Life is Healthy

In 2010, I:

Made soup.

Started running again and kept at it (in fact, I did the Resolution Run 5K last night before breaking into the wine and fondue).

Started editing my novel. It doesn't really have an ending yet but I don't totally hate what I've written, so that's a start.

Found a writing buddy.

Knit a lot of dish cloths.

Played lots of Scrabble/Lexulous

Had my heartbroken when my dog died.

Went to Florida in the in the summer to get away from a heat wave.

Spent some quality time with girlfriends.

Organized a team for the Run for the Cure, called No Pink for Profit. By run day, we were more than 40 women and we raised more than $20,000.

Fell in love with Twitter.

Finally got a smart phone.

Learned that grief is not a linear process.

Spent a lot of time thinking about community, friends and family. I am very, very lucky.

For 2011, I wish us all love, peace, good health and many wonderful adventures.

Starring (in order of appearance): olive oil, onions, garlic, garam masala, chipotle powder, water, vegetable stock, brown lentils, tomatoes, yu choy sum (Chinese greens), lemon juice, ground coriander. Served with a dollop of yogurt.

Loosely based on a Lebanese lentil soup recipe from the Toronto Star. I was out of cumin so substituted the garam masala. Ditto on the chipotle powder instead of cayenne. Soup is spicy but very, very good (if I do say so myself).

Fox News, Monday, May 10, 2010

An Indian holy man has amazed a team of doctors by not eating or drinking anything for two weeks.

Prahlad Jani, 83, who says he has not had a bite to eat for 70 years, was put under constant surveillance to test his astonishing claims by a team of 30 military medical staff.

During a 15 day stay in a hospital in the city of Ahmedabad, India — he astounded doctors by not eating, drinking or going to the bathroom.

"We still do not know how he survives,” neurologist Sudhir Shah said at the end of the experiment. "It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is."

The yogi was sealed in a ward for the study initiated by India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

The DRDO hopes that findings from the experiments could help soldiers survive without food and drink, assist astronauts or even save the lives of people trapped in natural disasters.

Jani returned to his village near Ambaji in northern Gujarat after leaving the hospital, where he will resume his routine of yoga and meditation.

He says he was blessed by a goddess at a young age, which gave him special powers.

During the observation, which ended last Thursday, the doctors took scans of Jani's organs, brain and blood vessels, and conducted tests on his heart, lungs and memory capacity.

"If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one,” Shah said. "As medical practitioners, we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories."

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post, Padang, West Sumatra, Thu, 04/08/2010 3:56 PM

A 57-year-old man died and 139 residents of South Pagai Island, in Mentawai, West Sumatra, have been treated for food poisoning after consuming the meat of a leatherback turtle.

Tiolina Saogo, chief of South Pagai public health center, told The Jakarta Post 30 residents had been put under intensive care.

“We had to treat the others at their homes because of insufficient facilities on the island,” Tiolina said.

Residents of Maonai and Mapinang coastal hamlets caught the 40-kilogram turtle two weeks ago and split the meat between the hamlets.

“A few days later, all the residents that ate the meat suffered dizziness, nausea and vomiting. A man named Osael died four days after he had eaten the meat,” Tiolina said.

The health official only became aware of the mass poisoning earlier in the week after a number of residents came to the health center for treatment.

There are frequent deaths from turtle-meat poisoning on the islands off the West Sumatran coast.

Three have died in a village on South Pagai Island and two others on Siberut Island in the past two months.

Local authorities have repeatedly warned residents about their turtle-consuming habit. Aside from pork, turtle meat is the main cuisine at local traditional feasts.

Tempo Interactive, Tuesday, 02 February, 2010 | 19:31 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Makassar:Out of 800 food products from South and West Sulawesi that have been tested by the Makassar Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, 72 of them were found to contain dangerous substances.

The Head of the Makassar Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, Marigan Silitonga, explained the findings to reporters in his office in Baji Minasa Street, yesterday afternoon.

“Based on the test, 72 food products contain Rhodanin B and Borax," he said.

Rhodanin B is a synthetic coloring product usually used to color paper, textile and ink.

But it also is being used to color food such as crackers, shrimp paste, icy drinks, meat balls and the majority of red colored stall foods.

This substance is carcinogenic and can damage the heart and digestion system.

Borax is an antiseptic which is usually used to make detergent.

Borax is also found in noodles, meat balls and crackers.

This substance could cause nausea, upper stomach pain, diarrhea, sleepiness, fever, headache, digestion system irritation and liver failure.

Maringan said that the food product brands containing the dangerous substances are among others soft noodle “Lumba-lumba” produced by Sumber Pangan Gowa, yellow “Lumba-lum ba”noodles, “Yammie” meatballs produced by Fadilla Makassar Gowa, and special “Siga Putra” crackers produced by Sidoarjo Indonesia.

ABDUL AZIS

Timeline: China milk scandal

Melamine-tainted milk products have been found on sale in China, more than a year after thousands of children became ill in a huge safety scandal.

Products made by three different firms were found to contain melamine and have now been removed from supermarkets in Guizhou province, officials say.

Melamine is an industrial chemical that can be added to watered-down milk to increase its protein content.

Six children died and some 300,000 became ill from tainted milk in 2008.

If ingested in sufficient quantities, melamine can cause kidney failure and kidney stones.

The companies involved in the latest recall blamed the contamination on milk powder they had bought as a raw material to add to their products, state media reported.

An official involved in the 2008 investigation told China Daily the powder may been part of that recalled batch which was still circulating on the market.

"There were still some leftovers in the dealers' hands that nobody cared about," said Wang Dingmian, former chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Dairy Association.

Mr Wang said the government's regulation of milk products was too weak and that companies should be required to test every batch they used.

China says 21 people have been convicted over the 2008 scandal, including milk producers, traders and executives of the Sanlu milk company.

In November 2009, two people were executed for making and selling hundreds of tonnes of melamine-tainted milk products.

I know that in the world we produce more food than we need, as a consequence we waste even more. I recall watching a documentary about someone living on the streets and what he was able to get from rubbish bins as the food had passed its sell by date.

Rather than disposing of this food to the trash can it not be sent to shelters - if the food is bad of course not, but if its packaged and perfectly fine but its sell-by is a day over surely its better that someone at least makes use of it, and at the very least cooks it properly to ensure its safe to eat, rather than throwing it away.

But recently there has been more and more people rather than going into the shops to buy food are going to the back of the stores and taking it from the bins (perhaps because of the crisis). Not meaning to stereotype but this used to be the homeless and gypsies, now even more people are doing it.

A car pulls up outside Carrefour and a family gets out, the child goes inside the bins and takes out what food they can. Later a little old lady is seen doing them thing. On the news it shown that some pensioners are no longer buying their vegetables fresh, but waiting for them to be discarded with the trash then sifting through the rubbish for the veg!

I think something is VERY wrong if we are choosing or having to do this.

So the question is:- WHY DO WE ACCEPT THIS?

So feeling hungry? Bet you are!