Coffee, chocolate, milk, wine–what’s good, what’s bad

By: Cory Quirino
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Q: Perhaps I am addicted to coffee. I can’t seem to start my day without my usual two-cup regimen. By 5 p.m., I would have consumed 6 cups. What should I do?

A: Do you know that the usual daily maximum for coffee is three cups? You are way over your limit. Think about this—if you need a stimulant to give you a quick pick-up, then most probably your fat-burning system that generates energy may not be working well.

Chances are you may not be addicted to coffee as you are to caffeine. Too much caffeine can affect the adrenal, liver and nervous system. A quick test is to observe your hands if they shake involuntarily, or an elevated pulse with mild heart palpitations.

Cut back now. Alternate your coffee excesses with green or black tea. They both have caffeine, but contain as well antioxidants and phtyonutrients. If you are strict about your health, take organic tea or coffee. If you are sensitive to caffeine but enjoy coffee, try whole-bean coffees that are water-processed. About 1/3 of the caffeine remains. There is, of course, always decaf coffee and tea. But if you wish to avoid caffeine altogether, substitute with herbal teas.

Here’s a tea booster:

Lemongrass upper: Take 2 stalks of fresh lemongrass (they grow wild in the garden). Tie them together. Place in a pot of boiling water. Allow to simmer for 3 minutes. Drink up and enjoy its golden goodness and pungent aroma.

Optional: Raw wild honey—1 tsp

I am a confessed chocoholic. Is this good or bad?

It’s very good if you avoid confections laced with excessive sugar. There is growing evidence that coco is a potent therapeutic food. Eating this treat will do more than just satisfy the most powerful of cravings.

Cocoa may improve your health. It helps lower blood pressure and improves cardiovascular health. Flavorols found in cocoa, purple grape juice and tea directly act on the processing of nitric oxide. Polypherols in cocoa, just like in red wine, provide maximum protection against heart disease.

However, cocoa should be taken thick and diluted with minimal water and sugar in order to derive its optimal benefits. Cocoa found in candy bars is loaded with sugar and additives.

Make it a habit to have a cup of cocoa once daily. It should minimize your craving for candy bars. But if you cannot help yourself, go for dark chocolate instead of the milk-choco variety, because the former’s oxygen-radical value is higher.

Because they are havens of health, I welcome choco-inspired cafés like Tablea in Cebu, and Xocolat, Chocolate de Batirol and Cacao in Serendra, Global City. Here’s a cup of cocoa for your well-being!

Every time I drink milk, I experience stomach discomfort. Why is that?

It’s true, milk is a good source of calcium and many have lived with the habit of drinking milk with great satisfaction. However, there are those who are lactose-intolerant. In certain people, milk can cause gastrointestinal stress, skin problems and a compromised immune system.

Cow’s milk is 80-percent casein and 20-percent whey. Human milk is the reverse—20-percent casein and 80-percent whey. Any milk allergy means a sensitivity to casein. Lactose intolerance is sensitivity to milk sugar. Those who are lactose-intolerant lack an enzyme called lactase to digest lactose.

If you have problems with cow’s milk, switch to goat and sheep milk whose composition and nutrient content are closer to human milk.

At the end of the day, I find that a glass of wine is soothing to my spirits. Is this a good habit?

Truth be told, wine is not only the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world, but also an ancient medicinal remedy. Wine dates back to more than 6,000 years, and its use has been hailed by doctors, poets and the public in general.

There is nothing wrong with having a wine-drinking habit for as long as you are faithful to the maximum code—two glasses for men, one glass for women.

Know the following: Drinking wine with meals can help the digestive process. (This is because the PH level of wine is low just like the stomach.) Wine taken in moderation can significantly lower the risk of coronary heart disease.

Some experts believe that people who drink one to two glasses of wine or any alcoholic beverage a day are more likely to extend their life expectancy by three to four years, as compared to those who don’t drink.

Red wine may be a powerful cancer inhibitor. Grape skins are used to make red wine (unlike white wine), where resveratrol is rich.

Wine contains vitamin B1, B2, B6, niacin and iron.
Warning: Wine should not be taken with other drugs or by pregnant women and people with health conditions. And never drive under the influence of alcohol, as it impairs your senses.

Beauty aid

If you run out of astringent, get 1 tsp of white wine and dip a small piece of cotton ball in it. Lightly wipe the grime off your face. Rinse after. It works wonders!

Affirm today: “I am in the best of spirits!”

Love and light!

The unsinkable Filipino

By: Marian Regina M. Layug
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Stranded: The Cabason and Martin families find refuge on the roof at the height of “Ondoy’s” flood

Amaris Cabason, 23, daughter of  Marivi Martin-Cabason, has a recurring nightmare. In her dream, she is on the rooftop of their house in Provident Village, Marikina, shivering and wet under lashing rains. She gazes in horror as filthy floodwaters creep up higher and higher around her feet. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Two years after typhoon “Ondoy,” this dream still haunts her.

In 2009, “Ondoy” cut a swath of destruction across 25 Luzon provinces and brought the worst flooding in Metro Manila in 20 years. For the first time since Marivi and her husband Alex settled in Provident Village, Marikina in 1990, the flood waters rushed into their elevated driveway. It was about 11 a.m and Alex called to his four children to run to the two-story house of his brothers-in-law Manny, Luis and Daniel who live in the same compound.

Wading back and forth in the muddy water, Alex and the children carried to the second floor whatever they could haul, including a newly bought TV set. But the onrush of water was too fast. Alex recalls, “When I came back for the fourth time, that was just in 25 minutes, the water had risen from the driveway almost to the top of the front door.” Last to climb to the second floor in neck-high water was Luis, who is six feet tall.

When water started flowing into the second floor at 2 p.m., the group crossed one by one on a plank from the second floor window,  stepping on the branches of a mango tree onto the roof of Alex and Marivi’s one-story house. The flood waters crept steadily over the edge of the roof. Helpless and pelted by the relentless rain, the family could only pray. Alex notes wryly, “The faster the water rose, the faster we prayed the Our Father.”

They stayed on the roof for three hours and decided to return to the big house through the mango tree plank, breaking through a plywood wall into the attic. There they stayed until morning when the waters receded and help came with a Red Cross rescue boat.

The damage to their homes was so extensive that they had to embark on a massive rebuilding, mainly of the now warped ceilings and floor. They would have left Provident Village but for financial constraints. Taking out several bank loans, Marivi and Alex had home repairs done at a cost of P100,000. They shelled out another P40,000 for repairs to their battered car. Manny and Luis spent P300,000 to replace with cement the wooden flooring on their second floor and install a window in their attic. Luis explains, “Now we’ll be able to see the weather condition and the flood water from the attic.”

“Ondoy” affected not just the homes and finances of the couple and the brothers, but also the health of their family. A week after “Ondoy,” Luis, who was unable to stock up on his medication during “Ondoy,” suffered a heart attack. Now he makes sure he has extra medical supplies for his heart condition. Shortly after “Ondoy,” his niece Amaris suffered amebiasis. Since then, Marivi has used only bottled drinking water for the family.

Two years later, memories of “Ondoy” flared again when typhoon “Falcon” dumped rains that pushed the level of the Marikina River to 16 meters. This time, the Cabason and Martin families of Provident Village were ready.

Last year, Marivi and Alex built what they call a three-story emergency structure on their compound, with design features intended to withstand another storm of “Ondoy” proportions. The second floor alone is 14 feet above the ground, higher than the highest level of the “Ondoy” flood waters. The second floor has an area of 3.5 by 8 meters. The third floor has an area of about 4 by 8 meters. The structure is made entirely of cement, including the ceiling, to prevent water seepage. On the third floor, the family has stashed their most important documents, encased in plastic bags and water-proof plastic boxes. Alex adds, “If the worst happens, we can still go to the roof.”

The second level of the building is almost adjacent to their old house so that the Cabasons can easily jump from one structure to the other.  It is also near enough Manny’s and Luis’ house to enable the brothers to cross on a plank from a second-floor window.

The family has fashioned two makeshift rafts made of liter-sized softdrink bottles lashed together. They have made other rafts from pieces of styrofoam bound in plastic trash bags as flotation devices. The shelves in the second floor are filled with supplies of water, canned food, rubber boots, flashlights, batteries, matches, candles, flatware, dinnerware, utensils and whistles. When the store of food is depleted, it is immediately replenished. During “Ondoy,” the househelp managed to grab the rice cooker and some food, so the family was able to eat until morning. They were even able to throw some food over to nearby hungry neighbors stranded on rooftops.

Like other Marikina residents, Alex now monitors the river’s level during heavy rainfall. The Marikina government has issued guidelines for residents. At each critical level, a siren sounds to alert the people.

Explains Alex: “If the level is 12 to 14 meters, people living near  the river in Malanday, Nangka and Tumana are subject to forced evacuation. These are the lowest parts of Marikina. They have to heed the forced evacuation signal.  Here in Provident, if the water reaches 17 to 18 meters, there’s forced evacuation.”

The entire Cabason family has strict instructions for future disasters. In heavy rainfall, all members are to stay where they are. Outside the home, this means the school or the office. If they have cell phones with enough power and load, they are to contact their closest relatives in Pasig and Quezon City. Their first place of refuge is my home in Antipolo, about 6 kilometers away. If possible, they are to use landlines to save on cell phone power and load.

If they are at Provident, they are to evacuate once the Marikina River level reaches 17 meters. If evacuation is impossible, they must flee to the emergency structure. Each family member has three days’ worth of clothes packed in bags. During “Falcon,” Alex drove his family to my house and then parked the car on Katipunan Avenue. Manny parked his van in front of my home.

As a Martin sibling, I now officially have a part in the Cabason and Martin family disaster preparedness plan, a plan which, I must say, they executed with admirable speed and calm during typhoon “Falcon.”

Other families in Provident and flood-stricken areas in Luzon have put in place similar contingency measures. Some have taken condo units or a second house, or made arrangements for evacuation with families and friends. Others have built their own emergency structures. My friend Jackie Maniquis, whose family has lived in Provident Village for decades, has life vests on standby, while her next-door neighbor and cousin has a boat.

The lessons of “Ondoy,” learned amid such pain, death and destruction, have brought out the ingenuity and the resourcefulness of the Pinoy. Indeed, the Pinoy spirit remains unsinkable.

US babies learn ‘self-rescue’ from drowning

Agence France-Presse

Photo taken from Infant Swimming Resource

DALE CITY—Some see it as a potential life-saver, others as tantamount to child abuse: controversy is brewing in the United States over “self-rescue” classes to prevent babies from drowning.

Victoria timidly floats on her back in a swimming pool not far from the US capital, Washington. If she moves too much she will swallow a mouth full of water. Victoria is 10 months old.

Wearing a pink one piece swimsuit, the little one comes to Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) meetings Monday through Friday to learn a controversial method of drowning prevention for children as young as six months old.

“At the beginning, she was a little fussy, but she got used to it very quickly,” said 31-year-old Sara, whose daughter can now turn herself over in the water and float flat on her back. “It takes a lot of dedication but it is definitely worth it. I know she can save herself.”

Each day, mother and daughter drive two hours to the Dale City pool in Virginia, where Katie Smith teaches the technique during 10-minute courses spread over four to six weeks.

The “self-rescue” method, designed to teach a child who accidentally falls into the water to roll onto his or her back and float, is taught in the United States and 11 other countries, according to company website infantswim.com.

At 20-months-old, Evan can swim underwater and kick his feet to turn face up and breathe. “The first times he cried but because he was doing something new. Now, he cries when he gets out of the water!” said his mother Wendy.

“I still watch her, but if I turn away I am not so nervous,” said 37-year-old Amy, mother of four-year-old Gaby.

But the method has its detractors.

Risks with infant swimming

“Some of the techniques that anyone can see on the Internet right now could and should be viewed as, at the very least, child abuse,” said Jim Reiser, an instructor who preaches a gentler approach to child swimming.

Reiser was appalled watching the YouTube video “Lincoln in ISR“, which shows an instructor letting a one-year-old repeatedly sink into a pool, pulling himself up and catching his breath between swallowed water and tears.

“I had to turn it off,” Reiser said. “I was in tears and sick to my stomach. Imagine what the child was thinking but couldn’t verbalize because he was too young. If the teacher was doing that to an adult, the adult would think the guy was trying to kill him.”

When AFP contacted the mother of the child featured in the video, Jennifer Feagans, she said 4-year-old Lincoln now “adores” the water. “I know that video of Lincoln is hard to watch but he is an amazing swimmer now,” she said.

Richard Lichenstein, a pediatric emergency medical physician at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore, Maryland, does not recommend the method.

“The technique does not teach a baby to swim nor can it be conclusively proven that it teaches an infant to survive,” he said. “Worse it may give a parent the false sense that their child will not drown or knows how to swim.

“Infants can become hypothermic from exposure, get water intoxication from swallowing water and develop gastrointestinal and skin infections. There are risks associated with infant swimming,” Lichenstein added.

In 2007 there were 525 accidental drownings among infants from one to six years old, according to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Jobs, not cash grant will help people rise from poverty - study

Jobs, not cash grant will help people rise from poverty - study By Helen Flores (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines - Beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) believe that access to a regular job rather than conditional cash assistance would help them rise from poverty, a recent study by Social Watch Philippines (SWP) showed.
“The 4Ps respondents said that while the cash grant was useful, what would lift them out of poverty was access to regular work,” Marivic Raquiza, co-convenor of SWP said, citing a self-perception study conducted from 2009 to 2010.
The study involved 160 respondents equally distributed in the rural area of Sibagat, Agusan del Sur, and in the urban area of Riverside Tramo, Pasay City.
She said the study was supported by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). It also involved interviews with officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd) and World Bank (WB).
In another study conducted by Raquiza, she found that by simply linking 4Ps beneficiaries to the DSWD’s livelihood assistance programs Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) and Self-employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (Sea-K) programs, “is problematic.”
“The highly ‘micro-ized and project-ized’ nature of Kalahi-CIDSS, examples of which are construction of road opening, day care centers, water system and class rooms, has generated, at best, localized impact on poverty reduction such as the opening of a road has made it easier for farmers to bring their produce to the market,” she said.
“But it has not made a dent on reducing over-all poverty. In one case study, the data showed that poverty incidence even rose in a municipality where a Kalahi-CIDSS project was implemented. Research has shown that SEA-K activities revolve around mostly low-value trade and commercial activities,” Raquiza said.
The conditional cast transfer (CCT) or 4Ps provides monthly cash grants amounting P1,400 to poor eligible households on the condition that lactating or pregnant mothers and young children avail of preventive health care and that school-aged children regularly attend school.

The program is now on its mid-level target of reaching the 4.6 million poor households identified by the National Statistical and Coordination Board (NSCB) by the end of 2013, according to the DSWD.
The SWP study also stressed that education does not guarantee access to the jobs market, citing that 4.6 million are unemployed, nine-tenths of which are reasonably educated, 44 percent are high school graduates or undergraduates, and 43 percent are college graduates or undergraduates.
“The need for job creation and to improve existing work acquires greater resonance in the context of both complementation and exit strategies of the 4Ps,” said Raquiza.
She said health and education performance outcomes of the CCT are limited and inconclusive.
“The experience of the most established CCT programs – those in Mexico and Brazil – show that educational achievements of student-beneficiaries were dismaying as they scored either the same or worse compared to non-beneficiary students. This was also true of an evaluation of CCT in Cambodia where higher enrollment rates of CCT beneficiaries were not accompanied by improved learning outcomes,” she said.
According to her, the evidence is that learning and health outcomes either stay the same, or may even worsen, as increased demand puts additional pressure on education and health infrastructure that are of poor quality to begin with, and from inadequate personnel.
Raquiza said the UN Research Institute for Social Development argues that in many developing country contexts, improvements in education and health indicators might be better achieved by investing directly in the supply of these services.
The SWP urged the government to put employment at the center of its development strategy.
Established in 1997, the SWP is an advocacy group with over 100 civil society groups and individual members that aims to increase people’s awareness and participation in promoting social development concerns with government.
Last week, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the 4Ps program significantly improved the health, nutrition and education of children of low-income families, citing studies conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Ateneo de Manila University.

When in Cebu City, please visit gregmelep.com for your real estate and retirement needs.

Avail of the opportunity to own a condominium unit in Cebu City for only P12,000.00/month with its own parking lot. Hurry while the supply of units last. Just call the Tel. Nos. shown below.

Tel. Nos. (032)555-8464/09164422611/09173378637