A healthy snack option, try Apple Nachos this week

Family Features - No matter how busy your schedule gets, it’s important to take time to nurture your physical and mental health and well-being. With busy work, school and sports schedules underway, it is good to remember to take time to cook and eat together with loved ones.

In fact, research from the "Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health" shows regular family meals make it more likely kids and adults will eat more fruits and vegetables.

Photo provided

Making healthy choices, including eating fruits, like those in Apple Nachos, and vegetables have also been linked to greater happiness, according to research published in "Canadian Family Physician," and can help you through the transition back to school, the office, or wherever your routine takes you. Pairing a healthy diet with other science-backed tips and recipes from the American Heart Association’s Healthy for Good initiative, supported by Kroger Health, can help you and your family feel your best.

Apple Nachos are a delicious dessert any time of the year. With tart apples covered in caramel and nut seeds make a delicious snack or side dish on game day or movie night.

For more free recipes and more health tips, follow this link to heart.org/healthyforgood.

Apple Nachos

Recipe courtesy of the American Heart Association’s Healthy for Good initiative

1/3 cup dried unsweetened cranberries or raisins

1/4 cup sliced unsalted almonds

2 tablespoons unsalted shelled sunflower seeds

3 medium green or red apples, cored and thinly sliced into 12 wedges each, divided

1-2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

1/4 cup smooth low-sodium peanut butter

1 tablespoon honey

Servings: 6

In a small bowl, stir cranberries, almonds and sunflower seeds.

Layer 18 apple wedges on a large plate or platter. Sprinkle with lemon juice to keep apples from browning.

In a small microwaveable bowl, microwave water on high for two minutes, or until boiling. Add peanut butter and honey, stirring until the mixture is smooth.

Using a spoon, drizzle half of the peanut butter mixture over apple wedges. Sprinkle with half cranberry mixture. Layer remaining apples over cranberry mixture. Drizzle with the remaining peanut butter mixture. Then sprinkle the remaining cranberry mixture over top.

Nutritional information per serving: 167 calories; 7.5 g total fat; 1 g saturated fat; 0 g trans fat; 2.5 g polyunsaturated fat; 3.5 g monounsaturated fat; 0 mg cholesterol; 66 mg sodium; 22 g carbohydrates; 4 g fiber; 15 g sugar; 4 g protein.

Photo of the Day - November 17, 2021

Out of reach

Nat Nosler (left) and a Unity teammate help break up a Williamsburg pass play last Saturday. The Rockets, who beat the Bullets 28-7, will play their fourth and final playoff game at Hicks Field on Saturday at 2pm against Mt. Carmel. The winner advances to the Class 3A title game against the winner of the other semifinal game between Byron and IC Catholic. See more photos from Unity's quarterfinal game in the PhotoNews photo vault.

PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Recent study notes stroke survivors are less likely to quit smoking

Cancer survivors are more like to quit as part of their recovery

Photo courtesty American Heart Association

Stroke survivors were more likely to continue cigarette smoking than cancer survivors, raising the risk that they will have more health problems or die from a subsequent stroke or heart disease, according to new research published today in Stroke, a journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.

"The motivation for this study was the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s Moonshot initiative that includes smoking cessation among people with cancer. We were curious to understand smoking among people with stroke and cardiovascular disease," said Neal Parikh, M.D., M.S., lead author of the study and a neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. "In part to assess whether a similar program is necessary for stroke survivors, our team compared smoking cessation rates between stroke survivors and cancer survivors."

The investigators analyzed data collected between 2013 and 2019 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a national health survey that collects information regarding chronic health conditions and health-related behaviors annually.

Researchers analyzed data from 74,400 respondents who reported having a prior stroke and a history of smoking (median age of 68 years; 45% women; 70% non-Hispanic white), and 155,693 respondents who identified as cancer survivors with a history of smoking (median age of 69 years; 56% women; 81% non-Hispanic white). Previous smoker status was defined as having smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.

After adjusting for demographic factors and the presence of smoking-related medical conditions, researchers found that:

Stroke survivors were found to be 28% less likely to have quit smoking compared to people with cancer.

61% of stroke survivors reported that they had quit smoking.

Stroke survivors under the age of 60 were far less likely to have quit smoking (43%) compared to stroke survivors ages 60 and older (75%).

Photo courtesty American Heart Association

"If you told a stroke neurologist that 40% of their patients don’t have their blood pressure controlled or weren’t taking their aspirin or their cholesterol-lowering medication, I think they would be very disappointed,” said Parikh, who is also an assistant professor of neurology in the Department of Neurology and of neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine. “These results indicate that we should be disappointed – more of our stroke patients need to quit smoking. We can and should be doing a lot better in helping patients with smoking cessation after stroke."

The researchers also found that stroke survivors who live in the Stroke Belt – 8 states in the southeastern United States with elevated stroke rates (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana) – were around 6% less likely to have quit smoking than stroke survivors in other areas of the U.S. Increasing smoking cessation is one factor than can be addressed to reduce the disproportionately high rates of strokes and stroke deaths in the Stroke Belt.

"Important next steps are devising and testing optimal smoking cessation programs for people who have had a stroke or mini-stroke," said Parikh. "Programs for patients with stroke and cardiovascular disease should be as robust as smoking cessation programs offered to patients with cancer. At NCI-designated sites, smoking cessation programs often include a dedicated, intensive counseling program, a trained tobacco cessation specialist, and health care professionals with specific knowledge about the use of smoking cessation medications. Hospital systems could also adjust care protocols so that every stroke patient receives a consultation with a tobacco cessation specialist and is enrolled in a smoking cessation program with the option to opt out, as opposed to having to seek out a program."

A limitation of the study is that the data in the survey was self-reported – it relied on individuals to indicate if they have ever smoked or are currently smoking. The study population is also limited because it included only people who live independently in the community, rather than those living in a nursing home or other living facility.

Co-authors are Melvin Parasram, D.O., M.S.; Halina White, M.D.; Alexander E. Merkler, M.D., M.S.; Babak B. Navi, M.D., M.S.; and Hooman Kamel, M.D., M.S.. The study was supported by the New York State Department of Health Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program and the Florence Gould Endowment for Discovery in Stroke.

Prep Sports Notebook: Armstrong leads SJO scoring at Turkey Tournament

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Spartans get win #2

St. Joseph-Ogden's Ella Armstrong made all five of her free throws and drained a couple of threes to finish her second game of the season with a team-high 15 points in SJO's 43-34 win over Tri-County.

Peyton Jones also tallied double-figure scoring finishing the night with 10 points in game #2 at the Toyota of Danville Turkey Tournament on Tuesday.

The Titans were paced by Josie Armstrong's 15 points and Bella Dudley's 11 points.

Both teams are back in action at Turkey Tournament with Tri-County taking on the Urbana Tigers and SJO finishing round-robin play against Champaign Centennial's Chargers.

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