What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

Mopane worms.

I was in Zimbabwe for a trip with UNICEF. I wanted to go out and have local food and the UNICEF reps from the Zimbabwe team we were working with took me out that night and I ate some amazing food, there was all kinds of stew, but one of the delicacies was Mopane worms. They're fried worms and I just was so shocked when they were on the table and I had to be a good sport, I ate one and chewed it for like a minute and a half and [felt] the crunch of the legs in my mouth. It was crazy and insane, but I did it. It was one of my achievements.

In real life, I prefer bikinis, but at work, I prefer a one piece.

One of my bucket list dreams is to travel to every island in the worldthere are so many. South of France which I love, like Nice, Monaco, I love the Caribbean, East Island, Malta, Goa in India, where I have a house as well. I need an excuse to find a beach next to me. I am always in Miami, water calls out for me, Turks and Caicos, South Africa, Cape Town.

My beach bag is usually really full. Its like my real-life bag as well. I always have a change of a bikini, always have a cover up, always have sunscreen. I keep lip balm because I am usually in the sun like all day if I get an opportunity, my phone, a book, and some speakers.

I don't feel comfortable with it because you're on a beach and you're going to go into the sand and it's going to be all over your face, but of course if people are just hanging out by the beach and getting pictures taken, it's fine to be in makeup. I think in real life, go fresh faced and a little bit of sunblock and lip balm and a little bit of sunblock on your face and you're good to go.

Just your feet, there is no way you should wear shoes on the beach and that's what makes [my Baywatch character] Victoria so fabulous to methat she [wears heels on the beach] and they're so absurd, but it just work in the world of Baywatch.

I love ice cream on the beach and I am not even someone who likes ice cream that much, but on a beach I don't know why I feel the need for ice cream. Ice cream and margaritas. I discovered this new thing while I was in Miami called Spicy margaritas they're made with jalapeo and they're really amazing by the beach.

More here:
Priyanka Chopra Doesn't Diet; Likes Jalapeo in Her Margaritas - ELLE.com

Sometimes when you have a lie-in at the weekend, you end up missing breakfast because its nearly lunchtime already. No big deal, right?

If youre asleep, you cant eat. And people have used this as a weight loss technique for decades.

But some are taking itto extremes - such is the thinking behind the so-called Sleeping Beauty Diet.

The diet advises sleeping for abnormally long periods of times, even using sedatives to do so, to stop yourself eating.

On the lighter end of the scale, a good nights sleep has been proven to boost health and wellbeing, but some people encourage sleeping for 20 hours a day by using sleeping pills and sedatives, which can be highly addictive.

There is also high potential for overdose. Its a big risk to take in the quest to get thin.

The idea has been seized by women in pro-anorexia online forums, where they share their regimes of extreme sleeping and fasting.

I just take some really strong pain killers they usually dope me out and I'll nap for hours. They kind [of] mess with your stomach and curb your hunger a bit so I do it all the time, wrote one.

I love sleeping to avoid food. It's pretty easy for me because I'm tired ninety-nine percent of the time, said another.

I just go ahead and fall asleep to avoid any possible binges and eating, wrote a different woman.

But experts believe the diet - if it can really be called a diet - is dangerous.

If people have to rely on medications to produce sleep - particularly [meds] like benzodiazepines, which are addictive - it's putting the person at risk of addiction, Dr. Tracey Wade, a professor at the Flinders University School of Psychology, told Broadly.

It's not only getting the body to sleep more than it needs to; they'll also have to use higher and higher dosage levels to get the desired effect.

And Dr Wade points out that if youre sleeping 20 hours a day, you cant live your life:

This is really taking it to the nth degree; they literally can't participate because they're sleeping, she says. They'd have increased social isolation, and in turn there's an impact on their mood, which can cause depression.

We know that depression also triggers disordered eating. It sounds like it would actually just push people more firmly into the vicious cycle that the eating disorder creates.

Wade believes the diet may appeal to people who are already depressed or struggling with an eating disorder: the idea of opting out of life and staying in bed might be attractive, she says.

But it doesn't talk about how you'll manage the waking hours, where you'll be very hungry and very disorientated with increasing levels of depression and nutritional deprivation.

In short, its not a good idea.

View post:
Sleeping beauty diet: Women are taking sedatives to get thin risking dangerous side effects - The Independent

Chicago Sun-Times

Ask the Doctors: Choose a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods Chicago Sun-Times Dear Reader: In our previous column, we addressed the first half of a two-part question about inflammation what it is, and how it can be affected by diet. In answering the first half of the question, we discussed the two main types of inflammation ...

Read this article:
Ask the Doctors: Choose a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods - Chicago Sun-Times

View the video

Tubelip wrasses eat dangerously, daring to dine on sharp corals lined with stinging cells. New images reveal the fishs secret to safe eating: lubing up and planting a big one on their dinner.

It is like sucking dew off a stinging nettle. A thick layer of grease may help, says David Bellwood, a marine biologist at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, who snapped the shots with his colleague Victor Huertas.

Of roughly 6,000 fish species that roam reefs, just 128 consume corals. These corallivores specialize in different menus. Well-studied butterfly fish, for example, use their long, thin snouts to nip up coral polyps, the tiny animals that build corals. Tubelip wrasses such as Labropsis australis of the South Pacific are known for nibbling coral with their luscious lips, but until now, it was unclear what part of the coral the fish were eating or how they were eating it.

Coral-eating tubelip wrasses slurp up their dinner with slimy lips. Folds in lip tissue make mucus, which helps the fish suck up snot from other organisms, reef corals. Arrows indicate the flow of mucus and suction in the diagram below.

While the surface of the wrasses lips looks smooth to the naked eye, convoluted grooves appear under a scanning electron microscope, the team reports June 5 in Current Biology. Mucus-producing cells line each groove. In contrast, the lips of a wrasse species that doesnt eat corals (Coris gaimard) are sleek and sport fewer slime-secreting cells.

Video footage of L. australis shows that the fish feeds by latching onto coral with its lips and sucking. The slime probably protects the fishs lips from stinging cells that line the coral skeleton and also serves as a sealant, allowing the wrasse to get suction against the corals razorlike ridges.

Their kiss is so hard it tears the corals flesh off its skeleton, Bellwood says. The team suspects that the fish feed primarily on mucus layers and sometimes tissue that lines the sharp skeleton. So, essentially the fish are using their lip mucus to better harvest the corals mucus.

Mucus is, in general, a hot commodity in the marine ecosystem. Some fish use it as sunscreen, others for speed it can reduce drag through the water. Cleaner wrasses even eat slime off the skin of other fish (SN: 8/2/03, p. 78).

Given the threats that coral reefs face from bleaching events and climate change, having fish that suck their flesh might seem a tad brutal. But whether the added stress of snot-eating fish serves as a mere nuisance or a serious threat remains to be studied.

JUST A PECK This slow-motion clip shows a tubelip wrasse closing its mouth around a piece of coral to seal the deal and suck up the other organisms mucus and tissue. Self-lubricating lips make this feeding method possible. V. Huertas and D. Bellwood/Current Biology 2017

Go here to read the rest:
Big slimy lips are the secret to this fish's coral diet - Science News

The Seattle City Council on Monday approved a new tax on distributors of soda pop and other sugary drinks. Diet soft drinks were exempted. The tax is expected to take effect in early July and add about $1.18 to the cost of a 2-liter bottle of soda.

The Seattle City Council on Monday approved a new tax on distributors of sugary drinks such as soda pop.

Proponents said the tax would reduce consumption of unhealthful beverages and help the city provide better access to nutritious foods in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

They said soda companies market heavily to children in those communities, where more people struggle with sugar-linked health problems such as obesity.

The vote was 7-1, with Councilmember Lisa Herbold voting no, and Councilmember Kshama Sawant absent.

A handful of other cities and counties have adopted similar taxes, including Berkeley, California; Philadelphia; and Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago.

Its a huge win for Seattle, said Victor Colman, director of the Seattle-based Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition.

Its not a panacea for the problem of childhood obesity, but its a huge marker to take this step. Consumption drops will happen, and were going to see stronger health in the communities that need this the most.

Mondays action followed months of debate over the tax, initially proposed by Mayor Ed Murray. Business groups and some labor unions warned that the plan would burden entrepreneurs and result in job losses.

There were arguments about whether diet soda would be taxed, whether the syrups in flavored lattes prepared by baristas would be taxed, what the tax rate would be and how the money would be spent.

The council ultimately settled on a rate of 1.75cents per ounce, which means the tax would be about $1.18 for a 2-liter bottle of soda.

The tax will be collected starting next year unless opponents put a referendum on the ballot and succeed in blocking the measure.

Diet soda wont be taxed, and the council also chose to exempt baby formula, medicine, weight-loss drinks and 100 percent fruit juice.

Sports drinks such as Gatorade, energy drinks such as Red Bull and fruit drinks such as Sunny D all will be taxed, along with syrups used in soda-fountain pop.

Some council members favored including diet soda, which is more popular with wealthier white consumers. That was one recommendation made after the city put the plan through a racial-equity analysis.

But other council members said the science suggesting diet soda is an unhealthful beverage is less solid than the evidence of regular soda being harmful.

The mayor initially exempted barista-made coffee beverages from the tax. Then he exempted milk drinks, instead. It remained unclear Monday whether the syrups used in flavored lattes such as those ordered at Starbucks would be taxed.

Amendments were proposed by Council President Bruce Harrell to explicitly exclude such drinks and by Councilmember Lisa Herbold to explicitly include them, but each failed. Herbold said its her understanding that lattes wont end up being taxed.

Herbold said she voted against the tax because her colleagues rejected her attempts to lower the rate and to include diet soda and lattes. She said the tax measure, as passed, would hit poor pop buyers hardest.

There were mixed messages about the reason for the tax, with some proponents saying it would discourage consumption of unhealthful beverages and others stressing the good that would be done with the revenue.

Under the mayors plan, the bulk of the revenue would have funded education programs for low-income and otherwise vulnerable children. But the council shifted the emphasis more toward healthful-eating programs.

The tax is expected to raise about $15million per year. Some money will support the citys Fresh Bucks program, which helps people using food stamps buy more fruits and vegetables at farmers markets.

And the council approved an amendment offered by Councilmember Debora Juarez calling out food banks and soup kitchens as eligible to receive funds.

Funds raised by the tax will put healthy food on the table for hungry families across our city, said Tanika Thompson, a food-access organizer for the South Seattle community organization Got Green.

Doctors and health organizations such as the American Heart Association supported the tax.

But soda companies, many convenience-store and restaurant owners and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce opposed it, as did the Martin Luther King County Labor Council and a Teamsters union with workers in the soda industry.

The council reserved up to $1.5million in the first five years of the tax to help such workers retrain for new jobs.

Husik Harutyunyan, who owns a small grocery store in North Seattle, urged the council to reject the tax.

He said his customers may begin buying pop in Shoreline if the tax leads him to raise his prices. I have to close my store and go find some job, the 44-year-old said.

A 10-year-old, Sophia Harrison, offered another view during the councils public-comment period Monday.

It is a great idea to fund programs to help kids be more prepared and to help families eat more healthy food, she said, reading from handwritten remarks.

I cant think of a better way to raise that money than a tax on something that has absolutely no nutritional value.

Read more from the original source:
Seattle will tax sugary soda but not diet - The Seattle Times