Healthy Eats: White Bean Dip

A nutrient-rich dip can be the basis of a heart-healthy meal or snack. This one from the Mayo Clinic is easy to whip up. You may even have the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients
1 can (15 ounces) white (cannellini) beans, rinsed and drained
8 garlic cloves, roasted (* see below)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions
In a blender or food processor, add the beans, roasted garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. Blend until smooth.

Serve on top of thin slices of toasted French bread or pita triangles. This is also excellent placed on top of sweet red bell peppers cut into squares.

Two tablespoons is a serving, and that contains 3 grams of fiber, 109 calories, and 4 grams of fat--but only a trace of saturated fat; it contains mostly monounsaturated fat. One serving provides 5 grams of protein, and 105 mg of sodium.

(*) about the roasted garlic, here's a tip from a Mayo Clinic dietitian: Cut off the tops of several heads of garlic exposing the cloves. Spray the garlic generously with cooking spray. Wrap in aluminum foil also sprayed with cooking spray. Heat the oven to 350 F and roast about 30 minutes.

Doing away with mouth-to-mouth for bystander CPR

This Mayo Clinic YouTube video has gone viral. It's landing in in-boxes, and being forwarded to more friend's in-boxes. (Like the Faberge shampoo advertisements -- "you tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on and so on.")

And that's a good thing!

The video is a couple minutes long, and it teaches a simple potentially life-saving skill--chest compression-only CPR. That means no mouth-to-mouth. Just chest compressions.

Surely you've got 2 minutes to watch the demo. Then file the information away in your head, and hopefully you'll never have to use it.

Vitamin D greatly reduces our risk of heart disease in latest research

Doctors have been telling us how we should up our intake of vitamin D for a while now, since low levels are associated with heart disease and some cancers.

Now researchers from across the pond are giving us even more reason: middle aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D can reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes by 43 percent.

Forty-three percent.

That's huge.

To arrive at that number, researchers at the Warwick Medical School looked back at 28 studies (half from the United States) involving almost 100,000 people. Their work is published in the journal, Maturitas, an international journal of midlife health and beyond.

Here's why vitamin D is good for you.

How much do you need?

The Vitamin D Council says supplemental vitamin D is necessary unless you use suntan parlors once a week or live in Florida and sunbathe once a week, year-round. It recommends:

* healthy children under the age of 2 years take 1,000 IU per day;

* healthy children over the age of 2 take 2,000 IU per day; and

* healthy adults and adolescents take 5,000 IU per day.

Natural bone health expert, Susan Brown says our bodies use 3,000 to 5,000 units of vitamin D per day. They will store excess vitamin D for up to six months, but without replenishment, we'll run out.

Conflict for Coca-cola to sponsor national heart health campaign?

Diet Coke sponsors the Heart Truth campaign. (Have you seen the limited edition heart graphics on special packages?) For part of the campaign, Diet Coke sponsors the Red Dress Collection Fashion Show. Heidi Klum is its heart health ambassador. Also, through MyCokeRewards, members who donate points can have Diet Coke match their donations and give money to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health "to further efforts of women's heart health awareness and research," says a description from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

It's all good...right?

Well, let's look at the truth. Soda, and all its easy-to-guzzle calories, has been blamed for our nation's obesity epidemic. Some nutritionists even fault the diet varieties, for fueling our appetite for sweets. For that reason, the Center for Science in the Public Interest calls the Heart Truth sponsorship into question. In a letter to institute director, Dr. Susan Shurin, the center says "It is like allowing Philip Morris to be a sponsor of the government anti-smoking campaign."

The New York Times' Tara Parker Pope asked readers of her Well column, Should Coke Talk About Heart Health? Many readers are responding, some chuckling about the irony, some with suggestions (attach the campaign to Dasani,Coke's brand of bottled water), and some with tangents (taxing soda.)

Diet Coke is a major sponsor, but keep in mind the other companies behind Heart Truth. They include: Swarovski, which makes jewelry; the makers of Tylenol and St. Joseph Aspirin; Bobbi Brown Cosmetics; A&E Group (medical apparel); Alps2o mineral water; CanolaInfo; Cheerios; Creative Nail Design; CVS Caremark; DERMadoctor specialist skin care; Dial, Essence, Eyebobs; Glamour; Graham Beauty and Graham Medical; Hamilton Beach; Johnson & Johnson; Lifespan (fitness equipment); Lifetime television; Metamucil; Minute Maid; Newsweek; Pretty City, Inc.; Prevention magazine; Roaman's (plus-sized fashions); and Sara Lee; Simon Property; Synder's of Hanover; Time Inc. Womens Group; and Woman's Day.

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