Making the switch to a more plant-based diet? You need to make sure you get the following essential nutrients.
Iron: wholegrains, quinoa, nuts, seeds, beans, chickpeas, lentils, leafy green vegetables, dried apricots and egg yolk.
Vitamin B12: a supplement of B12 or B12-fortified non-dairy milk alternatives.
Calcium: non-dairy milk or yoghurt alternative with added calcium; tofu made with calcium sulphate (check the label); chickpeas, beans, kale, broccoli and almonds.
Iodine: multivitamin and mineral supplement containing 150 micrograms of iodine.
Best plant proteins
Chickpeas: contain about 9g in half a can, plus significant amounts of iron, magnesium and a type of fibre that feeds the 'good' microbes in the gut.
Chia and hemp seeds: unlike other seeds, they contain all eight essential amino acids, making them 'complete' proteins. They are also excellent sources of alpha-linolenic acid, a type of omega-3 fat.
Tofu and tempeh: made from soya bean curd, both are complete proteins and are rich in isoflavones, which have strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
Quinoa and buckwheat: contain one and a half times more protein than pasta or rice and are good sources of iron and zinc, both important for the immune system.
Edamame beans: these are young soya beans and excellent sources of protein and fibre, as well as phytochemicals that help lower blood cholesterol levels.
Source: Feature in Good Housekeeping, September 2018 and February 2019.
Sunday, 31 March 2019
Sunday, 17 March 2019
What Does Your Waste Become?
Recycling Technologies Ltd (Swindon)
Waste materials used: all waste plastics including black plastic, plastic wrappers, plastic bags, crisp packets and yoghurt pots (even with food residue present).
Method: Pyrolysis (where waste plastics are heated without oxygen and reduced down to their constituent molecules of oils and waxes, ready to be processed back into useful products, including plastics, lubricants or indeed fuels).
https://recyclingtechnologies.co.uk/
MacRebur: the Plastic Road Company
Waste materials used: a mix of waste plastics.
Method: The waste plastics are ground into pellets and added to traditional road materials asphalt and bitumen. In addition to reducing the cost of road surface materials, the roads themselves last longer. Road surfaces have been created for lorry parks, airport runways and council roads.
https://www.macrebur.com/
Alternatives to Plastics
Corn Starch Biocompostables
Method: Corn starch is converted into a polymer to produce materials that have a plastic-like feel (sometimes called PLA plastics) and are moulded in the same way as plastics.
Disposal: PLA plastics cannot be recycled in landfill (which are created with an impervious layer below and above to prevent biodegrading and avoid production of methane) or composting in local authority green waste methods as they degrade slowly. (PLA plastics must be kept separate from the usual waste recycling streams to avoid contaminating those streams.) They may break down in three months in an industrial composting facility heated to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and fed a steady diet of digestive microbes.
Environmental impact: Typically made from genetically modified corn and may use land that could be used for food crops.
END
Waste materials used: all waste plastics including black plastic, plastic wrappers, plastic bags, crisp packets and yoghurt pots (even with food residue present).
Method: Pyrolysis (where waste plastics are heated without oxygen and reduced down to their constituent molecules of oils and waxes, ready to be processed back into useful products, including plastics, lubricants or indeed fuels).
https://recyclingtechnologies.co.uk/
MacRebur: the Plastic Road Company
Waste materials used: a mix of waste plastics.
Method: The waste plastics are ground into pellets and added to traditional road materials asphalt and bitumen. In addition to reducing the cost of road surface materials, the roads themselves last longer. Road surfaces have been created for lorry parks, airport runways and council roads.
https://www.macrebur.com/
Alternatives to Plastics
Corn Starch Biocompostables
Method: Corn starch is converted into a polymer to produce materials that have a plastic-like feel (sometimes called PLA plastics) and are moulded in the same way as plastics.
Disposal: PLA plastics cannot be recycled in landfill (which are created with an impervious layer below and above to prevent biodegrading and avoid production of methane) or composting in local authority green waste methods as they degrade slowly. (PLA plastics must be kept separate from the usual waste recycling streams to avoid contaminating those streams.) They may break down in three months in an industrial composting facility heated to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and fed a steady diet of digestive microbes.
Environmental impact: Typically made from genetically modified corn and may use land that could be used for food crops.
END
Sunday, 24 February 2019
Solving Relationship Problems
Rows are not the right way to resolve conflicts - whether this is in a relationship, or work-based situation. You end up with 'winners' and 'losers' when you need more understanding of the other person's viewpoint in order to resolve the situation. This approach is used in counselling.
·
Decide who will be listener and who talks.
Storyteller starts ‘I would like to tell
you about …’
·
Listener repeats storyteller’s words as closely
as possible, beginning with ‘What I hear
you saying is …’ without asking questions, judging or changing anything
he/she has heard.
·
Storyteller adds further descriptions of their
emotions, without going off at a tangent. At each stage listener repeats the
words, ending with ‘Was that what you
said?’ until storyteller has finished.
·
Listener summarizes the whole story beginning
with ‘The essence of what I’ve heard you
say is …’ and ending with ‘Is this a
good enough summary?’
·
Listener doesn’t have to agree, but should try
to see through storyteller’s eyes, acknowledging they have understood by saying
‘When I see things from your perspective,
I understand that …’
·
Listener empathizes with storyteller ‘I imagine this makes you feel ...’ and
using 2 or 3 words that describe storyteller’s feelings. Storyteller adds any
feelings not mentioned.
·
Both partners explain what each appreciates most
about the other. Then the process is reversed on the same theme, with
storyteller becoming the listener and vice versa.
Sunday, 10 February 2019
Folic Acid
Folate is one of the B vitamins. It is found in three forms: folic acid, folacin and vitamin B9.
Folates occur naturally in many foods, with dark green vegetables a good source.
Folic acid is essential for the body to make DNA, RNA and metabolise amino acids, which are required for cell division. Supplements are medically prescribed for the following reasons.
Low levels in early pregnancy are believed to be the cause of more than half of babies born with neural tube defects. Women may take supplements and more than 80 countries fortify certain foods with folic acid as a precautionary measure.
Folic acid deficiency can cause anaemia. In children this may develop within one month of inadequate dietary intake.
Long term supplementation is associated with some reduction in the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease. In 2018 it was reported that a new study suggested that a daily 800 microgram dose may significantly reduce the risk of stroke in people with high blood pressure.
Sources: Various
Folates occur naturally in many foods, with dark green vegetables a good source.
Low levels in early pregnancy are believed to be the cause of more than half of babies born with neural tube defects. Women may take supplements and more than 80 countries fortify certain foods with folic acid as a precautionary measure.
Folic acid deficiency can cause anaemia. In children this may develop within one month of inadequate dietary intake.
Long term supplementation is associated with some reduction in the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease. In 2018 it was reported that a new study suggested that a daily 800 microgram dose may significantly reduce the risk of stroke in people with high blood pressure.
Sources: Various
Friday, 8 February 2019
Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?
Do good lives have to cost the earth?
Edited by Andrew Simms and Joe Smith. Constable. (ISBN: 978-1-84529-643-8)
Removal of ritual and regular partying from Western culture in the last 200 years may be a reason for our cultural boredom, anxiety and melancholy. Pleasure and fun may be basic needs, but don't have to cost a lot.
Sport is a form of organised, complex play. Early learning is done through play. But play totally oriented to outcomes (winning, losing) is no longer a game. The influence of money and power on sport is bad. Some sports will go - motorsport, alpine sports. [My note: Becomes ritualized tribal warfare?]
Currently we place too high a value on money, possessions, appearances (physical and social) and fame.
The present social security system is self-defeating and guarantees dependence for longer than people need. Choice is a great decider. Cut out choice and you cut out democracy. Monopolies limit choice by reducing or limiting competition.
Industrialization and urbanization initially bring pollution but rising prosperity demands that this is addressed. Rising prosperity has also resulted in the population explosion. 1800 population 1 billion. 2008 population 6.5 billion. 2050 expected population 9+ billion. Biodiversity is being eroded at an alarming rate.
Initially rising GDP makes people happier, but over certain level this relationship breaks down, so GDP is a poor measure of happiness. Population stabilization is crucial to long-term success in dealing with climate change and other global environmental impacts. Lower infant and child mortality, and longer life expectancy is good but needs to be balanced by lower conception rates. Close to a global rule that with high female literacy, modicum of economic growth and legal supply of contraceptives, fertility rates fall to (and usually below) replacement level.
Extremely low birth rates, sustained over the long term, would create problems. But rich, developed countries are quite capable of living with fertility rates slightly below 2 and a gently declining population. A rising proportion of older people in a population is manageable with sensible reforms of pensions systems and retirement ages in line with life expectancy.
The Hindu mystic Ramakrishna set out three fundamental attitudes: personal humility, respect for other sentient creatures, and a sense of reverence (for God).
We need to be self-reliant on food at a national level, then trade for items that can't be grown locally. This requires a significant labour force - ideally between 50% and 20%.
The Toyota Prius hybrid (petrol/electric) car uses ingenious technology but consumes more resources in manufacturing than conventional cars, and the batteries present significant disposal problems.
END
Edited by Andrew Simms and Joe Smith. Constable. (ISBN: 978-1-84529-643-8)
Removal of ritual and regular partying from Western culture in the last 200 years may be a reason for our cultural boredom, anxiety and melancholy. Pleasure and fun may be basic needs, but don't have to cost a lot.
Sport is a form of organised, complex play. Early learning is done through play. But play totally oriented to outcomes (winning, losing) is no longer a game. The influence of money and power on sport is bad. Some sports will go - motorsport, alpine sports. [My note: Becomes ritualized tribal warfare?]
Currently we place too high a value on money, possessions, appearances (physical and social) and fame.
The present social security system is self-defeating and guarantees dependence for longer than people need. Choice is a great decider. Cut out choice and you cut out democracy. Monopolies limit choice by reducing or limiting competition.
Industrialization and urbanization initially bring pollution but rising prosperity demands that this is addressed. Rising prosperity has also resulted in the population explosion. 1800 population 1 billion. 2008 population 6.5 billion. 2050 expected population 9+ billion. Biodiversity is being eroded at an alarming rate.
Initially rising GDP makes people happier, but over certain level this relationship breaks down, so GDP is a poor measure of happiness. Population stabilization is crucial to long-term success in dealing with climate change and other global environmental impacts. Lower infant and child mortality, and longer life expectancy is good but needs to be balanced by lower conception rates. Close to a global rule that with high female literacy, modicum of economic growth and legal supply of contraceptives, fertility rates fall to (and usually below) replacement level.
Extremely low birth rates, sustained over the long term, would create problems. But rich, developed countries are quite capable of living with fertility rates slightly below 2 and a gently declining population. A rising proportion of older people in a population is manageable with sensible reforms of pensions systems and retirement ages in line with life expectancy.
The Hindu mystic Ramakrishna set out three fundamental attitudes: personal humility, respect for other sentient creatures, and a sense of reverence (for God).
We need to be self-reliant on food at a national level, then trade for items that can't be grown locally. This requires a significant labour force - ideally between 50% and 20%.
The Toyota Prius hybrid (petrol/electric) car uses ingenious technology but consumes more resources in manufacturing than conventional cars, and the batteries present significant disposal problems.
END
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