Buffalo Meat Gets Top Billing in Her Diet for Low Fat, Hormone Content : Your Body

Susan Laskin is not your typical throw-the-beefsteaks-on-the-barbie summer hostess. Instead of picking up a few sirloins at the corner market, the North Hollywood book researcher express-mails buffalo steaks from a San Francisco game firm.

She’s not aiming to win the avant-garde hostess of the year award, but to improve the diet of her family and friends. She finds that buffalo has less cholesterol, less fat and a lot fewer hormones than beef.

Healthful eating, not adventure, underlies the increasing demand for buffalo meat, suppliers say. Orders are up from restaurants, gourmet markets and consumers even though the price is steep. Buffalo burgers run about $5 a pound, about twice the cost of beef hamburger; buffalo tenderloin can reach as high as $17 a pound.

Certain cuts of buffalo have less than half the cholesterol of beef, claims Mitch Niayesh of Polarica Game U.S.A., a San Francisco game and poultry supplier. And buffalo can be half as fatty as beef, adds Lisa Senauke, manager of the Game Exchange, also located in San Francisco.

But dietitian Nancy Becker is skeptical of the lower-cholesterol claim. “Almost all meat, fish and poultry have similar amounts of cholesterol,” says Becker, chairman of the nutrition committee for the American Heart Assn.’s Greater Los Angeles affiliate. “Each 3-ounce serving--a portion about the size of a deck of cards--has 100 milligrams of cholesterol, a third the maximum daily intake recommended by the American Heart Assn.”

The lower-fat claim is easier for Becker to swallow: “Buffalo probably is much leaner than beef. Fat contents between cuts of meat and types of animals can vary widely.” When figuring fat savings, be sure to compare similar cuts of meat, she adds. “And if you like buffalo, enjoy.”

For Healthier Babies

Taking time out between pregnancies doesn’t just give Mom a breather. It might also improve the chances of having a heavier--and healthier--baby.

That’s the conclusion of a Harvard study of nearly 4,500 women, just reported in the journal, Obstetrics & Gynecology. Women who waited 18 months or less between delivery and a subsequent conception were twice as likely to give birth to a low-birth weight baby than mothers who waited 24 to 36 months. “The highest risk (of small babies) was associated with the very shortest interval,” says Dr. Ellice Lieberman, assistant professor of maternal and child health at the Harvard University School of Public Health. “Especially at risk were those with less than a three-month pregnancy interval.”

In the study, babies were considered small if their weight fell below the tenth percentile. Statistically, small babies have a higher risk of infant death and illness.

The study may not apply to everybody. “If a woman has the luxury of time on her side, it may be better to wait awhile between pregnancies,” says Dr. Charles M. March, USC professor of obstetrics and gynecology. “But women over 35 have to weigh the risks of having small babies against such risks as giving birth to a Down’s syndrome baby.”

Dr. William A. Frumovitz, an obstetrician-gynecologist at St. John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, calls the research intriguing but won’t change his advice to prospective parents: “Assuming the woman has no health problems, deciding intervals between pregnancies is more a matter of family preference.”

A Sleep Eye-Opener

As people age, the phrase “sleeping like a baby” may become more like a fairy tale than a real bedtime story.

Relax, sleep researchers say. Even good sleepers should expect their sleep patterns to change with advancing birthdays. What’s realistic? At age 30, a good sleeper might expect to drop off in about 10 minutes, stay asleep all night and wake up refreshed, says Michael Stevenson, the clinical director of the North Valley Sleep Disorders Center in Mission Hills. But at age 60, even a good sleeper might take a half hour to fall asleep, awaken several times during the night and sometimes get up tired.

Depressing as that may sound, here’s heartening advice, especially for older slug-a-beds: Lolling in bed an extra hour or so, even if you doze on and off, may improve daytime alertness, Stevenson says.

Not a bad idea, agrees Dr. Philip Westbrook, a sleep expert at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, as long as you can spare the time and you don’t overdo it. “A little extra time in bed leads to more sleep, even if you think you won’t sleep,” he finds. “But avoid overkill.Don’t try, for instance, to get eight hours of sleep by spending 12 in bed.”

Iron and Athleticism

Iron deficiency often strikes women, causing fatigue and anemia, but it can also affect very active men. In a recent study, Canadian researchers found the more frequently male athletes worked out, the lower their blood level of this essential mineral, regardless of theamount of iron-rich foods they consumed.

Iron deficiency is still rare in men, observes Rodney Bassett, exercise physiologist at Centinela Hospital’s Fitness Institute in Culver City, but he has found it in long-distance runners who log 40-60 miles a week, don’t eat much red meat and are trying to reduce body fat.

Athletic men who follow an intense training regimen or who experience unexplained fatigue, should ask their doctors to check for iron deficiency, Bassett and the Canadian researchers agree.