There has been some buzz about salmonella. Over 800 people across America have become sick from it. The reports are that raw tomatoes are to blame. In a previously posted article entitled “Food Poisoning“, the causes and effects of food poisoning were addressed thoroughly, but what everyone needs to be aware of now is prevention.
While the investigations among tomatoes have yielded negative results up to this point, the investigators still believed tomatoes are at the root of this problem. Regarding the current situation, it would, of course, be wise to avoid raw tomatoes. Don’t forget that products containing raw tomatoes also might put you at risk. (This would include salsas, salads, and even guacamole.)
Most of you know that raw eggs can potentially contain salmonella. I know it’s tempting, but keep away from the uncooked brownie and cookie batter! If you absolutely love eating cookie dough there are actually egg-free recipes available online. I tried one recipe I found, and I thought it was just like the real thing!
One reminder is to keep your raw meats separate from your vegetables. Using designated cutting boards for both is ideal to avoid cross-contamination. Always wash your vegetables (and your hands!), even if you plan on removing the peel. Furthermore, when picking out vegetables, avoid those that seem discolored, damaged, or simply different than the usual.
Another reminder is that even cooked foods can be contaminated if left unrefrigerated. Cooked food left at room temperature for over 2 hours actually should be thrown out because it is no longer safe to eat. In higher temperatures, this timeframe becomes even smaller. You may want to double-check your freezer to see that it is at or below 0 F to keep the bacteria from growing. Your fridge should range between 32 and 40 F.
Keep those simple things in mind, and you can make your food preparations as safe as possible for you and your family.
Summer time is great! The kids are out of school, they have all sorts of time to make up games, and the weather is nice enough that you can shoo them out into the backyard to play their games outside. Of course, having more time to play also can mean more injuries. All summer long, kids will fall down, scrape their hands and knees and find all sorts of creative ways to hurt themselves accidentally .
Do you know what to do if your kids get hurt? Here are a few tips to help you treat the cuts and scrapes that happen when kids play.
Whenever there is a scrape or a cut, put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding before you do anything else. Use a clean cloth or bandage to soak up any bleeding, and try not to touch the wound with your bare hands (your hands are home to all sorts of things that could infect the wound without your knowing it).
Before putting a bandage on a wound, no matter how minor, place the cut or scraped area under running water. The water’s movement will help rid the wound of debris that, if left in the wound, could cause an infection and do further damage. It’s also a good idea to treat the area with some mild soap.
Believe it or not, antibiotic ointment has not been proven to help the healing process! If you choose to use it, only use a small amount and apply it to the wound very lightly.
If a cut or wound is deep, it might need stitches. The best way to tell if a wound needs stitches is to pinch the sides of the cut or scrape together. If the wound looks significantly better, stitches might be your best option. Call your doctor!
White table sugar (sucrose) can lead to obesity, diabetes and a host of other health problems. It’s found in a variety of foods, including some you might not suspect: canned foods, fast foods, and prepared foods. While table sugar can be bad for you, artificial sweeteners can be worse. Saccharine and Aspartame, which can be found in diet drinks and sugar free foods, have no health benefits, can cause diarrhea, and have been linked to cancer. Fortunately, there are healthy alternatives to white sugar and alternative sweeteners.
Sucanat: This sweetener is made from sugar cane juice. It comes in granules and can be used in place of white or brown sugar in a recipe.
Maple Syrup: This is not the pancake syrup made of high fructose corn syrup, but the pure maple syrup taken from the sap of a maple tree. It can be used in baking, but you may need to reduce other liquids in the recipe.
Maple Sugar: This is dehydrated maple syrup. It can be used in place of sugar.
Honey: More nutritious and having less calories than sugar, honey is a good sugar substitute. You may need to reduce the oven temperature and increase the baking time when using it in baked goods.
Stevia: Taken from dried stevia leaves. It comes as a liquid extract, a whole leaf, or as a powder. Stevia has no calories and is 100-200 times sweeter than sugar. It can be used in place of artificial sweeteners. It is a good sugar alternative for diabetics and people wanting to lose weight.
Blackstrap Molasses: Because it is sweeter than sugar, blackstrap molasses can be used in smaller amounts in a recipe than table sugar. It also has many nutrients, including iron and calcium.
According to a report released by Reuters Monday, May 26, using Acutane to clear up your skin more than doubles your risk of clinical depression. The article talks about a study that has linked the chemical isotretinoin (Acutane’s active ingredient) to symptoms of clinical depression. The researchers say the study is new and the first of its kind, but they emphasize that doctors should probably start screening their patients for depression symptoms before prescribing the acne treatment.
Luckily, Acutane is just one acne treatment available. For people who suffer from severe acne problems, it might seem like a lifeline, but what’s more important? Your outside or your inside? If you are worried about Acutane possibly having a detrimental effect on your psyche, but also want to clear up your skin, here are a few natural skin treatments you can try:
Oatmeal, when mixed together with warm water, works as an excellent mask. Simply leave it on for fifteen minutes or so, and then rinse it off with warm water.
Aloe vera is known for its healing properties and many people say that applying aloe vera directly to acne will help clear it up and heal the skin around it.
Lemon juice also has been touted as a wonderful natural acne treatment. Jan Brady may have used it to get rid of her freckles, but when you apply lemon juice directly to pimples, it helps dry them up!
If you don’t mind smelling like garlic, rub some raw garlic onto your face a few times a day. Apparently it will clear up even the most stubborn acne problems.
There are plenty of other home/natural acne remedies out there, and it is worth looking into, particularly if you are worried about the possible harmful side effects of products like Acutane.
Here in Oregon the weather has been unseasonably cool…until today when it shot up to 95 degrees. While I was excited to see the (finally) warmer temperature, I realized that because my apartment has no air conditioning I once again will have to find natural ways to keep cool. I thought that I would share the following info, as heat stroke is a very serious condition and it won’t be long before it becomes a daily concern.
Here are natural ways to keep your body cool this summer:
1. Drink plenty of water. You might consider upping your water intake from the usual 8 to 10 glasses a day to 10 to 12. A lot of that water is going to be lost via sweat, and you want to make sure that you don’t dehydrate. Water is also a natural coolant for your insides!
2. Exercise earlier in the morning and later in the evening. Dawn and dusk are the best times for exercise during the summer because it is light out and the heat either has yet to arrive or has started to dissipate.
3. Eat smaller meals more frequently throughout the day. Lighter meals of fresh fruit and vegetables will not only save you the time of standing over a hot stove or diving into a hot oven to retrieve a baked dish, the coolness of the fruit and salad will help cool you down!
4. If you wear hats, pour some cool or cold water into the hat and then turn it inside out when you put it back on your head. This will help you keep your head cool during the day!
5. Avoid direct sunlight and surfaces like asphalt which can store and radiate heat. During the hottest part of the day, stay inside with a fan and some ice water.
If you like eating at fast food restaurants, but want to get out of that habit, I’d recommend watching Super Size Me. Super Size Me is a movie created by and starring Morgan Spurlock. It is an account of what happens to him when he decides to eat solely from the McDonald’s menu for 30 days. In addition to that, if a worker asked him if he’d like to “Super Size” his meal, he forced himself to say, “Yes.”
Morgan is monitored by a group of doctors/experts ( a cardiologist, gastroenterologist, general practitioner, personal trainer, and nutritionist) who will track the effects that the food has on him. We all can guess that this diet will lead to weight gain, but the conclusions that the doctors made were much worse. In fact, after the first couple weeks, Morgan was advised by some doctors to completely stop his “experiment”. They say that even though he can lose the weight, some of the damage done to his liver is most probably irreversible.
If you don’t have time or access to the entire movie, I recommend watching a clip of the movie on Youtube. In this clip, Morgan tests how long various burgers/fries stay fresh-looking over time. After ten weeks, the McDonald’s french fries still looked pristine! It makes you wonder if the fries you eat are made from preservatives or potatoes.
Did you notice that the option to Super Size is no longer available? Not long after the release of the movie in 2004, McDonald’s got rid of that option (though they claim their choice was not a reaction to the film), but it doesn’t make the rest of the food any healthier. Most experts conclude that fast foods actually should never be eaten, though won’t impact you a great deal if eaten just one time every one to two months.
In our sister publication, Parched No More, LJ Dovichi wrote a great article about how a cure for asthma is a shot of hard liquor. So, if you’re an asthmatic, you may want to get a shot of tequila, rum, or scotch to snap out of your attack.
When we think of fitness, we often conjure images of exercise equipment, leg warmers (remember those?), and Sweatin’ to the Oldies. What you may not know is that it is just as important to exercise your mental health. You can keep your memory sharp and your brain healthy by doing some challenging activities daily.
Play Games: Play some board games for fun and for mental fitness. Play them with a friend for an added benefit. Here are some to get you started:
- Scrabble
- Mancala
- Chess
- Trivia games
Physical Exercise: Dust off those aerobics tapes and exercise your body - it helps your mind too. If you haven’t exercised in a while, check with your doctor before starting and proceed slowly. Here are some suggestions:
- Swimming
- Water aerobics
- Walking
- Yoga
- Strength training
Work Puzzles: Working through puzzles can exercise your mind. Try some of these:
- Sudoku
- Crossword puzzles
- Jigsaw puzzles
Take up hobbies: Enjoy a variety of hobbies to make life interesting, bring joy and relief from work, and keep your mind active. Here are some ideas:
- Gardening
- Scrapbooking
- Genealogy
- Woodworking
- Knitting or crocheting
- Sewing
- Cooking
- Bird watching
Music:Try listening to some classical music. It’s relaxing and good for the mind. Take up a musical instrument to give those mental muscles a workout.
Eat right: Make sure to include a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in your diet. Try to avoid prepackaged foods, fast foods, and foods loaded with chemicals, fats, and sugars. Eating right helps your body - and your mind.
Read: Read a variety of material. Read classics; read the newspaper to keep up with current events; read the comics for a good laugh.
Most of the time people think of women when they think of plastic surgery, but men have about 10% of the plastic surgery done in the U.S.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the top 5 plastic surgeries for men:
- Nose Reshaping
- Eyelid Surgery
- Liposuction
- Male Breast Reduction
- Hair Transplants
While most of us are starting to long for the warm breezes and blooming flowers of spring, the allergy sufferers among us are doing silent cheers of relief. The longer it takes for spring to take hold, the less they have to worry about their springtime allergies. Sooner or later, spring will arrive in full force as will your allergies. If the cost of Claritin has gotten you down, you might want to consider some of these home remedies:
1. Drink tea! Green tea and chamomile tea both contain natural antihistamines. A couple of cups of either kind of tea are a great way to keep breathing easy. If you are allergic to ragweed, stay away from the chamomile tea or your allergy symptoms could get worse. Peppermint tea helps to relieve congestion, coughs, and sinus issues.
2. Up your garlic intake. Garlic helps to stimulate your immune system, and it can also act as a decongestant. Many people use it as a cough remedy. The easiest way to eat more garlic is to use more of it when you cook. Fresh garlic is the most effective, but can be harder on the taste buds.
3. Oatmeal is a great remedy for hives. If you find yourself breaking out, boil a cup of water and pour it over a single tablespoon of oatmeal. After steeping the oatmeal for thirty minutes strain it and then use a cotton ball to rub the liquid onto your skin. This is also a great way to relieve the stinging and itching that comes from bug bites. One of the best things about this remedy is that you can keep it in your refrigerator for a few days and add it to your bathwater to moisten your skin.
There are plenty of other allergy home remedies from which to choose, but these are the most popular.
