Winds Of Change - The Australian

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19 — THE WEEKEND

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AUSTRALIAN APRIL 9-10, 2005— 19 +

Health

Winds of change bring back beans

What wellbeing really means

Evidence is stacking up in favour of bean cuisine, writes Jane Lyons

HIS is my last column in Weekend Health , as I will be moving to The Weekend Australian Magazine after a break. But I wanted to end my time with some open speculation as to what wellbeing really means. I have had quite strong views about it all. Since making my seachange to Byron Bay I’ve tried to practise and teach what I call work-life balance. That is where all the different components of our lives work together in harmony. A former workaholic, I was alarmed to discover what years of pushing myself had done to my body, my soul, and my relationships. And as a former finance journalist in the 80s, I had also observed what years of driving ambition and stress may well have done to so many of the entrepreneurs and businessmen we admired back then. As the decade drew to a close many of those I’d interviewed had had major health scares. Some like talented, exceptional businessmen Robert Holmes a Court, Larry Adler — founder of FAI — and Floyd Podgornik, the man behind Melbourne’s famous Florentino’s restaurant, had died for a variety of reasons. Others I’d written about had lost marriages, their peace of mind, and some even freedom as jail loomed. Some, like Christopher Skase, fled the country. I emerged from the ’80s with the motto: ‘‘What drives you, can drive you over the edge.’’ And I have been teaching as much for the last few years. But then the other day I had a chance encounter which made me rethink work in terms of our overall health and wellbeing. Glenn Wheatley, the man behind Johnny Farnham and Little River Band, has been in Byron Bay giving a talk to the Chamber of Commerce about his years of fame, fortune and loss. Like so many success stories, Wheatley’s dream run came to a screeching halt at the end of the ’80s. His demise came with the crash of the Pyramid Building Society where he had parked his money. He had just sold his house to fund his business when Pyramid collapsed, and he was left with $10 million in debts. Sleeping on the floor of his mother-inlaw’s house, as everything he ever owned including valuable records and guitars were auctioned to pay his debts, he hit the place that so many of the entrepreneurs I knew had gone. ‘‘Many nights I cried myself to sleep,’’ he told a captivated audience. But not one to stay down for long, he followed the mantra of Winston Churchill: ‘‘Never give in, never give in, never give in!’’ and over time he resurrected himself. Still enjoying the fruits of his close relationship with John Farnham he has recently joined a syndicate which has become partner in the highly-successful Blues & Roots Music Festival in Byron. I’m at the festival having coffee with Glenn as the music roars around us. He is glowing, grinning from ear to ear, and a tribute to what I would call wellbeing. ‘‘I’m happy. That’s my secret,’’ he says. We talk about workaholism. I tell him my hypothesis — that you can’t be truly happy or healthy if you are obsessed with any one facet of life, particularly career, money or power. ‘‘You need your life working in balance. Each facet has to be given attention. You seem to be a driven man and yet you seem content. How is this?’’ And then he explains the ingredient I have been overlooking. ‘‘I am not obsessed, I don’t work as an obsession — I work out of passion. When you are passionate you don’t mind the down times — it’s all part of the challenge and the joy of it. I watch audiences and still get a buzz from what I’ve achieved. I feel so alive, so satisfied.’’ The other thing he has passion for is his family — wife Gaynor and children, and his close friends like John Farnham, who has stuck with him through thick and thin. He says that although he doesn’t have a hobby as such, his work-life is balanced by relationships. ‘‘I have real love in my life. It gives me a deep sense of contentment in everything I do.’’ I recently reported on findings that there’s good stress and bad stress. Glenn and I decide that good stress is when we follow our hearts. When we follow our passions, fulfil our life purpose, and take risks that invigorate rather than deplete us. It’s not so much what we do, but how we do it — with what feeling, with what motivation — that counts in the end. He has given me a new viewpoint. Perhaps it doesn’t matter how hard or passionately we work — as long as we are laughing a lot, and enjoying what we do, and have lots of love in our lives. Passion and pleasure seem to be an important ingredient in ‘‘overall’’ success. And there it is again — the message I have learned from my time in Health : joy is a true bolster to wellbeing. May you all live long and prosper. My new column starts in The Weekend Australian Magazine in July. See you then.

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HERE’S no doubt that legumes get a bad rap: beans still evoke images of long-haired hippies and starving students, for whom consumption of the first lentil burger is almost a rite of passage. But despite their usefulness for those intent on diverting a proportion of the week’s dinner budget to the student bar, pulses have traditionally lost much of their appeal once these undergraduate aficionados start on the treadmill of real life. For many people beans seem too much like hard work when paying jobs bring bigger bank balances and a lifestyle that demands the convenience of food that was ready 10 minutes ago. But thanks to nutritionists and the scientific community, the humble bean may be about to come into its own again. With recent studies illustrating their ability to lower cholesterol, decrease blood glucose levels and extend lifespan, the quiet achiever of nutrition is proving to be a weapon in the fight against some of our major lifestyle diseases. Chickpeas, beans, peas and lentils are all considered to be pulses, a subcategory of the legume family the members of which are defined by their double-seamed pods. And while Australians’ relationship with this family was once limited to the tinned breakfast variety, beans don’t just mean baked any more. Varieties like adzuki beans, black turtle beans, black-eyed beans, mung beans and lupins are all featuring more prominently in recipe books, restaurant menus, and on our plates. It’s the soya bean, however, that has been gathering most attention. In 1999 the notoriously stringent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began allowing food manufacturers to state on labels that soy protein, eaten in its natural form or in soy milk, tofu, tempeh, or soya-based meal alternatives, could help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The FDA says there is evidence that including soy protein in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce CHD risk by lowering blood cholesterol levels — although the FDA says studies show 25g of soy protein daily is needed to show a significant cholesterollowering effect. The high-profile soya bean has overshadowed its leguminous cousins, but in fact they share many of the same benefits. Power packed with protein, vitamin Bs, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and antioxidant phytonutri-

A third cancer path beckons

BODY AND SOUL RUTH OSTROW

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ents, pulses are also low in fat and high in fibre — and the research base in favour of them is gaining ground. Food scientists from Deakin University and the University of Tasmania recently followed a group of 38 men aged 24-64 who were fed a normal diet for one month, and then a diet that included 17-30g a day of bean fibre. They found the bean fibre diet lowered total blood cholesterol by 4.5 per cent and the nasty LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol by 5.4 per cent (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2005; 59(3): 325-333). According to Andrew Tonkin, the National Heart Foundation’s chief medical officer, a 1 per cent reduction in cholesterol means a 2 per cent reduction in cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes. And with 18 per cent of Australian deaths attributed to coronary heart disease, he says this kind of dietary research is welcome. ‘‘We tend to move away from the fact that our major health problem is largely preventable. It is largely result of lifestyle measures and so the dietary approach is very important,’’ he says. Late-onset diabetes, or Type 2, is also a result of diet, age and a sedentary lifestyle, and the multi-tasking legume has tackled this as well. Deakin University researchers discovered that by enriching white bread with chickpea flour they were able to lower blood glucose levels after each meal. (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2005; 59(2): 169-76) Michelle Norman, a Diabetes Australia accredited dietitian, says the regular consumption of legumes not only helps diabetics maintain normal blood glucose levels, but can also help in the prevention of Type 2 diabetes. ‘‘What we really we want to be focusing on now is this condition called prediabetes (also known as metabolic syndrome) where their (blood glucose) levels aren’t as high as people with diabetes but they are still getting levels a bit higher than what we would like,’’ she says. According to Norman two million people suffer from pre-diabetes, which if left untreated can develop into diabetes within five to 10 years. Another recent study reported that consumption of legumes was associated with lower death rates. The cross-cultural study, which included Australia, Japan, Sweden and Greece, reported an 8 per cent reduction in the risk of death for every 20g

increase of daily legume intake (Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2004; 13(2): 217-220). But according to the Western Australia-based Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA), Australia has one of the lowest consumption rates in the world. Nancy Longnecker, a researcher with the centre, hails from New Orleans and says she has always been surprised by our lack of interest in bean cuisine. ‘‘I grew up eating red beans and rice every Monday and it has always surprised me how few pulses are consumed in Australia. Everywhere else in the world they are a main component of a traditional diet,’’ she says. She says the problem is that people ascribe to the myth that ‘‘they are too boring and too hard’’. A working mother herself, Dr Longnecker says red lentils are the ‘‘fast food of the legume world’’ as they require no soaking and take less than 30 minutes to cook, while tinned beans can also help cut corners. Nutritionist Rosemary Stanton believes that people are also stymied by their social attitudes towards breaking wind, which she says is the byproduct of ‘‘good’’ bacteria in the bowel feeding on the oligosaccharides in legumes. She is concerned that many people, particularly women, display a chronic lack of fibre in their diets which she says may be linked to a ‘‘fear of farting’’. ‘‘We see so many people with the problems that occur from not enough fibre in their diet, like constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and of course

MAKING LEGUMES EASIER ■ Leave them to soak before going to work and they will be ready for cooking when you get home. Half a cup of dried pulses swells to one cup when hydrated. ■ Pulses freeze well, so cook large batches and then store in the freezer. ■ Red lentils are the fast food of the legume world. They require no soaking and can be prepared in under half an hour. ■ Make sure you cook kidney beans well. Undercooked beans can contain high levels of kidney bean lectin, which can cause nausea and diarrhoea. we have an incredibly high incidence of bowel cancer,’’ Stanton says. Frustrated by people who would rather focus on dietary fads than eat legumes with their proven benefits, Dr Stanton says ‘‘the message hasn’t got through’’ and an advertising campaign is needed to increase the consumption of legumes. ‘‘I would like to see the industry do something more to promote them, to make them easier to use,’’ she says. Ramon Hall, who took part in the Deakin University studies, says it is about making the products accessible to the average person. He has been working with a number of industry partners to assess the palatability of pasta, cakes, breakfast bars, breakfast cereal and even orange juice

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enriched with Australian sweet lupin flour and chickpea flour. ‘‘We are trying to produce healthier foods from these legumes to target the mainstream. It is a compromise between the old adage of tasting good and validating that they are good for people,’’ he says. And with growing awareness of issues such as obesity, Longnecker argues there is an increasing interest in these kinds of foods. ‘‘People are looking around and going, ‘Well, I don’t want a heart attack and diabetes, what can I do about it?’ or, ‘If I already have those conditions, how do I manage?’,’’ she says. And it seems the lowly legume might just be the key.

Eight trials conflict over supplements international study suggests. The study published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics followed 977 patients between 1987 and 1992. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either radiotherapy and goserelin or radiotherapy alone. After 10 years those receiving the drug — available in Australia under the brandname Zoladex — had a significantly greater chance of being alive (49 per cent compared to 39 per cent respectively). Goserelin works by suppressing androgens, or male hormones. Prostate cancer affects 10,000 men in Australia each year. J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2005;61(5):1285-1290

Nigel Hawkes

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■ Tinned legumes are another option for those on the run, but rinse well as some brands add high levels of salt and sugar. ■ Breaking wind is a by-product of ‘‘good’’ bacteria in the bowel feeding on the oligosaccharides in legumes. This effect can be minimised by throwing out the soaking water, which removes many of these soluble sugars. ■ The addition of common herbs such as cumin and winter savoury can also counteract the effect of wind, while the Indian herb Asafoetida can be bought in many Asian grocery stores.

The pulse

CIENTISTS have made a discovery that could lead to new ways of treating cancer. Working with skin-cancer cells, British scientists have found a way of reactivating a process that puts the cells into senescence — a coma-like state in which they stop dividing. Cancer treatments rely on either killing cells using drugs, or cutting them out, using surgery. The discovery, published last month in the journal Cancer Research by a team from the Marie Curie Research Institute, may provide a third way of dealing with them. In normal cells there is a selfdefence mechanism that responds to dangerous mutations by putting the cell into senescence. In cancers this mechanism is bypassed, enabling cell division to run out of control. The presumption was that it was damaged beyond repair. Colin Goding, who led the research, said: ‘‘When certain genes called oncogenes are activated by mutation, they cause cancer to develop. ‘‘When these are mutated, it’s like the accelerator in a car being jammed on — the cell is continuously getting instructions to divide.’’ The team was studying a gene called Tbx2, which is overactive in melanoma and other cancers. It turned out to be linked to a mechanism that repressed senescence. ‘‘This means we have potentially [found] a new way of stopping cancer cells dividing,’’ Dr Goding said. ‘‘Being able to design drugs that reactivate senescence would be a great boon. This natural mechanism would automatically target cells which have the accelerator jammed on. It would hit the cancer cells, but not normal cells.’’ However, even if the process turns out to be common to other cells, developing it into a therapy could be a long process.

A KIDNEY transplant can significantly improve heart function among people on dialysis who have serious heart failure, researchers have found. Contrary to previous thinking, the study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that a majority of patients who had systolic heart failure — where the left ventricle was not pumping blood properly — showed dramatic improvement after a kidney transplant. Previously it had been thought that a kidney transplant would strain the hearts of such patients. The study followed 103 patients from June 1998 to November 2002. The patients’ hearts were pumping 40 per cent or less of the volume of blood in the left ventricle with each beat, compared to a healthy rate of over 55 per cent. The study found the pumping ability improved in more than 86 per cent of the patients post-transplant, and in 70 per cent it returned to nearnormal levels.

The Times

J.Am.Coll.Cardiology 2005;45:1051-60

Compiled by Adam Cresswell

MULTIVITAMIN and mineral supplements may be popular, but there is no evidence that they prevent infections in elderly people, researchers say. After reviewing the results from eight previous trials that evaluated the effect of supplements on infection rates in elderly people, a paper published online by the British Medical Journal found three of the trials did find elderly people who took the supplements had fewer days of illness. But the five other trials did not back this up and overall the evidence was ‘‘weak and conflicting’’. The authors said more work was needed. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/rapidpdf/ bmj.38399.495648.8F ■ ■ ■ A STUDY has found no link between diet and pancreatic cancer in either men or women. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health assessed the diets of nearly 125,000 participants between 1984 and 2000. During the study 366 cases of pancreatic cancer were documented. There was no association between diet and risk of pancreatic cancer. Previous research has established that dietary sugar and high blood sugar increases pancreatic cancer risk, as does smoking and obesity. The research was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute . ■ ■ ■

Floating free: But landing can hurt

■ ■ ■ EXERCISE and stress management training reduces emotional distress and lowered the factors that increases the chances of having a stroke or heart attack. A randomised controlled trial of 134 patients with stable ischaemic heart disease compared the outcomes on patients of treating them with normal medical treatment, normal treatment plus exercise, and normal treatment plus stress management. The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found patients who received either the stress management or exercise showed a reduction in flow-mediated dilation — a measure of blood flow that is associated with cardivascular risk — of 25 per cent. JAMA 2005;293:1626-1634 ■ ■ ■ MEN with prostate cancer may live longer if they take a drug call goserelin after receiving radiotherapy, an

■ ■ ■ HEAVY landings account for most of the injuries among aficionados of adventure sports such as parachuting, skydiving and parapente, research suggests. Surgeon Dr Grant Christey, a former trauma fellow at Auckland City Hospital and now lecturer at the University of NSW, recorded all patients admitted to Auckland hospital due to parasport injuries over an eight-year period. Of the 38 patients identified, 66 per cent had been injured parachuting or skydiving, and 34 per cent paragliding or parapenting. Heavy landings accounted for 58 per cent of the incidents. Other causes were much less common: mechanical failure (13 per cent), turbulence (13 per cent) and pilot error on descent (5 per cent). Broken legs and backs were the usual injuries, caused by the rapid deceleration of landing. The study was published in the journal of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Emergency Medicine Australasia . ■ ■ ■ Want to know more? Items are referenced where possible. A reference such as ‘‘2005;35:18-25’’ means the source article was published on pages 18-25 in volume number 35 of the publication, in 2005. A doi number or website address is used for research published on a journal’s website.

LINKS www.ruthostrow.com [email protected]

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