Health Eating Guide with WHO Food Pyramid

The food we consume comprises varying proportions of the following:

• Carbohydrates
• Proteins
• Fats
• Fiber
• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Water

The World Health Organization advocates the Food Pyramid as a simple guide to healthy eating.

Components of Healthy Diet

The base of the pyramid is the “carbohydrate” component. Thus rice, pasta and cereal products should make up the bulk of our food intake. The next tier consists of “protein” products like meat, seafood and soy. Proteins should comprise a proportionately smaller component of our diets than the carbohydrates. The smallest contribution should be from the “fat” group as this is linked to the development bof obesity and heart disease. Vitamins and minerals are trace elements that are found in varying quantities in the various food substances.

More recently, healthy eating advisors advocate the minimum daily consumption of two pieces of fruit and two portions of vegetables. This is to ensure the intake of fiber is adequate for the regulation of bowel movements.

Reducing Fat Intake

Although meat products are primarily made of protein, the choice of cut can markedly affect the fat content. We can choose to reduce our fat intake by choosing lean cuts of meat and ctting off all visible fat prior to consumption. With poultry, the breast meat tends to have less fat than the thigh meat. However, the removal of the skin and visible fat allows us to continue to enjoy the thigh meat. Such small actions can have a drastic effect on our total fat intake and long-term health.

Use the Right Cooking Technique

In the same way, the way we cook the food also has marked effects on the eventual fat content. The use of deep-frying or shallow-frying techniques markedly increases the fat and calorie content compared to grilling or steaming.

I advocate the use of stir-frying with non-stick equipment (particularly frying pans and woks) and the use of minimal amounts of cooking oil.

Generally, 1 teaspoon of cooking oil is enough for each dish. Compare this with the numerous cookbooks that advocate the use of large amounts of oil to marinade the meat (to prevent sticking), followed by stir-frying with large volumes of oil or even deep-frying the meat before stir-frying!

Quality, Not Quantity, Counts

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So many ways to treat so many types of headache

Treatments can vary widely, from medication to surgery or herbs
By CINDY GEORGE Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Constant shooting, stinging, throbbing and other painful head-pounding could ruin — or rule — your life.

Up to 35 million Americans suffer migraine and other forms of headache, according to the American Academy of Neurology.

• FOUR TYPES OF HEADACHES: The main types of headaches are tension, migraine, cluster and hormone.
Tension headaches, the most common, cause a band-like sensation or other pressure around the head. Most migraine headaches occur on one side of the head. Described as the most intense, cluster headaches attack in groups. Hormone headaches are associated with women’s menstrual cycles.

• OTHER TYPES OF HEADACHES: You might also experience over-medication rebound headaches, sinus headaches and those caused by brain abnormalities, including tumors.
• TRIGGERS: Stress, certain foods and sleeping patterns can trigger headaches.
“Eating meals regularly, staying well-hydrated and trying to minimize stress in life, sleeping well and getting exercise really do make a difference,” said Dr. Pamela Blake, a Houston neurologist at Memorial Hermann Northwest.

Changing weather that causes barometric pressure to spike or dip could be the culprit.

“When the fronts are coming in, primarily in the spring and fall, that will trigger headaches in the front of the head or face,”said Dr. Howard S. Derman, a neurologist at The Methodist Hospital. “People sometimes think those are sinus headaches because of spring flowers, but they’re really not.”

The same concept applies to people plagued with head pain while flying, hiking or mountain-climbing.

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Tata signs sponsorship deal with Ferrari

MUMBAI (AFP) — Indian technology giant Tata Consultancy announced on Thursday a sponsorship deal with Formula One team Ferrari, bucking predictions that the sport could collapse in the global economic crisis.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will display its logo on Ferrari cars during the 2009 season, a company statement released in Mumbai said.

“TCS has entered into a historic agreement with Ferrari for an enhanced technology and marketing partnership,” it said, without giving financial details of the deal.

Last week Formula One agreed cost-cutting measures following a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Monaco.

The sport’s governing body is clamping down on costs as it struggles to survive the global credit crisis.

Honda’s recent shock withdrawal from the Formula One raised fresh fears over the future of the multi-million dollar sport.

TCS has been a technology partner of the Ferrari team since 2005.
Source
Permanent link to this post: http://blog.automoton.info/2008/12/tata-signs-sponsorship-deal-with-ferrari/

Lose Your Weight By Choosing Correct Diet Plan

The first step towards a healthy life is a healthy body. And for a healthy body you need to keep your body in shape. In other words you will have to loose the extra pounds you have accumulated for so many years by spending a lot of money. ‘Lose weight’ seems to be the new slogan of the present generation. They want to do it to make their life healthier, more promising and look better. Hence the requirement for a healthy body arises.

The first step toward loosing your weight would be controlling your diet. You will have to make your diet according to the requirement of your body. Many people think that they can lose their weight by abstaining from food, by eating just to survive. But this is not a healthy practice as you also lose the basic nutrients required by the body not just unnecessary fat. A correct diet plan should reflect your life style. For example if you work in a office and all you have to do is to just sit there and then come home then your diet plan would be something else than the person who has to constantly move from one location to another during their day job. It also depends upon whether you work in day or in night.

There are many diet plans available in the market. They include weight watchers, jenny Craig, south beach, and Atkins and nutria system. They all work well. They can help to enhance your healthy life and at the same time make you lose your weight if you follow its rules from the start to the end without any interval, without any break. But do remember that it is always easier said than done. Hence choose your diet plan carefully and accordingly. And once you have chosen them then stick to it.

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Ask the Expert: Treat migraines at first warning signs

Q. How is a migraine treated?

A. Migraines can be treated at two different times: once the person develops a migraine or before they develop one. Both treatments are done with medications that relieve the symptoms, though outcomes are usually better when the migraine is treated as early as possible.

Some women can get severe migraines around their time of menstruation. These types of migraines can be helped with the use of hormones or birth control pills.

Q. When should I get medical help for migraines?

A. You can take over-the-counter, pain-relieving drugs once you experience the first signs or symptoms of a migraine. However, if you are taking over-the-counter medications for them more than eight times a month you should look into seeing your doctor about a prescription treatment. These medications are preventive in nature, sometimes taken daily, and serve to reduce the frequency and severity of the person’s migraines. Your doctor may also discuss medications to take at the first sign of a migraine. These medicines help eliminate the migraine or make the symptoms much more tolerable.

Q. What about alternative medicines or home remedies?

A. Any activity you find relaxing might lessen the effects of a migraine, such as taking a hot bath or sitting quietly in a darkened room. If you are experiencing chronic headache pain, some alternative remedies like massage or even acupuncture might provide relief. Ideally, you should consult a physician before beginning any alternative medicines.

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Zephyr Announces Business Partners in Germany and South Africa

Following the establishment of its UK branch earlier this year, Zephyr are pleased to confirm international business partner contracts for Germany and South Africa. The new business partners will distribute the Zephyr PASSPORT family of terminal emulation products.

Houston, TX (PRWEB) December 14, 2008 — Following the establishment of its UK branch earlier this year, Zephyr are pleased to confirm international business partner contracts for Germany and South Africa. The new business partners will distribute the Zephyr PASSPORT family of terminal emulation products.

In Germany, Zephyr is represented by UBS Hainer GmbH (www.ubs-hainer.com), who manages and supports PASSPORT products at such customer accounts as Allianz Suisse, Daimler Bank AG and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW).

In South Africa, Zephyr is represented by JMR Software Ltd (www.jmr.co.za), who supports Zephyr products at First National Bank (FNB), Business Connexion (BCX), Cadiz and others.

“We have a wealth of current international customers and many new prospects that we feel will benefit from having fully trained partners in their own countries” said Russell Martin, Zephyr Vice-President Sales and Marketing. “Familiarity with local business practices and the ability to support the Zephyr products and business model is essential”.

“We really want to send a clear message to international organizations that use Attachmate®, MicroFocus® (formerly NetManage®), IBM® and other terminal emulation products: Zephyr can save you substantial sums of money with an easy and transparent change to PASSPORT”, Martin continued.

PASSPORT 2009 is slated for release in January and will have localized language support for the Italian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese markets.

Zephyr Announces Business Partners in Germany and South Africa

Samsung Behold (for T-Mobile) Cell Phone

The head-turning Samsung Behold is a responsive touch-screen cell phone with a few advanced features and a great camera.

Ginny Mies, PC World
PC World
Saturday, December 13, 2008; 12:19 AM

The 3G Samsung Behold ($150 from T-Mobile), the younger sibling of the Samsung Omnia on the Verizon network, is a slick cell phone with a bevy of advanced multimedia features and a responsive touch screen. However, the Behold lacks Wi-Fi and a standard headphone jack, and its Web browser is a bit counterintuitive.

Slightly smaller than the Omnia, the Behold measures 2.1 by 4.1 by 0.5 inches. Weighing 3.9 ounces, it’s light but feels solid in the hand.

The Behold’s 3-inch touch screen takes up the majority of the phone, and three physical keys–end, send, and back–reside underneath. The landscape touch-screen QWERTY keyboard, with generously spaced keys and vibrating feedback, is comfortable to use. I didn’t notice any lag between when I typed and when the results appeared on the screen, a problem I’ve experienced with some other touch-screen keyboards. The Behold’s predictive text feature gives two word choices, but you can also turn predictive text off with a dedicated key on the keyboard. The arrangement includes a few dedicated punctuation keys, as well.

The Behold uses Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, also seen on the Omnia. But unlike the Omnia, which seemed sluggish running Windows Mobile, the Behold is very responsive. The accelerometer, which reacted slowly on the Omnia, flipped from portrait to landscape quickly and smoothly on this handset. I encountered some lag only when I scrolled through lists of contacts or my media library. And otherwise, I found TouchWiz very user-friendly.

The lens for the Behold’s 5-megapixel camera, along with a flash, is located on the phone’s metallic back (which is available in a brushed espresso or light-rose finish). A volume rocker and a headphone/USB jack lie on the left spine of the device, while a dedicated camera key and a phone-lock key sit on the right.

Call quality was very good overall. My contacts sounded loud and clear, and I heard no static or interference. Parties on the other end heard some background noise, but otherwise the sound quality was clean. I experienced no dropped calls.

The Today screen–the Behold’s home screen–has a widget bar running along its left side. You can arrange the widgets in any order, as well as drag one into the main part of the screen to launch its respective app. To end the application, you slide the widget back onto the bar. Available widgets include a calendar, a phone book, a music player, and a clock. But other than rearranging widgets and removing them, you don’t have a lot of room for customization; you can’t add new widgets to the bar or buy new programs (there is no app store), which was disappointing.

The Behold offers a full HTML browser, which is a nice addition for a non-smart-phone handset. The browser is difficult to use on occasion: Scrolling through pages wasn’t as smooth a process as on other touch-screen browsers, and getting the hang of navigating took time. For example, to zoom in on a page, you must touch the magnifying-glass icon at the top of the browser and then select the page size to view. The phone doesn’t do Wi-Fi, either, but that didn’t seem like too big of a loss; Web pages loaded very quickly over T-Mobile’s 3G network.

The Behold’s standout feature is its 5-megapixel camera, with 4X digital zoom and a power LED flash. The camera has four resolution settings, light metering, adjustable ISO, a self-timer, a self-portrait mirror on the back cover, an antishake feature, and a setting for shooting backlit subjects. It also has three fun shooting modes (continuous, panorama, and mosaic), as well as a smile-shot mode that will take another shot if the subject is frowning.

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