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Today Begins National Public Health Week

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Picture 85Since 1995, the American Public Health Association has designated the first full week of April as National Public Health Week, a time to appreciate the issues that impact our overall well-being as a nation.

This year’s theme is “Public Health is ROI: Save Lives, Save Money,” and AICR applauds its focus on prevention as a key strategy to make diseases like cancer more rare, and less costly — whether those costs are measured in dollars or in human lives.

The National Institutes of Health has crunched the numbers, based on 2008 data. How much does cancer cost the nation financially each year?

Total cost: $201.5 billion

Direct medical costs (total of all health expenditures): $77.4 billion

Indirect mortality costs (cost of lost productivity due to premature death): $124 billion

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New Report: Cancer Death Rates Continue to Drop

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bigstock-Business-Graph-15731144It’s not often national cancer statistics offer up good news, but a just-released annual report on US cancer incidence and mortality points to some encouraging trends.

According to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975–2009 (a joint product of The American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR)) the nation’s overall cancer death rates continue to decline.

Notably, the mortality rate for all four of the most common (non-skin) cancers in the US — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate — are decreasing. Continue reading →

Naturally Sweet Hannukah Latkes

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As part of your Hannukah celebration next week, why not make our version of potato pancakes: delicious, healthy Sweet Potato and Pear Latkes.

Your family will get nutrition benefits from these low-calorie treats, sweetened naturally with pears, which add cancer-fighting fiber to that of the whole-wheat breadcrumbs, onions and sweet potatoes to total 5 grams in each serving. Garnishing your latkes with unsweetened applesauce, dried cranberries and sour cream keeps them low-calorie and light.

Beta-carotene — a powerful antioxidant phytochemical that protects against cancer — is usually found in orange vegetables, but is present in green broccoli, too. It makes sweet potatoes a more nutritious choice than white potatoes.

This recipe uses 4 egg whites instead of whole eggs in the latkes, as well as monounsaturated canola oil cooking spray so the saturated fat is kept to zero.

Enjoy these and other healthy recipes from the AICR Test Kitchen. Click here to subscribe to our weekly Health-e-Recipes.