Get The Point ?

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Everyone should be respected as
an individual, but no one idolized.”
Albert Einstein

Get The Point?

Whether you’ve stopped drinking or using drugs or in my case stopped eating sweets, there is always an event or holiday that challenges your willpower.

Special occasions such as birthdays are especially difficult because there is always a cake involved in the celebration. Everyone loves cake. Even if you don’t drink or use drugs, cake is harmless for most healthy people, unless you can’t have sweets.

I always get the same comments from friends and relatives. “It’s only one piece of cake, it won’t kill you.” I wish people would be more understanding and supportive. If I had a drinking or drug problem I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t offer just one drink or one puff of a cigarette.

So what do I do when I’m confronted with this situation? First off, I say thank you but no thank you. If they then offer to pack up a piece of cake for me to take home, I again tell them no thank you and tell them I can’t have sweets. This usually works with most people and then they get the point.

Shine On

An Apple A Day

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“An apple a day will keep anyone away,
if thrown hard enough.”
Author Unknown

Apple A Day

The old proverb an apple a day helps keep the doctor away, just got a boost from science. A large Dutch study has found that eating apples and pears is associated with a lower risk of stroke.

The findings counter the widespread belief that the most healthful fruits and vegetables are those that come in deep, rich colors inside and out.

The dark green of spinach and deep red of raspberries are produced by phytochemicals that are associated with better heart health and lower rates of cancer, prompting the common advice to “eat your colors”. Apples and pears, although red, light green or yellow on the outside, are typically considered “white” fruits because the inside of the fruit, which represents the largest edible portion, is white.

Researchers in the Netherlands decided to track fruit and vegetable intake based on the color of the largest edible portion of the food. The categories were green (broccoli, kale, spinach and lettuce), orange/yellow (oranges, carrots and peaches), red/purple (cherries, grapes, beets and tomatoes) and white (apples, pears, bananas and cauliflower).

The investigators analyzed data collected from 20,069 men and women who took part in the Dutch Morgen study, which stands for Monitoring Project on Risk Factors and Chronic Diseases. All the participants, ages 20 to 65, were healthy and free of cardiovascular disease at the start. The study subjects filled out food questionnaires detailing their eating habits.

During the next 10 years, the investigators documented 233 strokes among the study participants. There was no relationship between stroke risk and consumption of any of the brightly colored fruits and vegetables. However, people who consumed at least 171 grams of white produce daily — equal to about one medium to large apple — had a 52 percent lower risk of stroke than those who ate less than 78 grams of white fruit a day. On average, every 25 grams of white fruit eaten daily was associated with a 9 percent lower risk for stroke.

Why apples and pears might reduce stroke risk isn’t known, though both fruits are rich sources of dietary fiber, which is associated with lowering blood pressure. Both fruits also contain a number of nutrients and phytochemicals, including the flavonol quercetin, which may have anti-inflammatory properties.

Whatever the reasons, it can’t hurt to have just one apple a day.

Shine On

Legacy of Harper Lee

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“I never expected any sort of success with
‘Mockingbird’ . . . I sort of hoped someone
would like it enough to give me encouragement.”
Harper Lee

At the beginning of January I read a book that was on my 100 books to read list. I also read this book because I had watched the movie when I was a young girl and it left an everlasting impression on me. That book and movie was To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Mockingbird, a precocious child’s-eye view of race, justice and the mysterious ways of Southern life, was a mammoth critical and commercial hit when published in the summer of 1960. It sold 500,000 copies in its first year of publication, won the Pulitzer Prize and became an indelible part of American culture.

Shortly after reading Mockingbird, I wrote a post on January 13th Read Around the World. At the time of my post, the world had no idea that Harper Lee had written a second novel. After the world heard the news about her new second novel, Go Set A Watchman which was released yesterday, all of us avid readers cannot wait to get our hands on this book. The book that was written in 1957 and is the parent book to, To Kill A Mockingbird.

If Lee’s new book doesn’t live up to the old one, then we can choose which one we prefer. All of us bloggers, as writers, can only dream of having the same impact with our readers that Harper Lee has had on the world. The impact of her novel which moved so many of us is the enduring legacy of Harper Lee.

Shine On

The Bumblebee Decline

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“The bee collects honey from flowers
in such a way as to do the least damage or
destruction to them, and he leaves them whole,
undamaged and fresh, just as he found them.”
Saint Francis de Sales

bumblebee

This year, according to a new study in the Journal of Science it appears climate change has now effected the population of bumblebees.

Due to climate change the pollination levels of some plants have dropped by up to 50 percent in the last two decades. The experts believe that the problem is connected to the declining populations of bumblebees and other pollinators.

This trend could have serious implications for agriculture and the overall food output of the planet. As the planet warms, most animals expand their range northward including species of bees. But not the bumblebee, they’re failing to migrate, and their territories in the southern range have been shrinking at an alarming rate.

“The result is dramatic losses of bumblebee species from the hottest areas across two continents,” Professor Kerr has added. “The bumblebee had evolved under cool conditions, and unlike other species, colonies didn’t expand into more northern ranges.”

The good news is that Professor Kerr believes that they can help bumblebees by establishing new colonies up north, and spread them into more areas in other continents.

Something needs to be done soon. The increasingly frequent weather extremes is affecting every living thing on Earth. The threats linked to climate change are already being felt by the bumblebee decline.

Shine On

Wimbledon Winners

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“If you can meet with triumph and disaster and
treat those two impostors just the same.”
Rudyard Kipling

Wimbledon Djokovic Wimbledon Williams

Every year I watch the Wimbledon Championships. This year, as usual, the games were outstanding. My two favorite players defeated their opponents in two exciting matches. Novak Djokovic won his 3rd Wimbledon while Serena Williams won her 6th Wimbledon title.

Serena is headed to the US Open Women’s Finals in September. If she wins that title, she will have broken the woman’s grand slam record of all time wins since 1988. At 33 years old Serena is not only a great American sport story but she is the best female athlete in the world right now.

Congratulations Serena and Novak and to all the Wimbledon winners.

Shine On