Youth sports season winding down

The school and sports year are winding down and summer break is in sight. Adult kickball and youth baseball and basketball are in their final stages. Friday is the awards presentation for basketball and next week will start playoff tournaments for adult kickball and youth basketball. The tournaments are an action packed week of games culminating with champions in all divisions.

It has been a great Community Center sports season highlighted with record numbers of teams involved with fall soccer and winter flag football. Youth basketball also had a major increase in the number of teams from last year. The sports season is not over though. The summer season brings back the much anticipated adult co-ed flag football and the youth indoor soccer leagues.

Adult co-ed kickball schedule:

June 2, Thursday, 6:30 p.m.
Jessie's Island Store vs. Beach to Bay Construction

May 5, Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
Ross Built Construction vs. Slim's Place

Baseball Schedule:

Tee Ball:

June 4, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.
Gulf Bay Realty vs. Beach to Bay Construction

Pitching Machine:

June 4, Saturday, 12 Noon
Cedar's Tennis & Fitness Club vs. Island Real Estate

Basketball Schedule:

Instructional League:

June 2, Thursday, 6 p.m.
Beach Bums vs. West Coast Air Conditioning

June 3, Friday, 6 p.m.
Awards presentation

Division III (8-9-year-old):

June 1, Wednesday, 6 p.m.
Anna Maria Oyster Bar vs. Cortez Kat Charters

June 3, Friday, 6:30 p.m.
Awards presentation

Division II (10-11-year-old):

June 1, Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Ross Built Construction vs. Southern Green

June 1, Wednesday, 8 p.m.
Sandbar restaurant vs. Beach Bistro

June 3, Friday, 6:30 p.m.
Awards presentation

Division I (12-13-year-old):

June 2, Thursday, 7 p.m.
A Paradise Realty vs. Holy Cow Ice Cream

June 3, Friday, 6:30 p.m.
Awards Presentation

Premier League (14-17-year-old):

June 2, Thursday, 8 p.m.
LaPensee Plumbing vs. Island Sun Newspaper

June 3, Friday, 6:30 p.m.
Awards presentation

Vegan diet a multi-purpose health alternative

I am not a doctor, as the disclaimers say. I believe in whatever works and making informed choices. We make the best choices with the information we have. I have worked for/with doctors over decades, and as I have become more outspoken climbing out of my no-opinions-journalism training, they have been supportive as I metamorphose.

The reality is all journalists have opinions. Some hide them better than others. As we mature with interviews and pictures being worth a billion words, it becomes harder to remain silent. Covering the news makes you opinionated over time. If you are truly fair and balanced, most likely you are young and inexperienced. And that's the way it is now, Walter Cronkite.

The foreword in my book is written by a doctor who says that what he likes about me is that I sell no product, gimmick or gadget. As a former investigative reporter, I was skeptical of stories that had some hidden agenda or a spokesperson who was a not-so-well-disguised salesperson. I often suggest to clients to follow the money and ask, "Who stands to profit, who paid for the research, who paid for the services?" In financial services, my boiler-room trainers dictated, "Two emotions motivate people to buy: fear and greed."

Since my aunt died of breast cancer when I was 5, and then later my mom and both sisters got the disease and more, I have been on a mission to dodge what many medical experts believe are preventable diseases. And figure out the truth, whatever that is, for me and others.

Women complain fiercely about menopausal hot flashes. Some swear that supplements help. The constant search for the magic bullet permeates many quests for truth and overshadows simple reality. Last year's magic bullet supplement was resveratrol. But really, it's the purple resveratrol in grapes. We knew that all along. But there is so much more money to be made by squeezing it out and packaging it up.

As a financial consultant, free pizza lunches and dinners at Morton's gave my waistline high returns. I had debilitating menopausal symptoms. After a fun three weeks of hemorrhaging fibroid tumors, the emergency docs said, "You need a hysterectomy. Now!" Fortunately, my personal doctor said, "Ellen, go back to that plant-based diet and call me in the morning." Within weeks, all symptoms of menopause vanished.

My skeptical hubby, who would often have his arm around me and comment, "You're flashing now, dear, aren't you?" was blown away when the hot flashes disappeared. More importantly, no hysterectomy was needed. Reasons for avoiding hysterectomies fill volumes.

Eating plants often eliminates menopausal symptoms. According to research, a high-fat, animal-hormone and pesticide-laden diet stimulates excess production of estrogen and testosterone. It's one reason that girls menstruate in Western cultures as early as 7. Yet in cultures where meat and dairy are unavailable or unaffordable, girls don't reach puberty until 17!

Estrogen-receptive breast cancer is a common form of breast cancer in the U.S. Consider that we consume more dairy products than anywhere, and yet our osteoporosis rates are higher than most countries. Look at cultures where dairy is not so available, and osteoporosis rates are much lower. Colin Campbell, a former National Institutes of Health researcher details this in "The China Study." In teaching cooking classes, I discovered research that shows about 3/4ths of cancer are related to diet choices. You can find them at www.cancerproject.org.

So if I wince when someone says, "I'll just take a supplement to avoid…fill-in-the-blank," it's because so much unnecessary suffering can be avoided by diet and lifestyle changes that are cheaper and easier than supplements, drugs and surgery. The real issue is that patients often don't have nutrition information to make informed choices. In a suffering economy, many may not be able to afford supplements.

If you ask your doctor if he/she has taken nutrition classes in medical school, the answer is often no. Although that too, thankfully, is starting to change. Ooops…there goes that opinion again. Fair? Absolutely! Balanced? Nope. The voice of vegetables has no lobby or subsidy to support an advertising campaign. So this may be the only veggie PR you'll hear all month.

You can follow Island resident Ellen Jaffe Jones on her Facebook page and keep up with her just released book:,"Eat Vegan on $4 a Day," or her website: www.vegcoach.com. She is also a nationally certified personal trainer and running coach. For training in a gym or private hire, contact Ellen at ejones@vegcoach.com or 941-704-1025.