Watermelon Spritzer

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Watermelon is in season, and it could not be more refreshing. Did you know that watermelon is a nutritional powerhouse? According to Paul Fassa at Naturalnews.com, "Watermelon has the most nutrition per calorie of common foods." A few of the benefits include:

Besides tasting great and being low in calories because watermelon is mostly water, it is an excellent source of Vitamin C, which a major antioxidant. It has a high beta carotene concentration, thus offering a fair amount of vitamin A as well. Both beta carotene with vitamin A help support good eyesight and prevent glaucoma.

To learn more about watermelon's nutritional properties, check out this article at Naturalnews.com.

Besides being delicious plain, it also makes a refreshing and easy summer drink. Try making a watermelon spritzer for a fun, seasonal treat.

Watermelon Spritzer recipe from CDKitchen
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound watermelon
2 cups sparkling water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 ounce lime juice

Preparation:

Cut pulp from watermelon and remove seeds. Put in a blender with water and salt. Blend until smooth. Add lime juice; may add more water if desired. Serve with ice

All About Nutrition- By Greg Gorman

The more I research, the more studies conclude that nutrition, proper diet, and exercise help to prevent many diseases. So, today is all about nutrition. Here are 3 interesting facts and helpful hints offered on Dr. Carroll Parish's News and Views blogsite at: http://carrollsviews.blogspot.com/

THE POWER OF CINNAMON

"Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day significantly reduces blood sugar levels in diabetics, a new study has found. The effect, which can be produced even by soaking a cinnamon stick in your tea, could also benefit millions of non-diabetics who have blood sugar problems but are unaware of it. The active ingredient in cinnamon is a water soluble polyphenol compound called MHCP. In test tube experiments, MHCP mimics insulin, activates its receptor, and works synergistically with insulin in the cells. In a study using Pakistani volunteers, cinnamon also lowered blood levels of fats and "bad" cholesterol, which are also partly controlled by insulin. And it also neutralized free radicals, damaging chemicals which are elevated in diabetics. Cinnamon's essential oils also qualify it as an "anti-microbial" food, and has been studied for its ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi, including the commonly problematic yeast Candida. So, start using that cinnamon!"

Low Vitamin D Levels Could Cause Liver Disease

by Dr. Simi Paknikar
"We are all aware that low levels of vitamin D can cause weak bones. A recent study indicates that it could be associated with liver disease as well! Researchers claim that low vitamin D could be one of the reasons behind the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD occurs due to accumulation of triglycerides in the liver cells. Outpatients of suspected metabolic syndrome with normal liver enzymes, no excessive alcohol intake, negative for hepatitis B and hepatitis C, no cirrhosis or chronic liver disease were subjected to liver ultrasound to estimate the presence and degree of fatty liver disease. 25(OH) vitamin D levels were measured to estimate any deficiency of vitamin D. The researchers found that patients with NAFLD had low levels of 25(OH) vitamin D. They also found that the lower 25(OH) vitamin D levels, the worse is the degree of fatty liver disease. This association was independent of other possible influencing factors like age, sex, triglycerides, HDL and fasting blood glucose levels."

Finally, one last helpful hint for today:

DIETARY FIBER

You don't usually see it or taste it, but fiber works wonders for your body. Dietary fiber is a known cancer fighter found only in the cell walls of plant foods. For years, studies have pointed to the fact that increased fiber intake decreases the risk of colorectal cancer. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (1999) this protective effect may be due to fiber's tendency to add bulk to your digestive system, shortening the amount of time that wastes travel through the colon. As this waste often contains carcinogens, it is best to removed it as quickly as possible. The Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1999) reported that fiber may also help protect against breast cancer, an effect noted especially with consumption of whole grains and wheat bran. Studies indicate that that high amounts of fiber may also prevent breast cancer by binding to estrogen. When bacteria in the lower intestine break down fiber, a substance called butyrate is produced which may inhibit the growth of tumors of the colon and rectum as reported in the Journal of Oncology Research in 2000. Fiber may also have a protective effect against mouth, throat and esophageal cancers according to a study published in the International Journal of Cancer in 2001. Most Americans only take in about 10-15 grams of fiber per day. However, studies have shown that to have a cancer preventing effect one needs about 30-35 grams per day. So what should we do? Eat more vegetables!

For more hints on nutrition, visit: Dr. Carroll

Deep Breathing: An Effective Tool for Stress Relief

Sometimes relaxing is much easier said than done. We all know that stress is part of life, and that if it goes unchecked, it can be destructive to your health. Helpguide.org states:

When stress overwhelms your nervous system your body is flooded with chemicals that prepare you for “fight or flight”. While the stress response can be lifesaving in emergency situations where you need to act quickly, it wears your body down when constantly activated by the stresses of everyday life. The relaxation response puts the brakes on this heightened state of readiness and brings your body and mind back into a state of equilibrium.

Fortunately, there are ways to intentionally help your body relax, and deep breathing is a powerful tool to do this. The Pioneer Woman has an excellent post on how to effectively do soft belly breathing. Check it out here.

See other information from Helpguide.org on effective ways we can all use to reduce stress here.

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Planning Activities for Loved Ones with Dementia

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Planning and doing activities with a loved one who has dementia can provide meaning and encouragement to both the memory-impaired individual and his/her caregiver. Finding activities that are well-suited for your loved one can be challenging but it is rewarding when you have a positive experience. The Alzheimer's Association has provided tips and guidelines in their online brochure, "Activities at Home." You can read the whole brochure by following this link.

Some helpful information that has been pulled from this brochure includes:

 

Effective activities:

• Bring meaning, purpose, joy and hope to the

person’s life

• Use the person’s skills and abilities

• Give the person a sense of normalcy

• Involve family and friends

• Are dignified and appropriate for adults

• Are enjoyable

10 quick tips for activities at home

1. Be flexible and patient
2. Encourage involvement in daily life
3. Avoid correcting the person
4. Help the person remain as independent as possible
5. Offer opportunities for choice
6. Simplify instructions
7. Establish a familiar routine
8. Respond to the person’s feelings
9. Simplify, structure and supervise
10. Provide encouragement and praise

 

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Bird Feeder Activity

It can be relaxing and enjoyable to observe nature. Bird watching is an activity that almost anyone can do. The following is a simple, affordable and effective way you and your loved one can make a bird feeder. Young family members would also enjoy doing this and learn about nature by doing so.

Materials for this project include:

• A large open pine cone
• Peanut butter
• String
• Birdseed
• Resealable plastic bag

To make the bird feeder:

• Spread peanut butter all over the pine cone.
• Put the bird seed in a resealable plastic bag and put the peanut butter-covered pine cone in the bag. Shake to cover with seed.
• Put the pine cone in the freezer for approximately 30 minutes to firm-up the peanut butter and make the next step more manageable.
• Tie a string around any part of the cone (I use the mid section) and secure the other end of the string to a tree branch, hook or other object in view.

Watch as birds find your feeder and enjoy the meal you left them. Identify what species of birds you have attracted and see if you seem to have any "regular visitors". Cornell has put together a great resource to identify common feeder birds. You can access their website by clicking here.

Hopefully today's post may help create moments of joy by spending time together and creating something that will inspire fun and conversation.

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Become a Pen Pal

A simple card can be a joy to send or receive

Becoming a pen pal can be a great activity for someone who is not as social as s/he used to be. Receiving a note from a friend can be uplifting, and a letter or card is especially touching in today's world of text messaging and email. Additionally, engaging with a pen pal will encourage your loved one to regularly think about someone else.Thinking about others has benefits that include decreased anti-social behavior and depression, and increased optimism and self-worth.  

Maybe a daughter, son, friend or cousin would be a good pen pal to the person whom you are caring for. Ideally, correspondence should be regular (weekly or bi-weekly is an ideal starting point) and reciprocal. Notes do not need to be elaborate, but rather just positive and thoughtful. Even sending a simple note card with a message such as "sending a hug and good thoughts your way" can bring benefits to the receiver. Other ideas for notes are:

• an article you read during the week
• a quote that inspired you
• a joke that made you smile
• a fun memory
• a bible verse that speaks to you
• a small paper craft like a heart chain or a snowflake
• a picture
• a recipe you recommend
• a cartoon

Depending on your loved one, making the card can also be enjoyable and especially fun to receive. All that is needed is some paper and imagination- you never know when inspiration will strike. Just remember to have fun and enjoy knowing you will be helping create a bright spot in another person's day :)

A Refreshing Drink

My favorite flavored water combination: orange and cucumber

Proper hydration is essential to all of us, but it is particularly important for someone who has impaired health. Encouraging your loved one to drink fluids is important, and water is nearly always the best choice. An idea that may help you and your loved one stay hydrated this summer is to make flavored waters. Flavored waters are a great way to meet your daily hydration needs without adding excessive calories, added sugars, artificial ingredients or caffeine. You may be surprised at how delicious and refreshing this simple mixture can be.

All you do is cut up fruit (oranges, lemon, lime, apples, strawberries, grapefruit and tangerines are all common choices), cucumbers or herbs (mint) and add them to a pitcher of water. You can use any of these additions alone or in combination. Keep the pitcher covered in the refrigerator for up to three days and just refill it as it becomes around half-way empty. Try using pretty cups that are not overly large (large cups can be intimidating to some) and adding a garnish (wedge of fruit) for visual appeal. Enjoy!

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Foil Packet Dinners

In an ideal world, dinner would be a great time to relax and enjoy spending time with your family while consuming delicious and healthy food. As a caregiver, you may feel a responsibility to provide your loved one with good nutrition. Sometimes this is easier said than done. Often, we have competing priorities and lack of time. This can be further complicated by various family food preferences. If this sounds familiar, I hope this dinner idea can help you.
Currently, I have an abundance of squash and zucchini in my garden. So I simply sliced these vegetables along with some onion and used them as the base for individual tin foil dinners for each person at our house. This mixture was then seasoned with salt and pepper and a pat of butter was added to each packet. Individual chicken breasts that had been marinating in Italian dressing were placed on the vegetables. I sealed up each packet and put everyone's dinner on a cooking sheet together. I baked them at 375 degrees for 45 minutes (until the chicken was done at 170 degrees in the thickest part of the breast). Lastly, I transferred each dinner from its packet to a plate (be careful when opening the packets) and added some Parmesan cheese to each serving. I served this alongside some steamed broccoli and it was a complete and fresh meal. It took less than 10 minutes to put together and clean-up was minimal.

Maybe your loved one has different food preferences than you or has dietary restrictions that can be limiting for the whole family. Other foods that are convenient in tin packets include potatoes (just slice them very thin or dice them), bell peppers, mushrooms and hamburger patties. Any seasoning or herbs can be used (pesto is another good one for chicken and either potatoes or zucchini). Some people may add shredded cheddar cheese, cooked bacon or barbecue sauce after baking. Modifying this concept to suit everyone's diet is simple and allows minimal preparation to accomplish different meals for the whole family. In addition, others can help by making their own packets and all meals that are cooked together are done at the same time. Assembling each meal could even be done the day prior to baking. Just pull the packets out of the refrigerator and put them in the oven when you are ready. This means you have one less thing to coordinate and this can make a huge difference in a busy day. This meal is also very forgiving as it does not over-cook easily and the foil packet keeps the meat moist (which makes it tender).

I hope this idea may help you and your family have an easy, affordable, healthy and delicious home-cooked dinner together.

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Create a Floral Arrangement

Experiencing nature, like a plant or a flower arrangement, in our environments can increase our well-being and be uplifting to our spirits. When doing activities with loved ones who have dementia or other conditions, finding ways to their engage them or provide a sense of accomplishment may be challenging. It could be helpful to think about how they may experience the world with their different senses. Flower arranging may be an activity to try as it involves vision, smell and touch.
Now is a great time to use what you already have in your yard (or you may have a friend or neighbor who would be happy to let you pick some of their flowers for this project). You don't have to use only flowers, but an arrangement could incorporate herbs or small tree cuttings. I happen to have day lilies and roses in bloom at my house, and they have made some great arrangements.

You can certainly use a vase to make a bouquet, but don't feel you have to limit yourself to any particular type of container. I find that glass jars (like the ones that pickles or salsa come in) make some of the best bases as they have a wider top that allows more flexibility for the arranger. Besides being free, using a jar allows you to make a grid out of a material (like tape or floral wire) to cover its top. This allows easy positioning of stems and helps hold the bouquet's shape. In addition, you can use fewer flowers to make an arrangement that seems full and repositioning stems is simple. Doing this step may help create a successful experience for the person who is doing the arranging. As you can see from the picture below, I made a grid from floral wire, secured it around the jar top with a rubber band and then trimmed the end pieces of wire. After this photo, I simply covered the rubber band with a piece of ribbon.

Flower arranging can be an easy, natural and affordable way to enhance the life of your loved one. Maybe making a fresh centerpiece for tonight's dinner would be a fun activitiy that creates a beautiful result and a moment of joy.

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Enjoy a Superfood Smoothie

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 Summer is in full swing and when temperatures go up appetites can go down. Taking care of our bodies (including maintaining a healthy diet) can be a challenge when balancing busy lives and competing priorities. Consider trying the following recipe for a blueberry smoothie as either breakfast or a snack. Loaded with blueberries, yogurt and flaxseeds, it makes good nutrition possible for both those who struggle with enjoying healthy foods and caregivers who are super busy (sound familiar?). Who doesn't need more fruit, omega-3s and calcium in their lives?

You may already know that blueberries are one of the healthiest foods we can consume. Livestrong.com reports some of the advantages of this fruit include:

• Rich in Antioxidants to Strengthen and Support the Immune System
• Relieves Urinary Tract Infection Symptoms
• Source of Fiber
• Beneficial for Short-Term Memory

Fresh blueberries can be frozen to enjoy in this smoothie or you can purchase them already frozen (this is a budget-friendly way to enjoy this fruit year-round).

Blueberry Smoothie
1 c. frozen wild* blueberries
½ c. plain or vanilla yogurt
1 c. lowfat milk
2 TBS ground flaxseeds
Put all ingredients into the blender and puree. Enjoy! Makes 1 large or two small servings.

For anyone who wants to learn more about the health benefits of blueberries, check out this link.
More on the nutritional information for flaxseeds here.

*wild blueberries have higher levels of antioxidants in them than cultivated blueberries. You can usually find wild blueberries in the frozen section of the supermarket, but any type of frozen blueberry will work fine in this recipe.

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It's a Great Day for a Picnic



 photo from here

Sandy, a talented caregiver, has a way of engaging clients who typically don’t like to do activities. She takes Jane, a lady whom she cares for, on a “picnic”. Jane has dementia and is hesitant to leave her couch and television (which is always on the news). Sandy encourages Jane to help her pack a lunch of finger foods. They don’t leave the house (due to Jane’s declining mobility), but they do go to the sunroom for lunch. It can be an effective way to change the scenery for Jane (because let’s face it- the news is not always uplifting), and it makes lunch seem more like an event. Finger foods are tasty and they eliminate the need for silverware, which can be a challenge for Jane to use at times.  Some foods they enjoy include small sandwiches (cucumber, chicken salad and egg salad are favorites), pickles or chips, sliced fruit and cookies.  Sandy’s thoughtful idea makes a positive impact on Jane’s day by creating a fun and positive environment, helping her relax, have an enjoyable meal and participate in light-hearted conversation. Maybe having a picnic could create a joyful experience for you and your loved one too.

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