Why eat Carbs, Overactive Bladder and Diet, Steel Cut Oats
Tag it:
Karen Collins, MS, RD, CDN American Institute for Cancer Research
Weekly column for the week of February 6 , 2006
Q: Is there any reason to eat carbohydrates, other than dietary fiber?
A: Yes. Carbohydrates are the main energy source for the body, and the brain especially depends on them. Current recommendations call for getting 45 to 65 percent of your calories from carbohydrates, which include starches, sugars and dietary fiber. The more calories you burn up in a day, the more carbohydrates you should eat, since healthy eating means avoiding excess fat and protein. Although some foods with added sugars can be a part of good eating, most of your carbohydrates should come from vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans. Bread, rice, pasta and cereal are carbohydrate-rich foods, but you should look for whole-grain varieties because they are more nutritious. Even if we didn't need all of these plant foods for their carbohydrates, they are vital sources of vitamins, minerals and natural plant compounds that help prevent cancer and heart disease
Q: Does diet affect an overactive bladder and urinary incontinence?
A: Maybe. An overactive bladder is characterized by the sudden need to urinate. If that need leads to the leakage of urine, the condition is called urge incontinence. Both result from the abrupt, involuntary contraction of a muscle in the bladder wall. Studies show that being overweight increases a person's odds of developing urge incontinence and urge-related symptoms. For people with this condition who are overweight, a weight loss of even five to ten percent can cut their incontinence in half. Isolated studies have linked caffeine and high-fat diets with an overactive bladder, too, but other studies do not. Urologists sometimes suggest that patients try avoiding substances that might irritate the bladder, like alcoholic beverages, coffee (including decaf), tea and carbonated beverages. However, there is no reason to avoid these foods if you don't experience any improvement. "Stress incontinence," the inability to prevent the escape of urine during a physical stress such as laughing, coughing, or sneezing, is generally not affected by foods. It can be treated with exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, and occasionally by surgery. If you suffer from an overactive bladder or any form of incontinence, you should discuss the problem with your doctor. The condition is widespread and can be treated. Behavioral training to control bladder function and certain medications can be highly effective.
Q: Are "steel-cut" oats more nutritious than other oatmeal?
A: Not really. Steel-cut oats, also known as Irish or coarse-cut oatmeal, are simply another form of whole-grain oatmeal. Traditional oatmeal is referred to as rolled oats, because whole-grain oats are softened by steam and flattened on rollers to form flakes. Steel-cut oats, on the other hand, are cut into small nuggets without being flattened. There?s essentially no difference in the fiber or nutrient content of rolled and steel-cut oats. However, steel-cut oats take longer to cook than rolled oats, unless they are cooked in a pressure cooker, soaked overnight or toasted before conventional cooking. The popularity of steel-cut oats seems due to a desire for variety as well as their hearty, chewy texture.
Reprinted with permission from the American Institute for Cancer Research
Diets 
