Food that can help or harm your sleep

A few days ago one of my friends had asked me to try mixing Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce mixed in with Cheetos Flamin' Hots and asked me what I thought of it.

 Cheetos Flamin' hots

Now, anyone that knows me pretty well knows that I love to try anything that is spicy, hot or just not made for the average person. When I mixed it in, I was thinking to myself whether or not this would do anything to me other than burning my mouth but tasting very interesting. Well, later on that night I was not able to sleep and I couldn't figure out why. It seemed as though what had happened was heartburn, which is exactly what this article talks about. One of the few ways that you can help yourself sleep better is by not taking spicy foods before you sleep since it can cause some serious heartburn. As I was reading this, it reminded me of eating Indian cuisine since most of their foods are made with some serious spicy mixes such as in curry used with naan. It made me think of how in college how valuable sleep can be, and how by eating some foods that we love, can greatly affect smaller habits, such as our sleeping patterns. As a college student reading this, I am very lucky to get 6 hours of sleep since my workload is so heavy and knowing that what I can eat affects how I sleep really makes me worried about other students and how what they eat affects what they do. Living in dorms require your to have a meal plan, and we are limited to an extent on what we can eat, but it may not necessarily be the best options, especially for your own health. I find it concerning knowing that what we can eat is not only limited, but may only be healthy to a certain extent, especially since it can affect what college students value so much: sleep. If we want to have students succeed, then we should think about how some of the smaller things, like what we give them options to eat and how they affect their habits to make them do well in school.

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/slideshow-sleep-foods Slide 9/13

Food affects childbirth**

Recently I had my parents send me some irregular reading material sent to me hoping that it would help with the little relaxation I get in college. One of the magazines they sent me was a Parents Magazine and included in it was an article titled "9 Kid Health Myths Even Doctors Believe".

Photo courtesy of: http://www.heroturko.org/f/fairly-odd-parents-hentai/

As I was reading through all of these so called "myths", I started to wonder if there was anything that could have the same effect, but with trying to conceive a child. Turned out, there are a few small things that you can do to help your chances at getting a child. If you brush your teeth and floss, it can make your"fertility treatments had higher levels of gum bleeding and inflammation than those who conceived naturally", which seemed very interesting. As a guy, I only brush my teeth once a day and probably shouldn't do that, but knowing the effects that it can do on a woman really influences me since if I was a woman, I would want to have a smooth, pain free pregnancy. I found this to be very interesting since I personally have not been up to this stage in life, but I found that some of these so called myths or rumors that they are somewhat true, or from other saying that they are true. For example, one of the main points that the author addresses is that  you should cut down on booze, caffeine, and cigarettes, which I found to be interesting since it can be hard to get off of an addiction and is imperative that you do so. These factors can greatly affect your health and what it can do in terms of the time period of contraception. The article states that "having one to five alcoholic drinks per week can drop your chances of conceiving that month by as much as 50 percent." It just amazes me what could happen if you were not take alcohol and see how much faster and easier it could be to have a kid. Lastly, the main point that this article does not mention is that if you were to raise up a child in a situation where there was alcohol and cigarettes, it can cause secondhand smoking in addition to not having the right setting to raise them up in. Using common sense, it just doesn't feel right, so don't do it. My grandmother always told me to never do something that wouldn't make your mother proud, and I for one know that wouldn't. Be safe in what you do if you plan on having a baby, and know not just how to, but also to raise them in an safe, appropriate setting(if possible), and stay stress free while doing so.

All quoted statements take from the following:
http://health.yahoo.net/rodale/WH/want-a-baby-someday

Sustaining Life on a Tough New Planet: A response

Today, I had the opportunity to listen to a talk from Bill KcKibben, an author and Environmentalist who was very intriguing to listen to. I found the talk to be very informative, but I'm not sure that it helped others in trying to figure out what to do after addressing the problem. The main and key statistic that was addressed was that the overall heat of our planet has increased one degree, but has made major changes in everyone's lives. Our summers are brutal, and we have had 100 year rain storms twice in a summer that we shouldn't be having. These are just the short term effects that are addressed, and changes needs to happen now. How Mr. Mckibben addresses this is interesting since he mentioned no physical movements to help do something physically other than 350. 350 is used to address the ppm level of CO2 in the atmosphere, but our economy is clearly above that level (388ppm). In order to change, we have to make changes, but Mr. Mckibben doesn't exactly do a good job of explaining how to, especially for farmers, or just simple ways to help out. When he said this, it reminded me  of a quote from the movie Notorious saying that "We can't change the world unless we change ourselves", which is very true. If you want others to change, then you need to be that start of that change.

If there was one thing I learned from this, it was that we can change, but the changes are either so massive that it would nearly impossible, or we don't have an physical force to prove to the world that we need to start making changes. What I found most intrigueing was that at the end of the talk one of the questions made was were bio-fuels initially made for the solution to the corn problem and not for ethanol? At the time, people were so intrigued by it and thought that it could solve everything, but now that they are trying to make an electric car, it will be interesting to see how it compares to the bio-fuel solutions. Overall, the talk was great, but it could have been more informative on what we can do, not just the issue at hand.

Norman Borlaug Lecture: Grassroots Efforts in the FIght against Global Hunger-A response

On Monday night, I had the chance to go to a lecture from David Beckmann, founder of Bread for the World and Jo Luck Vice-President of Heifer International for receiving the 2010 World Food Prize Laureates. Hearing all of the credibility for David was by far very, very intriguing for me since I was not ready for anything he was about to say. David has a degree from the London school of Economics, and a degree from Yale as well. It surprised me how he was able to speak about poverty in such nations like Brazil and  Bangladesh which have the same poverty rates as the U.S. and Britain. During my junior year in school, I had the opportunity to work with someone from my school that was from Bangladesh, and it was interesting to see how poverty affects people in different ways. Although he did not like his job, he still worked hard to achieve his goals of becoming finically successful. During Mr. Beckamnn's speech, this thought came to my mind and was very provoking in what he said. As was with Joe Luck, former CEO of Heifer International, was very very talkative in what she had to say and credibility to back it up. It seemed as though she had more credibility about endless experiences, but it raises a question: Is what she did with that experience in the given time frame enough to give herself enough credibility to say that the decisions that she had made as a CEO right given the justification by her experiences? Yes she went through all sorts of things, but was it a long enough time frame to fully understand what they were designed for? This provoked me that she diden't mention talking with any sort of Anthropologists to ask what the social cultures were that were placed in, so that she could better understand why certain societies value certain traditions in their culture. Personally, I have used Heifer International and I must say that some of the livestock you can purchase seems a bit pricey, but more so that Heifer can make a profit rather than to benefit others. It seems like a genuine program, but I'm not sure that Joe looked at the bigger picture to figure out what her program has really done not just to others or the target audience(s) she has impacted. At the end of the lecture someone posed a question that asked how Heifer was impacting/ helping in Africa, and someone else commented on how they had provided so much 3rd party resources, it actually made the farmers there weaker since their goods were worth less due to relief efforts from organizations such as Feed My Starving Children. Personally, I was stunned at this since I had never though about it like that, but I was glad they brought it up considering most people know just to " do this and that" to end hunger when in reality you should only do it to a certain extent before it starts to hurt the cause more than helping it. Overall, the talk was very, very informative, but some of the information was presented in a biased manner, but in a way that most people were so intrigued by these people receiving their  awards for the 2010 World Food Prize Laureates.

Happiness is in Choices**

Last night I had to opportunity to go an Anthem Concert which was truly amazing. Anthem is a band from Cornerstone church that only plays once per semester, and it was worthwhile in every aspect. After going to the concert, it kept on hitting me how happy I was and how I wanted to get that happiness every day. Well, I came across this article stating how what are they keys to happiness and how they can affect your life. It states that having a "high priority on family and altruistic goals, church attendance, participation in social events, and regular exercise were all equally or more important than being extroverted in affecting happiness." I found this to be very intriguing since as a college student, it is hard to do all of this and keep a sort of balance in your life for everything that surrounds you. I know that I have had a very hard time figuring out how time I should dedicate to what, and do what with whatever spare time I have, if any for that matter. It was also very interesting that there was no " association between partner similarity and life satisfaction." which was very intriguing, making me wonder how couples achieve satisfaction in their relationships while still feeling happy. It always intrigues me how unhappy people are and what they can do to better their relationships just by changing the small things like reading or going on a run to relieve stress. Sometimes it's the smaller things in life that can make the bigger picture better, but finding those opportunities are worthwhile not just for your but as well as your health.

http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20101004/key-to-happiness-lies-in-choices-you-make