by Fern Shaw | Jul 31, 2015 | Health and Hydration
Aha! Bet that got your attention. Now I have it, can I direct you towards this selection of wrist watches I’m selling? Only joking – however, in all seriousness, when the temperatures start to soar in the summer months, dehydration can occur quicker than you may think.
Here are some quick and easy tips on how to stave off dehydration (and they don’t all involve drinks) –
For Adults:
- Tea – A recent UK study found drinking up to four mugs of black tea with milk a day is just as hydrating as drinking the same quantity of water. Bear in mind though, that the caffeine in tea starts acting as a diuretic (increases fluid loss by causing you to pass more urine) when you exceed around five cups a day, so go easy or sip water in between your mugs of tea.
- Coconut water – Fresh coconut water is naturally isotonic, with a 330ml serving containing more potassium than two bananas plus five other naturally occurring electrolytes. It has one-fifth of the sugar found in fruit juice, plus a little fibre.
- Cucumbers – No matter how you slice ‘em and dice ‘em, cucumbers keep cool at the number one spot on the list of water-logged fruits and vegetables. At 96 percent water, cucumbers have no saturated fat or cholesterol, and are very high in vitamin K, vitamin B6 and iron. Stack slices with watermelon and you’ve a pretty, tasty and water filled snack.
- Watermelon – In the world of thirst quenchers, watermelon weighs in as a major contender. Based on its name, it’s no surprise this fruit is made up of 92 percent water! But its salt, calcium and magnesium is what makes it ideal for rehydration, according to a 2009 study at the University of Aberdeen’s Medical School.
- Lettuce – Iceberg lettuce may be 96 percent water, but it’s not known for much else in the nutrition department. Richer salad greens and sandwich toppers including butterhead, romaine and spinach are more well-rounded choices and still up your hydration.
For Children:
- Make your own ice lollies for a fluid-rich treat. Puree fruit or use no-sugar-added fruit juice and pour into freezer moulds.
- Make sure water is easily accessible for little ones. If they can’t reach the sink or the water tap in your fridge, set up an easy-to-use water dispenser and a few cups in a place where they can reach it.
- Create a reminder system for drinking water. This could be a chart on the fruidge that kids can mark each time they have a serving of water, or, if you’re out and about, a timer set on your phone to remind the family that it’s time to take a drink.
- The same as with the grown-ups (that’s you, that is), keeping hydrated doesn’t have to be water – many fruits and vegetables have a very high water content. Offer watermelon, strawberries, broccoli, celery, cucumbers and other watery fruits and veggies for snacks.
by Fern Shaw | Jun 19, 2015 | Water
A while ago, I blogged about the dreaded headaches that affect most humanoids.
There are so many types of headaches, one hardly knows where to begin, but I’m going to give it the good old college try in the hopes that this will provide useful information so you can treat them appropriately the next time you experience one of these nasties:
Tension headaches – the most common type, feel like a constant ache or pressure around the head, especially at the temples or back of the head and neck. Not as severe as migraines, they don’t usually cause nausea or vomiting, and they rarely halt daily activities.
Over-the-counter treatments, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or acetaminophen, are usually sufficient to treat them. One needs to always check the contra-indications, even with over-the-counter medications, as, for example, headache tablets containing aspirin can irritate one’s stomach lining. Experts believe these may be caused by the contraction of neck and scalp muscles (including a response to stress), and possibly changes in brain chemicals.
Cluster headaches, which affect more men than women, are recurring headaches that occur in groups or cycles. They appear suddenly and are characterized by severe, debilitating pain on one side of the head, and are often accompanied by a watery eye and nasal congestion or a runny nose on the same side of the face.
During an attack, people often feel restless and unable to get comfortable; they are unlikely to lie down, as someone with a migraine might. The cause of cluster headaches is unknown, but there may be a genetic component. There is no cure, but medication can cut the frequency and duration.
Sinus headaches – when a sinus becomes inflamed, often due to an infection, it can cause pain. It usually comes with a fever and can be diagnosed by symptoms or the presence of pus viewed through a fibre-optic scope.
Headaches due to sinus infection can be treated with antibiotics, as well as antihistamines or decongestants.
Rebound headaches – overuse of painkillers for headaches can, ironically, lead to rebound headaches.
Culprits include over-the-counter medications like aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen, as well as prescription drugs.
One theory is that too much medication can cause the brain to shift into an excited state, triggering more headaches. Another is that rebound headaches are a symptom of withdrawal as the level of medicine drops in the bloodstream.
Migraine headaches – migraines can run in families and are diagnosed using certain criteria:
- At least five previous episodes of headaches
- Lasting between 4–72 hours.
- At least two out of these four: one-sided pain, throbbing pain, moderate-to-severe pain, and pain that interferes with, is worsened by, or prohibits routine activity.
- At least one associated feature: nausea and/or vomiting, or, if those are not present, then sensitivity to light and sound.
A migraine may be foreshadowed by aura, such as visual distortions or hand numbness.
Last, but certainly not least, there are what I’ve coined as water headaches. A water headache isn’t, as one would think, a headache brought about by drinking ice cold water or eating ice cream, but headaches that occur precisely because we’re not drinking sufficient water.
Yep, can you Adam and Eve it – nasty, painful headaches can easily be brought on by not drinking enough water. Of course if you bash your head (or bash your head after falling down from imbibing too much alcohol, that’s a double trouble problem), and you’ve a sore head, drinking water isn’t going to help reduce that soreness, sorry for you.
But if you find that all of a sardine you’re experiencing more headaches than usual (and you haven’t bashed your head or pulled muscles and you’re not prone to migraines), there really is a simple and inexpensive solution to test the theory, dearie: up your water intake. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the result.
by Fern Shaw | Jun 8, 2015 | Water
I’m sure you all have a pretty good inkling about some elements of what your carbon footprint is and have, in your own way, implemented certain strategies on how to lessen that footprint.
But are you at all aware of what the water footprint is for each bit of food you consume?
Here are the water footprints for a few foods that may surprise you – making it high time perhaps to get the most out of your allotment or even your windowsill gardens for that matter.
1. Tomato: On average, one tomato (250 gram) costs 50 litres of water. Tomato sauce / ketchup costs 530 litres of water per kilogram of tomato ketchup.
Tomato puree costs 710 litres of water per kilogram of tomato puree.
2. A pound of lettuce = 114 litres
In general, vegetables take much less water to produce than animal products: That’s where the Meatless Monday suggestion comes in. You don’t need to go vegan, but every bit helps. Lettuces’ water footprint for the UK can be a lot higher as the produce can need to be brought in for consumption from other countries in the winter months.
3. A kilogram of chocolate = 17 000 litres
On average, cocoa beans have a water footprint of 20 000 litres/kg. Cocoa beans are first made into cocoa paste, with cocoa shells as rest product. About 97% of the total water footprint of cocoa beans is allocated to the cocoa paste that is derived from the beans; the rest is attributed to the by-products. One kilogram of cocoa beans gives about 800 gram of paste, so that the water footprint of cocoa paste is about 24 000 litres/kg. From this we can calculate that chocolate has a water footprint of about 17 000 litres/kg.
4. A slice of pizza = 159 litres of water
That would be 68 litres for the flour, 79 litres for the cheese, and nearly 11 for the sauce. Mozzarella, it turns out, is a real water sucker, as is any animal product. Of course, this is the global average, and water use per slice varies from country to country. French pizza has less than half this footprint, the US just about hits the average mark, and Chinese pizza is slightly more waterlogged.
Obviously, you can’t live on water alone (although it’s super important to ensure that you drink sufficient water), but perhaps spare a thought in future about where your food comes from.
*excerpts from Waterfootprint.org
by Fern Shaw | May 28, 2015 | Water, Water Coolers
I was wandering through the dreaded social media the other day and I saw an absolutely beautiful black and white (ha) photo of zebras drinking at a water hole that an acquaintance had taken whilst on tour in Namibia.
Those who are into photography will know that shooting black and white photos can be the hardest photos to take. What spectacular contrasts we may see with the naked eye as being stark and edgy invariably result in dull as dishwater images when shot in black and white. Anyhow, it was while I was looking at this photo (not the one above, by the by) thinking about how amazing zebra photos look especially in black and white that I started thinking about why it is that zebras are stripy and most other African wildlife aren’t?
It’s apparently not to do with camouflage, as I believed it was, but for something else.
There are one or two new theories:
Cooling effect
One is the ‘cooling eddy’ theory. When air hits a zebra, the currents are stronger and faster over the black parts (since black absorbs more heat than white) and slower over the white. At the juncture of these two opposing airflows, little eddies of air may swirl and serve to cool a zebra’s skin.
No landing zone for disease carrying critters
The other idea holds that more stripes may be a barrier against disease, since disease-carrying biting flies, like horseflies, tend to like it hot. Experiments in the field have shown that biting flies don’t like landing on striped surfaces.
Whatever the reason, it’s such a nice thought that nature, once again, shows us humanoids how beating the heat is done. Sadly, despite my request, it seems unlikely that we’ll be introducing zebra striped water coolers any soon. Management snorted when I asked and then (rather snidely I thought) suggested that if I were so into zebra stripes I could always wear my own stripes to the office, as long as I didn’t pitch up wearing my summer zebra striped onesie.
by Fern Shaw | May 25, 2015 | Water
Before you start hissing like an old boiler at the use of the word ‘cacti’ (pl), I’ll remind you that it is correct. It is a cactus and many cacti.
Anyhow, the point of this blog from your (occasionally) friendly blogista, Fern, is that although I’ve never been a fan of cacti – this derived from having many childhood occasions of either being pricked by their thorns or having fallen into a patch of them, or having a cluster of needle-like, fine blond hair-like thorns stuck into my fingers, toes, feet and having to have the patience of Job and the eye of an hawk trying to get the little ***bleep**** out when you couldn’t even see them with the naked eye, but every time you brushed a finger against a surface it hurt like blazes …
….
Okay, I’m back. What I was trying to say is that even something as mean as a cactus, growing as it does in sometimes the most hostile of conditions – almost zero rain fall, boiling hot sun day in and day out; in spite of all of these conditions – the cactus manages to come up with a plan to store water in order to survive.
You’ll find with most cacti that they don’t have leaves to catch much needed water so they’ve adapted by spreading their roots far and wide in order to catch underground water from the occasional rainfall in their natural habitats.
Some types of cacti can store up to as much as 760 litres of water. Yep, you read that right – seven hundred and sixty litres of water! So, although the cactus may not be everybody’s favourite plant – all those flipping thorns – they are without doubt one of the most useful plants of the natural world. Their uses are multitude and many cacti are edible, case in point being the Prickly Pear, which I’ve actually eaten. They’re quite delicious and the sap from the pads repels mosquitoes and is a remedy for minor cuts and burns.
So if you’re ever stuck out in some arid, hot and waterless environment, just look to the cactus for a source of water, food and healing properties all in one plant. Think of it as an out of the office – that’s waaaay out of the office – water cooler station.
Just watch out for those dam-nee thorns.
