UF Health Podcasts

Is an energy bar truly workout fuel?

If you look at the nutrition facts, most bars seem healthy. But many don’t deliver as well as you might expect.

Energy comes from calories. All carbohydrates are converted into glucose, a sugar that is used by cells for energy. Simple carbs, such as sugar and white flour, are broken down fastest by your body. That means they are most helpful for fueling extremely demanding workouts.

Many bars serve up a combination of carbs, fiber, protein, and fat, but the ingredients could very well be processed. For the healthiest energy bar, look for whole grains, nuts, seeds, and dried fruits. These are packed with nutrients.

If you are considering a grain-based bar, look for something made with whole grains, like oats or quinoa [keen-wah]. Whole grains reduce inflammation and harmful cholesterol, ultimately protecting your heart.

On the calorie front, even some of the healthiest bars can pack a punch. Some weigh in at 400 calories or more, which is a lot if you don’t exercise regularly.

Added sugar is another issue. The American Heart Association recommends only 25 grams of added sugar daily for women and 36 grams for men. Therefore, experts suggest staying at or under 7 grams of sugar to avoid overindulgence.

Processed protein and processed fiber should also be reconsidered. The processing itself strips away nutrients. For instance, soy or pea proteins are extracted from the original food source, leaving them with no other nutrients to offer.

The next time you wander down the energy bar aisle, don’t make a hasty decision. You don’t want to end up with a glorified candy bar.

If you thought it wasn’t possible to speed up your metabolism in a week, check this out: New research has found that elderberry juice can significantly improve metabolism and blood sugar regulation in just seven days.

Elderberry has long been used in traditional medicine to treat conditions like colds and flu, skin infections, urinary tract infections, and more. You might be used to seeing it in gummy form as an immune-boosting supplement. Now, researchers from several American universities say improved metabolism is among its benefits.

Eighteen overweight but otherwise healthy adults participated in the study. Each drank 12 ounces of elderberry juice per day for a week with doses split between morning and night. They then did the same with a placebo beverage for another week. A three-week break separated the two study weeks.

Results showed that participants saw a 24% reduction in blood glucose levels following a high-carbohydrate meal after drinking elderberry juice for a week. Elderberry consumption was also linked to a 27% increase in fat burned compared with placebo consumption.

Researchers also found that elderberry juice increased bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids, which are compounds essential to gut and metabolic health. Elderberry’s superpower comes from its high concentration of anthocyanins [ann-tho-sigh-ann-ins], compounds that have anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anti-diabetic effects.

So, forget the metabolism-boosting energy drinks. Consider trying some elderberry juice to help manage your weight and improve your metabolic and immune health.

A ‘boom’ of post-World War II babies once filled American nurseries, expanding the population.

And as these baby boomers age, they’re expanding a population of a different sort: the ranks of people diagnosed with dementia.

A new National Institutes of Health-funded study offers troubling news for Americans. The risk of developing dementia after age 55 is now 42% — that’s more than double the risk reported in earlier studies. The risk for men is 35%, and 48% for women.

Dementia, a progressive decline in memory, judgment, and concentration, is tied to aging. Other factors include genetics, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, lack of exercise, poor diet, and mental health challenges like depression.

The study suggests that dementia was previously underestimated for multiple reasons, including faulty health records and death certificates, little oversight of early-stage cases, and underreporting.

The data come from a large study that, since 1987, has tracked the vascular health and cognitive function of nearly 16,000 people as they age.

The coming dementia wave calls attention to the need to boost resources to address this health care concern. While the condition is expected to double in the next four decades for white people, it could triple for Black people.

Researchers say better nutrition education could help buck the trend by improving diets that play a role. Hearing loss also demands attention. Poor hearing is also tied to higher dementia risk, but only one-third of older adults who need them use them.

The study’s authors say affordable hearing aids must be more widely available. In the meantime, wear ’em if you’ve got ’em.

Sometimes nature can feel cruel, but humans can step in to help out.

Scarlet macaws lay up to four eggs per clutch — that’s the group of eggs produced during one nesting event. But whether in the wild or in captivity, the parents routinely feed only one or two of the chicks, leaving the others to starve. This happens to healthy chicks and whether food is plentiful or scarce.

For reasons not well understood, the last chicks to hatch are the ones left to die. But now a fostering program removes neglected chicks from one nest and places them in another where chicks have been lost to predators. The foster parent birds raise the chicks as their own, allowing them to thrive.

If the program remains successful, it may help endangered parrot species too.

It’s not unusual for people to prioritize their pet’s health over their own. That’s especially true for vulnerable folks with limited means.

But one university is taking a unique approach to people who neglect their own care in lieu of addressing their pets’ needs. The University of Minnesota’s One Health Clinic is a pilot program that will provide health care for pets and their family members together.

The clinic, scheduled to open in 2025, will be run by students from the College of Medicine and the College of Veterinary Medicine, all working under faculty supervision.

The clinic’s initial focus will be on those who don’t have routine access to health care and have little or no health insurance.

In November 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to six companies selling unapproved drugs said to control seizures in dogs and cats. The products were sold online without requiring a prescription or veterinary oversight.

The letter cautioned that animals taking anti-seizure drugs should be  supervised by a licensed veterinarian who could diagnose and manage their conditions. Many abnormalities can cause seizures.

The FDA has conditionally approved two drugs for canine epilepsy — that is, seizures of unknown origin. KBroVet-CA1 [KAY-broh-vet-C-A-1] is a form of potassium bromide, and Fidoquel-CA1 [FI-doh-quell-C-A-1] is a phenobarbital agent.

If you think these might help you pet, ask your veterinarian.

Have you ever wondered why cats’ claws retract and dogs’ claws don’t? It all has to do with function dictating form.

Cats are solitary hunters that surprise their prey. Retracting claws let their footpads support them in silence. They also use their claws to kill their prey, so they must keep them sharp. If a cat’s claws were always extended, surface contact would wear them down.

Dogs are another story — they’re pack hunters that chase their prey to exhaust them before the kill. They use their claws to gain traction and make quick turns.

So, what about cheetahs that run at high speeds? They also need their claws for traction. Despite being cats, their claws function more like dogs’.

What is it about cats and closed doors? Why do so many of our feline friends swipe, scratch and paw to get under or through them?

There are likely several reasons. Feline FOMO is one of them — their fear of missing out. Cats are very curious by nature, and they want to keep tabs on everything happening in their ’hood. In the wild, they’re both prey and predator, so they must be super vigilant to stay alive and be successful hunters.

Cats also like to have control and make their own choices, and that doesn’t happen when their human closes them out. Closing a door also changes their environment, and they can’t stand that, either.

Many cats also love the attention they get from their human family members — the ones who are often behind those closed doors.

The bird flu doesn’t only affect birds — cats are vulnerable to it as well. Since 2022, over 80 cases of bird flu have been reported in domestic cats.

Most of those cats were from dairy farms, but some were indoor cats with no known exposure to animals shedding the virus. It is surmised that they may have consumed virus-contaminated raw diets or unpasteurized milk. Some commercial raw food brands were recalled recently after testing positive for the virus and being linked to illness and death in cats.

Nearly 70% of cats infected with bird flu will die, so it’s not worth taking a chance on a raw food diet. Even freezing temperatures won’t destroy viruses, so stick with commercial pet foods that are heat-treated to get the job done.

Mexico is on the verge of joining other regions in eliminating dog-transmitted rabies. These include the U.S., Western Europe, Canada, Japan, and some Latin American countries. Other places, like Australia and many Pacific islands, have never had the problem.

But make no mistake. Nearly 60,000 people around the world still die from rabies every year. Some countries still have high rates of canine-transmitted rabies. And just about everywhere, rabies is spread by wildlife, like bats, raccoons, skunks, and other mammals.

So, it remains crucial to vaccinate pets and livestock while also raising public awareness about how rabies is spread. That’s best done with a One Health approach, which recognizes that environmental, animal, and human health are intertwined.