Are you getting five daily servings of veggies?
You should've had a V8: Seven out of 10 Americans don't eat the recommended five servings of fruits and veggies a day - and ideally, we're supposed to be getting nine. But a new study shows drinking vegetable juice is an easy way to boost vegetable intake.
Participants were divided into three groups: dietary counseling alone; counseling plus one 8-ounce glass of V8 100 percent vegetable juice every day, and counseling plus two glasses of juice. Less than 25 percent of those in the counseling group got their "daily five," compared with more than half of those who drank one glass of V8 and all of those who drank two.
"What we found in this study is that drinking vegetable juice seemed to address some of the key barriers to vegetable consumption, such as convenience, portability and taste," said study author Carl Keen, professor of nutrition and internal medicine at the University of California, Davis.
As nutrition experts say, the best vegetable - whether it's fresh, frozen, canned or juice - is the one you will actually eat. Or in this case, drink.
More than McDreamy: Steamy TV doctors shows can also be a good source of health information, according to two studies from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
One study looked at prime-time episodes and found 61 percent featured "a moderate amount of educational content," U.S. News & World Report writes. For the second study, the Kaiser Foundation worked with writers of "Grey's Anatomy" on a story line about an expectant mother who is HIV-positive. Even as long as six weeks after the episode aired, viewers were three times more likely to answer a question about HIV transmission rates correctly than those who didn't see the show.
Time for a shot: It's flu shot season, and for the first time, federal guidelines call for children ages 6 months to 18 years to get vaccinated, too. Not only will that help keep kids from getting sick, but it will also protect those who are most vulnerable to serious complications, such as infants and people older than 65.
The good news is flu shots are plentiful and a good match for the strains that will be going around this year. Protection starts about two weeks after you get the shot and lasts six months.
"The flu vaccine is effective 70 to 90 percent of the time," said Linda Stein, registered nurse and manager of infection control at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. If you do still get the flu, it likely won't be as severe, studies suggest.
For more information, call the Lutheran General flu shot hotline at (800) 995-4267. Your doctor's office or workplace may be the most convenient places for you to get the vaccine, or visit findaflushot.com and enter your ZIP code to find flu shot clinics at stores and pharmacies near you.