SPORTING LIFE Stretch hefore swinging Q. I golf three times each week and want to avoid getting an injury this year. What do you suggest? A. Every sport is unique so -it is important to have a fit- ness routine that concen- | trates on developing your 4 muscles with a sport-specific approach. Golfers must con- -centrate on the muscles of the shoulders, the stabilizers of the trunk, and the lower. - “limbs which provide: lization ‘and alignmen Most golf injuries area. tesuilt of overusin achieve ry Tange ue motion for your swing and‘to avoid _poor alignment of the ‘spine and pelvic gi Q ‘often Jeads to lo oblems. Stretching is a’ -erucial component of a bal- anced “exercise routine. increases perfor ance. A fexble os ste the:mus- Fill up on these healing foots IT’S easy to forget must-have healing foods when they become background noise in the supermar- ket hype of “new” and “lite.” Don’t let them get eclipsed. Beneath their everyday exterior, these foods are health-giving pow- erhouses. Fach made it onto my list because it has the double-dip advantage of _ being tasty as well as being able to prevent more than one health problem. Put all of these foods in your gro- cery basket every week, and you'll get compliments on dinner. And be around to get those compliments for a long, long time. & Broccoli This veggic speaks many languages and is welcome in cuisines worldwide — steamed, stir-fried, blanched, baked, raw. But it’s not always the most wanted veg- gic in the West and that’s unfortunate. True, broccoli may not have won any presi- . dential medals, but it has heroic potential to fight today’s major diseases: (1) It’s stuffed with compounds . that may block cancer. One “ of these steps up the body’s production ofa weak estro- -: gen. This weak version seems ° to replace the “real” estro- gen that’s implicated in breast cancer. (2) It offers “+ hear protection through vit- This antioxidant vit- amin: helps keep arteries ¢las-_ tic and helps prevent blood from getting sludgy. A single serving of broccoli gives us 97% of our Daily Value (DV) . of vitamin C. (3) It contains glutathione, which may _ reduce the risk of arthritis, ‘* diabetes, and heart disease, as well as bolster.the immune: system, lower cho- . lesterol, lower blood pres- sure, and keep people at a healthy weight, according to’ asmall, recent study. (4) Ir ‘helps guard against cataracts * and the leading cause of | blindness over age 65'— macular degeneration _ “because it’s rich in’ beta- - carotene and its cousin lutein: | “But how much do you. ‘eed? The amount of brec- . coli you might need to pre: “: vent disease hasn’t been - uantified. But. Walter. C. ilett, MD, chairman of the de artment ‘of nutrition at. Training a Canip Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, advises you to put it on your weekly shopping list right naw — in any quantity. Broccoli can definitely be a contributor to your total score of five fruits and vegetables. Incidentally, just a kalf-cup is considered a serving, and delivers an impressive 2 grams of fibre! & Garlic The potent, redolent clove we know as garlic wards off many a bad guy, and you necdn’t wear it around your neck, Eat it. Any way you can. There may be foods more medicinally potent than garlic, bur few are as loved as this. One of garlic’s most preven benefits is its ability to cut choles- terol, says Varro E. Tyler, Ph. D, prevention advisor and professor erncritus of phar- mocognosy at the Purdue University School of Pharmacy in West Lafayette, ~- . _ Ind. It also acts like aspirin, keeping blood from clump-: ing and sticking to artery - walls: Garlic has an antibac- terial effect similar to peni-.. cillin. In fact; one source we -found suggests that garlic: - ‘was the antibacterial drug of” choice until penicillin was. discovered in 1928. Eating this pungent herb may help you fight an infection of _Strep throat — as long as you don’t use it instead of ». antibiotics for serious infec--. tions. Garlic is an antioxidant and, in test-tube and animal studies, | shows promise in | preventing colon and breast. cancers. Allicin, which is . ‘ ~ Guickly broken down into. various active compounds, seems to be the main medi- cine at work here, says Dr. ..° Tyler. Despite the fact that : it’s been loved for centuries, _. there’s still a lot we don’t. - _.know about it. ~ How much.do you need? For heart-protective effets, + eat one clove daily. Aged, “cooked, raw, powdered? The . jury is still weighing the evi-" ° dence. But overall, studies. :. ~ seem to indicate any and all - ‘Type — Outstanding Conte for Bocanifan Ge Crisp Images :@ Outstanding, fully multi-coated optics and multi-coated ” “/*; BaK-4 prisms, for exceptional image quality : @ Rugged weatherprogf construction seals out rain, snow, @ Improved body design for better handling ® Long eye relief for eves wearers (models 735W, 7350, 8x40W, 10x50W) : eo Wide-angle viewing | for moving subjects (models TH35W. 8x40W, 10x SOW) EF) Scoline Camera Park Ro oyal South garlic intake is probably goad for us in some way. ® Kidney Beans These staples of hearty winter chili boast the high- est, healthiest fibre mix of any member of the legume family — and are especially high in heart-protecting folate, too, Part of their healing power comes from their 7 g of filling fibre per half-cup serving. Of that, 2.8 g is cholesterol-lowering soi- uble fibre. That adds up to dips in the risks of heart dis- case, stroke, and colon can- cer. If that’s not cnough, beans — kidney and other- wise — are such good medi- cine that doctors prescribe them to diabetics (along with other high-fibre, com- plex carbohydrates) because they’re digested slowly (helping maintain low blood sugar and normalizing trou- blesome insulin levels), says prevention advisor James W. Anderson, MD, professor of medicine and clinical nutri- tion at the University of Kentucky Coliege o Medicine in Lexington. Kidney beans are high in folaze, the new superstar nutrient that may help keep © blood levels of homocysteine low. (High levels are now considered a risk factor for heart disease.) Folate is also important in preventing birth detects, A half-cup serving provides 114 miicro- grams of folate, more than a quarter of our required DV. Beans are heart protective in one more way: They contain potent antioxidants known as polyphenols. In test-tube studies, polyphenolics worked better than vitamin C in keeping fat in the blood trom oxidizing — the first step in the formation of artery-clogging sludge. Human research is now underway, reports Dr. Andersor.. How much do you need? Aim for a cup-and-a-half of cooked beans daily. That’s enough to lower cholesterol and provide che other health benefits, says Dr. Anderson. @ NonFat Milk Leave the mustache on your lip, refill your glass and join us in a toast. Milk — the nonfat variety — is just about the best food source of calcium around. Milk helps prevent brittle bones (osteoporosis), which affect at least half of all American women over age 50. Calcium is the bone builder in milk, * and the vicamin_D in milk helps us absorb the calcium. Tn addition, nonfat milk, combined with a low-fat diet rich in fraits and vegetables, has been shown to lower blood pressure as well as any single prescription drug, says prevention advisor Judith Stern, Se.D, RD, professor of nutrition and internal medicine at rife University of California, Davis. The calci- um, potassium, and magne- sium in milk help with that. Milk consumption also has been associated with a lower risk of kidney stones. That’s because calcium binds oxalate in the large bowel so _ less is absorbed. Oxalate is what causes most kidney stones, says Dr. Willett, whose Harvard group has published! nwo papers on this topic. How much do I need? | Each cight-ounce glass of nonfat milk contains 300 milligrams of calcium. Women under 50 and men under 65 need 1,000 mg. of calcium per day. Older? Up. : that to 1,500 mg. Ic can be difficult to meet all of your’: calcium needs with milk, but it's a smart way to get at least halfivay of more to ou daily requirement: Helen will highlight m “must-have” healing foods in next week’s column.