Tag Archives: water

What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’

Posted by getPHYT in Injury, Violence & Safety and tagged with , , , , , ,

Don’t forget to add Sriracha! image source: Costco

Ling Ling Potstickers. That’s what’s up. During college, I probably ate Ling Lings at least 3-5 times a week. They’re so delicious and really easy to make. I just wished Ling Ling provided ten small packets of dipping sauce instead of just two medium sized ones. It’s the worst when you get down to the last five potstickers and you don’t have any sauce left. Ling Ling! Really?! Fortunately, I had a roommate who was quite the chef. Her DIY dipping sauce, a mixture of soy sauce and white vinegar, was the yang to my Ling Ling.

I prefer cooking Ling Lings in a frying pan, because I like my potstickers a tiny bit burnt. The annoying part about this method is checking to see if it’s time to add water. If you check too early, the hot oil splatters everywhere, including your face, neck, arms, and even your feet! If you wait too long, then you might end up with super burnt potstickers.

Having cooked over 500 Ling Ling Potstickers, I’ve learned a thing or two. To protect yourself from getting burned by the hot oil, use a lid as a shield. A little medieval, yes, but it’s proven to be effective (at least for me, anyways). The most important thing I’ve learned is how to put out a grease fire. Thankfully, I haven’t been forced to do that yet (knock on wood). While cooking Ling Lings or anything really, it’s important to know how to extinguish a grease fire.

Be prepared! Watch the video. It’s only 35 seconds long!

  1. Cover the pan with a metal lid. Don’t use a glass lid. It might shatter. If it’s safe to do so, turn off the stove. The grease fire can also be extinguished by covering the pan with a large, damp towel. Just make sure the towel isn’t dripping water, or it will make the fire worse.
  2. Baking soda can also be used to put out a grease fire. How? Baking soda contains bicarbonate, which release carbon dioxide, which is the same chemical contained in fire extinguishers. Extinguish the fire by pouring baking soda on the flames. Baking soda can only be used for a small fire.
  3. Last resort: fire extinguisher! Try putting out the fire with a lid or damp cloth first. But if flames are coming off of the pan, then extinguish away! Make sure to use a class B or K extinguisher.

When you’re cooking, keep an eye on the stove. If you start to see smoke, turn the heat down. If the fire get outs of hand, GET OUT ASAP AND CALL 911.

And whatever you do, NEVER THROW WATER ON A GREASE FIRE! I repeat, NEVER THROW WATER ON A GREASE FIRE!!! It will explode and your house will burn down.

By ALYSSA LLAMAS

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It’s Getting Hot in Here

Posted by getPHYT in Healthy Living and tagged with , , , , ,

image source: weather.com

So hot! We’re about six weeks into summer and it’s already ridiculously HOT. According to weather.com, August is going to be a scorcher. For those of y’all that live in the “middle of the country from northern Oklahoma and much of Kansas to southern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota,” expect August temperatures to be above average.

My AC wall unit Photo by Alyssa Llamas

Like most twenty-somethings, I’m doing everything I can to save money. For a while, that included NOT using the AC. I opened the windows, bought a fan, and even put ice packs in my pillow! Up until a few weeks ago, those methods actually worked. But once it got into the triple digits, I caved. Though I’m not looking forward to my upcoming electricity bill, at least I’m not melting in my tiny (sans central air) apartment.

Extreme heat can make you sick. Usually, our bodies do a good job controlling our body temperatures. Sweating (or glistening, whatever you want to call it) helps our bodies cool down. Sometimes, it’s just too stinkin’ hot and sweating isn’t enough. That’s when we’re at a greater risk of becoming ill.

Heat stroke, the most serious heat-related illness, occurs when the body cannot control its temperature. The body gets so hot (and not in the sexy-kinda way), sometimes reaching 106°F or higher within 10 to 15 minutes that the sweating mechanism fails. If not treated immediately, heat stroke can cause death or permanent disability. Warning signs of heat stroke include extremely high body temperature (above 103°F), red, hot, and dry skin, dizziness, and unconsciousness. If you see someone with any of these signs, call 911 asap. You can also try these methods to help cool the person down:

  • Get the victim to a shady area
  • Immerse the victim in a tub of cool water
  • Place the person in a cool shower
  • Sponge the person with cool water

Heat exhaustion, a milder form of heat-related illnesses, “can develop after several days of exposure to high temperatures and inadequate or unbalanced replacement of fluids” (CDC). Symptoms include heavy sweating, paleness, muscle cramps, tiredness, and fainting. Here are ways to cool the body during heat exhaustion:

  • Drink cool, nonalcoholic beverages
  • Rest
  • Take a cool shower, bath, or sponge bath
  • Seek an air-conditioned environment
  • Wear lightweight clothing

The hottest city in America

Beat the heat and use these steps to safe and healthy during hot weather (CDC):

  • Stay in an air-conditioned indoor location
  • Drink plenty of fluids
  • Wear loose, lightweight, light-colored clothing and sunscreen
  • Schedule outdoor activities carefully
  • Pace yourself
  • Take cool showers or baths to cool down
  • Check on a friend or neighbor and have someone do the same for you
  • Do not leave children in cars
  • Check the local news for health and safety updates

Stay Cool Summer 2012

By ALYSSA LLAMAS

Waters All Around, Please?

Posted by getPHYT in Physical Activity & Exercise and tagged with , , ,

+shroom burger = heaven (image source: farm3.static.flickr.com)

Whenever my friends and I go out to eat, we usually all get water. Unless we’re at Red Robin, then of course we’ll splurge and order Freckled Lemonades. But 96% of the time, we’re free-water-drinkers. You may call us thrify, but I say we’re just being healthy. OBVIOUSLY.

And it’s a good thing we do skip out on sodas! Soft drinks, which include soda, fruit punch, lemonade, sweetened powder drinks (like Kool Aid and Tang), and sports and energy drinks, have been linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and weak bones. And if you’re reading this while sipping on a Coke Zero, I got some bad news for you. Studies have also shown diet soda to be a cause of weight gain. DUN DUN DUN!

“The average can of sugar-sweetened soda or fruit punch provides about 150 calories, almost all of them from sugar, usually high-fructose corn syrup. That’s the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of table sugar (sucrose). If you were to drink just one can of a sugar-sweetened soft drink every day, and not cut back on calories elsewhere, you could gain up to 15 pounds in a year”(Harvard). It’d be like freshman 15 over and over again.

While drinking your $1 Sweet Tea from McDonalds, do you ever notice that you’re eating way more? McDouble, McChicken, Small Fries, and Apple Pie? Unlike solid foods, fluids are less satiating and less satifisying (Harvard). You just don’t get that full feeling you usually get when chewing your food. Therefore, you tend to keep eating since you don’t feel full.

“In the Framingham Heart Study, men and women who had one or more soft drinks a day were 25 percent more likely to have developed trouble managing blood sugar and nearly 50 percent more likely to have developed metabolic syndrome.” High blood pressure, high insulin levels, excess weight, especially around the tummy, high levels of triglycerides, and low levels of HDL (good) cholesterol up the odds for diabetes and heart disease. And obesity and diabetes are major risk factors for heart disease, which is the #1 cause of death in the United States!!! (Harvard)

look how small a bottle of coke used to be!

Got milk? If you’re a heavy soft drink drinker, then you probably don’t. Milk is rich in calcium and protein and provides important vitamins like Vitamin D, Vitamin B6, and Vitamin B12. Soft drinks generally lack these quintessential nutrients. So trade that glass of tang for a glass of milk!

Ever get that “I’m drinking soda but I won’t get fat” feeling while enjoying a semi-delicious diet soda? Sorry to break it to you, but diet sodas may cause you to gain some extra ell-bees. Diet sodas have artificial sweeteners instead of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. “Artificial sweeteners are synthetic sugar substitutes but may be derived from naturally occurring substances, including herbs or sugar itself (mayoclinic.com).” Diet sodas may help cut calories and lead to weight loss, but on the long-run, some studies have shown that this may not be the case. For those who count calories, artificial sweeteners are a godsend. So how could something with zero calories cause weight gain?

We often associate sugar with sweetness and energy together. On the other hand, artificial sweeteners add sweetness but don’t supply us with energy. In fact, aspartame (Equal) is 180x sweeter than sugar and sucralose (Splenda) is 600x sweeter than sugar! The Harvard School of Public Health explains, “The human brain responds to sweetness with signals to, at first, eat more and then with signals to slow down and stop eating. By providing a sweet taste without any calories, artificial sweeteners could confuse these intricate feedback loops that involve the brain, stomach, nerves, and hormones. If this happens, it could throw off the body’s ability to accurately gauge how many calories are being taken in.” This explains how zero calories from a diet soda can easily turn into 1000 calories.

There is an upside to artificial sweeteners. Since artificial sweeteners aren’t carbs like sugar, they generally don’t raise blood sugar levels, so they’re great sugar alternatives for people with diabetes (mayoclinic.com). And unlike sugar, artificial sweeteners don’t contribute to tooth decay!

sweeeeeeeeeeeet

Are artificial sweeteners safe? Can they cause cancer? According to the National Cancer Institute, there are no studies of sweeteners (commercially available in the United States) that provide clear evidence to prove its association with cancer in humans. Artificial sweeteners are safe and are regulated by the FDA. The FDA does one of two things. The FDA will review and approve the substance or can declare it to be “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). This descision is based on scientific data that proves the substance to be safe for its intended use or “a lengthy history of common use in food that they’re generally considered safe and don’t require FDA approval before sale” (mayoclinic.com).

Here are the FDA approved artificial sweeteners (Harvard):

  • aspartame (Equal®, NutraSweet®, others)
  • acesulfame-K (Sunett®, Sweet One®)
  • saccharin (Sweet’N Low®, Necta Sweet®, others)
  • sucralose (Splenda®)
  • neotame (no brand names)

To help you decide whether or not to use sugar substitutes, check out Health.com’s 10 Artificial Sweeteners and Sugar Substitutes.

It’s the holiday season, which means lots of delicious (high-carb & high-fat) food. So save yourself from those extra calories in soft drinks and drink water instead! And if you’re feeling fancy, add a slice of lemon to your H2O (health benefits of putting lemon slices in water).

By ALYSSA LLAMAS