On having a grateful heart

From the Elephant Journal:

By now, most of us have heard the news: grateful people are happier, healthier and generally more fulfilled.

And while these are all really great side effects of gratitude, for me, one of the coolest things about gratitude is the way it affects the heart. The heart creates an electromagnetic field that expands up to five feet from the body. Its electrical field is 60 times stronger in amplitude than that of the brain.

Studies show that when people cultivate positive feelings, the heart’s frequency changes and its waves become smoother and more consistent, while anxiety or stress caused waves to be shorter and less organized. Though most positive feelings were capable of affecting the heart in this way, researchers noted that gratitude changed the heart’s rhythm more easily and faster than any of the others.


Read more.

One bad weed

Photo by Flickr user hockadilly



Photo by Flickr user debs-eye

From the CBC website:

Biologists and health officials in eastern Ontario are scrambling to contain an invasive plant that can cause blindness and severe burns.

Heracleum mantegazzianum, or giant hogweed, is a poisonous plant most recently found growing in Renfrew County, west of Ottawa.

The Globe and Mail reports that the weed is also making headway into parts of British Columbia.

The Globe article also states that the Invasive Plants Council of British Columbia recommends an expert wear waterproof gloves, a rubber raincoat and pants and eye protection when they're removing the worrisome weed!

Don't be getting this one confused with Queen Anne's Lace.

For more information, visit OntarioWeeds.com

Trivia:
Genesis had a song titled "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" which can be seen on YouTube.

Interesting lyric:

Still they're invincible,
Still they're immune to all our herbicidal battering.

Teach every child about food

Did the earlier post on school lunches send shivers up your spine? One of the commenters at Neatorama on this topic linked to a video of Jamie Oliver giving his TED talk. Oliver has a simple solution to the issue of nutrition. Teach every child about food. Do you agree?

How bad could school lunches be?

After watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, did you wonder how typical that school was, with respect to what it served it's children for lunch?

This year, a public school teacher started the blog "Fed up with lunch: The school lunch project" where she photographed and ate everything the kids were served since the beginning of the year.

From the site:

"It's very challenging to teach students when they are eating school lunches that don't give them the nutrition they need and deserve. Oftentimes what is served barely passes muster as something edible."

Have a look at their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It's an eye-opener!



[h/t: ask moxie]

Sunscreen and the EWG part deux

Catherine has a very interesting article regarding the safety of suncreen in the comments of the aforementioned Ask Moxie post.

Sunscreen and the EWG

Ask Moxie is hosting a really good discussion on the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) sunscreen guide for 2010.

The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Main take-away:

• You may want to read the full report if you're using products containing vitamin A (retinol, retinol or retinyl palmitate) or oxybenzone (benzophenone-3)

Some reader's perspectives:

• From Cloud:
  In the meantime, we'll keep using our sunscreens. I know with quite a bit of certainty that unprotected exposure to the sun can cause cancer- I can even explain the mechanism. These chemicals? My take is that there are some studies that indicate they may cause cancer. But there has not been a single definitive peer-reviewed study, because man, that would have been a high profile paper that I would not have missed.
  
  
• From paola:
  When it comes to sunscreens, avoid the following:

  benzophenone 3: absorbed through the skin. Can cause allergic reactions, foto- sensitivity, hormonal problems.

  PABA: will be banned in EU as from October for same reasons as benzophenone 3.

  methylbenzylidencamphor: studies on animals suggest it effects thyroid function. Penetrates the skin barrier and can cause allrgies.

  Source: Italian Consumer magazine Altroconsumo, June 2010.

• From Jenna:
  Mexoryl or Tinosorb are the only two sunscreen ingredients that are actually effective at blocking UVA. Avobenzone (aka Parsol), the UVA blocker used in most US sunscreens, actually degrades in sunlight. Though the FDA finally approved Mexoryl a few years ago, it's still nigh impossible to find a sunscreen with Mexoryl here in the US. According to the EWG report, Tinosorb still isn't approved yet.

  I buy all my sunscreen in Canada. My favorites are La Roche-Posay Anthelios or Hydraphase UV in SPF 30. (Sephora carries Hydraphase, but only SPF 15.) L'Oreal Ombrelle and Vichy are also good. FYI these are all brands you can find at an ordinary drugstore in Canada. My Vichy SPF 60 body sunblock has Mexoryl, octorcrylene, titantium dioxide, and avobenzone, all of which are on the low or moderate risk lists on the EWG site

If this concerns you, be sure to read the ingredient list on every formulation of your favourite brand. Ingredients change formulation to formulation, including but not limited to the addition of chemicals in children's formulations that are not present in the adult brand.

A bit about chemical and mineral sunscreens at Venusian Glow.

For more about sunscreen, read the Skin Cancer Foundation's answer to the question What are the basic sunscreen ingredients, and what protection does each offer?

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

From UCTV's website:

Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.

During his lecture, Dr. Lustig presents a compelling argument suggesting that biochemically, fructose (including high-fructose corn syrup) has long-term metabolic effects on the body as damaging as alcohol.

If you're not able to watch the whole 90 minute video in one shot, it's also available in 10 minute chunks on YouTube.

• Sugar: The Bitter Truth, Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
• Part 8
• Part 9

[h/t: Joey deVilla]