Year: 2004

Trans Fat Could Impair Memory and Intellect

Ashley Bischoff3 Comments
The Baltimore Sun (via the registration-free Sun-Sentinel) reports that trans fat could impair memory and intellect, according to studies releases at this year’s annual conference of the Society for Neuroscience. Trans fat is created when hydrogen is bubbled through liquid fats, turning them solid (which makes them easier to bake with). However, trans fat both raises your bad cholesterol (LDL) and lowers your good cholesterol (HDL) — even saturated fat doesn’t affect the good cholesterol.

Fortunately, the government has mandated the inclusion of trans fat on nutrition labels by 2006. But, you can already avoid most of them today by looking out for “partially hydrogenated” or “hydrogenated” on ingredients labels. And, on top of the cholesterol issue, these findings on memory are another good reason to look out for trans fats.

Last year, Granholm fed one group of rats a diet that contained 10 percent hydrogenated coconut oil, a common trans fat. She gave another group the same diet, but replaced the coconut oil with soybean oil, which is not a trans fat.

After six weeks, the animals were tested in a series of mazes. The coconut oil group made far more errors, especially on the tests that required more mental energy.

“The trans fats made memory significantly worse,” said Granholm, who is director of the Center On Aging at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. […]

The article goes on to say that Granholm threw out all the trans fat foods in her fridge after getting her findings. And, I might do the same; but, I’m not sure if I have many trans fat foods around these days. I’ve already switched switched from margarine to butter and even the Lindt 70% Cocoa bar in my cupboard is trans fat free ;).

I’m not quite sure about my protein bars, though — most of them list “fractionated palm kernel oil” among the ingredients in the coating, but I don’t know how much of the bar’s fat goes into the coating. Maybe I’ll have to wait until 2006 for the answer to that one.

Drinking Tea Might Prevent Alzheimer’s

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

HealthTalk reports on findings by researchers from the University of Newcastle that drinking tea might prevent Alzheimer’s disease. I’m a tea drinker, so this was pleasant news (not that I plan on having Alzheimer’s, but every bit helps).

During laboratory testing, the researchers found green and black tea inhibited the activity of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which breaks down the chemical messenger or neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. Alzheimer’s is characterized by a drop in acetylcholine.

Both teas [black and green] also were found to hinder the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), a substance found in protein deposits on the brain of Alzheimer’s patients. […]

I enjoy tea each morning, which I brew at home and take to work with me in my stainless steel “coffee mug”. In addition to being a tasty start to the morning, perhaps this offers a health benefit. I suppose that most people have tried tea and have already decided whether they like it or not.

But, if you’re undecided on tea or if you want to give it another try, I find that The Republic of Tea makes some good teas. If you’re not sure where to start, British Breakfast is a good all-around tea (and Earl Grey is another of my favorites). And, for the best flavor, I would recommend “full leaf” teas (as opposed to tea bags). But, that doesn’t mean a mess of loose tea in your mug — a Brew Basket (about $4.50) can steep single-serving mugs of tea without leaving tea leaves in your glass.

Mystery Egg Sandwich

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

I went to the Dallas Camera Club this evening and tonight was their “Bird Competition”, a competition between the Fort Worth and Dallas Camera Clubs, so called because the trophy is consists mostly of a bird statue (no, I don’t see the significance either).

Both clubs attended the meeting and a set of judges scored photos selected by each club in real-time (that is, the judging was in real-time, not the selection). And, to make for a more jovial atmosphere, everyone brought along snacks or drinks (a bit like a pot-luck / photography competition, you could say). I made a point of avoiding the sugary snacks, but there were some sandwiches which caught my eye. They were obviously hand-made and with decent bread to boot.

Just from looking at them, I couldn’t descern exactly what was in the sandwiches; but, I was able to figure out most of it. And I liked each of the ingredients:

  • Rye bread, cut diagonally
  • Sliced hard-boiled eggs
  • Black olives
  • Mayonnaise

I selected a sandwich-half and placed it on a Styrofoam plate as I walked back to my seat. Keeping in mind that I’ve never had an egg-salad sandwich — not that I have anything against them — I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I mean, sure, I’ve had omelettes and other egg preparations but not eggs right in a sandwich.

I suppose I expected more as I bit into it; I think I was expecting a coherent team effort among the ingredients. Instead, it resembled a mere collection of the ingredients sharing a common point in space. All the same, I was left wondering whether this was perhaps a sub-par execution of a more traditional sandwich recipe (like an egg-muffaletta or something?).

Along those lines, I loaded up AllRecipes and checked their section on sandwiches. I did a search for “egg sandwich” and “egg olive sandwich” but I couldn't find one that quite matched the sandwich I had. Maybe this evening’s sandwich was a more obscure recipe, or maybe it was just way off from an established recipe.

All the same, I did run across a recipe for Lindsay® Olive Tea Sandwiches. It’s far different from the sandwich I had, but it looks positively delectable. Olives, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, pine nuts and cream cheese — how can you go wrong? The primary disadvantage to that sandwich, it seems, are the ingredients themselves. After all, who regularly keeps pine nuts in his/her fridge? But, that may just mean that I’ll have to make a trip to Central Market as part of a sandwich-making mission.

The Apprentices’s Grammar Gaffes

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I enjoy some reality tv shows, but I never really got into The Apprentice; it just seemed a bit arbitrary to me to have participants compete and yet have their fates nonetheless decided by Trump. But, I was amused by this mocking assessment of the Apprentices at MSNBC. In particular, it seems that they have a tough time speaking English clearly:

Wes thinks “utilize” sounds more businesslike than “use,” when actually it only sounds more pretentious. Recent college grad Andy busted out some Latin with the phrase “ad hoc,” but didn’t seem to know its actual meaning. Fragile Elizabeth suggested “download[ing] all our ideas” instead of just saying “write everything down,” then sprained her tongue with the non-word “deprioritize.” And Ivana … well, what corporate blather hasn’t Ivana used? […]

The author seems a bit surprised and disgusted that these “overeducated MBAs trip over themselves to prove their expertise in the high-powered corporate sphere”. Really, I’m not terribly surprised at their foibles; having worked in the corporate world long enough, I’ve run across plenty of blowhards who think that big words can inflate their stature. Fortunately, my current job is much more down-to-earth and with hardly a peep of marketing-speak in the office.

The Banality of Elevator Banter

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

Though I work for RD2, I’ve recently been working on-site at a client’s office for the past few days. It’s a large company with an office in Las Colinas. In any case, the team and I (that is, the client team and I) went out for lunch together today. We headed off just before noon, and so the elevators were rather busy (especially as there’re multiple companies within other floors of this office building).

One of us pressed the “down” button and an elevator arrived a couple minutes later. The five of us got on — so far, so good — and then a few more people strolled around the corner and boarded the elevator. And, just as the elevator doors were about to close, a couple more people made a mad dash to jump on. By this point, it was fairly full; but, that should have been the end of it. However, there seems to be something about elevators that brings out the banal banter in corporate employees:

  • Guy running: “Hold that elevator!”
  • Elevator Person 1: “Oho! Can we fit one more?”
  • [mild laughter among the group]
  • Elevator Person 2: “Ok, everyone suck in!”
  • Elevator Person 3: “Looks like we’re going to be cozy!”

There was a bit more nervous laughter among the group as the doors finally closed and then we descended to the ground floor. The elevator was full, to be sure, but not uncomfortably so. But is it the nature of elevators in general that brings out these comments or was it just because it was an elevator and it was full? Either way, this is one area of the human psyche that I’m unable to entirely understand.