Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/09/469676852/chew-on-this-slicing-meat-helped-shape-modern-humans?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

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Katherine Du/NPR

Miss Manners and skilled prep cooks should be pleased: Our early human ancestors likely mastered the art of chopping and slicing more than 2 million years ago. Not only did this yield daintier pieces of meat and vegetables that were much easier to digest raw, with less chewing — it also helped us along the road to becoming modern humans, researchers reported Wednesday.

And our ancestors picked up these skills at least 1.5 million years before c…

Source: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2016/03/food-navigator-usas-special-edition-on-weight-management/

Food-Navigator USA publishes occasional “special editions” with collections of articles on similar topics.  This one is on how food companies are dealing with weight management: “With almost two thirds of Americans overweight or obese, weight management is still a huge market opportunity for food and beverage manufacturers. However, messaging is moving away from diet-based concepts to more positive messages about food quality, satiety, and overall health & wellness.”<img class="CToWUd" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/LZltM1HwD6y6rmSbQWjH7sJG1eE-bostR1M60pLuPAU1_yWcwnaQHs6TuGXLCtOPsnDmgxCs12Zg2W_n0z3p5aojT8iKpEUHAZWQJCMeIvCG9Z0xwrLd6-ZKORzDD7rbpfX0OiMu=s0-d-e1-ft#http://sas.decis…

Source: http://greatist.com/live/no-poo-see-what-really-happens-when-you-stop-using-shampoo?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

There’s a growing group of people who have stopped using shampoo. Some go cold turkey, some use only conditioner (also called co-washing), and even others stick with DIY solutions. But before you jump on the no-poo bandwagon, watch this video. It explains the importance of researching home remedies (oil and vinegar, for example, can be more damaging than helpful) and dispels the myth that your hair stops getting greasy after you kick shampoo (turns out your body still produces oil).

…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/videos/finding-your-story/

Watch video on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgI6R9py6CM

In this highly evocative guided meditation led by Nate Howard, a professional speaker, educator, and poet, the viewer is asked a series of questions to prompt a poetic dive into the internal architecture of the self.  By answering questions about who we are and what our purpose is, this meditative technique fuses free-writing and creative expression with seated meditation and breath awareness to elicit a strong sense of purpose and self. All you need is a pen and paper, and a willingness to open up.

Related: An Introduction to Poetic Meditation

Lead Image by Matthew Roy

The post Finding your Story Through Poetic Meditation appeared first on Sonima.

…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/07/469521879/pre-peeled-oranges-what-some-call-lazy-others-call-a-lifesaver?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Last week, the Twitterverse became enraged after advertising copywriter Nathalie Gordon posted a photo of pre-peeled, plastic-packaged oranges.

“If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn’t need to waste so much plastic on them,” tweeted Gordon in a post that soon went viral. To make matters worse, these decidedly unwhole fruits were being sold by the grocery chain Whole Foods.

If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn't need to waste so much plastic on them. pic.twitter.com/00YECaHB4D

— Nathalie Gordon (@awlilnatty) March 3, 2016

As American consumption of fruits and vegetables continues to lag behind recommended amounts, companies selling prepared produce are hoping that skipping steps like peeling, cutting or chopping will make people more likely to buy their products.

Twitter users accused people of being too lazy to peel their own darn oranges.

But for a whole segment of people with mobility issues, pre-prepared foods are a lifesaver, says Jennifer Hacker, a woman with peripheral neuropathy and poor grip strength. “I have stopped cooking anything I have to chop or slice first,” she says, because the pain is so bad.

Without pre-prepared fresh foods, Hacker says she’s relegated to the frozen foods aisle for her grocery shopping. She could also choose the syrupy, sweet canned citrus or overcooked, tinny green be…

Source: http://www.fannetasticfood.com/2016/03/09/happy-national-registered-dietitian-day/

Happy National Registered Dietitian Day, my friends! I thought in honor of the “holiday” today I would share some of my best nutrition tips and RD-related advice here on the blog from over the years, plus links to some of my favorite fellow RD bloggers.

It’s crazy to think that I’ve been a dietitian for 3 years now – how time flies! In December 2012, I graduated with my Masters of Public Health in Nutrition from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In February 2013, I took and passed the exam to officially become a Registered Dietitian and shortly after started my own nutrition counseling private practice (AnneTheRD.com)! Since I changed careers to become a dietitian and was coming from an unrelated field, it took me 3.5 years total to complete the prerequisites, required coursework, and internship hours. It was a long road but clearly it was worth it – and in a few months, I’ll have been a dietitian for longer than it took for me to become one.

<img title="anne_mph_rd" style="border-left-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;float: none;padding-top: 0px;padding-left: 0px;margin: 0px auto;padding-right: 0px;border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="anne_mph_rd" src="http://www.fannetasticfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/anne_mph_rd_thumb.png" width="448" height…

Source: http://greatist.com/live/lena-dunham-swears-off-retouching-for-good?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Photoshop can be used for good (to remove a weird shadow or cover a stain), and it can be used for evil to alter your body to the point of being utterly unrecognizable. That’s what happened to Lena Dunham on her cover for Tentaciones, a Spanish-language magazine.

As she writes in a powerful personal essay in her newsletter Lenny Letter, the photo caused a knee-jerk reaction: “I felt a need so immediate it was like demanding that a driver pull over so I could go to the bathroom despite being in the middle of a five-lane highway. I wanted to tell people, loudly: ‘That’s not my body!'”

At this point, it’s not clear if Tentaciones is to blame for the Photoshop snafu or if the image came to the magazine that way—but that’s really beside the point. The whole situation was enough for Dunham to take a stand: She will no longer allow her photos to be retouched. We’ve included a snippet from her essay below, but it’s really worth checking out the full post:

Something snapped when I saw that Spanish cover. Maybe it was the feeling of barely recognizing myself and then being told it was 100 percent me but knowing it probably wasn’t and studying the picture closely for clues. Maybe it was realizing that was an image I had at some point seen, approved, and most likely loved. Maybe it was the fact that I no longer understand what my own thighs look like. But I knew that I was done.

Not done with getting my picture taken (once an insuffera…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/food/best-uses-apple-cider-vinegar/

Q: I’ve been hearing a lot about different uses for apple cider vinegar. Why is apple cider vinegar superior to other types of vinegar—and how should I be using it?

A: Vinegar, derived from the French vin aigre, which means, “sour wine,” has a long rich history of therapeutic applications. Vinegar has been employed to fight infection since Hippocrates (460–377 BC), who is often called the father of modern medicine. Honey and vinegar is a traditional remedy, often prescribed for persistent coughs. Vinegar has been used to disinfect households, though some question this since pathogens can purportedly survive this natural cleanser.

Related: The Most Effective Home Remedy to Ease Cold Symptoms

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is made from the grinding and fermenting of apples. The best ACV is generally unpasteurized, fermented, and naturally rich in enzymes, vitamins, and amino acids. This variety of ACV is usually a bit brown and cloudy. The “mother,” or primary cellulose produced by vinegar bacteria, is typically present in many varieties of ACV. Some manufacturers pasteurize vinegar to prevent these bacteria from forming but many feel the main health benefits—proteins, enzymes, and friendly bacteria—are yielded from the mother.

If you are simply cleaning your house, any inexpensive grocery store white vinegar will do just fine, though some find the scent of ACV to be more pleasant. If you are using …

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/09/469058224/some-of-lifes-best-lessons-can-be-found-in-lousy-kitchen-jobs?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

The writer, Rachael Cusick, pictured with chef Oneil Wilson, her coworker in the kitchen during a summer job as a line cook during the breakfast shift.

Courtesy of Rachael Cusick

Our resumes are grounded in assumptions. Want a job? Assume it’s best to exaggerate your leadership experience. Assume you should build up your image as a self-starter and team-player. And, unless you want to be a chef, assume that your kitchen-prep experience is as irrelevant to your success as your summer camp counselor gig when you were 16.

I don’t buy it. There’s plenty to be learned from the kitchen (and also your summer camp counselor gig.)

There are the obvious lessons — such as the tricks you pick up to swiftly peel tubs of tri-colored carrots, or yelping “Behind!” as you glide behind chefs holding freshly sharpened knives.

But there are also things you learn that stick with you long after…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/08/469560467/cold-wars-and-hot-tea-nancy-reagan-s-tea-summit-with-raisa-gorbachev?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Nancy Reagan, left, and the Soviet First Lady, Raisa Gorbachev, both smile politely during a tension-filled tea in Geneva in 1985, while their husbands discussed nuclear disarmament.

Dieter Endlicher/AP

Nancy Reagan, the influential and stylish former first lady who died on Sunday at 94, was fond of saying: “A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.”

Reagan was merely quoting a line attributed to another first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt (though historians have never confirmed whether Roosevelt said it.)

Reagan got a chance to test that quip at the 1985 Geneva Summit, when she met the first lady of the Soviet Union, Raisa Gorbachev, over tea, at two tensely choreographed tête-à-têtes.

While their husbands discussed nuclear disarmament – this meeting was the first step in …