The Good Body Guide by Dr Carole Hungerford

The doctors of today prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure disease of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know almost nothing.

Voltaire 1694-1778

Reading a pretty good book these days recommended by a stand in GP who does not behave like the usual GP. She must be one of the extremely rare GP who actually ask questions before dishing out a conclusion on what is wrong with you. And she is the only GP who actually explain to us what drugs she intends to prescribe and if we are comfortable with the side effects or alternatively, can we adjust our lifestyle so that she can cut back one type of tablet. So impressed with her that Ken went to grab the book she recommends - The Good Body Guide.

The book is an easy read which covers many topics that question what we thought we knew. Starting from the agriculture evolution which encourage monoculture that narrows human intake of dietary variety, Hungerford pose the question if variety is important for optimum health. Even meat we eat are not free ranging anymore. We feed farmed animals crops we grew, which reflects needs other than nutrients. Yield, ease of harvest etc took precedent over a chemistry which we did not yet understand.

Our parents and doctors always tell us common facts like - "take more of this vegetable because this contains iron which is good for health". But nobody ever question where the iron in the vegetable comes from? Minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium, iodine etc - if they are not in the soil that the plant grows, there will be none in the plant. With poor soil health across the globe even in agriculture wonderlands like NZ & OZ, how do we know if the vegetables we are eating contain all these vital minerals at all? How about hydroponics (oh clean soil-less vegetables grown out of water) and GM species?

I was just flipping through a locally published health and lifestyle magazine which ran an extensive article on the importance of calcium, if milk is not adequate, go for tablets supplements. If I did not know better, I would head out to optimise my health by popping tablets after meals. No where is there a mention that too much calcium intake actually competes with our body's vital intake of magnesium and selenium - trace minerals that are associated with prevention of asthma, osteoporosis and depression... so why no mention of such information and need for balance? Who fund the article? Any politics involved in the drug or pharmaceutical industry/ companies which diagnose, fund trials and offer treatment drugs?

A chiropractic clinic promoting healthy lifestyle opened near my office recently. They advised to fix my slightly off-centered spine with a 12 months package which consist of 3 sessions per week for the 1st 3 months and 9 Xrays sessions (5 radiation shoots per session). Are they really concerned about my otherwise healthy 32 yr old body? Absolutely not.

An interesting matter of speech highlighted by Hungerford is one of language and mathematical reasoning of statistical analysis in the industry. Suppose your doctor tells you that Tamoxifen will reduce your breast cancer recurrence by 20% as stated by the drug company. You will most likely opt for the treatment. But if the doctor tells you that your cancer recurrence is 20% and Tamoxifen will reduce the 20% by 20%, reducing your real risk by a mere 4%, will you still so readily opt for a drug that has its own side effects?

Insight into many questions we should be asking... A highly recommended read my friends... Go grab it

Mothers

I delicate this blog to myself and all mothers and mothers to be out there. Guys, stand aside.

This is my 36th week of pregnancy. Technically I can deliver anytime starting from next week. Time flies... Carrying Megan so far has been smooth sailing and relatively easy when I compare to many of my friends' pregnancy. No morning sickness, no cravings, no mishaps etc.

At 5th month's scan, our gyne confirmed that Megan has cleft lips. I had to undergo scans and tests to assertify that there are no further abnormalities or else I would have to abort the child. Cleft being a facial defect is the least of a mother's concern. It is the inside that matters to me. On the outside, some may think I show few emotions. No. It is just that I do not think cleft makes any difference. Megan is the same as any child outside, no need to make a big fuss over it.

The past 2 weeks sees me going downhill fast. I am exhausted yet cannot sleep. Fully alert at 3am every day is certainly nature's way of preparing me for Megan's 12am, 3am, 6am's feeding pattern in the near future... Ha! If I do sleep, it is plagued with dreams of labour, laundry, cooking etc... Tsk tsk.. At this late stage, Megan is still in beech position and that worries me (I am hardly a worry wart)...

My backaches get intensely painful, especially when Megan suddenly moves. If only I have an inhouse massage lady at beck and call!!! But Limin's orange massage ball (wee my birthday present!!!) came to the rescue... what a fantastic self help product! Thank you babe... 100 points! Highly recommended.

Shower, bending down, cooking, ok everything... everything starts getting difficult now that I suddenly ballonned. But at 9 months, I have only gained a modest 11.5kg. So if I am already dying, how did those mothers who gained 20plus kg survive??? I salute them.

Carrying a baby for 10 months is a very enriching experience. Something only the mother can truly understand. Not to discredit the guys' contribution to childbearing but this blog is not about the man anyway. And I haven't even experience the delivery part yet. No wonder all songs sing praises of mothers's greatness.

It is quite obvious why nature selects woman as the child bearer. Woman has an inner strength man do not have. Woman may appear weak and cry easily but that is because we always embrace and deal with problems in life, we break down to release tension by crying and seek comfort from friends when we thought we cannot take no more, then go back to facing our everyday life with renewed energy.

Woman may be the fairer sex bur certainly not the weaker sex. If anything, pregnancy has gained me a whole new respect for mothers and woman in general.

The world is becoming a better place for woman. But lets not decieve ourselves that we hold equal social or professional standing as man. Before my pregnancy, I see very clearly a fairly male dominated work environment... (mine is a construction industry in general). Woman need to put in extra to prove their worth and usually get half the respect as compared to man. Discrimination is commonplace in some countries and no matter how good we are, it is getting nowhere. But when we arrived, we arrived in a big way. Victory is sweet for a woman.

At home, we have the roles of wives, daughters, daughter in laws, now, mothers to play... And we are still "we" when we do find time to look within ourselves to rediscover who we are and what we want... These few weeks I thought of all the working mothers I know with infants or toddlers. Architects, lawyers etc... many of whom recently promoted to higher positions while still in breastfeeding and expressing milk stages... wow... did anyone tell you gals what a fantastic job you gals are doing? Can I join your rank?

To my mother, my mother in law, kei, andrea, belinda, song, limin, stacey, whyee's sister, karen, claudia, connie, moon, fion, kj, shufei, this blog is specially delicated to you for simply being who you are.

Cheers!!!

Fathers

Being dads these days is very different from our own father's or grandfather's times.

As a generalisation, the previous eras produce fathers who have many children but whose main role is to bring the bacon home to waiting mouths. And bring the bacon home they did since they are the sole breadwinner. These fathers are not very involved in the family. Post war sees a shift in this trend with a breed of fathers who show more struggle in the sudden galloping economy plus more demanding needs of the family. Mothers started to join the workforce. Family dynamics changed.

Man of today embraces even many roles. Although woman now share the burden of the finance, the social pressure is still on the man to prove their worth. Woman who are now on the go are also demanding their man to take on more domestic responsibility. Family unit is smaller with one or two children but we want better of everything...

On top of all these, today's dads are also very enthusiatic to play an active role in their child's life by being a caregiver and a nurturer. All in all, they want to be involved! And involve they did. A look around young fathers around me, it is not hard to discover that these guys are very well versed in the process of pregnancy, child birth, child rearing and home making!!! Having quite a few male friends with v young kids or infants gives me good insight to their psyche. I have to say theirs is not an easy role to manage.

Sometimes, I listen to them talk of doing more in their career, giving their family a better life and their guilt of not spending enough time with their wives and kids... These already make me want to give them a pat on their backs to encourage them forward.... Unlike woman who generally has a precedent to follow, these new dads appear to have to depend on themselves to figure out the best way to contribute to meet the needs and expectations of all he loves in this new generation. Man, unlike woman, also has less excuses nor do they want to make excuses for anything not done well...

Kudos to fathers of today and all the fathers to be... Today's daddy role is tough tough tough... don't be too stressed by trying to do too much, just trying your best is good enough. No one is born to know the role of a father so all fathers learn more of this role from living it from day to day...

I say cheers to fathers... Keep doing what you are doing.

Florence's Birthday

It is our dear Florence's birthday... only knew it mid morning. Got to do something for my cooking sifu!!! Legal Lane suggested flower delivery which we all know will make dear Florence smile.

I thought we need to do just a little bit more to enhance the surprise so I went for a walk to source for resources around vivo. Cold Storage was selling Chrysanthemum that looks so cute - like yam dumplings and I suddenly recall Daiso selling dim sum baskets. Hey dumplings and dim sum baskets go well together! YES! I can do a stack of dim sum baskets, each layer containing different hao liao! hahahaha...

Basket One - roses with honey

Basket Two - purple yam dumplings! yah...

Basket Three - Big cookie from Starbucks

As expected, Florence was blown away with the little surprise we planned for her. Remember to make use of the dim sum baskets to make nice char siew bao for us!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!

Megan's Height Chart

He introduced me to this shop called The Better Toy Store in Taka... I loved the shop! Not too sure how children will react to the toys but they totally appeal to me. Yes they do sell better toys by far... These should be the stuff that children play with - instead of pink plastic barbies, flashing colors mobiles, electronic games etc.... These days kids are only attracted to brain numbing electronics... this place sells good old slow toys.

We were fancinated with height charts sold in the shop... But those for gals are 'not surprising' painted in pink, pink and more pink... NO WAY MAN!!!!!!!!!! Plus they are really expensive... I cannot help thinking that I can make such height charts myself with cuter grahics and better colors (the latter is a total leap of faith). So it was decided that YY will create Megan's height chart from scratch... Off we go to Fancy Paper last week to purchase materials...

Day and night, I worked.... searching the net for inspiration of what to draw.... As you all know. CUTE is not my forte... The first owl completed is very telling - it has the most conservative colour scheme and looks almost albino. Tone on tone colors went out of the window with the second owl design - here comes the saturated blue and mango yellow!!
Paper cut out is tougher than I tot - No wonder hardly anyone does such craft now... Instant Gratification. Instant Graditfica
tion... It keeps ringing in my head... But this slow craft is really better than flat computer graphics...

Gee my back is breaking and someone should invent circle punchers of various sizes!!! Must be the sudden spur of maternal love that keep me cutting and pasting... God, when is the last time I actually use glue? Primary School?

My mini project completed and laminated!! YEAH.... I am so proud of myself. This must be the cutest and most colorful project I have ever done. My homones must be changing! Time for Ken to take over and paste the chart on the wall for Megan to meaure up in future... Now what is next?

YY's Cooking - Chapter Two

Ups and downs is how I will describe my cooking jounery since the last food blog.

I recall a good friend telling me how difficult and fustrating it is to cook and I cannot agree more. Especially for people like us who are new to this mix and match of ingredients... We put our hearts and efforts to creation of a dish and it turns out funny. By then, it is late, husbands are hungry and we all have to eat the product of our failed effort... This is not easy to swallow...

What to do? Try and try again... Out of 10 failures, there is always 1 or 2 success that will keep us going.

I shall start with the successful recipes

Double Baked Potato with bacon, cheese and spring onions - crispy on the outside, soft on the inside

Sauteed Portabello Mushrooms - such easy to make dish and so expensive when ordered in a restaurant!

Strawberry Banana Crepe with chocolate - Yum Yum

Savory Otah Egg Mayo Crepe - Spicy

Abalone Mushroom Baked Rice - Florence's little secret

The not that successful but can be greatly improved recipes:

Spicy Mango Salad - why is it not spicy at all? Not enough red onions? Steamed Fish - Timing timing timing.... plus its a bit blandStewed Tofu with Mixed Mushrooms - somehow the flavor did not enter the tofu... frustrated

Ginger Pork - Tough.... I must learn how to slice pork into thin strips!

At this point, I must give acknowledgement to him for very patiently trying out all the not very tasty food I put out on the table .

Total Failure dish:

Salted Fish Chicken - aiyah not that this is not well excecuted but we just dont like the taste of the salted fish...

Cooking

"YY cooks!" B exclaimed... yesyes... times have really changed...

Today I decided to blog about a short history or shall I say triumph of my own cooking.

Growing up in a family where the mum is a fantastic cook may not be the best motivation for one to learn cooking. There is simply no need when good comfort food is readily available, I need just to wait and eat.

30 plus years and I never feel inspired to start cooking. I guess the first person(s) whom I should give credit to for making me take the mental leap that cooking is not rocket science is Fiona and Matt when I was in Toronto. She is a sous chef and he an ex-cook turned gardener. In the mornings, Fiona and me will spend time in the kitchen talking about food before she disappears for the day. In the evenings, Matt will invite me to share dinner and we will discuss vegetables while the chicken grills... For the first time, I feel that cooking need not be perfect. "Use my kitchen" they say, "anyone can cook"

Nice... Tempted. Not enough for action.

It was only because of his birthday some years back did I physically cook. Full credit must be given to my good mate, Peter Kelly. Knowing that I cannot even boil potatoes to save my life, Peter's recipe for steak with red wine reduction on a bed of mashed potatos and greens on the side is the most through and idiot proof recipe the world has witnessed.

It took him a full 2 hrs to explain to me every minute process and detail (literally down to what I can do with my idle left hand and the 2 min interval while the steak cooks). I kept the stacks of paper where Peter drew sections, diagrams, actual 1 to 1 ratio of the diced potato... true blue technical service director style! KUDOs...

He even brought me to the butcher to buy the meat!!! He would have insisted to get the greens and butter at cold storage together if not for the fact that my pride does not allow me to admit I have no clue on such simple tasks.

This first cooking trial must be so historic that even my big boss, JMB, gave me a half day to get ready. I started preparations at 3ish and finished cooking 2 steaks by 8.30pm. Peter Kelly cannot for hell's sake understand why his student need 5 hrs to cook but hey!!! not everyone is a natural ok! Important thing is the final product - Ken finished everything, loving every bite. I was too hot and exhausted to honestly enjoy. That night, arm muscles which I did not know I even had, ached. Had to wake Ken up to massage me! Think I had cramps.

Look at the photos!!! aint it great? Quite Pro huh....

Then that was it... for the longest time, steak with red wine reduction is the only dish I know how to make. Fine, I cooked it ONCE... Early this year, we finally got our own place. Newly married, suddenly I see the importance of cooking! Picked up a few simple dishes from mimi and for a while it was good. But various upsetting setbacks  eventually make cooking very discouraging and exhausting.

Recently, a friend got me all inspired again. Introducing Florence, our office receptionist! A young little gal but what a good cook she is! Sharing recipes and doing grocery shopping became our favorite past time!

Chicken and potato stew. Dont look too good but wow... the goddess of comfort food and one of Gunnar's fav (out of the 3 dishes i cooked for him anyway)Sweet and sour pork. Effort dish, should have used green capcium for better colors... 7/10! I am almost there! reaching perfection...

Black Bean Fish. My pride and joy... this is fantastic, I am really good at cooking these days!!

Lemon Garlic Chicken Wings. Such a simple dish but be prepared to chop garlic till ur wrist breaks. Good recommendation Florence!Fried Rice. Tried many versions but this one is truly the best! I like the bit of salted egg york flavor...

Saturaday morning breakfast. Meat patty, honey apple ham, tomato, poached egg and cheese in warm ciabatta loaf plus tray of honey kiwi and prunes at the side -

Ok, some days are a Boo Boo. Saw a photo of a porkchop w potato in Bakerzin's menu and tried to replicate it. It says "succulent pork loin pan grilled with garlic, parsley, butter and olive oil with a side serving of sauteed potatoes and Dijon mustard- $19.90".

Tried to top up with a light mushroom spagehetti and greens. ok plus 2 slices of mushroom pizza... Just in case the food dun taste good..Mince meat in spagehetti? Yah just in case not enought meat for him. Egg? yah, just in case meat not nice... always another option... In the end. its a combo plate of everything because I cannot make up my mind!!! URGH!!!! (Plus I need to work on my colors!)

But.. But... taste is not bad... getting there.. getting there...Mince Meat Grilled Brinjal. Florence's reciple calls for steamed long brinjal. My mum says "no way brinjals should be steamed! Either fry or grill!! Go for Japanese round brinjals.. Better" I tried all ways/ kinds and it still taste strange... Damn... This is my fourth brinjal attempts and it is still.... bad. Florence, I tell u lah, the problem is your recipe.

Egg Omelete. There should be a sense of happiness when one eats egg omelete... Mine is tasteless. Was told it is a result of my damn tiny drop of oil and stingy usage of salt (a pinch is not a few grains) on a non stick pan. Ok! Healthy is not tasty...

Will keep you guys posted on more YY's cooking success and failures! Cheers..

Plants Chapter II

Realised that I have missed out on some of my plants. They told me so and they are feeling a bit sore about the entire affair.

My Java Palm -

honestly one of our very first immigrant and so far the tallest. It is forever the backdrop for the rest and boring to photograph so it never occur to me to introduce this loyal green. Er... its soil is now overgrown with mushrooms! Not so nice. Plus we saw a evil looking grasshopper amongst the leaves this weekend... no... not nice at all... Palm, can you please do some tidying up after yourself?

Lantana -

new kid on the block. My hot favorite - great body shape, colourful and smells great... of coz Xianger says its poisonous!!! First photo is whow it looked when we first bought it... last week, Ken fed it sum goat dung and suddenly we have n explosion of colors!!! The plant is "pu zua" (heaty)

Look Look... amazing colors! Different shades of pink (gee I really dont like pink). The orange blossoms are truly heaty outbreaks. Yellow! My fav! And the black flowers are not wilted versions of the whites.. they are actually BLACK... coolllll

Anthurium - just realised that my perfect white is not Calic lily but anthurium... geee. Oh check out my christmas fern at the bottom!!! it is flowering!!! Previously we tot it was half dead!

Erba Cipollina - This Dolly Lau appeared at my desk and gave me this sachet to grow. Told me its spice seeds that came free with the pan she bought. Yah, I can tell its spice but what spice is that? Wooo... one website says it means marijuana grass... nice.. Chey, google says is chives. Boring...