, Nashua

by Kathy Becker Blease, former UNH Cooperative Extension Family Education and Policy Specialist, and Peg Boyles, Extension writer/editor

A recent nationwide study by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) confirms and provides fresh insights into what many teachers and others who work with teenagers already know: American teens don't get enough sleep. 

As a consequence, more than a quarter of high school students report falling asleep at school at least once a week; more than half report driving when they feel sleepy; and nearly a third of teens say they need two or more caffeinated beverages per day to stay awake.

What’s more, nine of 10 parents believe their teens are getting enough sleep, revealing a huge awareness gap between teens and parents.

Adolescence brings changes in brain chemistry

Teenagers’ late-to-bed, sleep-until-noon habits may seem related to stereotypical adolescent defiance. However, brain scientists tell us that teen brain chemistry differs from the chemistry of both adults and younger children. Teens start to secrete melatonin, a hormone that helps to trigger drowsiness at the end of the day, up to two hours later than younger children. This normal hormonal shift causes teens to feel more alert later at night and to wake up later in the morning.

Combine this delay in chemical signals with teens’ obligations to school, homework, paid work, as well as the attractions of TV, video games, the Internet, and interaction with peers, and the result is a serious sleep deficit for many teens. 

The NSF's 2006 Sleep in America poll conducted last fall randomly surveyed 1,600 households across the U.S. The poll, fashioned by experts on adolescent sleep, asked questions of one family member between the ages of 11 and 17 and one parent or guardian in the same household in order to compare their responses. 

Sleep study's key findings

• More than a quarter of high school students report that they fell asleep in school at least once a week in the past two weeks; 14 percent say they arrived late or missed school because they overslept.
• Just one in five adolescents gets an optimal nine hours of sleep on school nights; nearly one-half (45 percent) sleep less than eight hours on school nights.
• The average 6th-grader sleeps about of 8.4 hours on school nights, while a typical high school senior sleeps just 6.9 hours.
• Over the course of a week, high school seniors miss nearly 12 hours of needed sleep.
• More than half of adolescents report feeling too tired or sleepy during the day.
• More than half of adolescents say they know they get less sleep than they need to feel their best.
• Eighty percent of adolescents who get an optimal amount of sleep say they’re achieving As and Bs in school, while adolescents who get insufficient amounts of sleep are more likely than their peers to get lower grades.
• Among those adolescents who say they’re unhappy or tense most often, 73 percent feel they don’t get enough sleep at night and 59 percent stay they feel sleepy during the day.
• Nine out of 10 parents believe their teens get enough sleep most nights of the week.

Unhealthy behaviors

• Driving drowsy: More than half (51 percent) who drive say they’ve driven while drowsy during the past year.
• Frequently consuming caffeinated beverages and foods: 31 percent of those surveyed drink two or more caffeinated beverages a day.
• Napping: 38 percent of surveyed high school students took at least two naps per week in the two weeks preceding their poll interview.
• Giving up on exercise: 28 percent of adolescents say they felt too tired or sleepy to exercise.
• Sleeping late on weekends: Most adolescents are sleeping between 1.2 and 1.9 hours longer on non-school nights.

UNH Cooperative Extension has Family & Consumer Resources educators in each county http://extension.unh.edu/Counties/Counties.htm who offer a variety of parenting programs. If you have questions about parenting teenagers (or younger children), or if you’re interested in the local schedule of Extension parenting programs, contact the county office and ask for the parent educator.

 by Thom Linehan, Family & Consumer Resources Educator, MerrimackCounty


For more information about teens and sleep

• Adolescent Sleep Needs and Patterns
  Full report on teenage sleep habits from the National Sleep Foundation’s 2005 nationwide survey.
   
  
• Signs and symptoms of sleep deprivation in teens
  
  
• Living with your teen: Adolescents and Sleep
  
  

• Later high school start times
  Starting high school later in the day may be an effective way to apply knowledge of adolescent sleep needs. This report describes the experience in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which adjusted their high school start times to accommodate adolescent biology.
  
  
• Lack of sleep
  Learn more about how lack of sleep may affect adolescents

Two mosquito-transmitted viral diseases that infect horses have arrived in New Hampshire: Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis (EEE) and West Nile Virus (WNV).

Horses infected with EEE may run fevers, show signs of depression, lose their appetites, become weak, go blind, lose coordination, and have convulsions. In some cases, horses may show no signs at all before dying.

Horses infected with WNV show similar symptoms—through they often have no fever—or have no symptoms at all. As of this writing, there have been no confirmed New Hampshire cases of West Nile in horses in 2005.

Vaccinations are available for horses for both of these diseases and we strongly encourage horse owners to consult their veterinarians to develop an appropriate vaccination program.

Human health concerns
Recent reports of two horses stricken with EEE in southern New Hampshire, and two suspected human cases, along with the first report of a dead bird infected with WNV, have also raised concerns about threats to human health.

The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that healthy adult humans who become infected by either virus will likely experience mild, flu-like symptoms, such as fever or headaches. Very young children, the elderly or people with weakened immune symptoms can become very ill from either disease.

Very few mosquito species are capable of transmitting either EEE or WNV. Those that can pick up the virus by biting infected birds. The infected mosquitoes may then transmit the virus by biting horses or humans. As of this writing, there have been no confirmed human cases of either EEE or WNV in New Hampshire this year. The New Hampshire season for risk of these viruses runs from June through October.

Protection from mosquito bites
Protection from mosquito bites is the best preventative for humans. You can decrease the chances of both you and your animals being exposed to WNV and EEE by decreasing exposure to adult mosquitoes:

• Use mosquito repellant that contains DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus when working or playing outdoors, especially around dawn and dusk.
  
  
• Prevent large populations of mosquitoes by removing any potential sources of water in which they can breed.
  
  
• Dispose of any water–holding containers, including discarded tires. Drill holes in the bottom of containers that are left outside and might collect water.
  
  
• Clean clogged roof gutters on an annual basis.
  
  
• Turn over wading pools or wheelbarrows when not in use, and do not allow water to stagnate in birdbaths. Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish.
  
  
• Clean and chlorinate swimming pools that are not in use and be aware that mosquitoes can breed in any puddle that lasts more than four days.
  
  
• Thoroughly clean livestock–watering troughs on a monthly basis.

If you have questions about either WNV or EEE in horses, contact your veterinarian.

For more information about the risk of WNV and EEE to humans:

• Fact Sheet on Eastern Equine Encephalitis
• Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Eastern Equine Encephalitis Information’
• Fact Sheet on West Nile Virus
• Centers for Disease Control & Prevention West Nile Virus information
• Citizens can also call the WNV/EEE information line at: 866/273-NILE (6453) for answers to questions about WNV or EEE.

By Lisa Townson, UNH Cooperative Extension 4-H Specialist

State officials announced recently that mosquitoes carrying Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE, also called Triple-E) have been found in Danville. EEE is a mosquito-spread disease that mostly affects birds. The disease appears sporadically in New Hampshire, with outbreaks lasting one to three years. Occasionally this disease is transmitted via mosquito bite to horses or to people, although only a few of New Hampshire’s 47 mosquito species can actually transmit EEE to mammals.

Last year, New Hampshire led the nation in human EEE infections, with seven reported cases resulting in two deaths. The death rate is high in people (and horses) infected with EEE, even though the risk of becoming infected is very low. Furthermore, while we have a vaccine to protect horses, we don’t yet have a vaccine that protects humans. Fortunately, there are precautions people can take to avoid being bitten.

Although most EEE cases occur in the southeastern part of the state, especially Rockingham County, mosquitoes that transmit EEE do show up in other parts of the state, so all Granite Staters should take precautions to protect themselves. Individuals can dramatically reduce their risk of getting EEE in several ways:

• Use insect repellant containing DEET or picaridin when you are outdoors during mosquito season, and/or wear clothing that doesn’t expose skin.
• Try not to spend time outdoors within an hour or so of dusk.
• Don’t walk through thick, brushy woods without protection.
• Adjust window screens and doors to keep mosquitoes out of your home.
• If you own a horse or donkey, have your animals vaccinated.

           
Mosquito traps aren’t likely to help, and spraying mosquito larvae requires training, licensing, special equipment, and special permits. Adult mosquitoes fly so far that treatment by individual landowners doesn’t make much sense.

For more information about EEE and ways to manage its risks, see our EEE fact sheet (contains information about West Nile Virus, another mosquito-borne illness that sometimes strikes humans).

Swimming to Christmas Tree Island is a rite of passage at Bear Hill 4-H Camp, complete with certificate. It’s been a tradition there at least since I was a camper in the late 1970’s and probably since the camp started in 1936. Since 2001, I’ve worked at Bear Hill as a volunteer swimming instructor.

When the campers come back from the swim they carry themselves with renewed pride and self-confidence. Changes in self image can be phenomenal. I’ve seen campers with behavioral problems learn that they can set a goal and reach it with hard work and determination. Reaching Christmas Tree Island is physical proof.

It isn’t easy to jump into nine feet or more of water. You can’t see the bottom and the water has spots of pond weed. We swim among nature’s creatures: fish, snakes, turtles and frogs. A Polish counselor who had just finished the swim confided that it is scary because it involves “jumping into the unknown.” It takes a lot of courage to face your fears of the unknown and to believe you can make it across the pond and back on your own power.

We do everything possible to help our campers succeed, and we take every precaution to ensure their safety. We swim at a leisurely pace. Life guards and swimming instructors watch the swimmers closely for any sign of distress.

During swim classes throughout the week, swimmers have trained their muscles and cardiovascular systems, while improving their stroke technique by swimming laps of different strokes: crawl, elementary backstroke, sidestroke and back crawl.

During the week we watch and evaluate swimmers to make sure they can accomplish the final ritual swim to the island. The campers often don’t realize what they have learned and how much they have improved their fitness until they take on this slightly scary challenge.

Everyone feels good after a leisurely swim in the pond. We usually go on hot, clear, sunny days. To help the children enjoy the experience and overcome their fears, we point out the trees, the sky, the sunlight glinting off the water. We show them the bubbles from fish and other wildlife.

Gasping breaths are out of place in this place of peace and beauty. So I wondered why one young woman, a competent swimmer, was having such a difficult time with the swim to Christmas Island .

With wide, fearful eyes, she worked hard to draw her next breath. I offered her the red rescue tube I was trailing and she took it. Relieved I wasn’t going to have to rescue a panicked swimmer—a physically hard and dangerous situation—I asked if she was okay. She said she’d lost her breath. I towed her on the tube to the island so she could rest. That she wasn’t able to make it to the island surprised me. During class she had swum much further distances at a much faster pace.

After reaching Christmas Tree Island, the camper I’d towed told me she had a reduced lung capacity that day because an unusual amount of pollution had affected her asthma.

She knew this, she said, because she was involved in INHALE (Integrated Human Health and Air Quality Research), a study the University of New Hampshire was doing at the camp with children affected by asthma and allergies. Every morning at breakfast, a graduate student researcher measured campers’ lung capacity to study the consequences of bad air quality.

This particular day was one of the ten “bad air” days that New Hampshire has on average during the summer. On these “bad air” days, public health officials warn that even the average person should avoid outdoor physical activity, while young children and the elderly should remain indoors with air conditioning. I saw first-hand the effect it had on one of my swimming students.

According to Dr. John Spengler of the Harvard School of Public Health, air pollution causes 60,000 deaths nationwide each year. But the deaths are only the tip of the iceberg.

Air pollution causes increased visits to the hospital emergency rooms, more inpatient admissions, more use of medication, and losses in workplace productivity.

When we think of air pollution, we tend to think of smog clouds hanging over Los Angeles , not a forested camp in New Hampshire . Learning that New England is known as the “tailpipe of the nation” shocked me.

Dr. Jeff Salloway, a UNH professor of health management and policy, heads the INHALE project. Salloway says asthma rates in the United States have increased 1000 percent in the past 30 years. More than 11 percent of New Hampshire children have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lives.

Even though we may think we live in a pristine environment here in New Hampshire, two weather systems funnel pollution from the Midwest and the entire Atlantic seaboard over New England before it moves out to sea. Salloway says that toxins carried in the polluted air—ozone, sulfur dioxide, and oxides of nitrogen, and others—cause asthma and other

But the news isn’t all bad. By gathering this data from projects like INHALE, researchers and weather reporters can help us change the situation.

Dr. Greg Carmichael of the University of Iowa said in an interview with PBS’s Online News Hour that the weather person may soon begin reporting, “here’s the snap shot of what the air quality will be tomorrow. But here’s what the air quality would be if 50 percent of the people decided not to drive.”

We can have some control over our environment. In some New Hampshire communities, people can take free rides on public transit systems during “bad air” days. The rides are paid for by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency called Ride Free Breathe Free.

We can choose to carpool. We can choose to drive smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. We can contribute less to overall air pollution by walking or bicycling to work or school on “good air” days.

Preventing illness, saving lives, and maintaining our quality of life means recognizing the problems, knowing what to do, and making choices to change our behaviors. We can’t get lulled into believing we have no air pollution because we live in a rural area. Appearances can be deceiving.

Editor’s note: Look for the INHALE Web site which should go live in a few weeks.

For more information

UNH graduate student Tom Lambert, who studies the effects of air quality on human health, offers these links for air quality forecasts and real time air quality data:

• New England air Quality Forecast
• Local Forecasts and Coditions
• National Weather Service Air Quality Forecast Guidance
• University of New Hampehire’s AIRMAP air quality forecast

By Bonnie Barlow, UNH Cooperative Extension Community Tree Steward and 4-H Volunteer

August 27 footrace supports local agriculture

Whether you run, walk, or shuffle, come boost (or boast about) your physical fitness while you support local agriculture in the 1 st annual Stride for New Hampshire Pride 5K footrace August 27. The race begins at 9 a.m. at the State House Plaza in Concord.

You might win a bushel of New Hampshire-grown sweet corn or a bag of vine-ripened tomatoes.

The fast, flat, USATF-certified course winds through downtown Concord and ends with a party on the State House lawn featuring locally-produced goodies.

Organized and directed by UNH Cooperative Extension educator Sadie Puglisi, the event aims to raise awareness about the economic, social and health benefits of local agriculture. All profits go to the New Hampshire Farmers’ Market Association.

For more information check out the Stride for NH Pride webpage.

“Matt feels good about losing weight. When he played outside last summer, he would have to catch his breath. Now he doesn’t have to catch his breath anymore,” says Matt’s mother JoAnn.

Six-year-old Matt, nicknamed “Bear,” has lost 18 pounds since last December, when he weighed 117 pounds. His family doctor told JoAnn that Matt had the height of an eight year-old and the weight of a 14 year-old.

But Matt also had medical problems related to his weight, including high blood pressure. His doctor was so concerned with Matt’s health he referred Matt to a specialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.

The Dartmouth-Hitchcock doctor told Matt and JoAnn that Matt needed to lose weight. JoAnn was surprised. She hadn’t really thought about the health implications of Matt’s weight.

Experts nationwide have become increasingly alarmed about childhood obesity. National studies have shown that 15 percent of American children are overweight or obese. A recent New Hampshire study reported that 22 percent of boys and 17 percent of girls of elementary-school age are overweight and another 20 percent are at risk for becoming overweight.

But, being out of breath is nothing compared to the health risks associated with obesity. Obesity is a risk factor for the development of a variety of complications, including type 2 diabetes—a disease doctors once called “adult onset” diabetes because it appeared so rarely in children. A recent Yale University study revealed that 25 percent of obese children were at high risk for developing diabetes.

Matt’s Head Start teacher referred JoAnn to Terri Schoppmeyer, a UNH Cooperative Extension Nutrition Connections educator. Terri taught JoAnn the basics of nutrition, label reading, how to eat well on fewer calories, and the importance of parents serving as role models for good nutrition.

JoAnn started by writing down everything Matt ate, then decided what she needed to cut back on. “Matt used to eat two salami sandwiches on white bread with mayonnaise, but now has only one sandwich with mustard, instead of mayonnaise,” she said. “It was difficult at first to cut back on food for Matt. He’d say, ‘There’s nothing good to eat!’”

JoAnn and her husband have five children. The whole family began following a more healthy diet and lost a total of 65 pounds since December 2, 2004.

Dad plays a special role, because what Dad eats, “Bear” eats; if Dad eats well, so does “Bear.” JoAnn said, “Matt even likes asparagus and swordfish, just like his Dad.”

JoAnn says she is spending more on groceries; “I’m buying more fruit and other foods that sometimes cost more.” But when it comes to food, JoAnn now thinks first about her family’s health. “It’s hard at first to change eating habits, but you have to stick to it. Your child’s health is more important than anything.”

Some of the changes JoAnn made:

• Cutting back on items like chocolate milk (Matt was drinking four or five glasses each day)
• Offering fruits instead of breakfast pastries and other sugary, fatty foods
• Reading labels to identify the most nutritious foods
• Buying lower-fat products
• Finding ways to get her kids to eat vegetables
• Offering water instead of high-calorie drinks
• Encouraging more exercise

One of the best ideas JoAnn has for the summer is to keep a cooler full of ice cold water on her porch. When the kids get thirsty, they just open up the cooler and get their water. No hanging out in front of the refrigerator on hot summer days in this household!

Looking for nutrition information? Call toll-free:1-877-398-4769, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

By Valerie Long, UNH Cooperative Extension Food Stamp Nutrition Education
Program Coordinator

50 percent to 70 percent of local ticks infected

Scientists have discovered that an unexpectedly high percentage of blacklegged ticks in New Hampshire carry the bacteria that cause Lyme disease in humans.

Research collaborators Alan Eaton, a University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension entomologist, and Eleanor Lacombe of Maine Medical Center Research Institute, analyzed 150 adult blacklegged ticks collected in Durham , Lee and Concord , for the presence of the bacteria.

“We found more than 50 percent of the ticks from Lee and Durham and more than 70 percent from the Concord sample infected with Lyme-causing bacteria,” said Eaton. “Based on evidence from previous, but limited, research in New Hampshire , we expected only about 30 percent of the ticks would carry the bacteria.

“These are preliminary data, and we need to do more work to get a complete picture of the Lyme disease risk in New Hampshire ,” cautioned Eaton.

“Mid-October is the time of peak adult activity for blacklegged tick, the primary organism that causes Lyme disease in New Hampshire ,” Eaton said. “People can reduce their chances of getting Lyme disease by tucking pantlegs into socks before a trip into woods or fields, using insect repellant on socks and pantlegs, and checking themselves thoroughly for ticks after a day outdoors”

“Because it takes 30 or more hours for a tick to infect you after it attaches to your body, doing a tick check every night before you go to bed so will greatly reduce your chances of getting Lyme disease,” said Eaton. “An adult blacklegged tick that’s just begun to feed will appear about the size of a sesame seed, but it can reach the size of a small grape as it becomes engorged with your blood.”

New Hampshire is home to many other species of ticks, but the others don’t spread Lyme disease,” said Eaton. “In mid-October and November, the adult blacklegged tick—which used to be called the “deer tick”—is the one people are most likely to find.”

“The blacklegged tick itself becomes infected with Lyme disease-causing bacteria by feeding on an infected ‘reservoir host’, an organism that carries high levels of the bacteria in its bloodstream,” said Eaton. “In New Hampshire , the primary reservoir host for Lyme disease is the white-footed mouse.”

For more information about ticks and Lyme disease:

• N.H. Department of Health & Human Services' Web page on Lyme disease
• Extensive Web-based information on Lyme disease from the federal Centers for Disease Control
• Biology and Management of Ticks in New Hampshire
• Maine Medical Center Research Institute's Lyme disease research lab

N.H. Celebrates September as Food Safety Education Month

Public health officials estimate that more than 76 million Americans get sick from something they eat or drink each year. Roughly 325,000 of them require hospitalization and 5,000 die from foodborne illnesses. In 2002, the U.S Department of Agriculture estimated the costs associated with illnesses caused by only five major food and waterborne pathogens (microorganisms that can make people sick) at nearly $7 billion.

What’s going on?

Among the many reasons for such high rates of foodborne disease, food safety experts cite the increasing size and centralization of food production and processing systems, global trade, new and emerging foodborne pathogens, demographic and lifestyle changes, changing tastes and cooking practices, and the ever-increasing number of handlers in the human food chain from farm to mouth.

Whatever the causes, “We need to look at food as a system and to all sectors of the food system as sharing responsibility for food safety,” says Catherine Violette, UNH Cooperative Extension’s food and nutrition specialist. “This includes producers, processors, food service providers, households and individual consumers. Although no food is entirely risk free, some behaviors, some foods and some production, preparation and handling practices are more risky than others. Our Cooperative Extension food safety programs try to increase awareness of those riskier behaviors in all sectors of the food system.”

“In healthy people, foodborne illnesses, though unpleasant, tend to be acute and fairly brief,” says Violette. “But they can pose a serious health threat to vulnerable populations such as children, pregnant and nursing women, elderly people and people suffering from chronic diseases.”

Eating out

“American eating habits have changed significantly in the past 25 years,” says Violette. “A generation ago most families prepared and ate most meals at home. Today Americans eat more than a quarter of their meals away from home and spend almost half their food dollars in restaurants.”

“New Hampshire’s economy depends heavily on the tourist industry and restaurants are big business here,” Violette says, adding, “The state has more than 3,200 eating and drinking establishments, employing more than 41,000 workers, with gross sales of $1.6 billion annually.”

In addition to restaurants, Americans also “eat out” in a wide variety of foodservice establishments that include schools, college dining halls, hospitals, nursing homes, senior meal sites, soup kitchens, summer camps, retreat centers, day care centers, small delicatessens, and the takeout counters at many New Hampshire supermarkets.

SAFE and ServSafe® programs train food service workers and managers

Although 17 states currently mandate that food service workers receive formal training and pass a food safety/sanitation certification examination, New Hampshire does not.

But restaurants and other food service establishments have a powerful motivation to educate their workers in food safety practices. “A single incidence of foodborne illness ends up costing a business, on average, about $150, 000,” says Janet Casey, education manager for the N.H. Lodging and Restaurant Association (NHLRA). “A single incident sends a ripple effect through the staff, the entire community and casts a pall over the region’s foodservice industry.”

Responding to the growing need to provide basic food safety training to food service establishments and food handlers, Cooperative Extension developed a signature program called Safety in the Food Environment (SAFE), and has partnered with NHLRA to offer a more comprehensive program called ServSafe ® for food service managers. Both programs offer the latest science-based information and teach the industry’s best practices for keeping food safe.

Safety in the Food Environment (SAFE) is an interactive two-hour training that focuses on three areas of concern for food handlers:

• Good personal hygiene, e.g., proper and frequent handwashing, appropriate dress and hair covering, covering open wounds, staying away from work when sick.
  
• Avoiding cross-contamination of one food by another, via unsanitized cutting boards, kitchen utensils, towels, workers’ hands, etc.
  
• Time and temperature principles; e.g., cooking foods to proper temperatures, keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold during holding periods

In the past three years alone, more than 1,800 food service workers have attended a SAFE training. “I offer most of my SAFE classes at the host site, like a restaurant or a summer camp,” says Marilyn Sullivan, an Extension educator who teaches SAFE courses in Merrimack County. “Restaurants sometimes have their entire staff attend the SAFE training—from cooks and wait staff, to bussing staff, greeters, clerks, and managers themselves.”

“I adapt the SAFE curriculum to meet the needs of different client groups,” Sullivan says. “For example, I just completed a training for people who work in food pantries. Because they do only minimal food preparation, I shifted the primary focus to safe receiving and storage practices.”

Sullivan says managers place high value on the SAFE programs because their content reinforces what state and local health inspectors and they themselves require. “Managers tell me they’ve not only observed increased awareness of food safety principles among workers who’ve attended a SAFE program, they’ve also seen cooks and wait staff reminding each other to wash a cutting board or check a temperature,” says Sullivan. “Managers like those peer exchanges.”

ServSafe ®, a program developed by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, intended primarily for food service managers, offers a much more comprehensive introduction to food safety. UNH Cooperative Extension partners with the N.H. Lodging and Restaurant Association to offer ServSafe ® trainings throughout the year at various sites statewide. Busy managers or food service workers can even take the course online.

“Depending on who offers the training and the methods they use, ServSafe® is delivered as either a one or two-day course,” says Alice Mullen, a family and consumer resources educator in Hillsborough County. “The course can involve written materials, videos, hands-on demonstrations and exercises, such as having people practice calibrating thermometers.”

“ServSafe® students take a certifying exam at the end of the course and must receive a score of 75 percent or better to pass. “The certification is good for five years, after which they must recertify. ServSafe® certification is a good marketing tool for restaurants and also for yourself, if you’re seeking work in the food service industry.”

“People often come into this course thinking they already know a lot about food safety,” says Mullen. “But at the end, they’ll come up and tell me they’ve become much more aware of the opportunities for cross-contamination and begun washing their hands a lot more frequently, or changed practices in their restaurant so they cool hot foods down more quickly for storage.”

Good Agricultural Practices (GAP): Food safety education for fruit and vegetable growers

“In New Hampshire, we’ve trained an interdisciplinary team to conduct voluntary farm food safety audits.” says Violette. “Using a checklist, the team evaluates all aspects of the operation, from production and harvesting to post-harvest handling, storage, and practices in the sales area if it’s a direct-marketing operation.” After the evaluation, growers receive a copy of the completed checklist and a letter summarizing suggested changes to improve food safety. The GAP program is free and confidential.

Nada Haddad, Rockingham County’s agricultural resources educator, has worked on teams conducting the voluntary audits. “The audits have been very successful,” she says, “but not every grower asks for an audit, and time prevents us from visiting every farm.” So Haddad has added food safety education to the agenda during her popular “twilight meetings,” when anywhere from 30 to 150 growers gather late in the day to hear speakers, discuss the latest horticultural research, share information and socialize.

“We used to focus almost exclusively on crop production: soil fertility, pest management, and so forth,” she says. “Because more and more growers have moved to direct marketing, we began adding a marketing component. Recently, I’ve invited [family and consumer resources educator] Claudia Boozer-Blasco to talk about food safety issues. It’s been well-received.”

For more information about the GAP program, contact the family and consumer resources educator or the agricultural resources educator in your UNH Cooperative Extension county office. Growers can also update their own food safety knowledge from an extensive series of online fact sheets.

Food safety in the home

Many of the same causes of foodborne illnesses in restaurants and other food service establishments also apply in the home, at picnics and potlucks, on camping trips and during power outages and other emergency situations.

Cooperative Extension to family and consumer resources educators sometimes offer food safety workshops for consumers, at senior centers, public libraries, schools and health promotion centers. As Alice Mullen sometimes does during SAFE and ServSafe trainings, she might put in an appearance as Gert, “a cooking show chef who does everything wrong from a food safety perspective.” Although Gert often brings down the house, Mullen says, “She also offers people a way to see a range of risky food handling behaviors being practiced.”

Because science advances and new foodborne pathogens keep emerging, “best practices change,” says Mullen. “Consumers should make sure to update their knowledge of food safety and food preservation practices.” Keep abreast of the latest food safety information with this large collection of fact sheets that cover best practices for the home, on outings, during emergencies and power outages, when cooking for large groups, and for home food preservation.

For more information

• Foodborne Illness: Ten Least Wanted Foodborne Pathogens
• Tips for keeping food safe during the summer months.
• Food Safety While Hiking, Camping, and Boating
• Overview of federal food safety programs
• Food Safety and Biosecurity
• If you suspect a case of foodborne illness
  
  

An article entitled The Science of Child Sexual Abuse, co-authored by Kathy Becker Blease, UNH Cooperative Extension Family Education and Policy Specialist, appears in the April 22 issue of the journal Science.

In the Policy Forum article, Becker Blease joins lead author Jennifer Freyd of the University of Oregon and a team of experts in psychiatry, law, political science, and psychology, to summarize scientific findings on the topic and offer recommendations to researchers and policy makers.

The authors cite research on childhood sexual abuse, which shows:

• an association between child sexual abuse and serious mental and physical health problems, substance abuse, suicide, victimization and criminality in adulthood.
  
• most child sex abuse is committed by family members and individuals close to the child, which increases the likelihood of delayed disclosure and possible memory failure and increases the potential for negative reactions by caregivers and lack of intervention.
  
• 20 percent of women and 5 to 10 percent of men worldwide report incidents of sex abuse in childhood.
  
• nearly 90 percent of child sex abuse cases are never reported to authorities.
  
• cognitive and neurological mechanisms that may underlie the forgetting of abuse.

To address serious gaps in the research-based understanding of child sex abuse, and problems caused by a knowledge base scattered across many disciplines, the authors call for:

• vigorous interdisciplinary research efforts to determine the prevalence of child sex abuse and identify its causes and consequences, prevention and treatment.
  
• expanding the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, a federally funded coalition of 54 centers providing community-based treatment to children and their families.
  
• creating an Institute of Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence within the National Institutes of Health.

“A 1996 U.S. Department of Justice Report estimated the annual cost of rape and sexual violence against children at $1.5 billion in medical costs, and $23 million in overall costs,” says Becker Blease. “Expanding our efforts to understand, prevent, and treat child sexual abuse will help us provide better training to health professionals, provide better scientific documentation to policy makers, and raise the levels of both public and private awareness on this important topic.”

Link:

• The Science of Child Sexual Abuse (manuscript version)

Help! I found my pot-bellied pig chomping down on some exotic-looking plant in the barnyard this morning. I hope you can help identify it. The plant seems to have sprouted up from nowhere. It looks like some sort of exotic tropical specimen, with huge, heart-shaped leaves, spiny stems, bright yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers, and fleshy, dark- green seedpods about four inches long. I’m worried they might have poisoned him!

Now that spring has finally arrived in force and folks have headed outside to take stock of the natural world, people who raise pigs or chickens or vegetables, people with lawns and lilac bushes and perennial flowerbeds, or people just curious about snakes, or bats, birds, wild turkeys, or insects, will start calling us with questions. (The pot-bellied pig question arrived early one August morning.)

Yes, adventures in the great outdoors, even adventures that take place just outside your kitchen door, can stimulate a lot of questions. But where can you turn for answers?

If you’re smart, like the caller concerned about her pet pig, you’ll call the UNH Cooperative Extension Info Line at 1-877-398-4769. Trained volunteers linked to an extraordinary network of professionals with expertise in a wide variety of subject matter areas answer the phones Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., dispensing practical, environmentally-sound, research-based information tailored for New Hampshire conditions. People who can’t call during business hours can email questions.

Some days the calls come so fast and furious our phone staff can barely catch their breath between calls:

Can humans get roundworms from dog droppings on the lawn?
Where can I get my chickens tested for bird flu?
How long will homemade pickles last on the shelf?
Can I bury my dog’s ashes under the rose bush I want to plant as his memorial?
How can I banish a family of skunks from under the front porch?
How do I get my well water tested?
Do you have plans for a bat house?
The grass on the front lawn looks yellow and sparse. What can I do?
How can I tell if the tick I just pulled off my son’s leg is the kind that transmits Lyme disease?
How can I get more potassium into my diet?

At the end of the day, an elderly gentleman wants to know why his zucchini flowers aren’t developing into zucchinis. We tell him the likely reason is that the female flowers aren’t getting pollinated during this wet spell, give him a lesson in hand-pollination, and close down our phone lines for the day.

Over the past five years, volunteers staffing the Info Line have fielded almost 50,000 questions on gardening and landscaping, lawn care, food safety, food preservation, backyard livestock, water quality, wildlife, household pests, composting, tree care and so much more.

Few of us have extended families and neighbors these days with the knowledge and experience to advise us what to do when the chickens start pecking each other, or explain the advantages of removing suckers from the tomato plants. Most of us are at least two generations removed from folks who grew their own food, kept livestock, and knew which tree species produced the longest-lasting heat.

Most questions that come to the Info Line are uncomplicated and easy to answer. Chances are, the Info Line staffer you talk to has answered similar questions already, had the experience him/herself, or knows someone who has. And when they don’t have the answer at their fingertips, our staff will do the research to get you the information you need or refer you to someone who has it.

One more thing about the Info Line volunteers: without exception they’re very curious. They sign up for the 70-plus hours of training and commit to many hours on the job because they revel in the chance to learn something new as they research answers for you.

Oh, about that “exotic tropical plant” with the heart-shaped leaves, trumpet-shaped flowers and “fleshy seedpods” the caller’s pet pig enjoyed so much?

Because the woman—a recent transplant to rural New Hampshire—had to dash off to work to deliver a presentation, we suggested she put on gloves, pull up the plant, and bring it to her veterinarian’s office after her presentation, while we continued using our botanical “keys” to track its identity.

Turns out she didn’t need further advice from us—or her vet. She called ten minutes later from work to thank us and to say that her coworkers had identified the plant immediately—as a zucchini!

By Margaret Hagen, Director, UNH Cooperative Extension Family, Home & GardenEducationCenter

More from the Family, Home & Garden Education Center

• Do you like to learn through fun, hands-on classes or workshops? Visit our calendar of events to look

• If you want information oriented towards how to grow, build, diagnose or raise almost anything, check out the more than 150 Home & Garden Information Fact Sheets.

• Take a look at some of the New Hampshire Outside columns, mostly written by Extension volunteers with a personal story to tell about life in New Hampshire’s outdoors.

• WMUR-TV (Channel 9) also features a weekly UNH Cooperative Extension spot called “Grow It Green” which airs at noon Tuesdays and during Saturday morning’s early news. The spots highlight topics of seasonal interest.

"My neighbor burns his household trash in a barrel behind his garage every weekend. Says he has for the past 50 years," a friend told me recently. "He says he's saving the town money by not taking it to the dump."

My friend's neighbor probably hasn't saved his town much money. But he is probably breaking New Hampshire law every time he burns his trash.

RSA 127-N, which took effect January 1, 2003, prohibits burning residential trash, which includes packaging materials, coated or laminated paper, rubber, painted or treated wood, coated cardboard, plastics, shingles, foam rubber, oily rags and animal, vegetable and kitchen waste.

The character of household trash has changed dramatically in 50 years. Today's trash can contain inks, dyes, chlorine, plastics, heavy metals and a variety of synthetic materials which produce toxins as the trash burns at the low temperatures characteristic of backyard burn piles. Many of these toxins get released directly into the air, where they stay close to the ground or fall onto plants and soil, where they can affect the health of residents and neighbors, especially children. Other pollutants remain in the ash, where they can contaminate soil and groundwater.

A recent EPA study showed that burning a week's worth of trash from a single household in an open barrel can spew as much of some toxic chemicals into the air as a well-controlled municipal incinerator burning the trash from thousands of homes.

Wood stoves and fireplaces provide primary or supplemental heat for many New Hampshire homes. State officials say residents may continue to burn newspapers and other household paper waste in home heating units.

But Rick Rumba, air toxics program manager for the NH Air Resources Division, advises against burning holiday wrapping paper in a fireplace or wood stove. "A lot of that paper is imported from countries that still use inks and dyes containing cadmium, lead and other harmful materials," says Rumba, noting that some toxic materials may rise with the smoke and pollute the air, but others, like heavy metals, can pollute the soil when people sprinkle the ashes on their lawns or gardens.

The new ban on burning household trash doesn't prohibit Granite Staters from burning clean wood, leaves and small brush outdoors. However, you'll need a permit from the local fire warden before you kindle a pile of leaves or brush. Even when you do have a permit, state regulations prohibit open burning between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm, unless it's raining.

When snow completely covers the ground where you plan to burn brush or clean wood, you don't need a fire permit, although some local ordinances restrict wintertime burning

"I always like to tell people, fire permits are a privilege, not a right," says New Hampshire's Chief of Fire Protection, Robert Nelson. "Fire wardens issue permits on the basis of safety and weather conditions."

New Hampshire legislation that went into effect in 1993 made it illegal to dispose of leaf and yard waste in solid waste disposal facilities. Many municipalities do leaf and yard waste composting at the local transfer station and some commercial composting operations accept leaf and yard waste. As an alternative to burning, residents can also safely and easily compost these materials at home. To learn how, call the UNH Cooperative Extension Info Line at 877-398-4769, Monday through Friday from 9am  2pm.

Other resources:
Much more information on the health and environmental effects of backyard burning: http://www.epa.gov/msw/backyard/

To report illegal burning of household trash, contact Air Resources compliance officer Gary Milbury at 271-0907 or 800-498-6868.

For posters and pamphlets providing residents with information about residential trash-burning, call Kathy Brockett at 271-6284 or Barb Fales at 271-1390 or call 800-498-6868.

For more information about the NH rules governing open burning or obtaining a fire permit: http://www.nhdfl.org/protection_bureau/fp_firepermits.htm

For a fact sheet on municipal composting of yard waste: http://www.des.state.nh.us/factsheets/sw/sw-3.htm

For lists of NH composting companies (many accept residential leaf and yard waste):
http://www.ceinfo.unh.edu/Agriculture/purchcom.pdf
http://www.des.state.nh.us/SWTAS/Composters.htm

Today's To-Do List: get the kids ready for school, do a load of laundry, work eight hours, pick up the kids from after-school care, shop for Christmas gifts, pick up dinner, feed daughter before dance lesson, take daughter to dance lesson, start wrapping Christmas gifts, finish decorating tree, feed son before basketball practice, pick up daughter from dance lesson, help kids with homework, do dishes, put kids to bed - the list continues. Some days the "to-do" list never ends, and it grows even longer around the holidays. With long work days, complicated school schedules and extra-curricular activities, everyone is pulled in different directions. Many parents find it difficult to keep up with their children's lives, not to mention their own. Days may go by without the whole family spending any time together at all.

One important way families can stay connected is by sharing a meal. Finding time each day when everyone can sit down together goes a long way toward strengthening family bonds. According to recent surveys, less than half the families in the United States actually sit down to a meal on a regular basis. Yet, studies report family meals are strongly related to the development of adolescent mental health and stability. A Harvard Medical School study found there are nutritional, as well as social, emotional and academic advantages that occur in children when families share meals together.

Eating together regularly promotes adult-child communication skills such as listening patiently to each other and expressing one's opinion is a respectful manner. Since children thrive on routines, family meals foster a sense of security and stability. Mealtimes also provide a time for shared learning about family traditions, cultural heritage, and family values. So how are busy families expected to fit this important "to-do" item on their daily list? Consider it a Christmas gift everyone gives to each other, and make family mealtime a priority. Choose a time and put it on the calendar. Just as you would schedule basketball practice or time for dance lessons, plan ahead for family mealtime.

Think creatively and make adjustments to fit your family's schedule. Family mealtime doesn't always need to be at dinnertime. You could plan a Saturday breakfast or Sunday lunch. A picnic on a blanket before or after a ball game counts too. It could also be everyone enjoying pizza at a local restaurant.

If your family usually watches television during mealtime, decrease the habit slowly. Begin with one or two television-free meals a week and gradually increase the number. By turning off the television, you eliminate the distraction that can interfere with mealtime conversations. Let the answering machine pick up calls or turn off the phone ringer to avoid interruptions. A phone call can always be returned after the meal.

The Food Guide Pyramid recommends serving a variety of foods, but that doesn't mean you need to prepare an elaborate five-course meal every night. Keep meals simple and easy. You may decide to serve the same favorite food on a certain day of the week. For example, Friday is pizza day. Family meals are a perfect time to teach children about making nutritious food choices as well as a time for modeling good table manners.

To keep the family coming back to the table, make mealtimes pleasant and fun. Focus on positive table conversations by asking questions such as, "What was the best thing that happened to you today?" Everyone should listen attentively and avoid criticism or rude behaviors. Involving children in the planning, preparing and serving of meals helps build teamwork and cooperation. Listen to their meal suggestions and invite them to help create memorable holiday foods and decorations. For a special treat, light candles on the table or use flowers to create a pleasant atmosphere.

Today's Ta-Da! List: gave the gift of a family meal, spent time and reconnected with the children, enjoyed nutritious food and pleasant conversations and strengthened family values.

Alice Mullen, MS, RD UNH Cooperative Extension Family Development, Hillsborough County

USDA Food Safety Mobile makes its first N.H. visit The NH Safe Food Alliance, a consortium of Granite State academic, regulatory and industry groups, will sponsor the U.S. Department of Agriculture's new Food Safety Mobile at the Hopkinton State Fair September 3-6.

Al Lampson, the Food Security Coordinator of the N.H. Bureau of Food Protection who coordinated the visit, describes the vehicle as "a 35-foot van plastered with cartoon characters. Colorful costumed characters and food safety experts will be on hand to provide cooking demonstrations, safe food handling tips, free publications on food safety, and games for children. The van will be open from 9AM to 9PM. Come by and visit!"

What local institution helps preserve open space, improve public health, create jobs, generate income that stays in the local economy, revitalize downtowns and foster a sense of community? A farmers’ market of course!

“Farmers’ markets are re-energizing and re-invigorating New Hampshire cities and towns” says Jack Potter, founder and director of the N.H. Farmers’ Market Association. “Markets are providing a highly valued social event that people look forward to each market day. They are bringing an awareness of the importance of local farms and food quality into the minds and kitchens of thousands of people throughout our state. On market days, people drawn to the markets also visit and buy from other community merchants.” 

According to Gail McWilliam Jellie, who directs the of Agricultural Development for the N.H. Department of Agriculture, Markets & Food Division 48 markets, “ will operate in cities and towns throughout New Hampshire this summer, with several more expected to open before the end of the growing season. When I took this job 11 years ago, there were only 11.”

McWilliam Jellie credits the federal Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program as the primary force driving the explosive growth of farmers markets throughout New Hampshire. The FMNP provides coupons that qualifying low-income families and seniors can redeem for fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers’ markets.

“A N.H. Farmers’ Market Association survey estimated that the state’s farmers’ markets grossed about $800,000 last year,” says McWilliam Jellie. “FMNP coupons accounted for nearly $200,000, or about one-quarter of gross receipts.”

McWilliam Jellie says a resurgence of interest in farming and local initiatives to revitalize downtowns also factor heavily into the growth of farmers’ markets statewide. “I’m wondering when the trend will peak,” she says, adding that the pilot program enabling market vendors to accept the electronic cards used by food stamp recipients “has the potential to expand farmers’ market activity even more dramatically.”

Although locally-produced fresh fruit and vegetables play the starring role, most markets also offer a broad range of products reflecting New Hampshire’s rural heritage: plants and flowers, eggs, poultry, pork, wool, honey and maple syrup, baked goods, handmade soap and crafts. Many markets offer educational programs, cooking demonstrations, live animals, music, activities for children and festivals.

Growers needed!

“Most markets need more growers,” says Nada Haddad, Extension educator in Rockingham County. “Fruits and vegetables sustain these markets. More and more people are shopping at farmers’ markets, and we’re getting more and more markets every year, so we will continue to need more growers.” Haddad suggests that interested producers call their county Extension office or contact the manager of their local market for information on how to get involved or attend the May 12 workshop described below.

For more information:

Selling at a Farmers’ Market Essential tips for people who sell agricultural products at N.H. farmers’ markets.

New Hampshire Farmers’ Market Association A wealth of information for vendors and prospective vendors.

Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program Official pages on USDA’s Farmers Market Nutrition Programs for WIC recipients and low-income seniors.

USDA Farmer Direct Marketing Contains links to many information resources for vendors and consumers of farm-fresh products.

5 A Day Produce for Better Health Foundation Describes the health benefits of vegetables and fruits, contains links to fact sheets, recipes, research reports and more.

“I tell the people I work with, ‘I know what it’s like to struggle for food to feed my family, and to struggle for work.,” says Heidi Bennett, a program associate in UNH Cooperative Extension’s Nutrition Connections program. Bennett teaches nutrition and money management to limited-income families in Hillsborough County .

Several times Bennett and her family have had to tap emergency food supplies in their community, their need arising because of injury, disability or layoff. “It’s happened to me. It can happen to anybody,” she says.

“The last time it happened to our family, my husband and I were both working full time. We were on the verge of buying the house we were leasing, when I got pregnant with our third child and had to quit work because an old injury prevented me from lifting and staying on my feet, which the job required. The landlord wouldn’t extend the lease because he wanted to sell the house, and we couldn’t afford it, so we had to move to an apartment we could afford. Then my husband got laid off, leaving us with only his unemployment to live on.

“My husband had job offers, but they didn’t pay enough to support a family and had no benefits. Because he was able to work, we didn’t qualify for food stamps. We bartered—my husband traded some labor for venison, I babysat for a friend who paid us in bread from the place she worked. I traded my picnic table for 10 cases of diapers. I qualified for and received WIC—it’s a terrific program. After the baby was born, the landlord let me plant a garden in the backyard.

“But I had to get food from a local food pantry those few months until my husband found a good job and we could get back on our feet again. We had prepared for a setback, like most families do. If you have only one setback, you can manage. But sometimes you have another, and another, until it feels like you’re taking one step forward, three steps back.”

Bennett says, “If you’re facing some sort of food emergency, call Nutrition Connections. We don’t provide food, but we have resources that can help with decision-making in tough times. We can arm you with knowledge, and knowledge is power.”

Some plants found in our yards and gardens produce fall berries that look tempting, especially to small children, but are dangerous to eat. Children may be especially tempted to pick and eat berries if they've seen their parents picking berries such as blackberries, blueberries and strawberries over the course of the summer.

Unfortunately, the words POISON and TOXIC too often create fear when they should suggest a warning. Many medicines or common household substances used incorrectly can cause illness or even death. This is also true with certain plants, when left alone, they are harmless. Some plants when bruised, crushed or eaten in varying quantities may result in effects that are upsetting, painful, or even potentially fatal.

Most plants must be eaten to become toxic, while others just have to be touched (as in the case of poison ivy). Toxicity often depends on the amount of plant material ingested. For example, all parts of the sunflower ( Helianthus annuus ) fall on the "slightly toxic" plant list. Since sunflower seeds are a common snack food, this may come as a surprise, but it is a perfect example of toxicity as a function of ingested amount. Ice cream can also make you sick if eaten in disproportionate amounts!

Whether poisoning will take place or not is usually determined more by the habits of people than by the presence of a particular poisonous plant. The danger depends mainly on whether it is likely to be eaten. At this time of year, children are attracted to berries as well as fleshy plant parts. Children should be taught at an early age to keep unknown plants and plant parts out of their mouths. They need to be made aware of the potential danger of poisonous plants.

Adults need to be familiar with the potentially dangerous plants in their yards, t heir homes, and in play areas close to home. If you suspect that a poisoning has occurred, call the New Hampshire Poison Information Center at 1-800-562-8236 and ask for instructions. Below are some common, poisonous berry-producing plants that children should learn to avoid. These plants are especially attractive to children in the fall when carrying their brightly-colored fruits.

Yew Berries from the evergreen tree or shrub (Taxaxeae) often used as a hedge and grown in gardens or around homes are particularly hazardous. These small red fruits are not poisonous, but are sweet and taste good, so children might be tempted to eat many of them. The seeds, however, are toxic and might be eaten with the berry.

• Baneberry ( Actaea rubra and Actaea alba ), a perennial herb species found in gardens and woodlands, grows one to two feet tall, and develops red or white poisonous berries in summer and early autumn.
  
  
• Jack-in-the-pulpit ( Arisaema triphyllum ),a common and pretty woodland plant, produces clusters of poisonous red fruits in the fall.
  
  
• Bittersweet ( Celastrus orbiculata and Celastrus scandens ), woody, deciduous vines often grown in gardens and also found in the wild, produce showy orange fruits which are poisonous.
  
  
• Daphne ( Daphne mexereum ) is a shrub often grown for its lilac-pink flowers in early spring. It later develops poisonous white or red berries which are highly attractive to children.
  
  
• Pokeberry ( Phytolacca Americana ), a common weed that can grow up to eight feet tall, with a purplish stem, and large, smooth alternative leaves, produces toxic, purplish-black berries that resemble wild grapes. They are especially tempting.
  
  
• Chokecherry ( Prunus virginiana ) is a weedy tree that can grow up to 30 feet tall. Its red berries are not harmful, but the seeds inside contain toxic amounts of a dangerous substance, cyanogenetic glycoside.
  
  
• Black nightshade ( Solanum nigrum ), often found in pastures, waste place, meadows, and near dwellings, is an annual that grows one or two feet and produces poisonous large, black berries in late summer and early autumn.
  
  
• May apple ( Podophyllum peltatum )is a woodland plant that grows one to two feet tall and produces large, umbrella-like leaves. Each plant produces one flower in the spring which becomes a potentially poisonous plum-size fruit in the fall.
  
  
• Poison ivy ( Rhus radicans ), a woody shrub or vine, is harmful in all seasons. All parts of the plant are poisonous including the yellow-white, shiny berries in the fall.

The above list is not comprehensive. There are other common plants, both berry-producing and not, that can be harmful or even fatal if consumed by small children. The best way to protect small children from plant poisoning is to teach them not to eat any plant parts without adult supervision.

We can't ignore plants, for they are the hand that feeds us. However, common sense can go a long way in making people-plant relationship a compatible one.

By Margaret Hagen, Extension Educator Family, Home & Garden Education Center, Hillsborough County

Research scientists in the University of New Hampshire Departments of Plant Biology and Human and Animal Nutrition have teamed with Extension educators and New Hampshire vegetable growers to conduct research into the health-promoting benefits of plant compounds known as phytonutrients.

The UNH Carotenoid Project focuses on compounds called xanthopyll carotenoids, found in high concentrations in leafy green vegetables like kale and spinach. Health researchers believe that eating plant foods rich in these carotenoids may help protect people against macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in older adults.

The Carotenoid Project
Funded by an $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems, the four-year Carotenoid Project features an interdisciplinary collaboration between assistant professor of plant biology Dr. Dean Kopsell and Dr. Joanne Curran-Celentano, an associate professor of animal and nutritional sciences with a longstanding interest in the role of carotenoids in human health.

Curran-Celentano’s team is studying how well humans who eat lutein-rich food or take lutein supplements absorb the carotenoids and deposit them into the macula lutea of their eyes.

Kopsell and his team have examined the genetic, cultural and environmental factors that maximize the concentration of xanthopyll carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin in leafy greens like kale and spinach. They’ve modified the sulfur content of soils to moderate the strong flavors in kale that some people don’t like. Kopsell has also sampled and analyzed a wide range of vegetable crops grown at six New Hampshire farms for their carotenoid content.

The field research has focused primarily on kale.

More than just a pretty garnish
Although many people know kale primarily as that coarse ruffled leaf placed alongside the “real food” on a restaurant plate, nutritionists have long recognized the superior food value of this leafy crop. A rich source of vitamins A and C, dietary fiber, iron, potassium and manganese, kale also rivals dairy products as a source of calcium. And new research findings suggest that kale may also deliver a host of health benefits through its high levels of phytonutrients.

Among all vegetables, kale ranks highest in its concentration of the xanthophyll carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, the yellow-orange pigments plants evolved to help protect their tissues against the harmful effects of excess solar radiation. Lutein and zeaxanthin concentrate in the macula lutea of the human retina, where scientists believe the phytocompounds may serve a similar function, absorbing and dispersing ultraviolet radiation to help protect against cataracts and macular degeneration.

Growing carotenoid-rich crops with improved flavor
Kopsell’s research involves studying the genetic, vegetable cultural and environmental factors that that favor high concentrations of carotenoids, and manipulating soil fertility factors to make these nutrient-dense crops taste better.

According to Kopsell, plants evolved carotenoids as “accessory pigments” for self-protective purposes. “Plants use only about one or two percent of the light energy falling on the leaf surface for photosynthesis,” Kopsell says. “In plants, lutein and zeaxanthin play a role in absorbing light outside the red and blue range and funneling it away, in essence acting as a chemical “sun black” that helps protect the pant from excessive radiation.” Medical researchers theorize that carotenoids play a similar role when they concentrate in the macula lutea, the region of highest visual acuity in the human eye.

Kopsell analyzed the carotenoid content of dozens of kale varieties, discovering the varieties with the highest concentrations had two and a half times the carotenoid levels of those with the lowest concentrations.

In greenhouse research, Kopsell found that manipulating the amount of sulfur in the soil could alter the flavor of kale without affecting its carotenoid content. “We thought if we could grow kale with a milder, less bitter, less acrid flavor, it would make it more acceptable to consumers,” Kopsell said. He found that soils with less sulfur produce greens with a milder, less pungent flavor, but no loss of carotenoids.

Last summer, Kopsell worked with Extension educators Steve Turaj in Coos County and George Hamilton in Hillsborough to bring his greenhouse research into the field. Three vegetable farmers agreed to plant three different kale varieties in test plots with three levels of sulfur added to the soil. Participants at well-attended twilight meetings in both counties heard about the research and sampled three different high-carotenoid kale varieties grown under three different levels of sulfur fertility.

“At one of our twilight meetings we had 150 people and more than half of them tasted the kale samples from the three different plots,” said Hamilton . “They couldn’t believe the difference between the high-, medium- and low-sulfur treatments.”

“People derive benefits from only those vegetables they’re willing to eat,” says Turaj with a laugh. However, Kopsell noted that some kale tasters in each group actually prefer the stronger-tasting kales grown in high-sulfur soil.

Human feeding trials
Last summer, co-investigator Dr. Joanne Curran-Celentano began work on the human nutrition component of the study, in which human volunteers will either consume spinach or lutein supplements over several months, then measure how much lutein gets absorbed into their bloodstreams and deposited into the macula lutea of their eyes.

Celentano’s team recruited 50 test subjects, divided into five groups. The control group receives a placebo. Two groups received lutein supplements, one with a higher, the other with a lower dose of lutein. The other two groups eat a prepared dish five days a week containing spinach grown at the UNH research farm. One group of spinach eaters gets the high-lutein 'Spinner' spinach variety; the other eats 'Springer' spinach, a variety containing 33 percent less lutein.

Curran-Celentano says the project used spinach instead of kale to make it easier to recruit volunteers, since more Americans eat spinach than kale. She and her team hope to complete the feeding trial and analyze the data this fall.

Kopsell recently accepted a position at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and will continue his carotenoid research there. “A lot of Americans look to professional health care to cure diseases. [Research like ours] is approaching health from the preventative side,” says Kopsell. “Some day not too far into the future, [nutritionists] may establish an RDA for lutein and other phytonutrients. As a plant physiologist, I want to know what genetic and cultural factors contribute to increasing the levels of those phytonutrients in food crops.”

A boost for local growers?
All this knowledge may translate into a little home-team advantage for local farms,” says Coos County Extension educator Steve Turaj. “Perhaps you’ve heard about the Country-of-Origin labeling law (COOL) passed by Congress as part of the 2002 Farm Bill. [Still working its way through the rulemaking process], the law will eventually require that fruits, vegetables, meat and fish sold in the U.S. include a label identifying the country where the food originated.”

“University studies show consumers favor the idea,” Turaj says. “ Wouldn’t it be terrific to say, ‘Yes it’s grown here and it’s superior to food from somewhere else. Here’s why.’”

by Peg Boyles, UNH Extension writer/editor, with help from Coos County Extension educator Steve Turaj

For more information

• About phytonutrients
• About carotenoids
• Descriptions of the various threads of carotenoid research at UNH
• USDA Nutrient Database - Learn about the nutritional value of the foods you eat by typing the name of the food in the “keyword” box.

Now, the larger question is risk of associated disease based on your BMI and waist size. In addition to a high BMI, having excess abdominal body fat is a health risk. Men with a waist of more than 40 inches around and women with a waist of 35 inches or more are at risk for health problems. Below is a chart for you to follow to determine risk:

Surveys show more than half the adults in America are trying to lose weight. Many do, but most of them are unsuccessful at keeping it off. National Institutes of Health figures show more than half the adults in the U.S. are overweight and about one in four are obese.

You've seen these statistics before and you know you're among the millions of Americans who are either overweight or obese. You know you need to lose weight and most likely, you've been at these crossroads before. "This time," you say, "I will do it once and for all." You're pretty much aware of what hasn't worked in the past and you are searching for what will. The media abounds with all sorts of solutions. What's to believe?

Perhaps our answer should come from those who have lost weight and have been successful in keeping it off. There is a group of 3,000 people who are part of a long term study called the National Weight Control Registry . Members of this group have lost an average of 60 pounds and have kept it off for an average of five years. These people who have lost large amounts of weight and have managed to keep it off have four things in common:

It's that 'egg-citing' time of year spring! It's the season to enjoy the great outdoors and celebrate special occasions. Although eggs are eaten throughout the year, they are an important part of springtime events such as egg hunts.

Eggs are perishable, just like raw meat, poultry and fish. To protect you and your family from a foodborne illness, be sure to handle and prepare eggs safely. Here are some of the most common questions, and their answers, consumers have about egg safety.

Why is egg safety important?
Unbroken fresh shell eggs may contain Salmonella Enteritidis bacteria that cause foodborne illness. While the number of eggs affected is quite small, there have been cases of foodborne illness in the last few years.

Are the bacteria in the yolk or the white?
Unfortunately there isn't an either/or answer to this question. Researchers say if the bacteria are present, it's usually in the egg yolk. However, bacteria may also be in the egg white. The bottom line - cook the entire egg until it's firm whites and yolks.

Can shell eggs be pasteurized?
Yes, shell eggs can be pasteurized by a processor if the US Food and Drug Administration approves the process. Pasteurized shell eggs are available in some parts of the country, but aren't yet available nationwide. Because special equipment is needed to pasteurize eggs in the shell, it isn't possible to do it at home.

What should I look for when buying eggs?
Always buy refrigerated eggs. Look for Grade A or AA eggs that are clean and have uncracked shells. Check the freshness date. Take eggs straight home and store them immediately in the refrigerator. Store them in the grocery carton in the coldest part of your refrigerator.

Should I wash eggs before storing or cooking?
No. When eggs are processed, they are carefully washed and sanitized using a special detergent. The eggs are then coated with a tasteless, natural mineral oil to protect them. How long will eggs be safe in the refrigerator? Use raw shell eggs within three to five weeks. Hard-cooked eggs will keep one week if refrigerated.

Are there special recommendations for handling eggs?
Handle eggs as you would any other perishable food such as raw meat or poultry. Wash hands, utensils, equipment and kitchen surfaces with warm, soapy water before and after contact with eggs and dishes containing eggs.

How do I know when cooked eggs are safe?
any cooking methods can be used to cook eggs safely, including poaching, hard cooking, scrambling, frying and baking. However, eggs must be cooked thoroughly until yolks are firm. Scrambled eggs shouldn't be runny. Casseroles and other dishes containing eggs should be cooked to 160 degrees F. Use a food thermometer to be sure.

How can I keep eggs safe during an egg hunt?
Here are some step-by-step instructions from the FightBAC! food safety website www.fightbac.org

• Wash your hands before and after handling eggs at each step of the process.
  
  
• Use only uncracked, refrigerated eggs.
  
  
• To cook the eggs, place a single layer of eggs in a saucepan. Add water to at least one inch above the eggs. Cover the pan, bring the water to a boil, and carefully remove the pan from the heat. Let the eggs stand (18 minutes for extra large eggs, 15 minutes for large). Immediately run cold water over the eggs. When the eggs are cool enough to handle, place them in an uncovered container in the refrigerator where they can air dry.
  
  
• When decorating, be sure to use food grade dyes. It's safe to use commercial egg dyes, liquid food coloring, and fruit-drink powders. When handling eggs, be careful not to crack them. Otherwise, bacteria could enter the egg through the cracks in the shell.
  
  
• Keep hard-cooked Easter eggs refrigerated until just before the hunt. Keep them fully chilled by storing them on a shelf inside the refrigerator not in the refrigerator door.
  
  
• Consider preparing one set of eggs for decoration only and another set for eating.
  
  
• Hide the eggs in places protected from dirt, pets and other potential sources of bacteria.
  
  
• The total time for hiding and hunting eggs should not exceed two hours.
  
  
• Refrigerate 'found' eggs until eaten.

Diabetes affects about 17 million Americans, resulting in 200,000 deaths and $132 billion in healthcare costs a year. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90-95 percent of all cases and is strongly linked to weight gain and physical inactivity.

Diet is crucial in managing diabetes, and advice has improved a lot over the past 10 years. Controlling carbo intake by using the exchange system food lists or by counting grams of carbos remains a key tool, but added attention is now given to actual food choices. However, many people with diabetes still remain confused about diet. Let's look at four common myths that can sabotage a healthy eating plan.

Myth 1: You need a special diabetic diet if you have diabetes.

Fact: There's no special diet just for diabetes. The dietary guidelines that help manage blood sugar and prevent diabetes complications like blindness, kidney failure and limb amputation are basically the same ones that help control weight and lower the risk of chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, cancer and osteoporosis.

That's good news, because diabetes more than doubles your risk of heart disease and stroke, and over 80 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight. Here are four general guidelines for eating well for both diabetes and overall health:

1. Emphasize whole grains, fruits, veggies, low-fat dairy foods, legumes (beans, lentils), nuts, baked or broiled fish, and modest amounts of very lean meat.
   
   
2. Portion control is a powerful tool for controlling blood sugar and weight. That means measuring, because most of us greatly underestimate how much we really eat. Use measuring cups and spoons, plus a low-cost diet scale for solid foods like meat and cheese. As your portion savvy improves, you'll need to measure less often.
   
   
3. Spread your carbos out more evenly over the day also may help.
   
   
4. Among its many health benefits, regular exercise improves carbo tolerance and blood sugar control

Myth 2: Cut back on all carbos and eat more protein and fat, because they don't raise blood sugar.

Fact: Carbos aren't your enemy if you choose wisely! In fact, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends eating more of the high-quality, health-promoting carbos found in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and low-fat dairy products. The lower-quality carbos to cut back on are refined, processed grain foods like white bread, white rice and pasta, soda and added-sugar foods.

Replacing some lower-quality carbos with fat can be beneficial, but be careful. Many low-carbo, fatty foods are high in artery-clogging saturated fat (full-fat cheeses, meats, butter) or partially hydrogenated fat (fried chicken, seafood, stick margarine). The healthiest fat sources are olive oil, canola oil, nuts, seeds, avocados, and broiled or baked fish.

As for more protein, most people with or without diabetes already surpass their needs by a good 50 percent. Higher levels may worsen existing kidney problems. Emphasize protein sources low in saturated fat like very low-fat dairy foods, skinless poultry, fish, beans and soy.

In general, a healthy carbo level for people with diabetes ranges from about 45-55 percent of total daily calories. That equals 180-220 grams for a 1600 calorie diet or 270-330 grams for a 2400 calorie diet.
However, your own optimal carbo intake depends on your activity level, weight and height, blood sugar readings, diabetes medications, health status, and your carbo choices (some raise blood sugar more than others). Be sure to seek personal advice from your doctor, registered dietitian, or diabetes educator.

Myth 3: Avoid sugar, and only use sugar substitutes.

Fact: Even a no-sugar diet wouldn't solve blood-sugar problems, because non-sugar carbos (starches) affect blood sugar, too. In fact, many starchy foods (even some very healthy ones) raise blood sugar as much as or more than an equivalent amount of table sugar. Your diabetes medications, portion control, and exercise can usually keep this effect under control.

The best way to handle sugar is to cut back on calorie-rich, nutrient-poor foods high in added sugar. Some, like donuts and snack cakes, are also high in unhealthy types of fat.

There's room for modest amounts of added sugar, but be sure to substitute it for other carbos you normally eat. Otherwise, your blood sugar may worsen. It's smart to emphasize naturally-sweet, nutritious foods like whole fruits, corn, peas and sweet potatoes. Artificial sweeteners like Nutrasweet and Splenda can also help, as well as sugar alcohols like mannitol and sorbitol, but the latter two may cause gas and diarrhea.

Myth 4: Don't eat fruits, because they're too high in sugar.

Fact: Most whole fruits have a relatively modest blood-sugar effect if portions are reasonable, because their sugars are more slowly released and absorbed. These include apples, apricots, berries, cherries, grapes, grapefruit, nectarines, oranges, peaches, pears, plums and prunes. Fruits are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and disease-fighting antioxidants. The ADA recommends up to four servings of fruit daily as well as taking your blood sugar an hour or two later to determine the impact of different fruits (and other foods as well). Keep records, because results vary with portion size, your initial blood sugar level, a full versus empty stomach, foods eaten just before or along with the fruit, after-meal exercise, and individual differences.

Avoid fruits canned in heavy syrup. Whole fruit is superior to juice, because it's much higher in fiber, tends to raise blood sugar less, and satisfies hunger on fewer calories. Keep portions reasonable, and eat a variety of fruits, especially intensely-colored ones, which are exceptionally rich in antioxidants.

By David Leonard, UNH Cooperative Extension Educational Program Coordinator, Nutritions Connection Program UNH Cooperative Extension

Atkins low-carb dieting has surged in popularity the past few years. Now it’s rapidly evolving from a weight-loss diet into a low-carb lifestyle that could actually make us fatter.

Short-term effects appear safe and effective

First, let’s look at the Atkins diet, which has aroused fierce debate since its 1972 debut. The plan limits carbs to 20 grams per day (80 calories’ worth) during the initial 14-day Induction Phase and 50 grams during the Ongoing Weight-Loss Phase. It also permits liberal amounts of meat, eggs and cheese high in saturated fat and cholesterol.

However, several recent trials show Atkins may well be a safe and effective weight-loss option for short-term use—six months up to a year) for some people. (But, as with any major dietary change, start it only after consulting with your doctor.

In the Atkins trials, heart-disease risk factors improved about as much as with a high-carb/low-fat diet and even more so for those obese participants who got little exercise. Atkins also yielded greater weight loss at six months (15.2 pounds versus 6.8 pounds), but the difference narrowed and was no longer significant at 12 months.

How does it work?

How does Atkins work? Research suggests its weight-loss effect has little to do with “ketosis,” which begins a day or two into the diet once the body uses up its stored carb reserves and is forced to burn ketones (a byproduct of body-fat breakdown.) That was formerly thought to reduce hunger and enhance fat loss. In addition, the jury is still out on the claim that the diet’s reduction in blood-sugar swings results in lower appetite.

Rather, the Atkins diet may succeed mainly by helping reduce calorie intake in two ways. First, its carb limits greatly restrict food choices. That blocks a major trigger to overeating, because monotony lowers food intake, while variety boosts it.

Second, Atkins, like many weight-reducing diet plans, makes impulse eating more difficult by placing off-limits many of our favorite “quick-grab,” high-calorie snack foods like chips, crackers and cookies. Even routine eating takes more thought and planning.

Long-term concerns

So, what about the improvement in heart-risk indicators despite eating all that saturated fat and cholesterol? Research shows as long as you’re losing body fat while on Atkins (or any diet), these two bad guys appear to lose their negative effects for most people.

However, once weight loss stops, excessive saturated fat and cholesterol may once again become risky. That’s one reason why a long-term low-carb diet high in meat, eggs and cheese may raise health risks. Another is that very low-carb diets simply lack enough healthy carb sources— such as vegetables, whole grains, fruits, and beans—shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.

From weight loss to lifestyle

The recent positive media reports on Atkins and the food industry’s quick response to profit-boosting trends are rapidly turning short-term low-carb dieting into a potentially more risky and even weight-promoting low-carb lifestyle.

Supermarkets now offer hundreds of new, specially processed (and higher-priced) low-carb foods with labels such as “carb-aware” and “carb-smart.” Even naturally low-carb foods are being re-labeled to tout this fact.

Restaurant chains are recasting their high-calorie, high saturated-fat foods as “low carb” or even “Atkins approved.” And new multivitamin formulations dubiously claim to supply what’s missing in a low-carb lifestyle and help you burn the extra fat and protein you’re eating.

This rapid growth and promotion of low-carb food choices may even sabotage the Atkins diet’s major calorie-limiting mechanisms mentioned above. Remember that food variety may promote overeating, especially when you ignore calories

“Net-carb” labeling

Most low-carb foods now list the grams of “net carbs” derived by taking total carbs and subtracting those that have little impact on blood sugar, even though some contain calories. The debited carbs include ordinary fiber (no calories,) “fermentable carbs” (about half the calories of ordinary carbs,) and sugar alcohols (five percent to 75 percent of the calories.)

This net carb-labeling trend encourages us to count carbs instead of calories. Yet study after study shows that cutting overall calories is what really matters for weight control, not whether they come from carbs or fat. Indeed, many new low-carb foods have only slightly fewer calories than their full-carb versions.

Reducing calories

All this begs the question of what to do about carbs and fat when reducing calories. After all, they make up the bulk of our calories. The best place to cut carb calories is soda, juice drinks, and other items high in added sugar, as well as white flour and other refined grain foods.

Fat calories are best cut from foods high in saturated fat and trans fat (the latter found in partially-hydrogenated oils or vegetable shortening): fried foods, high-fat dairy foods, fatty meats, butter, stick margarine, and many types of popcorn, cookies, crackers and chips.

By David Leonard, UNH Extension Educational Program Coordinator, Food and Nutrition

For more information

• Find out your daily calorie needs
• Why are we eating more food, yet burning fewer calories these days?
• Find out the pros and cons of popular weight-loss diets
• Assess your diet and physical activity level Click on Interactive Healthy Eating Index