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One thing I know a lot of us are being challenged with right now in the midst of all these quarantines is how to stay in shape, and how to control what you're eating and drinking. It's even more of a challenge with our gyms being shut down, and spending more time at home close to the refrigerator.

I've always worked out, but I also like to joke that, as acombat veteran,I suffer from Post Deployment Celebration Disorder.I end up eating or drinking too much, especially after getting home from a deployment. Thankfully, I've figured out how to shed that post deployment weight gain, and how to keep it off- so I thought I would just share a few things that seem to be working for me in the middle of these quarantines (although I gotta admit it is definitely more of a struggle for all of us in this quarantine).

That's just a few things that have been working for me. What's been working for you? Any apps you'd recommend? Shoot me a note aaron(at)montanatalks.com

And, if you just need a good laugh (and missed my previous post)...check out Tim Montana's "Quarantine" song with Black Rifle Coffee's Mat Best:

Visit link:
How I'm Staying in Shape from Home Here in Montana - newstalk955.com

The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought about a whole new set of challenges for people of all kinds. Whether youre someone who is dealing with chronic depression, anxiety, or any other mental health problem, chances are that this new situation has made things a little more difficult. Even for those without any mental health problems may notice a decline in their overall mental health as a result of the current pandemic. In any case, the good news is that there are several things you can do to take care of your mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Heres our list of a few things you can take action on today.

If you have a regular exercise routine, whether its running a few miles, lifting some weights, or holding yoga poses, then you know just how much of a difference it can make on your mental and physical health. However, with so many people stuck inside on shelter at home orders, its all too easy to allow regular exercise routines to take a back seat. But this is not the time to quit your exercising. When you maintain a healthy exercise schedule, you can help to keep a level of normalcy and resilience that is necessary to keep alive during such a trying time.

The same goes for your diet. Not only do the foods you eat contribute to your bodys immune system and longevity, but they also play a vital role in your mental health. If youre constantly eating unhealthy foods, then its likely that your mental health will also see a steep decline. If you need a fun challenge while passing time in quarantine, why not try making a new healthy recipe at least a few times each week. The novelty of trying new foods will keep your diet interesting. Plus, you may even emerge from all this with some awesome new recipes up your sleeves.

Diet and exercise are important as routines, but surely you have other routines in your life that may have been disrupted as a result of the global pandemic. Keeping up your regular schedule in light of the current situation is an excellent way to maintain your sense of strength and stability, both of which are feelings that contribute to an overall state of improved mental health. Are you used to watching your favorite TV show every Thursday night? Stick to it. Are Mondays the day you usually get work done and call friends? Dont forfeit the routine. These habits and schedules can help you to stay on top of your mental health.

Isolation is the last thing we need during this global pandemic. Sure, you may be practicing social distancing and staying physically separated from the people in your life, but that doesnt mean you have to cease contact with them. As a matter of fact, increasing your amount of social interactions may be one of the best ways to take care of your mental health, whether in the midst of a pandemic or not. Take advantage of the many modern tools of communication we have available to us to keep in touch with the people in your life. Whether its a phone call, a video chat, or an email, there are endless opportunities for maintaining a connection throughout these challenging times.

Checking in on the older members of your family is certainly important during the global pandemic as well. Many public places are closed for gatherings right now, which tends to isolate people even further. While slip and falls are the number one cause of accidents in restaurants, hotels, and public buildings, there are definitely still concerns to be had in regards to the elderly population. This makes it that much more important to make sure youre staying connected to the older people in your life, whether theyre family members or members of your local community.

Mindset is everything when it comes to mental health. Sure, it may seem impossible to keep a positive outlook during a global pandemic, but its more important now than its ever been before. Do whatever it takes to look on the bright side of things. Some days this may mean taking a nice long walk outside in the sunshine. Some days this may mean getting your thoughts and feelings out by journaling and mentioning some things you are grateful for. Whatever works for you is fine. There is no wrong method of maintaining a positive mindset. Doing so will work wonders for your mental health and well being.

If youre inside a lot as a lot of us are right now, its tempting to skip out on some basic hygienic measures. However, doing this will only lead to further feelings of imbalance and loss of control. Make sure you do all those little things that make you feel happy, healthy, and confident.

Dont skip out on brushing and flossing, either. Its important for people of all ages to get regular dental checkups every six months. You dont want to come out of quarantine having some dental issues to deal with because you skipped out on your hygiene. Even doing something as simple as putting on a nice outfit can have a tremendously positive effect on your mental well-being.

Finally, its not a bad idea to shift your focus to your interests. Sure, it may be tough to focus on other things, but doing so can provide you with some much needed relief. You could even learn more about a skill or hobby that youve wanted to take up, but havent had the time to learn about. Take something like boating, for example. Even if youre not able to get involved in boating until after the global pandemic, you can get a head start by educating yourself now while you have extra time. After all, did you know that there over 15 million boats currently in use in the United States?

While the global pandemic is presenting a host of problems for mental health, its important to do what you can to stay on top of things. By sticking to some of these tips, youll be that much closer to looking after your mental health for the duration of the global pandemic. Good luck out there and stay healthy!

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Taking Care of Your Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Qrius

For those lookingtostrengthentheirimmune system during COVID-19 season, this gluten-free and vegan salad is an immunity quick-fix.

"This recipe ispacked with delicious superfoods like chickpeas, kale, and blueberries that arerich in nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron,and antioxidants. All these nutrientshave been shown to critically affect our bodys immune response, and getting them regularlythrough foodis a must," he said.

Time: 15 minute

Ingredients:

1 bunch (2-3 cups) of raw kale leaves

1 cup of boiled or canned chickpeas

1 cup thinly sliced strawberries

1/2 a cup of chopped onion

1 cup blueberries (or 1/4th cup of dried blueberries)

1/4 cup sunflower seeds (or seeds of your choice)

For the Chia Balsamic Dressing

1/3 cups of water

3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

1 clove of garlic, finely minced

1 tablespoon of chia seeds

1/4 teaspoon of table salt

Preparation:

1.First, prepare the salad dressing by tossing all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Whisk all the ingredients together by hand using a spoon for a thinner consistency. Alternatively, pulse all ingredients in a blender for a thicker texture.

2.Keep the dressing mixture aside and it will naturally thicken as the chia seeds absorb water and swell up.

3.Wash, massage, and tear up the kale by hand into bite-sized pieces. Drain the boiled or canned chickpeas and add them to the bowl of shrunken and softened kale. Add onion, strawberries, and blueberries to the mix.

4.Toss the dressing into the salad mixture, and evenly coat all the ingredients. Sprinkle sunflower seeds over top.

View post:
Coronavirus: 3 Easy and Healthy Recipes to Try During Work from Home - Entrepreneur

Joe Scarborough basically pleaded for President Donald Trumpto focus on producing a national testing system for the coronavirus, to prevent a second spike of the deadly contagion.

The Morning Joe co-host presumed that the president was watchingon Monday morning, and given the reported White House cable news diet, that could very well be true.

Mr. President, you can lie to your supporters about Bob Mueller. Theyll believe you because they dont know who Bob Mueller is, Scarborough opened this harangue. You can lie about Ukraine. You know what? Theyre trying to take care of their families.

Theyre not going to believe you on the coronavirus, he added, when they see people they know dying in nursing homes. They see people they know dying in their community. They see nurses and doctors pushed to the wall here.

Scarborough then cited a National Review podcast he mentioned earlier in the show that suggested the coronavirus is going to come back in the fall in some form. Dr. Fauci said that, Scarborough noted, I havent talked to a medical expert who hasnt said, This is coming back in the fall.'

If youre not ready in the fall during the flu season, itll be worse. Mr. President, you hear that? If you dont work constantly to get national testing between now and the fall, Mr. President, its April 13th right now. Im warning you, your doctors are warning you, your medical experts are warning you, the whole world is warning you, it could be worse in the fall.

You have to work every day to move towards national testing. That is our way out of this. This is how small business owners can get back to work. This is how we stop losing trillions of dollars.

Watch above via MSNBC.

Have a tip we should know? [emailprotected]

Read the rest here:
Joe Scarborough Pleads With Trump to Start National Testing - Mediaite

Growing up, I was always seen as the big kid. It makes senseI am 511, But to me, big equated to fat. I can remember wanting to go on my first diet in the third grade. That was just the start of many years of binging and purging and trying every diet fad that existed. I did the Hollywood Juice Diet, Slim-Fast, Herbalife, the Mayo Clinic Diet, WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers), Atkins...and so on. Basically, if I heard about a diet, I tried it.

This caused my weight to yo-yo. When I was 20, for my wedding, I only ate a half sandwich per day and did a ton of cardio. I got down to my lowest weight everbut that success was short lived. By the time I got back from my honeymoon, I had gained 10 pounds and the weight continued to creep back on. For years, I gained and lost the same 50 pounds over and over.

I was either going to get healthy or just be the fat, happy mom.

At my heaviest, non-pregnancy weight, I reached 300 pounds. I am lucky that I never suffered any serious health issues related to my weight, but I did struggle with knee and back painwhich I used as an excuse not to exercise.

In 2014, I decided to give this whole weight loss thing one more shot. I was 40 years old and had recently given birth to my eighth child. By that point I had two daughters, and I didnt want them to grow up with body image issues like I had. I was either going to get healthy or just be the fat, happy mom. I didnt want to waste another day obsessing over the scale. I committed to making lasting changes and being patient enough to do the dang thing!

My first step was looking at my diet. I knew that I was a carb addict and had to deal with that. I tried the keto diet in 2017 and had lots of success, but then I got pregnant again. After my ninth baby was born, I still struggled to get to my real goal weightso I decided to try keto again, but this time with a refreshed mindset. I told myself that I could still eat what I wanted and go back to regular eating anytime I needed to. For some reason, that shift made a big difference. Keto really worked for me.

I also started hearing more about intermittent fasting and read a lot of research about the benefits of it. I started with fasting for 16 hours and giving myself an 8-hour window to eat during. Now, I do 20 hours of fasting with a 4-hour window to eat. I have so much more energy and clarity when I eat this way. When I do eat, I find myself really savoring it. It has helped me realize that food is meant to nourish meits not a reward. Heres what a typical day looks like:

I also finally found an exercise routine that works for me. At first, I mostly did 30-minute, at-home cardio videos. Slowly, I transitioned to running. And the more weight I lost, the easier it was for me to run. Adding in strength training was a game changer. Now, I walk for 30 minutes five to six times a week and I lift weights every other day.

I am currently down 135 pounds. I lost the first 100 pounds in 11 months. I maintained that for a couple years, and then had my ninth baby. I gained some weight, bounced around for a while, and lost another 50 pounds since switching to keto and intermittent fasting.

This journey has changed my life in more ways than I could have imagined. I learned that I didnt have to be a slave to diet and exercise. Making sustainable choices was the secret to my success. Now, I like to inspire other men and women. We all deserve to look, and more importantly, feel our best. You just have to be consistent, patient, and believe in yourself.

Support from readers like you helps us do our best work. Go here to subscribe to Prevention and get 12 FREE gifts. And sign up for our FREE newsletter here for daily health, nutrition, and fitness advice.

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After Having 9 Kids, I Lost 135 Pounds by Combining the Keto Diet and Intermittent Fasting - Prevention.com

Life expectancy in the United States is about 78 years, though longevity is not without medical concerns. As many as one in three Americans will develop malignant cells in their lifetime. While the scientific community has significantly increased their understanding of cancer in recent years and applied that knowledge to treatment, prevention research remains a top priority; however, since cancer is a series of diseases, the exact cause is not always known. Genetics plays an important role, yet so does diet and lifestyle.

Dr. Kevin Dalby, professor of chemical biology and medicinal chemistry, is studying the mechanisms of cancer cells and currently working on cancer drug discovery. His research primarily focuses on developing targeted therapeutics, but he does acknowledge that specific behavioral changes can help lower a persons risk for cancer. The Harvard School of Public Health estimates that 75% of American cancer deaths could be prevented if tactics are adopted on a mass scale.

Below, Dr. Kevin Dalby reviews practical behavioral choices that anyone can take up to help prevent cancer, thus reducing the risk of the emotional and the financial burden inflicted by this crippling disease.

Avoid Tobacco

The correlation between tobacco use and cancer is staggering. In the United States, one out of every five deaths is related to tobacco. Moreover, cigarette smoking accounts for 85-90% of lung cancer deaths and 70% of oral and laryngeal cancer deaths.

Tobacco use (smoking or chewing) is a difficult habit to quit. Still, it could help you as well as those around you (secondhand smoke kills) avoid a future collision with the following cancers: lung, mouth, throat, larynx, pancreas, bladder, cervix, and kidney.

Limit Alcohol

Research has yet to pinpoint exactly how alcohol influences your susceptibility for cancer, but excess use does increase the risk for mouth, throat, liver, colon, rectal, and breast cancer. Men should limit their acholic beverages to two a day and women to one. For context, one drink equates to approximately twelve ounces of beer, five ounces of wine, or one and a half ounces of liquor.

Eat A Healthy Diet

40% of cancers are associated with dietary factors: habits, foods, and nutrients all play a role. The American Cancer Society suggests a daily nutritional regimen consisting of whole grains, fish or poultry, and a variety of vegetables and fruits to lower your risk for cancer. Try to limit red and processed meats, eat fewer sweets, and reduce your intake of saturated fats.

Exercise

Regular physical activity helps you maintain a healthy weight, control blood pressure, and may lower the risk for several types of cancer such as colon, prostate, and even breast cancer. Obesity is especially of paramount importance since it has been linked to 20% of all cancer-related deaths.

Adults should strive to exercise moderately for 150 minutes each week. Alternatively, you can aim for 75 minutes of vigorous activity if that suits your lifestyle better.

Sun Protection

Skin cancer is common but also preventable. To reduce your risk, proportionately apply sunscreen, avoid the sun at midday if possible when its rays are most reliable, cover exposed skin and forgo tanning beds and sunlamps, which are just as dangerous as actual sunlight.

Regular Medical Care

Cancer may not be entirely preventable, but if caught early, your chances of survival improve drastically. Schedule regular checkups with your doctor, be transparent, and ask what tests make sense for you. Depending on your sex, age, and medical history, your doctor may recommend screenings for breast, cervical, colon, lung, or prostate cancer.

About Dr. Kevin Dalby:

Dr. Kevin Dalby has been interested in the why of chemical reactions since he was a student at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Organic Chemistry. This curiosity has led to his interest in the processes of cell signaling, and ultimately to cancer research. Dr. Dalbys research areas include biochemistry, cancer, cell biology, chemical biology, drug discovery & diagnostics, and enzymology.

Read the original here:
Dr. Kevin Dalby on How to Decrease Your Risk of Developing Cancer - Thrive Global

whats-on, food-and-wine, eat like the animals, diets, david raubenheimer, stephen J simpson, harpercollins, science of dieting

Stella lived in a community on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. She was one of 25 adults who between them had an impressive 40 children. It was a serene setting on the foothills of Table Mountain, surrounded by vineyards, pine plantations, groves of eucalyptus trees, stretches of natural fynbos vegetation, and a few suburban settlements. Caley Johnson was a young anthropology student from New York City. Her graduate thesis was on nutrition of a rural population in Uganda, who lived almost entirely off natural foods. Her advisors suggested that it would be an interesting comparison to include in the study a population that ate not only natural foods but also some sugary and fatty processed foods. This is what brought Caley to Cape Town, where she and Stella met. Caley's research approach involves watching individuals throughout an entire day and recording which foods they eat and how much of each. The foods are then analysed in a laboratory for their nutrient content to give a detailed daily record of the diet. But this study was radical in one respect: rather than follow several subjects, each on a separate day, the team had decided to study the diet of only one individual for 30 consecutive days. Caley therefore came to know Stella and her eating habits intimately. What she saw was intriguing. Stella's diet was surprisingly diverse: she ate many foods, almost ninety different things over 30 days, and on each day, she ate different combinations of natural and processed foods. This suggested that Stella was not particularly discerning, indiscriminately eating whatever she fancied. The numbers from the nutrient laboratory appeared to tell the same story. The ratio of fats to carbohydrates in Stella's diet varied widely, as might be expected given the variety of foods that she ate and how these differed from one day to the next. Then Caley noticed something unexpected. When she totaled the combined calories from carbs and fats and plotted that figure on a graph against the amount of protein consumed, there was a tight relationship. This meant that the ratio of protein to fats and carbs - a very important measure of dietary balance-had remained absolutely consistent over the course of an entire month, regardless of what Stella had eaten. What's more, the ratio that Stella had eaten each day - one part protein to five parts fats and carbs combined - was the same combination that had been proven to be nutritionally balanced for a healthy female of Stella's size. Far from being indiscriminate, Stella was a meticulously precise eater who knew which dietary regimen was best for her and how to attain it. But how did Stella track her diet so precisely? Caley knew the complexities of combining many foods into a balanced diet-even professional dietitians have to use computer programs to manage this. Could it be, she might have been forgiven for wondering, that Stella was secretly an expert in nutrition? Except that Stella was a baboon. A confounding story, when you consider all the dietary advice we humans seem to require in order to eat properly (not that it does most of us a lot of good). Meanwhile, our wild cousin, the baboon, apparently has figured it all out by instinct. How could such a thing be so? Before we begin to explore that question, here's another even weirder tale. It starts with a lab scientist named Audrey Dussutour at the University of Sydney. One day Audrey took her scalpel and started preparing an experiment by cutting a gooey blob of slime mold into small pieces. Beside her on the bench sat hundreds of Petri dishes, all set out neatly in rows. Audrey picked up each fragment of yellow goo with forceps and carefully transferred it into the center of a dish then covered it with a lid. The dishes contained either small blocks of protein or carbohydrate, or a wheel of 11 tiny bits of jelly-like food medium varying in the ratio of protein to carbs. Once all dishes had received their bit of slime mold, Audrey stacked them in a large cardboard box and left them overnight. The next day, she opened the box. When she looked closely, she was astonished. Each bit of goo had changed overnight. When the slime molds were offered two blocks of food - one of protein, the other of carbs - the blobs extended their growing tendrils to both nutrients, reaching out in each direction to pull in a mix of the two. That mixture contained precisely two parts protein to one part carbs. Even more incredibly, when bits of goo were placed in dishes containing 11 different food blocks, the tendrils grew overnight from the centre of the dish to colonise only the blocks containing that same two-to-one nutrient mixture, ignoring the rest. What is so special about a diet of two parts protein to one part carbs? The answer came when Audrey placed pieces of slime mold into dishes containing differing combinations of protein and carbohydrate. The next day, some bits of slime remained stunted, whereas others had grown dramatically, extending themselves across the dish in a lacy network of pulsing yellow filaments. When Audrey later mapped the growth of the blobs, it was as if she had charted the up and down contours of a mountain. Goo placed on a nutrient that was two parts protein to one part carbs sat at the summit of the growth mountain. As the proportion of protein fell and carbs rose, or vice versa, the blobs' growth decreased. In other words, when the bits of slime mold were given the chance to select their own diet, they chose precisely the mixture of nutrients needed to optimise healthy development. Now, we may be able to accept that Stella the baboon can make some wise nutritional decisions. But how can a single-celled creature without organs or limbs, let alone a brain or a centralised nervous system, make such sophisticated dietary choices and then carry them out? This puzzled us, too, so, we asked an expert. Professor John Tyler-Bonner passed Steve a laboratory beaker filled with steaming coffee, freshly brewed on the naked blue Bunsen burner flame that hissed quietly on the teak benchtop. Steve sat discussing Audrey's results with this venerable guru of slime mold biology in John's office-a time capsule that has not been refurbished since 1947, when John first arrived on faculty at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. He pioneered the study of slime molds, and his work has helped lay the foundation for the study of complex decision-making within distributed entities, such as bird flocks and fish schools, crowds of people, or global corporations. John explained that each part of the blob senses its local nutritional environment and responds accordingly. As a result, the entire blob acts as if it is a single sentient being, seeking out optimal sources of food-a balanced diet that will ensure favorable health-and rejecting what does not serve that goal. This, you may agree, is better than what is achieved by some other sentient beings we could name. And this, as you probably realise by now, has everything to do with the subject at hand. Why have we, two entomologists, written a book about human diet, nutrition, and health, a subject on which quite a few experts have already weighed in (no pun intended)? We didn't start out meaning to do any such thing. Throughout our lives as scientists, and especially during the first two decades of our 32-year collaboration, we have studied insects in an attempt to solve one of nature's most enduring riddles: How do living things know what to eat? Answer that and you've learned something very important - possibly even useful - about life itself. And not just for insects. But we're getting ahead of ourselves now. Better to start at the beginning. "Everything should be made as simple as possible," Albert Einstein wrote, "but not simpler." This is the approach we've tried to take, throughout all our efforts, to understand nutrition. The first step in our scientific journey, the big locust experiment, challenged an oversimplified view held by many - that animals have a single appetite that drives all of their intake. We learned that things are more complex than that; and to tame this complexity, we invented a new concept, a way of understanding why and how we eat, called Nutritional Geometry. But what could geometry have to do with eating? We used it to explore and visualise the interrelationships among the appetites locusts have, each for a different nutrient. Ultimately, we were able to show that of all the appetites, that for protein has the strongest, but not the only, influence on intake. Locusts, we saw, try their best to get just the right amount of protein to support healthy development-neither too little nor too much. That realisation provided one of the key insights of this book and one that has guided us ever since: the strong appetite for protein shared by all animals can lead them to eat too much or too little of other nutrients, including fats and carbs. If their protein appetite is not satisfied, they will overeat. Once they get enough protein, their appetites cease driving them to eat more. That's as simple as we can make nutrition-without oversimplifying it. This set us up to tackle the biggest challenge of all. Can this view help us understand why nutrition has gone so wrong in the most complex species of all - ourselves? Could the same principles that apply to locusts in little plastic boxes hold true for we humans with our infinite choices of what to eat and how much? Yes, it turns out. We travelled from mountains to islands to deserts and cities and studied species from slime molds and monkeys to crickets and college students. Our nutrition, we discovered, is no more complicated than that of our fellow living things. We, too, have a strong appetite for protein that determines what and how much we eat. But dramatic changes in our food environment, particularly the displacement of traditional whole-food diets with ultraprocessed foods, have imbalanced our diets, causing us to overeat all the wrong things. The current global health crisis of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease is the direct result of that transformation of our food supply. We owe a debt of gratitude to those humble locusts who taught us to think differently about nutrition and diets and set us off on a lifelong journey to apply this approach to examining the natural world - and then to ourselves. And what is the significance for you? We hope that the lessons we've learned can help steer you toward healthy and sensible eating choices.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/MUwv8t3Wj4u7LSUBpSbqhh/182a106e-97c6-46a2-805d-84d00c2f31c5.jpeg/r10_29_4277_2440_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

Stella lived in a community on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. She was one of 25 adults who between them had an impressive 40 children. It was a serene setting on the foothills of Table Mountain, surrounded by vineyards, pine plantations, groves of eucalyptus trees, stretches of natural fynbos vegetation, and a few suburban settlements.

Caley Johnson was a young anthropology student from New York City. Her graduate thesis was on nutrition of a rural population in Uganda, who lived almost entirely off natural foods. Her advisors suggested that it would be an interesting comparison to include in the study a population that ate not only natural foods but also some sugary and fatty processed foods. This is what brought Caley to Cape Town, where she and Stella met.

Caley's research approach involves watching individuals throughout an entire day and recording which foods they eat and how much of each. The foods are then analysed in a laboratory for their nutrient content to give a detailed daily record of the diet. But this study was radical in one respect: rather than follow several subjects, each on a separate day, the team had decided to study the diet of only one individual for 30 consecutive days. Caley therefore came to know Stella and her eating habits intimately.

Dr David Raubenhiemer in Nepal. Picture: Supplied

What she saw was intriguing. Stella's diet was surprisingly diverse: she ate many foods, almost ninety different things over 30 days, and on each day, she ate different combinations of natural and processed foods. This suggested that Stella was not particularly discerning, indiscriminately eating whatever she fancied. The numbers from the nutrient laboratory appeared to tell the same story. The ratio of fats to carbohydrates in Stella's diet varied widely, as might be expected given the variety of foods that she ate and how these differed from one day to the next. Then Caley noticed something unexpected. When she totaled the combined calories from carbs and fats and plotted that figure on a graph against the amount of protein consumed, there was a tight relationship. This meant that the ratio of protein to fats and carbs - a very important measure of dietary balance-had remained absolutely consistent over the course of an entire month, regardless of what Stella had eaten. What's more, the ratio that Stella had eaten each day - one part protein to five parts fats and carbs combined - was the same combination that had been proven to be nutritionally balanced for a healthy female of Stella's size. Far from being indiscriminate, Stella was a meticulously precise eater who knew which dietary regimen was best for her and how to attain it.

But how did Stella track her diet so precisely? Caley knew the complexities of combining many foods into a balanced diet-even professional dietitians have to use computer programs to manage this. Could it be, she might have been forgiven for wondering, that Stella was secretly an expert in nutrition? Except that Stella was a baboon.

A confounding story, when you consider all the dietary advice we humans seem to require in order to eat properly (not that it does most of us a lot of good). Meanwhile, our wild cousin, the baboon, apparently has figured it all out by instinct. How could such a thing be so?

Before we begin to explore that question, here's another even weirder tale. It starts with a lab scientist named Audrey Dussutour at the University of Sydney. One day Audrey took her scalpel and started preparing an experiment by cutting a gooey blob of slime mold into small pieces. Beside her on the bench sat hundreds of Petri dishes, all set out neatly in rows.

Audrey picked up each fragment of yellow goo with forceps and carefully transferred it into the center of a dish then covered it with a lid. The dishes contained either small blocks of protein or carbohydrate, or a wheel of 11 tiny bits of jelly-like food medium varying in the ratio of protein to carbs. Once all dishes had received their bit of slime mold, Audrey stacked them in a large cardboard box and left them overnight. The next day, she opened the box. When she looked closely, she was astonished. Each bit of goo had changed overnight. When the slime molds were offered two blocks of food - one of protein, the other of carbs - the blobs extended their growing tendrils to both nutrients, reaching out in each direction to pull in a mix of the two. That mixture contained precisely two parts protein to one part carbs. Even more incredibly, when bits of goo were placed in dishes containing 11 different food blocks, the tendrils grew overnight from the centre of the dish to colonise only the blocks containing that same two-to-one nutrient mixture, ignoring the rest.

What is so special about a diet of two parts protein to one part carbs? The answer came when Audrey placed pieces of slime mold into dishes containing differing combinations of protein and carbohydrate. The next day, some bits of slime remained stunted, whereas others had grown dramatically, extending themselves across the dish in a lacy network of pulsing yellow filaments. When Audrey later mapped the growth of the blobs, it was as if she had charted the up and down contours of a mountain. Goo placed on a nutrient that was two parts protein to one part carbs sat at the summit of the growth mountain. As the proportion of protein fell and carbs rose, or vice versa, the blobs' growth decreased. In other words, when the bits of slime mold were given the chance to select their own diet, they chose precisely the mixture of nutrients needed to optimise healthy development.

Dr Stephen J Simpson. Picture: Supplied

Now, we may be able to accept that Stella the baboon can make some wise nutritional decisions. But how can a single-celled creature without organs or limbs, let alone a brain or a centralised nervous system, make such sophisticated dietary choices and then carry them out?

This puzzled us, too, so, we asked an expert.

Professor John Tyler-Bonner passed Steve a laboratory beaker filled with steaming coffee, freshly brewed on the naked blue Bunsen burner flame that hissed quietly on the teak benchtop. Steve sat discussing Audrey's results with this venerable guru of slime mold biology in John's office-a time capsule that has not been refurbished since 1947, when John first arrived on faculty at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. He pioneered the study of slime molds, and his work has helped lay the foundation for the study of complex decision-making within distributed entities, such as bird flocks and fish schools, crowds of people, or global corporations.

John explained that each part of the blob senses its local nutritional environment and responds accordingly. As a result, the entire blob acts as if it is a single sentient being, seeking out optimal sources of food-a balanced diet that will ensure favorable health-and rejecting what does not serve that goal.

This, you may agree, is better than what is achieved by some other sentient beings we could name. And this, as you probably realise by now, has everything to do with the subject at hand.

Why have we, two entomologists, written a book about human diet, nutrition, and health, a subject on which quite a few experts have already weighed in (no pun intended)? We didn't start out meaning to do any such thing. Throughout our lives as scientists, and especially during the first two decades of our 32-year collaboration, we have studied insects in an attempt to solve one of nature's most enduring riddles: How do living things know what to eat?

Answer that and you've learned something very important - possibly even useful - about life itself. And not just for insects. But we're getting ahead of ourselves now. Better to start at the beginning.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible," Albert Einstein wrote, "but not simpler." This is the approach we've tried to take, throughout all our efforts, to understand nutrition.

Eat Like the Animals: What nature teaches us about the science of healthy eating. HarperCollins, $35.

The first step in our scientific journey, the big locust experiment, challenged an oversimplified view held by many - that animals have a single appetite that drives all of their intake. We learned that things are more complex than that; and to tame this complexity, we invented a new concept, a way of understanding why and how we eat, called Nutritional Geometry.

But what could geometry have to do with eating? We used it to explore and visualise the interrelationships among the appetites locusts have, each for a different nutrient. Ultimately, we were able to show that of all the appetites, that for protein has the strongest, but not the only, influence on intake. Locusts, we saw, try their best to get just the right amount of protein to support healthy development-neither too little nor too much.

That realisation provided one of the key insights of this book and one that has guided us ever since: the strong appetite for protein shared by all animals can lead them to eat too much or too little of other nutrients, including fats and carbs. If their protein appetite is not satisfied, they will overeat. Once they get enough protein, their appetites cease driving them to eat more.

That's as simple as we can make nutrition-without oversimplifying it.

This set us up to tackle the biggest challenge of all. Can this view help us understand why nutrition has gone so wrong in the most complex species of all - ourselves? Could the same principles that apply to locusts in little plastic boxes hold true for we humans with our infinite choices of what to eat and how much?

Yes, it turns out. We travelled from mountains to islands to deserts and cities and studied species from slime molds and monkeys to crickets and college students. Our nutrition, we discovered, is no more complicated than that of our fellow living things. We, too, have a strong appetite for protein that determines what and how much we eat.

But dramatic changes in our food environment, particularly the displacement of traditional whole-food diets with ultraprocessed foods, have imbalanced our diets, causing us to overeat all the wrong things. The current global health crisis of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease is the direct result of that transformation of our food supply.

We owe a debt of gratitude to those humble locusts who taught us to think differently about nutrition and diets and set us off on a lifelong journey to apply this approach to examining the natural world - and then to ourselves.

And what is the significance for you? We hope that the lessons we've learned can help steer you toward healthy and sensible eating choices.

See the original post:
Why don't monkeys get fat? What nature teaches us about the science of eating - The Canberra Times

As a pediatrician and a parent navigating this pandemic, I worry sometimes that an important point gets lost in the midst of all the helpful posts about things to do with your children in cramped spaces, homeschooling, and other tips for managing the current reality:

This is bad for the mental health of each and every one of us.

Lets review: We were going about our business as usual and suddenly a possibly deadly virus appeared and shut down life as we knew it. School and daycare closed, and our children were home without any structure or activity except what we create or enforce. Every trip out of the house became treacherous. For those who cant work from home, work either became dangerous or it disappeared, taking income with it. Supplies became precarious. Interactions with anyone outside our home became almost entirely virtual or nonexistent.

There is no way that we can live this without anxiety and sadness and no way that our children can live it without anxiety and sadness. We all need to do our best, sure, but its important that we acknowledge that we are feeling strange and bad, that our kids are too, and this cant help but affect how we all behave. We have to take care of ourselves in a different way, being proactive about our mental health.

Keep to a schedule but be realistic. Having a daily schedule is important, especially for children, and you should make one and stick to it. However, dont get too ambitious. If you have school-age children, make sure they have enough time allotted to get their work done (this will vary from child to child), but dont feel obligated to make it as long as they would have been in school or have the hours match school hours (if your children have never been early morning people, why force it now?). If your child is not able to get the work done, and youve reached out to the school and tried everything they suggested, cut both of you some slack; most of us parents are not trained teachers, and well figure out how to fix it all when this is over. On the flip side, if your children are interested in reading great literature, learning a new language, or otherwise gaining extra knowledge and skills during this time, go for it but dont force it. Keep the bar low.

Schedule self-care. All family members should have time set aside to do what makes them happy. Be deliberate about that.

Schedule fun. Bake cookies, play a game, be silly, make messes. Be deliberate about that, too.

Make sure everyone gets enough sleep and that they stay on a regular sleep schedule. Shut off the screens in the evening, stop the video games, and set an alarm clock in the morning. Inadequate or irregular sleep will make everything worse.

Make exercise a priority. Exercise makes all the difference for our physical and mental health. If you can go outside safely, do that; take a daily family walk, for example. If you cant get outside, have a daily dance party. Do yoga it doesnt take up much space, and helps with stress. There are plenty of videos out there to show you how.

Use tech to connect with people. Set time aside every day to call or FaceTime people maybe some friends and family you have lost contact with over the years (more people are home now!). Set up virtual play dates and other virtual gatherings.

Put yourself on a media diet. Yes, we need to keep abreast of the news. But obsessively clicking on links will only make you more anxious.

Stress kindness and be patient. We all get cranky and mean when we are anxious and sad. This situation is likely to bring out our bad sides. Have house rules on how you treat each other. Take a breath and try to redirect yourself before you yell at your kid or snap at your partner (or worse). If just a breath wont do it, take a moment. Walk away.

Understand that the usual stress management strategies might not work. These are extraordinary times, and the things that you usually do to help yourself or your children may not be enough. Call your doctor or your childs doctor; they know you and your situation best and can help.

There are also resources that can help, such as:

Its especially important that you reach out if you are feeling like you might hurt yourself or someone else. But dont wait for that. Make changes, and ask for help if you need it, right now.

Follow me on Twitter @drClaire

Read the original here:
Not a staycation: Isolating at home affects our mental health (and what to do) - Harvard Health Blog - Harvard Health

Tree planting magic in action: This large, energetic group of volunteers planted approximately 600 trees in just a few hours at a school in northern York County, PA, in the fall of 2019.

As a 30-year-old, I cannot personally speak about the first Earth Day. But I do know that 50 years ago we had no U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, no Clean Water Act and appallingly inadequate proto-versions of the Endangered Species Act and Clean Air Act. Rivers were burning, DDT was sprayed from airplanes across the nation and people were faced with the reality that, while we only have one planet, the status quo would not allow us to survive on it for long.

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, was the turning point for environmental awareness. It was a clear indication of public demand for better stewardship, galvanizing the nation and its leaders to take action. The years that followed mark an era of bipartisan accomplishments for environmental stewardship. New point source pollution standards and regulations were enforced, and mechanisms for reining in nonpoint source pollution set up our modern fight for the Chesapeake Bay.

The environmental awakening that gave us Earth Day also marks a turning point for the Bay.

Several organizations emerged, focusing on its restoration (including the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay). Their increased scrutiny revealed that the Bay was home to the first marine dead zone documented in the United States. A dead zone occurs when excess nutrient pollution feeds algae blooms, which are decomposed by oxygen-consuming bacteria and other organisms, resulting in very little dissolved oxygen to support aquatic life. It still haunts us every summer, but the shock in the late 1970s and early 1980s spurred action.

The Chesapeake Bay Program, a state-federal partnership, was soon created, and after a few decades of hard work by scientists, activists and restoration professionals, the EPA intervened. Using its authority granted in the Clean Water Act, the EPA in 2010 issued a Total Maximum Daily Load or pollution diet that sets allowable limits for pollutants reaching the Bay. The clock was also set, with a 15-year deadline for all of the states that drain into the Bay to take the needed actions to meet their pollution limits.

With five years left before the EPAs deadline, I see stark parallels between the Chesapeake cleanup effort and global climate change action. On both fronts, brilliant people have been doing their best for decades. On both fronts, a majority of the public is in favor of dramatic action. On both fronts, some nations (or, in the case of the Bay, states) are making much more headway than others. And on both fronts, it hasnt been enough.

So what can conservation professionals and concerned citizens do? We are taking restoration action and reaching out to the public to inspire them to do the same. We are working hard to achieve top-down political change and simultaneously bringing resources to landowners so that conservation can happen on the ground.

If youve ever attended a volunteer tree planting, youve almost certainly felt what I call tree planting magic. Volunteers will trickle into the planting site, usually a cold Saturday morning. Theyre often quiet and timid at first. When they get started, the work goes slowly. Many people have never planted a tree before, and it takes a few trees to get the hang of it. Gradually, the pace picks up and the number of trees left to be planted looks much more feasible.

Some people talk, others sing and almost everyone smiles. The air is loud with pounding hammers and laughter. And suddenly, far earlier than expected, there are no more trees to plant. The muddy group will, one by one, turn around and marvel at the new forest that they helped to plant. Each volunteer leaves the site with a stronger stewardship ethic than when they arrived.

The tens of thousands of residents who volunteer to plant trees each season are energized, empowered and eager for the next planting. So my question is: What if everyone planted a tree?

An estimated 20 million people participated in Earth Day in 1970. At the time, the U.S. population was around 200 million, meaning that approximately 10% of our nation participated in the first Earth Day. If it feels like this was a watershed moment its because it was. Perhaps residents and politicians responded to a whopping 10% of Americans demonstrating for our planet by joining the effort themselves.

While I may not be able to get 10% of Pennsylvanians to join me in planting trees this spring, it may be possible to get that many to hear about what were doing and resolve to join a tree planting as soon as they can.

In an attempt to tackle this huge task, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay is going big for our celebration of the 50th Earth Day. A regular tree planting, even a huge one, wont quite do. We need a planting that is so much fun, so novel, so absurd, that people will pay attention and want to plant trees themselves.

What we came up with certainly is absurd: Were going to plant trees for 24 straight hours. Our 50th Earth Day 24-Hour Tree Planting Relay or Treelay for short will consist of six volunteer tree plantings running back-to-back, around the clock.

Because of the current public health risk of large gatherings, the Treelay will now be held in autumn. Well take extra care that the spirit of Earth Day is still there, strong as ever!

As fun as the Treelay is going to be, it will not be written about in 50 years as the tipping point that led to the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and mitigation of global climate change. If 10% is still the number to reach, we will need 1.8 million residents of the watershed to take action in order to spur the remainder to join. For the United States to take adequate action on climate change, we will need 37.2 million residents. That is a wildly lofty goal, but imagine if that many people joined a tree planting someday.

It is our duty, as the conservation-minded community, to bring our fellow Americans with us. We need to make participation accessible by everyone, everywhere. Not only because the environment belongs to us all, but because we will need the participation of as many people as possible if we are to have hope for the future.

And what better way to energize your community than to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day?

Ryan Davis is the program manager for the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bays Chesapeake Forests Program.

The views expressed by columnists are not necessarily those of the Bay Journal.

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Revive Earth Day's roots: Celebrate its 50th by planting a tree - The Chesapeake Bay Journal

Pets of the Week: April 13 | The Herald-News SectionsMarket PlaceMoreDigital Access

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The Herald-News presents this week's Pets of the Week. Read the caption of each photo to find out about that pet, including where he or she can be adopted.

Email "Pet of the Week" submissions to news@theheraldnews.com. Photos should be in jpg file format, 200 dpi and sent as email attachments. Submissions are subject to editing for length, style, grammar and run as space is available.

Roxy likes people, attention and other cats. She answers to her name, loves being petted, and lounging in warm places like heater vents. Roxy needs a raw food diet. Call Humane Haven Animal Shelter at 630-378-4208 or email humanehaven@gmail.com. Visit http://www.hhas.org.

Kimba attention, wet food, chin rubs and belly rubs. He enjoys curling up on a fluffy bed, sunbathing on the windows and playing with catnip mice. Call Joliet Township Animal Control at 815-725-0333.

Kaleesi is a squatty 8-year-old bully mix. She loves everyone she meets, and greets people with a snort and a slobbery kiss. Even with her little legs, she has some speed, and loves to zoom through the grass. Call Joliet Township Animal Control at 815-725-0333.

Arthur is a friendly, sweet and energetic 1-year-old male terrier mix that loves people and attention. He still has puppy energy and loves to play and run. He gets along with other dogs. Email Stacy at stacy@nawsus.org. Visit nawsus.org.

Pastel is a 2-year-old domestic shorthair. She seeks out attention and likes to greet people that are nearby. She likes to be petted, especially with ear and chin scratches. Kitty toys entertain her. Email Delonda at delonda@nawsus.org. Visit nawsus.org.

Stark is recovering from a life on the streets. He is good with kids and dogs but not cats. He is sponsored so his fee is $0 to an approved home. Visit W2Wrescue.com.

Saja and Raja are 3-year-old brothers who are bonded and need to find a home together. They are talkative and friendly. Visit W2Wrescue.com

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Pets of the Week: April 13 - The Herald-News

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