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South Korea wants citizens to have more sex

29/8/2016

by Evan Bartlett

Faced with an ageing population and one of the world's lowest birth rates, the South Korean government is urging its citizens to make more babies.

Among the "emergency measures" to enthuse its populace into starting, or growing, their family are financial support for couples seeking fertility treatment and extra paternity leave for parents welcoming a second child.

The Korea Herald reports that the measure were announced by the ministry of health and welfare following a 5.3 per cent drop in new born babies in the first five months of the year compared to the same time in 2015.

Health minister Chung Chin-youb said:

The government prepared such emergency measures with a desperate mind that we must exert all possible efforts to block the current low birth rate that continues to decline

But these still fall short of transforming the sense of defeat felt by youths into a sense of hope, or to console the working mums who shed tears during our policy debate.

The BBC reports that South Korea's birth rate has plummeted since the 1960s despite billions of pounds worth of government spending.

The government will spend up to £44m on the new measures, according to the Korea Times, although there are fears that state policy will not be able to over power a corporate culture seen as "family-unfriendly".

Culled from www.independent.co.uk

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Eating too much of these 9 popular foods may kill you

27/8/2016

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BY ABIMBOLA ADEGOKE

While food is good for the body and necessary for survival, humans are also expected to be wary of the meals they ingest and the rate at which they consume them.

Some types of food, if taken excessively, are capable of causing health risks.

The onus is on you to learn why certain foods are unhealthy, why you shouldn’t take them and how you can make better choices on daily basis.

Here are some unhealthy meals to watch out for.

Egusi soup

At the mention of this soup, many will salivate as it is much-loved by many Nigerians… but hold that saliva.

Egusi contains something called phytosterols which when consumed, compete with cholesterol for absorption in the digestive system.

Also, egusi has a high level of calories and when garnished with few chunks of stock fish and two pieces of meat, it has a total of roughly 700 calories per serving.

Imagine consuming it with about 3 wraps of eba which is about 600 calories.

Loaf of sliced bread

Bread is widely consumed daily across the country especially because it doesn’t have to be cooked before consumption.

Bread belongs to the class of starchy foods and overt consumption increases the risk of getting diabetes.

If you are taking in 100 grams of bread, you are consuming 265 calories, especially if it is white bread.

Some Nigerian-made breads are also not completely bromate free.

Potassium bromate is added to help strengthen the bread dough and this chemical is cancerous.

If you can steer off bread, there are other excellent choices that are low in carbs.

One minute Noodles

While noodles can’t be called a Nigerian food, it has been adopted into Nigeria’s stream of foods such that it is consumed by both young and old.

Nigerians go for noodles because it is cheap, easy and fast to cook, hence the name “instant noodles.”

Tests have revealed that noodles contain high sodium which aside being cancerous, causes heart disease and skin damage.

Eating too much of noodles is bad for digestion and it also leads to obesity.

Eba

Processed from cassava, garri is a food rich in carbohydrate; both the yellow and the white type.

Garri helps to restore lost energy but a high rate of consumption does more harm than good.

A cup of garri contains about 360 calories, 95% of which is carbohydrates and further consumption with soup, meat and/or fish, increases the level of calories.

Consuming a great deal of starchy foods like eba is like welcoming excess weight with open arms.

Fufu, made from cassava

Fufu is another staple food made from cassava and its origin can be traced to Ghana.

Fufu is of good nutritional value as it is rich in protein, fat, carbohydrates, potassium and low in cholesterol.

Some are turned off by the smell that fufu gives and/or the fact that it takes longer time to digest.

Research has it that every part of cassava plant has a toxic chemical called Linamarin.

This chemical, even after boiling the cassava, doesn’t change its state and this could be harmful during digestion.

Also, under-processing of fufu, which is rampant, has harmful implications on the health. This is because the cyanide content is not reduced to a non-toxic state.

Women and children are susceptible to cyanide poisoning as they are usually the ones who carry out the processing of fufu.

Good old fried plantain

There is a meme trending on social media about plantain which reads, “How can you say in good faith that the God who created plantain doesn’t love you?”.

This is proof of the love people have for plantain.

Granted, plantain is a good source of carbohydrates, vitamin B6, vitamin C and is also a natural remedy for peptic ulcer.

However, plantain contains a considerable amount of carbohydrates and more calories are produced when it is fried in oil.

Also, the water content decreases when fried and this might not be satiating enough.

Integrating plantain into your diet is making way for ample calorie intake. Taking 100 grams of plantain is consuming about 30 grams of carbohydrates, 15 grams of sugar and 120 calories.

Other methods of cooking plantain (aside frying) should be adopted if one cannot live without plantain.

Pastries

There’s an endless list of flour-based pastries which are baked, fried or roasted and are often taken between meals.

Healthy snacking helps you maintain physical and mental energy and it also helps one have control over main meals.

Snacking is however, only healthy when it is done to control appetite and meet nutritional needs. It shouldn’t become a habit because many snack foods are high in fat, calories, sugar and salt.

One tends to gain extra pounds through added daily calories if snacking is done out of boredom or habit.

Consuming too many sugary pastries could also lead to tooth decay.

Endeavour to avoid buying pastries on the street. Home-made pastries are advisable as one is sure of the type of oil used for the preparation.

Oil when used over time becomes acidic but most sellers tend to keep old oil in use and keep frying with oil which is already harmful to the health.

A bowl of rice

Rice is rich in carbohydrates and fairly low in calories. It is a good source of energy because it is carbohydrate-dense.

Consuming too much of carbohydrate-dense foods may cause one to eat little of other nutritious meals needed for a healthy life.

Eating too much rice could adversely affect glucose metabolism in the body.

White rice contains about 4 grams of fiber per cup and consuming it in excess would fill one up preventing intake of other foods.

White rice is also low in phytic acid because of the bran which is always removed during processing. Ample research has it that white rice increases the risk of getting diabetes.

It is advisable to consume brown rice or reduce the rate of white rice consumption.

Pounded yam

A lot of Nigerians love pounded yam and it is widely consumed across the country.

Pounded yam is a source of carbohydrate and a good source of energy which contains dietary fiber that helps reduce constipation.

Pounded yam is high in calories as a small slice of yam contains about 330 calories and one tin cup of pounded yam contains about 400 calories from carbohydrates alone.

Pounded yam has the highest glycemic index compared to boiled yam and the process of arriving at pounded yam makes carbohydrates more available to enzymes that disintegrate the carbohydrates to glucose.

Eating pounded yam is consuming calories with no real nutrition.

Diabetic patients are advised to steer off foods with high starch and embrace foods with low starch.

Culled from www.thecable.ng

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International chefs cooking surplus Olympic food for city's poorest residents

21/8/2016

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Feliks Garcia New York @feliksjose

A group of international chefs launched an effort to tackle the widespread hunger problem in Rio de Janeiro by cooking surplus food donated from the Olympic Village and serving it to impoverished residents.

The 31st Olympic Games in the Brazilian city have faced major criticism as the country struggles through a massive economic crisis.

However, the catering company contracted to the Olympic Village - and 11,000 competitors - says it is doing its bit by providing meals for the hungry.

Launched by chefs Massimo Bottura of Italy and Brazil’s David Hertz, RefettoRio Gastromotiva aims to produce some 5,000 meals daily using only those ingredients that would otherwise head for the bin.

“RefettoRio Gastromotiva is going to work only with ingredients that are about to be wasted … like ugly fruit and vegetables, or yogurt that is going to be wasted in two days if you don’t buy it,” Mr Hertz told Reuters.

“We want to fight hunger and provide access to good food.”

Gastromotiva will continue through the duration of the Olympics and Paralympic Games, after which it will function as a “social business”, Mr Hertz said.

The business will also provide vocational training for aspiring restaurant professionals, including cooks, bakers, and servers.

Mr Bottura drew inspiration for the Gastromotiva from a 2015 initiative, Refetterio Ambrosiano, that brought 65 chefs together to cook meals using donated ingredients from that year’s Milan World Expo.

As the Games continue and athletes rack up their medals, so do the massive protests calling out the troubles overlooked by the country’s government.

At the start games, a group called Comitê Popular Rio organised a protest called “The Exclusion Games” that highlighted those extensive costs amid the country’s recession, political strife, and public health crises.

Culled from www.independent.co.uk

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Young people 'are having less sex than their parents did' Good news for moralists?

3/8/2016

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By BEN SPENCER MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Young adults of the ‘Tinder generation’ are having less sex than any generation since the 1920s, a study suggests.

Experts have assumed that people born in the 1990s - known as ‘Millennials’ - were more promiscuous than those who came before, due to the availability and popularity of dating apps such as Tinder and Gridr.

But scientists at Florida Atlantic University have found that people aged 20 to 24 today are more likely to abstain from sex than any generation for 90 years.

Some 15 per cent percent of this age group in the US have had no sexual partners since turning 18, the researchers found.

Of those born in the 1960s, only 6 per cent had not had sex when they were at the same age.

The only other generation that showed a similar rate of sexual inactivity were those born in the 1920s - those who turned 20 in the years of World War Two or soon after - for whom the figure was roughly the same as that of today’s 20-somethhings.

‘The new sexual revolution has apparently left behind a larger segment of the generation than first thought,’ said the researchers, writing in the journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour.

The research echoes trends seen in Britain, where teenage pregnancy rates among teenagers have plunged to a record low.

According to the Office for National Statistics there were fewer than 23,000 pregnancies among girls under 18 in England and Wales in 2014, a conception level not seen since figures began to be recorded in 1969.

The collapse in pregnancy rates follows compelling evidence that teenagers are becoming less and less likely to smoke, drink or take drugs in an age in which millions spend much of their spare time engaged with solitary social media rather than mixing with their friends.

Researchers found 15 per cent of Millennials aged 20-24 had no sex since they turned 18 compared to just six per cent of Generation X

Some researchers have pointed to a ‘Facebook effect’ which has led teenagers who would once have spent their spare time on the streets instead to devote it to playing with gadgets in their bedrooms.

Widespread public disapproval of smoking, drunkenness, drug abuse and teen mothers is also likely to have influenced teen behaviour.

Dr Ryne Sherman of Florida Atlantic University, who led the new study, said: ‘This study really contradicts the widespread notion that Millennials are the “hookup” generation, which is popularized by dating apps like Tinder and others, suggesting that they are just looking for quick relationships and frequent casual sex.

‘Our data show that this doesn’t seem to be the case at all and that Millennials are not more promiscuous than their predecessors.’

The researchers used data from the General Social Survey, a nationally representative sample of American adults which questions 18 to 96 since 1989.
Dr Sherman said that those born in the 1990s were the most likely to be sexually inactive in their early 20s, and showed a definite break with those born in the 1980s.

‘While attitudes about premarital sex have become more permissive over time, rise in individualism allows young American adults to have permissive attitudes without feeling the pressure to conform in their own behaviour,’ he said.

Culled from www.dailymail.co.uk

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South Korea wants citizens to have more sex

Eating too much of these 9 popular foods may kill you

International chefs cooking surplus Olympic food for city's poorest residents

Young people 'are having less sex than their parents did' Good news for moralists?

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