Walk Kansas

Celebrate 2018 Week 7 healthy living

In this issue: What Can We Learn from Blue Zones? Strengthen and Stretch Your Upper What Can We Learn from Blue Zones? Body Taming Your Sweet Tooth Places in the world where people live longer and healthier, without medication or disability, are known as blue zones. Here, it is common to Recipe: Lemon Raspberry Frozen see people live to 90 or even 100 years old. In partnership with National Yogurt Geographic, journalist thoroughly researched and identified these five blue zones: Okinawa, Japan; (Italian island); Loma Linda, California; ’s Nicoya Peninsula; and an isolated Greek island, Coming next week: Ikaria. Improving Balance Why do people in these areas live so long and so well? The answer is Manage Stress with Guided Imagery simple — lifestyle. Their lifestyle includes a healthful diet, daily exercise, Balanced Nutrition and a low-stress style of living that focuses on family, purpose, , and meaning. Simplicity seems to be a thread that runs through the Recipe: Grilled Steak Salad and lifestyle of those living in these blue zones. Let’s take a look at the lifestyle Baked Parmesan Tomatoes characteristics more closely. What does a healthy diet look like in blue zone regions? Their diets are loaded with vegetables, fruits, fish, and nuts. They eat very little meat, sugar, fat, and processed foods. They do enjoy red wine, along with goat’s milk and local teas as beverages. Studies show that heart disease and diabetes are linked to a lifetime of obesity and poor diet. People in blue zones eat healthfully most of the time and, not surprisingly, they suffer from these major diseases less frequently or not at all. Another common theme across all blue zones is a daily routine of exercise. You won’t see treadmills or fitness centers in these places, however. Those living in blue zones don’t need to artificially incorporate exercise into their lives. Their physical activity is built naturally into their Like us on Facebook: Kansas State environment and into daily living. People climb mountains and walk University Walk Kansas through hills, they work the land, and generally use their bodies to do all of This newsletter developed by Sharolyn their daily activities. Often, their exercise is slow and relaxed, but ongoing. Flaming Jackson, Extension Specialist – Family and Consumer Sciences, K-State Research and Extension. Their bodies are tough and healthy. Even in their 90s, they are often able to live active, normal, healthy lives and most are free from needing Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment medication. Quite a contrast to those in their 90s in most parts of America, Station and Cooperative Extension Service who are often frail, weak, and dependent on medications. The takeaway K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity here is that you have to work your body every day and avoid long periods provider and employer. Kansas State University is committed to making its services, of sitting. activities and programs accessible to all participants. If you have special requirements due to a physical, vision, or hearing disability, contact the Director of Institutional Equity, continued on page 2 Kansas State University, 103 Edwards Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506-0124, (Phone) 785-532-6220; (TTY) 785-532-4807. Blue Zones continued Those in blue zones also live a life of low stress and one that is filled with happiness. This is what most people want, right? Another theme of blue zones is that people live low-stress, happy lives enriched with strong family ties, a sense of purpose, a healthy dose of , and they get plenty of sleep. Just how they manage this, specifically, is hard to define. You can grasp the point, however, and that is if you are generally happy with your place in life then you behave in ways that promote and health. In simple terms — you are most likely to take good care of yourself. Research has proven that living a life constantly full of stress, anger, and resentment has long-term, dramatic, and negative impacts on health. Living a long and healthy life like those in the blue zones is not achieved through shortcuts and quick fixes. It is a way of life. It requires a constant, daily lifestyle of positive enrichment for the body and mind. You can take the lessons learned from a blue zones lifestyle and begin to apply them in your own life immediately by changing your perspective. Find ways to make healthy food taste good. Incorporate exercise and activity throughout your day as part of your daily routine, rather than it being a burdensome chore you do for 30 minutes each day. Surround yourself with others that share your interest in living a happy, meaningful life with less stress and place your priority on getting good sleep. There are lessons to be learned from the lifestyle characteristics of people living in blue zones. Try applying those to your own life as best you can.

Taming Your Sweet Tooth Do you crave sugar? Sugar is hidden in many of There are simple things you can do to start reducing common foods, and the more you consume, the more the added sugars in foods/beverages you consume sugar you want to have. By eating or drinking highly and begin to tame your sweet tooth. sweetened products, you become desensitized to • Start with beverages. Drink more water or sweetness in your foods, so it takes more sugar, or unsweetened tea and choose these with a more intense sweetness, to satisfy your desire. meal. Buy sugar-free or low-calorie beverages. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend Avoid, or limit, beverages with sugar substitutes. getting no more than 10 percent of your daily calories Consuming intensely sweetened beverages from sugar, or roughly 50 grams. To put things into can leave you craving foods/drinks with more perspective, drinking more than one 12-ounce can sweetness. of soda would max out your limit for a day. The • Remove sugar, syrup, and honey from the table American Heart Association recommends about half so it is out of sight. that amount. The reason for these limits is that studies show a diet with a lot of sugar increases your risk for • Add fresh fruit to cereal or oatmeal instead of developing heart disease, and it can lead to obesity sugar. and associated diseases such as type 2 diabetes and • Avoid canned fruit packed in syrup or heavy cancer. This limit applies specifically to added sugars syrup. Choose those canned in water or natural and not those occurring naturally in foods like fruits juice. and milk. • When baking cookies, brownies, or cakes, cut For many Americans, this is a significant change and sugar in the recipe by 1/3 to ½. to reach this requirement of no more than 10 percent • Use spices to enhance foods, rather than sugar. of daily calories, most people would need to cut added Try ginger, allspice, cinnamon, or nutmeg. You sugars in their diet by half. can also use extracts instead of sugar, such as It is not always easy to find the added sugars in almond, vanilla, orange, or lemon. foods and beverages. The best place to look is the • Substitute equal amounts of unsweetened ingredient label on processed foods. Look for these applesauce for sugar in recipes. names: brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, malt sugar, raw sugar, honey, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit • Use sugar substitutes in moderation. If you are juice concentrates, molasses, sugar, syrup, and sugar one that likes to have a dessert at the end of a molecules ending in “ose” (dextrose, glucose, sucrose, meal, adopt the habit of serving fruit rather than etc.) high-calorie, high-fat, and high-sugar foods. This frozen yogurt (recipe on next page) is a treat.

Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service Strengthen and Stretch Your Upper Body Most of you are familiar with pushups. This staple exercise activates what are called the “push” muscles. Your bodies also have “pull” muscles, those in the back and posterior shoulders that pull your shoulders down and back. Many of the activities you do activate the push muscles, such as desk jobs and using a computer, cooking, driving, texting, talking on the phone, painting, sewing, and writing, to name a few. Any activity you do with a slouched posture also uses these muscles. Most of us need to concentrate on exercises that activate our pull muscles so body strength is balanced. Concentrate on adding an exercise or two for your pull muscles this week, such as a pull across the chest with tubing or a fitness band, or any exercise where you pull your arms back and try to squeeze your shoulder blades together. This exercise, Bent Over Row, can be done standing or while seated in a chair. 1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent, holding a dumbbell. Bend forward at the waist about 8 to 10 inches, or as far as you feel comfortable, keeping your back straight. Extend arms about 10 inches in front of you so they are directly under your chest, with your palms facing each other. 2. Pull the dumbbells up and back toward your chest, keeping your elbows tucked close to your body. 3. Pause for a moment while squeezing your shoulder blades together.

4. Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position. Bent Over Row More strengthening exercises can be found at walkkansas.org. A good stretch for your shoulders is the Deltoid Stretch. Bring your right arm across the front of your body. Hold your right elbow with left hand. Gently flex the bent arm, which will pull the right arm across chest until a stretch is felt in the back of the shoulder. Hold for 15 seconds. Relax and switch arms. Here are more resources for stretching your upper body: Upper Body Stretches for the Workplace Stretching Exercises to do at your desk or while you sit to watch television, etc. Deltoid Stretch Lemon Raspberry Frozen Yogurt Makes 6 servings Ingredients: Directions: 1 cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt (can also use vanilla 1. Add Greek yogurt, raspberries, honey, lemon juice, Greek yogurt) and zest to a blender or food processor and blend 12 ounces frozen raspberries until smooth. 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice 2. Serve immediately or place in an air tight container and put in freezer for 1 to 2 hours, then serve. 2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest 3 tablespoons honey Nutrition Information per 2/3-cup serving: 80 calories 0 g fat 18 g carbohydrates 5 g protein 4 g fiber 15 mg sodium

Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service ATCHISON 2018 WEEK6 COUNTY NOTES & NEWS Weekly Team Progress Totals

Team Wk 6 Total Wk 6 Total Wk 6 Total Wk 6 Total Website & Reporting Activity Miles Strength Strength F/V F/V Water Water Tips Atcorod1 11 72 0 0 20 128 56 352 Belly Acres 13 254 0 11 56 478 28 751  When you add minutes in the purple box, (activity) it Busy Bees 95 471 4 14 90 512 142 2183 converts to miles and Cruzin Kansas 146 714 16 98 127 753 351 1806 displays as miles. 15 min = 1 mile. Deer Creek Valley Walkers 128 432 7 45 4 126 28 552  Strength Training this year Evaluators In Motion 103 695 10 55 49 285 113 580 (Yellow box) is logged as days, you will mark Mister & The Sisters 95 466 0 0 0 0 0 0 whether or not you completed Progress Rail Team 1 100 573 5 13 82 392 416 2039 it for the day.  Report fruits/vegetables in Progress Rail Team 2 47 291 2 13 29 155 116 784 cups. Progress Rail Team 3 120 706 27 92 84 293 196 991  Report water in 8 oz glass amounts. Scrambled Legs 91 456 0 0 130 540 31 234  Report numbers are based Sister Sister Wonders 0 98 0 1 0 118 0 8 on information reported by Team Dare To Be You 21 248 1 8 35 131 41 221 noon Tuesday.  Teams can log weekly or The Pacemakers 96 488 0 0 0 0 0 0 daily. The Ramblers 33 264 3 20 38 414 60 596  If your team was unable to The Walking Read 0 169 0 22 0 266 0 371 report this week, information can be updated next week. Treas-tastics I 0 184 0 14 0 350 0 791 Treas-tastics II 44 327 0 4 23 171 150 817 Trixie’s Troopers 39 352 6 45 0 28 0 111 Walkie Talkies 137 482 0 20 114 450 0 80 Walking Wonders 0 395 0 0 0 581 0 576 Wishful Shrinking 50 567 3 63 26 213 156 869 K-State Research & Extension–Atchison County is an equal opportunity employer & provider. Blue Zone author, Dan Buettner writes “ of an American born today averages 78.2 years. But this year, over 70,000 Americans have reached their 100th birthday. What are they doing that the average American isn’t (or won’t?). A good question to ponder. K-State Research and Extension has teamed up with Kentucky Extension to design a series of educational programs based on the Blue Zone findings as part of USDA research project. Locally, our office has been leading Forever Young: Keys To Embracing Aging classes each month to explore and apply the findings of the Blue Zone research. Classes are ongoing for a year. Each month we explore, learn and commit to make one small monthly lifestyle goal. While we have several months of discovery left, I look forward to our monthly gatherings. Knowing that not everyone will have an opportunity to participate in the sessions, the power of nine as written by Dan Buettner are highlighted below. 1. Move Naturally The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons or join gyms. Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it. They grow gardens and don’t have mechanical conveniences for house and yard work. 2. Purpose The Okinawans call it “” and the Nicoyans call it “plan de vida;” for both it translates to “why I wake up in the morning.” Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy 3. Down Shift Even people in the Blue Zones experience stress. Stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every major age-related disease. What the world’s longest-lived people have that we don’t are routines to shed that stress. Okinawans take a few moments each day to remember their ancestors, Adventists pray, Ikarians take a nap and Sardinians do happy hour. 4. 80% Rule “Hara hachi bu” – the Okinawan, 2500-year old Confucian mantra said before meals reminds them to stop eat- ing when their stomachs are 80 percent full. The 20% gap between not being hungry and feeling full could be the difference between losing weight or gaining it. People in the Blue Zones eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening and then they don’t eat any more the rest of the day. 5. Plant Slant Beans, including fava, black, soy and lentils, are the cornerstone of most diets. Meat—mostly pork—is eaten on average only five times per month. Serving sizes are 3-4 oz., about the size of deck or cards. 6. Wine @ 5 People in all Blue Zones (except Adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly. Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers. The trick is to drink 1-2 glasses per day (preferably Sardinian Cannonau wine), with friends and/ or with food. And no, you can’t save up all week and have 14 drinks on Saturday. 7. Belong All but five of the 263 we interviewed belonged to some faith-based community. Denomination doesn’t seem to matter. Research shows that attending faith-based services four times per month will add 4-14 years of life expectancy. 8. Loved Ones First Successful centenarians in the Blue Zones put their families first. This means keeping aging parents and grandparents nearby or in the home (It lowers disease and mortality rates of children in the home too.). They commit to a life partner (which can add up to 3 years of life expectancy) and invest in their children with time and love (They’ll be more likely to care for you when the time comes). 9. Right Tribe The world’s longest lived people chose–or were born into–social circles that supported healthy behaviors, Okinawans created “moais”–groups of five friends that committed to each other for life. Research from the Framingham Studies shows that smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness are contagious. So the social networks of long-lived people have favorably shaped their health behaviors. To make it to age 100, you have to have won the genetic lottery. But most of us have the capacity to make it well into our early 90’s and largely without chronic disease. As the Adventists demonstrate, the average person’s life expectancy could increase by 10-12 years by adopting a Blue Zones lifestyle. Source: BlueZones.com Atchison County has been partnering with K-State Research and Extension since 1915 to provide local citizens with knowledge for living. We focus our educational program efforts in four key areas- family and consumer sciences, youth development, community development and agriculture/ horticulture. Atchison County has 2 extension agent educators–Diane Nielson and Ray Ladd. You K-State Research & Extension may see us in a classroom teaching youth, leading a workshop, hear us on the radio, read a news Atchison County column we have written, answering a question on the phone, making a home or work site visit or Atchison County Extension Office working with others in the community to make 405 Main/PO Box 109 Atchison County a great place to live and work. Effingham, KS 66023 Our programs are backed up by researchers at Phone: 913-833-5450 K-State and other universities. Whether you live in Fax: 913-833-5450 Atchison, a farm or a community in between, we Email: [email protected] are here to provide answers to make life a little easier.

We are on the web: www.atchison.ksu.edu Providing Knowledge For Life It’s What We Do

Signature Scones Flavor Variations: Makes 12 Scones Double Pineapple: pineapple yogurt with 1 Cup white whole wheat flour 1/2 Cup chopped dried tropical pineapple 1 Cup all-purpose flour Lemon Ginger: lemon yogurt, 1 Table- 2 Teaspoons baking powder spoon grated lemon zest plus 1/4 to 1/2 1/4 Teaspoon baking soda Cup finely minced crystallized ginger 1/2 Cup dried fruit or fresh fruit, chopped Lemon Blueberry: lemon yogurt, 2 Tablespoons sugar or agave nectar 1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest and 1/2 1/2 Cup (5.3 Oz Carton) Nonfat Greek yogurt, flavor of Cup fresh blueberries choice 1/4 Cup vegetable oil or olive oil 1/4 Cup low-fat milk 1 large egg, slightly beaten Topping: 1 Tablespoon low-fat milk or whipping cream 2 Teaspoons sparkling white decorating sugar or granulated sugar (optional)

In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the dried or fresh fruit, sugar or nectar, yogurt, oil, milk, and slightly beaten egg. Stir just until ingredients are combined and the dough clings together. (The mixture will be sticky. If using fresh fruit, several more tablespoons of flour may be needed.) Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly for a few turns. Divide the dough in half and pat into two 6-inch circles. Cut each circle into six equal wedges. Place the wedges 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheet. Topping: Brush the tops of the scones with 1 Tablespoon of milk or whipping cream. Sprinkle with sparkling white decorating sugar or granulated sugar, if using. Bake the scones in a 350-degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly golden. Transfer the scones to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.