Legumes Lower Blood Sugar, Diet to Reduce Breast Cancer Risk, Work Related Email after Hours

Legumes Reduce Blood Sugar Levels: Researchers at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) have found that adding legumes to your diet can significantly reduce blood sugar levels.  They experimented with swapping out half a portion of white rice or white potatoes with green or red lentils.  Replacing the half portion of rice with lentils reduced blood glucose levels by 20%. Replacing a half portion of potatoes with lentils reduced blood glucose levels by 35%, compared to the levels found when lentils were not used.  Details of the study were recently published in the Journal of Nutrition.  Lentils can slow digestion and slow the release of glucose into the bloodstream from the starch of white rice or potatoes.  Other legumes with similar properties include beans of all kinds, garbanzo beans, soy beans and peas.  These legumes are nitrogen-fixing, thereby improving soil fertility.  

A Diet to Ward off Breast Cancer:  Results from the Nurses Health Study have indicated that women who had five and a half servings of fruits and vegetables daily, compared to those who had less than two and a half servings, had an 11 percent lower breast cancer risk.  A serving is about one cup.  The effect was especially significant with the most aggressive types of breast cancer. Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and cabbage) were especially strongly associated with reduced risk, as were yellow and orange vegetables such as carrots, winter squash, yams and sweet potatoes.  This study has recently been published in the International Journal of Cancer.

A study entitled :Killing me Softly…electronic communications monitoring and employee and spouse well-beinghas shown that when employers expect workers to monitor their work related emails during non-work hours, the result is a problem for the employees and their families.  William Becker, a Virginia Tech associate professor of management in the Pamplin College of Business, wrote that "The competing demands of work and nonwork lives present a dilemma for employees, which triggers feelings of anxiety and endangers work and personal lives."  Their study shows that employees do not need to spend actual time on work in their off-hours to experience the harmful effects. The mere expectations of availability increase strain for employees and their significant others -- even when employees do not engage in actual work during nonwork time. "The insidious impact of 'always on' organizational culture is often unaccounted for or disguised as a benefit -- increased convenience, for example, or higher autonomy and control over work-life boundaries," Becker said. "Our research exposes the reality: 'flexible work boundaries' often turn into 'work without boundaries,' compromising an employee's and their family's health and well-being."   Prospective employees should be told clearly whether or not email availability in off-hours is expected, so they can decide on the suitability of the job.  Employers should establish boundaries on when they expect off-hour work to be done, and how it will be compensated.  

There are several take-home messages from this paper that apply to all of us.  The digital world of screens and phones has taken over most of our lives, even when work demands are not the issue. It is wonderful and amazing to have the knowledge of the world, past and present, in your pocket.   However, making time for talking face to face, reading or writing a book, doing art and playing music are still important ways of being human.  Gardening, walking, hiking and running outdoors, playing sports and watching the sky – name your favorite and leave your screen behind for a while.  But – you might want to turn it on to listen to – Killing me Softly with his Song – its haunting.  

Sadja Greenwood MD, MPH  

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