ASFSA – Health, Food & Happiness Blog – Page 8 – Promoting Health, Food, Nutrition, Fitness & Happiness

Beauty

How to Get Toned Body without Exercise

August 22, 2012

As many people ingest more and more sugar in their daily foods, there are always new ways of looking after your body being invented, just as new diets are coming onto the market on a regular basis. Diets simply don’t work for everyone and neither does exercise. Even though it may help you to stay fit and healthy, it often does nothing for your actual body shape. That is why CoolSculpting is becoming so popular.

It fills a need in the market that up till now could only be filled by one other procedure and that is liposuction. The trouble with that is you will have needles stuck into your fatty deposits so the fat can be sucked out through them. This can be quite painful and the area takes a while to heal, as you can imagine. Still, it does the trick of removing those fatty deposits that nothing else seems to shift.

Now there is another option for those who don’t like needles. It is called CoolSculpting because it uses a similar process to cryolipolysis – that is, cooling – to freeze and destroy fat under the skin. This doesn’t harm the skin at all, just numbs it and there might be some bruising, but that will soon fade. Once the fat is frozen it is destroyed and the body goes to work to remove it through the usual channels, just like it removes bruised blood or other things that aren’t part of the body anymore.

(more…)

Food, Health

Child Nutrition Programs: Legislative History Highlights

February 21, 2012

The legislative history of child nutrition can be traced back to the creation of the National School Lunch Program in 1946. These highlights are a good primer for anyone interested in child nutrition programs.

1946

The National School Lunch Act (NSLA) was signed by President Harry Truman.
Program began as a grant aid to states.
Per meal reimbursement was approximately 9 cents.
Three meal options were included:
- Type A – A complete lunch.
- Type B -“Incomplete” lunch with smaller portions and fewer items.
- Type C – 1/2 pint of milk.
The American School Food Service Association (ASFSA) was founded.

(more…)

Beauty

Important Points about Breast Implants

November 19, 2011

Many women turn to breast implants when they become dissatisfied with the size, shape or symmetry of their breasts. It is a good idea to be fully informed about everything to do with this surgical procedure before going ahead with the operation. To that end, here are some important points you should be aware of.

There are 3 possibilities when considering entry points for the implant. Under the armpit, under the breast or via the nipple. Much depends on the particular problem you are looking to overcome with the implant. Nipple insertion is only suitable for small implants. The once popular method of underarm insertion has now waned in favour of under the breast. The scar of the latter is hardly seen, while with the former it is easier to tear the sternum muscle and that can lead to other problems.
The polyurethane implant has now become very popular in the UK and Australia due to its many benefits including preventing hardening of the implant. However, much depends on the size and floppiness of the breast, as well as what problem is being treated.
It is essential for professionals to fully evaluate each patient before a breast implant is agreed to. This will be both physical and psychological.
Emotional stress is also a factor. If the patient is undergoing emotional stress, it is wise to postpone treatment for 6 months.

(more…)

Beauty

Beauty Tips For Hands and Nails

October 15, 2011

Many people pay attention to their faces, but neglect their hands and nails. This is a shame because hands show your age just as much as your face – in fact, even more so because they work harder, doing all that you have to do from day to day, while your face basically sits there and oversees the chores. If you don’t lavish some care and attention on your hands and nails they will tell on you – and spoil the beauty of your face for anyone observant enough to notice.

If you have a job where your hands are in the public eye all the time, it is essential to take care of them and make sure they are as attractive as your face. Here’s how:

Wash hands with warm water, paying attention to between the fingers and under the nails. Dry by blotting rather than rubbing as this can abrade the skin.
Use gloves when washing up and moisturise your hands daily or more often if they feel dry.
Use organic products on your hands and avoid those with toxic ingredients. A good way to make your hands feel smooth and soft is to mix wheat powder with milk, water and lemon juice. Leave on for 10 or more minutes and wash off with warm water. Glycerine and rose water is a good moisturiser.
Exfoliate your hands occasionally using 2 tablespoons of butter mixed with 1 of sugar. Rub over the skin until the sugar granules dissolve. Rinse off with warm water and pat dry.
If the back of your hands has uneven pigmentation, rub them with a cut lemon to even out the colour.

(more…)

Beauty

5 Shampoo Ingredients That Are Bad For Your Hair – and You

February 15, 2011

When you pick up a shampoo from the supermarket shelf, it is usually because you expect it to do good things for your hair, whether that is to moisturise it, make it shiny, more manageable and of course, clean it. Shampoo is made up of many different ingredients – the trouble is that most people don’t fully understand what those ingredients do, whether they are safe and why they are put into the shampoo to start with.

If you are having trouble with your hair, or if your scalp feels itchy or irritable, it could be some of the ingredients in your shampoo that are at fault. Here are 5 shampoo ingredients to avoid.

Silicone – this is put into some shampoo to make the hair shinier. The only trouble is it is not water soluble so it builds up over time, especially around the shaft of the hair. This causes the hair to feel greasy and weighed down, especially if it is fine hair. The sulphate in shampoo is put in to help dissolve the silicone, but that ingredient is best avoided.
Sulphate – you’ll see this as sodium lauryl sulphate or laureth sulphates. They are used to create that nice, frothy lather that everyone likes. However, they do more than that. These are one of the most irritating compounds anyone could put on their skin and they are very drying as well. Worse still, they are a proven carcinogen that is absorbed easily into the skin and the bloodstream. And people wonder why cancer is such an epidemic these days.

(more…)

Beauty

Golden Rules for Healthy and Beautiful Hair

December 5, 2010

Everyone woman wants beautiful hair, but often the promises in those TV ads for shampoo and conditioner just don’t make good. If you tend to have lots of bad hair days, here are some beauty tips for healthy hair that may improve the look and feel of it and reduce those bad hair days when you feel like tearing it out and wearing a wig instead.

One good rule is to stop washing your hair every day. This only encourages your scalp to produce ever more oils to prevent damage to the hair and so you feel like washing it even more. Stop this cycle by reducing your shampoos to no more than twice a week.
Use only top quality shampoo and conditioners without any toxic ingredients, or make your own at home.
If your hair is coloured or permed, don’t wash it too often as this will dry it out.
If your hair seems to be getting more and more dry, changing the shampoo and conditioner often helps. This is because shampoos especially are not all created equal. Some work on a specific type of oil and others work in some other way, so change products occasionally.
Use leave in conditioners and other products to nourish your hair.
Have your hair professionally styled and cut often.

(more…)

Food

7 Tips for Budget Friendly Meals

October 21, 2010

Just think how much you would be able to save if you didn’t have to eat. Sometimes it seems as if you are spending money on food every time you turn around. Unfortunately, there is no real alternative; if you want to live you must eat. That said, there are several ways to save money when buying food, so if you want to give your budget and lift, try some of the following tips.

Get organised – planning your weekly meals ahead of time will enable you to know exactly what you need, rather than buying food on impulse that could well go bad before you can use it up. Even if you don’t want to be quite that organised, just in case you planned a roast dinner for midweek and the temperatures soar to the mid forties so no one feels like eating it, let alone cooking it, you can have some alternatives in the pantry. Or you could check the temperatures ahead of time so you don’t plan a hot meal for a hot day.
Shop around to get the best bargains. That said, if your supermarket options are along way apart, what you spend on fuel could well negate the savings on specials. However, farmers’ markets are often a great place to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables. Go early for the freshest, especially in hot weather if it is held outside. Shopping late in the day or close to shut up shop time at supermarkets can get you some great bargains.

(more…)

Food

Old Fashioned Food Favourites Still a Hit

August 8, 2010

While not many young people make cakes or slices from a basic recipe any more, often they are so quick and simple that it’s no more trouble to cook them than it is to make up a packet cake, especially when there are only five ingredients. If you decide to throw together a homemade slice your family are sure to come back for seconds, but that’s okay; home cooking in newly renovated kitchens is much healthier than anything processed and packet cakes come under that heading.

Besides, making your own cakes is fun and satisfying, knowing you’ve created food from scratch that is much healthier than any processed food and tastes better as well. Many recipes found in magazines these days seem to be complicated and have ingredients that have to be searched for and bought especially. But when the ingredients can almost always be found in the pantry it all becomes a lot simpler. All you really need is a set of measuring scales so the quantities will be right.

(more…)

Health

2010 Child Nutrition Reauthorization

May 28, 2010

Every five years the window of opportunity opens on Capitol Hill as lawmakers and their staff work together to improve, tweak and reauthorize the federal Child Nutrition Programs. During this time a bevy of questions are asked: what works well? What isn’t working? How can we address new needs? For school nutrition professionals and SNA as the voice of school nutrition, Child Nutrition Reauthorization brings with it a special responsibility to answer these questions in order to ensure quality, healthy, safe meals are provided to children every school day.

The School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program are permanently authorized. However the other child nutrition programs that affect school nutrition operators must be reauthorized every five years. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), State Administrative Expenses (SAE), the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and other smaller pieces of the complete package of child nutrition programs must be renewed because they have actual expiration dates. The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 expired on September 30, 2009 was extended until September 30, 2010.

SNA co-chairs the Child Nutrition Forum along with the Food Research and Action Center. The Forum is a diverse group of organizations that comes together every five years during child nutrition reauthorization to help create legislation that promotes access to healthy food for all children.

You will find resources, links and other information on Reauthorization below, continually updated.

Health

How a Photo Booth Can Help You Relax

May 9, 2010

It is important when organising a wedding to not get too caught up in everything that must be done to the extent of having no time to relax. If every spare minute of the day is spent on wedding preparations, you’ll soon start to feel too tired to do anything and this is not a good or healthy state to be in. Because Photo Booths can be connected to wedding packages it can reduce time spent on organising the details of the wedding, so giving you more time to relax, which is good for your health.

Not everyone is good at organisation, and working out all the important details of a wedding and reception can be hard work, especially if you are working at a full-time job as well. It’s important to have help so you don’t feel like you are responsible for every single thing. In fact, it’s a good idea to get your fiancée’s help in a lot of the organisation.

At the very least, he should be able to organise –

The wedding cars
The suit rentals/purchases
The venue
The DJ
He should also have a say in the catering

(more…)