Say you wanted to take over the world—how would you do it? Let’s agree it looks much like the world we live in today, where some countries hold inordinate power over the lives of people in others; where global systematic racism, the shameful legacy of colonization and imperialism, has contrived to keep many humans poor and struggling.
The post The Hunger Games are playing on loop— And I am tired of watching appeared first on OUPblog.
Obesity is epidemic in this country and the news is full of stories about the excesses that are
ruining our health and shortening the lives of our children. Before you get defensive you need to understand that as parents we are only partly responsible for the situation. Food manufacturers and restaurant owners, and yes, our government must share the blame,
but we need to do something about it.Everyday there is a news story telling us that what we were once told about a particular food is now considered incorrect and what we once thought was good for us is now thought to be bad for us. While the government is telling us obesity in children is a major problem, fast food restaurants are advertising bigger, fatter, more calorie-laden options. It is confusing for all of us. How can we keep up? What can we do about it?
I believe certain basics are true. I believe the closer our food is to its natural state the better it is for us.That doesn't mean meateaters should eat their meat raw, but if it isn't covered with cheese or creamy gravy it is probably better for you. I personally believe we eat too much meat in this country but this post isn't about that.
I am not interested in changing meateaters to vegetarians. This post is about healthier eating and making changes toward better health.
I married a
meat and potatoes man. One day I decided, after a lot of reading on the subject, that we should become vegetarians. Vegetarian cookbooks that were available at the time were not encouraging. Becoming a vegetarian seemed to involve mixing and matching different kinds of protein foods to get the right combination to make up for not eating meat. After reading the cookbooks I was sure there was no way I would be able to convert my husband to a vegetarian lifestyle. I almost gave up, but I had the cookbooks so I figured I had to at least try a few recipes. I did and I was right, hubby wouldn't eat them.
Then it dawned on me! I could fix most of the dishes that we were accustomed to eating but make them vegetarian. And that is what I did. If I removed meat from a recipe I replaced it with something else to make up for what was missing. (Portabello mushrooms have a texture similar to meat. Today the stores have many meat substitutes.)I didn't worry about complementarity but instead I concentrated on preparing good meals, that tasted good and that fit our style but without meat. Why should this matter to you? Read on...
On the road to healthier eating you have to expect a few bumps, but that shouldn't stop you. It is a retraining of our thinking and our tastebuds. If you are used to eating food that is drowning in cheese sauce it will take a while to adjust to the idea of eating food without cheese sauce, but it can be done. Make changes slowly. Perhaps you will need to slowly reduce the amount of cheese in the sauce, and reduce the quantity of sauce in a serving. Look for other healthier ways to season your food, and eat the less-healthy choices less often until you can elimate them completely. Concentrate on the foods that you like that are healthier choices.
Lightly salt foods before serving and take the salt off of the table. Make
eating healthier a family project and get the kids involved. Teach them, and yourself, to
read product labels. Know what unhealthy things to look for (high fructose corn syrup, all kinds of sugars, sodium quantities, che
Full disclosure: myYearbook is a sponsor of Ypulse.com and our Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup events.
Our friends at myYearbook gave us an early heads up on a new feature they just launched called Causes (the release is scheduled to hit the wires... Read the rest of this post
I love sites that truly help others by having users simply click here or there.FREE RICE is a site which not only helps feed the hungry but helps increase your English language vocabulary. For every word you correctly define (you get four choices to select from), Free Rice will donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger.I know, 20 grains of rice doesn't really sound like much, but this site is as addicting as solitaire once was.I'm proud to say that I donated at least 200 grains of rice during my first 4 minutes on the site. I learned many new words and correctly defined even more.
The site does come with a warning, however: This game may make you smarter.It can also help you:
- Formulate your ideas better
- Write better papers, emails and business letters
- Speak more precisely and persuasively
- Comprehend more of what you read
- Read faster because you comprehend better
- Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
- Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
- Perform better at job interviews and conferences
- Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
- Be more effective and successful at your job
After you have done
Free Rice for a couple of days, you may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that you have never consciously used before will begin to pop into your head while you are speaking or writing. You will
feel yourself using and knowing more words.
This weekend I linked to a Snape article in the Los Angeles Times during the weekend reviews. A Fuse #8 picked up on the story and it got me thinking this morning.
You see, there are some adults with Snape-love--adults and teens who are petitioning J.K. not to kill off our crotchety Potions master. I am one of those adults, though I haven't gone so far as to petition. Let's face it, it's J.K.'s decision in the end.
There are two issues here: 1) why do we think Snape is toast and 2) why do we love him so much? Here are my thoughts:
1) If Snape will be redeemed, he must die. And he must die proving Harry was wrong. In other words, he must die a hero. So he'll have to go saving Harry or fighting with the Order of the Phoenix for the greater cause. If he doesn't die, then Harry and friends will always suspect him and so will we.
2) I am beginning to think Alan Rickman is at fault here. I've been thinking about Snape in the books and Snape in the movies. While not one of the films has been as good as its textual inspiration, Alan Rickman has always been awesome. He is THE standout adult actor in the films. He has infused Snape with a campy humor that may be lacking in the books themselves. This may be why Rowling is surprised by Snape love. True he is a "gray" character, as mentioned in the LAT article, but he's not a funny one in Rowling's books.
There's another aspect to adult Snape love. (That sounds a little nasty, doesn't it?) Teachers and Professors love the man. He tells students what we all have longed to say at one point or another.
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Where am I? I'm in the midst of editing The Edge of the Forest, which will go up sometime during the wee hours of the 10th/11th. I'm off for more work....
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Well said, Shari. I personally kind of like the feeling of being a bit hungry. Savoring the first bite a meal, the first swallow of a cup of coffee fixed just how you like it, the first taste of a nice red wine, is as good as it gets. Those long-awaited first tastes explode on the taste buds can almost be felt all the way down to your stomach. Yummmmm....
I totally agree!
I am a vegan, but one can eat bad as a vegetarian, too.