Breakfast in Schwetzingen
German breakfasts are anything but light. There wasn’t a piece of fruit to be found! We were lucky to be guests at the hotel, because most of the tables were reserved, and people were turned away, even at nine in the morning, the breakfasts at the hotel Cafe Journal are so good.
You could have smoked ham, cold cuts and cheese, too, but we chose not.
Breakfast bread basket:
Yummy condiments:
Fresh orange juice:
Herb and cheese omelettes:
We were astonished – in Germany and in France – that there is absolutely NO SMOKING in any of the restaurants. If you are sitting outside, you can smoke, but we could not believe how well enforced this law is. We had heard about it, but frankly – the French not smoke in restaurants? We would not have believed it possible! Germans are very law-obeying peoples, but the French??? Never, not once, did we see a person smoking in a restaurant. It was amazing.
More Sleep, Fewer Colds
This is one of the weekly tips from Real Age. The problem I have with this tip is one of the reasons I knew I was coming down with something was that I was wide awake when I normally am sleeping. I had a virus recently, like a cold, but it started with being very not-sleepy. It was weird. Fortunately, I haven’t had it for long, and it seems to be moving on.
Are you like me? I was sneezing and coughing – and very worried I had caught the new swine flu. Why on earth would I think that???
That bug that’s going around? Until it’s moved to the next zip code, put yourself to bed early.
In a 2-week study, getting a little less sleep — under 7 hours instead of 8 or more — made people three times more likely to get sick after exposure to a cold virus. Now that’s something to sleep on.
Seems your immune system takes a hit from both lack of sleep and poor sleep. In fact, poor sleep may have an even bigger impact than short sleep. People in the study were five times more likely to get sick when their sleep quality dipped — even if it just dipped a smidge.
Hope in a Bottle – with Proof
When the results of this study were published, BBC News tells us, Boots sold five month worth of stock in one day!
The study goes on to say that the two main causes of wrinkles are sun damage and smoking, but that this face cream can turn back the clock. Wooo HOOOO!
Scientists say they have clinical proof that a face cream available on the high street does reduce wrinkles.
Five months’ worth of stock of the leading brand sold in a day after Professor Chris Griffiths announced in 2007 it appeared to combat sun damage.
Two years on from the BBC Horizon programme showcasing his work, his team has shown the cream visibly smoothes out the skin.
Boots predicts boom sales of its No 7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum.
This moisturiser is a richer version of its Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum that the team tested before and found it stimulated the production of fibrillin-1, a protein that promotes elasticity in the skin which is lost with sun damage.
You can read the entire article HERE.
“Let Her Get Fat” in Saudi Arabia
Sometimes, either you laugh, or you’re going to cry. This is from BBC News: Saudi Arabia
Saudis clamp down on women’s gyms
Saudi women are largely constrained to the home and single-sex environments
Many women-only sports clubs and gyms in Saudi Arabia face closure under a government clampdown on unlicensed premises, Saudi media have reported.
Women’s gyms have become popular in the ultra-conservative Muslim country where the sexes are heavily segregated.
But only clubs linked to medical groups can get licenses and others will be closed, the Arab News newspaper said.
Saudi women were reported to have launched an online campaign in protest called Let Her Get Fat.
Government departments are not allowed to issue licenses for commercial gyms and sports clubs for women, unlike facilities for men, the newspaper reported.
It quoted club manager Bader al-Shibani, who tried to open a women’s sports club along with the one he runs for men in Jeddah.
“I ran into a stone wall at every turn. Every department I visited denied that they had the authority to give permission to establish a women’s club,” he said.
Many clubs are registered as beauty salons, and offer fitness facilities and even exercise classes in addition, the newspaper said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs told the newspaper that commercial clubs do not have registration for the provision of sport and health services.
“It’s clear that one department is now taking the decision to put an end to the increasing number of unlicensed clubs,” lawyer and community activist Abdulaziz al-Qasim told Arab News.
A group of women launched an internet campaign in protest against the move, saying facilities linked to medical clinics were too expensive, and their health would suffer as a result of the closures.
Women in Saudi Arabia are banned from driving, must wear a head-to-toe cloak when out in public and must obtain permission from a male relative to work, travel, study or marry.
Jodi Picoult: Handle With Care
I just finished the latest Jodi Picoult novel, Handle with Care. I was uncomfortable with it at the beginning, as I often am with Jodi Picould novels. She’s like that guest who brings up topics no one else brings up, and sometimes you wish she would stop, but the conversation gets rolling and everyone has an opinion, and the party would be much duller if she weren’t there.
She’s also the friend you would go to if you had an embarrassing problem you couldn’t discuss with anyone else. We all need that kind of friend, an honest sounding board, not afraid to deal with the grit and grime of everyday life.
I know the reason her books make me uncomfortable is that sometimes I see things I don’t like about myself in her characters.
The subject of the book is a disease called osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), and Willow, the youngest daughter, has Type III, which means she was born with broken bones, her bones would break if you picked her up wrong, changed her diaper the wrong way, even if she rolled over. Her bones were brittle, and the slightest thing could cause a break. She is also very smart, and a delightful character.
Picoult takes us inside many heads – the mother, Charlotte, a former pastry chef (Picoult includes some of her very best recipes, YUMMMM), Sean, the fiercely loving father, Amelia, a troubled pre-teen who hides her bulemia and cutting, and Marin, the lawyer, searching for her own birth mother. When Charlotte files a wrongful birth suit against her best friend – and obstetrician – Piper, her life starts to fall apart. It’s hard to believe things could get worse than having a child whose bones break all the time, but things definitely get worse.
What I hated about Charlotte, who has learned to anticipate her damaged child’s needs, is seeing myself through her eyes. Frequently, she shows us our insensitivity to the disabled, how we patronize, how we are oblivious to the simplest needs. Charlotte is a little angry at the world, so protective that she bites back scathing words to outsiders – or doesn’t. People without disabilities – visible disabilities, we all have disabilities, don’t we, just some are visible and some are not? – can be so smug, so unaware of the hardships others face. I cringe when I read this book. I see myself, and I don’t like what I see.
I admire Jodi Picoult. I will read just about anything she has written, because of the courage she has to tackle the most sensitive subjects. This is not a comfortable book to read, but it is a worthwhile book to read.
The Camera-Phone Diet
Sometimes AdventureMan will say “Take a photo! You can talk about this place in the blog!” I give him the look that says “get your own blog, AdventureMan.” Like if there is no one else in the restaurant, I might try, IF there is no one watching us. If there are other people I might do it IF I can do it subtly . . . I don’t like to attract attention, and especially if it is a place I like going back to regularly, I don’t want them figuring out who I am.
But now . . . I have a whole other excuse! I think this diet from Real Age is a total hoot! Keeping a food diary is known to help lose weight, but snapping a photo BEFORE you eat helps you think about how much you are eating, keeps you conscious of it . . . who knew? I wonder who thinks these things up?
You can read all about this diet HERE
Try the Camera-Phone Diet
Could your camera phone help you lose weight? One study seems to suggest so.
When people in a small study snapped a picture of everything they ate for 1 week, something interesting happened. They took better stock of their meals — and ate less or ate more healthfully because of it.
Snap Your Way to Slimmer Hips
Just think of it as a digital version of a food diary — but better — because it forces you to think about what you’re eating before you put it in your mouth, instead of after. With written food diaries, it’s too late — people log their choices after the fact. Watch this 60-second video on how to dish up just-right portions.
Worth 1000 Words (and Calories)
In the study, the simple act of taking a picture caused people to pay closer attention to how much they were eating, how diverse their food choices were, or how healthful the food was. And that extra thought and attention actually helped them eat better.
Here are some more slim-down tricks to try:
Pace yourself. Find out how eating slowly can help you eat less.
Be regular. Here’s why you don’t want to skip meals.
Learn to decode labels. Yep, reading is good for weight loss.
Chart your weight loss with this nifty weight loss tracker that lets you see your daily progress.
RealAge Benefit: Maintaining your weight and body mass index at a desirable level can make your RealAge as much as 6 years younger.
Walnuts Help Protect Against Breast Cancer
Walnuts may prevent breast cancer
You can read the entire report on BBC Health News
Walnuts have been linked to heart disease prevention
Eating walnuts may help to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer, research suggests.
The nuts contain ingredients such as omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phytosterols that may all reduce the risk of the disease.
Mice fed the human equivalent of two ounces (56.7g) of walnuts per day developed fewer and smaller tumours.
The US study was presented to the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.
Researcher Dr Elaine Hardman, of Marshall University School of Medicine, said although the study was carried out in mice, the beneficial effect of walnuts was likely to apply to humans too.
She said: “We know that a healthy diet overall prevents all manner of chronic diseases.”
“It is clear that walnuts contribute to a healthy diet that can reduce breast cancer.”
Previous research has suggested eating walnuts at the end of a meal may help cut the damage that fatty food can do to the arteries.
It is thought that the nuts are rich in compounds that reduce hardening of the arteries, and keep them flexible.
In the latest study mice were either fed a standard diet, or the walnut-based diet.
The animals fed walnuts developed fewer tumours, and those that did arise took longer to develop and were smaller.
Molecular analysis showed that omega-3 fatty acids played a key role – but other parts of the walnut contributed as well.
I remember reading another study where walnuts made veins more flexible and were helpful against heart disease. It isn’t any hardship, in this part of the world, eating fresh walnuts – they taste so GOOD!
Re-Igniting the Romance with Date Night
Good news – doing new and exciting things together help keeps a relationship fresh and intense. AdventureMan and I have always wanted to take dance lessons together, but have never had the time. I can hardly wait! Snorkeling in a new and exotic site . . . an African safari . . . trying a new restaurant, a new cuisine . . . finding new places to explore . . . novelty helps keep a marriage fresh and engaging.
From The New York Times. You can click this blue type to read the entire article.
Long-married couples often schedule a weekly “date night” — a regular evening out with friends or at a favorite restaurant to strengthen their marital bond.
But brain and behavior researchers say many couples are going about date night all wrong. Simply spending quality time together is probably not enough to prevent a relationship from getting stale.
Using laboratory studies, real-world experiments and even brain-scan data, scientists can now offer long-married couples a simple prescription for rekindling the romantic love that brought them together in the first place. The solution? Reinventing date night.
Rather than visiting the same familiar haunts and dining with the same old friends, couples need to tailor their date nights around new and different activities that they both enjoy, says Arthur Aron, a professor of social psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The goal is to find ways to keep injecting novelty into the relationship. The activity can be as simple as trying a new restaurant or something a little more unusual or thrilling — like taking an art class or going to an amusement park.
The theory is based on brain science. New experiences activate the brain’s reward system, flooding it with dopamine and norepinephrine. These are the same brain circuits that are ignited in early romantic love, a time of exhilaration and obsessive thoughts about a new partner. (They are also the brain chemicals involved in drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder.)
Most studies of love and marriage show that the decline of romantic love over time is inevitable. The butterflies of early romance quickly flutter away and are replaced by familiar, predictable feelings of long-term attachment.
. . . . . .
Dr. Aron cautions that novelty alone is probably not enough to save a marriage in crisis. But for couples who have a reasonably good but slightly dull relationship, novelty may help reignite old sparks.
And recent brain-scan studies show that romantic love really can last years into a marriage. Last week, at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference in Albuquerque, researchers presented brain-scan data on several men and women who had been married for 10 or more years. Interviews and questionnaires suggested they were still intensely in love with their partners. Brain scans confirmed it, showing increased brain activity associated with romantic love when the subjects saw pictures of their spouses.
It’s not clear why some couples are able to maintain romantic intensity even after years together. But the scientists believe regular injections of novelty and excitement most likely play a role.
New Study Links Oral Sex to Throat Cancer
No, this is not an April fool’s joke. The article is found in Thursday’s BBC Health News, you can read the entire article by clicking on the blue type here.
Oral sex linked to throat cancer
A virus contracted through oral sex is the cause of some throat cancers, say US scientists.
HPV infection was found to be a much stronger risk factor than tobacco or alcohol use, the Johns Hopkins University study of 300 people found.
Traffic Pollution Linked to Low Birth Weight Babies
This is definitely NOT good news, not for Seattle, not for Kuwait:
Pollution link with birth weight
From BBC Health News
Traffic pollution was identified as a significant problem
Exposure to traffic pollution could affect the development of babies in the womb, US researchers have warned.
They found the higher a mother’s level of exposure in early and late pregnancy, the more likely it was that the baby would not grow properly.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at 336,000 babies born in New Jersey between 1999 and 2003
UK experts said much more detailed research into a link was needed.
The researchers, from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, used information from birth certificates and hospital discharge records.
They recorded details including each mother’s ethnicity, marital status, education, whether or not she was a smoker – as well as where she lived when her baby was born.
Daily readings of air pollution from monitoring points around the state of New Jersey were taken from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The scientists then took data from the monitoring point which was within six miles (10 km) of the mothers’ homes to work out what their exposure to air pollution had been during each of the three trimesters of pregnancy.
It was found that mothers of small, and very small, birth weight babies were more likely to be younger, less well educated, of African-American ethnicity, smokers, poorer, and single parents than mothers with normal birth weight babies.
But, even after these factors had been taken into account, higher levels of air pollutants were linked to restricted foetal growth.
Two kinds of pollution produced by cars – tiny sooty particles and nitrogen dioxide – were found to have an impact.
Particulate matter is produced from vehicle exhausts and can lodge in the lungs. Fine particles, such as PM 2.5s, which penetrate deep into the lungs, have been linked to deaths from heart and respiratory diseases.
You can read the entire article Here, at BBC Health News.
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