| 7 Foods to NEVER Eat! or Happy New Year! |
[Dec. 29th, 2006|09:21 am] |
Well, it is Happy New Year time folks.
Do you suppose after all these years of abuse,
the immunities are such that we can ignore this
stuff? One wonders these things. So, ignore at your
peril and enjoy the New Year.
Happy 2007 and Peace to all.
BTW. I have it all planned out. Give up #4 for 2007 and #5 for 2008; then in 2009, the entire list will be considered necessary food groups and I shall have gotten through it all unscathed
or not.
7 Foods to NEVER Eat!
By Jaclyn Johnson
eDiets.com Staff Writer
1. DOUGHNUTS. It’s hard to resist the smell of a Krispy Kreme doughnut, which is why I never step foot in the store. Doughnuts are fried chock-full of sugar and white flour and loads of trans fat.
According to the Krispy Kreme website, an average 3.5-ounce sugar doughnut weighs in with about 400 calories and contains few other nutrients besides fat. These sugary treats may satisfy your craving but it won’t satisfy your hunger as most of the calories come from fat.
"Eating a lot of refined sugar contributes to blood sugar ‘swings’ or extreme fluctuations,” eDiets Chief Nutritionist Susan Burke said.
2. Cheeseburger with fries The age-old classic may be delicious but think twice before sinking your teeth into that Big Mac. The saturated fat found in cheese burgers has been linked to heart attacks, strokes and some types of cancer.
“In fact, fast-food portions are gargantuan, almost double the calories per meal compared to 20 years ago," Susan says. "Twenty years ago the average fast-food cheeseburger had about 300 calories. Today’s BK Whopper with cheese has 720. To burn the excess 420 calories, you’d have to run for 40 minutes. For example, in 1985 a medium French fry had 240 calories, 2.4 ounces. Today’s ‘medium’ is 6.9 ounces and 610 calories.
"This fast-food meal of cheeseburger and fries has way too many calories and fat grams, not to mention grams of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol and sodium.”
Let’s break down this meal. First, take the white-flour bun (refined carbohydrates), then add some processed cheese (saturated fat and trans fat, plus lots of additives and preservatives) and then top off with fried red meat (cholesterol and saturated fats). And let’s not forget about the condiments such as the always fattening mayonnaise.
Not sounding so appetizing anymore, huh? Oh, and let’s not forget about the infamous side dish. You cheeseburger will most likely come with a side of French fries, which is sadly the most popular vegetable dish in the U.S. Don’t kid yourself, French fries are not vegetables, they are extremely high in fat and contain a tiny amount of nutrients.
3. Fried Chicken and Chicken Nuggets With the recent class-action lawsuit between The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and KFC, the health risks posed by fried foods are becoming more public. The CSPI is suing the food chain for their use of cooking oil containing unhealthy trans fats. The lawsuit seeks to order KFC to use other types of cooking oils and to inform customers how much trans fats KFC’s food contains.
Foods cooked in highly heated oils (most notably partially hydrogenated oil) have been known to cause cancer, weight gain and other serious health risks if ingested regularly. A 10-piece chicken McNugget from McDonald’s has 420 calories, 24 grams of fat and 1120 milligrams of sodium. One Extra Crispy Chicken Breast from KFC has around 420 calories and eight grams of saturated fat. So unless you want to super size yourself, it’s best to make a clean break with fried foods.
4. Oscar Mayer's Lunchables Sure they are convenient and easy, but boy are they unhealthy! These kid-marketed lunches are loaded with saturated fat and sodium. They usually contain highly processed meats and cheeses, white flour crackers and sugary treats. Lunchables get two-thirds of their calories from fat and sugar. And they provide lopsided nutrition since they contain no fruits or vegetables.
“They insidiously promote obesity by making kids think that lunch normally comes in a cellophane-wrapped box," Susan says. "Parents are promoting their children’s obesity by buying these items. They’re expensive, too. Pack a sandwich and save dollars and health.”
5. Sugary Cereal Not all cereals are created equally. And while your kids might beg for the latest cookie or marshmallow chocolate surprise cereals, it is a safe bet they are about as healthy as a dessert. Keywords to look out for are puffed, dyed and sweetened.
Most kids’ cereals are so highly processed they no longer look like the grains they were originally made from. A healthy alternative is oatmeal. Although, if you are buying pre-packaged oatmeal make sure to check the label and see how much sugar it contains, you might be surprised.
"A little sugar isn’t a problem but when the first ingredient on the box is sugar, then watch out," she said. "There is no fruit in Froot Loops. But the unsweetened original Cheerios or Rice Krispies are fine, and you can sweeten them naturally with blueberries and strawberries.”
6. Processed Meats. What falls under the category of processed meats? Hot dogs, sausage, jerky, bacon, certain lunch meats and meats used in canned soup products. Almost all processed meats have sodium nitrite added as a preservative.
A recent study conducted at the University of Hawaii found that sodium nitrite can act as “a precursor to highly carcinogenic nitrosamines -- potent cancer-causing chemicals that accelerate the formation and growth of cancer cells throughout the body.” So eliminate these meats from your diet before they eliminate you!
7. Canned soup. Sometimes regarded as a healthy food, soups can be very deceiving. You must stay on your guard because many canned soups have high levels of trans fats, sodium and artificial preservatives such as MSG. Just one serving (which is roughly one cup) can have almost 1,000 milligrams of salt. Also, steer clear of soups that are cream-based, they can be high in calories and fat.
Susan says it is important to “read labels from back to front. Ignore the health claims, and instead focus on the ingredients and serving size. Watch out for hydrogenated fat (trans fat) and sodium. If you’re buying bread to go with you soup, the first ingredient should be whole grain -- either whole wheat, rye or other grain. If it just says ‘wheat bread,’ that doesn’t mean whole wheat.” |
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| Animal Books for grades 3-4 |
[Dec. 6th, 2006|09:36 am] |
I am looking for 3-4 grade level animal related books and would welcome suggestions. Our Two By Two instructors are looking for the
"right" book to enhance our curriculum on character building using companion animals. Details on us are at:
www.twobytwoanimalcampus.org
Currently considering Shelter Dogs and Cages, both by Peg Kehret.
Any other nominations?
And I have shut down my water feature here in the heartland as we are now too cold to risk supercooling the fish or ice damning the stream.
But I know that won't matter to anyone. |
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| Starting 2006 |
[Jan. 27th, 2006|10:35 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | 2006 | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
Number 10 - Life is sexually transmitted.
Number 9 - Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
Number 8 - Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.
Number 7 - Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks. Right, Lisa?
Number 6 - Some people are like a Slinky.....not really good for
anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
Number 5 - Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
Number 4 - All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
Number 3 - Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents?
Number 2 - In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
AND THE NUMBER 1 THOUGHT FOR 2006:
We know exactly where one cow with mad-cow-disease is located among the millions and millions of cows in America but we haven't got a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and terrorists are located. Maybe we should put the Department of Agriculture in charge of immigration. |
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| TWO BY TWO ANIMAL CAMPUS |
[Jan. 17th, 2006|02:07 pm] |
Boy do I hate it when I go to faq's to check on something and it erases my entire 2500 essay I just finished. But, on the bright side, you do not have to read all that drival.
Bev and I are on the board of a new animal welfare org which is under development. We have incorporated and have applied for 501c3 non profit status. Now we are in phase one, post business plan development and are writing our first set of classroom lesson plans, focusing on the second grade.
Most of us now involved are teachers ( not me) so our emphasis is on education to try to change the way we view our pets. Since we still euthanize over 5,000,000 animals a hear in the US, we have a ways to go. The goal is to encourage spay/neuter, adoption of all adoptable animals, and the use of trap, neuter, release programs.
There are many other similar groups now organized in the US and many have been very generous with us in sharing the plans and pitfalls of there organizations.
As soon as we have a website, I will post it here and elsewhere. |
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| ALA was a blast! |
[Jun. 29th, 2005|03:54 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  satisfied | ] |
Hello again,
We were able to get to Chicago to stalk Lisa Yee and to hear her read from Stanford Wong...
We read it to each other on the drive home. What a hoot. I am trying to memorized pages 93 and 94 concerning the problem of like like. Lisa has truly nailed this one.
The Scholastic luncheon was awesome. Lisa and her fellow authors dazzled us as we filled the Hotel W Ballroom 1 for a classy meal of cold raw salmon and French pastries. When we left, they gave each of us a bag containing our very own hot off the press Stanford Wong and nine other new books. What fun for us.
We were also able to get onto the convention exhibit floor (entire south wing of McCormick Place,) which was piled high with books, on top of which sat authors, ready to sign your copy. What fun.
Dumb me. I did not take a suitcase on wheels to haul all the goodies away. We finally had to leave because I could not carry one more book. The rest of my summer is pretty well scheduled.
Hope Lisa awakes from her slumber soon and starts sharing her adventures. Watch for that. It will be great fun. |
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| Lazy summer (almost) Sunday afternoon time user, especially for the older folks. |
[Jun. 12th, 2005|01:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | relaxed | ] |
Hello again! This time we put the old memory to work on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Are you old enough to get ALL of the blanks correct? If you can do it and are FIRST, you will get a wonderful surprise prize to be determined later. This is really easy. For someone as young as my buddy Lisa, it will only waste about 3-6 hours of her time that she could be using to write the sequel to Stanford and MM. Be warned, Lisa.
Ok, ready or not, off you go.
01. After the Lone Ranger saved the day and rode off into the sunset, the grateful citizens would ask,
Who was that masked man? Invariably, someone would answer, I don't know, but he left this behind.
What did he leave behind?____________
02. When the Beatles first came to the U.S. in early 1964, we all watched them on The __________________ Show.
03. "Get your kicks, ___________________."
04. "The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed___________________."
05. "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, ________________."
06. After the Twist, The Mashed Potato, and the Watusi, we "danced" under a stick that was lowered
as low as we could go in a dance called the "_____________."
07. "N_E_S_T_L_E_S", Nestle's makes the very best _______________."
08. Satchmo was America's "Ambassador of Goodwill." Our parents shared this great jazz trumpet
player with us. His name was _________________.
09. What takes a licking and keeps on ticking? _______________
10. Red Skelton's hobo character was named __________________ and Red always ended his television
show by saying, "Good Night, and "_______________".
11. Some Americans who protested the Vietnam War did so by burning their____________.
12. The cute little car with the engine in the back and the trunk in the front was called the VW.
What other names did it go by? ____________ & _______________.
13. In 1971, singer Don MacLean sang a song about, "the day the music died." This was a tribute to ___________________.
14. We can remember the first satellite placed into orbit. The Russians did it. It was called ___________________.
15. One of the big fads of the late 50's and 60's was a large plastic ring that we twirled around our
waist. It was called the ________________ |
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| 10 great places to discover Midwest charm |
[Jun. 10th, 2005|11:18 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | optimistic | ] |
Jun 10, 2005
Dubuque honored for 'Midwest charm'
Officials credit the America's River project for boosting city's appeal to tourists
by EMILY SZESZYCKI
Dubuque was named one of the "10 great places to discover Midwest charm" by the newspaper USA Today in the travel section of its June 3 edition.
The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium and Fenelon Place Elevator were listed as two of the city's top attractions.
USA Today compiled its list from an interview with Dan Kaercher, "Midwest Living's" editor-in-chief.
"This is something that we are pleased with and something, fortunately, because of a lot of hard work and heart, something we're beginning to get used to," said Steward Sandstrom, president and chief executive officer of the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber hosted Kaercher earlier this year and showed him some of the sites Dubuque has to offer.
USA Today has a paid circulation of more than 2 million.
According to chamber figures, Dubuque has seen explosive growth in business travel and tourism. In 2005, an estimated 1.5 million visitors are expected to visit the area, generating approximately $186 million for the local economy.
Officials credit the America's River project, featuring the Grand River Center, Grand Harbor Resort and Waterpark, Mississippi Riverwalk and National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, for making Dubuque an appealing destination.
Bringing in business travelers is another important component to promoting the region for tourism.
About 20 meeting planners from across the Midwest recently gathered in Dubuque for a spring "Familiarization Tour," hosted by the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce's Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The tour, one of the largest in recent memory, ran from Sunday through Tuesday.
Sue Czeshinski, director of the convention bureau, said the trip has been a success, She anticipates that two-thirds to three-fourths of the planners will choose Dubuque to host an event, bringing out-of-state dollars to the area.
Although figures are rough, Sandstrom said there was a significant number of representatives from "flyable" conferences, which are planners from organizations a greater distance away. They would need to use Dubuque's air service to come to town and typically spend more money when they are here.
For example, local conference attendees spend $150 per night, while those who attend "flyable" conference spend $225.
Planners from Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa toured local hotels, conference facilities, attractions and restaurants.
"A familiarization tour is one of the most important sales initiatives we do," Czeshinski said. "It's really a significant overall sales effort. Once they are invited, the chances of planners doing business here are tremendous."
Lafayette, Ind., native Chuck Weis, a planner and instructor with the United States Canoe Association, based out of St. Petersburg, Fla., said he was impressed with the tour.
He had never been to the city, but he liked it so much that he is going to make a case for Dubuque to host the group's national competition within the next several years.
"I am very, very impressed," Weis said. "I had no idea what to expect."
Similar meeting recruiting efforts have brought success in the past. In 2005, Dubuque will host more than 100 conferences with about 50,000 delegates coming to town.
Copyright 2005 Telegraph Herald |
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| Can you float Noah's boat? |
[Jun. 6th, 2005|10:40 pm] |
This is fun – see how well you remember what’s in each ark and try to
match ‘em up! Hurry because the water comes up fairly fast…
If you’re able to get them all matched up, let me know what happens.
I wonder if it “floats the boat”!
This was supposed to be a hot link. However, I guess you have to copy it into
your browser. Bummer. Anyway, let me know if you enjoy it.
Thanks
Mel in Dubuque
http://www.brookviewcottage.com/miles/cards/noah/noah.html |
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| My response to lisayee to a book tag exercise. |
[May. 28th, 2005|01:16 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | nostalgic | ] |
1. The number of books I have owned: Clueless. Maybe a thousand. Currently own about 250.
2. The last book bought:
FRENCH BETRAYAL OF AMERICA by Kenneth R. Timmerman
3. The last book read:
ELEVEN DAYS by Donald Harsted. Don is a retired deputy Sheriff from Clayton County Iowa. He has written at least four books now based on his experiences doing battle against the bad guys in rural Iowa. If you like crime fiction, he will give you a different perspective.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me:
a. THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester. My dear friend, and a Dubuque author, the late Thomas Gifford, gave this one to me for my birthday in 1999. It is the retelling of the “a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary.” Fascinating true story.
b. THE SOURCE by James A. Michener. Everyone should have a least one of his opuses to fall back on. This one does it for me. Also CENTENNIAL.
c. MEMORIES OF A NON-JEWISH CHILDHOOD by Robert Byrne. Another Dubuquer, better known for his many works on the game of pocket billiards (He would be the Charles Goren of the how to play billiards, pool, etc.) This one tells how it was being raised as a poor Catholic kid in Dubuque and is one of the funniest stories I have ever read. It was made into a musical and premiered here in January, 2005.
d. PORTRAIT OF A KILLER, Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell. The prolific author of the Dr. Kay Scarpetta series of forensic medicine mystery thrillers turns her talents, money and the skills of her forensic friends to the solving of the Jack the Ripper murders and names the killer. Fun stuff if you are as twisted as I am.
e. THE ASSASSINI by Thomas Gifford. Best known for his first book, THE WIND CHILL FACTOR, a best seller and Book of the Month Club Alternate, Tom was my friend and neighbor until his death in 2000, at home here in Dubuque, across the street on Indian Ridge. He wrote over 20 novels and used Thomas Maxwell as one nom-de-plume. THE ASSASSINI is my favorite of his works and traces the search for the secret society of assassins working for the Popes over the centuries. Of all his books, Tom told me once that PRAETORIAN was his favorite. We shared a love of film. He was an expert on movies, new many people in Hollywood, and taught film courses at Clarke College here. We would go to a film almost every Thursday evening after supper.
Well this was hard for me. This exercise brought back some memories that have been more or less buried for a while. I hope it was ok to include a little personal stuff.
Mel Graves
Dubuque, Iowa |
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