Thursday, 19 June 2014
Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Monday, 16 June 2014
Lunges 101
A lunge can refer to any position of the human body where one leg is positioned forward with knee bent and foot flat on the ground while the other leg is positioned behind.
It is used by athletes in cross-training for sports, by weight-trainers as a fitness exercise, and by yogis as part of an asana regimen.
Saturday, 14 June 2014
Misleading' juice label may land Coca-Cola in court
Coca-Cola could face a trial over allegations of false advertising, after the US Supreme Court said the company sought to “mislead and trick consumers” by labelling as pomegranate-blueberry juice a product that contains just 0.5 per cent pomegranates and blueberries combined.
Supreme Court justices voted unanimously to allow pomegranate growers POM Wonderful to proceed with a lawsuit against Coca-Cola Co, which claims that the latter firm sought unfairly to harm its competitors with its deceptive juice labelling.
The case revolves around two rival products, both of which purport to be an healthy blend of pomegranates and blueberries. POM Wonderful’s pomegranate-blueberry juice is made up of 85 per cent pomegranate and 15 per cent blueberry juice. It is around five times more expensive than the juice produced by Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid brand, which is also labelled pomegranate-blueberry, followed in smaller print by the words: “flavoured blend of five juices”.
In fact, the Minute Maid juice consists almost entirely of apple and grape juices. POM sued Coca-Cola for damages and is seeking a ban on such labelling, which it says misleads customers about the contents of the juice. In the Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that Coca-Cola’s product is made up of “99.4 per cent apple and grape juices, 0.3 per cent pomegranate juice, 0.2 per cent blueberry juice and 0.1 per cent raspberry juice.”
Justice Kennedy added that the illustration on the Coca-Cola product also suggested a high pomegranate-blueberry content, despite what he described as the “miniscule” amounts of each fruit in the juice. The Minute Maid bottle, he wrote, “displays a vignette of blueberries, grapes and raspberries in front of a halved pomegranate and a halved apple.”
When the case was argued orally in April, Coca-Cola lawyer Kathleen Sullivan told the Court, “We don’t think that consumers are quite as unintelligent as POM must think they are… They know when something is a flavoured blend of five juices and the non-predominant juices are just a flavour.” But Justice Kennedy was unimpressed by her reasoning, responding: “Don’t make me feel bad because I thought this was pomegranate juice.”
The Minute Maid label technically complies with the requirements of the US Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, which allows products to be named after their minority contents. But the Court decided it ran contrary to another law, the Lanham Act, under which companies can sue to protect their interests from unfair competition. The first law is designed to protect consumers, Justice Kennedy wrote, while the second is to protect businesses.
POM is seeking damages and a ban on Minute Maid’s allegedly dubious labelling. The lawsuit will now go to a jury trial, unless it is settled beforehand. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, POM’s Lynda Resnick praised her husband and co-owner, Stewart, whom she said was responsible for the suit’s success so far. “He is kind of a 21st century John Wayne,” she told reporters, adding: “[He] wants what’s right for the food industry and for the American consumer.”
The California company has not always been lucky in court, and over the past five years lost similar jury trials against three other rival juice-makers including Pepsi and Ocean Spray. It is also the defendant in a separate lawsuit regarding deceptive advertising, which also looks set to end up at the Supreme Court. The Federal Trade Commission has ordered POM to cease advertising the health benefits of pomegranate juice until they can be proved in human scientific trials. The company previously claimed that its pomegranate-based products can treat or prevent heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction.
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Friday, 6 June 2014
Resistance Band Workout for Full Body
The resistance band is used to increase range of motion and movement such as increasing jumping high. The band works by making the body work harder on the areas where the bands are attached and by making more tears for the body to repair and build muscle
- Squat Press
- Seated Row
- Bicep Curls
- Wood Chopper
- Triceps Extension
- Incline Chest Press
- Lateral Band Walk
- Prone Single Leg Extension
Complete 3-4 sets with 12-15 reps
Wednesday, 4 June 2014
9 Reasons to Eat Sweet Potatoes
Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes may be one of nature's unsurpassed sources of beta-carotene. Several recent studies have shown the superior ability of sweet potatoes to raise our blood levels of vitamin A.
Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are a root vegetable.
Not only are sweet potatoes readily available, inexpensive, and delicious, there are many other reasons to love these yummy vegetables. Here are 9:
1. They are high in vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 helps reduce the chemical homocysteine in our bodies. Homocysteine has been linked with degenerative diseases, including the prevention of heart attacks.
2. They are a good source of vitamin C. While most people know that vitamin C is important to help ward off cold and flu viruses, few people are aware that this crucial vitamin plays an important role in bone and tooth formation, digestion, and blood cell formation. It helps accelerate wound healing, produces collagen which helps maintain skin’s youthful elasticity, and is essential to helping us cope with stress. It even appears to help protect our body against toxins that may be linked to cancer.
3. They contain Vitamin D which is critical for immune system and overall health at this time of year. Both a vitamin and a hormone, vitamin D is primarily made in our bodies as a result of getting adequate sunlight. You may have heard about seasonal affective disorder (or SAD, as it is also called), which is linked to inadequate sunlight and therefore a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D plays an important role in our energy levels, moods, and helps to build healthy bones, heart, nerves, skin, and teeth, and it supports the thyroid gland.
4. Sweet potatoes contain iron. Most people are aware that we need the mineral iron to have adequate energy, but iron plays other important roles in our body, including red and white blood cell production, resistance to stress, proper immune functioning, and the metabolizing of protein, among other things.
5. Sweet potatoes are a good source of magnesium, which is the relaxation and anti-stress mineral. Magnesium is necessary for healthy artery, blood, bone, heart, muscle, and nerve function, yet experts estimate that approximately 80 percent of the population in North America may be deficient in this important mineral.
6. They are a source of potassium, one of the important electrolytes that help regulate heartbeat and nerve signals. Like the other electrolytes, potassium performs many essential functions, some of which include relaxing muscle contractions, reducing swelling, and protecting and controlling the activity of the kidneys.
7. Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet-tasting but their natural sugars are slowly released into the bloodstream, helping to ensure a balanced and regular source of energy, without the blood sugar spikes linked to fatigue and weight gain.
8. Their rich orange color indicates that they are high in carotenoids like beta carotene and other carotenoids, which is the precursor to vitamin A in your body. Carotenoids help strengthen our eyesight and boost our immunity to disease, they are powerful antioxidants that help ward off cancer and protect against the effects of aging. Studies at Harvard University of more than 124,000 people showed a 32 percent reduction in risk of lung cancer in people who consumed a variety of carotenoid-rich foods as part of their regular diet. Another study of women who had completed treatment for early stage breast cancer conducted by researchers at Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) found that women with the highest blood concentrations of carotenoids had the least likelihood of cancer recurrence.
9. They are versatile. Try them roasted, puréed, steamed, baked, or grilled. You can add them to soups and stews, or grill and place on top of leafy greens for a delicious salad. I enjoy grilling them with onions and red peppers for amazing sandwich or wrap ingredients. Puree them and add to smoothies and baked goods.
Adapted with permission from The Life Force Diet by Michelle Schoffro Cook, PhD.
Sunday, 1 June 2014
Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Tuesday, 20 May 2014
Irony with Food and Health Industries
Minnesota bans anti-bacterial chemical from soaps
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — It's widely used nationwide as a germ-killing ingredient in soaps, deodorants and even toothpaste, but it's being banned in Minnesota.
Gov. Mark Dayton on Friday signed a bill to make Minnesota the first state to prohibit the use of triclosan in most retail consumer hygiene products. The Minnesota House and Senate passed it earlier last week because of health and environmental concerns about the chemical. The ban isn't due to take effect until Jan. 1, 2017, but one of its lead sponsors, state Sen. John Marty, predicted Monday that the odds are good that most manufacturers will phase out triclosan by then anyway.
"While this is an effort to ban triclosan from one of the 50 states, I think it will have a greater impact than that," Marty said.
The Roseville Democrat said other states and the federal government are likely to act, too. And he said come companies are already catching on that there's no marketing advantage to keeping triclosan in its products. He noted that Procter & Gamble's Crest toothpaste is now marketing itself as triclosan-free.
Triclosan is used in an estimated 75 percent of anti-bacterial liquid soaps and body washes sold across the United States, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The federal agency announced last year that it would revisit the safety of triclosan and other germ-killing ingredients used in personal cleaning products. While triclosan hasn't been shown to be hazardous to humans, studies have raised concerns that it can disrupt hormones critical for reproduction and development, at least in lab animals, and contribute to the development of resistant bacteria.
Critics including the FDA say there's no evidence that triclosan soaps are any more effective than washing with plain soap and water for preventing the spread of diseases. A University of Minnesota study published last year found increasing levels of triclosan in the sediments of several lakes, and that the chemical can break down in those waters into potentially harmful dioxins. Two months later, Dayton ordered all state agencies to stop buying hand soaps and dish and laundry cleaners containing triclosan.
The American Cleaning Institute had urged Dayton to veto the new bill, saying triclosan has been thoroughly researched and shown to provide important health benefits.
"Instead of letting federal regulators do their jobs, the legislation would take safe, effective and beneficial products off the shelves of Minnesota grocery, convenience and drug stores," Douglas Troutman, the trade group's vice president and counsel for governmental affairs, wrote in a letter to Dayton.
ACI spokesman Brian Sansoni said Minnesota is the only state to enact a ban so far. He said it remains to be seen whether any individual manufacturers would go to the expense of reformulating their products just for the Minnesota market or simply stop selling them in the state. He said triclosan is an issue best regulated at the federal level.
Under an FDA rule proposed in December, manufacturers of anti-bacterial hand soaps and body washes would have to demonstrate that their products are safe for daily use, and more effective than plain soap and water. Otherwise, they would need to reformulate these products or remove anti-bacterial claims from the labels. The agency is still taking public comments on the proposal.
Some manufacturers have announced plans over the last couple years to at least partially phase out triclosan. Procter & Gamble plans to finish dropping the chemical from its products this year. Johnson & Johnson plans to eliminate it from all its consumer products by 2015.
Monday, 17 March 2014
Thursday, 13 March 2014
Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Sunday, 23 February 2014
Thursday, 20 February 2014
Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Sunday, 16 February 2014
Friday, 14 February 2014
Thursday, 13 February 2014
Saturday, 25 January 2014
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