5 Non-Food Uses for Sugar

Refined sugars aren’t so hot for our health, but there are some household uses for the sweet stuff that might surprise you!

You may not put sugar in your tea these days, but it’s actually an effective degreaser, stain remover, and craft supply. From cleaning uses to DIY projects, there are lots of ways to use sugar around the house without eating a single granule.

5 NON-FOOD USES FOR SUGAR

1. CLEAN YOUR HANDS

Do you have greasy hands from cooking or working on your car? Put about a teaspoon of sugar into the palm of your hand before washing with soap as usual. The sugar helps cut the grease and scrub it away. 

2. MAKE SUGAR SCRUB

Sugar is a gentle exfoliator that’s perfect for sloughing away dead skin. Combined with a little bit of oil, you’ve got yourself a skin scrub that exfoliates, moisturizes, and costs a whole lot less than commercial sugar scrubs. Even better? You can scent your homemade sugar scrub with essential oils rather than the chemical fragrance that you find in its store-bought counterpart.

3. SUGAR SCULPTURES

The tutorial linked above is for making Mexican sugar skulls, but you can use that same technique with different molds to create any shapes you like. Sugar sculptures use all food-based ingredients, but they’re not intended to be eaten. In the link above, she mentions that she made the skulls for her tutorial a full year before she got around to decorating them!

4. CLEAN THE COFFEE GRINDER

Coffee beans contain natural oils, and sugar helps cut that grease while the grains scour your grinder clean. Like one commenter suggests, you can also use sugar to clean it out, then use the sugar to sweeten your coffee, if you’re so inclined. If not, just toss it into the compost bin.

5. DIY STAIN REMOVER

Create a paste with water, white vinegar, and sugar to pre-treat stained clothing before washing. Let the paste sit for 10-20 minutes, rinse, then wash your garment in cold water. Before you stick it in the dryer, make sure that the stain is gone. If not, you’ll want to treat and wash in cold again. If you put the stained fabric into the dryer, the heat can set the stain.

8 Delicious Ways to Eat Less Salt

Most Americans eat far more than the recommended limit, but cutting back on salty food can be tough, especially if your palate has adjusted to a high-salt diet. Here are some ways to reduce the salt in your diet without sacrificing flavor.

Here in the U.S., we chronically oversalt our food. Whether we’re eating salty, processed foods or reaching for that salt shaker too often, all of that excess salt adds up. Too much salt makes us eat more and drink less water, and it puts us at risk for heart disease.

The recommended limit for salt is between 1500 mg and 2300 mg per day: between 3/4 and one teaspoon. The average American eats 3400 mg of salt per day, more than one-and-a-half times the highest recommended limit.

I cut way back on salt when I was pregnant to help ease pregnancy-related swelling. It was not easy at first, but over time I came up with a strategy and some tricks to make the transition more smooth. These are the things that helped me learn how to eat less salt.

1. Cut back gradually.

If you’ve been eating a lot of salt for a long period of time, your palate has likely adjusted. If you just cut the salt out of your food right away, it’s going to seem flavorless. Instead, try tapering the amount of salt you’re eating over a week or two until you reach your goals. 

2. Hide the salt shaker.

This is a great first step when you’re tapering. Try not salting your food once it’s prepared. Almost all recipes already call for salt in some form, and shaking on even more salt isn’t doing us any favors. 

If you really don’t feel ready to do this right away, try limiting how much salt you shake on. If you usually do three shakes, see if you can get by with two for a few days, then one, then get that shaker out of there.

3. Choose low-sodium soy sauce.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to use soy sauce more than table salt to add sodium to my dishes. We don’t always think of soy sauce as salt, but if you’re trying to get down to 2300 mg or less per day, soy sauce can be a big contributor.

Low-sodium soy sauce has about one third less sodium than traditional. Just make sure you’re not adding more low-sodium soy sauce to your food. Like the salt shaker, don’t reach for the soy sauce after you food is plated.

4. Cut back on processed foods.

Processed food tends to be high in salt for two reasons. First of all, salt is a cheap way to make things taste delicious. Salt is also a good preservative. Cutting out all packaged foods isn’t realistic for everyone, though, and that’s okay!

When you do buy packaged food, look for ones marked low-sodium or reduce sodium. And don’t let front-of-package labeling fool you. Turn that bag of chips over and read the nutrition label to see what percentage of your daily sodium is in that bag.

5. Cook at home.

You don’t have to give up all take-out forever when you cut back on salt, but cooking at home definitely helps you control how much salt is on your food. Restaurants love salt, because salt makes food taste good without adding much cost to a dish. The good news is, you can make home-cooked meals taste good with less salt!

6. Reach for the herbs.

Salt enhances your food’s flavor, but you can also add flavor by adding more fresh or dried herbs to your dishes. Try upping the herbs and spices in your favorite recipes while cutting back on the added salt. You may find that you didn’t need that added sodium in the first place!

7. Drop some acid. 

Into your bowl! A squeeze of lemon juice or dash of vinegar was one of my favorite ways to compensate for the “missing” salt when I started cutting back. Acidic foods like citrus add a similar bite to your dishes, no sodium needed.

8. Choose low- or no-sodium broth.

Broth is a major culprit when it comes to added salt, but it doesn’t have to be! One of my favorite tricks for keeping the flavor while cutting the salt in my soups was to use no-sodium broth cubes, but use twice as many cubes as the package called for.

You can also use broth to add flavor to your grains, beans and stews. Almost any time you see water in a savory recipe, you can sub no-sodium broth for a flavor boost. This is really just a cheater’s way to add more herbs without having to chop more herbs.

The Hidden Food Ingredient Linked to Pain and Inflammation

There’s a food additive so ubiquitous in the food industry it is found in most packaged foods, restaurant sauces and even many foods that have been “certified organic.” That ingredient is carrageenan. While the additive starts out harmless enough (it comes from the seaweed known as Irish moss) it is then processed to extract the ingredient known as carrageenan, which acts as a thickener or emulsifier for many prepared foods.

Like most people, I originally thought that carrageenan was a harmless extract from seaweed, so I didn’t give it much consideration. Then I heard that researchers were giving animals carrageenan to induce pain and inflammation as a way to prepare the animals for scientific studies exploring anti-pain drugs. That was the first I’d heard of carrageenan being used for harm. So I began to investigate.

Dr. Joanne Tobacman has conducted many studies on the effects of carrageenan consumption, including one in the Journal of Diabetes Research. After eating carrageenan for only six days, animals fed carrageenan developed glucose intolerance, an umbrella term used to describe impaired metabolism involving excessively high blood sugar levels. Dr. Tobacman found that the food additive caused blood sugar levels to skyrocket, indicating that it may lead to the development of diabetes. She indicates that carrageenan used in animals’ diets so commonly cause diabetes that the additive could be used for mouse models of the study of diabetes. 

She also found that carrageenan causes intestinal and systemic inflammation in animal studies. Considering that inflammation is a well-established factor in most chronic disease, including: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, pain disorders and many others, any food additive in common use is a serious concern. Dr. Tobacman also indicates that the amount of carrageenan found in most peoples’ diets is sufficient to cause inflammation.

Sources of Carrageenan

Carrageenan is found in common foods, including:

infant formula
ice cream
cream
butter
soy milk
almond milk
rice milk
cottage cheese
sour cream
yogurt
coffee creamers
vegan cheese alternatives
egg nog
protein supplements
aloe vera gel
deli meats
juices
puddings
pizzas
chocolate bars
coffee beverages
many packaged foods

Additionally, some supplements, particularly those involving gel caps, commonly contain carrageenan. And, most grocery store rotisserie chickens typically contain the additive.

The Cornucopia Institute has compiled a comprehensive list of organic foods that contain carrageenan, since the ingredient is legally allowed in foods bearing the label “organic” or “certified organic.”

13 Wonderful Benefits Of Grapefruit

The health benefits of grapefruits are wide-ranging and nearly unmatched by any other fruit. A glass of chilled grapefruit juice, especially in winter, helps seriously boost your levels of vitamin C, which gives grapefruits a high place amongst various citrus fruits. It’s packed with the benefits derived from various nutrients and vitamins, including potassium and lycopene. Along with these, it also contains calcium, sugar and phosphorous. In terms of its culinary value, it is considered a wonderful appetizer, and is regularly included for breakfast as a refreshing and energizing start to the day.

Grapefruits are high in fiber and low in calories, and they contain bioflavonoids and other plant chemicals that protect against serious diseases like cancer, heart disease, and the formation of tumors. Grapefruits increase the body’s metabolic rate, lower insulin levels and give you a feeling of fullness and normality. It assists the human body in fighting various conditions like fatigue, fever, malaria, diabetes, constipation, indigestion, urinary problems, excess acidity and many more.

There are plenty of major health benefits of grapefruits, which are also known to be powerful drug/poison eliminators. It works as a natural antiseptic for external wounds, and it functions as a liver tonic. It contains a high water content, which helps in changing the complexion of the skin and increasing the body’s metabolic rate. The pulp and fiber of grapefruits supply healthy bulk to our food intake, which aids bowel movements and reduces chances of colon cancer. It also helps to quench thirst and thus, reduces the burning sensation that arises during fever. The Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that the intake of grapefruit reduces the risk of developing prostate cancer.

Health Benefits Of Grapefruits

 Appetite Loss: Grapefruit works as an excellent appetite suppressant as compared to many other substances and foods. It is said that smell of the grapefruit reduces the feeling of hunger, which is the reason why people often include grapefruit in their weight loss programs. The high amounts of fiber contained in this fruit can also satisfy hunger and help people avoid the temptation to overeat, since it is a bulky food, and stimulates cholecystokinin to be released, a hormone that regulates digestive juices and acts as a hunger suppressant.

Influenza: Grapefruit is a valuable remedy for influenza, since it helps to minimize acidity in the system. The bitter properties arising from an essence called ‘naringin’ in grapefruits tones up the system and the digestive process. Naringin is also considered a flavonoid, which are powerful antioxidant sources in the human diet. They also have antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory qualities, making them one of the most important lines of defense in the immune system, protecting against influenza as well as many other serious conditions.

Malaria: The juice, or the fruit itself, contains valuable and natural ‘quinine’ which is advantageous for the treatment of malaria. Quinine is an alkaloid with a long history of treating malaria, as well as lupus, arthritis, and nocturnal leg cramps. It is not an easy component to find in many foods, so grapefruits are a beneficial and rare example. The quinine can be easily extracted from the fruits by boiling a quarter of grapefruit and straining the pulp.

Fever: The pulp or the juice of grapefruit helps patients recover quickly from fevers, and it reduces the burning sensation that occurs when the body reaches a high temperature. It is also known as a way to boost the immune system against colds and other common illnesses. Grapefruit juice, when combined with water, can quench thirst very quickly and can keep you hydrated longer. Most of these benefits come from the high content of vitamin C in grapefruits, which acts as a general immune system defense system and can help the body fight to break fevers.

Fatigue: Grapefruits are also beneficial in the treatment of fatigue, so it can help you to dispel your general tiredness caused from routine or boring work. Drinking equal amounts of grapefruit juice and lemon juice can be a refreshing and delicious way to quickly boost your energy levels. Nootkatone is a very rare and important compound found within grapefruits, and is probably its most valuable component in terms of extracting as an aromatic substance. Nootkatone improves energy metabolism in the body through AMPK activation. This results in higher endurance and energy, increased weight loss, and a reduction in the the chances of developing diabetes.

Indigestion: Grapefruit is useful for solving the problem of indigestion. It is very light as compared to other foods and thus, acts immediately on indigestion by easing the heat and irritation caused in the stomach. It improves the flow of digestive juices, which eases the movement of the bowels and keeps your excretory system regulated. This is due to the presence of fiber and vegetative pulp in grapefruits, that adds bulk to the bowels and regulates your excretory schedule, and grapefruit extract is also often used in modern medicine for these same reasons.

Insomnia: A simple glass of grapefruit juice, if drunk before going to bed, can promote healthy sleep and alleviate the irritating symptoms and repercussions of insomnia. This is due to the presence of tryptophan in grapefruits, the chemical we often associate with becoming sleepy after big meals. The levels of tryptophan in grapefruit juice lets us nod off peacefully to sleep.

Diabetes: Diabetic patients can safely eat grapefruit, because consuming grapefruit can reduce the level of starch in the body. If a patient is diabetic, intake of grapefruit can help them to regulate the flow of sugar in their body, effectively handling the disease. recent studies have shown this beneficial relationship between diabetes and grapefruits to be due to the flavonoid content of grapefruits, along with a number of other healthy benefits from those compounds.

Acidity: Fresh grapefruit juice creates an alkaline reaction after digestion. The citric acid of the fruit is contained in the human body and thus, increases the effect of the alkalinity reaction after digestion. The juice extracted from the grapefruit is beneficial in preventing acid formation and many other diseases that arise due to the presence of excess acidity in the body.

Constipation: A glass full of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice in the morning is a great remedy to control constipation. The juice stimulates the colon and other parts of the body relating to the digestive system. This is due to the stimulating effect of fiber on the secretion and stimulation of gastric juices that ease the constriction of the digestive tract and induce a bowel movement.

Flatulence: 10 to 20 drops of grapefruit juice, taken before all three meals of the day, can work as an appropriate pro-biotic and digestive enzyme, and will relieve excess flatulence and stomach discomfort. Further research needs to be done on the exact mechanism behind this phenomenon, but again, people believe it relates to flavonoid content in citrus fruits like grapefruits.

Urinary Disorders: Grapefruit juice is quite rich in potassium and vitamin C, so it is one of the best treatments for dangerously reduced urination that is often caused by liver, kidney or heart problems. Furthermore, its high potassium content works as a vasodilator, meaning that blood vessels and arteries relax, reducing blood pressure and lessening the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Also, increased levels of potassium have been associated with higher cognitive function because of increased blood and oxygen flow to the brain!

Consumption of Grapefruit is Better than Many Other Medicines
Grapefruits are natural sources of medicine that help the body fight off various diseases. This fruit is readily available in any season. It is completely natural and much better than consuming artificial pharmaceuticals to relieve some of your most basic health conditions. It enables the human body to regulate your cholesterol, which means that it minimizes the risk of various cardiovascular diseases caused by cholesterol issues. The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry shows that consumption of grapefruit can reduce LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), as well as hazardous triglycerides.

A Few Words of Warning: Despite all of these health benefits, and the fact that sometimes grapefruits can be superior to other medicines in their efficacy, you must be very careful taking medicine and consuming grapefruit juice at the same time. Certain chemicals in grapefruits, like naringin, and other less common compounds can negatively interact with various drugs and cause damage to your organ systems. Be sure to consult your doctor in terms of drug interactions with grapefruit juice in your diet before beginning any new treatments! You want to improve your health, but sometimes doing it in too many different ways can hurt you!

8 Surprising (And Easy) Memory Boosters

The key to remembering where you put your keys? It could be as easy as these simple tweaks to your daily routine.

PRACTICE GOOD POSTURE

Go thank Mom for nagging you to sit up straight—standing and sitting up straight and tilting your chin up boosts blood and oxygen flow to the brain by up to 40 percent, making it easier to recall memories.

TRY A DIFFERENT TYPE

We’re talking typeface—researchers have found that using an unusual font on study materials can help you remember the content better. Does this mean Comic Sans for your next work presentation? 

WATCH FUNNY CAT VIDEOS

Learning ability, recall, and visual recognition all improved among a group of elderly individuals who watched a funny 30-minute video, one study found. Chalk it up to the stress relief, researcher Gurinder Bains, M.D. says. “With aging, the damaging effects of stress can impair the ability to learn and sustain memory,” he explained. “Humor and the associated mirthful laughter can reduce stress by decreasing stress hormones, including cortisol and catecholamines.”  

  

GO TO HAPPY HOUR

Over 60 years old? Light and moderate alcohol consumption in older adults has been associated with larger volume in the hippocampus and better episodic memory (the ability to recall events).

TAKE REGULAR WALKS

The hippocampus—the brain’s memory center—shrinks as you age, but research has found that older adults who go on walks actually gain volume in the hippocampus.

LIFT WEIGHTS

Prefer to hit the gym? One study had participants lift weights while looking at a series of photos. Two days later, those who strength trained remembered about 60 percent, while those who didn’t remembered 50 percent.

CHEW GUM

It doesn’t get easier than this. Chewing gum has been shown to increase heart rate, blood pressure, and blood flow to the brain, giving you a 15 to 20 minute window of improved memory.

USE PEN AND PAPER

Taking notes in a meeting? Bring a notebook, not a laptop. Writing things down instead of typing them was found to help with active listening and retention.

FBI translator flees to Syria, marries ISIS terrorist she was assigned to investigate – Know what happened next

A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) translator traveled to Syria three years ago and married a key Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) operative she had been tasked to investigate, a media report claimed on Tuesday.

The CNN report said that Daniela Greene married Denis Cuspert, a German rapper turned ISIS pitchman, in 2014.

Cuspert went by the rap name Deso Dogg in Germany; in Syria, he was known as Abu Talha al-Almani.

Cuspert was involved in recruiting violent jihadists online. This had put him on the radar of counter-terrorism authorities on two continents, CNN reported.

Also, Cuspert had hailed Osama bin Laden in a song, threatened former president Barack Obama with a throat-cutting gesture and appeared in propaganda videos, including one in which he was holding a freshly severed human head.

According to court documents seen on Tuesday, Greene, who had a "top secret" security clearance, told her colleagues at the Detroit office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that she was heading to Germany to see her parents for a few weeks in June 2014. 

Instead, the 38-year-old woman translator flew to Turkey and snuck across the border to meet up and marry an IS fighter. 

It was not clear how Cuspert wooed her. Court testimony suggested they may have communicated privately via a Skype account he used that Greene did not report to her FBI colleagues. Greene, who was born in Czechoslovakia and married a US soldier, began work at the FBI in 2011, with no problems until her mysterious disappearance in June 2014.

Within weeks of marrying Cuspert, Greene seemed to realize she had made a terrible mistake. She fled back to the US, where she was immediately arrested and agreed to cooperate with authorities.

She pleaded guilty to making false statements involving international terrorism and was sentenced to two years in federal prison. She was released last summer.

"Greene's saga, which has never been publicised, exposes an embarrassing breach of national security at the FBI - an agency that has made its mission rooting out ISIS sympathisers across the country," the channel said.

It also raises questions about whether Greene received favourable treatment from Justice Department prosecutors who charged her with a relatively minor offence, it added.

"It's a stunning embarrassment for the FBI, no doubt about it," said John Kirby, a former State Department official.

Fluent in German, Greene went to work for the FBI as a contract linguist in 2011.

She was assigned to the bureau's Detroit office in January 2014 when she was put to work "in an investigative capacity" on the case of a German terrorist referred to in court records only as "Individual A" identified as Cuspert.

As part of the FBI's investigation into "Individual A," Greene identified several online accounts and phone numbers used by the terrorist, according to the court file. Among them were two Skype accounts. She maintained "sole access" to a third Skype account, the records state.

It was in April 2014, during Greene's work on the investigation, that Cuspert appeared in a video declaring his allegiance to ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

On June 11, 2014, Greene filled out a Report of Foreign Travel form -- a document FBI employees and contractors with national security clearances are required to complete when traveling abroad.

Greene, who was still married to her American husband at the time, characterized her travel on the form as "Vacation/Personal," court records show.

"Want to see my family," she wrote. Specifically, Greene said, she was going to see her parents in Munich, Germany.

She boarded an international flight on June 23, 2014, and flew on a one-way ticket to Istanbul, Turkey. From there she travelled to Gaziantep city, close to the Syrian border.

She contacted "Individual A," the documents state, and with the assistance of a third party arranged by him, crossed the border into Syria. Immediately after her arrival in Syria she married Cuspert, on June 27, 2014, according to court documents recently unsealed. But within days Greene, now 38, began to seek a way out. 

"I really made a mess of things this time," she told a friend in a July 2014 e-mail from IS territory.

"I don`t know how long I will last here, but it doesn`t matter, it`s all a little too late," she said in a subsequent e-mail. In another, she said she recognized she could be imprisoned for years if she returned. 

On August 1, 2014, five weeks after she left for Syria, federal authorities secretly issued a warrant for her arrest.

After about a month in Syria, Greene somehow was able to leave the war-torn country and returned to the United States. She was arrested on August 8, 2014.

Ultimately she pleaded guilty to one charge of "making false statements involving international terrorism," based on what she originally told the FBI about her travel plans. She received a relatively light 24 month prison sentence, and was released last year. 

US blacks living longer, but health gaps persist: CDC study

African-Americans are generally living longer than in 2000, but health disparities mean they are still more likely to die at a younger age on average than whites, a federal study showed on Tuesday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of data from 1999 to 2015 shows that younger black people in their 20s, 30s and 40s are living with, or dying from, diseases that are typically seen in older people.

"The disparity in deaths between the white and black populations is closing. Even so, critical disparities remain," Leandris Liburd, associate director of CDC`s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, said in a conference call.

The death rate, which is usually calculated as deaths per 1,000 people per year, fell 25 percent for African-Americans during the 17-year period, mostly for those aged 65 and older, the CDC said.

In 2014, life expectancy was 75.6 years for blacks and 79 years for whites, which was an increase since 2000 of 3.8 years for blacks and 1.7 years for whites, the CDC said.

However, the study also said "blacks have the highest death rate and shorter survival rate for all cancers combined compared with whites in the United States."

In addition, death rates from heart disease, cancer, diabetes mellitus and homicide have been increasing at earlier ages among blacks than among whites, the CDC study said.

"Blacks were more likely to be obese, to have no leisure time physical activity and less likely to have a normal body weight in all age groups compared with whites," according to the study.

Timothy Cunningham, a CDC epidemiologist and the study`s lead author, said on the conference call: "Across all age groups, homicide among blacks has two-and-a-half times the death rate as HIV and three-and-a-half times the death rate as suicide."

The death rate for homicide among blacks has remained unchanged from 1999 to 2015, the study showed.

Deaths from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among blacks aged 18 to 49 dropped 80 percent over the period of the study. But blacks in the United States still remain seven to nine times more likely to die from HIV than whites, the study said.

The CDC based its report on data from the US Census Bureau, the National Vital Statistics System and its own Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.