Top 5 Healthy Foods You're Probably Not Eating - But Should Be

From HealthCastle.com

1. Dried Plums
   
   This is one food that definitely suffers from an unglamorous reputation - especially when referred to by their more common name: prunes. But they have twice as much potassium as bananas and 38 percent more antioxidants than blueberries! Plus, they provide both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber - including pectin, a type of soluble fiber that may lower blood cholesterol levels.
   
   To get dried plums into your diet, throw a few in your purse for easy snacking, or add some to your child's lunchbox.
   
   
2. Beets
   
   Beets contain fiber, iron, and Vitamin C. Plus, they contain betacyanin - a powerful cancer-fighting agent that has been shown to help prevent colon cancer in particular. Still not convinced? They also contain antioxidants that have been shown to lower total cholesterol while increasing HDL (good) cholesterol!
   
   To get beets into your diet, try marinating steamed beets in fresh lemon juice, olive oil, and fresh herbs; grate raw beets onto salads, soups, or any other dish; or simply add chunks of beet to your roasting pan when you cook up roasted veggies! (Don't cook beets too long, since beets' anti-cancer activity is diminished by heat.)
   
   
3. Pumpkin
   
   A serving of pumpkin has nearly 3 grams of fiber, and is packed with beta carotene - an antioxidant that can help improve immune function and reduce the risk for cancer and heart disease. Fresh pumpkin is only available in the fall and winter months, but canned pumpkin is just as healthy and available all year round.
   
   To get pumpkin into your diet, cut fresh peeled pumpkin into chunks and roast with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper; drop a generous scoop of canned pumpkin into plain pancake batter; make a soup from canned pumpkin, chicken broth, and fat free half and half; or make a traditional pumpkin pie.
   
   
4. Eggplant
   
   Eggplant is packed with fiber, and contains Vitamins B1, B3, and B6. Plus, it contains chlorogenic acid - one of the most potent free radical scavengers you can find in a vegetable, and nasunin - a powerful antioxidant that has been shown to protect lipids in brain cells, prevent cellular damage that can lead to cancer, and help prevent rheumatoid arthritis.
   
   To get eggplant into your diet, puree roasted eggplant, garlic, tahini, lemon juice and olive oil to make home-made babaganoush that you can use in sandwiches or as a dip; add cubes eggplant to your next curry or stir-fry; or again, add to the trusty pan of roasted vegetables.
   
   
5. Beans
   
   Beans are another food with an unglamorous reputation, probably attributable to the old schoolyard rhyme about the magical fruit. But research has shown that beans pack big health benefits - they can do everything from help prevent cancer and heart disease to regulate blood sugar. Plus, they're loaded with antioxidants, protein, and fiber. Dried beans are the cheapest, but canned beans work great if you're short on time.
   
   To get beans into your diet, try a pasta salad with veggies and a can of rinsed chickpeas; use kidney beans to replace half the meat you would normally use in chili; or serve canned, diced tomatoes with onion, green pepper, and black eyed peas over rice.

Save Your Money

From The New York Times:

Here’s what you really need to hear as you start your adult life: Save your money! If you want to buy a house – and not live on ramen noodles in your 60s - you’d better start saving now! In fact, saving while you’re young is critical. For example, if you bank $250 a month in an IRA starting now, in 40 years you’ll have about half a million dollars. However, if you wait to save until you’re 45, you’ll have to set aside over a thousand bucks a month to reach that same retirement goal. Also, you should be saving 10% of your paycheck on top of your IRA payments. That way, you’ll have money for fun and can save for a house.

So, how can you possibly afford to put away that much? Well, if you’re making $40,000 – which is a typical starting salary for a college-educated professional in a big city - you’ll end up with $561 in take-home pay after taxes. So 10% is only $56. You easily frittered that away last week on things you can’t even remember. If you simply save that amount instead, you’re nearly set for life. So, here’s how to cut a few corners:

• Make your own coffee. Say you spend $3.50 a day on lattes. Try the free workplace brew instead. In 10 years, you’ll have $11,000 in the bank.
  
  
• Learn to cook. A twice-a-week habit of pizza or Chinese takeout could easily cost you $10,000 in 10 years.
  
  
• Brown-bagging your lunch could save you about $23,000 a decade.
  
  
• Also, if you’re a smoker, quit now. You’ll save about $25,000 over a decade, and add years to your life, as well.

Total savings from just coffee, cooking, lunches and cigarettes over 10 years: $69,000! Enough to put a down payment on a house. One final money-saving tip: Every time you get a raise, pretend you didn’t – and bank all of it.

The Most Fattening Carnival Foods

From Newsweek Magazine:

What’s one of the best things to do over the summer? Go to a carnival or state fair, right? Well, you know that funnel cake and snow cones aren’t health food – but you may think with all the walking around you’re doing you’ll burn off those extra calories. Think again, my friend! To that end, here are the most fattening carnival foods.

• The deep-fried Oreo. It’s made by dipping the Oreo in pancake mix, egg, milk and vegetable oil then deep-frying it. It turns a 50 calorie Oreo into a 157 calorie Oreo. Now, that’s not a lot overall, but it’s a lot for one cookie! Plus, that single cookie now has 10 grams of fat! That’s about a fifth of your daily fat intake in one mouthful!
  
  
• Cotton candy. It has absolutely no nutritional benefit – it’s just whipped sugar on a cone. If it’s between some deep-fried Oreos and the cotton candy – you may want to go with the cotton candy because the entire thing is just 200 calories.
  
  
• How about this State Fair / carnival staple: The corn dog. It’s not that bad as far as calories – the problem is the sodium content. One corn dog has nearly 1,200 milligrams of sodium – or half the recommended DAILY intake for an adult.
  
  
• The deep-fried Twinkie. A single fried Twinkie is 420 calories and 32 grams of fat. That’s before you add any toppings like powdered sugar or chocolate sauce. To put that in perspective, it’s more calories and fat than a Whopper Junior with cheese.
  
  
• The innocent looking snow cone. It’s just shaved ice, you may say. Yes, but then it’s loaded with sugar syrup. So one snow cone can have 550 calories!
  
  
• Funnel Cake. A single serving has as many calories as a Whopper with cheese and more than half the fat you should have in an entire day. To burn off that Funnel Cake, the average 35 year old woman would have to jog for 86 minutes straight – or walk without stopping for three and a half hours.

Five Ways to Make Anyone Like You

Want to make more friends? Or get your boss to notice how great you are? Well, here are five ways to make anyone like you. These come from the book “What You Don’t Know About How Others See You” by psychologist Dr. Ann Demarais.

• Start on an upbeat note – even if what’s on your mind is the traffic jam you just dealt with – or the fight you just had with your husband. People tend to view you in the same light as the first words out of your mouth.
  
  
• Pause for two seconds – whether someone is showing you a picture of their kid, giving you a business card, or showing off their new haircut. You’ll instantly seem more interested – and when you seem interested, you become more interesting to that person.
  
  
• Give a compliment. We’re a shallow species. The people we like best are the ones who make us feel good about ourselves and nothing makes us feel better than a sincere, thoughtful compliment. However, make it personal. It’s not enough to say, “I like that tie.” It’s better to say, “That tie looks great on you!”
  
  
• Touch their arm. A simple touch conveys that there’s a connection between you and the other person. In fact, a recent study found that strangers in a mall were more apt to like – and help out – a person who had just casually brushed their arm!
  
  
• Mention an interesting fact. That’s where this show comes in handy! A recent survey found that passing along just one unusual tidbit like, “Did you know cats can make more than 100 different sounds”, makes people think you’re a great conversationalist!

The Dark Knight - Review

Early in the summer, Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. defied all expectations by beginning an amazing new franchise. But Iron Man did more than that, it raised expectations for comic book adaptations forever. It changed the stigma that super hero films are flimsy screen versions meant for only the truest of fans. With the Dark Knight, this unfair fallacy can be forever put to rest. Christopher Nolan's second caped crusader outing surpasses 2005's Batman Begins in numerous ways. Here, we are finally past Batman's conception and must now get down to the meat of his personal struggle to serve Gotham regardless how Gotham feels about him.

This story plays out more like a classic organized crime drama and less like a super hero film, because all though we are privy to explosions and chases galore, we are also witness to public officials trying desperately to save their city. Nolan inlisted the help of his brother Jonathan in the writing of the script, he first helped him in the writing of Memento. Their dialogue is always crisp and lean, truly capitalizing on the A-list cast that shines in this ensemble piece.

In all the Batman films and beyond, I doubt any villain can compare to this Joker, portrayed in terrifying detail by the late Heath Ledger. Here is a villain unlike we are used to in recent years. This is a evil doer on a large scale that doesn't seek money, or fame, only chaos, making him all the more unsettling. The film is complimented all the more by Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne's gadgets expert, Michael Caine as the dutiful Alfred and Gary Oldman as the newly appointed Commissioner Gordon. These are oscar worthy actors playing bit parts and the reason is obvious, because never again will a Batman film climb above its predecessors and defy its genre to not only entertain but challenge both emotionally and intellectually. So, my advice see it, then see it again just for good measure. Here is celluloid euphoria, the kind of film we all hope for in the middle of a steamy summer.

Deadlines You Should Never Miss

From CNN:

It’s true what they say: Time is money. In fact, here are four deadlines where simply being ON time can save you lots of money.

• Deadline #1: Your credit card bill. Credit card payment deadlines are ruled by three magic words: “Subject To Change!” In other words, even if you ask for a payment date that’s more convenient for you, banks have the right to change that date at any time! So whether you pay by mail – or online – experts say you should double check your due date as soon as you receive a statement. Then, make sure your payment arrives by 3 PM, at least one business day BEFORE that date. Otherwise you face a late fee of $40 or more plus finance charges.
  
  
• A 2nd deadline you should never miss: Promotional deadlines. Electronics and furniture stores love to lure people in with ads which scream: “buy now, pay later!” That’s really just code for: “pay now or else.” Because interest WILL start adding up the moment you walk out of a store, at rates as high as 39%. If you don’t pay the full balance before the promotion ends, you’ll be on the hook for all that interest – retroactively. Which means a cool new plasma TV you bought for $1,000, might suddenly cost DOUBLE that amount.
  
  
• Here’s a surprising deadline you should never miss: Due dates for library books and parking tickets. Ignoring the deadline for a city service – like a parking ticket – will go on your credit history. If your bank sees a pattern of being late on other payments, they may go ahead and raise your interest rate – even if you’ve made all your credit card payments on time.
  
  
• Here’s one last deadline that could cost you dearly to miss: The deadline for reporting a lost or stolen ATM card. Most banks are happy to replace a lost card for free – if you call them immediately. However, if someone uses your ATM card fraudulently, and you wait more than two days to call the bank, you could lose everything. Because debit cards aren’t protected the same way that credit cards are protected. So the bank will be under no obligation to refund any stolen money!

Election 2008

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Will You Ever Catch Up On Sleep?

From Scientific American magazine:

Let’s face it - you've given up your fair share of sleep. You’re constantly tired. So, the question is: will you ever catch up and feel truly rested again? When we skimp on sleep, we accumulate what experts call sleep debt. This is the difference between the amount of sleep you SHOULD be getting and the amount you actually do get. It's a deficit that grows every time we shave some extra minutes off our nightly slumber. This is a BIG cause for concern when it comes to our health.

Studies show that such short-term sleep deprivation leads to a foggy brain, bad vision, impaired driving and trouble remembering. Long-term effects include obesity, insulin resistance and heart disease. Most Americans suffer from chronic deprivation. So basically, we’re a country full of forgetful, fat, disease-ridden zombies who drive badly. Generally, experts recommend 8 hours of sleep per night. Most of us get only 6.8. So on average, we’re losing about an hour of sleep each night — that’s more than two full weeks of slumber every year.

The good news is that, like all debt, and with some work, sleep debt can be repaid. It won't happen in one extended snooze marathon. Lawrence J. Epstein is the medical director of the Harvard-affiliated Sleep Health Centers. He says tacking on an extra hour of sleep a night is a good way to catch up, but the BEST way is to go to bed when you’re tired, and allow your body to wake you in the morning - no alarm clock allowed. You might find yourself banking around 10 hours of shut-eye at first, but as the days pass, that amount will gradually level out. Because as you erase your sleep debt, your body will come to rest at a sleep pattern that’s specifically right for you. You’ll benefit all the way around. Psychiatrist William C. Dement, who founded the Stanford University Sleep Clinic, says when you knock out sleep debt, you become “superhuman.” In other words, your mental and physical capabilities dramatically improve. Finally - a scientific reason to ditch the alarm clock!

My heaven is in the Scranton business park

The last few months, life has been stressful and depressing at times. I've had my ups and downs and I've had my hopeless moments, but I've always found solace somewhere between Pam's reception desk and Michael's office. My frustrations and worries dissolve with a visit to Shrute Farm or a quick drink at Poor Richards.

I suppose my point to this measly little tirade is that happiness is not always guaranteed, that doubt and fear can cloud ones perspective and convince them that they have failed. It's not always easy to get through times of sadness. But sometimes it can simply mean finding the beauty in the mundane and drab that can inspire your heart to get up tomorrow and try again. And that is exactly what "The Office" has done for me, helped me realize that great things can always come of nightmares and that faith in the very depths of the human experience is usually accomplished on blind faith. Now this sounds pretty heavy handed, and it is. Next you'll think I feel that Buddha speaks through "Friends" or that "Saved by the Bell" holds the keys to youthful energy. But all cynicism aside, "The Office" has been a well of happiness and escapism when I felt that I could never smile again.

Although it is ridiculous, I think it best to encourage everyone and anyone to find the parts of their life and the people in their life that truly make it all worth living. Because yes, "The Office" is just a TV show, a sit-com about a group of dissatisfied, bored employees in a dull office of a failing company. And yet it has made difference between a rabbit in a hat, and true magic to me; and that is always what we look for.

Happy 232nd Independence Day to United States of America

On this day in 1776 United States of America became free from England. Every person should remember that the Red, White and Blue. The men and woman who put their lives on line for our freedoms and our way of life. Right now there are men and woman in Iraq and Afghanistan who are not home with their family, so when you are watching fireworks tonight put them in your thoughts and prayers.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Dedicate to Jimmy Battle Taylor

To woman who love is country

Manage Your Workspace

Want to know the difference between a promotion at work, and another year stuck in the same ol’ rat race? It could be your desk! After all, your desk is the first thing the boss sees when he hovers over your shoulder. Like it or not, it’s what co-workers judge you by – as they walk past you on their way to lunch, or to head home. So, here’s how to manage your workspace, and express yourself in a way that helps you get ahead.

From career expert, Jordan Devine:

• Desk decoration #1: Family photos. Pictures are by far the most common desktop display. Experts say the right photo can boost your career almost as much as a great resume would! The key is to never show more than two snapshots at once – since too many personal photos sends the message that you’d rather be at home than at work! Otherwise, a tasteful photo of you with your spouse lets people know that you’re capable of managing complex relationships – which is good for business. A photo of your kids reminds people that your have responsibilities outside of work. Why’s that important? Because bosses know that workers with families to support are the least likely to jump ship.
  
  
• Desk decoration #2: Reading materials. Some jobs – like our researchers here – require a desk to be covered with books and magazines! The experts think that’s smart. They say it’s wise to invest at least $5 per month subscribing to a newspaper or magazine – especially one that relates to your industry. Because it gives the impression that you keep up with current events and business trends.
  
  
• A 3rd common desk decor is: Sports paraphernalia. The experts say there’s a relatively simple rule for sports fans to follow at work: It’s good to support the hometown team, and it’s bad to support anyone else! The point being that people who cheer together are more likely to foster friendly working relationships.
  
  
• Here’s one last decoration tip for your desk: At the end of the day, keep it neat! Yes, a working desk can – and will – get cluttered! Studies show that getting rid of clutter is a great way to reduce stress and if the first thing you see at work each morning is a nice, clean desk, you’re less likely to feel overwhelmed.