Boardash: September 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The You Docs for Thursday October 1, 2009

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The You Docs
For You
Thursday October 1, 2009

Will Your Marriage Last? Check Your Facebook Photos
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Will Your Marriage Last? Check Your Facebook Photos
By Michael Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D.

Your Facebook photos (and your spouse's!) may say more about your future than you think. Recent research suggests that the more intensely you're smiling in photos (and there is a scientific way to measure smile intensity), the less likely you are to get divorced. Researchers first looked at yearbook photos, then at a range of photos throughout people's lives (even reaching back to age 10), and found the same link.

There's no heavy-duty neuroscience behind the association yet, but researchers suspect that this "positive emotionality," as they call it, leads people to be more open to social relationships, seek environments more conducive to happy marriages, and be better able to "undo" negative emotions.

So what does this have to do with your health? Well, there's good evidence that divorce can mess with your health. People who've been divorced have more chronic health conditions, more mobility limitations and say their health is worse than continuously married people do. Plus, they have more symptoms of depression. Of course, an unhappy marriage can bring down your health, too. Best thing is to get it right the first time, or to work hard at the marriage you have to make it the best you can. Good health isn't just about the food you eat; being emotionally well-fed is essential, too.

========

The YOU Docs, Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, are authors of "YOU: The Owner's Manual." Want more? See "The Dr. Oz Show" on TV (check local listings). To submit questions, go to www.RealAge.com. (c) 2009 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Read more about By Michael Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D. at ArcaMax.com.

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Impressions Of Norway

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For You
Thursday October 1, 2009

Impressions Of Norway
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Impressions Of Norway

Brian MacDonald

I was asked recently what my impressions of Norway were following a short cruise to the fjords.

Norway ranks highly on our list of annual cruising choices and we have been going there for more years than I care to remember. My impressions from our last cruise are the same as on all past visits to this and other parts of Scandinavia - the country is spotlessly clean, most of the people speak English and are mainly polite and courteous. There will always be exceptions of course but, in the main, that has been my experience.

Norway has a population of around 4,500,000 and occupies an area of around 125,000 square miles. This compares with, say, Greater London which has a population of around 7,000,000 and occupies just 600 square miles. You can’t really compare the two except in some respects.

For example, why is it that Norway’s streets and pavements are so clean when there are so few people to cover such a large area when London’s streets (and many other places) are so dirty, graffiti-ridden and litter-strewn when there are so many folk around and employed to keep it clean?

One of the answers to this question must have something to do with self-respect, respect for others and respect for one’s surroundings. Other factors will undoubtedly be at play, but respect has much to do with it I am sure.

Secondly, head for head, how many of us can converse with a foreigner in their own language? Very few I fear and, in truth, I am no exception.

The answer can only lie with the quality of education, a sadly failing system in this country after so many governments have tinkered with it over the years. How many British ten-year olds can converse fluently with, for example, a French visitor in his/her own language? Very few indeed. But on a visit to one Norwegian port and passing a junior school (without the need for fences against paedophiles and others peddling drugs and knives, by the way), a ten-year old schoolboy held a fluent conversation with me in perfect English.

As for politeness, I fear we have fallen way behind some of our Norwegian cousins for whom courtesy seems a virtue to be cherished. Rude drivers, parking wardens (now called Civil Enforcement Officers!), shop assistants, officials and a multitude of others daily exhibit tendencies that would not have been tolerated in my youth, and I am in no way a Methuselah yet!

I don’t know what the answers are to my own questions and there will be many, many more than I’ve mentioned here. Nonetheless, some of the answers must lie with respect and education and, that very unused word these days, discipline.

This is not a whinge but a comment in response to the question put to me yesterday. But I have to say that the comparison makes me very sad nonetheless.

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Pilots' Wisdom

1. Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.

2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.

3. Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.

4. It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.

5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. Because when it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.

7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided with the sky.

8. A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great' landing is one after which they can use the plane again.

9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

10. You know you've landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.

11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice-versa.

12. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.

13. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.

14. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of take offs you've made.

15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.

16. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.

17. Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.

18. If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger compartment, things are not at all as they should be.

19. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has yet to lose.

20. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, experience usually comes from bad judgment.

21. It's always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible.

22. Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.

23. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's not subject to repeal.

24. The four most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, runway behind you, gas back at the airport, and a tenth of a second ago.

25. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. There are, however, no old, bold pilots.

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Read Aloud

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"What does she read?" asks Morris.

"My life insurance policy."

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The Cooking Corner

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The Cooking Corner

For You
Thursday October 1, 2009

Heaping Helpings
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Match the perfect wine with your recipes using the ArcaMax Wine Pairing guide.

The ingredients, they are a-changin': Panda Express' new "Wok Smart" dishes are all 250 calories or fewer per serving. Photo by John Gibbins.

Heaping Helpings

By Peter Rowe

A little knowledge can be a painful thing. One August night, April McCafferty stopped at McDonald's for a favorite snack, French fries dipped in Ranch dressing.

Unless you live in a cave -- and McCafferty lives above ground in Southern California -- you know that fries aren't health food. This night, though, she learned a horrifying fact. That ranch packet? It oozed with 30 percent more fat than the fries.

"I'm never eating that again!" she said.

Here's another shocker: that disturbing fact didn't come from an anti-fast food crusader. Instead, it came from McDonald's. Since July 1, state law has required restaurant chains to provide basic nutritional information -- calorie, carbohydrate, saturated fat and sodium contents -- on their food and drink.

Overnight, diners were inundated with data and surprises. For instance, the California Pizza Kitchen's Waldorf Chicken Salad packs more calories (1,644) than seven slices of its Sweet & Spicy Italian Sausage Pizza (1,463).

And now we know why dieticians despair of the Double Guacamole Bacon Burger at Carl's Jr. The former recommend adults consume around 2,000 calories a day, with 600 of those units coming from fat. The latter wobbles along with 1,090 calories, 670 from fat.

Prompted by rising rates of obesity and diabetes, menu-labeling laws are popping up across the country. In fact, California's regulations are duplicated by a proposed national law, the Labeling Education and Nutrition Act (LEAN). In the near future, all American diners may be wiser and, like April McCafferty, sadder.

But we need to learn the nutritional facts of life, insisted Dr. Eric Braverman, for our own good.

"Clearly," said Braverman, an assistant professor at New York's Cornell Weill Medical College and author of "The Younger (Thinner) You Diet," "smoking education has worked. There is no reason to believe that sugar, salt and fat education won't work."

Many restaurants weren't in the mood for this education. Between spring 2008 and spring 2009, business fell 2.6 percent nationwide, reported NPD Group, a firm that tracks dining trends. In this difficult economy, menu labeling was as popular as an e. coli outbreak.

"All the restaurants were fighting it, fighting it, fighting it," said Alyson Mar, lead dietician for FoodCalc, a San Francisco-based consultant on nutritional analysis and labeling issues.

The issue, though, wouldn't go away. New York City passed a menu-labeling law in 2006; dozens of jurisdictions, from Chicago to Los Angeles County, crafted similar laws. Last year, the California Restaurant Association stopped fighting and backed a menu-labeling bill that would cover the entire state, trumping all local ordinances.

Industry support meant industry input. The association successfully pushed to limit the law to chains with 20 or more restaurants in the state. Rubio's qualifies. Brochures in its San Diego-area store reveal the signature fish taco's calories (270), carbohydrates (29 grams), sodium (420 milligrams) and saturated fat content (2 grams).

But at the adjacent Stone Oven, an Ohio-based sandwich and soup chain with few California outlets, diners receive no info on the Santa Fe Hot Ham Sandwich.

Even at places covered by the law, though, finding data can be a chore. By January 2011, restaurants will be required to post dietary information on menus or menu boards. For now, though, written material can be offered anywhere on the premises. Chipotle has double-sided handouts in a box near the entrance; Pei Wei's four-page sheet is behind the counter; California Pizza Kitchen includes calorie counts on the printed menu.

Jack in the Box offers an exhaustive 24-page guide by the counter. At some locations, including the Jack on La Mesa's Jackson Drive, the San Diego-based chain is experimenting with drive-up menu boards highlighting "Healthy Dining" choices. (The chicken teriyaki bowl, say, with 580 calories and 1 gram of saturated fat.)

On a recent afternoon, Ashley Zufelt didn't notice the new display, even though her order -- a mango smoothie, 450 calories and 0 grams of saturated fat -- was among the recommended items.

Colleen Hackner did see the sign, although she was unimpressed: "I just don't believe that they are much healthier."

She ordered a kid's burger with cheese. Plain.

"No toppings," Hackner said. "It's the condiments that kill you."

Will the truth, nutritional variety, set us free from heart disease, hypertension, and our addiction to sugar and fat? Depends on whom you ask.

"Overall," said Mar, FoodCalc's dietician, "this hasn't changed ordinary dining habits that much."

Braverman, the New York physician, insisted these laws will change our habits, even if we already understand that celery sticks are healthier than triple-bacon cheeseburgers. We could all use a nudge in the right direction, he maintained.

"The reminder is frequently the tipping point," Braverman said.

Reina Kluge of San Carlos, Calif., agreed. As the mother of an 8-year-old, she's paying more attention to nutrition. "When you want something," she said, "and you see how many calories it is, you might change your mind about it."

Especially when those calories come as a surprise, good or bad. Pei Wei's Japanese chicken teriyaki bowl looks like a weight-watcher's delight, at 440 calories per serving. But each bowl contains two servings, or the caloric equivalent of a Jumbo Jack and a small order of fries.

Corner Bakery Cafe touts the fact that Health magazine listed it among the nation's 10 healthiest "quick serve chains." But its frozen mango lemonade has more calories than two pints of Guinness.

Some chains, though, are slimming down. Panda Express has a new lineup of low-calorie items, Wok Smart. Romano's Macaroni Grill re-invented several old favorites for its new Italian Mediterranean menu. The scallops and spinach salad once contained 1,270 calories and 27 grams of saturated fat; now, it is a svelte 390 and 4.

And this may be just the beginning. Braverman predicted that diners will soon be informed about dyes and pesticides used in foods, plus any trace amounts of toxins.

We'll take the tuna salad on rye, hold the mercury.

----

Peter Rowe writes about food for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

----

COPYRIGHT 2009 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

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ArcaMax Gardening Daily Tips for Thursday October 1, 2009

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Thursday October 1, 2009

Daylily (Hemerocallis x)
Q&A: Flowers for Moon Garden
Q&A: Companions for Container Roses
Tip: Dig and Store Caladiums
Send in Your Fall Baby Photos
Reader Photos

Daylily (Hemerocallis x)

Today's Featured Plant
Daylily (Hemerocallis x)

Read the full profile of this plant at ArcaMax.com.

Interested in reading about other plants? Search through hundreds of plant profiles and helpful articles by keyword.

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Q&A: Flowers for Moon Garden

Question: I would like to start a moon garden and am having a hard time finding information. Can you recommend a garden design and some night-blooming plants? Our yard is small, so space is a factor. In addition to night blooming plants, could you also recommend some white plants?

Answer: Generally, it's good to mix annuals and perennials, since annuals blossom all season long if deadheaded regularly, and perennials tend to have a shorter period of time when they are in peak bloom. Since many night-flowering plants are very fragrant when evening sets in, plant them where you are most likely to catch their scent, such as under a window, or next to a garden bench or walkway. Some evening bloomers include: moonflower vine, night blooming jasmine, evening primrose, nicotiana, and night phlox. Some lovely perennial choices for you include: Phlox paniculata 'David' or Mt. Fuji', Echinacea purpurea 'White Lustre' or 'White Swan', delphinium 'Galahad', tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, iris, liatris, Achillea 'Snowsport', candytuft "Snowflake', lilium 'Snow Trumpet', Monarda didyma 'Snow White', Queen Anne's Lace, astilbe, Shasta daisy, white Thalictrum (meadow rue), and Veronica speedwell 'Alba'. Some rugosa roses have white flowers. Annuals include: Moonshadow sunflower, white impatiens, French Vanilla Marigold, alyssum, White Sonata cosmos, Misty White nigella, Pearly Gates morning glory, German statice, helichrysum, white geranium. Good luck and have fun designing your white garden. I hope it's near the house so you can appreciate its nighttime glow more easily.

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Q&A: Companions for Container Roses

Question: I have several rose bushes in individual barrels, and to accent the roses I planted mums, thyme, rosemary, succulents, and/or ground cover vinca around the bases of the shrubs. Are these going to interfere the growth of the roses?

Answer: The companion plants you've chosen for your roses should be quite happy where you've planted them. The best plant companions are those with similar cultural needs. In the case of your roses, they should thrive in full sunshine, in rich, moist soil. The plants you've chosen do not have invasive root systems and should not interfere with the root systems of your roses.

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Tip: Dig and Store Caladiums

In most areas, dig and store caladiums for winter. Let leaves die, dig tubers, let dry in the shade, and store, not touching each other, in an onion mesh bag filled with dry peat moss in a 60F room.

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