Inspirational and good news.
Here’s a neat idea to clean the air while getting around town – build a bicycle with a plant box. You can follow the complete instructions at the link, but it looks like it takes a bit of work. I’m sure it’s a pleasure to ride with the smell of fresh herbs or flowers under your nose.
The Mediterranean diet is delicious and good for your heart! The researchers wanted to look at what kind of foods that we should be eating a lot of. Hint: it’s not hot dogs.
The review, which appears in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine, analyzed nearly 200 studies involving millions of people published between 1950 and June 2007.
The Mediterranean diet involves high consumption of:
Vegetables.
Legumes.
Fruits.
Nuts that are not roasted or salted.
Cheese or yogurt.
Whole grains.
Fish.
Monounsaturated fats such as olive oil and avocados.
The research also confirmed that trans-fatty acids are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.Starchy carbs such as white bread, white rice and white potatoes that are high on the glycemic index were also linked to an increased risk of heart disease.
Family Health Guide has compiled a neat list of twenty facts about happiness, here’s some good ones:
5) People who rate in the upper reaches of happiness on psychological tests develop about 50% more antibodies than average in response to flu vaccines.
6) According to researchers at The World Database of Happiness at Erasmus University in Holland, Denmark is officially the happiest nation in the world, followed closely by Malta, Switzerland, Iceland, Ireland and Canada.
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13) Having 100-200 belly laughs a day is the equivalent of a high impact workout, burning off up to 500 calories.
Barack Obama’s campaign was based around the idea of change and now that he’s been elected it looks like he’s getting around to changing things. Yesterday he lifted the ban on stem cell research that Bush put in place.
“Today, with the executive order I am about to sign, we will bring the change that so many scientists and researchers, doctors, and innovators, patients and loved ones have hoped for, fought for these past eight years,” Obama told reporters at a news conference at the White House on Monday.
“We will lift the ban on federal funding for … embryonic stem cell research.”
The long-promised move will allow a rush of research aimed at one day better treating, if not curing, ailments from diabetes to paralysis — research that has drawn broad support, including from notables like Nancy Reagan, widow of the late Republican president Ronald Reagan.
Under Bush, taxpayer money for that research was limited to the 21 stem cell lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001. But researchers have said that these lines have, in many cases, had some drawbacks that limited their potential usability.
Bhutan has become the first nation to ban smoking within its borders. I found this out via the linked Slate article and they point out that it’s a tricky issue banning something as “personal” as smoking. It seems Bhutan is the best suited nation to quit smoking because of its cultural roots.
Since Dec. 17, it has been illegal to smoke in public or sell tobacco. Violators are fined the equivalent of $232—more than two months’ salary in Bhutan. Authorities heralded the ban by igniting a bonfire of cigarette cartons in the capital, Thimphu, and stringing banners across the main thoroughfare, exhorting people to kick the habit. As if they have a choice.
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So, having sat out the traditional development rush, Bhutan hopes to steer its own course, avoiding the mistakes of the industrialized world. Because of its homogenous and small population (anywhere from 800,000 to 2 million people, depending on which estimates you believe), Bhutan just might succeed in barring the demon weed. The nation’s unusual culture makes a sudden and complete tobacco ban possible. The country is ruled by a benevolent king, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, who is widely revered and universally obeyed. “Bhutanese are pretty happy to sacrifice for their fellow citizen,” says Linda Leaming, an American who has lived in Bhutan for the past eight years. “The individual is subjugated to the good of society.”
It also helps that Bhutan has few smokers compared other nations. Only about 1 percent of the population lights up, according to the health ministry. (Foreign observers believe the actual figure is 3 percent or 4 percent.) Tobacco isn’t grown in Bhutan. It is a very small, poor market, and it costs a tremendous amount to import goods. All these are factors that have reduced interest in cigarettes.