Friday, 2 May 2014
Reasons why you need to start cooking with iodised salt
May 2, 2014 by Bukola Adebayo
| credits: Organicfacts
Most
people have properly tasted salt today. This sweetener remains one of
the most used and ever present seasoning in our kitchens.
It is added to snacks, name it, from meat
to sweets, a pinch or more is in it. Even in some countries, there is
the option of buying salted water.
You have probably heard of the Federal Government campaign that any salt sold in the country should be fortified with iodine.
One may wonder why the government gave this directive, really, why is it necessary to cook with iodised salt?
A nutritionist, Dr. Chris Isokpunwu says
adding iodine to salt has been proven to be a cost effective and
reliable way to address Iodine deficiency in children and adults.
Benefits of Iodine
Isokpunwu notes that Iodine is an
essential trace element that is vital for normal growth and development.
He states that iodine is also a micro nutrient that helps the body burn
calories, thereby preventing its storage of excess fat.
He adds that the micro nutrient is used
up while the body removes toxins or when it wants to take up calcium or
silicon for many bodily functions including bone formation.
However, its deficiency, experts say has serious consequences on our health.
According to World Health Organisation, Iodine deficiency is one of the leading causes of mental retardation all over the world.
Isokpunwu explains that because iodine
helps in most brain functions, its shortage has been linked to a
significant reduction in affected individuals’ Intelligent Quotient.
He states that this micro nutrient
deficiency is also responsible for poor growth and mental development in
children. According to the expert, children are at a higher risk of
suffering from this deficiency compared to adults.
“Many children, especially babies do not
eat enough food for them to meet their daily requirement for Iodine
intake. So they are likely to suffer Iodine deficiency compared to other
age groups.
“This cannot be overlooked because Iodine
boosts Intelligent Quotient and when you don’t have enough, it can lead
to mental challenges for the kids. It has been proven that most
children born with cognitive challenges must have been born of mothers
who suffered from Iodine deficiency.” he states.
If Iodine deficiency is bad for children,
it is deadlier in pregnant women. Doctors note that it increases their
chances of having still births and also leads to reduced fertility in
men.
Consultant Gynaecologist, Dr. Francis
Adetoye states that Iodine deficiency in pregnant woman increases her
risk of having children whose growth is stunted.
Adetoye said, “ Iodine is an essential
macronutrient that is used up in every metabolic process that goes on in
the body. If a child lacks it, he/she won’t grow as expected. In
severe cases, it can lead to serious physical malformation and mental
retardation in an affected child. It is a major cause of cretinism.”
They reiterate that nursing mothers must
ensure that they meet their daily requirement of this micro nutrient, as
most of it is usually lost in breast milk.
He adds, “ Studies show that a pregnant
or nursing woman can actually lose more than her entire required dose of
iodine every day, which can result in serious iodine deficiency for
her, even after pregnancy and breastfeeding are over, due to the changes
in activity of her hormonal glands.
“You must do all you can to meet up with
the requirement daily. It is important for your child and your health
and your chances of a safe delivery.”
Symptoms
The symptoms of Iodine deficiency vary
from one individual to the other. Adetoye says that poor perception
level and mental retardation are clear signals of an Iodine deficiency
in children while decreased fertility and abnormal weight gain are the
signs in men.
He adds that women generally may suffer severe constipation and constant still births.
Salt and Iodine
Having given a background on why the body
needs Iodine, it is important to state why one needs to cook with
iodised salt henceforth.
Simple, scientists say that since this
sweetener is added to most meals, cooking with iodised salt is the most
reliable way to ensure that many people meet their daily requirement of
iodine.
Even though government has put in place
policies and measures to ensure that manufacturers of salt or users of
salt in the food processing industry fortify their salt with Iodine, not
many of them comply.
In fact, truly iodised salt is one that is not easily gotten in some Nigerian market.
To check if you are cooking with iodised
salt or not, Isokpunwu gives this simple trick: He adds, “Cut a piece of
white yam, add the salt you have in the house to the very white
surface. If it turns blue black, then it is iodised; if not, then feel
free to hold the supplier responsible.”
How to teach your children about money
by Ife Adedapo
Even if your children cannot start working for a pay now, teaching them money management will be of help in the future, IFE ADEDAPO writes
The essence of working hard at a job is
to earn a living, add value to the society and build a fulfilling
career. Experts say the knowledge of the importance of hard work, the
monetary compensation that accompanies it and the judicious use of the
money earned should be passed on to children early. This, they say will
be a leverage on which the children will plan their future.
One of the essential duties of parents to
their children is to provide for their immediate needs. Professionals
say these needs include basics for survival like food, shelter and
clothing; they may also include other nice things like toys. In addition
to providing for their children’s immediate needs, parents need to
provide for their future temporal needs by teaching them to be
financially independent adults.
Experts recommend several ways by which
parents can teach their children about money and foster positive
attitudes and habits. They suggest everyday opportunities like shopping,
paying bills and withdrawing cash from the Automated Teller Machine to
teach their children. The teaching can start as early as age three or
once the child knows the value of money.
According to foreverfamilies.byu.edu, the following methods can help parents raise financially responsible children.
Discuss with your children
Experts say to build the financial
knowledge of your children, talk about how you earn money and how you
plan to spend it. When you take your child to the grocery store, explain
what prompts your purchasing decisions. Explain why the budget for a
particular item is more than the other.
They say it is common for them to request
for things they desire, often without a good reason. Therefore, let
them know they cannot have everything, but discuss how important it is
for them to wait for what they want.
Be a good role model
Your children will develop their
financial attitudes and behaviours by what they see you do, not what
they hear you say. Experts say because they are very observant, children
will learn many of their money concepts by watching you and copying
your behaviour. Actively encourage good values. Teach your children the
value of work and teach them responsibility. Teach them delayed
gratification by letting them save towards a goal of a new bike or video
game.
Experts say many successful financial
milestones are achieved by goal-setting. Encourage your children to set
savings goals and work towards them. Ensure that the item is not too
cheap so that they won’t be able to afford it for months. This will
teach them good savings habit. Let them know that even you have things
you want and cannot have.
Open a savings account
Financial advisors say for easy planning
of a child’s education, banks in Nigeria have different packages that
ensure adequate planning for a child’s education and financial future.
Their parents can open one for them
Explain to the children how compound
interest works and show them how their money grows in a savings account.
Expand to a checking account once they are ready.
Set limits
Even if you are able to buy your child
everything he or she asks for, experts say you must refrain from being
overindulgent. By fulfilling all their demands, you may deny your child
of several things: appreciating things that cannot be bought; being
motivated to work hard; persevering through obstacles and frustration;
and achieving a hard-won goal. Learn to say no to your child and be
firm.
Have them manage money now
To manage money adequately, experts say
you should give your child an allowance, whether or not it is tied to
chores, and give him or her some general guidelines on how to spend and
save it. The emphasis is on general because your child should have
enough freedom to make his or her own decisions and mistakes. Encourage
young children to bring their allowances with them whenever you are
shopping.
This, they say, will help them make
decisions on whether the item they desire so much is worth spending
their allowances on. If you do not want to give your child an allowance,
allow him or her to manage money by letting him or her pay the grocer
or the parking attendant.
Teach them to give
Financial advisors counsel that you
should help your child experience the good feelings of sharing his or
her income with others. Encourage your child to regularly contribute a
portion of his or her income to a charity or help your child buy treats
for the family. Adopt a family through your church during the holidays
or give your child the responsibility of buying or making birthday gifts
for friends. Also, teach your child to contribute in ways other than
giving money by giving time, energy and skills to help someone else.
Thursday, 1 May 2014
Kanu Nwankwo's Adorable family (Photos)
His last child Pinky Amarachi Kanu was born in February 2012 and her christening ceremony was held in London last year.
Baby Pinky
In the photos below are superstar dad Kanu, his wife and their two handsome sons and pretty daughter at the Christening ceremony.
Kanu Nwankwo and family
Kanu Nwankwo and family during the Christening ceremony
Kanu Nwankwo got married to his wife Amara in 2004 when she was only 18-years-old.
Kanu and his family are based in London.
Check out more photos of the beautiful family:
Baby Pinky with her brothers
Kanu, his wife & daughter
Kanu Nwankwo & his daughter
Kanu's wife and daughter
7 Ways to Cheer Yourself Up When You’re Feeling Lonely
1. Enjoy nature
Enjoying nature is one of the best ways to cheer yourself up, of course, if you love nature. Ride your bike around your town, enjoy beautiful flowers, watch birds and enjoy wonderful scenery. Everyone can enjoy nature and you don’t need money for it. It’s so amazing to witness such breathtaking beauty, isn’t it?2. Play with a pet
Your pet can make you feel better in no time. When you are feeling lonely, play with your pet because he relies on you and he really loves you. If you don’t own pets, go to the pet store and just look at those cute puppies, kittens or any other animal. Playing with a pet will definitely improve your mood. Pets can help with loneliness and they can make you happier.3. Listen to cheerful music
Listening to cheerful music is a sure way to boost your mood. I know it’s so tempting to listen to sad songs when you are feeling lonely, but they can make you even more sad. Instead of glorifying despair, inspire hope. Cheerful songs can improve your mood and even make you feel less lonely.4. Create new things
Creating something new requires creativity, hard work, and dedication, but it’s a great way to cheer yourself up when you are feeling lonely. Whether you whip out the waffle iron or pick up a paintbrush, keep yourself busy by creating something new. You will be proud of yourself because you’ll know how to create useful things out of nothing.Read also – 8 Fun Ways to Enjoy Being Single
5. Read some celeb stories
Read some celeb success stories and you will be able to connect with many of them. Many celebs felt like they were absolutely alone in this world, but now almost everyone loves them. The point is that your life can change drastically at any minute, and celebs prove it. Stay positive even when everything seems to be going wrong.6. Exercise or join a local sports team
A great number of studies show that people who exercise on a regular basis benefit with a positive boost in mood. Exercise can even help fight anxiety and depression. Running, jogging, swimming can help you feel better and look better. If you feel like you are completely alone, try to join a local sports team. You will know that people rely on you, and you will feel like you are a part of something greatly important. Sure, it’s easier to stay at home and feel sorry for yourself. But if you want to be happy, get out and enjoy life.7. Find new friends
Nowadays the Internet is a good place to make new friends. Go to Twitter to feel like you are great friends with some popular celebs, make a Tumblr to find someone to discuss your favorite shows, or post your favorite photos on Instagram to share with everyone. If you feel lonely, the Internet will instantly connect you to many people across the world. Just make sure you don’t give out your phone number or address to anyone online.Many of us go through periods where we feel like no one understands and loves us. Hopefully, these tips will help you to boost your mood when you feel lonely. How do you cheer yourself up when you feel sad?
9 Types of People You Need in Your Life
1. Role model
It is great to have a person in your life who would be a role model for you so that you keep improving yourself. I’m not saying about jealousy, by no means. You just know a person who is, to your mind, really awesome and you want to have some features of character or some life principles you would also like to have. This is a good motive to be more professional at what you do, look after yourself better, start taking dancing classes or whatever.2. The one to encourage
There are such special people that inspire and encourage us to live our lives to the fullest. If you are lucky to have your encourager than you will always know how special, strong, beautiful and just amazing you are. Such people make us move forward, reach goals and fight for our dreams.3. Your any time rescue
It is the most precious feeling when you know that there is a person (or few) who will come to help no matter what. The situation may be of any type but the point is that you don’t feel awkward calling them and asking to give you a ride because your car went broken. Most probably you will be lectured on how great it is to have you as a friend (jokingly, of course) but you will be safely brought home. And next time when something goes wrong you won’t get a refuse either. And I’m sure you will be ready to act the same in return.Read also – 7 Tips on How to Fake an Outgoing Personality
4. Good listener
As a flood of problems and worries catches you up, sometimes it is the best remedy to talk to someone who would hear you out. You don’t need any advice or help, just to talk to that person and not to see judgment in their eyes. If you have such a person, you have to value them.5. A soul mate
My experience and observations show that as a rule each person has only one soul mate, though having numerous friends apart from them. A soul mate is more than just a friend, this person understands all your feelings and thoughts no matter how confusing they may sound to others. Actually, you would voice them only to your soul mate, wouldn’t you? You may relax and be yourself in their presence, silence is never a burden when you are together and this is just fantastic.6. The big brother
Every woman is to have a man friend in her life which would mean friendship only without romantic feelings from each side. The stereotype persuades us that friendship between a man and woman doesn’t exist so you may try to prove it wrong. It is a very nice feeling to know that he will protect you as if your elder brother and you can always have a sincere conversation together finding out more about male and female nature.7. A man of wisdom
You have many really smart people around you but it is not an easy task to find a wise person. This is not about age, position or amount of misfortunes gone through, this is an ability to give a good advice which you would really take into consideration or follow. If you find such a person this means that your vision of life and life principles coincide and you will surely go through any challenge that stands in your way together.Read also – 7 Things to Be Grateful for in Life
8. Who keeps you accountable
Don’t confuse it with the person who usually encourages you. You share your goals and dreams with each other, build plans and discuss the possibilities. Once in a while you meet or have a phone conversation inquiring about the progress. This is also a kind of motivation for you to go on and make progress.9. Having common career
The sphere of professional realization is very important in life of every person and it usually takes most of our time. It requires much of attention, pains and simply time. It is hard not to talk about it so when your family doesn’t have a clue of what you do at work, they won’t understand you. That’s why there should be a person you can freely talk about your job with and this may be your friend busy in the same sphere or a co-worker. Anyway, such people can support you when you are going through a tough period in your career or share your joy of success.You can never predict what people will be in your life, they will come in and leave, changing you and bringing you happiness. The most important thing is that they must be there for you when you need them the most. Have you already found your special friends? What’s type of people make you happy?
Loans can hunt back…watch it
A loan is a sum of money an individual borrows either from
a financial institution or from individual with the condition that it
will be returned or repaid at a later date most times with an interest.
As simple as it might seem, identifying the right reason to take a loan
is a really tough decision because of the huge task of having to repay
back within a stipulated time frame.
While loans are expected to be a last resort in meeting an
urgent or unplanned financial responsibility outside of a budget, it’s
quite unfortunate some people end up taking a loan for the wrong
reasons, an obvious bad habit.
On the flip side, any purchase or financial commitment
which can be postponed until you have saved up for it without affecting
your well being evidently doesn’t require you taking up a loan to meet
such need, else you would be indirectly paying more for such purchase as
your loan would always come with an interest.
Experts believe that one of the few right reasons to take a
loan is to attend to an urgent medical need or situation which could
either be life threatening or could build into a more complicated issue
if not resolved early enough. For example, an urgent surgery!
Equally a worthy investment or business plan which can
repay your loan, interest and still leave you with some profit is also
another good reason to borrow. A common example is a well though real
estate investment.
While some experts believe its wise to borrow for once in a
lifetime event such as wedding ceremony or honeymoon, its also
important to have a formidable repayment plan that could easily offset
such an “unprofitable” loan without affecting future financial
responsibilities.
Taking out a personal loan to consolidate high interest
debt is also a worthwhile reason. Though you’ll still have payments to
make, you’ll save a great deal of money in interest fees while you repay
your loan at slower pace.
While a car might seem a luxury, buying
your new car with a car loan can pose lesser financial stress. Also, you
shouldn’t necessarily take the maximum amount available to you if you
don’t need it, especially if some percentage of the offered loan and
your savings can afford your new car then you shouldn’t take all the
loans offered else you will be paying so much for your car when you add
up the interest rate.
Odinaka Mbonu
Vitamin D link to prostate cancer: Men with deficiency at greater risk of developing aggressive form of the disease
- Study by Northwestern University in the US tested samples from 600 men
- Those who lacked Vitamin D were more likely to develop prostate cancer
- Findings published in latest edition of Clinical Cancer Research journal
Lack of
vitamin D increases the chances of men at high risk of prostate cancer
being diagnosed with an aggressive and potentially deadly form of the
disease, a study has found.
The link is so strong that scientists believe blood levels of the vitamin could provide a way of screening patients
'Vitamin
D deficiency could be a biomarker of advanced prostate tumour
progression in large segments of the general population,' said lead
scientist Dr Adam Murphy, from Northwestern University in the US.
The study found that American men of European
origin were 3.66 times more likely to have aggressive prostate cancer if
they were vitamin D deficient
'More research is needed, but it would be wise for men to be screened for vitamin D deficiency and treated.'
The
scientists examined data from a wide-ranging group of more than 600 men
from the Chicago area who had risk factors for prostate cancer, such as
raised levels of the blood marker Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) or a
family history of the disease.
Each man was screened for vitamin D deficiency before having a sample of his prostate removed for analysis.
The
biopsy samples showed that lacking vitamin D was strongly associated
with aggressive forms of prostate cancer, even after adjusting for
influences such as diet, smoking habits, obesity, family history and
calcium intake.
Scientists examined data from a wide-ranging
group of more than 600 men from the Chicago area who had risk factors
for prostate cancer, such as a family history of the disease
American
men of European origin were 3.66 times more likely to have aggressive
prostate cancer if they were vitamin D deficient. For those of African
origin, lacking vitamin D increased the risk 4.22 times.
African-Americans
with severe vitamin D deficiency were also more than twice as likely as
those with normal levels of the vitamin to be diagnosed with prostate
cancer.
The findings are published in the latest edition of the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
Dr
Murphy said: 'Vitamin D deficiency is more common and severe in people
with darker skin and it could be that this deficiency is a contributor
to prostate cancer progression among African-Americans.
'Our findings imply that vitamin D deficiency is a bigger contributor to African-American prostate cancer.
'It
is a good idea to get your (vitamin D) levels checked on a yearly
basis. If you are deficient, you and your doctor can make a plan on how
to reverse it through diet, supplements or other therapies.'
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