LAKE DALLAS HIGH SCHOOL
Health Tips for Parents
Handwashing with Soap Halved the Incidence of Pneumonia,
a leading cause of death globally in children under five.
Handwashing with soap can reduce the number of pneumonia -
related infections in children under five by more than 50%.
The study in the Lancet, July, 2005 also showed that using soap
more often significantly reduced the number of diarrheal
infections, the second leading cause of death in children under
five. In addition, there was a 47% reduction in the prevalence of
inpetigo, a skin infection. This is something within the reach
of hundreds of millions of at-risk families worldwide.
Many people, even in well developed countries, do not realize
that they should be washing with soap for at least 15 seconds
and that water alone is not as effective. Parents should encourage children to wash their hands with soap and water
as long as it takes them to sing their ABC's.
Trans Fatty acids, also known as trans fats, are solid fats
produced artificially by a process called partial hydrogenation.
This process not only creates a cheaper, cleaner-smelling
longer-lasting alternative to lard, butter and beef fat, it also
changes the molecular configuration of the oil, resulting
in a substance that bears no resemblance to the healthful
vegetable oil from which it was derived.
Products with the most trans fats include donuts, french fries,
stick margerine, and many cookies and crackers.
35-50% of fats are from trans fats)
Fast food restaurants are the worst offenders: Trans fats
are not created when you cook---or even fry--at home with
vegetable oil. They are created in frying oil only when the
oil is reused after cooking a food that contains trans fats, a
common practice in fast-food restaurants.
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