Food and Environment

Creating Healthy Food Fun for Kids By Maria Prihtamala Omega Sugary drinks and sweet treats have many calories but contain small nutrients. It’s a fact that  the added sugars can be found in sodas, juice drinks, sport drinks, energy drinks, candy, ice-cream, cakes, cookies and sweets. By decreasing these foods and beverages (less than 6 teaspoons of added sugars for female and 11 teaspoons of added sugars for male daily), you help the kids to develop healthy eating habits and avoid health issues, for instance, as follows. 1. Provide small amounts of sweets. It is recommended to gradually minimize the amount of sweets, candy, ice-cream or biscuits your kids eat a day. Serve these kinds of treats in smaller plates, can go along throughout the whole day, and encourage them to share with others. 2. Prevent check-out lanes displaying candy, so we don’t tempt kids who might ask to buy some candy. 3. Drink smarter healthier beverages such as water, fat-free milk, 100% jui...

Makes Taking Fiber Easier By Maria Prihtamala Omega Carbohydrates or fats are an important part of a healthy diet as they give fuel supply you need to get through the day, fight fatigue, and leave you full. But there are problems in choosing the right types of carbohydrates. Healthy carbohydrates have complex structure and rich fiber. Complex carbohydrates are found in whole grain, brown rice, whole wheat (stone ground), millet, quinoa, or beans, legumes, fruits and vegetables. The complex ones are rich in nutrients and stay feeling full and satisfied because of long-lasting energy. Simple carbohydrates can be found in white flour, white rice, and sugary food that should be avoided. They have plenty of empty calories and provide only short-lived energy leaving you hungry for more. Moreover, having fibre-rich diets have many health benefits. The positive effects on your digestive health, regular bowel  movements, that helps you avoid constipation so you don’t need medicinal...

Delegates from 194 countries negotiated over a week and finally succeeded to prepare the negotiating text for the 2015 Universal Agreement on Climate Change to be held in Le Bourget, France from 30 November to 11 December 2015.   On Friday (13 th February 2015), delegates participating Geneva Climate Change Talks finalised the content of the new agreement which includes the text about mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology and capacity building.    Participants of the Climate Change Talk in Geneva. Photo credit:   UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré The United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has set the objective of the 2015 conference to achieve a universal and binding agreement on climate for the first time after 20 years of UN negotiations by the nations all over the world. Achievement of Geneva talk over the last week is a key milestone towards this objective of UNFCCC. This has given a hope that we are moving in right direc...

By Maria Prihtamala Omega Back in 2012, Canada produced around 20.6 million turkeys for consumption. Therefore, the business of this lean meat is important until now. But unfortunately, there are currently Avian Influenza (AI) outbreaks in British Columbia (BC), Canada. There have been ten turkey farms in Chilliwack, BC infected by Avian Influenza (possibly H5N2, H5N8 or H7N3  types). So, the turkey meats are ultimately contaminated by this virus and have been rejected by some importer countries such as Taiwan, China and others. However, CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and/or BC Agriculture closed the possible suspects of contaminated turkey farms immediately, to reduce the AI spread and infections. This is important because turkey meat is a lean healthy one and protein source for human and dog/pet consumption. On the other hand, other turkey farms, apart from BC, are not contaminated such as from Alberta or Manitoba Canada and the U.S. In terms of, the food safety orig...

By Maria Prihtamala Omega The food groups consist of fruits, vegetables, protein, grains and dairy that have been used as a basic guidance to eat balanced and healthy meals. Firstly, vegetables have essential nutrients that are needed to grow and stay healthy. For example, dark green vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and collard greens have calcium which the bodies need to grow strong bones. Carrots, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, squash, and beets have vitamin A which helps to protect and heal the bodies. Beans are also part of vegetable groups. They are good source of protein which is needed to build strong muscles including the heart. Humans should eat different vegetables in order to get different nutrients. Children should get about one-and-a-half cups of vegetables a day, including a small salad at lunch and vegetables at dinner. Secondly, fruit is also an important part of a balanced meal. For instance, fresh apples, oranges, bananas, and o...

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Today, developing countries are facing severe problem of household food and nutrition insecurity caused by multifaceted reasons ranging from low agricultural productivity, limited livelihood opportunities, inefficient food distribution system, weak market linkage, poor infrastructure and lack of awareness on healthy food and care habit. Demographic and Health Survey reports from these countries have shown that proportions of underweight children, prevalence of stunting among children and micro-nutrient deficiency in children, pregnant and nursing mothers are high and widespread. The situation is more severe in the countries affected by conflict and the countries in the transition. Fortunately, many international development partners and the state governments are working together to fight against this problem and working through several global and national initiatives to attain objectives of Millennium Development Goal 1 by 2015. These initiatives ad...

                                  by Maria Prihtamala Omega There are differences among normal and autistic children in their ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt to the environment, to learn from experiences, to engage in various reasons, to overcome obstacles by taking thoughts and solutions. Therefore, the child’s intellectual performance is various depending on different occasions and criteria. For example, intelligence is attempts to organize the complex set of phenomena and systems of abilities which can be captured by standard psychometric tests (Neisser, et al ., 1996). The psychometric approaches include the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (a childhood verbal intelligence) and Raven’s Progressive Matrices (a non-verbal inductive reasoning about perceptual patterns). Another psychometric analysis of Halstead-Reitan Categories test (a non-verbal abstract thinking ability) and Wechsle...