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The Smartest Food.

I'm smart. I like food. So of course I'd be interested in a food that will make me even smarter. AND healthier. Pyschology Today has a great article on why we should all be eating blueberries. Here's a snippet:

There's a revolution going on. And it's not being fought with guns and bombs but with garden-variety fruits and vegetables.

Call it the 'smart-food revolution.' It has to do with the growing body of research showing that everyday produce can function medically to prevent, treat and even cure common diseases.
Many green grocery items contain goodies that can help ward off the diseases of aging, such as cancer and heart disease, and slow down the aging process itself. Some of them can even halt the brain deterioration and memory loss that tends to accompany aging.

All together, the findings suggest that relatively simple diet modifications can slow down the normal process of brain aging and memory impairment. And delicious little blueberries may be the smartest food of all.

At the University of Maine, Dorothea J. Klimis, associate professor of clinical nutrition, started looking at blueberries because of her interest in heart disease and manganese, a trace mineral found in abundance in blueberries.

She found that blueberries have a powerful effect on arteries, keeping them from constricting in response to stress hormones. Constricted arteries can raise blood pressure and bring on cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S.

Her studies suggest that the compounds in blueberries bolster the bioavailability of nitric oxide, an artery relaxer. She is measuring enzymes that aid nitric oxide to see at which point in the chemical process blueberries intervene.

Although the research points to a compound within anthocyanin, Klimis is not interested in singling out specific ingredients. "The food industry is notorious for extracting things and turning them into pills. I promote whole foods. It's probably a synergistic effect within blueberries anyhow."

Smaller, wild blueberries, the "low-bush" variety, are thought to be healthier than cultivated blueberries because they contain more anthocyanin. And frozen berries are just as good as fresh ones.

Like their first cousins the cranberries, blueberries have been shown to suppress urinary tract infections, and to reduce eyestrain, too. "Hippocrates said to use food as medicine," Klimis reports, "but doctors don't do that."

You can.

On: Creativity

"Never for an instant forget the effort to renew your life, to build yourself anew. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway of life itself. This is not an easy task. Indeed, it may be the most severely challenging struggle there is. For opening the door to your own life is in the end more difficult than opening the door to all the mysteries of the universe. " - Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhist philosopher

Every time I read this, I think to myself, "How does one go about opening that door?" And then i think some more on it and figure out that it's a process. And then i think some more on that process and think some more and more and more and then it hits me: thinking about it isn't gonna get it open; you just gotta DO it.

Turning thoughts into actions has been one of the greatest obstacles of my life. Turning thoughts into words is easy. I can talk a blue streak about what i want to do and what i plan to do but actually doing it? Nah. There are very few times when i've broken thru. And when i have, it was very rewarding and fulfulling. But when i look back, i can't figure out how i did it or what got me off my proverbial ass. There's no pattern or rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes i just DID it. (shout out to Nike)

So i'm issuing myself a challenge.

Self, it's Tuesday. You have until Sunday evening to do something, anything that you've been thinking about for a while. I know you have a long ass list so pick just one. Start slow, start small. Maybe you could even write out a list and put it on the fridge. check them off as you go...but it's time, self. It's time.

Finally My Dry Spell Is Over.

I was starting to think I wasn't going to win anything ever again. The last time i won a sweepstakes was in January. I won a year subscription to my favorite magazine, GAMES. Then i didn't win any for a long, long time. I mean I spend about an hour a day entering them and deal with lots of spam but every now and then there's a payoff.

I win lots of little things like t-shirts, movie tickets, books, toys, a travel chair, and other trinkets but my biggest win was a trip to Birmingham, England to see Duran Duran in concert (I sqeezed in a lovely side-trip to London, too). That came via telephone from a rep at Sony Records...I couldn't believe it. I mean nobody really wins trips, do they? Well yup. I'm living proof of that.

Well anyway, i got a letter in the mail today from Best Buy saying that I'd won a Sony Cybershot digital camera from a World Cup prediction sweep I had entered. (now i REALLY love Sony) It should be shipped to me in 4 to 6 weeks...yay!!!! And i had been kinda slacking with entering sweeps cuz it had been sooooo long since i'd won anything substantial.

So i guess imma be back on the grind again...

and i may just start a new photo blog :)