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Smoothie Basics: Adding Nutrition and Taste to Your Diet Now That You Have More Time at Home by Dr. Doug Green

Friday, March 27th, 2020

Smoothie Pic
Smoothie Basics: Add Nutrition and Taste to Your Diet Now That You Have More Time at Home by Dr. Doug Green
With families staying home and preparing more food from scratch, consider making some breakfast smoothies. Kids should like these beverages and it’s easy to involve them in choosing the ingredients and pushing the button. Here is what you need to know.

Start With Your Goals

You want something that is highly nutritious and good tasting. There are two basic kinds of smoothies, fruity and savory. I only make the former as the savory ones end up tasting like cold vegetable soup and at worst can seem a bit medicinal.
If it’s going to be nutritious, all ingredients should qualify. Ideally, you have one or more from the berry group and at least one from the citrus group. For protein, I use no-fat plain Greek yogurt, but you should experiment with nuts. Walnuts and almonds are the best, but other nuts are fine and may even taste better. Cashews and pistachios work for me. You will also need some liquid as just using fruit and yogurt won’t spin too well and if it did you would have to eat it with a spoon. (Think humus)

Fruit Options

I would start with strawberries and blueberries as my berry component. Raspberries and blackberries are fine too as long as your blender can pummel the seeds. For citrus I like oranges. Yes, I know they are a pain to peel but think of it as occupational therapy. Grapefruit is good too as are lemons and limes. If you use lemons and/or limes you may have to compensate by adding something sweet. If you need to add sweetness, try honey or maple syrup as they have as least some marginal nutritive value. You can also use jams or preserves. One of my secret ingredients is lingonberry jam.
Just about any fruit works so go with what’s in season. Grapes are good as are apples (skins on no seeds), pears (skins on no seeds), peaches and apricots (skins on no pits), and kiwis (peeled).
Another go-to ingredient is pineapple. I buy fresh uncut pineapples and process them myself. See YouTube if you need help. Also, consider more exotic fruits such as mangos or papayas. Don’t forget bananas. They always work well in smoothies and you don’t have to worry if they are a little too ripe. If you like them a little green they will add that taste to the finished product. Be sure to cut all fruit up to the size of a medium strawberry prior to adding it to your blender.

It’s Easy Being Green

Just about all nutritionists recommend that leafy vegetables be a steady part of your diet. If you feel you need more than you are getting from your other meals, you can add some to your smoothie. If you add a small amount of greens to a fruit smoothie they will not change the taste much if at all. They will, however, impact the color of the final product depending on how much you use and what you mix them with.
The king of smoothy greens is the trendy kale leaf, something that restaurants use to put on plates as an attractive garnish that no one ever ate. Other greens work too so if you have some kicking around for other reasons give them a try. Spinach looks like the second most popular green. One caution, adding greens to fruit-based smoothies can result in a final color that may or may not have great visual appeal. Think brown. It also might produce a drink that is bright green, a can’t miss item for St. Patrick’s day parties.
If you search for smoothie recipes online you will find ingredients that go beyond fruit, juice, yogurt, and greens. Avocados are common as are items that will add some heat. Examples include cayenne pepper and jalapeño peppers. I’ve also seen rolled oats, but most things in your pantry are fair game.

Liquid Possibilities

You need to add liquid to your smoothies to give them a drinkable consistency, just about any fruit juice will do. My list would include orange, cranberry, grapefruit, pineapple, and lemonade (already sweetened). There are many products on the market today that call themselves “Milk” but clearly do not come from a cow. Many are made from nuts like almonds and cashews. You don’t really milk a nut. You just boil them for a while and put them in a blender. Commercial outfits add other ingredients so check the labels to see what you are getting in terms of nutrition. Nutritionally, they are not a substitute for cow’s milk. You can also get coconut milk, which is easier to understand as it’s simply the liquid inside a coconut.

Slushies

If you want a frozen drink you can add ice, but that might make the drink seem watery. Try freezing small fruits like grapes, blueberries, and small strawberries. Other fruits can be added frozen as well as long you cut them into smaller pieces (grape size) before freezing. You will need a heavy-duty blender for making slushy smoothies. The amount of frozen fruit you need will require some trial and error to get a drink that matches your preferences.

Nutrition Label

Nutrition Data for Any Item

There is no dearth of controversy about what you should be eating for optimum health. Plant-based diets are becoming more popular and I have yet to see any smoothie recipes with meat in them. If you use yogurt, however, your smoothie won’t quality as vegan food since yogurt is made from cow’s milk. My goto site for checking the nutritional content of any food is NutritionData.self.Com. You can have it analyze a meal or any single ingredient. If you are looking to add or avoid something in your diet this site will help.

Your Blender

If you have an inexpensive blender you can still make smoothies. Just don’t expect it to do as good a job as a more expensive model. It will probably have a problem if you try to put in ice cubes or frozen fruit. When my wife was diagnosed with ALS in 2006, I bought a Blendtec blender as it was powerful enough to blend any food and turn ice cubes into snow. They have competition in the high-end blender market, but I have been extremely satisfied with mine. I had a warranty issue and they made good on it with no problems. If you want a powerful blender they start around $300.
There are a number of funny videos on YouTube where Blendtec demonstrates the power of their blender by blending none food items. Here is one where it blends an iPhone. In addition to the smoothie button, it also has buttons for ice cream, frozen yogurt, milkshakes, soups, syrups, fondues, sauces and dips, dressings, batters, and whole juice. I feel like it is smarter than I am, which is a good thing. (I am not being compensated by Blendtec for this post.)

One Sample Recipe

As you gain experience you will know how much stuff to add to the blender and how much liquid to add. Blenders have volume marks on the side. If you want a 12 oz. drink, fill it to the 12 oz. mark. (duh) If you make too much you can keep the leftovers to start tomorrow’s batch. If I were to make one now based on what I have, here is what I would throw-in.
One serving of yogurt, about half a cup. (I seldom measure anything.)
Three medium-size strawberries stem included – Think of it as a green leafy vegetable. A decent blender can make them disappear.
Two hand fulls of blueberries (the ratio of blueberries can impact the color of the finished product. The more you use the less appealing the color might be.)
One tablespoon of crushed flax seeds (for your omega-3 fatty acids)
One half of a medium-sized orange. I put the other half in my strawberry box for the next day.
Enough juice of the day to just cover the above ingredients. (Cranberry? Be sure to get real juice and not some product that contains high fructose corn syrup.)
Your blender should have a smoothie setting so put on the lid, hold on to it, consider using ear protection (I do), and let er rip. Smart blenders know when to turn off. From here on it’s trial and error. I have made some I like better than others, but I haven’t made one yet I didn’t drink. Let me know how it goes and be creative.
Greger, Michael, and Stone, Gene, 2015. How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease, Flatiron Books: New York, NY.

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Being Bilingual – It May Not Be What You Think: Common Misconceptions About Bilingualism by Jonty Yamisha

Wednesday, March 18th, 2020

Introduction

There are many misconceptions about bilingualism. Around the world, people have very different expectations. And most of those expectations are largely inaccurate. As you learn a second language and begin to travel with your newly acquired language, you’ll probably encounter people who have a completely different understanding of your linguistic skills.

Being Bilingual Is Actually Pretty Common

The idea that bilinguals are rare is prevalent in many places in the world. Around the world, there are many people who speak at least two languages. The current estimate is that more than half of all humans know at least two languages. With globalization, it is very likely that there will be a much greater percentage of the population in the next decade or two who speak at least two languages.
There is no way to try to classify bilinguals either. They span all of the countries in the world, in all different classes and races, and regardless of age. Bilinguals tend to need both languages over the normal course of their day, so they are likely to continue to be bilingual.

You Can Be Bilingual and Still Have an Accent

Being bilingual means that you can communicate in two languages – it doesn’t mean that it isn’t easy to tell which one was your first language. Most bilingual people have an accent (often a very thick one) that lets speakers know what their first language was. It is natural for someone who knows multiple languages to have a dominant language. It does not detract from the fact that they are knowledgeable enough to be able to claim bilingualism.
Nor does it mean that the person has two cultures. The children of immigrants almost always know two languages, but they only adapt to one culture. People who learn their second language much later certainly only have one culture.

Bilingual Kids Have a Distinct Advantage

For a long time, people believed that it took kids who learned two languages longer to learn either of the two languages. Not only does this theory lack evidence, but kids who learn two languages also have a number of advantages over their monolingual counterparts.
They are better able to adapt to different situations. They are able to better understand others and can act to help others understand each other. Cognitive development is also better for children who learn two or more languages at the same time.

Location Specific Ideas of Bilingual Speakers

While the word bilingual itself may mean a person who has the ability to speak more than one language, different parts of the world interpret this differently. Europe is probably the strictest when it comes to the expectations of someone who is bilingual.
They believe that a truly bilingual person does not have an accent. And their knowledge of the second language should be equal to that of a native speaker. This is why Europeans do not think there are many bilinguals in the world. Their standards are nearly unachievable for someone who did not learn two languages as a child.

The Paradox of the United States and Bilingualism

Of all the countries in the world, it seems like the US should be the one with the most bilinguals. With a population that is almost entirely based on ancestry that came from multiple outside countries, the country is surprisingly lacking in bilingual speakers. It is estimated that over 75% of Americans are monolingual.
Surprisingly, immigrant families are much quicker to drop their second language a generation or two after the first immigrant. Unlike areas where people fiercely cling to their native tongue, Americans have a tendency to assimilate so that English is the primary (and often only) language the family speaks.

Missed Opportunities with Language Learning

This is, at least in part, because immigrants are encouraged to assimilate. This is compared to the adversity that many of them fled. The previous adversity caused them to cling to their language. The relative freedoms they find in the US makes them feel comfortable giving up their language and adopting English.
The number of languages that have been spoken in the US over the course of the nation’s more than 200-year history is unrivaled. Having seen immigrants from everywhere in the world, there was the potential for the country to be incredibly diverse and rich in different languages. Instead, people have lost their original languages.
It is truly a missed opportunity. Employers are more likely to hire people who know more than a single language. It gives you not only a better sense of communication, but it offers you a greater perspective of the world. You can help those who do not understand each other as you are more likely to understand where both sides are coming from, and you can express these views better.

Jonty Yamisha

Entrepreneur and Linguist, Jonty Yamisha created OptiLingo after his efforts to protect his native language, Circassian, from extinction. Using scientifically proven strategies such as Spaced Repetition and Guided Immersion, OptilLingo has helped thousands finally achieve fluency. It is based in Chicago but serves language learners on a global scale.

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Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools by Diane Ravitch

Monday, March 16th, 2020

Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools by Diane Ravitch tells the story of how wealthy people like Bill Gates and the Koch brothers aided by politicians and the media have disrupted public schools in an effort to privatize K-12 education. She does an excellent job of showing how their efforts have been seriously misguided and how they have damaged public schools, teachers, and students. She also shows how the underfunded opposition has had a number of victories in their efforts to fight back. If you want ammunition for the fight against charter schools, vouchers, and standardized tests, look no further.

1. Disruption Is Not Reform!

In this book Diane documents the failures of what she calls “Corporate Disruption.” This refers to the reforms backed by conservative and liberal wealthy people and adopted by conservative and liberal politicians. At the heart of the programs are high-stakes standardized tests that have been used to evaluate schools and teachers. They have served to demoralize students and teachers, and have resulted in teacher shortages as many teachers leave and fewer desire to enter the profession.
Ravitch and many others are convinced that the real problems are poverty and racial segregation rather than failing schools and teachers. Teacher autonomy and creativity have been reduced as they spend abundant time engaging in test preparation. Since the tests only deal with ELA and math, other subjects including recess have been reduced in many schools.

2. The Odious Status Quo

It seems that a lot of wealthy people want to reinvent education in spite of their lack of expertise. As such they use their philanthropy to control others under the guise of helping. That’s how we get things like kids too young to read in front of computer screens. Meanwhile, things like the cultivation of character are often ignored. When one looks at the data one can see that the crisis in education was a manufactured one. Here Diane summarizes the history of the reform movement. This includes NCLB with it’s patently absurd goal of having all students be proficient.
The NCLB reform brought the fear of punishment, failure, and losing one’s job into our nation’s classrooms. The so-called remedies had no prior evidence of success. The law was insanely punitive and without a global president. Schools cut back on civics, science, the arts, PE, and recess. Obama’s Race to the Top basically bribed states to adopt the untested Common Core, add more charter schools, and use test scores to evaluate teachers. This was essentially an unconstitutional take over by the federal government. Unfortunately, this mess was also bipartisan.

3. What Do the Disrupters Want?

They like mayoral control of schools as there is only one person to manipulate. They don’t like teachers’ pensions, which encourage longevity. They like to demonize public schools as failing. They admire disruptive innovations because that is what happens in business. Why would you want to disrupt the lives of our children? They like machine teaching, which they call blended or personalized learning. What they don’t want is any disruption of their private clubs or the exclusive schools that their kids attend.
Who are they? They are governmental officials like the Secretary of Education regardless of the party. Governors are also included. They are philanthropists with their foundations like Bill Gates, the Walton family, Michael Bloomberg, and the Koch brothers among others. They are hedge fund managers who believe in competition and the free market. They like start-ups (i.e. charter schools) and they don’t like government regulations. There are organizations that sound like they should pro-student, but are largely funded by rich folks. Journalists are also part of the problem as they often carry water for this crowd. (e.g. editorial writers for The New York Times and The Washington Post.)

4. Meet the Resistance

Resisters have some genuine connection to education such as teachers, administrators, students, and their families. They believe that public schools are a foundation stone or a democratic society. They oppose the privatization of public schools and the misuse of standardized tests. They respect teachers and want public schools to have the resources they need. They want to cultivate a joy of learning. They understand that students’ lives are heavily impacted by conditions they face outside of school. The few foundations that support the resistance are lead by the Schott Foundation for Public Education.
They are winning because everything the Disruptors have imposed has failed. They are highly motivated and not powered by money. They understand that competition produces few winners and many losers. They are supported by a number of prominent scholars who are listed along with their works. Many resisters like myself have blogs that constantly fight back.

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Doing Professional Development Right Starting a Business by Jenna Smith

Monday, March 9th, 2020

Doing Professional Development Right Starting a Business by Jenna Smith offers key professional development advice for anyone who wants to start a business. In addition to finding time each day to grow your own skills, you will probably need help from people who already have skills that you lack. Legal and financial skills are likely to top this list.

Introduction

One of the most difficult things that anyone can do is start a business. It is so hard that over fifty percent of all businesses fail. Most people don’t have what it takes to start and maintain a successful business and they just don’t have the mental strength to see things through. One of the most important things for starting and running a good business is to focus on professional development. You need to have the right skills to be successful. You might even need to get a good partner who has skills that complement yours. A good partnership agreement template allows you to create the legal framework of how that partnership would be run. That way, no one feels aggrieved if things don’t work out as you want them to. Knowing how to do things in a smart way is critical in business. It is so important that you can save time and money while you work.

Get Help Online

The process of starting a business is difficult. It can be made easy by going to online marketplaces and getting the legal help you need. You might also be able to have your partner do it. However, for some businesses, it is as simple as filing the necessary paperwork and then getting your documents. Those businesses don’t need a lot to be successful. However, most businesses are complicated and need good legal help and advice. Professional development factors into all of this because you need certain skills to be good in business. For example, someone who is building houses needs to have either the skills of an architect or a civil engineer. They need to be able to draw from their engineering expertise to finish jobs.

Developing Your Skills

Professional development isn’t easy. Life happens very quickly, and there are a lot of things you have to do in life. For example, most people are tired when they get home from work. That means there is often no time left for professional development or other tasks. Making time to help your career is essential. That could be as little as 30 minutes every day that is dedicated to reading a book or learning a new skill. As you learn, you will find that it becomes a lot easier to learn and it creates a huge snowball for you. You soon find that you have mastered many different skills while not changing anything about your life.
This type of frictionless growth and development is what most people need to succeed. Most business success is found just beyond your current skills. That means you need to grow and develop to get there. The first step to development is focusing on your goals. You have to know where you’re going before you can chart the course to get there. That means understanding the skills that are necessary to achieve your goals. After that, you want to find someone who can help you learn those necessary skills. That could be a school or a mentor. It could even be the school of hard knocks. That means going out into the world and getting the relevant experience by yourself.

Getting Good Legal Advice

Another important part of business is the law. The legal system is essential when it comes to contracts and figuring out what rules you must abide by. Certain things that you think would be okay are not. Focusing on making sure you are within the limits of the law is important. A good lawyer is someone that is essential for you to get great in business. Figuring out the best lawyer can also be a difficult task. There are many things that lawyers do, and they can be very expensive. Having a good lawyer is often something that can help a business owner avoid serious consequences. That along with a professional accountant and financial planner. All of these people have the necessary skills to help you grow and succeed.

Growing a Successful Enterprise

Business growth is the goal of every owner. You want to go from owning nothing to being a multimillionaire. This means being smart in the way you spend your money. Having the relevant knowledge of investing can help you go a long way. It is also essential to have great skills to be the best business owner you can possibly be.

Jenna Smith

Jenna is a writer and blogger based out of San Diego, Calif. When she’s not typing away at her keyboard, you can find her playing on the beach with her kids, baking, and hiking.

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The Real World Starts Early: Turn Your Education Into Experience by Craig Middleton

Friday, March 6th, 2020

Push Yourslef
The Real World Starts Early: Turn Your Education Into Experience by Craig Middleton shows how healthy competition and challenges push people to achieve more in school, life, and work. When you push yourself to best your prior achievements, your future continually develops, progresses, and never stalls. You will continue to gain new real-world experiences if you develop the habit of maximizing opportunities early in your education. This is a message we need to share with our children.

High school sets the stage.

Today’s high school students have moved past traditional models. Now they can have flexible schedules with online classes and save money on education through advanced placement (AP) courses, effectively starting their college career in high school. Some American teenagers can even experience internships and part-time jobs with experimental “night school” high schools cropping up.
These contemporary approaches give students a head start to the real world, where time management and financial accountability exist without school bells and teachers as motivators. More common options help teenagers leap into mature mindsets earlier.
College prep classes, or the most rigorous academic track their schools offer, indicate students won’t stop at a diploma but will pursue future plans. 
College entrance exam prep courses are an investment in more numerous college choices and should result in higher test scores many employers review for young hires. 
Extracurricular activities, including sports, train students in teamwork and group mindset that professional full-time work depends on. 
Volunteer work, like tutoring, pushes young people to apply their knowledge and strengths beyond themselves as they grow into their careers.

Work yourself into the real world

After education, part-time work should be the next early valuable introduction to reality. Summer and after school jobs can pay for educational expenses, give exposure to careers and build a starter resume. From the moment you sign your new hire agreement or fill out a W2 form online, you will feel steps closer to independence past student life.
Apply early. Research hiring processes and visit potential employers ahead of dates you can start. In spring, actively begin your search for summer work. 
Have references. Teachers, principals, and counselors can best connect your strengths for a job to your performance and commitment to education. They may also be the best resources to learn about internship programs and highly meaningful work. 
Keep perspective. Take advice from future and current employers seriously. The real world is full of rejection, so consider applications and interviews practice even if no job offers arrive. 
Finish gracefully. Education and first jobs are the foundations for recommendations you will need for more education and better jobs. Avoid missing hours, arrive on time and keep working until you give proper notice to leave for your next opportunity.

Further your education for a purpose.

You must have substance behind your diploma, certificate, and degree collection. Good grades are adequate goals to start high school, but in the real world, achievement must create tangible results. In fact, high grades can be false indicators of capabilities since more teachers inflate them out of pressure to validate stressed students.
Whether you are deciding on a college major or plotting a return back to school, retain personal mission and purpose in all you do. Aim for more than money as a driving force.
Mentor younger students and professionals in programs you completed successfully.  Volunteer somewhere related to your dream career or current field. 
Connect with fellow alumni for a strong future network.  Share your time when others need your advice or recommendations.
Plans to further your education and gain experience in the real world can start at any time, but the sooner the better. That way, you will be practiced in a seamless transition to more complicated stages and changes when they arrive.

Craig Middleton

Craig is a New York City-based retired business consultant, who is an expert in education and cultural trends. He has a Masters of Business Administration and a Masters in Education from St. Johns and loves sharing his knowledge on the side through his writing. If you have any questions or comments you can direct them to Craig at craigmiddleton18@gmail.com.

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