I don’t know about you, but sometimes it seems hard to keep up, nutrition-wise. Every week brings news about a new kind of food that is no longer good for you, including fruits and vegetables sometimes (pesticides, etc.) So here are a few foods that are good again.

1. A Good Egg

Nutritional experts had long maligned eggs because they are high in cholesterol, but more recent research revealed that saturated fat—not cholesterol—poses the greatest risk. Plus, eggs provide protein, iron, and lutein, a nutrient that helps stem age-related eyesight decline. (Spinach and other leafy greens are also good sources of lutein.) The American Dietetic Association considers eating eggs in moderation a healthy habit and suggests removing some of the egg yolks to reduce fat and cholesterol. For example, in a recipe that calls for two whole eggs, the association recommends substituting with two egg whites and one whole egg.

2. The Case for Coffee

Forgoing coffee was like a badge of honor in health nut circles, but not any longer. Recent studies have refuted caffeine’s link to heart disease, cancer, and high blood pressure. In addition, health experts now tell us that filling up our mugs has health benefits. According to the American Medical Association, regular coffee drinkers are less likely to have type II diabetes and their caffeine habit may reduce the risk of developing colon cancer, liver disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Researchers have also seen a reduced risk of dementia among people who drink three to five cups of coffee a day.

3. Sweet Sin or Simply Sugar?

Cane sugar earned a bad rap, sparking a move to replace it with everything from honey to concentrated fruit juice. Studies show that the substitutes are no better than the real deal. Whatever the original source, consuming too many of these sweet simple carbohydrates can cause health problems like obesity, type II diabetes, and tooth decay. Yet, cane sugar can be part of a healthful diet in reasonable quantities. The World Health Organization recommends limiting added sugar to 10 percent of daily calorie intake. And as for the new pariah, high fructose corn syrup, the nutrition gurus say that it’s probably no better or worse than all the rest. Although food marketers are taking advantage of the public’s negative perception of high fructose corn syrup, experts say that consumers shouldn’t be fooled by the new marketing techniques. In terms of your health, it’s the calories that count.

4. A Drink a Day …

For a long time, science was lockstep with Puritan thinking, shunning all alcohol. But within the last few years, there has been a growing body of evidence that alcohol in small amounts is associated with better health. Experts believe that having a few drinks a week may reduce your risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. Studies indicate that red wine in particular has positive benefits. Rich in antioxidants, including resveratrol, red wine may help prevent clogged arteries. Be warned, though, while it’s tempting to embrace the more-is-better philosophy, three plus drinks a day will up your risk of liver, mouth, breast, and throat cancer as well as memory loss. Experts recommend one beverage a day for women and two for men. Not exactly a night on the town, but a glass of syrah with dinner. Not bad!

5. Dispelling the Chocolate Myth

For ages, it seems, parents and health professionals said that chocolate makes us pimply, rots our teeth, and offers no health benefits. Au contraire. Chocolate is chock full of minerals and has some of the same antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables that ward off disease, particularly heart disease. Unlike gummy and caramel candies, chocolate doesn’t stick to your teeth causing cavities. And don’t try to blame chocolate for blemishes; researchers have found no correlation between the two. In fact, the antioxidants may improve the appearance of your skin by combating inflammation from free radicals. Look for dark chocolate that contains at least 70 percent cocoa—the higher the cocoa percentage, the more healthy flavanol antioxidants it contains. (Tea, grapes, blueberries, and cranberries are also high in flavanols.) The label should also say non- or lightly alkalized or non-dutch processed. An even better way to get your flavanol fix is with natural cocoa powder; when converted into chocolate bars, the cocoa beans lose some of their antioxidants. Plus, chocolate is a mood-booster, increasing serotonin in the brain.

6. Butter Is (Sometimes) Better

We all know that butter isn’t good for us. But, according to the scientists at Harvard Health Publications, a little butter isn’t so bad and is actually better than stick margarines. Margarine was thought to be heart healthy because, unlike butter, it doesn’t contain cholesterol or saturated fat. But the common process to convert liquid oil into margarine by adding hydrogen atoms creates harmful trans fats that, like butter, increase bad cholesterol in the blood while decreasing the good kind. The hydrogenation is essential to create the stick margarine, but many of the soft margarines in tubs are now made with fewer or no trans fats and some health experts recommend those over butter. As for the overall fat and calorie content, it’s a tie—neither will do your waistline any favors, so use them sparingly.

Source: Gimundo

In the heart of summer, festivals of all types abound. But this eco-conscious festival has something to teach the participants that they won’t soon forget: a deeper appreciation for the land.

Set amidst a swath of green fields just north of London, Real Farm Festival is taking place this weekend, 17–19 June, in an effort to promote more peaceful, self-sufficient and natural ways of living. The event at Church Farm, Hertfordshire, near Stevenage will provide an opportunity for people of any age to discover what it is really like to live a healthy, ‘green’ life and to see a modern farm in action.

“This summer there are many festivals on farms across the country but Real Farm Festival puts the farm at the heart of the event, reconnecting people, land and food,” said Neil Nayar, musical director of Real Farm Festival. “We’re having a party to bring normal folks out to the farm for a weekend to experience what modern farm life is like.”

“We want to bring together a new generation of people from a wide variety of backgrounds to hang out together for a weekend, share good times and also engage in a very important discussion for the future of farming.”

Scientists, philosophers and anthropologists including top organic scientist Prof. Martin Wolfe and biologist Rupert Sheldrake will share their views in a series of conversations entitled Question Time: The New Agrarianism. Real Farm Festival will also be building the first ever edible living room, as well as hosting 40 environmentally-conscious musicians.

Read more.

Does your mind seem as messy as a teenager’s bedroom? Most of us don’t think of our minds in term of messiness but that’s exactly what happens when we’re continual not present. Our brains seem chockfull of current stressors and worries, internal conversations, the future, the past…but not the here, the now.

So how can you “sweep up” your sloppy thoughts? Here are a few quick cleaning tips:

1. Breathe. With each inhale, imagine a vacuum cleaner pulling nagging thoughts right out of your head.

2. Be in your body. How does your body feel right now? What would make it feel better? A little dance. A quick walk. A good stretch. A hot bath. When you’re present in your body, you tend to be more present in general.

3. Notice the messy thoughts. A little awareness goes a long way. If you find you’re eating breakfast worrying about your electric bill, you’re affecting your digestion and some needed peaceful time. Some thoughts can wait. Some are unnecessary and repetitive. Sort through your thoughts and keep only the ones you need!

4. Meditate. It’s not rocket science, I promise! It simply requires a little time dedicated to being as thought free as possible. You’ll feel better after 15 minutes of it. Find a good quiet spot and sit with you clean mind!

Sometimes it does take a village. Or at least the power of a group of people and their quick which in this case lead to making a smart, possibly life-saving move:

Police say 10 good Samaritans lifted a pickup truck off a woman who was struck on her bicycle in New Jersey.

North Plainfield police say 57-year-old Katie Miller was riding the bike through an International House of Pancakes parking lot in North Plainfield when she was hit Monday.

Restaurant manager Jose Preciado tells The Courier News of Bridgewater that he, a cook and several diners acted because Miller was having difficulty breathing and turning purple.

Police Chief William Parenti tells the newspaper the bystanders might have saved Miller’s life. He says the 57-year-old woman suffered broken ribs and possibly a punctured lung.

Police say the pickup driver was turning and didn’t see Miller until it was too late. He wasn’t cited, but the accident remains under investigation.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/12/10-good-samaritans-lift-pick-up-truck-off-bicyclist/#ixzz1ToR7JIP8

When was the last time you went for a REAL Sunday drive?

We’re going to make your Sunday a little more relaxing. Easily. Simply. Who wants to stress out trying to relax, right? As you’re breathing deeply, relaxing into your weekend, read this casually, as if noticing a cool breeze touching your face.

1. ACCEPTANCE Stop resisting. Like paddling a canoe against the current, a lot of effort is expended to get nowhere. So STOP IT. Right now, take a look at your circumstances and accept it is how it is. It is how it is. Period. End of story.

Take a deep breath and let yourself just see how it really is. It probably isn’t as bad as you are making it out to be or fearing that it is. So, assess, where exactly are you? What is working and what isn’t? Yes, the market has changed and even those of us that have been in real estate for 20+ years have not seen markets just like these. It may be this way for a while. Just look at how it is and accept it.

2. MAKE GOOD CHOICES. What is a “good” choice? It’s a choice that makes you feel happy. Instead of struggling and trying to paddle harder, see where the flow is right now. Do the things that bring you joy. When you are happy and joyful, you’ll attract others. You probably won’t attract the doomsayers and the difficult ones, because your vibrations won’t match.

If you set all your worry aside and just this week do things with others that are fun and bring you joy, what’s the worst that could happen? Why don’t you try this: everyday do what will make you happy and be happy with all you do. In every moment, you have the ability to shift your energy. Most of us are unconscious and let the default feelings and gremlin voice choose for us. Choose good.

3. PRACTICE SELF CARE. One of my favorite quotes by Ghandi is, “The more I have to do, the longer I need to meditate.” Personally, when I get in one of my overwhelmed, struggling modes (yes, I am human and those times show up in my life too sometimes!), the first thing I will give up is exercise and my centering or meditation practice. There just isn’t time! What a copout. Who is in charge of MY schedule? That crazy woman can make my life look and feel nuts!

I have developed practices to bring me back to the grounded, centered place that feels and works much better. If you will put the gas in the gas tank, you’ve got more fuel to take you where you want to go. Have you been taking off a day a week? Doing small practices that nurture you (watching the sunset? Listing to the sound of your children’s laughter? Hugging those you love and telling them you love them? Reading? Hiking?)

What is it for you? Look at the coming week and schedule some time to be VERY SELFISH!!!!!

Source: Realtown.com

Often when something bad occurs, we don’t take the time to realize the good that may have come out of it. We’re too shrouded in our negative thinking to see beyond the tormenting situation, but often in hindsight, we see that it happened for a reason. Such is the case in this story:

There were so many things Chris Logan could have done last Fourth of July.

He could have slept in. He could have hung around his apartment and gone out later for a holiday barbecue. One item pretty far down his list that day was to walk around Aronimink Golf Club in 95-degree heat for several hours watching the final round of competition in the AT&T National.

Eventually, his love of the game combined with the lure of tickets, and Logan traveled to the golf course with a friend. But he had his day cut short when a tee shot from Sean O’Hair, one of his favorite players, struck him in the left temple at the 18th hole.

As emergency medical technicians hustled him to a nearby tent to be examined, Logan had no idea this would be the luckiest day of his life.

While checking him out for a concussion, a doctor inquired about a lump just below his throat and urged him to visit his family doctor to get it checked out. The lump turned out to be a malignant tumor on his thyroid. He underwent two surgeries less than six weeks after being struck by the ball.

Almost one year after it happened, Logan, who now is cancer-free, finally got to meet and shake hands Tuesday with O’Hair at Waynesborough Country Club, where O’Hair and fellow Tour player Hunter Mahan were giving a junior golf clinic.

“Sorry,” O’Hair said as the two men shook hands.

“Thank you,” Logan said, almost at the same time.

“We had a little battle on what to say,” said Logan, 25, of West Chester. “He hit me in the head and then helped me out with the cancer diagnosis. So that was pretty funny. He’s a really nice guy, glad to finally meet him.”

The 28-year-old O’Hair, who also lives in West Chester, called the whole episode “something cool to be involved with.

“You feel bad about hitting him, but yet you feel good that he found out about the cancer, found it early, and got it worked on,” he said. “It’s a cool experience.”

Source: Philly.com

Chris Logan says fate put him in front of Sean O'Hair (left) (CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer)

Today the beauty is all around you. It always was. Your eyes have just been too busy doing…other things. But today. Today is different. Seemingly inconsequential items will hold the keys to the universe.

A spoon. A car key.

A leaky faucet.

A smooth countertop.

Your friend’s eyelashes.

A dog’s paw.

Trash in the wind.

Dust.

Car tires.

See beyond the banal into the beauty. Today. It may change the trajectory of your life. Simply seeing things differently could change your life.

A first-class violin becomes an instrument of change and charity in this hopeful story.

A Stradivarius violin known as the “Lady Blunt” sold for a record price of nearly $16 million, an amount equivalent to four times the previous record selling price for one of the rare violins. And better still, all of the proceeds will be donated to aid Japan’s relief efforts from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The Nippon Music Foundation on Monday auctioned off the antique violin – one of some 600 string instruments made by the legendary Antonio Stradivari (1644 – 1737) that are still known to exist – to help raise funds for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that ripped through Japan’s Tohoku region on March 11. It is the first time the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization sold an instrument in its care.

“While this violin was very important to our collection, the needs of our fellow Japanese people after the March 11 tragedy have proven that we all need to help, in any way we can. The donation will be put to immediate use on the ground in Japan,” said Kazuko Shiomi, president of the foundation, in a released statement on Monday. The proceeds of the sale will be donated to the earthquake and tsunami relief fund established by its parent organization, the Nippon Foundation.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Let me just state for the record: I don’t always like sunshine. That’s right. Even though I’m a writer for Only Positive News, sunshine isn’t always my cup of tea. I’d much prefer a gray fall day.

But today in my world, sunshine prevails. I will go out and garden in it and celebrate it’s goodness. Here are a few more sagely words on that big ball of fire.

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.
Joseph Addison

A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.
Steve Martin

A good laugh is sunshine in the house.
William Makepeace Thackeray

A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine.
Anne Bronte

Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, It’s not warm when she’s away, Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, And she’s always gone too long, Anytime she goes away.
Bill Withers

Anyone’s life truly lived consists of work, sunshine, exercise, soap, plenty of fresh air, and a happy contented spirit.
Lillie Langtry

Arizona is gorgeous. The sunshine in Arizona is gorgeous red.
Cecilia Bartoli

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.
Thomas Jefferson

Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk.
William Arthur Ward

Fancy your having no sunshine in London yesterday! Here it was glorious, like full summer, and I sat up with the window wide open, listening to the discourse of two amorous thrushes.
Marie Corelli

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
Louisa May Alcott

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.
Luther Burbank

Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
Hans Christian Anderson

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/sunshine_2.html#ixzz1PMRweSBl

Why wait to feel good when there are answers within arms-length? These great feel-good-now tips can be found at Divine Caroline, a great spiritual advisory site.

1. Listen to music. It lowers your body’s level of cortisol (the stress hormone), reduces anxiety, and can even improve your memory. Whether you love Mozart, Alicia Keys, or Lady Gaga, it’s all good. Are you pregnant? One recent study found that lullabies and nature sounds were the best choices for helping moms-to-be relax.

2. Warm up. The comfort of feeling warm and cozy is a terrific stress-reducer. The doctors at the international Mandometer Clinics, which specialize in treating eating disorders, use warm rooms and blankets to help anorexic women curb their anxiety after meals. Take advantage of spring’s lingering chill by taking a hot shower and wrapping yourself in a fluffy robe afterward. Savor a cup of green tea or get a hot stone massage. If it’s a nice day, put on your sunscreen, grab a book and find a sunny spot.

3. Have a peanut butter sandwich. When you’re fixing your kids’ lunches, aren’t you tempted to make your old favorite for yourself? Go ahead. The protein in peanut butter naturally boosts your level of serotonin, the hormone that regulates moods, sleep, and behavior. Stick with an all-natural variety (you don’t need the saturated oil and preservatives in other brands), have it on whole-grain bread and skip the sugar-loaded jelly. You’re indulging your inner child, and who’s more joyful than a five-year-old?

4. Get a friend fix. A well-known study from the University of Illinois found that the happiest people are the ones with strong bonds to friends and family. (As if you need a bunch of psychologists to tell you that girlfriend-time is fun!) A lot of us don’t make it a priority to connect with our friends regularly. Get into the habit of reaching out to a friend at least once a week, or more often if you can. Send a text, call or get together for a drink after work. And you can never have too many girls’ nights out.

5. Bring nature into your life. Getting in touch with the earth is a time-honored stress reliever, and spring, when nature comes back to life, is a fabulous time to start. Have breakfast on the porch or in the backyard and watch the birds gathering material for their nests. Pick a tree in your neighborhood and look at it daily to see buds turn into leaves.

6. Write it down. For her book, Gore asked women to keep a journal of the best moments in their day. This mindfulness will get you into the habit of noticing the good times as they happen. “Focusing on the moments of flow and happiness in our daily lives instead of focusing on what went wrong just has a refreshing effect,” Gore says. “We notice the natural joy more easily, and we remind ourselves, and sometimes even begin to relearn, what we want to be spending our time doing. “ Buy a notebook and keep it on your nightstand so you can write just before bed. Your entries don’t have to be long; a few lines are plenty.

7. Get out of your rut. Many women Gore spoke to found that they were happiest doing something that took them out of their day-to-day routine: working on an art project, going on a hike, playing with the kids during a time when they didn’t have to rush off to school or sports. Shake up your schedule: Go for a walk at lunch hour instead of eating at your desk. If you spend your nights in front of the TV, turn it off and reach for your journal, a book, or a paintbrush.

In short: Don’t wait for joy to come to you—go out and grab it with both hands!

By Shana Aborn for BettyConfidential

Via http://www.divinecaroline.com/22189/98056-seven-foolproof-feel-good-strategies/2#ixzz1PAPaKH6C

Via http://www.divinecaroline.com/22189/98056-seven-foolproof-feel-good-strategies#ixzz1PAPIe6NP