Video: Don’t Screw Where You Lift.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Don’t screw where you lift. After all, a good gym is hard to find – but a hard guy is easy to find. Check out my new video.
Minted
So I’m sure you guys have all heard of Minted right? I order my Christmas cards from them every year. I have also ordered many birthday invitations from them as well. Image my surprise (and delight!) when they contacted me and wanted to write up a post about their new products: wall art and limited…
Be Like Edison – Don’t Stop When It Looks Impossible
I recently came across a quote I’d never heard from Thomas Edison: “Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged.” Thomas Edison, of course, is famous for having never quit when things looked impossible. […]
WOD of the Week
Welcome to the workout of the week! 21-15-9 reps of: lunges (Each leg ½ rep) situps burpees Then if you have it in you, repeat! Related PostsWOD of the Week WOD of the Week WOD of the Week WOD of the WeekWOD of the Week
Ashtanga Yoga Intermediate Series Demonstration
A short demonstration video of some of the postures in Intermediate series shot in Mysore, India.
Is Turkey Bacon Healthier?
Mmmm. Bacon. Just saying the word makes my mouth water. Of course, we all know that bacon is high in calories and unhealthy fats. As such, many people have made the switch to healthier-sounding turkey bacon. When we think turkey, we think a more nutritional alternative to fattier meats. But does this logic hold true […]
How to Crush Shyness and Be More Outgoing in Life
I’m not a very outgoing person by nature. Yet, I’ve found the way of the world to be rewarding and made for social and outgoing people. Outgoing people seem to have better relationships, more opportunities and be in more leadership positions. So although I feel like an introvert by nature and would rather spend hours […]
Study: Exercise Helps Work-Life Balance.
Everyone knows that exercise is good for your mind. And most of us know that exercise helps the brain, too. But a fascinating new study shows that exercise can help balance out conflicts in life – like the push and pull of work and family life. The study, which will be published in an upcoming […]
Cheesy Black Bean and Sweet Corn Dip
Yield:Serves 6Ingredients
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen sweet corn
1/8 cup pickled jalapenos*; chopped finely
1/3 cup green enchilada sauce
1/2 cup colby Jack cheese, shredded
InstructionsClick Here to see the rest of the instruct…
How To Get a Thick Neck.
Sure, a strong, thick neck can look great. But it’s also a great way to help guard against injury and enhance performance. First, it’s worth noting that proper form and supervision is an absolute must. If your necks becomes overstressed and strained, the training can be counterproductive or even dangerous. It’s important to work with […]
How to Win Without Being a ‘Winner’
I’m a loser! There, I said it. I’m a big loser who fails most of the time he attempts to do anything. It took me years of loneliness and rejection before I could get a girlfriend. It took me hundreds of clients before I could be sure that I was giving a good service. And […]
How to Make Small Talk With Strangers
Having good conversations with people you just met is crucial to building friendships. But you only need to have “good” conversations; you don’t need to obsess over having a great first impression. You don’t need to impress or blow the mind of anyone; you just need to build new ties with people. In this article, […]
Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series Demo
Here is the second video we shot while in Mysore, India with a focus on the poses of Primary Series. My favorite part of the video is the dog who comes out at the beginning of the film. There are always elements out of our control that end up being ple…
Do You Want Nutrition Information on Menu Boards?
If you knew the doughnut you were about to order had 480 calories and 13 grams of saturated fat, would you still order it? Maybe. But according to a new Canadian study, maybe not. The study, which is due to be completed this month, examined the impact of publishing nutrition information directly on menu boards. […]
Turmeric Tea
A while back I posted a recipe for the highly popular turmeric milk. Nonetheless, dare I say, I might have found something that tops it. Homemade turmeric tea! I am in love, love, love with this drink! It is quickly becoming my favorite hot drink of al…
Dr. Val’s Health Tips: Causes And Cures For Childhood Insomnia
Thanks to support from OTCSafety.org, I’ve created a series of health tips for common medical concerns. This week’s article is about how to diagnose and treat sleep difficulties in children and adolescents. There are many possible causes of insomnia, which include everything from emotional distress to bad dreams, breathing problems, stomach pains, medical conditions or behavioral problems.
In my article I discuss how you can work with a healthcare professional to determine the cause of your child’s sleep difficulties (this includes details on how to keep a sleep diary). I offer instructive do’s and don’ts to promote healthy sleep, and offer examples of symptoms that may require medical intervention.
For the full article, please click here. I promise it won’t put you to sleep! 😉
GMO Paranoia And The Hollow Health Claims Of Cheerios
Make no mistake about it. General Mills’ introduction of Cheerios sporting the label “Not Made With Genetically Modified Ingredients” is a mere marketing ploy and has nothing to do with health or nutrition. Let’s start the dissection of this blatant attempt to capitalize on the anti-GMO paranoia by looking at the main ingredient in Cheerios, namely oats. Samuel Johnson, the 18th century writer who compiled the first authoritative dictionary of the English language whimsically defined oats as the grain “eaten by people in Scotland, but fit only for horses in England.” A clever Scot supposedly retorted “that’s why England has such good horses, and Scotland has such fine men!”
Modern science, as it turns out, supports the ancient Scotch penchant for oats. A form of soluble fiber in the grain known as beta glucan has been shown to reduce levels of cholesterol in the blood which in turn is expected to reduce the risk of heart disease. You couldn’t tell this by the Scottish experience, though. Scotland has one of the highest rates of heart disease in the world. It seems all that haggis, refined carbs and a lack of veggies is too great a challenge for Scotch oats to cope with. Actually you need at least 3 grams of beta glucan daily to have any effect on blood cholesterol and that translates to roughly a cup of cooked oat bran or a cup and a half of oatmeal. Or about three servings of Cheerios. And that makes the cholesterol lowering claims prominently featured on the Cheerios box ring pretty hollow. There are far better ways to reduce cholesterol than gorging on Cheerios.
At least, though, the cholesterol lowering claim has some scientific merit. The “no GMO” claim has none. To start with, there are no genetically modified oats grown anywhere, at least not in the current sense of the term which refers to the splicing of specific foreign genes into the DNA of a seed. Such “recombinant DNA technology: is generally used to confer resistance to herbicides or protection from insects, but resistance to drought and enhancement with nutrients hold great potential. Although it is this new-fangled technology that garners attention these days, the fact is that virtually everything we eat has been genetically modified in some fashion over the years, either by traditional crossbreeding or through the use of chemicals or radiation both of which can scramble the genetic material in crops. The latter processes are based on the hope that a useful mutation will occur by chance, but basically it comes down to a roll of the dice. Just do enough experiments and a valuable mutant may surface. Radiation breeding has produced many varieties of rice, wheat, peanuts and bananas that are now widely grown. If you are eating red grapefruit, or sipping premium Scotch whisky made from barley, you are enjoying the products of this technology.
So if “genetically modified” oats do not exist, what sort of monsters is General Mills protecting us from? As is the case with any commercial cereal, Cheerios contains a number of ingredients with nutritious whole grain oats at the top of the list. Next come modified corn starch and sugar. It is to these two ingredients that General Mills refers when it talks about “GMO-free.” Much of the corn and some of the sugar beets grown in North America are genetically modified to resist herbicides and ward off insects. But by the time the highly processed starch and sugar extracted from these plants reach the food supply, they retain no vestige of any genetic modification. There is no way to distinguish the starch or sugar derived from genetically modified plants from the conventional varieties. The GMO-free Cheerios will not differ in any way from the currently marketed version except that the price may eventually reflect the greater cost of sourcing ingredients from plants that do not benefit from recombinant DNA technology.
The reason for the addition of sugar to Cheerios, actually in small doses compared with other cereals, is obvious. But why is corn starch added, and why is it modified? Nobody likes soggy cereal, and a thin layer of modified starch sprayed onto the little “O”s helps keep the interior dry. The modification in this case has nothing to do with genetic modification. Starch is a mixture of essentially two “polymers,” or giant molecules, both composed of units of glucose joined together. In amylose, the glucose units form a straight chain, while in amylopectin, the main glucose strand features many branches of shorter glucose chains. The properties of any starch depend on the relative proportion of amylose and amylopectin as well as on the degree of branching.
Starch has many uses in the food industry. It can thicken sauces, prevent French dressing from separating, substitute for fat or keep cereals dry. But these uses require starches of specific composition, either in terms of the length of the glucose chains or the degree of branching. In other words, the native starch has to be “modified” by treatment with acids, enzymes or oxidizing agents. There is no safety issue here, modified starches are approved food additives. Of course that doesn’t prevent scientifically illiterate alarmists from scaring the public by blathering on about modified starch being used as wallpaper glue and insinuating that any food made with it will literally stick to our ribs. The modified starch used in glue, namely a “carboxymethylated” version, is not the same as used in food, but even if it were, so what? Just because water can be used to clean garage floors and is found in tumours doesn’t mean we can’t drink it. Talking about washing garage floors, Cheerios also contains tripotassium phosphate, a powerful cleaning agent. It is added in small amounts to adjust the acidity of the mix used to formulate the cereal. This too has raised the ire of some ill-informed activists who do not realize that we consume all sorts of naturally occurring phosphates regularly in our diet. Quacking about the dangers of tripotassium phosphate in Cheerios makes about as much sense as hyping Cheerios that are “Not Made With Genetically Modified Ingredients.”
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Joe Schwarcz, Ph.D., is the Director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society and teaches a variety of courses in McGill’s Chemistry Department and in the Faculty of Medicine with emphasis on health issues, including aspects of “Alternative Medicine”. He is well known for his informative and entertaining public lectures on topics ranging from the chemistry of love to the science of aging. Using stage magic to make scientific points is one of his specialties.
Sweaty Betty: Fashion Meets Functionality
More and more women are incorporating activities to unload stress, give time for themselves and get their health back to tiptop shape. Gone are those days when loose shirts and sweat pants used to dominate studios and gyms; women choose what’s presentably fashionable and has more functionality rather than just a pair of workout apparel. […]
