Vitamin D- in the News

Department of Extension Home Economics Bi-Monthly Newsletter

September/October, 2007 Volume 1 Issue 1

Table of Contents

Introduction Vitamin D in the News Helping Children Cope with Failure Using Market Bounty Safely Healthy Feet for People with Diabetes Bullying: Information for Parents Allowance or Work or Both Hot Topics

Introduction

This is the first issue of the first ever Department of Extension Home Economics newsletter that includes articles from all of our subject matter specialists. The idea grew out of discussion of the Extension Home Economics Advisory Team which includes all of the subject matter specialists and two representatives from each Extension District. (County representatives include Shannon Wooten, Connie Moyers, Karim Martinez, Kelly Knight and Desiree Jimenez. Imelda Garcia served on the team until she retired and now Paula Sanchez is joining us.)

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide updates to county agents in the home economics areas and also to supply agents with articles they can use in the newsletters that they produce. The plan is to have the newsletter released bi-monthly. We decided to keep the format simple and in a Word document so it will be easy for people to “cut-and-paste” articles they would like to use in other documents.

Please give us feedback regarding what is most useful in the newsletter and anything you would like to see added or changed.

Happy reading!

Martha

Martha Archuleta, Department Head Vitamin D- In the News re-emerge in children. This is attributed to prolonged breastfeeding Martha Archuleta, Ph.D. (breast milk is low in vitamin D) and Department Head decreased sun exposure through Extension Home Economics extensive use of sunscreens and less playtime outdoors. There is You may have noticed that vitamin D widespread concern today that levels has made frequent appearances in of vitamin D in other population health news in recent months. groups may be below optimal as Historically, the major importance of well. This may be particularly true in vitamin D has been attributed to the elderly and dark-skinned people strong, healthy bones and closely where vitamin D synthesis from sun connected with calcium in exposure is less efficient. maintaining bone health. Receptors for vitamin D have been found in Currently, adequate intake levels for other organs in the body which has vitamin D are set at 200 IU from birth caused scientists to wonder what to age 50, 400 IU from age 51-70 other functions vitamin D might have. and 600 IU for people over 70. The Recent research has linked vitamin safe upper limit is set at 1000 IU for D to prevention of diseases such as infants and 2,000 for other age cancer, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid groups. Vitamin D fortified milk arthritis, multiple sclerosis, contains about 100 IU per cup, fatty autoimmune diseases, depression fish about 300 IU for 3 ounces and and controlling weight gain after tuna about 200 IU for 3 ounces. menopause. Breakfast cereals are also often fortified with vitamin D, typically at What should one make of the latest about 10-15% of the Daily Value. excitement about vitamin D? First a Without sun exposure, it may be little review of the basics: Vitamin D difficult to get adequate vitamin D is unique in that it can be made by from foods and in these cases, a the body when skin is exposed to the supplement containing vitamin D sun or other sources of UV light. It is could be beneficial. People should present in some foods, but fatty fish check with their health care provider (salmon, mackerel) and to a lesser to discuss the type and amount of degree in tuna and sardines are the supplement that could be beneficial only foods where vitamin D is for them. present in significant amounts. Vitamin D is also in eggs, liver and As mentioned previously, sun milk products, but only occurs exposure is also an avenue for naturally in small amounts. increasing vitamin D levels in the body. This can be accomplished by In the 1930’s, rickets was a major exposure of face and arms to health problem in the United States. sunlight three times a week for about (Rickets is the disease caused by 15 minutes during the middle of the vitamin D deficiency and causes soft, day. Sun exposure at this level misshapen bones.) This resulted in should provide a balance of the beginning of fortification of milk increasing vitamin D levels without with vitamin D. Milk fortification being excessive and resulting in largely eliminated rickets. However, increased skin cancer risk. in recent years, cases have begun to 2 Getting back to the recent news headlines; it is very likely that vitamin D has roles unimagined a decade or so ago. More research is needed to better define which diseases vitamin D truly has a role in preventing and which results are preliminary but Helping Children Cope with may not hold up with further testing. Failure In the meantime, it makes good sense to pay attention to getting Diana DelCampo, Ph.D. adequate vitamin D through a Extension Child Development combination of diet, supplements & Family Life Specialist and sun exposure that is adequate but not over-done. No matter how hard adults try to protect children from negative Sources: situations, at some point children will experience failure. Given the Can Vitamin D Prevent Cancer: inevitability of failure, how en American Cancer Society overcome failure and move on to http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/ achieve success? By providing content/NWS_1_1x_Can_Vitamin_D encouragement, teaching children Prevent_Cancer.asp how to handle negative emotions, and teaching children how to Vitamin D, Sun Exposure, and evaluate situations, adults can Cancer Prevention: Harvard Center provide a valuable life lesson on for Cancer Prevention coping with failure. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cancer/ risk/sunexposure/basics/vitamin_d.ht Encouragement m Have you ever watched babies Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet, learning to walk? This is a good Vitamin D: Office of Dietary illustration of providing Supplements, NIH Clinical Center encouragement as children cope http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Vita with failure. The process of learning minD_pf.asp to stand and walk requires that babies learn from failure. Babies do Vitamin D Slows Weight Gain: not just get up and walk. They try to WebMD stand, but fall down. They try to http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20 stand, but fall down again. This 070514/calcium-vitamin-d-slows- process goes on and on until one weight-gain day they stand and take one step. Success is eventually obtained when Are You Getting Enough Vitamin they stand and walk on their own. D:Web MD http://www.webmd.com/food- Repeated failure at trying to stand recipes/features/are-you-getting- and walk does not stop babies from enough-vitamin-d trying over and over again. They just keep trying harder. They usually Vitamin D May Ease Depression: have a parent or other adult WebMD encouraging them by holding out http://www.webmd.com/depression/n their arms for the baby to reach, and ews/200420040803/vitamin-d-ease- clapping when they do achieve some depression little bit of success. Adults in this 4 situation would never think of stopping babies from trying to achieve this task and usually provide continued encouragement, even feels. They can help her though babies are not successful the acknowledge that perhaps her skills, first or second time they try to walk. such as the ability to jump, may not be as strong as others on the team. This same principal can hold true in Adults can help her realize that she helping children learn to cope with is a valuable and good person with failure as they continue to grow and all kinds of other skills and abilities. develop. Adults can encourage Making a list of these skills and children to try a task and praise them strengths is a concrete way for her to when they try verses only praising see how valuable she is. them when they succeed. Adults need to say out loud, “I am proud of Once the list of strengths or skills is you for trying.” What really helps written, encourage activities that play children learn to deal with failure and up these strengths or skills. If this move on to succeed is their belief child has a good singing voice, that they can do what they set out to encourage her to join the church do, and aduls can play a vital role in choir or singing group at school. encouraging them to develop this When children experience success belief in themselves. based on their strengths, self esteem improves and they can handle failure Learn to Handle Negative or disappointment better. Create Emotions situations that balance positive and negative experiences. The child in One of the side effects of failing is the basketball scenario, who has the negative emotions that been cut from the basketball squad, accompany the process. When might help fix a leaky pipe or bake a children do not or cannot accomplish cake for the homeless shelter. The certain goals, it is vital that they learn child will feel a sense of to handle the negative emotions accomplishment for doing something such as guilt, shame, anger, or positive to balance out the feeling of sadness that are part of the failure failure in not making the basketball process. Children need to learn that team. it’s OK to cry, to talk about what happened, and to feel bad, but it’s Another way to help children handle not OK to be mean to others, throw the negative emotions associated things, or hurt themselves as a result with failure is to point out how people of the failure. Children need to learn in popular culture are experiencing to seek social support from friends or failure and coping with it. One adults in their life. They need example is political candidates, who someone to talk to when sad things lose an election. Talk about how they happen. For example, a child may lost, but still are valuable individuals try out for the basketball team and who will go on to do another job or really want to play basketball, but maybe even run for office again. may not have the skills to achieve Another example could be a favorite this goal. If this child gets cut from actor who makes a movie that is the squad, how can she deal with the panned by the critics, but goes on to hurt and disappointment? make a better movie that everyone loves. In this case, adults can help the child talk through the situation as a way of Learn to Evaluate the Situation dealing with the hurt she probably 6 On the other hand, in the previous example of the child who did not make the basketball team, achieving success may be possible. Perhaps all that is needed to achieve in this Preserving fruit and vegetables from situation is more practice. Maybe your own garden or taking she can make the team if she advantage of grocery market surplus spends more time practicing can extend your family’s pantry jumping. Children need to learn to through the winter months. Many evaluate the situation to decide if consumers would like to return to they can succeed and what the costs using foods that they have preserved of succeeding or failing will be. themselves for their families. Adults can help children learn how Canning food can be time to evaluate situations. In the consuming and costly while using basketball example children can dehydrators to dry foods or freezing decide if it’s reasonable to practice can take some time but can be done more or if it’s not worth the time and efficiently if you are well organized effort. When children learn to and have a little help from friends, evaluate the costs of success verses family or neighbors. the costs of failure, it can be a valuable lesson that they can use Regardless of the methods used for throughout their lives. food preservation, consumer must follow directions for the equipment Adults can talk about successes and used and follow recipes obtained failures so that children understand from reliable sources, such as the that this is a part of everyone’s life. National Center for Home For example, if you applied for a Preservation , New Mexico State promotion at work but didn’t get it, University Extension “how-to” talk about what happened in realistic publications or private commercially terms. Maybe the company was not available source such as making enough money to give Homecanning.com. Consumers must anyone a raise or promotion this also prepare and hold preserved year or maybe there were some foods according to the instruction of personality clashes that kept you recipes used. from achieving success in your job. Canning food Learning how to cope with failure depends on adults encouraging Foods such as green chile are children to try new things and not naturally low in acid, canning them being afraid to fail, as well as requires special precautions that children dealing with negative differ from those followed when emotions and weighing the pros and canning high-acid fruits. Growth of cons of failing. It is through these microorganisms particularly must be experiences that children can learn avoided. Some bacteria cause food to have control over their spoilage, while others produce toxins accomplishments and learn from that cause illness or death. For their failures. example, Clostridium botulinum is a harmless bacteria in air. In little or no Using Market Bounty Safely acid, an air-free canning jar, and temperatures between 40°F and Nancy Flores, Ph.D. 120°F, this bacteria grows and Extension Food Technology produces a deadly toxin that can Specialist cause serious damage to the central nervous system or death when eaten in even minute amounts. 8 Follow a USDA approved recipe or reliable source for preparation and processing of fruits and vegetables. All communities in New Mexico are above sea level, varying from 3,000 (if can is damaged, swollen or to 10,000 feet, with differences even leaking) and double bag cans, then within a county. Determine the place product in outdoor trash elevation of your community and containers that have lids. Put out for follow processing steps appropriate collection only on garbage pick up for that elevation. Only use Mason day. Keep out of reach of children jars that are in good condition with and pets. self sealing lids held in place by screw-on metal bands. Mason jars Drying foods are made from tempered glass to resist high temperatures. Jars must Drying is one of the oldest methods be washed and rinse thoroughly or in of preserving food it is a great the dishwasher and kept hot until alternative to canning & freezing that filled. Use only new lids and follow is simple, safe and easy to learn. manufacturer’s directions for Drying can be done year round and preparing lids for canning. Once does not require refrigeration once thermal processed, jars can be dried. Dried product is easy to store tested for vacuum seals by pressing and takes little space. The process the lid center with finger. If the lid of drying removes moisture from springs up when released, it is not food to control the growth of sealed. Unsealed jars can be re- bacteria, yeasts and molds. Drying processed with a new lid for the will slow down action of enzymes but same amount of time within 24 doesn’t inactivate them. Optimum hours. Unsealed jars can also be temperature for drying food is 140°F. kept in the refrigerator and the food If higher temps are used, food cooks can be eaten within 3–4 days, or instead of drying. Furthermore low remove about an inch of the contents temperature drying avoid “case and freeze. Before storing jarred hardening” – dried outside and product, clean the outsides of moisture is trapped inside which can sealed, cooled jars. Label with date result in mold. Low humidity and and contents and store in a cool (50– Increased air current speeds up 70°F), dark, dry place away from drying, removes air around food. sun, light, or dampness. Canned Foods can be dried in the sun, but foods are best if eaten within one often need several days of high year. temperature and low humidity.

IF CANNED FOOD SPOILS Fruit and vegetables must be prepared and treated before drying. Check lids for a vacuum seal. There are several treatment options NEVER taste food from an unsealed available to help protect color from jar. Signs of food spoilage are browning reactions. Treatments streaks and dried food at the top of range from sulfuring agents such as the jar, swollen lids, broken jar seals, sulfite dip to ascorbic acid and fruit rising air bubbles, and any unnatural juice dip and honey dip syrup. color. Other indicators include bad or Blanching sets color in vegetables unnatural odor; spurting liquid; white, and stops enzymatic reactions. blue, green, or black mold; and Prepared fruit and vegetables are foaming. Dispose of any food you exposed to heat for prescribed suspect of being spoiled. To dispose amount of time and quickly dipped of cans of spoiled food wear gloves briefly in cold water only long enough 10 to stop cooking. Vegetables and fruits are patted dry with paper towels then place in dehydrator. Once dried, product must be cooled less time than they can be dried or before packaging. Don’t pack canned while the kitchen remains product too soon or moisture buildup somewhat cool and comfortable. could occur and don’t wait too long Freezing is a simple procedure and or could pick up moisture from the adds convenience to food environment. Conditioning is a preparation. Initial investment and process that allows the moisture to cost of maintaining a freezer can be equalize within the dried fruit. Pack high and is limited by how much the cooled fruit in plastic or glass jars, freezer will hold. seal and let stand for 7-10 days shake jars daily to separate pieces Flavor changes during freezer and check for moisture storage are controlled by keeping as condensation. If condensation much air out of the package as occurs, return to dehydrator for more possible. Textural changes occur in drying, unless the product has frozen food because as water in food started to mold, then dispose of freezes and expands ice crystals moldy product. Vegetables are dried form causing the cell walls of fruits until brittle or “crisp”. Some and vegetables to rupture, making vegetables shatter if hit with hammer them softer when thawed. have final moisture of 10% therefore Packaging used to freeze food vegetables don’t need conditioning should be moisture-vapor resistant like fruits. which prevents the transfer of moisture and air in and out of the Sun Drying food package and protects foods from absorption of “off” flavors or odors Fruits are high in sugar and acid, are during frozen storage. safe to dry in the sun. It is not safe to dry vegetables or jerky/meat If power is know to be off outdoors. To dry fruit outdoors the beforehand, set freezer controls on conditions must be hot, dry, breezy -10°F to -20°F immediately. Do NOT with a temperature of 85ºF or higher open the door. Foods stay frozen and for several days with humidity longer if freezer is full, well-insulated below 60%. Drying products must be and in cool area. A full freezer will covered to control for insects and keep food 2 to 4 days, but a half-full pests. Beans, lentils and soybeans freezer will only hold food for 24 can be dried on the vine until beans hours. Texture will not be as good. inside rattle and can be completely General Rule: Refreeze if freezer dried in oven or dehydrator. Pests temperature is still 40°F or below OR can be controlled by freezing at 0ºF if ice crystals are still present in the for at least 48 hours or by placing food. dried product in an oven preheated to 160ºF for 30 minutes. References:

Freezing food Cooperative Extension Service, The University of Georgia, College of Many foods can be preserved by Family and Consumer Sciences. freezing while retaining natural color, flavor and nutritive value. The texture Cooperative Extension Service, New of frozen foods is usually better than Mexico State University, Extension for other methods of food Home Economics. preservation. Foods can be frozen in

12 Healthy Feet for People with  Use skin cream (but not between Diabetes your toes) if your feet are dry.  Cut toenails straight across. File Karen Halderson, MPH, RD, LD the edges so they are smooth. If CDE Extension Diabetes you have trouble reaching your Coordinator feet, ask a family member to cut your nails. Every person with diabetes should have a complete foot exam at least  Don’t walk barefoot. once a year. The exam should include:  Don’t smoke! Smoking cuts off blood flow.  Checking the pulses of your feet to see if there is a circulation Choose comfortable shoes that fit problem. well:

 Checking the nerve functions of  Choose shoes with a low heel your feet using a filament. and plenty of room for your toes.

 Evaluating any problems such as  Choose leather dress shoes; for bunions, corns, athlete’s feet, everyday wear, walking or fungal nails, ingrown toenails. running shoes are a good choice.

 A discussion of of foot care.  Break in new shoes slowly.

Take care of your feet every day:  Check inside your shoes for stones or other objects before  Check your feet every day for putting them on. sores, calluses, red spots, cuts, swelling, and blisters. If you  Wear clean padded socks to cannot see the bottom of your protect your feet. feet, use a mirror or ask someone to check your feet for you. Keep your diabetes under control. High blood sugar levels are behind  Call your health care provider, no most foot problems of people with matter how small your wound. A diabetes. small cut can quickly become large and infected. Adapted from materials from the American Diabetes Associaton  Do not cut calluses or corns yourself. See your health care Bullying: Information for provider if cutting is needed. Parents

 Wash your feet every day. Dry Bruce Jacobs, Ph. D. them carefully, especially Extension Health Specialist between your toes.

13 For our children, school should be a positive experience of learning, socialization, being with their friends, fun, and growth. Unfortunately, some children face being bullied at School. These days, bullying can to seek help when they are bullied or also occur in the technology arena, see others being bullied. that is, electronically via web pages, Some signs a child is being bullied Internet web blogs and chat rooms, include:1 email, instant messaging, and text messaging.  Coming home with torn, damaged, or missing pieces of Bullying can be physical, verbal, clothing, books or other written, emotional, and belongings. psychological, including the following:  The child has unexplained bruises, cuts or scratches.  physically hurting someone  The child seems afraid of going  ganging up on someone (or to school, walking to and from getting others to gang up on school, riding the school bus or them) taking part in organized activities with peers.  spreading bad rumors about someone.  The child appears sad, moody, teary of depressed when he or  teasing someone in a mean way she comes home.

 verbally threatening someone  The child frequently appears anxious and/or suffers from low  keeping others out of your self-esteem. "group" What Can a Parent Do?  making someone feel uncomfortable or scared The Stop Bullying Now2 web site offers some great resources and  taking another person's information for kids, parents, and possessions or demanding providers. Included among some of money from them the recommendations for parents are:2  unwanted sexual advances or abusive comments  If your child is being bullied or you suspect he or she is being Bullying can cause psychological, bullied, be supportive and obtain emotional, and physical injury to information about the bullying. those being bullied. Schools need to Let him or her know that you’re play their part in addressing bullying concerned. by implementing prevention programs, fostering a climate of respect, teaching kids positive social 1 From the Stop Bullying Now web site at behavior, and having a protocol to http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov deal with bullying occurrences. 2 For more information, see the Stop Bullying Adults need to encourage students Now web site. 15  Immediately contact the school and ask to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss the problem (do so non-confrontationally): ask the teacher what he or she plans to do to stop the bullying. Sources  School staff should meet with your child to learn about what KidsHealth your child experienced or is http://www.kidshealth.org experiencing, assure your child that they will help resolve the The National PTA problem, and develop a plan of http://www.pta.org action to keep your child safe. U.S. Department of Health & Human  School staff should not meet with Services your child together with the child http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov who is allegedly doing the bullying; these should be Allowance or Work or Both? separate meetings. Bullying is not an issue for mediation but rather Connie Kratzer Ph.D. an issue of victimization, power, Extension Family Resource and control. Specialist

 After your initial meeting with Parents and children alike often raise your child’s teacher, schedule a the questions of allowances. While it follow-up meeting to find out what is a personal decision, the concept of progress has been made. If giving an allowance and having work there’s no improvement, meet income seems to work best. with the school’s principal. Parental goals, when paying an  It’s good to keep notes about allowance, should be to: what your child originally tells you about being bullied, and about  Shift some spending decisions what you discuss with school from parents to the child personnel.  Eliminate or dramatically reduce  If you are concerned with your the need for the child to have to child’s emotional state due to the ask for money; and bullying, ask to speak with a school-based mental health  Provide a method, under proper counselor. supervision, for learning about accumulating money and wise  Consider involving the police if spending techniques. your child has been physically assaulted or threatened with Establish a base allowance for each bodily injury. child. Determine what expenses the child is expected to cover from this  If the school is unable to stop the allowance. This will depend on the bullying, you may want to consult age of the child. Decide when and an attorney. how an allowance will be paid, and 17 then pay it regularly. Do not withhold an allowance as punishment. adapted to the child’s age. Also resist the temptation to bail children out if they fall short of their goals or http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/ffalrg run out of cash. Knowing when and n.html how much to save is a key lesson in FDA’s What’s New learning to manage money. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~news/what snew.html If the child wants more money, then create a list of jobs and other duties Calendar of Events that the child can perform, at will, if they want to earn additional money. September 24-28th, 2007 For each item on the list there should Taos Food Sector Training be a set amount of compensation Taos, NM and a complete description of the work to be done, so there is no October 15-17th, 2007 question about when a task is New Mexico Environmental Health properly completed. Conference Albuquerque, NM The jobs on the list are in addition to the chores the child is expected to October 21-25, 2007 do as a member of the family. National Association of Extension Children will form good work habits 4-H Agents and job skills by keeping their own Atlanta, GA weekly and monthly records. List the date jobs are assigned and October 24-26, 2007 completed, extra jobs available to Extension Association of New Mexico increase earnings, savings, etc. Portales, NM Also, children can learn to keep track of progress toward reaching each of November 2-4th 2007 their savings goals. Small Farm Conference Moriarty, NM Hot Topics December 6-8th, 2007 Artisan Mexican Cheese making 1. The Just in Time Parenting workshop resources on e-Xtension are just Las Cruces, NM about ready to be launched onto the e-Xtension site. Check it out at http://www.extension.org/parenting

2. CYFERnet has hot topics listed every month such as Home Safety Month and Healthy Eating Habits for Children. Check out past topics at http://www.cyfernet.org/hottopic/inde x.html For August, 2007, the topic is Workforce Preparation http://www.cyfernet.org/hottopic/aug ust07.html

Food Allergies- what you need to know