Author: Adam Clare

Packing Healthy Lunches

The CBC has put online a question and answers interview with some dieticians about how to pack a healthy lunch for kids at school.

There is no reason why you can’t pack a healthy lunch for yourself too!

What are common misconceptions?

Cohen: A lot of people think healthy lunches taste boring, that it’s rabbit food or that it tastes all the same.

How can parents create healthy meals?

Cohen: What’s really important to take small steps. With any program you should not turn everything upside-down. The key is to be educated, talk to your kids and make small changes.

For example, use whole-wheat pasta, low-sugar yogurts and add more fruits to your child’s meals.

Instead of saying “healthy lunches,” talk about balanced eating with your kids. Once they start eating healthier and they go back to trying processed foods, they won’t like them as much.

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Ways to Build Self-Confidence

Feeling self-confident feels good and there’s no reason why you should lack confidence because you, dear reader, are pretty awesome! I recently stumbled across a list of 63 ways to build self-confidence that are simple and easy to do.

  • Take yourself off auto-pilot – make deliberate decisions on what really matters to you.
    Next time you come up against a risk or a challenge, listen to what you tell yourself and look for a way that that inner dialog can be improved. Ask yourself, “What would make this easier?”
  • Scared of looking silly? You and everyone else. It’s no biggie so don’t let it stop you. Say it with me – “It just doesn’t matter.”
  • Don’t think for a second that you can’t be confident. There are already loads of things you do with natural self-confidence, you just have to notice them and get familiar with how it feels. Look for the things you do where the question of whether you’re confident enough never arises.

    • Read all 63 ways to boost your self confidence at Life Hack.

    Massages can Alter your Immune System

    Here’s another excuse to get a massage (if you needed one). Swedish massages can lower your stress and slightly alter your immune system for the better according to a small research study.

    The researchers, from Cedars-Sinai Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, a Los Angeles-based medical centre, found that the Swedish massages reduced arginine vasopressin, a hormone that causes the stress hormone cortisol to increase. The massages also reduced levels of cortisol itself in the body.

    Study participants also saw their cytokines — proteins released by stimulated white blood cells when danger is present — decrease, indicating the body did not see itself as under attack during the massage.

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    Green Buildings Build Momentum

    If I had my way every new building would have to be green, lucky for me other people are thinking along the same line. Green buildings are on the rise in the USA and the NPR has a good piece exploring what this means:

    While much of the U.S. real estate market has been floundering, one area has not seen a dip. Green building now accounts for nearly one-third of new construction in the U.S. That’s up from 2 percent in 2005, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, which tracks the industry.

    The numbers suggest a revolution is taking place within an industry that is historically slow to change. There are many factors — and many players — in this move toward green building.

    Organic Farms Beat Industrial Farms

    Researchers in California pitted industrial strawberry farming against organic strawberry farming and the winner was organic. Organic farms were better for the environment and produced noticeably better produce.

    Another reason to buy organic and something that the movie Fresh predicted.

    Among their findings:
    -The organic strawberries had significantly higher antioxidant activity and concentrations of ascorbic acid and phenolic compounds.
    -The organic strawberries had longer shelf life.
    -The organic strawberries had more dry matter, or, “more strawberry in the strawberry.”
    -Anonymous testers, working at times under red light so the fruit color would not bias them, found one variety of organic strawberries was sweeter, had better flavor, and once a white light was turned on, appearance. The testers judged the other two varieties to be similar.
    -The researchers also found the organic soils excelled in a variety of key chemical and biological properties, including carbon sequestration, nitrogen, microbial biomass, enzyme activities, and micronutrients.

    Read more at Science Daily.