The Thinking Blog ~ Knowledge Grows When Shared!

1. Energy Boost: Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes. But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

2. Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

3. PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

4. Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

5. Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

6. Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

7. Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

8. Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

9. Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

10. Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school (England) were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

11. Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

12. Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

13. Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a 'cooling' fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

14. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

15. Quit Smoking: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

16. Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

17. Strokes: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

18. Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

19. Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

20. Overweight at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and chips. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

BONUS: Shoe Polish - want a quick shine on your shoes? Take the inside of the banana skin, and rub directly on the shoe. Finish with dry cloth. Amazing fruit!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. Perhaps it's time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, 'A banana a day keeps the doctor away!'

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While watching a Football match the likelihood of suffering a heart attack increases by 25%. The reason for this is because football enthusiasts concentrate as hard as those players who are playing on the field.

Research from the German Female Doctors Union has pinpointed that conducting half an hour of physical activity every day, is beneficial for conditions of Osteoporosis.

According to studies conducted on 9 thousand and 514 people in the U.S it was discovered that the consumption of red meat and acidic beverages together can increase the incidence of heart and diabetic diseases.

Leave your child to be dirty. Scientists have noted that babies who are always situated in a hygenic environment are more likely to develop cyclical cancer.

According to the Japanese Heath Institute, women who intake vitamin supplements during pregnancy can further reduce depression by 50%.

Studies conclude that egg and rice can improve the ability to learn faster. Fish, chicken, bananas and grain products can calm anxiety in people. Whereas red meat, beans and milk maintain the functioning of the brain.

By Extrememo from Through the Eyes of Bipolarity. Speak out your thoughts too, click here!

The resourceful and ingenious series requires numerous shots -- Carl first sketches out a traditional landscape scene before introducing the food. Each scene is then captured in separate layers to prevent the food from wilting. He then uses computer technology to combine them into a single final print.

To give a realistic 3-D feel to the photos, each still life is composed on an 8 foot by 4 foot table. The foreground is only about 2 feet across.

The artist from Tonbridge, Kent creates amazing panoramas, including a broccoli forest, bread mountains, a cheese village, and smoked salmon seas. "I like the way smaller aspects of nature resembled larger ones." says Warner.

The success of the project has motivated Warner to plan for the images to be released in an educational book to encourage kids to eat healthier. He says his 'Foodscapes' were partly inspired by healthy eating campaigns, but they haven't persuaded his own children to take up the 5-a-day pledge. "But at least they don't play with their food as much as I do." said Carl.

Take a close look at this dusk scene and you'll discover it's good enough to eat -- the pebbles and rocks are potatoes and soda bread, while the red sky at night and sea are entirely formed of strips of salmon.

A forest of greens -- the road is paved with cumin, peas hang from broccoli trees and cauliflower clouds adorn the sky with bread for mountains. Broccoli Forest was one Warner's first creations while experimenting with still life shots.

More Mozzarangelo than Michelangelo -- it's amazing to think that this scene first began on a bread and cheese board.

This Italian inspired rural scene includes a lasagna cart, fields of pasta, a pine nut wall, mozzarella clouds, trees of peppers and chilies and a parmesan village.

A winter landscape for carnivores - Parma ham and breadsticks are fashioned into a sled which is pulled across a snow-covered road made from a selection of cold meats.

"We are stepping back, not to see the big picture, but the detail." Warner says of his works.

"It's not just a case of change of context, but a refinement brought on by the loss of a dimension -- compression, distillation, that defines lens-based imagery."

Born in 1965, the distinctive photographer's artwork also includes urban landscapes of industrial decay, dormant gas tankers, and an earlier series of photographs "over what we create we have no control," exploring rail yards.

Carl Warner's solo exhibitions include 'Sense' at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne in 1995 and 'A Concrete Pasture' at the University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane in 1998 and Cairns Regional Gallery in 1999.

Warner's work has been included in 'Retro Version' at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space in 1999, the Queensland Art Gallery touring exhibition, 'The Art of Inclusion' in 1999-2000, and 'Minimal' at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney in 2000.

Visit Carl Warner at his website to view more of his unusual and remarkable works, or shoot him an email with your inquiries.

Article by Deborah Petersen from Life in the Fast Lane. Submit your thoughts - click here!

Symptoms of choking include:

1. A person cannot speak or cry out.
2. Turning blue (cyanosis) from lack of oxygen.
3. Desperately grabs at his or her throat.
4. Exhibiting a weak cough, and labored breathing producing a high pitched noise
5. The person has any or all of the above, and then becomes unconscious.

Universal sign of choking: If you ever find yourself in this situation, alert those around you by making the universal sign of choking (left). If you witness someone showing this sign or one similar in which you suspect choking, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY.

After calling 911, attempt to dislodge the object by using the Heimlich maneuver (below). If you have not been trained to use this maneuver, most restaurants have a poster that details the procedure. The best solution is to be trained in CPR. A CPR course also includes foreign body airway obstruction (choking) training.


Helping someone who is choking:

It is always important to remain alert and avoid panicking. Someone's life may depend on your assessment, judgment and action.

1. Encourage the person to cough first, slapping the upper back with the heel of your hand with measured hard blows (5 to 20 times) - children with more care. The back slap essentially will create a pressure that will often help to expel the blockage.

2. Abdominal thrusts, used in the Heimlich procedure, can cause damage (cracked ribs, bruising) if not properly applied to the right area. The person performing the procedure, should stand behind the one who is choking and using their hands to exert pressure on the bottom of the diaphragm, compressing the lungs, exerting an upward pressure on the object lodged in the trachea, forcing it out. For pregnant women or obese people chest thrusts can be used in a modified form by placing the back of the hand on the chest rather than the abdomen.

3. If alone, abdominal thrusts can also be done using the back of a chair in the same manner, applying pressure to the diaphragm.

4. If a patient is unconscious, CPR should be done with chest compression and artificial respiration. Once conscious, the obstruction should be at the mouth and can be removed by turning the patient, allowing gravity to do the rest. Finger sweeping can induce vomiting which can also be a problem.

These procedures are appropriate for adults. Young children and infants are different. Training for this should be learned from a medical person in programs designed to address this.

This article was written by Jon Percepto from Eclectic Commons. Images via 1, 2, 3. If you are interested in contributing to the thinking process and be a writer on The Thinking Blog click here.

1. Quit yo Jibber-jabber! You ain't hurt, yo pathetic!, Argh! If I ever catch you out like a crazy fool again, you're gonna meet my friend pain!



2. Know your roots: See this tree here? It's tall, big, beautiful and it is strong! But it wouldn't be here if it didn't have any roots.. and you wouldn't be here either, if you didn't have any roots. You see roots nourish us.. and help us to become what we hope to be!



3. Acknowledge that you a fool: If you are "sitting around crying 'what's wrong with me Dr. Phil what's wrong with me' then YOU A FOOL that's what's wrong with you!



4. Be somebody: Or be somebody's fool. You gotta be a leader, a high achiever! So if you want to be cool, just like me - You better try real hard to be some-bo-dy!



5. Recouping: One out of one Dr. T's recommend it!



6. Treat your mother right: Mother! There is no other! Like mother! So treat her right!

M is for the moan and the miserable groan
From the pain that she felt when I was bo'n!

O is for the oven with its burnin' heat,
Where she stood makin' sure I had somethin' to eat!

T is for the time that she stayed up nights,
And took my temperature when I wasn't feeling right!

H is for the hard-earned money she spent,
To keep clothes on my back and tried to pay da rent!

E is every wrinkle I put on her face,
And every worry that I caused when I stayed out late!

The last letter, R, is that she taught me respect,
And for the room up in heaven that I know she'll get!

7. Treat your friends right: Where I come from, a true friend is someone that when you get bit by a snake in the big toe [!!], they'll be there to suck the poison out! I mean, that's a real, true friend! Sometimes a true friend is hard to find.



8. Learn computers: Maybe Mr.T hacked the game and created a mohawk class! Maybe Mr. T is pretty handy with computers!



9. Be the "I" in I.T.: Hey, sucka! Be there! Don't make me mad, Arrr!



10. Stop saying "I Pity the Fool": It used to be fun in the 80's, not anymore.



Happy 2008! Do you have a New Year’s resolution?