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Constipation is uncommon in infancy, particularly in breastfed babies, but it can happen. Breastfed babies tend to have fewer episodes of constipation and diarrhea than formula-fed babies because breast milk is easier than formula to digest.

In older children, constipation is common and accounts for about 3% of visits to pediatric outpatient clinics and up to 25% of visits to pediatric gastroenterologists.

A baby might be constipated if they are passing hard pebble-like stools or have a distended belly. As every baby poops on their own schedule, the frequency of bowel movements is not always an accurate indicator of constipation.

In this article, we examine the possible causes of constipation in breastfed babies. We also look at the symptoms of constipation in babies and the treatments and home remedies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that babies exclusively have breast milk until 6 months after birth. During this time, they advise not giving any additional foods or fluids to the baby unless a doctor recommends it. After the first 6 months, parents or caregivers can then introduce solid foods to the baby's diet.

A parent or caregiver may notice changes in the baby's bowel habits and the color and consistency of their stools if they decide to switch to infant formula or when they begin introducing solid foods.

A 2018 study examined the bowel habits of 83,019 newborn babies in Japan. According to the authors, most instances of constipation coincided with the transition from breastfeeding to infant formula, regardless of whether the woman gave birth vaginally or by cesarean delivery.

A baby may develop harder stools and constipation after starting solid foods. Certain foods, such as rice cereal and dairy milk, may cause constipation in babies younger than 1 year.

Other possible causes of constipation in breastfed babies include:

A woman who is breastfeeding may wonder how her diet affects her breast milk and whether her choice of foods can influence the baby's digestive health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), women do not need to avoid specific foods while breastfeeding.

However, babies may appear to avoid feeding after a woman eats a particular food. In this case, the woman may wish to refrain from eating that food for a while and reintroduce it later.

Women may also want to limit or avoid caffeine while breastfeeding because small amounts of caffeine pass from the woman to the baby through breast milk.

Experts suggest that most women who breastfeed can safely ingest 300500 milligrams of caffeine per day. Excessive amounts of coffee may lower the iron concentrations in breast milk, which may cause mild iron deficiency anemia in some babies.

Although most women do not need to restrict their diets while breastfeeding, they should aim to eat a nutritious and diverse diet.

Although changes in the frequency of a person's bowel movements may indicate constipation in older children and adults, this is not necessarily the case for babies.

Newborn babies may have multiple bowel movements each day. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, from 36 weeks of age onward, breastfed babies may have only one bowel movement per week because breast milk leaves minimal solid waste to pass through the digestive tract.

Breastfed babies older than 6 weeks can go several days to a week between bowel movements.

Babies often show signs of straining, such as crying or getting red in the face, while having a bowel movement. However, straining does not necessarily mean that a baby has constipation. Babies may take a while to learn how to have bowel movements.

Symptoms of constipation in breastfed babies may include:

Normal bowel habits vary from baby to baby. Parents and caregivers should monitor their baby's bowel habits and take note of any changes. Doing this may help them decide when they need to take the baby to a doctor.

It is possible to treat constipation in breastfed babies at home using various remedies. However, constipation in exclusively breastfed babies is so uncommon that parents and caregivers may wish to speak to a pediatrician before trying home remedies.

Dietary changes for a baby who is taking formula or foods other than breast milk may help relieve constipation. Breastfeeding women can also try eliminating foods that have an association with infant constipation, such as dairy, from their diet. However, changes to the woman's diet may not affect the baby's digestion.

Babies who eat solids may have difficulty digesting high fiber foods or dairy products if parents or caregivers introduce them too early.

High fiber foods may also help relieve constipation in babies who can tolerate most solid foods. These foods include:

Liquids help move stools through the digestive tract. Increasing a baby's fluid intake may also help relieve constipation.

Exercise can stimulate a baby's bowels and help them pass stools. However, babies who cannot walk or crawl will require a parent or caregiver to help them exercise.

Parents and caregivers can help relieve constipation by gently moving the baby's legs in a bicycling motion with the baby lying on their back.

Putting a baby on its stomach to squirm, reach, and play with toys can also stimulate a bowel movement.

Parents and caregivers can gently massage a baby's stomach to help try to relieve constipation.

Massage techniques to consider include:

A warm bath may help relax a baby's abdominal muscles, which might make stools pass through the digestive tract more easily.

Parents and caregivers should speak with a doctor or pediatrician if their baby:

A doctor can diagnose constipation in babies by reviewing their medical history and performing a physical exam. Rarely, a doctor may order additional laboratory tests, such as a stomach X-ray, to diagnose or rule out other conditions.

If home remedies and dietary changes do not relieve a baby's constipation, a doctor might prescribe a mild laxative or suppository.

Parents and caregivers should never give these treatments to a baby without speaking to a trained healthcare professional first.

Constipation is not a common occurrence in breastfed babies. It usually happens as a result of changing to formula or starting solid foods.

Having infrequent bowel movements is not always an indication that a baby is constipated. Constipated babies are likely to pass hard, pebble-like stools.

Home remedies may help relieve constipation in breastfed babies. If a parent or caregiver is concerned about their baby's bowel movements and accompanying symptoms, they should take them to see a doctor.

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Constipation in breastfeeding babies: Treatments and causes - Medical News Today

Gift giving is a big deal this time of year.

To find the perfect gift, Americans will spend about 15 hours shopping. Women will do about twice as much as men. And theyll shell out about $1 trillion on gifts.

While retailers relish the holiday shopping season as a time when consumers open their purses or wallets, for many consumers especially those who do not like shopping these days are filled with dread. They mark moments when shoppers clog malls, websites become overloaded and delivery trucks block streets. The entire process generates untold amounts of stress and anxiety.

One source of stress is just how much to spend on gifts. Spending too much can put you in financial distress. Spending too little may make you look cheap.

How do you decide whats the right amount to spend on gifts?

As an economist, I study holidays and gift giving because a large fraction of retail shopping is driven by seasonal events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Super Saturday also and more appropriately known as Panic Saturday which is the last Saturday before Christmas.

Gift giving is stressful because nobody wants to buy what they think is a perfect gift only to discover it is a dud.

The long lines of people returning items after the holidays seem evidence enough for that.

This has led some economists to argue theres a dead weight loss to Christmas presents that destroys as much as a third of their actual value. A 2018 study estimated Americans spend $13 billion a year on unwanted gifts.

Other economists, however, have resisted this Scrooge-like view of gift giving and point to evidence that a present can actually have more value to the recipient than the price the giver paid. In other words, a gift, even when technically unwanted, could have more value simply because someone else bought it for you.

So if youre dead set on buying some gifts, how much should you budget for it?

Since gifting is a social act, it makes sense to consider how much other people typically spend.

There are a number of surveys run each year that ask people during the fall to estimate what they plan on spending for holiday gifts. The National Retail Federations annual survey of holiday spending estimates the typical American will spend $659 on gifts for family, friends and co-workers in 2019. On the high end, Gallup puts the average at $942, with more than a third of respondents expecting to spend over $1,000 on gifts.

But these figures arent that helpful for an individual since $659 means something different to someone making $40,000 a year versus $200,000.

Thats where the Consumer Expenditure Survey comes in. Its a large survey run by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that tracks the spending habits of 12,000 to 15,000 families each year. The government uses the survey to determine the cost of living and inflation rates for the typical family.

The survey follows gift giving very precisely. It has categories for common holiday presents like electronics, books and clothes, as well as gifts that typically arent associated with the season such as housing and transportation.

After removing these non-holiday gifts, the typical U.S. family spends about 1% of its annual take-home pay on gifts. So whatever you earn, you could multiply it by 1% to get a figure that is in the ballpark of what the average American spends but wont break the bank.

Making the holidays memorable

While calculating a gift budget is one way to take the stress out of how much to spend on gifts, my family has another: Only give gifts to children.

Adults get wrapped boxes filled with paper. After the real gifts are opened and the young children are safely moved out of the way, we crumple up the paper and throw it at each other in our annual paper fight.

That keeps the cost down while making the kids feel special. It also ensures the kids dont feel left out when their friends talk about the gifts they received. Other families follow their own methods for controlling expenses, such as secret Santa gifts or by focusing attention more on togetherness than on the stuff received.

Whether you have a paper fight or follow another family tradition, it doesnt take very much money to make the winter holidays memorable.

Jay L. Zagorsky of Boston University contributed this story to The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.

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What's the 'right' amount to spend on gifts? - The Philadelphia Tribune

Gift giving is a big deal this time of year.

To find the perfect gift, Americans will spend about 15 hours shopping. Women will do about twice as much as men. And theyll shell out about $1 trillion on gifts.

Jay L. Zagorsky

While retailers relish the holiday shopping season as a time when consumers open their purses or wallets, for many consumers especially those who do not like shopping these days are filled with dread. They mark moments when shoppers clog malls, websites become overloaded and delivery trucks block streets. The entire process generates untold amounts of stress and anxiety.

One source of stress is just how much to spend on gifts. Spending too much can put you in financial distress. Spending too little may make you look cheap.

How do you decide whats the right amount to spend on gifts?

As an economist, I study holidays and gift giving because a large fraction of retail shopping is driven by seasonal events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Super Saturday also and more appropriately known as Panic Saturday which is the last Saturday before Christmas.

Dead weight loss

Gift giving is stressful because nobody wants to buy what they think is a perfect gift only to discover it is a dud.

The long lines of people returning items after the holidays seem evidence enough for that.

This has led some economists to argue theres a dead weight loss to Christmas presents that destroys as much as a third of their actual value. A 2018 study estimated Americans spend $13 billion a year on unwanted gifts.

Other economists, however, have resisted this Scrooge-like view of gift giving and point to evidence that a present can actually have more value to the recipient than the price the giver paid. In other words, a gift, even when technically unwanted, could have more value simply because someone else bought it for you.

Setting a budget

So if youre dead set on buying some gifts, how much should you budget for it?

Since gifting is a social act, it makes sense to consider how much other people typically spend.

There are a number of surveys run each year that ask people during the fall to estimate what they plan on spending for holiday gifts. The National Retail Federations annual survey of holiday spending estimates the typical American will spend $659 on gifts for family, friends and co-workers in 2019. On the high end, Gallup puts the average at $942, with more than a third of respondents expecting to spend over $1,000 on gifts.

But these figures arent that helpful for an individual since $659 means something different to someone making $40,000 a year versus $200,000.

Thats where the Consumer Expenditure Survey comes in. Its a large survey run by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that tracks the spending habits of 12,000 to 15,000 families each year. The government uses the survey to determine the cost of living and inflation rates for the typical family.

The survey follows gift giving very precisely. It has categories for common holiday presents like electronics, books and clothes, as well as gifts that typically arent associated with the season such as housing and transportation.

After removing these non-holiday gifts, the typical U.S. family spends about 1 percent of its annual take-home pay on gifts. So whatever you earn, you could multiply it by 1 percent to get a figure that is in the ballpark of what the average American spends but wont break the bank.

Making the holidays memorable

While calculating a gift budget is one way to take the stress out of how much to spend on gifts, my family has another: Only give gifts to children.

Adults get wrapped boxes filled with paper. After the real gifts are opened and the young children are safely moved out of the way, we crumple up the paper and throw it at each other in our annual paper fight.

That keeps the cost down while making the kids feel special. It also ensures the kids dont feel left out when their friends talk about the gifts they received. Other families follow their own methods for controlling expenses, such as secret Santa gifts or by focusing attention more on togetherness than on the stuff received.

Whether you have a paper fight or follow another family tradition, my main message is that it doesnt take very much money to make the winter holidays memorable.

Jay L. Zagorskymis a senior lecturer in Boston Universitys Questrom School of Business. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.

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How to pick the 'right' amount to spend on holiday gifts according to an economist - Post Register

/ MEDIA STATEMENT /

This content is not written by Creamer Media, but is a supplied media statement.

Home and garden walls stained brown from borehole water are a common sight throughout much of rural South Africa. Today, the sustainable living trend has seen many urban homeowners sinking boreholes in an effort to live off the grid.

Unfortunately, while earth-coloured walls may add to the charm of the countryside, theres no living with walls the colour of mud in suburbia. South African soil is generally rich in iron and manganese while many of the trees we value so much are rich in tannins which contribute additional deep hues to the browning effect of minerals, says Adrian Tromp of Earthsmart Technologies. Tannins and minerals also turn pool water unpleasant shades.

Mr Tromps firm specialises in using a range of ozone-based and other chemical-free green technologies to remove iron, manganese and other contaminants from borehole water rendering it as clear and safe to drink as water from an untouched mountain spring.

Sinking wells, drilling boreholes and catching rainwater are all the way to go for any earth-conscious homeowner seeking the security of a reliable water supply, Mr Tromp says. However, to do things safely and properly, home-generated water simply must be treated, he adds. For Earthsmart Technologies, ozone is the preferred disinfectant.

Borehole water contaminants can cause serious health problems like iron overload which can lead to hemochromatosis that, in turn, can lead to liver, heart and pancreatic damage and diabetes. In addition, iron often carries bacteria that feed off the iron to survive. These organisms can be harmful when ingested. Symptoms like fatigue, weight loss and painful joints could all point to a need for the homeowner to check iron levels in borehole water.

Disinfection is key but chlorine doesnt have to be the go-to chemical for home borehole and harvested water disinfection, Mr Tromp explains.

Ozone is a naturally-occurring disinfectant well-suited for water treatment; approved as far back as 1999 as a disinfectant for Food Preparation by the American Food & Drug Administration and that country's Environmental Protection Agency. Ozone's strength is that it reverts back to oxygen rapidly after it has disinfected water.

Ozone is 2.5 times stronger than chlorine and works 3 000 times faster because it kills bacteria on contact. Chlorine's only real advantage, and it's one that appeals to pool owners, is that it ensures protection long after it is added to water. In drinking water, the consumer doesnt want to taste the residual chlorine which gives the long term protection.

Ozone Aquazone generators installed by Earthsmart Technologies oxidise iron, manganese, tannins, sulphidesand other contaminants common in South African water. After oxidation, there will be matter suspended in the water which is then filtered or settled out.Earthsmart Technologies water treatment processes use specialised glass media, iron removal media and carbon to filter this oxidised water.

Ian Wright, the manufacturer and supplier of Aquazone generators explains that home borehole users can now benefit from the same advanced ozone disinfection technologies used in large industrial and commercial water treatment plants worldwide. South African examples of treatment plants using ozone to purify water include the Roodeplaat, Midvaal, Temba, Rietvlei and Vaalkops Municipal Water Treatment providers. Ozone oxidises iron and manganese while disinfecting and removing other pollutants in water such as cryptosporidium - dangerous organic matter that chlorine cannot remove, says Mr Wright.

Ozone has been used for decades as a well-documented safe and natural purification process for water and more recently in over 300 US municipal water treatment plants. This same technology is now available to homeowners locally and thats pretty exciting for sustainable living, concludes Mr Wright.

View original post here:
Brown Walls A Relic Of The Past With Green Solution - Creamer Media's Engineering News

Gift giving is a big deal this time of year.

To find the perfect gift, Americans will spend about 15 hours shopping. Women will do about twice as much as men. And theyll shell out about US$1 trillion on gifts.

While retailers relish the holiday shopping season as a time when consumers open their purses or wallets, for many consumers especially those who do not like shopping these days are filled with dread. They mark moments when shoppers clog malls, websites become overloaded and delivery trucks block streets. The entire process generates untold amounts of stress and anxiety.

One source of stress is just how much to spend on gifts. Spending too much can put you in financial distress. Spending too little may make you look cheap.

How do you decide whats the right amount to spend on gifts?

As an economist, I study holidays and gift giving because a large fraction of retail shopping is driven by seasonal events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Super Saturday also and more appropriately known as Panic Saturday which is the last Saturday before Christmas.

Dead weight loss

Gift giving is stressful because nobody wants to buy what they think is a perfect gift only to discover it is a dud.

The long lines of people returning items after the holidays seem evidence enough for that.

This has led some economists to argue theres a dead weight loss to Christmas presents that destroys as much as a third of their actual value. A 2018 study estimated Americans spend $13 billion a year on unwanted gifts.

Other economists, however, have resisted this Scrooge-like view of gift giving and point to evidence that a present can actually have more value to the recipient than the price the giver paid. In other words, a gift, even when technically unwanted, could have more value simply because someone else bought it for you.

Setting a budget

So if youre dead set on buying some gifts, how much should you budget for it?

Since gifting is a social act, it makes sense to consider how much other people typically spend.

There are a number of surveys run each year that ask people during the fall to estimate what they plan on spending for holiday gifts. The National Retail Federations annual survey of holiday spending estimates the typical American will spend $659 on gifts for family, friends and co-workers in 2019. On the high end, Gallup puts the average at $942, with more than a third of respondents expecting to spend over $1,000 on gifts.

But these figures arent that helpful for an individual since $659 means something different to someone making $40,000 a year versus $200,000.

Thats where the Consumer Expenditure Survey comes in. Its a large survey run by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that tracks the spending habits of 12,000 to 15,000 families each year. The government uses the survey to determine the cost of living and inflation rates for the typical family.

The survey follows gift giving very precisely. It has categories for common holiday presents like electronics, books and clothes, as well as gifts that typically arent associated with the season such as housing and transportation.

After removing these non-holiday gifts, the typical U.S. family spends about 1% of its annual take-home pay on gifts. So whatever you earn, you could multiply it by 1% to get a figure that is in the ballpark of what the average American spends but wont break the bank.

Making the holidays memorable

While calculating a gift budget is one way to take the stress out of how much to spend on gifts, my family has another: Only give gifts to children.

Adults get wrapped boxes filled with paper. After the real gifts are opened and the young children are safely moved out of the way, we crumple up the paper and throw it at each other in our annual paper fight.

That keeps the cost down while making the kids feel special. It also ensures the kids dont feel left out when their friends talk about the gifts they received. Other families follow their own methods for controlling expenses, such as secret Santa gifts or by focusing attention more on togetherness than on the stuff received.

Whether you have a paper fight or follow another family tradition, my main message is that it doesnt take very much money to make the winter holidays memorable.

[ Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversations newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on todays news, every day. ]

Jay L. Zagorsky, Senior Lecturer, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image: Reuters.

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Holiday Haze: Why You Should Make a Gift Game Plan - The National Interest Online

A young woman shed an incredible eight stone in just 12 months so she could be the best mum possible to her newborn daughter.

Rhiannon Roberts, from Dinas near Tonypandy , decided to join a slimming group when she tipped the scales at an unhealthy 23st.

And after sticking religiously to her diet plan and taking up exercise the 28-year-old lost nearly half her body weight.

"I was completely shocked at how quickly the weight came off," she said. "It worked wonders for me and I'd recommend it to anyone."

Rhiannon, who works as a care assistant, said before her weight loss she would frequently gorge on takeaway food, pizzas, and sugary snacks.

"I was never unhappy when I was big but I didn't really like seeing photographs of myself. I looked like a right state," said Rhiannon.

She said her true inspiration for losing weight was her baby daughter Alexis who she had given birth to in late 2017.

"I didn't want her to be embarrassed by me at the school gates every day," she admitted.

In January 201, Rhiannon joined a Slimming World group in Tonypandy with her dad David Roberts, her mother-in-law, and two sister-in-laws.

"We would compete against one another a little bit to see who could lose the most weight each week," she added.

"In my first week alone I managed to lose 8lb. I just listened to what I needed to do and I stuck to it."

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Slimming World allocates a "syn" value to food high in certain fats and sugars while group members can eat as much "syn-free" food as they want.

"I kept losing quite big amounts of weight each week," added Rhiannon. "I then began to exercise too. I went to aqua aerobics and the gym."

In the 12 months at Slimming World Rhiannon went from 21st to 12st 13.5lb while her dad David lost four stone over the same period.

The pair were awarded Slimming World's 'Miss Slinky' and 'Mr Sleek' on the same night. However shortly afterwards David suffered a heart attack and died.

"Obviously this was heartbreaking and I took a bit of time off from the group but not long after I found out I was pregnant again so I knew I needed to stick to the diet," Rhiannon added. "I knew my dad would have wanted me to carry on."

Rhiannon, who now has a six-week-old baby boy called Jaxon, said she would recommend Slimming World as a great social way of shedding the pounds.

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'I lost 8st in a year so I could be fit and healthy for my newborn daughter' - Wales Online

To lag describes the fact that there is a delay between an action and a result. You most often hear the terms leading or lagging indicators when describing/predicting the behavior of financial markets.

A great example of lag would be when you just had a medical procedure where the doctor immediately tells you that it was a success. Yet honestly, you dont feel that way the next day. Because your body needs time to heal and for you to gain strength. You wont feel healthy again until many weeks later. Your return to health lagged the declaration that your medical procedure was successful.

A contrasting set of statements to this example might include: I fixed my bed today. I cut the grass, Cooked dinner. Washed our windows. Raked the leaves. In these very specific one step processes, there is very little lag between starting the chore and finishing it.

Reflect on the language we use daily in many situations. I joined a gym to lose weight. We instituted a marketing plan for our product. We introduce a new food policy for the organization. Our fundraising plan has been published.

Mistakenly we believe, far too often, that stating intention automatically equals achieving the outcome.As if by stating the intention, the outcome magically appears. But life doesnt work that way. I use the phrase of the natural law of lag in our lives for exactly this reason. For most everything we say we are going to do, there is a natural built-in delay between start and finish. For everything we hope to accomplish, there is this same delay between hope and outcome.

None of us can get away from this natural phenomenon. Realizing that there is this natural lag helps us temper our initial excitement while continuing to put in the work to get to the outcome we desire. The plan, the goal, the intent is only a starting point to many more things that need to happen to get to the result you envisioned.

This is why weight loss, organizational change, company strategy, acquiring new skills or training, settling into a job, mastering a hobby or musical instrument, implementing a new marketing or fundraising program, and so onare so difficult to implement and achieve. They all follow the natural law of lag.

It is this lag that is most difficult for us to navigate. For we tire and lose interest quickly. Our focus gets distracted too often for us to get things done. We become frustrated where nothing immediate happens and so we quit.

The stories we tell ourselves and others about our intentions or goals are crafted only to romanticize the big steps. Little steps each day, with little evidence of progress, do not give us or our egos enough content to create stories that others would marvel. Sadly, keeping our own selves in the dark. Discouraged & impatient, testing our will to persevere when things dont readily seem to be coming together.

Making it imperative for us to make time and patience be our friend instead of our fleeting enemy. While understanding that the lag in our lives has nothing to do with our ability but with our lack of self awareness of how life really works.

The natural law of lag brings so much meaning and focus to the journey of our lives rather than its outcomes. For its during the lag, that the thorns and obstacles in our life test us. Making us stronger and wiser each time, regardless of the outcome.

This piece was originally published ongtathought.com

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The natural law of lag in our lives - Ladders

THE humble banana has been hailed a health superhero - due to its potassium-rich content.

And now, a top dietitian has now claimed that we should be munching on the yella fella's SKIN as well - to reap the health benefits.

1

Susie Burrell says that eating the fruit's peel can improve your sleep, enhance your skin and even boost weight loss.

She says: "Specifically, you will increase your overall fibre content by at least ten per cent as a lot of dietary fibre can be found in the skin of the banana.

"You will get almost 20 per cent more vitamin B6 and almost 20 per cent more vitamin C and you will boost both your potassium and magnesium intake."

Despite this, when it comes to eating banana skin, Susie does not recommend you just munch on the peel once you've finished its insides.

Instead, she suggests putting it in a smoothie, baked goods or a curry to boost your nutritional intake.

Writing in her blog, she adds: "Rather, cooking the skin to soften it will help to break down some of the cell walls within the skin, helping to make the nutrients easy to absorb.

"Next blending the skin into recipes or smoothies is the most practical way to use them.

"Here you will increase the volume and nutritional content of recipes with minimal change to taste and texture of the cooking."

Dishes that work well with banana skin included in them as well as smoothies are muffins, banana bread and curries.

And Susie also revealed that the particular banana skin you choose is important when thinking about the specific nutrients.

She says: "Specifically bananas with bright yellow skins have a higher proportion of antioxidants associated with anti-cancer effects while green skins (less ripe bananas) are particularly rich in the amino acid tryptophan which is associated with good sleep quality.

"Green banana skins are also rich in resistance starch, the special type of fibre known to benefit gut health.

The health benefits of a banana

Here, nutritionist Amanda Ursell tells The Sun why bananas are so beneficial when it comes to our health.

Kill a hangover:Bananascontain potassium - a mineral lost when we drink alcohol. It's important to replenish it quickly and potassium helps to maintain fluids in the body.

Beat stroke: Potassiumhelps to reduce the activity of blood platelets which cause blood to clot. Unwanted clots are responsible for a large proportion of all strokes.

Boost immune system: One medium-sizedbananaprovides around 25 per cent of our recommended daily vitamin C intake.

Fight cancer:Good and regular intakes of antioxidants alpha carotene and beta carotene have been associated with reducing the risk of lung cancer.

Lose weight:Bananasare rich in fibre - which will help to keep you fuller for longer - so they may fight obesity.

Fall asleep: The magnesium in bananas promotes better sleep and muscle relaxation, so eating one before bed could help you to nod off more quickly.

Healthy pregnancy: They also contain an impressive mix of B vitamins, including some folate. That is vital for pregnant women because it can reduce the risk of spina bifida in babies.

Boost brain: Again, this is down to the potassium, which helps to keep plenty of oxygen running through the brain.

Cut heart attacks: Bananas have been proven to help reduce the risk of a heart attack. They do this by reducing levels of "bad" cholesterol in the blood. This means your arteries don't get blocked.

Fight flu: This fab fruit also contains quercetin, a super-nutrient. The nutrient has been shown in lab studies to help kill off viruses such as the herpes simplex virus, which triggers colds and flu.

"As these skins are much tougher, they are definitely best consumed after boiling to soften the skins."

As well as their positive nutritional benefits, Susie points out that banana skins have several other practical uses in day to day life.

For example, she says cooking meat on top of them will help to boost the moisture content of any meal and they can help make a great vinegar.

It comes after it emerged eating bananas regularly can help prevent heart attacks and strokes.

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The potassium in the fruit combats the hardening and narrowing of arteries, scientists discovered.

The vital mineral which spuds, broccoli and sprouts are also rich in was found to aid blood flow to the heart and brain and reduce the risk of clots.

Its effect on the arteries emerged in US lab tests at the University of Alabama on mice.

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Weight loss: Eating banana SKINS helps you shed pounds, beat the bloat & sleep better, expert reveals - The Sun

In my last article, I explored the reasons why overweight persons may not be losing weight even though they think theyre on a diet. But for the morbidly obese, with a BMI greater than 40, the calorie-in minus calorie-out equals weight change may not necessarily hold true as it does in the overweight.

I recently got into an argument with one of those Instagram weight-loss gurus over this fact.

The statement over 95 per cent of dieters fail was the genesis of the conflict. This statement was popularised by those with the perfect solution to solve the problems of frustrated dieters of all sizes.

Come to me all who labour in vain and I will lose the weight for you and it will be easy.

Great marketing but absolutely no substance to it.

My IG foe was bashing this false narrative about the failure rate of diets when I pointed out the nugget of truth within: When you have a BMI of over 40, your chances of losing weight and keeping it off in the long term is less than five per cent.

This did not sit well with someone who made his money off selling hope to the very people who are likely to fail on his diets.

The response to me providing the evidence from a high-quality long-term study with up to 20 years of follow-up was, of course, to bash the study and present an inferior study with four years of follow up.

But the data I dug up was even more damning than I originally thought. Morbidly obese patients who are put on diet and exercise programmes can lose anywhere from zero to one per cent of their body weight over 15 to 20 years. Those are depressing stats for anyone. More so for morbidly obese persons who are desperately trying to lose weight. But why is this so?

Fat cells are looked on as storage bins that fill up and expand as you eat more calories than you burn. But fat cells are much more complex than this. In fact, there are some scientists who believe that fat should be looked on as an organ just like the liver and heart. Fat produces hormones and other substances that play a role in regulating metabolism and gene expression across the body. Fat actually changes your hormones and genes! Then there are the hormones produced by the gut.

As you begin a diet, your stomach begins to produce more hunger hormones. So its not in your mind that you feel hungrier on a diet. But the worse part of trying to lose large amounts of weight is that as you lose weight, your metabolism slows down so you have to eat less and less to remain in a calorie deficit and continue to lose weight.

Part of this fall in caloric requirements is simply due to the fact that as you drop weight, you need less energy to move around your lighter body.

Look at it in this way. If you are walking around with a bag weighing 50 pounds, you are burning a certain number of calories in order to feed your muscles holding the bag. When you lose weight, you are putting down the 50-pound bag. You need less calories because you are no longer labouring with that weight. You therefore need to consume less calories because you are burning less calories, that is, your metabolic requirements fell. If you dont cut your calories as you shed weight, you will hit a plateau, or worse yet, regain the lost weight.

What frustrates most persons who are morbidly obese is that in addition to this simple need to eat less because you weigh less, the body also actively cuts its metabolic rate as you lose weight.

The most famous study looking at this metabolic adaptation followed the highly successful dieters on the TV show The Biggest Loser. The researchers found that in addition to regaining a significant portion of the lost weight, the metabolic rates of the former contestants were ridiculously low. Those who had kept the weight off had to be hitting the gym very hard to compensate for their slow metabolism.

The sad truth is, your body will try its best to get you back to an unhealthy weight once the hormonal changes of being severely obese kicks in.

This is a fact that I hammer home to all prospective bariatric surgery patients. If you slip up after surgery and start consuming calorie dense foods like snacks, sugary drinks or even natural juices, the weight can return very quickly.

Morbid obesity is classified as a chronic disease for a reason. You never really cure it by losing weight. You put it into remission. And like all chronic diseases, it can come back if you are not vigilant with your lifestyle and treatment.

Your best bet at success is to avoid becoming morbidly obese in the first place. Because if you do, surgery may be the only viable option for you to lose weight and keep obesity in remission.

Of course, those who peddle diet pills, shakes and programmes will never tell you that. Primarily because, like my Instagram colleague, they are wilfully blind to the truth.

After all, a 95 per cent failure rate will keep you paying their bills as long as you are willing to buy more hope.

- Dr Alfred Dawes is a general, laparoscopic and weight-loss surgeon; Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; former senior medical officer of the Savanna-la Mar Public General Hospital; former president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association. @dr_aldawes. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and info@islandlaparoscopy.com

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Alfred Dawes | Severe obesity: The harsh truth | Health - Jamaica Gleaner

Appiah rang Leukaemia Cares helpline from the point of diagnosis until well after the end of her daughters life. Sometimes Id call them as a means of support, she says, when things got really rough, when her medications were really powerful, and the chemo made her so unwell. She rang when she had panic attacks; an NHS psychologist had told her that these were likely, and that she should breathe into a brown paper bag, but Appiah found speaking to a person more soothing.

With a laugh, Appiah notes that shed ring the helpline at other times, too: Sometimes Id be out with Imogin, and shed be in the pram, being naughty, and all of my patience was going down the drain, and Id phone Leukaemia Cares nurses, and say: Look, Im feeling so depressed, my daughters shouting, I dont know what to do!

But I might also say: Nurse, Im actually feeling good today.

Appiah says the support of an independent person was invaluable: When your child is so ill, you need to speak to someone who doesnt know your name you need an outsider you can unload to. I didnt want anyone thinking: Here Sheila comes again!

You become self-conscious about your situation and dont want to be a burden on your friends and family. With the helpline, you wont be judged: they just listen. You get it out of your system and then go do the shopping at Sainsburys.

When Imogin was well, shed go to school. But she also spent weeks at a time in isolation in St Georges Hospital, with her mother by her side. Once, she had a bad reaction to a medication and went into cardiac arrest. She was crying and saying, Please, please! and they were giving her all sorts of medicine. The doctors were battling to keep her stable and I dived into the bed with her and told her: Youre going to be OK. I lay down with her and I started singing with her. And then, once she stabilised, she said: Now can I watch High School Musical?"

Appiah shakes her head, laughing: Thats what she was like: I was on thedoor of death, but I have something else planned. I want to watch my video and none of you are going to stop me!

Charities sent the pair to Disneyland Paris twice. The first time was fantastic, says Appiah, the second time Imogin was in and out of consciousness. But they said we should go, to make memories, Appiah explains. Imogin got to be a celebrity for a day and went to Hamleys in a limousine to get anything she wanted.

The rest is here:
'My daughter's death took me to the darkest place, but I've learned it's possible to come back' - Telegraph.co.uk