Health care

The power of prayer to heal the sick is medically documented and a part of many religions. I can't -- and don't want to -- envision my great-grandmother seeing someone she loved hooked up to medical machinery. But I can easily envision her praying for someone's healing.

But what about praying for someone's suffering to end?

What about not praying for someone you know is in medical trouble because you don't like that person or the person somehow "deserved" what happened due to lifestyle choices?

What about praying for someone to get better but that person just gets better enough to be medically miserable?

If prayer has power, then people who pray have responsiblity. What do you think is that responsibility? I'll put my view in the comments. I'm eager to hear yours.

Seasonings

Our great-grandmothers knew the joy of fleeting foods.

I'd give examples of foods that were only in season certain times of the year, but I'm embarrassingly out of touch - I haven't been shopping at farmer's markets long enough to know what is in or out of season over the course of a year.

That goodness for http://www.eattheseasons.com/. The website gives seasonal food information, tips and recipe ideas. What a great idea!

Rosemary to the Rescue

A Newswise press release says rosemary, a member of the mint family and a popular seasoning on its own, also has benefits as a cancer prevention agent.

Apply it to hamburgers and its antioxidant content – rosmarinic acid, carnosol and carnosic acid – can break up potentially cancer-causing compounds called HCA that can form when meat is cooked.

J. Scott Smith, a Kansas State University food science professor, advised grillers to put a little bit of rosemary on the surface of the meat.

"Rosemary extracts shouldn’t have much of an aroma to them," he said. "Most people don’t want a rosemary-flavored burger. So if you get the extract you don’t really know it’s there.”

What a rosy solution!

Cleaning Safely, with Grandma's Ingredients

From today's New York Times:

The women in Laura Gosa’s kitchen in Jersey City fell to, blending the ingredients spread out on her counters like so many blasts from Grandma’s preindustrial past: baking soda, borax, Castile soap, lemon oil, vinegar, glycerin and other staples of the all-natural armamentarium.

These women weren’t interested in buying green products; this was strictly a make-your-own approach. It was one of more than 100 such parties held since late March in various parts of the country by Women’s Voices for the Earth, an environmental group based in Missoula, Mont., that just began the program and has another 100 parties planned. The group made headlines last year with a report that common household cleaners contained obscure chemicals — mostly in small amounts as fragrances or surfactants — that it considered unsafe.

While it is deeply serious about persuading people to consider alternatives to chemical-laden cleaning products, the parties are not merely dutiful. At another recent one in the Wall Street conference room of Divine Capital Markets, a brokerage firm, the firm’s founder, Danielle F. Hughes, served “Windex martinis,” mixed from Ketel One vodka and blue Gatorade.

Ms. Hughes said she is wary of detergents and cleaning products because she thinks they triggered her past attacks of asthma and eczema.

But she is hardly suspicious of everything made by conglomerates.

“Heck, I’m in the stock market, I don’t want everybody to stop buying everything,” she said. “But we need to lobby companies to say, Hey, tell us what’s in it.”

The rest of the story is on the New York Times website.

Waste Not

I'm a security-minded person and waste irritates me. So, those credit card soliciations that already have my name and other information printed on them make me nuts -- they are a waste of paper and ink, not to mention a drag on the mail system and potential for identity thieves.

While preparing to shred a half dozen of them today, I noticed an opt-out number to "no longer receive prescreened offers of credit." Whoo-hoo! I'd read an article a while ago about the number to call and that the number actually works, but I'd lost the article before writing it down.

I wasn't going to procrastinate this time, so I called: 1-888-567-8688.

There is only a computer voice and you have to input some pretty sensitive information -- name, address, date of birth, social security number. That last one gave me pause but, if the credit offers are based on my credit report, which is based on my social security number, it does makes sense they need the SSN to verify my identity.

Now that I've gone through the opt-out process, I'll hopefully stop getting those darned offers. The computer voice told me it could take a few weeks for the process to be complete. When it is, I think both I -- and my mailman -- will be grateful.

Mixing green with green

Like so many of us, I try to live green, but sometimes I'm afraid things touted as "green" are really no better than the energy-hogging alternatives. The recent kerfuffle over CFLs and mercury didn't help my jitters, even though CFLs were exonerated.

Thank goodness MSN is helping sort out the hype with its "Which Green Upgrades Are Worth the Extra Expense?" article. A little annoying to read since the article requires a click-through to get to each new topic, I still found the explanations ("assumptions," the article calls them) for how the reporter arrived at the money-savings to be quite, well, illuminating.

If you're pressed for time, the article's last page, a chart of potential money savings, is the quickest way to gain information.

Oh, and if you looking for me, I'll be out buying a low-flow showerhead.

A bit of a reach

It's just not natural to be as desk-bound as some of us find ourselves during the day. Luckily, there are some great guides to stretches for computer users.

Or, if you prefer something more interactive, Richard Simmons has a video guide to simple stretches that can help those of us who find outselves sitting more than we'd like to:

Breath for Inner Peace

From the Chopra Center:

http://chopra.com/namaste/meditationmoment

Nadi Shodhana, or “alternate nostril breathing,” is a simple but powerful technique that deeply relaxes the mind and body. Use it to quiet your mind before beginning a meditation session – or to calm racing thoughts and anxiety if you are having trouble falling asleep.

There are several different styles of Nadi Shodhana, but they all serve the purpose of regulating the flow of air through your nasal passages. Here is a practice you can try right now:

1. Hold your right thumb over your right nostril and inhale deeply through your left nostril. At the peak of your inhalation, close off your left nostril with your third and fourth fingers, then exhale smoothly through your right nostril.
2. After a full exhalation, inhale through the right nostril, closing it off with your right thumb at the peak of your inhalation.
3. Continue performing Nadi Shodhana for the next few breaths, following the same pattern. Your breathing should be effortless, with your mind gently observing the inflow and outflow of breath.

Rubbed Right

Ah, the wonders of alcohol! ... No, not that kind -- rubbing alcohol.

Obviously, the stuff will clean and sanitize. But did you know it will also:

• allow you to easily scratch off a sticky price sticker from metal or glass once you've soaked the price sticker (try this on plastic at your own risk)
• help you pull off a band-aid, painlessly, using the same soaking method
• make a soft ice pack -- use three parts of water and one part rubbing alcohol in a Ziploc bag. Once frozen, it turns to slush, not ice
• as a pre-treatment, remove ink stains from clothes if you soak the stain in rubbing alcohol for about 10 minutes, then throw in the washing machine
• remove marks from counter tops and walls. Try on a test area first and, if there is no damage, you can try scouring the more obvious spot

Pretty Tasty

Just because something is labeled "natural" doesn't mean it's good. After all, arsenic is "natural."

But many beauty products these days are on the "natural" bandwagon, which, I suppose, is better than chemicals mixed up in the lab. But when a product contains "pumpkin extract" or "grapefruit essence," what exactly does that mean?

You'll know soon thanks to alert Great-Grandmother's Shopping List reader Melissa, who has sent in an article from Real Simple Magazine that explains the prettier purposes of pomegranate, grapefruit, mushroom, pumpkin and bamboo.

A few other, clickable tidbits:

• a banana anti-aging mask
• a honey scrub
• a milk makeup remover

What a beautiful bon appetit!

In Defense of Food

From a great website we just found, Julie's Health Club:

Michael Pollan asks in his eater's manifesto,
"In Defense of Food," "What other animal needs professional help in deciding what it should eat?"
It wouldn't be so complicated if gung-ho food scientists hadn't replaced ordinary food with foodlike substances (some of which are incapable of rotting). Today, telling someone to "eat food" is easier said than done because real food is often difficult to identify.
But labels are not the answer, because manufacturers put meaningless "health claims" on everything imaginable, including Cocoa Puffs and drinks that contain high-fructose corn syrup, such as Gatorade.
Rather than a rating system, what we need is common sense. And Pollan, thankfully, has provided some logical rules of thumb to help you find the kind of food you should eat: real food that doesn't lie to your body.

DON'T EAT ANYTHING YOUR GREAT-GRANDMOTHER WOULDN'T RECOGNIZE AS FOOD.
No Go-Gurt Portable Yogurt tubes. (She wouldn't be able to identify high-fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, kosher gelatin, carrageenan, tricalcium phosphate, natural and artificial flavors, etc.) No "protein waters," "nondairy creamers" or foods that never grow stale.

AVOID FOOD PRODUCTS CONTAINING INGREDIENTS THAT ARE:
A) UNFAMILIAR,
B) UNPRONOUNCABLE,
C) MORE THAN FIVE IN NUMBER
D) HAVE HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

Pollan's example: Sara Lee's Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread, which fails every test proposed by this rule. "If not for the indulgence of the Food and Drug Administration, (it) could not even be labeled "bread," he wrote.

AVOID PRODUCTS THAT MAKE HEALTH CLAIMS.
If a food has a health claim, it probably has a package and that means it's very likely processed. Moreover, the FDA's "qualified" health claims" are all but meaningless.

SHOP THE PERIPHERIES OF THE SUPERMARKET AND STAY OUT OF THE MIDDLE.
"Processed foods products dominate the center aisles of the store while the cases of ostensibly fresh food--dairy, produce, meat and fish--line the walls," Pollan wrote. Be careful though, because high-fructose corn syrup lurks in the dairy case.

GET OUT OF THE SUPERMARKET WHENEVER POSSIBLE.
"You won't find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer's market. Also look into CSA (community supported agriculture), in which you can subscribe to a farm and receive a box of produce.)"

Go to Julie's Health Club at: http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2008/03/in-what-will-ce.html

Play Date

Playing outside used to be normal: hopscotch, kickball, even that hoop-and-stick thing in old movies. These days, though, sometimes things get so hectic we forget to make time just to play -- whether for ourselves or for our children.

The Play Pledge aims to change all that. Sponsored by the International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association (but still a good idea), the concept is we sign a contract with our kids (but I think it could be modified to be with ourselves) to get outside and have some fun.

Play builds intellectual, social and physical skills. Oh, and it's fun. So let's get out there and play!

Advice is Like Snow

"Advice is like snow--the softer it falls, the longer it dwells, and the deeper it sinks into the mind." Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I just liked this quote a lot. Remember it when you are bugging your loved ones to lead a healthier life. And remember to be gentle with yourself when you slip up -- in healthy living, relationships --anything at all. I got the quote from a website on EFT, check it out: http://www.emofree.com/ I highly recommend it.

And please send us your (or your great-grandmother's) favorite quotes. It's great to share.

Belly Fat May Make You Hungrier

You know the old saying: "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." Well, a recent study says the fat get fatter. But there is something we can do about it. Here's an excerpt from the article found on Andrew Weil, M.D.'s website:

"The extra fat we carry around our waists could be making us hungrier. Dr. Yaiping Yang and researchers at the Lawson Health Research Institute (affiliated with The University of Western Ontario, Canada) found abdominal fat tissue can secrete a hormone that stimulates appetite and further fat cell production.

The researchers found that the hormone neuropeptide Y (NPY) is secreted by abdominal fat tissue. Previously, it was believed to be produced only by the brain. NPY is the most potent appetite stimulating hormone known, sending signals to the individual that they are constantly hungry.The “active” role of fat in appetite fits with the conclusion of science writer Gary Taubes, who gave a riveting presentation at the Fifth Annual Nutrition and Health Conference in Phoenix last month. Taubes cited a century of research to prove his point that, as he put it, “obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation,” and that the “primary defect is in the body, not the brain.” It does indeed appear that fatty tissue exerts a potent effect on hormonal levels, including those that regulate hunger, which can lead to a vicious cycle of overweight and overeating. The good news is that lowering insulin levels by lowering the glycemic load of foods consumed appears to be able to defeat this feedback mechanism. For the whole story, I highly recommend Taubes’ recent book, Good Calories, Bad Calories."

For more go to : http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/WBL02087/Belly-Fat-May-Make-You-Hungrier.html

Count on It

Remember playing Chutes and Ladders when you were little? Turns out you were boosting your math skills.

A thesis out of Carnegie Mellon University states playing a linear number board game for about one hour increased low-income five-and-a-half-year-olds' math proficiency. Carried through years of schooling, the authors suggest math improvements due to games could make a significant difference for the students.

"The present findings demonstrated that the benefits of playing number board games include enhanced understanding of numerical magnitudes, improved counting, and improved numeral identification," the study stated. "These gains are not only important in themselves but also seem likely to increase children’s ability to acquire further numerical information."

Playing a color board game (Candy Land, say) wasn't associated with a math skills boost.

"The finding that middle-income children have more experience playing board games in general, and Chutes and Ladders in particular, increased the plausibility of the related hypothesis that variations in experience with such games is one source of differences between the numerical knowledge of children from low- and middle-income backgrounds," the study added.

The full study is at: http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/ramsieg-inpress1.pdf.

Breastfeeding Associated with Smarter Kids

Breastfeeding exclusively during the first year of life has been associated with an increase in a child’s intelligence by first grade, a large randomized trial in Belarus found.

For more on this boob-happy news, click: http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/GeneralPediatrics/tb/9342

What's Natural?

As the demand for "natural" personal care products such as lotions, balms and shampoos continues to soar, manufacturers are responding with a host of new products. Some are natural, some aren't. But how is a shopper to know? Until now, consumers had no idea what was truly natural since there was no standard definition of the term used by industry.

That is no longer the case. To end this confusion and help consumers, the Natural Products Association announced today a new certification program which defines natural and includes an easily-identified seal. Shoppers can expect the seal to begin appearing on certifier personal care products in the coming months.

"People want natural products because they are good for them and good for our environment," said Debra Short, president of the Natural Products Association. "But anyone could claim their product was 'natural,' even if it had 100 percent synthetic or petroleum-based. That wasn't fair to consumers or to companies who make truly natural products, and this seal will help end all that confusion."

For the rest of the story, click here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/106094.php

Firmly Planted

Growing something, whether it's a flower or a food or a tree, is a beautiful gift to ourselves and to future generations.

In fact, The National Garden Bureau has come up with a great-grandmother-worthy top 10 list answering the question "Why garden?"

The answers include safe, healthy food; relaxation; exercise; creativity; emotional needs; and spiritual connections. I think you'll find the entire list interesting.

This concept of tending the soul through gardening is "taking root," so to speak, at hospitals. Many medical facilities are adding or increasing their use of gardens to treat both mental and physical ailments.

If you know someone undergoing treatment or if you just want to enjoy a garden, this database of healing gardens may be of help.

Stories

In the last few days, I met two people in passing who confirmed the whole "great-grandmother's shopping list" concept.

The first was a gentleman at the garage, a big and tall man, maybe in his early 60s. He said when gas hit $3 a gallon, he began walking or biking to work. He said it was a 40-minute walk or a 20-minute bike ride each way. He said at first he was angry and missed driving his van. But, as time went by, he said he began enjoying the extra time between work and home and the interaction with nature. (It looked like most of his ride would be along busy streets, but he said there was nature to be found.)

This gentleman also said he has lost 12 pounds so far, has had his lowest blood pressure readings in years and his arthritis in his knees is vastly improved.

"The way things are going, now I'm gonna outlive my ex-wife," he said. "Serves her right."

The second person I met in passing was a clerk at a big-box store, probably about the same age as my garage gentleman. She admired by BYOBs and mentioned her mother came to this country from Germany.

"Over there, they never used this plastic stuff," she said, pointing to the store-emblazoned bags on her side of the counter. "I'm glad people here are getting sensible."

It sure is "greener" on the "sensible" side of the fence these days!

To a 'T'

If you have old t-shirts that are no longer stylish/wearable, you may think you have three options if you don't want to just throw them out:

• Hope a friend wants them.
• Give them to Goodwill.
• Offer them up on Craigslist or a freecycle group.

Those are all great, but have you considered eco-crafting? This would allow you to:

• If you knit or crochet, rip or cut the t-shirts into yarn strips.
• If you enjoy quilting, make your own t-shirt quilt (or you can hire a company to do it for you).
• If basic sewing is more your thing, make a t-shirt pillow.

There is something time-tested and beautiful about creating something with your own, two hands. Giving a new life or a new usefulness to something you already have used makes it even better.

Oil Change

Have you been using olive oil only for food? Tsk-tsk - great-grandma knew better.

Sure there are health benefits to actually eating the stuff, but, depending on how interested you are, there are seven uses, 10 uses or 25 uses for oilve oil that don't involve food at all.

My favorite is a tie - the de-frizz applications for hair (which is somewhat hard to do evenly, I'll admit) and the foot-softening if you spread olive oil on your feet (and put socks on) before going to bed.

What's your favorite non-food use for olive oil?