Maintaining a healthy and balance diet is not a simple task. Also ensuring that your body has the essential amount of nutrients to survive is very crucial. Ensuring that you give you body what it needs, it is important that you do not skip this VERY important meal of the day. It is almost certain that your mom has always told you to make sure that you eat breakfast and you have probably heard a million times that âÃ�‚¬Å“breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

Not only is breakfast the most important meal of the day, but it is also consumed during the time of the day when your body is most vulnerable. In the mornings as you awaken from a long night’s rest your body is essentially dehydrated, your blood sugar is low, you have little energy, and you are trying to complete a million tasks to start a new day. These tasks range from hurrying the children off to school, daily grooming, ironing, packing lunches, checking your daily schedule, or trying to complete that last minute presentation for work. To ensure that this meal is not skipped, we will introduce to you quick and simple ways to have a balanced breakfast without the time consumption.

Besides, eating breakfast actually helps you lose weight. Read more

Depression in pregnancy not only causes mom to suffer it can also pose health risks to the baby. Research published today in the journal Human Reproduction found that women with symptoms of depression were more likely to experience a preterm birth. The greater the severity of depression symptoms, the greater the likelihood of early delivery. This research adds “strong evidence that depression during pregnancy is bad for the fetus,” says lead study author De-Kun Li, reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., “This should not be dismissed anymore.” Preterm birth, write the study authors, is the leading cause of infant mortality and medical expenditures for newborns.

Contrary to the belief that all expectant moms are buoyed by their own joyous anticipation, the reality is that pregnancy offers no protection against depression. A woman’s overall risk of depression peaks during childbearing years, and “roughly 12 to 14 percent of mothers will experience depression during pregnancy,” says Cindy-Lee Dennis, researcher at the University of Toronto and associate professor of nursing with an appointment in the psychiatry department. The biggest risk factor for symptoms while pregnant, Dennis explains, is a previous history of depression. Read more

Infectious disease experts designed a machine called the hemopurifier. It works much like a dialysis machine, using thin fibers to capture and remove viruses from the blood it filters. The machine requires the drawing of blood through an artery, which is sent through a tube into the machine, then back into the body. It can treat a number of illnesses.

Every day, 14,000 people are infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDs. There’s no cure, but now a breakthrough — a machine that could clean blood, keeping more and more people alive longer.

“I remember lying in bed thinking, ‘I am going to die. I’m going to die. I feel so sick.’ And I remember thinking laying in that bed, ‘And I know exactly what it is,’” HIV patient John Paul Womble, told Ivanhoe. HIV could kill Womble. He watched his father die from the virus and now he is living the rest of his life with it. “I’ve got to live as healthy as I can, but this virus is not going to control me,” he says. Now, a machine could help clean Womble’s infected blood and keep him healthier, longer. Read more

Chemists adding a tasteless edible protein called gelatin hydrolysate to ice cream find that it keeps ice crystals small, resulting in a smoother, more pleasing product. The protein inhibits the growth of ice crystals, keeping them small and preserving the creamy texture of ice cream.

People in the U.S. eat more ice cream than any other country in the world. The average American consumes about 24 quarts of ice cream a year. But, if you buy a lot of ice cream, you know that freezer burn or ice crystals can ruin the flavor and creaminess of your favorite treat.

Whichever flavor you like best, ice cream is a favorite for kids of all ages. But when it comes to ice cream, ice isn’t such a good thing, especially when it forms on the inside of the container.

“Ice crystals when they grow they change the texture of ice cream, it gives you some gritty sensation in your mouth, and that is not very desirable,” Srinivasan Damodaran, Ph.D., food scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, told Ivanhoe.
Read more

ScienceDaily — Eight-year-old children have a radically different learning strategy from twelve-year-olds and adults. Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback (’Well done!’), whereas negative feedback (’Got it wrong this time’) scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring. Twelve-year-olds are better able to process negative feedback, and use it to learn from their mistakes. Adults do the same, but more efficiently.

Brain areas for cognitive control

The switch in learning strategy has been demonstrated in behavioural research, which shows that eight-year-olds respond disproportionately inaccurately to negative feedback. But the switch can also be seen in the brain, as developmental psychologist Dr Eveline Crone and her colleagues from the Leiden Brain and Cognition Lab discovered using fMRI research. The difference can be observed particularly in the areas of the brain responsible for cognitive control. These areas are located in the cerebral cortex. Read more