There’s A Really Good Reason Scientists Want To Use Cockroaches In Food

Scientists are constantly discovering all sorts of interesting superfoods.

But, if the thought of spirulina smoothies or cricket protein bars is enough to make you cringe, you might want to cover your eyes.

There seems to be a new health food on the horizon that’s making people bug out: cockroach milk.

Yep, researchers from India recently discovered that a unique species of cockroaches, called Diploptera punctate, feed their young with “protein crystals” four times more nutritious than cow’s milk.

In fact, some scientists think these protein-dense cockroach crystals could actually be the key to feeding the world’s rapidly growing population and alleviating food shortages.

Now, if you’re like most people, you probably have one important question: How on earth does one milk a cockroach?

Well, apparently it’s a pretty tricky process that isn’t very feasible.

So instead, a team of researchers from the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in India set out to artificially replicate the crystals by decoding the sequence of genes responsible for producing the cockroach protein crystals.

Researchers are now looking for a way to get yeast to produce the crystal on a larger scale, rather than extracting the crystal directly from cockroaches.

One of the researchers, Sanchari Banerjee, told the Times of India,

    The crystals are like a complete food — they have proteins, fats and sugars. If you look into the protein sequences, they have all the essential amino acids.

If the thought of drinking cockroach milk gives you the creeps, you’ll be glad to know this type of calorie-dense food probably isn’t necessary for most Western diets that are already high in calories.

However, cockroach milk could be a solution for people in developing countries who struggle to meet daily nutritional needs.

Why You Shouldn’t Cut Out Gluten Unless You Actually Have To

About 1 percent of the population suffers from Celiac disease. And, if you have Celiac disease, you know very well that your life is better off without gluten. Bloating, diarrhea and a slew of intestinal issues are just some of the symptoms that come about when gluten-intolerant people ingest only the tiniest amount of the protein. So, as tempting as it may be to eat that slice of pizza, the consequences are so NOT worth it.

Everyone these days is touting a gluten-free or gluten-reduced diet. Even celebrities like Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian and Miley Cyrus have jumped on the bandwagon for at least a portion of time. And cosmetic companies have even started touting gluten-free on everything from mascara to face cream. But does it really help you trim the fat? In short: not really.

The truth is, cutting gluten when you’re not allergic or sensitive to the protein  may do more harm than good when it comes to your nutrition. And research shows that replacing gluten-containing foods with their gluten-free counterparts can even increase your sugar and fat intake. Add that to the major lack of vitamins and fiber your diet entails when you go gluten free and you’re setting yourself up for problems like bloating, mood swings and even constipation.

If that’s not enough to deter you, consider the fact that going gluten free can be extremely expensive. In fact, a recent study shows that on average, gluten-free products were 242 percent more expensive than regular products. And let’s be honest, they don’t even taste that great.

So if you’re considering going gluten-free, check out the video up top first. And if you still need some reassurance that gluten isn’t the devil, maybe check out a recent study in the Nutrition & Diabetes Journal, which actually found that eating pasta could make you skinnier.

Go ahead. Order the spaghetti.

5 Ways To Make Mindfulness Part Of Your Everyday De-Stressing Routine

Being present in the moment is harder than ever. Technology has advanced our lives to the point where we can do almost anything on our smartphones, and in a matter of seconds. We no longer have to think about connecting with old friends because social media allows us to track every aspect of their lives.

Going to the supermarket, mall, movies and even doctor’s appointments are no longer necessary. They can all now be done online, with the click of a button. While this is convenient, our society has advanced to a point where our minds are on sensory overload.

Stress and depression are higher than ever because people are having trouble coping with all the daily tasks that are being thrown at them at once. The ability to connect online is disconnecting us from ourselves. Practicing mindfulness is important, and it can easily be incorporated into our routines throughout the day.

1. Visualize positive outcomes first thing in the morning.

Upon waking, don’t immediately lean over to check your cell phone. Close your eyes for a moment, and visualize yourself having a productive day filled with ease. Repeat daily affirmations that can facilitate this.

They can be as easy as “Today will be a productive day” or “I will remain positive today, despite daily challenges.” Find something that works for you, and actually visualize how you will be met with challenges.

Realize that you’ll be able to deal with them efficiently without getting emotional. Then, take deep breaths and stretch.

2. Pay attention to your thoughts with mindfulness.

We process thousands of thoughts every day. Most people let their thoughts affect their feelings.

Slow down and think about what’s going through your mind. Have you been fuming about someone who mistreated you? Maybe you have too much work to do, and feel stressed about how you will finish it.

Pay attention to your thoughts, and remind yourself to stay present in the moment. Worrying or getting angry about someone or something will not change the situation; it will only affect your mind negatively.

Try to change your mood by thinking about something positive and listing ways in which you can relate to the people who are affecting you. Give the person you’re mad at the benefit of the doubt.

3. Appreciate what you have.

It’s easy to think about what we don’t have and what we want. But if you appreciate what you do have, you’ll become aware of what others lack.

Remember: There’s always someone who has much less than you do. He or she would be happy to live your life. Just think about that for a moment.

4. Take a walk without your phone.

Ever leave your house without your phone and freak out? We all do.

We feel the need to be connected at all times. We’re afraid we might miss out on something.

Try to use your lunch hour to get outdoors, and take a walk by yourself. There will be no need to worry about checking your phone if you don’t have it.

Pay attention to nature as you walk, and think about nothing else but what you’re seeing in the present moment. Consider how you’re using all your senses on your walk.

5. Help someone every day.

Our purpose for living is not to make money. We are here to help others. Life is hard, and we can all help each other in different ways.

This can be as small as giving a compliment to a friend, smiling at a stranger or giving your change to the homeless man you see on the train every day. Spreading love helps initiate gratitude for all aspects of your life. This leads you to feel happy and fulfilled.

You’d Be Surprised at How Many Foods Contain Added Sugar

You may know there’s added sugar in your Coke or cookies. But did you know that it’s in your salad dressing, pasta sauce and bread?

The Food and Drug Administration came out Friday with its new template for nutrition labels. One big change was the addition of a line for “added sugar,” to be placed below a line for total sugar. The change is designed to distinguish between sugars that are naturally occurring in a food — like the milk sugar in a plain yogurt — and the sugars that food manufacturers include later to boost flavors — like the “evaporated cane juice” in a Chobani Kids strawberry yogurt.

A team of researchers at the University of North Carolina conducted a detailed survey of the packaged foods and drinks that are purchased in American grocery stores and found that 60 percent of them include some form of added sugar. When they looked at every individual processed food in the store, 68 percent had added sugar. Some of those products are more obvious sugary foods, but not all. The list includes many sauces, soups, fruit juices and even meat products.

You might think it’s easy to figure out whether the food manufacturer added sugar to your food, but it isn’t always so. While some foods include “sugar” in their ingredients, many use different words for products that are nutritionally similar. Most of us have heard of high-fructose corn syrup, a sugar made from processing corn. But there are also things like the “evaporated cane juice” in the yogurt, and “rice syrup” and “flo-malt,” which are less obvious and amount to the same thing.

Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, and one of the paper’s authors, said that the wide variety of sugars is not always meant to confound consumers. Instead, he said, the many sugar types are chosen by food scientists to give their products the best flavor and texture. Some sugars are better for baked goods, while others are better in soft drinks. Some are also cheaper than others. Sugar tariffs and import laws make it expensive to bring in too much foreign sugar. But not all of the sugar formulations count toward the laws’ quotas.

There’s also the matter of fruit juice concentrates, which are juices that have been stripped of nearly everything but sugar and evaporated. A lot of seemingly natural foods include ingredients like “apple juice concentrate.” That’s sugar. That will be a lot clearer when the labels are updated.

“It’s going to really surprise people who go to organic and whole foods stores, when they find that all this natural food they’ve been buying is full of added sugar,” Mr. Popkin said. “It’s full of fruit juice concentrates, and they thought it was all good stuff.”

The emphasis on added sugar comes from new nutrition guidelines that urge Americans to consume a “healthy dietary pattern” containing certain types of foods. According to the regulation, hidden added sugars make it difficult to understand whether the food you are eating is part of that healthy pattern. Medical evidence shows that high sugar consumption is linked to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay — though not all of that work distinguishes between added sugar and total sugar.

Many of the big food industry trade groups and lobbyists were satisfied with the new label rules, as my colleague Sabrina Tavernise recently wrote. But the sugar industry and the corn refiners are upset. Critics of the policy argue that the difference between natural and added sugars is not nutritionally meaningful, and that the science establishing health harms from added sugar is weak. The new label will kick in for large food companies in 2018, and for smaller companies a year later.

The U.N.C. research used its master list of sugar code words to measure how many grocery store foods include sugar. But measuring the precise amount of sugars that are added with the current label is quite difficult. Mr. Popkin said consumers would be surprised by recent research from his team revealing the large amounts of added sugars in products that are generally thought of as healthy — foods like infant formula, protein bars and yogurt.

8 Ways To Spread Good Vibes When It Seems Like Your Bad Day Will Never End

It happens in a split second. Everything is going fine. You feel competent, positive and in control.

Then, you get triggered. Suddenly, you find your thoughts spiraling down into negativity, gloom and burning anger.

Everything changes. You can’t see a way out. You suddenly feel powerless.

Suddenly, it feels as if you may never claw yourself back up to the light. Thankfully, research shows specific mental techniques that can break that downward spiral and refocus your attention on positive, constructive thoughts and actions.

Action follows thought. As the great philosopher William James has said, “Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”

Here are eight ways to kickstart positive cycles of thinking, so that you can create a positive life.

1. Seek out alternative interpretations and meanings.

Things happen. The stories we make up about them are a choice, however. They’re always partial interpretations anyway.

Hold off on your final assessments of events being unmitigated catastrophes by seeking out not only the good in them, but also alternative interpretations.

2. Seek the good stuff.

Life may throw you in a pit now and then. But if you look carefully, you may discover a vein of gold in the dirt walls around you. There’s a reason the Chinese symbol for crisis is the same as that of opportunity.

That heartbreaking breakup may seem like the end of the world to you right now, but it opens the doors for you to discover someone who will actually love you for who you are. Getting fired can be that window to starting the business you’ve been dreaming about.

When life knocks us down, it breaks our habits and habitual thinking. It brings us back to our essence, and to what matters the most. Use these crises to discover the core of what you love in your life.

3. Smile.

A simple way to create positive feelings in your body is by smiling. Now, I don’t mean a polite smile with no feeling behind it. I mean a smile where the corners of your eyes crinkle slightly and your lips curl upward.

Studies show that the physical act of smiling will trick your brain into thinking you’re actually happy. As a result, this releases dopamine and other happy hormones. The mind follows the body.

4. Get creative.

“We’re happiest when we’re being creative.”

Creativity engages the brain. While immersing yourself in work can really help you avoid facing a problem, it can also be a way to break any thoughts that appear in your head. This is especially true when you enjoy the work itself.

Focus and accomplishment can help restore your sense of control, confidence, purpose and self-esteem. As Dr. Jonathan Haidt of “The Happiness Hypothesis” reminds us, both “love and work are to people what water and sunshine are to plants.”

You’ll notice that once you start getting into the zone of creative work, you can’t help but start feeling positive energy rising within you.

5. Read autobiographies.

When I’m down, I’ll read a biography.

This might sound strange, but when I read stories of the struggle, setback and triumph people I admire have experienced, I get energized. My own obstacles seem smaller and surmountable.

We all get stuck in our own lives, and we lose perspective. But when we see how Steve Jobs came back from exile to create the world’s biggest company, how Howard Schultz built Starbucks with a vision to create a “third space” for people and how leaders came back from bankruptcy, illnesses and isolation, we naturally feel, “Hell, if they can do it, so can I.”

We see the power of resilience, perseverance and determination. We see that we have those qualities, too. This boosts our mood.

6. Savor your good.

We all get down on ourselves sometimes. We linger on the things we’ve done wrong, what we’ve lost or any perceived failure we have of ourselves.

All of that helps nothing. As psychologist Dr.Nathaniel Lambert says, simply “discussing positive experiences leads to heightened well-being, increased overall life satisfaction and even more energy.”

So, to counteract this slough of despondence, try the following exercise. It will help remind you of your goodness, and the various blessings you have in your life.

Sit down with a friend and ask him or her to do an exercise with you without judgment. Out loud, remember all the kind deeds you’ve done throughout your life. Have your friend just nod and say, “Nice” after each one.

He or she is not allowed to say anything else. Also tell that friend all the compliments you’ve received, and your 10 happiest experiences. Describe how you felt when someone came up to you and expressed his or her thanks because you made a positive impact on his or her life.

But as you go through this list, rest for a moment between each point. Make sure you feel the same way you did when you actually went through these experiences.

You’re a good person. You just need to be reminded of this fact now and then. In your darkest moments, these reminders can turn everything around.

7. Do something nice for someone.

This one is intuitive. As Dr. Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology has reported, “Performing kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.”

Buy someone a gift. Do someone a favor. Call someone who’s lonely. Volunteer at a shelter. Offer to take someone out for dinner.

This simple action breaks the downward spiral and reverses it.

8. Create a morning routine.

Start your positive momentum from the very moment you wake up.

Your mornings are sacred. They set the tone for how your entire day will progress. This is why it’s so important and useful for you to create your own morning routine that will support a positive mindset.

Write down five things you’re grateful for every day. Sing your favorite song. Put on your baddest dance music, and move your body with joy.

Say “I love you” to the people in your life. Exercise. Smell coffee. Smell flowers. Rejoice in the fact that you have yet another day to live. Do all of this before you get to work or start answering emails.

These simple actions prime your brain into a creative, resourceful and joyous state.  Your radiance will affect others, and they will reflect your joy right back to you. The virtuous cycle begins.

Sweeping changes urged to avoid mass deaths from superbugs

Ten million people could die by 2050 unless sweeping changes are agreed upon to tackle mankind's increasing resistance to antibiotics, which can turn common ailments into killers, a new report warns.

Commissioned by the British Government, the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance outlined steps to fight the emergence of "superbugs" as infections become immune to existing drugs, allowing minor injuries and common infections to become deadly.

"It needs to be seen as the economic and security threat that it is, and be at the forefront of the minds of heads of state," said Jim O'Neill, the economist who led the review.

The overuse of antibiotics should be reduced by cutting the vast quantities of medicines given to farm animals, improving diagnoses to stop unnecessary prescriptions, and a global public awareness campaign, the paper urged.

At the same time, researchers should be encouraged to develop new antibiotics through a global fund for research, and rewards for those who manage to develop new drugs.

The cost of the measures was estimated to be $US40 billion ($55.37) over 10 years.

The review found the cost if ignoring the growing problem would be far greater, with authorities facing the cost "sooner or later".

"There is no excuse for inaction given what we know about the impact of rising drug resistance," the report added.

"They can either do so proactively by taking action now and pay less for better outcomes, or remain unprepared and end up spending much more taxpayer money on far worse outcomes further down the line."

The paper argued that the response could be funded through countries' health budgets or through taxes on pharmaceutical companies that do not invest on antibiotic research.

Mr O'Neill, an economist known for coining the term "BRIC" to describe large emerging countries, noted 1 million people had died of antimicrobial resistance since the review started in mid-2014.

The World Health Organisation has already warned antimicrobial resistance may result in "a return to the pre-antibiotic era," when millions of people died in pandemics before drugs were discovered that could treat them.

Did you know that you can lose weight with rice pudding

A typical for children, rich and with lots of properties ... rice pudding dessert has vitamins, protein and calcium; you can eat hot or cold and is perfect for doing sport.

As if that were not enough, the latest research suggests that help us lose weight. It's too good to be true! In this article you more about the benefits of rice pudding.

Rice pudding to train

Here we will focus on the nutritional properties of this dessert. It has been confirmed that it is ideal for those who do sport. If you consumed after training excellent muscle recovery is achieved.

The benefits of this typical drink of our children can be divided taking into account the 3 main ingredients:

Rice

It can be white or brown. The first is digested faster to contain less fiber, but the second is healthier.

In any case it is a great source of carbohydrates and allows complete glycogen stores that are depleted in the muscles after exercise.

Milk

If you are intolerant you can try almond milk, millet or coconut. In the event that use cow milk must be skimmed for fat intake is not significant.

This milk is full of protein (whey and casein) and carbohydrates (lactose), which also help us replenish glycogen. In turn, provides the necessary amino acids to carry out all repair processes required by the body.

Cinnamon

This spice gives a special flavor to the rice pudding and has many nutritional properties. All athletes should include in your diet. It is anti-inflammatory, reduces blood pressure, fights flu symptoms, lowers cholesterol and blood diabetes, has antioxidant effects and helps digestion.

How to lose weight with rice pudding

This satiating, nutritious, light and energy food can help us to lose weight if you eat after sport or in the morning when breakfast. If you are someone who can not eat too hardly rises because then he feels "heavy" all day, or are looking for something other than hot coffee or tea, rice pudding is ideal.

In addition, it is recommended to those who have very strenuous activities during the day because it brings more vitality than a fruit or juice. Once you leave you can prepare up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

    1 liter of milk (choice)
    1 cup white or brown rice (200 g)
    1 cinnamon stick
    Peel of one lemon (optional)
    Sweetener allowed to taste (optional)

Preparation:

    In a saucepan put the milk with the cinnamon stick and lemon zest.
    Heated to a boil.
    Put the rice and reduce heat to medium.
    Stir occasionally for not sticking using a wooden spoon.
    After 20 minutes the mixture takes about a creamier appearance.
    Remove the cinnamon and served in individual cups or bowls.
    Sprinkle with cinnamon and enjoy.

A diet which includes rice pudding in your daily plan promises to help you lose 2 kilos in one week. Of course that includes other foods and should be supplemented with daily exercise and 2 liters of water. Day menu comprises:

    Breakfast: 1 cup rice milk and 1 cup of tea
    Midmorning: 1 peach and 1 block
    Lunch: 50 grams of chicken or fish 1 tomato salad and dessert carrots and 1 cup rice pudding.
    Afternoon: 1 grapefruit, 1 kiwi
    Snack: 1 cup rice milk and 1 cup of tea
    Dinner: rice pudding all desired
    Before bed: 1 cup of tea

And what about rice milk?

Not everyone likes rice pudding and hence the need to seek alternatives to lose weight taking advantage of the benefits of this cereal. A good idea is rice milk, which not only feeds and is an excellent replacement for cow's milk, but also refreshes and satiates our appetite.

But there is more: it has more calcium than any quantity of milk or milk plant, an ideal for vegans, women in menopause or pregnant substitute.

Rice milk can burn calories because it is very low in saturated fat and drink lactose. This reduces levels of "bad" cholesterol, prevent bone diseases and improve the digestive system.

It has cleansing properties and provides a good amount of vitamin D that, according to recent studies, also promotes fat burning and is a great ally when it comes to losing weight. Other vitamins included in this drink are A, B12 and E; also it provides iron, magnesium and selenium.

Rice milk is also more digestible than other milks (plant or animal) and is recommended to those with frequent heartburn or indigestion. To satisfy and nourish the maximum prescribed in patients who have come out of an operation, have weakness or loss of appetite.

The trace elements present in the milk help strengthen and stimulate the immune system and maintain our body to avoid illness by viruses or bacteria.

You can check more health tips at thebluehealth.com