Healthy Eats: Garlic White Bean Soup with Smoked Sausage

The Heart-Smart Diabetes Kitchen cookbook says this is perfect for a cold, rainy day. See what you think:

Ingredients
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) smoked turkey sausage, diced
1 1/2 cup chopped onions
1 cup matchstick carrots
4 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 can (15 ounces) no-salt-added navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 ounces)reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crumbled
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon liquid smoke

Preparation
Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook until browned, about 2 minutes. Remove sausage from Dutch oven; set aside on a separate plate.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon canola oil and reduce to medium heat. Add onions and carrots; cook 3 minutes or until onions are translucent, stirring frequently. Add garlic; cook 15 seconds. Add remaining ingredients, except liquid smoke and sausage. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20 minutes or until onions are tender.

Remove from heat and add liquid smoke and sausage. Cook and let stand 10 minutes. To serve, spoon equal amounts of soup into four shallow bowls.

Nutritional information:
Calories, 265; Total fat, 10 grams; fiber, 8 grams.

Processed meats are tied to higher rates of heart disease and diabetes

Combing through 20 relevant studies, involving 1.2 million adults in 10 countries, researchers discovered that unprocessed red meat isn't so bad for our hearts. It's processed meats that are actually linked to a higher incidence of coronary heart disease and diabetes.

"To lower risk of heart attacks and diabetes, people should avoid eating too much processed meats -- for example, hot dogs, bacon, sausage or processed deli meats," lead researcher Renata Micha, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the Palm Beach Post. "Based on our findings, eating up to one serving per week would be associated with relatively small risk."

Researchers found that:

• higher consumption of unprocessed red meat was not significantly associated with risk of either coronary heart disease or diabetes.

• higher consumption of processed meat was associated with risk: each daily 50-gram serving was associated with 42 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease and 19 percent higher risk of diabetes.

Unprocessed red meat included beef, hamburgers, lamb or pork.

Processed meat was any meat preserved by smoking, curing or salting, or with the addition of chemical preservatives, including bacon, salami, sausages, hot dogs, or processed deli or luncheon meats.

The processed meats contained, on average, four times higher sodium and 50 percent higher levels of nitrate/nitrite preservatives than unprocessed red meats. In contrast, saturated fat levels were similar and cholesterol levels were higher in unprocessed red meats versus processed meats. Researchers said this suggests that salt and other preservatives, rather than fats, could account for the higher risk seen with processed meats.

Their work was presented this week at an American Heart Association conference in San Francisco.

Report on diabetes drug Avandia raises questions about FDA accountability

The diabetes drug, Avandia is back in the news--if you noticed the article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer--because of its association with increasing the risk of heart attack.

Dr. Steven Nissen , who chairs cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, was the author of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, which found Avandia was associated with a 43-percent increased risk of heart attacks. (See Nissen's paper here; rosiglitazone is the generic name for Avandia.) His paper prompted the FDA to issue a warning.

"The drug's maker, GlaxoSmithKline, defended the product," Sarah Jane Tribble writes in the newspaper. "Now, it turns out, the drug maker privately confirmed Nissen's findings."

The story references a government report that was released over the weekend. The New York Times also wrote about the report, starting a story with the alarming assertion that: "Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a controversial diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market."

It goes on to say the drug was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.

The FDA issued a drug safety communication today, saying its officials are still reviewing a long-term clinical study of the drug and have no conclusions or recommendations yet about its use. The posting on the FDA Web site says, "Patients who are concerned about the possible risks associated with using rosiglitazone should talk to their healthcare professional."

Read the Cleveland Plain Dealer story.

Read The New York Times story.