Sexism

Despite the progress in women's rights, girls growing up in the UK still face sexism at school, university, online.

A GirlGuiding UK survey in 2014 found that more than a third of girls over seven had been made to feel stupid because of their gender, nearly two thirds of young women reported having been sexually harassed, and almost all felt they were judged on their looks rather than their ability. Tachers write online about trends in the classroom where girls are ridiculed by boys for speaking. A recent National Union of Students survey about the 'lad culture' now pervading universities found that more than a third of women had faced unwanted remarks about their appearance, just under a third reported gender-based verbal harassment and 37% siad they'd had ynwanted sexual advances.Online harassment is overwhelmingly directed at women, with death and rape threats.

Why is this happening and why does it seem to be getting worse? It may be that the accessibility of pornography, viewed for the first time by boys at an average age of 11, is changing the way they see their female peers. Studies show that such films can increase misogyny and sexism in the men who watch them. Images that once would have been 'top shelf' now surround us in advertising and the music industry.

The HeforShe campaign, fronted by Emma Watson, is a 'solidarity movement for gender equality'. It is important to support girls in the family but it is equally important to bring boys up well too. Talk about the issue and help them understand sexism  and ways to fight back.

Author: Zoe Williams

• Share stories of great women in history and in your family. Talk about how their bravery, imagination and resilience changed their lives and others.
• Avoid labels and limiting language that say all boys or girls behave in a certain way, whether negative or positive. (e.g. 'girls don't do maths' or 'girls are tidier than boys'.)
• Encourage and support them to question and challenge sexist language among their friends or in the media - show them the brilliant viral video #LikeAGirl on YouTube.
• Avoid commenting on looks and clothes, as people often do with little girls. Focus instead on appreciating their inner qualities, such as kindness, creativity or knowing their own mind.
• Build a community of strong role models around them of women, and men, who boost their self-esteem by seeing them as capable, lovable people they want to spend time with.

Author: Judy Reith, author and parenting expert

Feature in Good Housekeeping March 2015

Blood Pressure Control

While there are many medications to help control blood pressure probems, there are also some drug-free ideas which may help.

• Take up Tai Chi. In a review of 26 studies, 85% found it helped reduce blood pressure.
• Eat bananas, vegetables, nuts and seeds to boost your potassium and magnesium intake, and cut back on salt.
• Eat beetroot - several studies have shown that it promotes levels of nitric oxide in the blood and lowers blood pressure.

A Fairer Britain

Our social welfare, health services, benefits system, etc., are facing increasing problems. Here are some of the solutions being suggested. [I am not specifically recommending these policies, but they are points to consider when re-thinking how the welfare state could or should be revised.]

A new book (A Time For Choosing: Free Enterprise in Twenty-First Century Britain by Kwasi Kwarteng, Palgrave Macmillan 2015) sets out a "radical" free market agenda, pulling together policy ideas from the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs and backed by the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank. It argues for a more radical shrinking of the welfare state to return it to the contributory principle envisioned by its founder Sir William Beveridge - that you only get out what you have paid in. Here are some of the points and proposals made in the book.

• Welfare is expensive - over £90bn for working-age benefits alone - because too many people are eligible. The main out-of-work benefit (JobSeekers Allowance) is "fairly stingy for those who have contributed to the tax system for years and find themselves out of work for the first time".
• Pay benefits as a loan to give "an additional incentive to find work rather than allow the debt to build up". Young people who have not yet paid national insurance contributions for a certain period (say five years) could receive their unemployment benefit in the form of a repayable loan, receiving the same amount of cash as now, but paying back the loan once in work. Someone out of work for all seven years between the ages of 18 and 25 would build up a loan debt of £20,475 - less than many tuition fees loans.
• Scrap maternity and paternity pay to ease the burden on business. Instead, new parents would get a flat rate "baby bonus" paid directly by central government.
• Scrap some government departments.
• Tax raising powers for local authorities.
• A regional minimum wage.
• Allowing free schools to generate a profit.
• Encourage banks to use a common IT system allowing "portable" bank accounts.
• Scrap the BBC licence fee.

END

Truth About Fat

Some basic facts:

• Fats in the mouth hold on to flavour molecules and release flavours slowly (more pleasant to eat).
• When you eat fat, within 1/2 second of fat on tongue, the brain detects fat in the mouth, and there is increased activity in the brain's pleasure centres. We have an inbuilt urge to seek out fat.
• Normal amount of fat is c. 23% body fat. Abdominal fat is the most dangerous.
• In a healthy diet around one third of calories should come from fats.
• 95% of fat eaten goes into the blood - our bodies are built to do this.
• Body fat cushions internal organs from injury, cushions the buttocks,  and is a fat store in the event of lack of food.
• Bodies make fat from sugar and carbohydrates.
• The more we eat, the bigger each of our fat cells get - no other cell type in the body does this.
• Hard fats are more saturated, which leads to higher levels of blood cholesterol.
• Not all saturated fats are the same - each food has different combinations. Some may increase risk of diabetes, while others lower it. Dairy foods seem to be beneficial and processed meats (pies, bacon, suasages) bad for health.
• Unsaturated fats (e.g. olive and rapeseed oils) can lower blood cholesterol and protect against heart disease.
• Omega 3 oil helps build the cells of the body and is needed by the brain. The best sources are oily fish as they store the oil in their flesh: try to eat at least one portion of salmon, sardines or mackerel a week. Other fish (like cod) store the oil in their liver - which is why it is sold as cod liver oil.
• Tiny algae in seawater contain omega 3 oil, but several tons are needed for a few tablespoons of oil. It may be possible to grow and harvest this in the future, not just for humans but also to farm animals to give meat and milk higher in omega 3 oil.
• Frying in fat gives a crispy outside and fluffy inside, as water comes off the surface it crisps up, while the inside stays moist.

When walking, 64% of energy comes from fat, the rest from carbohydrates. Fat burn stops as soon as you stop walking. You can help the body to continue burning fat for longer after exercise if you exercise very hard for 2 mins, then rest for 1 min, repeat 7 times in total.

Four volunteers took part in a controlled study for the programme.

•  Beforehand a blood sample was taken after a meal (a different meal for each volunteer), which was after a 12 hour fast. The meals were: (a) burger and chips, (b) salmon and avocado, (c) a pizza and (d) a bowl of nuts. When the plasma was separated from the rest of the blood it was cloudy, indicating the presence of fat - the same level for all 4 volunteers. 95% of fat eaten goes into the blood - our bodies are built to do this.
• For 7 days all 4 volunteers then ate no fats (no food containing more than 1% fat).
• They ate more carbohydrates, experienced problems with digestion, bloating and wind, felt hungry and found food uninteresting.
• At the end of the 7 days everyone was more fatigued, tired, had less energy. They were also more attracted to fatty food (measured by an eye-tracker experiment).

BBC1 documentary on 2 April 2015

Clingfilm Tips

Clingfilm is useful but is not the easiest product to handle; it does not roll out properly, is hard to tear or won't even unroll at all and just starts to tear.

1.  Store plastic wrap in the fridge and it will handle far better.
2.  If you have crumpled piece you cannot unstick, put in the the freezer for just ten minutes and it will come undone

From Classic Household Hints by Susan Waggoner via Ruby's Musings blog.