Posted by
Kate W
on
Thursday, May 31st, 2012
As I’ve mentioned in the past, as a young teenager I decided to be a vegetarian. It wasn’t because I didn’t like meat; on the contrary. I was born in Texas, where they practically serve steaks to newborn babies in the hospital nursery. I love meat. But I also love animals, and at age thirteen I couldn’t reconcile my love of all things fluffy and feathered with my craving for fried chicken. My family was ill-equipped to deal with this dietary change. They are all unabashed meat eaters. My stepdad would get genuinely puzzled when I’d turn down a salad festooned liberally with bacon bits, because “salad is vegetarian, right?” He clearly hadn’t heard that’s a great way to ruin diet food.
Image From: savorysweetlife.com
Continue reading…
Posted by
Kate W
on
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
It is no secret that this country is in the middle of a very real obesity epidemic. This can be attributed to so many factors. Portion sizes have gotten large, and as a result we eat more. The proliferation of technology makes it very easy for us to stay at home and forego exercise. Fast food restaurants are everywhere you turn, and they can be very easy to turn to for a quick lunch or dinner when you’re tired from working all day. Many foods are processed with hidden chemicals and preservatives and sugars, and we still don’t know the full extent of what these can do to the human body. And in low-income areas, people without transportation of their own don’t often live close enough to a grocery store to have reliable access to fresh meat and produce.
Image From: toyhop.org
Continue reading…
Posted by
Kate W
on
Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
My husband’s nose bleeds like a faucet. It’s the weirdest thing. Sometimes we’re just hanging out, having a conversation, and the floodgates open up. It used to scare me a little. I was afraid there was something seriously wrong with him. But he was so casual about them, and explained they had been happening his whole life, so eventually I grew rather used to them. Though he’s certainly had some other medical issues (including lupus), no doctor has ever believed the nosebleeds were a symptom of something more sinister. The nosebleeds don’t seem to correlate with any lupus flares either. So, aside from the fact that they are inconvenient and expensive (we have had to throw away innumerable bloodstained pillowcases) the nosebleeds haven’t really affected our lives.
Image From: intheblood-movie.com
Continue reading…
Posted by
Kate W
on
Monday, May 28th, 2012
When you have a new baby, sleep becomes such a precious commodity. In the first several weeks, they need to eat every few hours, and since they’re not exactly tall enough or mobile enough to open the fridge, at least one parent needs to be awake to facilitate the eating process. I’m lucky enough that at the age of 7 months, my daughter is now sleeping pretty regularly through the night, which does not happen for all parents; unfortunately, her idea of for the night means 5:30pm to about 4am. Four in the morning is not a great time for me; it’s too late to still be awake, but too early to get up. I am finally ready to sleep, but she just wants to party.
Image From: inhabitots.com
Continue reading…
Posted by
Kate W
on
Friday, May 25th, 2012
We have finally reached the conclusion of our week devoted the wonderful world of B vitamins. Today we’ll be discussing vitamins B7 and B9. Were you looking forward to learning all about B12? Don’t worry; we already covered it last week as a little sneak preview of things to come.
Vitamin B7 is also known as biotin and, strangely enough vitamin H; it is still firmly in the B family though. Like other B vitamins it is water soluble which has its advantages and disadvantages. It flushes out of the system as a matter of course, so you do need to ingest it constantly in order to avoid deficiency. However, because of the lack of buildup in your system, it won’t cause toxicity if you ingest more than the recommended amount.
Image From: wholefoodsmarket.com
Continue reading…
Posted by
Kate W
on
Thursday, May 24th, 2012
Our weeklong exploration of B vitamins continues! Because B vitamins are so plentiful, we can’t just cover one a day (unless they finally invented that eight-day week I so desperately need), so today, you get double the fun as we talk about vitamins B5 and B6.
Vitamin B5 (also known as pantothenic acid) is known as the anti-stress vitamin. This is in large part because vitamin B regulates several hormones including cortisol, which is often present in the body during times of heightened emotional and physical stress. While there isn’t enough clinical proof to suggest vitamin B5 supplements should be taken in place of an anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication, it may help you keep your physical reactions to stress at bay.
Image From: acozykitchen.com
Continue reading…
Posted by
Kate W
on
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012
We continue our weeklong tribute to the mighty B vitamin. Today’s shining star: Vitamin B3 (also known as niacin).
Image From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredandkate/
I actually have a little familiarity with niacin, and for once, it’s not because of my husband’s devotion to his B vitamin regimen. As long as I can remember, my dad has always had cold hands and feet. He liked to put his icy hands on my neck when I was a little girl to make me shriek and giggle. While they got remarkably cold, we lived in Florida, so it didn’t bother him that much. But when he moved to New York a few years ago, suddenly his poor circulation wasn’t such a funny joke. My dad has always been a tremendous athlete; he’s in his sixties, and he runs triathlons (despite the risk of injury) and just two years ago, was a solo rider in a 148-mile bike race. Winter came, and while he bundled up to go running, he found it was taking a very long time for feeling to return to his hands and feet, and he was often on the verge of getting frostbite before he even realized he was cold. After several appointments with his physician, he discovered he had Raynaud’s disease.
Continue reading…
Posted by
Kate W
on
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
This week, we’re talking about the wonderful world of B vitamins. You may wonder, if there is only one vitamin A and one vitamin C, why are there eight B vitamins? The B vitamins were actually once thought of as a single vitamin, but over time, research showed that though they often coexist in the same foods, they are actually chemically distinct vitamins. Thus, you can get supplements in the individual vitamin forms (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12), or you can get them all combined in one form, often referred to as vitamin b complex. Today, we shine the spotlight on Vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin.
Image From: jeanetteshealthyliving.com
Continue reading…
Posted by
Kate W
on
Monday, May 21st, 2012
Last week we extolled the virtues of Vitamin B12. This week, we are going to shine a light on some of the other vitamins of the B variety. I should note that I have a huge affinity for B vitamins because they impact my life very directly. My husband has lupus and (in conjunction with hydroxychloroquine) he keeps it relatively well-managed with a vitamin regimen that includes plenty of B vitamins. They really make a tremendous difference in his energy level, and allow him to leave a much fuller life than he had for the initial years surrounding the onset and diagnosis of his disease. Because I like to be orderly, I’ll be kicking off this week’s Vitamin B extravaganza with Vitamin B1.
Image From: mztasty.blogspot.com
Continue reading…
Posted by
Kate W
on
Friday, May 18th, 2012
When I was a kid, I used to sort of like being sick. It was nice to have a day off from school where I could lounge around in my pajamas and watch The Price Is Right and daytime soaps and eat popsicles to soothe my sore throat. In high school, I got such a terrible case of mono that I missed four months of school, and to be honest, I didn’t really mind. I was a relatively bright kid, so I was usually six chapters ahead of everyone else in the textbook anyway. It barely took me any time to make up my schoolwork after. Granted, my grasp of anything math-related is still pretty fuzzy, and I was so heavily medicated that the plotlines of the soap operas were too difficult to really grasp, but it was a nice vacation.
Image From: beautyequation.com
Continue reading…
0