Make you Fink on Friday

Eat yourself smart

Can you really eat your way to a higher IQ? According to research, yes. Here are the best ways to feed your brain

Bubbly personality … champagne has been proven to counteract memory loss. Photograph: Plainview/Getty Images

Break out the bubbly

Never has there been a more welcome research finding. Scientists at the University of Reading  found that champagne contains something called “phenolic compounds”, which stimulate signals in the parts of the brain used to control memory and learning, counteracting memory loss associated with ageing. In particular, it is helpful with spatial memory, which allows us to record information about our surroundings and navigate around it. The benefits are noticeable with one to two glasses a week, but it can’t be any old fizzy white wine, as the nutrients are only abundant in the two red grapes used to make champagne – pinot noir and pinot meurier.

Chew it over

The longer you chew your food the better – and not just because that makes it easier to digest. A number of studies have linked having no teeth with the degeneration of cognitive function, and higher dementia risk, and one hypothesis was that if you can’t chew, there is a reduction in blood flow to the brain. In 2012, a team of Swedish scientists put the chewing connection to the test. They looked at 550 people aged 77 or over, and found that those who had difficulty chewing hard foods such as apples were significantly more likely to develop cognitive impairments. Plus, chewing more slowly allows time for your food to settle, so you feel full sooner and don’t overeat.

Bake your own

Not all fats are bad for you, but trans fats – found lurking in ready-made cakes – are public enemy No 1. A 2009 study at Oregon Health and Science University found that high levels of trans fats in the bloodstream correlated with lower cognitive ability and smaller brains. What better incentive to steer clear of nasty, processed cakes and bake your own? For recipes by the master baker Dan Lepard, go to theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/howtobake.

Something fishy

We’re always being told to eat more oily fish, but until recently there was little conclusive evidence that omega fatty acids (also found in eggs and nuts), could benefit mature brains. This year, a study published in the journal Neurology showed that fatty acids help maintain brain function into old age.

After six months of upping their intake, a test group at the Universitätsmedizin in Berlin were better able to plan, organise, strategise, concentrate and remember. For bonus points, sardines are also rich in a fatty substance called phosphatidylcholine, which is the key nutrient for memory function.

B is for brain

It’s not just bad fats that can damage your brain – everything you eat affects the health of your grey matter. A recent study from Oxford University found that high levels of B vitamins could slow down the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. So that means plenty of green vegetables such as broccoli, kale and spinach, lots of avocado on toast to keep your folate levels up, and plenty of milk, shellfish and, if you can stomach it, liver. They all contain super-vitamin B12, which will keep your brain a healthy size and slow cognitive decline.

 

Change the World Wednesday – 29th Jan

I proudly present, my first goiaba

We are still in the midst of a hot spell, which makes today’s challenge more of a challenge.

First up, my goiabeira (guava tree) has produced its first ripe goiaba (guava).

It’s a bit grotty looking, but what do you expect after falling from high and bouncing through branches before landing on the concrete?

Bit late getting on the go this morning, I had an early morning walk to the dentist, then back again, by that time I was ready for my customary nap.

Click on the banner for the full post

On with this week’s CTWW challenge!

Pertinent to both the northern and southern hemispheres for the appropriate cold and hot climates.

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This week, turn down your thermostat by 1 or 2 degrees. That’s 1 or 2 degrees lower than where you’ve had it during this cold season. If you get chilly, put on extra layers of clothing, cuddle under a blanket or exercise.

 

OR …

If it’s warm/hot where you’re at, turn the thermostat up by 1 or 2 degrees.

 

OR …

If you don’t use a thermostat to control your home’s temperature, please share the ways in which you keep comfortable.

The first part doesn’t apply here, as I said we are in the middle of a heat wave with temps broaching  and going over the 40ºC (1o6ºF). So far we have suffered (I say suffer, because beer isn’t always at hand) this for nine weeks with only one welcome storm about three weeks ago. One welcome addition to the botequim (bar next door) is an express ice cream machine, which helps on a sweaty evening.

I don’t have a thermostat, so I enter at the bottom level.

Drawing in the cooler night air

I have two fans, one in the living room and the other in the bedroom. Both are new and have an ‘A’ rating for power usage, and both have a dial speed control. The fan in the living room is only on when I watch TV, because in the evening the house is like a hot/glass house and it is on high mostly drawing in the cooler night air from the open window.

The other is used between my PC desk and bed. I keep the speed commensurate with the temp. It is on most of the time which is necessary for a night’s sleep. I do switch it off if I am out in the garden or off to work.

In addition to the fans, I wear less clothing around the house. I live alone and have few visitors, so underpants are the uniform of the day. Often having a brief show to get wet all over, and sitting under the fans. Principles of refrigeration.

My new fridge makes ice well, and I am constantly drinking chilled tap water, and I make slushies/smoothies during the day as well. Today will be a mamão (papaya) slushie. Does serious damage to the frontal lobe and cortex, but so wonderful.

A visit to the botequim in the early evening for a cool beer also helps on days with no class.

Ah, don’t panic, I do put on my shorts, don’t want to scare the natives. But no T-shirts are the order of dress at the bar.

So that’s how we do it in Brazil.

See you next week.

Simple Green Ideas

Really simple. Most people at some time have had an old bike rusting in the yard or decomposing in the shed.

Can it be repurposed?

Of course it can.

Maybe not photos, but a letter rack, recipes in the kitchen, notes by the telephone…

Source: MontanaBride

Monday Moaning

Do we want these?

They’ve been developed, they’re being shipped to England.

Are they safe?

They won’t enter my house.

For me a tomato is RED, any other colour is NOT a tomato!

These are tomatoes

Genetically-modified purple tomatoes heading for shops

The new tomatoes could improve the nutritional value of everyday foods

The prospect of genetically modified purple tomatoes reaching the shelves has come a step closer.

Their dark pigment is intended to give tomatoes the same potential health benefits as fruit such as blueberries.

Developed in Britain, large-scale production is now under way in Canada with the first 1,200 litres of purple tomato juice ready for shipping.

The pigment, known as anthocyanin, is an antioxidant which studies on animals show could help fight cancer.

Scientists say the new tomatoes could improve the nutritional value of everything from ketchup to pizza topping.

The tomatoes were developed at the John Innes Centre in Norwich where Prof Cathie Martin hopes the first delivery of large quantities of juice will allow researchers to investigate its potential.

“With these purple tomatoes you can get the same compounds that are present in blueberries and cranberries that give them their health benefits – but you can apply them to foods that people actually eat in significant amounts and are reasonably affordable,” she said.

The tomatoes are part of a new generation of GM plants designed to appeal to consumers – the first types were aimed specifically at farmers as new tools in agriculture.

The purple pigment is the result of the transfer of a gene from a snapdragon plant – the modification triggers a process within the tomato plant allowing the anthocyanin to develop.

Although the invention is British, Prof Martin says European Union restrictions on GM encouraged her to look abroad to develop the technology.

Read more

 

 

Nature Ramble

How the threat to lions, leopards and wolves endangers us all

Though fearsome killers, big carnivores are also a precious resource, as their feeding habits keep many delicate ecosystems in balance. But too many predators are now facing extinction

Lions kill a buffalo in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. Photograph: Jonathan & Angela Scott/Getty Images/AWL Images RM

They are the planet’s most prolific killers – and also some of nature’s most effective protectors. This is the stark conclusion of an international report that argues that lions, wolves, pumas, lynxes and other major carnivores play key roles in keeping ecosystems in balance. It also warns that the current depletion of numbers of major predators threatens to cause serious ecological problems across the globe.

The paper, written by a group of 14 leading ecologists and biologists from the US, Europe and Australia and published in the journal Science, calls for the establishment of an international initiative to conserve large carnivores and help them to coexist with humans. Failure to protect our top predators could soon have devastating consequences, they warn.

“Globally, we are losing our large carnivores,” said William Ripple, the report’s lead author. “Many of them are endangered and their ranges are collapsing. Many are at risk of extinction, either locally or globally. And, ironically, they are vanishing just as we are learning to appreciate their important ecological effects.”

The report has been produced, in part, to show that the classic vision of a large predator, such as a lion or a wolf, being an agent of harm to wildlife and a cause of widespread depletion of animal stocks is misguided. Careful analysis of predators’ food chains reveals a very different picture. “In fact, the myriad social and economic effects [of large carnivores] include many benefits,” it states.

Ripple, a professor at Oregon State University’s department of forest ecosystems and society, and his colleague Robert Beschta, have documented the impact of wolves in Yellowstone and other national parks in North America. When wolf numbers have been reduced, usually by hunters, this has led to an increase in numbers of herbivores, in particular the elk.

Elks browse on trees such as aspen, willow, cottonwood, and various berry-producing shrubs, and the more elks there are, the more browsing damage is done to these trees. The knock-on effect is striking, says the report.

“Local bird populations go down because they have fewer berries to eat,” added Ripple. “The same is true of bears, which also eat berries. Beaver populations are also affected. They have less plant life to eat and less wood for making their dams.

“For good measure, the roots of the willow and other shrubs help to hold the soil of river banks together, so they do not get washed away. This does happen, however, when you have no wolves, lots of elks and, therefore, poor levels of vegetation. So you can see that the wolf – which sits at the top of the food chain in midwest America – has an impact that goes right down to having an effect on the shapes of streams.”

Yet wolves were once considered to be such a menace that they were exterminated inside Yellowstone national park in 1926. The park’s ecology slowly transformed with their absence until, in 1995, they were reintroduced.

“Very quickly, the park’s ecosystems returned to normal,” said Ripple. “I was impressed with how resilient it proved.”

Another example of the ecological importance of large carnivores is provided by lions and leopards. Both animals prey on olive baboons in Africa, and as numbers of these key predators have declined, numbers of olive baboons have increased. The population of lions in particular has been so reduced that it now only covers 17% of its historical range, while numbers of olive baboons have risen in direct proportion.

The consequence of this increase has been significant, say the authors. Olive baboons are omnivores and eat small primates and deer. When olive baboon numbers rise, populations of local monkeys and deer plummet. There is also an effect on human populations.

“Baboons pose the greatest threat to livestock and crops in sub-Saharan Africa, and they use many of the same sources of animal protein and plant foods as humans,” states the Science paper. “In some areas, baboon raids in agricultural fields require families to keep children out of school so they can help guard planted crops.”

Read more

 

Satireday on Eco-Crap

Make you Fink on Friday

qinoa seeds

A few years ago the world discovered qinoa (correct spelling in Qechua, only the western world needed a ‘u’ after the ‘q’), which had been a staple diet for the peoples of the Andes for millennia. Once the international demand took hold, the price shot up and the indigenous people couldn’t afford it any more.

Now the world has discovered teff.

Is the same going to happen in Ethiopia?

Move over quinoa, Ethiopia’s teff poised to be next big super grain

Rich in calcium, iron and protein, gluten-free teff offers Ethiopia the promise of new and lucrative markets in the west

Mounds of teff dry in fields in Ethiopia. The gluten-free grain is used to make flour for injera, the national dish. Photograph: Julio Etchart/Alamy

At Addis Ababa airport, visitors are greeted by pictures of golden grains, minute ochre-red seeds and a group of men gathered around a giant pancake. Billboards boast: “Teff: the ultimate gluten-free crop!”

Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest countries, well-known for its precarious food security situation. But it is also the native home of teff, a highly nutritious ancient grain increasingly finding its way into health-food shops and supermarkets in Europe and America.

Teff‘s tiny seeds – the size of poppy seeds – are high in calcium, iron and protein, and boast an impressive set of amino acids. Naturally gluten-free, the grain can substitute for wheat flour in anything from bread and pasta to waffles and pizza bases. Like quinoa, the Andean grain, teff’s superb nutritional profile offers the promise of new and lucrative markets in the west.

In Ethiopia, teff is a national obsession. Grown by an estimated 6.3 million farmers, fields of the crop cover more than 20% of all land under cultivation. Ground into flour and used to make injera, the spongy fermented flatbread that is basic to Ethiopian cuisine, the grain is central to many religious and cultural ceremonies. Across the country, and in neighbouring Eritrea, diners gather around large pieces of injera, which doubles as cutlery, scooping up stews and feeding one another as a sign of loyalty or friendship – a tradition known as gursha.

Outside diaspora communities in the west, teff has flown under the radar for decades. But growing appetite for traditional crops and booming health-food and gluten-free markets are breathing new life into the grain, increasingly touted as Ethiopia’s “second gift to the world”, after coffee.

Read more

 

 

 

It’s Rather Hard to Fathom

Bolivia ‘to build first nuclear reactor’

Evo Morales, a former coca leaf producer, is Bolivia’s first president with an indigenous background

Bolivian President Evo Morales has announced plans to build the country’s first nuclear reactor.

Mr Morales said the development of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes has become a strategic priority for his country.

Speaking to members of the Bolivian Congress, he said that Iran, France and Argentina had volunteered to help with the development of the project.

Only three countries in Latin America have operating nuclear power stations.

Brazil, Argentina and Mexico began their nuclear programmes in the 1970s.

Chile has only small-scale, experimental nuclear reactors.

“Bolivia cannot remain excluded from this technology, which belongs to all humankind,” Mr Morales said in his annual state of the union address in La Paz.

“We have decided to create a high-level energy commission. This is a priority of the Bolivian state,” he said.

Read more

Opinion:

It’s rather hard to fathom after all that has happened at Fukushima (and that is not over yet) that anyone, or any country would want to bring more nuclear power to the southern hemisphere.

I don’t know where they plan to build a nuclear reactor, but much of Bolivia is high in the Andes and beset by the same earthquake problem as Japan.

Men may be mad, but politicians are absolutely crazy!

 

 

Change the World Wednesday – 22nd Jan

One of the last photos taken the previous weekend.

Not an auspicious start to CTWW, unfortunately, I have toothache and have had it since Saturday, off to the dentist this morning being his first day open since the public holiday on Monday. And, even worse, Cloro has done a bunk. I haven’t seen him since Sunday when we had a play in the yard late in the evening. So today is the third day. I am hoping that he is just being a randy Tom cat, and will come home when he has satisfied his cravings and demand breakfast.

It’s wonderful to be able to welcome Small back after her hiatus and she has presented us with the first CTWW of 2014. Happy New Year Small.

This post I am going to translate into Portuguese as I go, because it affects us here in Brazil too; and hopefully this post will bring some awareness.

Click on the banner for the full post

The challenge.

FIRST …Please visit Organic Consumers Association and read “Tell the FDA: No Watered-Down, Voluntary Federal GMO Labeling Rules!”. For additional information on this topic, scroll to the bottom of the page for links. You can also visit this PAGE for recent articles. Read through the information to lean about the GMO issue.

Por favor, visitar os enlaces em cima, e ler as informações (são em inglês)

THEN … If you live in the US and agree, sign the petition.

OR … If you don’t live in the US, please find out what your country’s policies are concerning GMO food and labeling. Are they accepted? If so, must they be labeled? If they aren’t accepted in your country, are there any other food health concerns which you are facing?

OU …

Sé você não mora na USA, por favor busca infromações sobre as politicos sobre OGM (Organismos geneticamente modificados) comidas a clasificação dos OGMs As etiquetas. São aceitaveis? É o lei? Sé não são aceitaveis, tem mais coisa sobre a saúde da comida que está enfrentando?

Here in Brazil the labeling issue is almost unknown, despite the fact that Brazil has encompassed the GMO philosophy totally.

Aqui no Brasil o problema com etiquetas está quasi não conhecido, apesar de fato que Brasil rodeado a filósofia dos OGMs totalmente.

“About 91 percent of Brazil’s soybean crop, which is likely to be the largest in the world when it is harvested early next year, has been planted with GMO seeds.”

“Nearly 71 percent of the first of two annual corn crops planted in Brazil has been planted with genetically modified seeds”

Aproxidamente 91% da soja que provavalmente vai ser o maior no mundo quando está coletado o proximo ano, está creado com OGM sementes.

Quasi 71% dos primeiro dois coletas do milho estão com OGM sementes. – Reuters

Brazil is also growing GMO  cotton.

Brasil etsá tambem criando OGM algodão.

“Brazil is the second largest producer of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the world, behind only the United States.” – Epoch Times

Brasil está a segundo maior produtor de organismos geneticamente modificado no mundo, só atras os USA.

Labeling:

“The sale of GMOs was banned in 1998 due to a lawsuit by the Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defense. But in 2003, the government again permitted the marketing of GM products with regulations. In the same year, the Brazilian government issued the Labeling Decree (4680/2003), which requires producers and sellers to identify on food packaging products that contain more than 1 percent GM raw materials.” – Epoch Times

A venda de OGMs era banido in 1998 por caso de um processo pelo o Instituto para Defesa do Consumidor. Mas em 2003, o governo de novo permitiu a venda de OGM produtos com regulamento. No mesmo ano, o governo brasileiro decreto a requeramento para vendadores e produtores identifica produtos que contem 1% de materias OGM.

I have never seen labeling that says the contents contain GMOs.

Eu nunca viu etiquetas com essa tipo de aviso.

Studies:

Surprisingly, there are only eight studies in Brazil relating to the safety of GMOs; none of these studies approve GMOs as safe.

“Coelho asked, “What studies provided the basis for the permission of CTNBio for commercial release of GMOs if in the sample [studies] analyzed by us all claim that such foods are not safe?”” – Epoch Times

Coelho perguntou, “O que pesquesas provicenciou o base para a permissão do CTNBio para o lancamento comercial quando todos as pesquesas falam que essas comidas não são seguro.”

All official reports are labeled as confidential.

Todos os relatorios são confidenciais.

So there is an issue in Brazil, but the public are not aware of the pitfalls, they are not informed; and worse generally the education of the people is not sufficient for them to make them aware of the dangers.

Então temos um problema em Brasil, mas o povo não estão ciente dos perigos. eles não estão informados; e pior generalmente a educação do povo não é suficiente para fazem eles ciente dos perigos.

Esse é um assunto para tudo mundo.

NB: Sé você é brasileiro, estamos muito interessado ne sua opinão, deixar uma comment, e não criticar meu português, por favor, eu sei está ruim.

UPDATE:

Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to get these labeling requirements passed?

It’s because the issue is no longer statewide, it’s federal, and there are some big guns out there lying in ambush, read on…

Industry’s Secret Plan to Get the Feds to Kill GMO Labeling in Every State

By Michele Simon,

Internal documents from the Grocery Manufacturers Association reveal height of corporate chutzpah. Industry’s solution to GMO labeling is to: “Pursue statutory federal preemption which does not include a labeling requirement.”

With the disappointing results now in from I-522, the initiative in Washington State that would have required labeling of genetically-engineered food (aka GMOs), the looming question is, what’s next? At least for the junk food lobby, that answer in painfully clear: Stop this state-level movement at any cost. In today’s New York Times, Stephanie Strom reports on the dirty details contained in industry documents that I obtained from the Washington State attorney general’s office in the wake of a lawsuit brought against the Grocery Manufacturers Association for illegally concealing donors to the No on 522 campaign.

As I explained back in February, the food industry’s ultimate game plan to stop the bleeding in the state-by-state onslaught of GMO labeling efforts is to lobby for a weak federal law that simultaneously preempts or trumps any state-level policy. While we have known that industry would want to put an end to the public relations nightmare happening state by state, this document for the first time reveals the lobbyists’ specific strategy.

The details are even worse than I thought and give new meaning to the word chutzpah. I had predicted a federal compromise, where industry would agree to a weak form of labeling in exchange for stripping state authority. But what industry wants instead is to stop state laws to require labeling, while not giving up anything in return. In their own words, the game plan is to “pursue statutory federal preemption which does not include a labeling requirement.”

Let me repeat that: The junk food lobby’s “federal solution” is to make it illegal for states to pass laws requiring GMO labeling. Period. End of story.

Source: Food Democracy Now read more, because that’s not the end of this story.