Green Tea and Tai Chi Improve Bone Health and Decrease Inflammation

A researcher at the Laura W. Bush Institute of Women's Health at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Dr. Chwan-Li Shen, counts herself among those who believe that green tea has health benefits that include improving bone strength. In her most recent research, Shen studied whether green tea and tai chi might have a synergistic effect on bone strength. The double-blind, placebo-controlled study involved 171 postmenopausal women who had weak bones but who did not yet have osteoporosis.

The study participants were divided into 4 groups and received one of the following: placebo and no tai chi, green tea polyphenols (500 mg/day) and no tai chi, placebo plus tai chi (3 times/week), or green tea polyphenols and tai chi. Results from the 6-month study revealed that green tea, at a level that was equal to about 4-6 cups of steeped green tea daily, and tai chi independently improved markers of bone health at 3 and 6 months, respectively. There was a similar effect found for muscle strength at 6 months. Mental and emotional health improved among tai chi participants as well

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Good Sunday, but?

Almost a perfect day but then I lost the photos.

I am glad I did not have to go early for a 10:00 AM line dance at the McCoy Pavilion. It was at the Palladium.

So I changed my plans, did my morning errands  and took a nap and got prepared for my afternoon excursion to town. Was early at the bus stop and it seem like a nice afternoon on the Nanakuli beach. Some fifty people out there, some fishing, some swimming, some sitting and enjoying the relaxing time on the beach.

"Stranger In Paradise" by Tony Bennett

The bus came on time and I was at the Ala Moana Shopping Center one hour later. Then got the bike on the 23 bus to Kuhio. A short bike ride and I was at the Ballroom before 7:00. Took some nice pictures at the Line dancing side and I also got a nice picture from the Square dancing on the other side.

Unfortunately, they seem to be in the internal memory of the camera. I do not know how that happened. I put the memory card as per usual but the photos did not go into the memory card. I tried to get them from my internal memory to the memory card and it looks like it works but I cannot get the computer to recognize the memory card. I am on the internet for a solution.

But at least I got a invitation quote from S.J.

"Come join us, a very friendly Square and Round Dance. C/U at the Ala Wai Pallidium." ~S.J.

I left and got the bike on the 42 going to town. Got off a block away from Al Franz studio and he had nice crowd going.

Cha Cha Cha class just starting. They're moving good.

I was willing to wait but he very graciously stopped the action so that I could take the photo. This time I used my other camera and I think I got it right.

 Alan Ma, Mabel Yeung, Linda Flojo, Tom Collins, Wowie & Noli Boado, Amy Wong, Tom Tsurutami and Al Franz. Nice group.

Also a nice invitation quote from Al.

"Come on any Sunday at 6 PM for Ballroom Class and at 7 PM for Latin Class. For beginners and above. We have lots of fun. ~Albert.

Then I rode the bike back to Walmart, needed some Lactase and some other goodies and over to Ala Moana Center with plenty of time to get the 8 o'clock C Bus going to Nanakuli on the freeway. Was home by 9:30, not bad.

Now I know, I will never be the Ace photographer I thought I could be.

Healthy Junk Food Choices

It’s nearly impossible to resist junk food. For decades, food scientists have been engineering delicious snacks that are as addictive as any drug. Barbecue potato chips, cheese puffs, sugary cereal, and pretzels dusted with heavenly honey-mustard powder are the product of an intense scientific effort that has only been rivaled by the Manhattan Project. When facing such insurmountable odds, it’s easy to give up and gorge on the tasty morsels. Thankfully, the same food-science masterminds that have been working against you all these years have had a change of heart. They’re actually using their genius to create tasty low-fat, low-calorie snacks that won’t stick to your waistline like congealed tallow. These snacks can be eaten—in moderate quantities—without turning you into Paul Prudhomme. But you’ll still need to exercise some restraint, because no matter how low-fat junk food is, it’s still junk food. Whatever you do, don't overindulge. Read more:

American Regional, New England

This was a very different week in American Regional. Thursday we were preparing to serve 60 people on Friday food from the New England region of America. A local high school was bringing their culinary club/class to the Art Institute to view the school, come to our class and see a demo from Chef, "help" us out a little, and see if any of them were interested in becoming future students at AI. I didn't get very good pictures because everything happened so quickly with the students there and we didn't actually plate anything, as it was all in hotel pans for the buffet.

Usually each group is assigned one "menu" to prepared which includes an appetizer, salad, soup, entree, sides, and dessert, or any combination of these items. This week, however, our groups were assigned a category instead of a menu. My group was assigned the entrees. The entrees this week were New England Boiled Dinner (AKA Corned Beef and Cabbage) and a Turkey Roulade served with a cranberry sauce, a horseradish sauce, and stuffing with gravy.

We had to multiply each recipe by 12 to make enough for everyone, except the turkey roulades. The reason for this was that Chef wanted each group to learn how to debone a turkey and create the roulades. Our job, as the entree group, was to cook off all the finished roulades. We began, after multiplying out the recipes, by creating a time line of what needed to get done Thursday and Friday and what order we needed to do it in. Chef, I believe, tried to split all the "seniors" up among the groups so each group had one member that is further along in their schooling. I completely understand this approach, and don't disagree. We all had our own "burdens to bear" because of this method, though.

My burden was a guy who has extreme sanitation issues on the opposite end of the spectrum from my OCD-ness. All through Thursday, my tablemate and I were trying to nicely remind the third member of all the rules and regulations that he was breaking, and eventually we had to go to Chef to speak with him about the issue. It is completely unsanitary to dip fingers into a dish, lick your fingers and keep cooking, and then stick said fingers BACK into the food that we are about to serve to guests. That's what disposable tasting spoons are for. It is unsanitary to place veggies on a cutting board, whether or not they are still in their bag, that has just had raw turkey on it. It is completely unacceptable to go get towels from the dirty towel bag because you cannot find any clean ones. These are just a few of the issues we were having.

In any case, we were able to make our way through. We prepared both sauces on Thursday since they could be held easily and were to be served cold. We got the corned beef on to simmer for a couple of hours Thursday so we could just finish it off with the veggies on Friday. We prepped all the veggies to be cooked for Friday and labeled them for easy use. We got all the parsley chopped and held for garnish the next day. We prepped everything for the roulade, including the forcemeat to go in the center, so we just needed to assemble, truss, and cook off Friday morning.

Friday we came in and we had done a wonderful job of getting everything done the day before that needed to be done. We put our corned beef back on and brought it to a simmer and added the veggies. Then we pulled the beef only off, and put it in a hotel pan with some juices to slowly finish cooking in the oven to be extremely tender by the time the guests showed up. We finished the roulade and gathered the other groups roulades to cook off. We prepped and made the stuffing and the gravy. We were ready.

The high schoolers showed up and watched the demo from Chef on how to de-bone a turkey, create a farce, and roll up the roulade and truss it.

Then they were split into groups to "help" us finish everything off. Our group helped slice the corned beef and roulades and put them into hotel pans for service on the buffet line.

Finished turkey roulades, waiting to be sliced-


The inside of the turkey roulade-


Corned Beef sprinkled with parsley on top of turnips, potatoes, cabbage, and broth-

Most of them seemed really excited to be there and very willing to jump in and get their hands dirty. It was fun to see their enthusiasm and it was an interesting change of pace "catering" this event.

Mexico- week 2

Let's just start this week out by saying that this is, aside from Pastry and Baking, one of my favorite classes. It's probably tied with Classical at this point on my list of favorite classes. The food is absolutely delicious and it isn't a class in which you have to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off to get everything done. This means, to me, that I have more of an opportunity to really experience the dishes, new ingredients (mostly chiles), and cooking.

This week we were still in Mexico. I made Pico de Gallo to go with the Yucatan style steamed turkey, Churros, and Mexican Hot Chocolate. One thing that happened this week was that the turkeys all too a little longer to cook than planned so everyone else had everything ready and then it had to sit for over half and hour while waiting on the turkeys. This definitely affected the consistency of some items.

I've made Pico before at home, so this wasn't too much of a challenge. I did need a little more lime juice and salt, though, in my final seasonings. The Yucatan style turkey was amazing. We ate it in fresh corn tortillas with Mexican white rice, a delectable salsa one of the table mates made out of his own repertoire, pico, and grated gruyere cheese. Some people also ate pickled onions with theirs, and we also had a cactus topping that was available but I didn't really enjoy the flavors of that dish.

The churros were a little bit of a challenge. I've made churros before with no problems. This recipe seemed to produce "stickier" churros. The outside fried up nicely, but the inside never fully dried out as much as it was supposed to. I made the dough and piped lines onto a sheet pan and popped them in the freezer to set up enough to cut into smaller lengths to drop into the fryer. I set the fryer on 350 degrees and gave it ample time to heat up (2 hours!). I tested a tiny length of the first churro and the oil didn't seem hot enough. Chef turned it up all the way to 400 and we gave it a little longer to heat up again. My second churro began bubbling immediately, but was still extremely tacky in the middle when it was golden on the outside. Another table was having the same problems, so we decided to try and fry them twice. This seemed to help and my last batch finally seemed to cook enough that the inside was just SLIGHTLY tacky, and by placing them in a 200 degree oven to hold, managed to get them dried out enough to be delicious, although not quite as crispy as we would have liked due to the holding.

To go with the churros, I made a Mexican chocolate dipping sauce. I've never eaten Mexican chocolate before, and I was missing out!!!! I love the spicy cinnamon flavor, and I even like the grainier texture. I could have just sat there and eaten a whole bar of the chocolate. I made a basic ganache by melting the chocolate in a double boiler with a little butter and heavy cream. The texture of the Mexican chocolate made a stickier ganache instead of a smooth and creamy ganache than "normal" chocolate does. I then whipped some heavy cream and folded a little of the chocolate mixture into it to make a topping for the dipping and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was simply milk, vanilla beans, and Mexican chocolate all melted together. It was thick and delightfully rich, and I stirred a little into my coffee to make an amazing late morning pick me up. The whipped cream melted almost as soon as it hit both items I piped it onto, so the presentation pictures are a little...rustic...but that's the food's style anyways.



I was able to take leftovers home to Marc and he thoroughly enjoyed it, as well. I am finding that as I eat more and more spicy foods in my classes that my palette is slowly becoming more accustomed to higher heat. I am able to tolerate spicier foods without having to guzzle huge amounts to cool my mouth off. I didn't think that would ever happen!

Next week is our last week in Mexico. I am anticipating more delightful foods, especially since we will be making GUACAMOLE, which is one of my favorites!

Exercise Is Medicine For The Brain, Too

Exercise - long known to promote heart and bone health, among other benefits - increases the growth of brain cells and improves brain function, according to research reviewed today at the American College of Sports Medicine's 15th-annual Health & Fitness Summit & Exposition.

Terry Eckmann, Ph.D., briefed attendees on recent findings, saying the protein known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is "like Miracle-Gro for the brain." BDNF, Eckmann explained, helps to grow new neurons in the hippocampus and helps the transmission of information across the synapses of neurons.

Fueling these enhanced brain processes, quite literally, are elevated levels of oxygen and glucose which the cardiovascular system - strengthened by exercise - can deliver to the brain. The brain uses about 20 percent of the body's oxygen and glucose.

Scientists have also found that repetitive gross motor movement strengthens the branching of dendrites, which conduct electrochemical stimulation among neurons. "Dendrites receive messages from surrounding brain neurons, and the more dendrites, the more information can be transmitted and stored," said Eckmann.

Recent studies show that students with higher fitness levels score higher on academic tests and show an improved ability to focus. Scientists have also documented the ability of exercise to help prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

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How Little Sleep Can You Get Away With?

We all know that we don’t get enough sleep. But how much sleep do we really need? Until about 15 years ago, one common theory was that if you slept at least four or five hours a night, your cognitive performance remained intact; your body simply adapted to less sleep. But that idea was based on studies in which researchers sent sleepy subjects home during the day — where they may have sneaked in naps and downed coffee.

Enter David Dinges, the head of the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hospital at University of Pennsylvania, who has the distinction of depriving more people of sleep than perhaps anyone in the world.

In what was the longest sleep-restriction study of its kind, Dinges and his lead author, Hans Van Dongen, assigned dozens of subjects to three different groups for their 2003 study: some slept four hours, others six hours and others, for the lucky control group, eight hours — for two weeks in the lab.

Every two hours during the day, the researchers tested the subjects’ ability to sustain attention with what’s known as the psychomotor vigilance task, or P.V.T., considered a gold standard of sleepiness measures. During the P.V.T., the men and women sat in front of computer screens for 10-minute periods, pressing the space bar as soon as they saw a flash of numbers at random intervals. Even a half-second response delay suggests a lapse into sleepiness, known as a microsleep.

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