For most American women beyond the age of high school gym class, “I’ve got my period ” isn’t considered much of an excuse for anything. We’re meant to pop an Advil and g et on with things, Red Devil be damned. But in several, mostly East Asian, countries, so-called “men strual leave” is a legally enshrined right for female workers.

Should Paid ‘Menstrual Leave’ Be a Thing?: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/should-women-get-paid-menstrual-leave-days/370789/

via DuckDuckGo for iOS

Sent from my iPad

Harvesting my bamboo

#AFHN2014

gardeningvix's Blog

I grow bamboo in my garden, I love the sound of the wind through it’s leaves and the bright green stalks in the sunshine it’s a great plant to have – plus it’s extremely useful.

I harvest the canes to use in my allotment. The great thing about growing your own canes is they have so many more useful bumps and tiny branches than shop bought ones. Which obviously, is very handy for your climbing plants to grab hold of plus the green coloured stalks slowly fade to the familiar beige colour through the growing season, just making them more interesting to look at.

Maybe I take this ‘grow your own’ thing too far, but I wonder what the carbon foot print of the humble garden cane is? I could go out and buy some brittle canes from the garden centre, but it’s so much more fun to grow it…

View original post 64 more words

The spring juggle

#AFHN2014

gardeningvix's Blog

My poly tunnel is starting to fill up, trying to find a slot for a seed tray is slowing becoming impossible, I call it the spring juggle. Every inch is filled with a pot or tray – isn’t spring exciting?

Is it me or is there never enough room? Even if I owned the Eden project there wouldn’t be enough space.

April is one of the busiest months for me, sowing and pricking out becomes a full time job. So far I’ve sown (prepare for a huge list):

Soya bean
Runner bean
French bean
Peas
Courgette golden
Marrow
Squash patty green tint
Courgette all green bush
Courgette F1 Atena
Chard Brightlights
Kale Nero di Toscana
Kale scarlet
Kale curly scarlet
Kale dwarf green curled
Leek prize taker
Lettuce little Gem
Rocket
Quinoa
Kohl Rabi purple and white Vienna mix
Tomato gardeners delight
Tomato Tigerella
Sweet Pepper
Multicoloured corn
French marigolds

View original post 108 more words

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

#AFHN2014

gardeningvix's Blog

It’s tastes and looks amazing! And now is the time to start sowing it for your bumper harvest next spring!

It’s easy to grow, and just gets on with it’s business throughout the year. But then next spring it will explode with amazing sprouting fab purple stalks.

I have never understood why the supermarkets charge so much for it, as it’s so easy to grow and just a few plants will give you such a tremendous harvest. Freshly picked, gently steamed it’s simply wonderful!

I have about 5 plants and today I harvested so much we had enough for our dinner, as did all of my neighbours (I’m very popular today!)

But that’s what it’s all about eating super fresh, no silly chemicals and sharing your harvests with your friends and family!

Happy spring to you!

View original post

Like to cook? Check out these simple meal ideas for spring

#AFHN2014

` Science Can Provide Answers to Questions Yet to be Asked in this Case Gluten Sensitivity ‘

#AceFoodNews – May 16 – A recent article by (Business Insider) highlighted one of the best examples of science working, a researcher who provided key evidence of (non-Celiac) gluten sensitivity recently published a follow-up papers that show the opposite.

The paper came out last year in the journal Gastroenterology.

Here’s the back-story that makes us cheer:

The study was a follow-up on a 2011 experiment in the lab of Peter Gibson at Monash University. The scientifically sound — but small — study found that gluten containing diets can cause gastrointestinal distress in people without celiac disease, a well-known autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten.

They called this non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

Gluten is a protein composite found in wheat, barley, and other grains. It gives bread its chewiness and is often used as a meat substitute: If you’ve ever had “wheat meat,” seitan, or mock duck at a Thai restaurant, that’s gluten.

Gluten is a big industry: 30% of people want to eat less gluten. Sales of gluten-free products are estimated to hit $15 billion by 2016.

Although experts estimate that only 1 percent of Americans — about 3 million people — actually suffer from celiac disease, 18 percent of adults now buy gluten-free foods.

Since gluten is a protein found in any normal diet, Gibson was unsatisfied with his finding. He wanted to find out why the gluten seemed to be causing this reaction and if there could be something else going on. He therefore went to a scientifically rigorous extreme for his next experiment, a level not usually expected in nutrition studies.

For a follow-up paper, 37 self-identified gluten-sensitive patients were tested. According to Real Clear Science’s Newton Blog, here’s how the experiment went:

Subjects would be provided with every single meal for the duration of the trial. Any and all potential dietary triggers for gastrointestinal symptoms would be removed, including lactose (from milk products), certain preservatives like benzoates, propionate, sulfites, and nitrites, and fermentable, poorly absorbed short-chain carbohydrates, also known as FODMAPs. And last, but not least, nine days worth of urine and fecal matter would be collected. With this new study, Gibson wasn’t messing around.

The subjects cycled through high-gluten, low-gluten, and no-gluten (placebo) diets, without knowing which diet plan they were on at any given time. In the end, all of the treatment diets — even the placebo diet — caused pain, bloating, nausea, and gas to a similar degree. It didn’t matter if the diet contained gluten. (Read more about the study.)

” In contrast to our first study… we could find absolutely no specific response to gluten,” Gibson wrote in the paper. A third, larger study published this month has confirmed the findings.

It seems to be a “nocebo” effect — the self-diagnosed gluten sensitive patients expected to feel worse on the study diets, so they did. They were also likely more attentive to their intestinal distress, since they had to monitor it for the study.