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When we first came to the US, we were introduced to eating Ginkgo seeds, but at the time, we didn’t know what they were. We used to live near Brooklyn Botanical Garden, and my mom took us there almost every weekend because it was within walking distance from our apartment. There were rows of tall Ginkgo trees, and during the fall season, the leaves turn to a beautiful golden yellow color, the seeds mature and fall on the ground, about the size of your toe and round. We saw several Chinese people picking the fruits from the ground, the outer layer of the fruit was soft and mushy, which you can’t eat, we never tried, mainly because it stinks to high heaven, but the nut part of the seed you could eat. I hated picking those things because they were so stink, it’d leave the smell on your hand for a long time, we didn’t know about surgical gloves back then either.
The saying goes that an apple a day keeps the doctor away might not be true anymore, but now it’s a laugh every day keeps the heart attack away.
From China Daily newspaper reported that Fudan University’s psychological consultancy center, has set up a Heartfelt Laughing Club. The center will hold training sessions for students to cope with stress and depression.
This is very interesting; I do have to admit that stress can take its toll if you don’t take care of yourself, such as exercise and eating right, but according to this, laughing also helps. I read once in a Thai Magazine that young people in China are so busy trying to make a living that they’ve forgotten the simple things in life, such as smile or laughter. They believe that being successful in their career will bring them true happiness, which they’re not totally wrong in this respect, but having to work, work, work, can lead to a very stressful life.
When we’re sleeping, we do all kinds of odd stuff, but if told or confronted, we won’t admit to any of it; who would because we’re not even aware of what we’re doing, if caught on tape or video, we can always deny, that it’s some sort of sound effect or something.
When I was little, my younger sister said that I peed on her during the night. Duh, her pajama pants were wet, not mine but that’s her story, she’s still sticking to it until this day (I’m a dog person, and NO I didn’t pee on her to mark my territory.) Did I give her any reason to believe that I did it? Maybe…but I’m not admitting to any of it, so they say, when I was little I used to sleepwalking, one time in Thailand, I was about 7 years old, my sister took me to a party, ate, drank, the whole nine yards, the next morning I didn’t know what she was talking about, I still won’t admit that I did all that. Another time was when I was living in NYC, everyone were still up watching TV, I walked passing them and went into the hall closet to use the bathroom, my GI Joe sister dragged me out, and then I headed for the kitchen. They thought it was funny and told me about it the next morning, I didn’t know what they were talking about, and still won’t admit that it happened. I didn’t think I was a sleepwalker back then, but if I were, I’ve outgrown that now, I don’t sleepwalking anymore, (yeah, yeah…you might say) hey, it’s my story and I’ll stick to it.
So when we sleep, we might be grinding our teeth, snoring, or sleeping in odd position but who’d want to admit to any of that. I’m not aware that I’m doing any of that, but if told, I’d deny it in a heartbeat; it’s a bit embarrassing. They say that your sleeping position say a lot about you, this is not so bad, ‘How Do You Sleep?’ was once posted at the old Laoplanet.net by Salat. I do have to say that I sleep in a foetus position, but what they say about it, I won’t admit whole-heartily that it’s me. Original source.
Believe or not that when we have a craving for something, such as certain desert or food, that the feeling only stays with us for 8-14 minutes, and if we can control ourselves from not eating, then the craving feeling will go away. A study done by Dr. Jana Klauer, with her book called, How The Rich Get Thin, gives advice on how we can control our eating habits.
It is called The Stop!Watch method to curb food cravings: any craving can be stopped within just 15 minutes, there is a secrete as to how we can pass this time without giving into temptation. First is to drink a big glass of water, this is to send a signal to the brain, maybe the signal that the brain is sending to us is that we’re thirsty and not hungry, plus drinking water is good for your health.
If the feeling is still there, then eat a healthy snack, to increase glucose in your blood stream, now it might be low; healthy snack can be carrot, yogurt, or fruits, and then following by another big glass of water. After 8-14 minutes has passed, your craving might be diminished, therefore not much damage done to your body.
I’m somewhat thin, mainly because I’ve a very high metabolism, I never have to worry about what I eat, unlike some of my friends that would gain weight easily. It would appear that I eat a lot, but somehow manage to stay the same all these years, and I think there might be a good reason as to why I’m this way, but I’ve never given much thought. Most of the foods that I’ve been eating have very low calories content, mainly a lot of fruits and vegetables, and Tum Mak Houng (papaya salad, which is considered a negative food diet) is one of my favorites that I would eat almost everyday. Another thing that most of my friends seem to overlook is that I like to walk, and walking is a great way to burn your calories. Most American foods have high calories content, and if I have to eat like most of my American friends, I think I’d easily gain weight.
I came across an article in Kullastree, written in Thai language that gives a good guideline as to how many calories your body really needs, and it varies from person to person.
This is a good news amongst cocktail lovers, strawberry and blackberry are a good source of antioxidant, and when place in cocktail, even boost the potency of the fruits even more, below is from The Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture…certainly something to celebrate about if you love to drink cocktail, but like anything else, you have to understand that drinking too much alcohol, even in cocktail form, is bad for your liver, and dangerous to other cells in your body, so drink in moderation.
Strawberries are good for you, but serving them in daiquiri form may make them even healthier, scientists show.
While exploring ways to help keep strawberries fresh during storage, researchers from Thailand and the US discovered that treating the berries with alcohol led to an increase in antioxidant capacity and free radical scavenging activity within the fruit. While such a boost helped the berries resist decay, the same compounds would also be expected to make the strawberries healthier to eat.
I once was a big fan of fresh-squeezed juice of fruits and vegetables, when my mom first got sick, we all went out and purchased a juicer, all electrical which works great. Then a friend suggested that it’d be better for me to use the manual kind, which I thought was bit backward, but gave it a try, and it works as good as the electrical one but much cheaper, and the extra work is actually good for exercising because we have the tendency to cut corner in everything that we do which is becoming a habit, not a bad one, but it’s just that we don’t appreciate things as much in my opinion.
Since my mom passed, my sisters and I sort of loose that interest, and we hardly bring out that juicer, I think it might be because it brought back too much hurting memory for us, but I’m beginning to think differently now. I think my mom wouldn’t be happy knowing that we’re not taking care of our health like we should, so it might be time for me to take out that juicer and sits it at the kitchen counter top as a reminder that I’ve to use if everyday.
Your heart is the most amazing thing, it’s a very small organ, made out of flesh, yet at time, it’s very strong; you can open your heart for new things, or shut from what you refuse to understand; kind or cold, sometimes feeling weak, and at time strong and determined that you feel like you can move a mountain. It’s hard to believe that it’s made out of flesh and blood, at time it feels like it should be made out of rock.
We all have one heart, but each individual can create many wonderful things in this world, the truth is, a heart is just one of the organs in our body; it is a powerful muscle slightly larger than your clenched fist. It works as a pump to send oxygen-rich blood through all parts of your body; blood contains oxygen and nutrients that every cell in your body needs to survive. However, it seems like your heart has a life of its own, it’s beyond your control, if you ever pay close attention, when you get excited, you can control your facial expression, but not your heart beat, you can practically hear it, as if it’s about to jump out from your chest. It beats at all time whether you are asleep or awake; it works 24/7, 365 days, starting to work even before your birth, and will continue to beat until your last breath. Sometimes I can’t help but feel sorry for my heart, even when I’m asleep, it’s still working faithfully, and have you ever feel sorry for your heart? Have your ever done anything nice for your faithful friend lately?
If you know that you can’t control yourself when it comes to junk food, whether it’s chocolate or cookies, and not to mention foods with high calories, then there might be a way to satisfy your craving. This is an article at Kwanruen online, Vol. 845, February 1, 2007, written in Thai language, suggested that you can control your craving by eating certain types of food at or in between mealtime.
Pine nuts, research indicates that it helps control a hormone called cholecystokinin, which is a peptide hormone of the gastrointestinal system responsible for stimulating the digestion of fat and protein, which by eating pine nuts, it will help control your appetite or reduce your craving. It is best to eat this with your salad, or if you cannot find pine nuts, then you can substitute it with almond. The plus side of almond is that it will help prevent our body from taking in fat content, therefore helps with weight loss.
Hot food, such as soup or hot tea, the hot temperature of these foods will help reduce our food intake or craving. It is best to drink hot soup or hot tea before your main course, but make sure that the type of soup that you are drinking are not thick and creamy, and your tea does not have too much sugar or syrup. It is best to drink green tea, and there are researches indicating that drinking green tea lowers total cholesterol levels, as well as improving the ratio of good (HDL) cholesterol to bad (LDL) cholesterol. Green tea has been used as a medicine in China for at least 4,000 years.
Apple is a good fruit to snack in between meal because it has fiber, more so than any other types of fruit such as grapes, or oranges. Therefore, it is best to eat apple before your evening meal, this will prevent you from over eating. It is always a good idea to have apple handy if you don’t want to be hungry all the time.
This is an interesting article from Koosang Koosom Magazine, written in Thai Language, researched done by Dr. Martini…there are 5 levels of drunkenness.
Level 1: Smart, this is the first level; it seems that you know everything in the universe. Whatever the topic of discussion, you are the expert in those topics, and no one else knows what they are talking about. The facts that others have are incorrect because it’s not the same as what you know.
Level 2: Good Looking, you will discover that you are the best-looking person at the moment. Everyone start to pay more attention to you because you look really good. Of course, you can start a conversation with anyone because at the moment you are good looking and smart.
Level 3: Rich, when you are at this level, you discover that you are the richest person around. You are so rich that you can pick up everyone’s tap at the bar. If anyone said things that you disagree with, you are willing to bet him or her with the monies that you have, which is a lot because you are rich. You are not just rich; you are also smart and really good-looking.
Level 4: Bullet Proof, at the moment you think that you have special power. You would see an elephant the size of an ant, and ready to fight with anyone, because they can’t hurt you. You can bet and pick a fight with anyone because you are not afraid to loose. Why should you? At the moment, you are smart, rich, good looking and have the ability to fight like professional boxer…you are the man.
Level 5: Invisible, this is the top level; you have to be drinking a lot to be at this level. You can do anything that you want because you think that people can’t see you; you are invisible. You can dance on top of a table, drive through a red light, sing in the middle of the busy intersection, pee on the light pole, because no one can see you. You are no longer you.
What about you? When you are drunk, what level are you? Do you know your limit? Please drink responsibly, and don’t drink and drive.
This is from kwanruen online, vol. 844, January 2, 2007, in Beauty by Avon, want to share secrete of how to acquire a beautiful skin, since our skin is considered the biggest organ of our body that can eliminate waste, we should take good care of it. Did you know that certain types of food can prevent our body from eliminating these waste and does the reverse. It can damage our skin in the end; therefore, it is very important that we eat the right types of food.
It’s not difficult to pick out healthy food but everyone is different. We can see that everybody have different skin types. Choosing the right foods for your skin type are very important and can be complicated. The foods that you eat will eventually show on your outer appearance, pretty much you are what you eat. It is important to try to avoid foods that are high in fat content, sugar, and alcohol, which are not good for your skin at all. If you know your skin type, then it would also be good to know the types of food that will be beneficial for your skin type.
If you have dry skin, you should eat more fishes, such as salmon, which is high in omega 3 and 6. Any types of nuts with hard shells are also another good source that will help with your dry skin. The types of food that you should try to avoid are fast food, frozen food or TV dinner type of food, french-fried, biscuit, sugar, and coconut.
If you have oily skin, you should try to eat more fruits and vegetables such as pineapple, papaya, avocado, peanuts. The types of food that you should try to avoid are the kind that will clog your skin such as butter, dairy product, red meat, and any types of fried food. These foods will increase the production of oil in your body and will make your skin oilier.
If you have sensitive skin, you should try to increase intake of vitamin A and C, which you can find these in carrot, mango, and kiwi. You should also try to eat more meat product, nuts with hard shells. The types of food that you should try to avoid are spicy foods, and any types of food that give you rashes, for some people it might be MSG. Another types of food that many Asian people are allergic to are dairy products.
If you have combination skin, you should try to eat more fruits, vegetables, and foods that are high in omega 3 such as fishes. You should try to avoid food with high fat content.
What types of skin do you have? It’s very important to try to eat according to your skin type and last but not least, don’t forget to use lotion to moisturize your skin. Beautiful skin starts from inside out.
Nobody knows for certain why we dream. Some psychologists have theories propose that dreams are the body’s way of ‘rebooting’ the brain (sounds and works like a computer.) Dreams dispose of memories that would otherwise clutter the mind with unnecessary remembered experiences. In particular, they enable the emotions to become balance. Dreams get rid of ‘garbage’ in our brain, and allow the brain’s complex chemistry to stabilize. According to this viewpoint, without dreams we would simply overheat.
Doesn’t matter how different we are, what genders, religions or races, what we all have in common are dreams. We all dreams approximately 4 to 5 times a night, each time is a bit longer. Most of us dream every 90 minutes, and the longest dream lasting 30 to 45 minutes, many occur in the morning. If we were awakening during our REM (Rapid eye movements) sleep, we would recall our dreams. If we are awaken during our non-REM sleep, we would less likely to recall our dreams, this may account for why many people believe that they never dream. The truth is, we all dream every night but most of us forget we were dreaming.
![Hydration [2] O photos by HD](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/27/44835096_b9586bbf8e_m.jpg)
According to this article, drinking water at room temperature helps alleviate stomachache. I have not tested this theory out myself because I don’t have much problem with my stomach but find it to be very interesting. Come to think about it, it’s possible that I don’t have much problem because I only drink water at room temperature, beside my black coffee and green tea. If any of you decide to give this a try and it does work, don’t forget to come back and let me know. According to this article, ‘water at room temperature’ is the best medicine for stomach problem, whether it’s gas, pain, heartburn, diarrhea, or indigestion. Original source of this article is from Koosang Koosom Magazine, Author Narong Nethjun written in Thai language, translated by Nye.
I’m an Attorney by trade, and to give advice on medicine is a bit far fetch, but hear me out. As long as I can remember, I had so many problems with my stomach, I had to be extra careful of what I ate, and any little thing can and might aggravate it. I’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office and purchased numerous kind of medication in hoping that it would cure my problem, but nothing seems to get rid, only alleviate it for a short period. No matter where I go, I had to carry an antacid medication with me at all times, I took it morning, noon, and night; seems to be my daily routines until 2 years ago when I discovered this new medicine, which is water or H2O.
It started 2 years ago, I was in a lot of pain with my stomach, creating unfriendly environment for both myself and people around me. Many thoughts ran through my head and some how as a desperate attempt, I thought of water. I thought to myself, we used water to clean many things in life, such as washing dishes, fruits, vegetables, cars, clothes, ourselves, etc. What about our organ, seems like the only organ in our body that can be cleaned out with water is our intestine. It must be pretty nasty and dirty in there for my body to produce all these nasty smells. I thought to myself that water should be able to wash it out and make it clean, just like everything else that water touches. At this point, you probably think that I’m crazy, but really think about it.
Photo by Huntz, Chili Pepper Madness
How important is it for us to eat spicy food? Most Thai and Lao dishes are very spicy, if we don’t eat chili pepper or fish sauce, there seems to be something missing. Personally, I like to eat spicy food, the spicier the better. My mom also uses the leaves of the chili pepper as vegetable and put it into her dish, such as ‘oum kai’. Some of this interesting information about chili pepper below is from Kullastree Magazine by Phetrut Houphanyakit written in Thai language, translated by Nye.
Chili pepper is packed with all the vitamins and minerals, such as protein, calcium, zinc, beta-carotene, vitamin A, B1, B2, and C. 1 small chili pepper has more vitamin C than 1 lemon or orange. It also contains vitamin A, as much as 50% of the daily recommend dosage.
Yes, walking is something that we all do everyday. Most of you right now probably feel that your health will improve if you have time to exercise. Some might even be thinking about making ‘Exercise’ as part of your New Year resolution. For those that don’t exercise because you don’t have the time, you are too busy at work, you are………I think you should stop making excuses for yourself, because walking is so easy to do and it’s a great way to exercise.
If you can’t think how you will incorporate this into your daily routine, I’ll let you in on a little secrete.
At your work place, or while working:
- Try parking your car as far from the front door as possible, I usually take the last spot at work even if I’m the first to get there, this will give me a chance to walk at least twice a day.
- During lunchtime, you should find a place to eat lunch that is a bit far from your work area or desk, this will give you time to walk back and forth. If you eat out, try to park your car as far away from the restaurant as possible, most people have the tendency to look for a spot closest to the door.
- For those that use an elevator, try to take a staircase, this will give you a chance to walk up and down. Some might make excuses that they have bad knees, try to think differently and think that you have bad knees so it’s okay to take your time and go up slowly. If you are tired, it’s okay to rest and take one-step at a time.
I don’t want you all to think that I’m strange or lazy in anyway, read on and you’ll see what I mean.
As soon as we get up in the morning, some if not most of us, have the tendency to make our bed right away. Most of us were brought up this way and it becomes part of our daily routine. I’m asking you not to this time. During our sleep, our body loose water in the form of moisture and this moisture will stay behind in our bedding. After we get up, it’s a good idea to leave our bed unmade for approximately 20 minutes or so. This will give enough time for this moisture to evaporate, and then we can make our bed and clean the room. Try this, you’ll see your health improve. 
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