Life Without Coffee

From an ex-coffee addict:

I used to feel dull and tired every morning, and I woke up with a strong craving for coffee. Then I stopped drinking coffee entirely. It was difficult for a few days, but then the feeling of tiredness in the morning and the desire for coffee just went away. Now I wake up feeling alert, and with no desire at all for coffee.

So my experience backs up this research. Fatigue in the morning is actually a result of coffee addiction. Coffee is counterproductive to alertness in the long run. It gives you a short boost, but then alertness falls lower than before.Fortunately, it's possible to break the addiction in a few days with a little will power.

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• Regular Coffee Drinkers May Not Feel Boosting Effects Of Caffeine (medicalnewstoday.com)

White Coat Effect on Blood Pressure Readings

What is the "white coat effect"?

... Many people find their blood pressure rises when it is being measured in the presence of a [nurse or] doctor (with or without white coat) and this has cast doubt on the accuracy of these readings.'

Especially an attractive one! (As was pointed out by a colleague a couple of years ago when I had rather unexpectedly high blood pressure readings.)

More about the white coat effect here

More seriously, when is culinary salt going to be taxed - to help discourage its use? And perhaps food itself should be taxed more highly if it contains a lot of salt.

Other areas of concern include food labelling where excessive salt is disguised by not publishing the salt content, and only giving the (far lower) sodium content: I was horrified to find that a jar of Patak's Mango Pickle contains 4.4% sodium, which is equivalent to 10.6% salt! Wake up FSA!!!

Healthy Eating And Food Preservation

Eating's a necessity, not an ideological statement or a fashion statement. The rise of food preservation technology coincided with the Allies winning the Second World War (fed with tinned food) then getting postwar fat (fed with tinned food) and losing the undeclared ongoing commerce war with lean and hungry Asians, Africans, Indians. Building 'burger palaces in the USA's competing nations, then expecting the locals to follow our example and become overfed and sedentary was the subtext of the Reagan administration.

What food is good for you and what is going to kill you seems to change weekly. Last week a Subway sub was best, but now its bad because its made with lunch meat. But now head back to McDonalds. That Quarter Pounder with cheese has 1190 mg sodium, whereby a 6" Blackforest Ham with cheese has 1295 mg. Not a whole lot different actually.

The fact of the matter is BOTH have WAY to much sodium. If its not salty enough I know how to fix that easily, but its sure hard to take out the sodium if I don't want it. Even the rolls have over 400mg sodium which is crazy.