Yes, the alarm rings: 5:15 a.m. with the most obnoxious radio station going. I groan and get out of bed long enough to hit the coffee button and feed the cat. Sam waits anxiously, scared to death I might forget him and his food dish. As if!

I get to my early morning meditation meeting and then I am off to the mall. I am using the MyFitnessPal phone app for fitness and it tracks my steps. Today I did 3,500 steps which is not great, but it is early, and it gets done.

I discovered the Mall one day when it was raining, and I didn’t feel like swimming. It was early (8 a.m.) and I wasn’t sure they would even be open. To my surprise, they were and there was a Starbucks right there, waiting with a hot cup of coffee and hot buns. What more to ask for?

The entire loop of the Mall, top, and bottom is, I believe 1.5 miles. I have been back a number of times and have discovered a little-known truth; this has become the senior walk path. A virtual army of seniors in singles and pairs are busy marching the mall perimeter. I have to be careful to not loiter, should I get into someone’s way. I see many of the same people day after day. After their marches, they are at Starbucks or the café section.

Why? Well, it’s heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. It is clean and swept daily. There are restrooms that are clean with toilet paper and soap. The hand dryers work and nothing smells bad. Plus, it is free to walk whereas, even the local Rec Department charges $1.50 per day to walk and use the weights.

These are all good things. But, are they the only things? What about getting out into the crisp, cool Autumn air and filling your lungs, kicking some leaves? What happened to that idea?

The last consideration which is actually, more the first, is that the malls are safe. Security guards prowl around outside in minitrucks and on foot. Shopkeepers are busy setting up their shops for opening. The last item is that the homeless are not welcome.

Wow, let’s all frown at that unhappy thought. The elderly and the very young are really barometers of our society. People in their 60s, 70s, and 80s know very well they no longer have the physical strength to ward off a street attack.  Should one happen, the old adage is ‘Where’s a cop when you need one?” Well, where they are is extremely busy patrolling the streets.

I would not call my little town in the American Southwest poor or economical downtrodden. There is actually a pretty healthy economy here. However, the rise in homelessness is acute here as in many places. Although people are homeless for many different reasons (time for another blog) one unhappy similarity is that the homeless can be unpredictable. This is okay when you are a 35 year- old cop weighing in at 200 pounds of muscle, complimented with a ton of expensive gear. Not so great for the 75-year-old armed with one lightweight walking stick and maybe a phone.

What we see is that the elderly and mothers with babies in strollers are opting to frequent spaces where they can feel safe. I feel the same way. I might not be frail, but I get really tired of getting sized up when I go into a convenience store for a coke. Then to be greeted by the sometimes aggressive “Excuse me, Ma’am. Can you help me out?” If I am feeling generous it forces me to open my purse to search for money. If I’m not feeling generous it allows me to question myself and feel like a stingy jerk for the rest of the day.

So, ‘mo better to walk the mall with a cheery “Good Morning,” to my fellow walkers and have my hands and mind free to focus on what I am there for; taking a walk!

11/18

cew

Sparkpeople –Food Comparisions

https://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/food_lists_chicken.asp

Prof. Michael Crawford – IFBB – Institute for Food, Brain and Behavior (UK)

https://www.ifbb.org.uk/food-and-your-brain/smarter-things/foods-that-feed-the-brain/

Foods that Feed the Brain

When we think about healthy eating, most people think about it in relation to preventing disease, weight gain or loss and fighting infection.

Healthy eating is not just important for or physical health in terms of preventing obesity or Type 2 diabetes but equally important for our brain health.

The brain is one of the most important organs in our body, controlling our everyday thoughts, behaviour and actions and there are certain nutrients in foods which can help it function better.There are certain foods which can inflame your brain, causing it to not perform at its best, and instead leaving you to feel fatigued, sluggish, irritable and maybe even depressed.

Brain health is just as important as our physical health and we need to look after it by feeding it with food which helps it feel alive and keep it healthy.

Some of these foods include omega-3 fatty acids. These are anti-inflammatory and protect the brain from becoming inflamed and unhealthy. Omega-3 fats are healthy fats which you can only obtain from eating certain oily fish and seafood.

Can you pause for a moment and think of which fish might be oily?

A clue is they are not white fish such as the cod in fish fingers. Some examples of oily fish are salmon, trout, fresh tuna, sardines, anchovies and mackerel.  Omega-3’s can also be found in oysters, crab, shrimp, clams, mussels and lobsters. How many of these do you eat and how often? It is recommended that we eat at least 2 portions of oily fish per week to receive adequate amounts of healthy and essential omega-3 fats. The types of omega-3 fats which help brain function are called EPA and DHA – these are highly unsaturated fatty acids.

A different Omega-3

There are other plant-based sources of omega-3 called polyunsaturated fatty acids which can be obtained by eating certain nuts (such as walnuts), seeds (such as pumpkin seeds or flax seeds) and green leafy vegetables such as kale or algae such as spirulina.

Vitamin D matters

Vitamin D is also known as the “sunshine vitamin” – it really important for our mood, memory and well-being and although it is present in foods in small amounts, our bodies can make it from direct sun exposure on our skin. However, too much sun exposure can also be problematic and about 65% of people living in the U.K has low levels of Vitamin D due to lack of adequate sun exposure. Consequently, we need to eat lots of Vitamin-D containing foods such as oily fish such as tuna, mackerel, and salmon, fish oil, egg yolks and liver. A lack of Vitamin D is linked to low mood as well as bones and muscle pain / weakness which can lead to bone deformities such as the development of rickets in children.

Mood Food

You may have heard of the expression Food equals Mood! It really does. Certain nutrients in food have influence over 6 major neurotransmitters in your brain which are responsible for happiness, social engagement, sleep, motivation, memory and learning, the ability to plan ahead, be calm, focus and pay attention!

These neurotransmitters are called dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, GABA, glutamate and aspartate.

Low serotonin for example, is a common cause of depression, anxiety and irritability. Complex carbohydrates from plant foods such as sweet potatoes and apples or a square or two of dark chocolate can help. Other foods to help boost serotonin include oranges, apples, pears, peaches, blueberries, bananas, grapes, figs, mangoes, pineapples.

Protein-rich foods such as seafood, poultry – such as turkey, and red meat, along with drinking green tea can help boost dopamine.  Foods which may help you to stay focused and sharp include egg yolk, liver, salmon and shrimp. Foods rich in GABA include broccoli, nuts and lentils. Junk and processed foods such as artificial sweeteners, processed lunch meats, sausages and food preservatives contain amino acids which stimulate neurotransmitters leading to damage to neurons and cell death.

Other vitamins such as Vitamin C,  B6, B12, folate and iron matter for a healthy brain.

Eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, drinking blended smoothies and eating lots of oily fish will all work together to feed the brain the fuel it requires to be smart, healthy and happy!

How much fat is really in your grilled chicken?

• By Jenni Muir – Food writer  –     Good Food
• https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/writer/jenni-muir

As common on our shopping lists as toilet roll and tea bGags, chicken is a low-fat, lean, healthy choice – right? Not necessarily, says Jenni.

My husband can remember when chicken was an occasional treat. His family didn’t even have it once a week when he was growing up. And as it was an occasional treat, they wouldn’t give its fat content a second thought. (Mind you, they didn’t give the fat content of their weekly Cornish pasties a second thought either!)
But these days, don’t many of us buy chicken as our default healthy protein for midweek suppers? And maybe choose it over cheese, ham or beef in the sandwich chains because we assume it is low in fat? After all, for years we’ve been hearing nutrition advice to choose white poultry as the lean option, and we’ve come to love it. You might even say we’ve come to rely on it.
Yet research by the highly regarded Professor Michael Crawfordand colleagues at London Metropolitan University has shown that chicken – whether battery farmed or organic – is no longer a lean choice. They compared 52 chickens from various supermarkets and found that there were three times the calories coming from fat as from protein.
”Consumers, and many nutritionists, still think chicken is a protein-rich product. But now it is a fat-rich product,” says Crawford. Which makes me wonder how long before this will be reflected in the calorie and fat counts used by the food industry on packaging, and by nutritionists in recipe calculations.
Or is it time we stopped listening to nutritional advice altogether? There is an interesting new book by American scientific journalist Michael Pollan regarded Michael Pollan called ‘In Defence of Food’in which he argues that ‘Thirty years of official nutritional advice has only made us sicker and fatter while ruining countless numbers of meals.’ His advice is: ‘Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food’.
My great-grandmother certainly recognised chickens. What she wouldn’t understand is why they weren’t reared in a coop in the back yard.