FOOD + HEALTH - "Let's change the way we eat at home" - ITALY

A journey in the startup of "food 2.0", or how to raise the quality of our spending. By relying on organic food or kilometer zero by MAURO MUNAFO '

 

When it comes to startup, thought flies immediately to computers, the web, the virtual Silicon. But if there is one sector in Italy which can boast the highest concentration of new online activity, and in fact should not surprise, is what concerns food and cuisine. The grocery store, choose recipes, sautee for friends and gather around a table are so routine actions that we consider now unchangeable. Yet many young entrepreneurs are convinced that there can be something to improve and that the right place to start doing it is just our country, with its culture of good flavors. A journey in the startup of "food 2.0" is therefore a must.

No meal could begin without having the ingredients and the first step can only be devoted to spending. In addition to sites that allow you to send home as chosen at the supermarket, growing attention to the organic product and per kilometre zero, thanks to local portals like Clods in Rome, Biokistl in Tyrol, Casina Cornale in Cuneo and Cortilia in Lombardy, which allow you to choose and send home their local and seasonal products: from vegetables to eggsfrom fruit to cold meats and honey.

"Alerted consumers on topics such as seasonality and quality of what they order," explains Marco

Porcaro, serial startupper and founder of Cortilia, "the agricultural world is little and evil on the web and our goal is to shorten the world's longest chain, the food, and put in direct contact with the producer and the consumer".

Cortilia was born under the name of Geomercato in 2011 and has since collected more than 10,000 members and 600 thousand euros of funds from business angel and venture capitalists. We worked today a team of seven people in their thirties, struggling with the online platform organization, logistics and transportation in Milan and nearby towns. "We move bits, like other technology startups, as well as Zucchini," continues Porcaro, "all the logistics is our responsibility and we also submitted sample quality checks and to educate small producers on how to make the best use of the internet".

Those who not only has no time for shopping, but also for ideas on what to cook and does not want to risk out of hand, you may find interesting as proposed by iDinner, startup of Sardinia a few months landed even in large northern cities and soon also in Central Italy. The iDinner product is simple: a charge for 4 dinners for a family of 2 or 4 persons, with all ingredients (fresh seasonal) needed to follow the recipes recommended by team nutritionist.

"We are two families with children who do not like to eat the same things," says Andrea Masci, a founder of iDinner, "but as all parents know, go to the supermarket with children makes you crazy and you can not always get what you want or think about what prepare". After a long study of details, and taking a cue from the Swedish experience (thanks to a team member who comes from the Scandinavian country), in April 2012 iDinner opened its doors in Cagliari and, after the summer, he landed in Milan and Turin. "Today we make a fifty deliveries per week and our customers are mostly people who work all day, fail to do your shopping and you are stewed of takeout. We care to guarantee a great variety in recipes and ingredients that we propose. All at an affordable price ".

Not too far from what was thought to be iDinner, but married at the world of wine, is the idea behind 3Wine, veronese startup founded by Alberto Zampini and aimed at those who love wine but you lose between labels and quality.

"Once a month I like to organise a dinner at home with friends," says Zampini, 33 years and returned to Italy in order to launch his bet, "because I didn't know what to cook ever and the best wine to pair with food I came up with the idea of 3Wine taste box". As other companies send customers home boxes with shoes, tricks or other products, 3Wine sends three bottles of wine chosen by experts and combined with a series of recipes to enjoy them to the fullest.

"We try to create a culinary path, advising of simple dishes and sending the right wine to accompany them," continues Zampini, "there are 3 sommelier that each month choose the wines of medium-high quality around which we created the product then we send to customers with a shopping list with all ingredients that serve for dinner that we recommend. In this way you can organize dinners in which discover new foods and wines ".

Groceries, wines and recipes may be useful, but there is also the other side of the coin: eat at home than others. And on this front works NewGusto, which promises to let us feast in other people's homes.

"The idea came from a necessity," says Antonio Ruscitti, co-founder of NewGusto, "Christian, one of the other founders, is a good fork and a lover of travel: but when he went to other cities or countries was unable to try the local cuisine and not that of restaurants for tourists".

Antonio, Christian and others team components have launched NewGusto in 2011, with the aim of creating a platform to "share" their kitchen and know each other around a table, collecting up to today over ten thousand members from 59 countries. "We like to call ourselves a couchsurfing: table instead of the couch though, here you are sharing a Chair in the kitchen and then have users decide whether to divide the expenses or to pay or fewer guests. People want to know each other and the food can be the best way to do it ".

HEALTH AND FITNESS - Five tips to avoid holiday weight gain - MALAYSIA

  

According to research, most people gain around one kilo a year in midlife, and the added bulk tends to arrive around holiday time.

 

Heftier people tend to gain even more -- 2.2 kilos -- and as most anyone knows, weight loss doesn't come easy. Your best approach: keep it off in the first place, and here's how.

 

 

1. Don't eat seconds, and keep the serving dish off the table.

According to Dr. Mache Seibel of the Huffington Post, keeping the serving trays in the kitchen can reduce your food intake by up to 29 percent.

 

 

2. Sleep

Research has linked sleep-deprived people with increased belly fat, compared to those who slumber for seven hours. But Dr. Seibel says don't overdo it: too much sleep, more than seven hours a night, can increased belly fat as well.

 

 

3. Skip the eggnog

While drinking alcohol is part of the merriment for a lot of us, avoid drinking your calories. Opt for red or mulled wine over white wine, beer, or spirits, advise British fitness trainers Shaun Petafi and Dean Connor, in a statement from Rippedtoshreds.co.uk. Red wine is packed with fewer empty calories and higher in flavonoids, polyphenols, and heart-protecting reservatrol. Frozen creamy drinks can have as many as 800 calories, while eggnog with a jigger of rum comes at more than 400 calories a glass.

 

 

4. Control your snacking

Avoid racking up extra calories with snacks, but if you must, opt for meat or cheese rather than cakes or biscuits, say Petafi and Connor. Also monitor your appetizers, which can add 1,000 extra calories to your meal, writes Seibel.

 

 

5. Go easy on the starches

Starchy foods such as breads, rice, pasta, cakes, potatoes and yams can cause insulin levels to spike, resulting in more fat storage, say Petafi and Connor. Opt for a second slice of turkey, but leave the stuffing alone. Or pile on the non-starchy vegetables, such as cabbage, kale, spinach, leeks, and broccoli.

HEALTH - Kids need, first of all, the movement, not the exercise - ESTONIA

Kids need, first of all, the movement, not the exercise

17.09.2012 10: 21

Spordipedagoog recommends that parents exercise itself rather than the child sõidutamise and dressid together with the back yard to move with the child to go to.

 

Although in recent times has put the already paariaastased jõnglased exercise habit, not a lecturer at the University of Tallinn spordipedagoogika Piisang trend more than glad. Marion «According to Sporditeooria, it shall be sufficient if the kids go seitsmeaastaselt the six-ammunition, because then they would have also been organised activities and new peer can lead better, '' he acknowledged.

At the same time, it also can be found in spordialasid, which is seven years too young to boot. For example, network and learning basketball easier for 10 to 12 years of age, or when wrist is sufficiently developed and käelihased. "You may say that the sports that require skill, can carry on more than force, and resilience," requiring a sports lecturer spoke.

Young children being Piisang don't need to exercise reasonable, because the ability to focus on tasks in children has not been for a longer period of time. May deliver babies for wants. «Liikumistunnid Three is 15-20 minutes in the kindergarten long and even there was a situation in which children became the nööre tasakaalukõndi had to be made, a total of rullima. They were tired, organised activities» Piisang who have worked, told the kindergarten liikumisõpetajana.

For Lasteaialaste is the best workout move with the child to the parents, because that is waiting for him to deal with his issues, and close to the people, stated Piisang.

«Dear parents, don't algklassiõpilaste preparatory groups for pre-school and vaevake need it, what sport your child fits best. Please go to dressid and back with her child in the yard to run, play ball, ronige, * igital and * analogue channels., go cycling, summer and winter suusatage matkake ujuge, and uisutage. Your child can be Olympic champion but when he wants to play it yourself, and if all the existing preparation shall obtain the permits, '' he said.

Children should be Piisangu, at least 60 minutes per day for such activity, which is confusing them sweat, hingeldama. «Cycling, running, Climbing, jumping to a crawl — these are called viskamine, põhiliikumisviisideks and they are acquired with the support of daily physical activity. Põhiliikumisviiside sure possession of sports provides a basis for State-of-the-art learning.»

Today's children have physical education lessons for training taking and often difficult due to the fact that they do not have normal liikumisoskuste base. "It is important to ensure that the child every day, not just twice a week could," stressed Piisang trennis.

Children's sport in person, so your good and not so good sides. "If the activity for a child like, if it is him, and gives the child the opportunity to experience can complete eduelamust all well," teaching staff spoke. Unfortunately, however, for situations where the parents do not like the selected task to the child, and in this case, it may happen that the child renounces murdeeas have been received by the sport.

«Sports for children and young people is the greatest current threat to early specialisation. Ühekülgne does not create a basis for my workout, what careers might have many parent would expect, '' said.

Spordipedagoogi's investigations have shown that the children at first fun and exercise attracts a fascinating activity, not võistluslikkus. "It (võitluslikkus – ed.) is the fourth among the boys somewhere among the sportimismotiivide, girls, this is no more,» he explained yet.

Recommendations

• Children are encouraged to move at least 60 minutes per day and at least five days per week.

• Movement may be shorter time periods.

• Load could be between moderate and heavy («ajav» hingeldama and sweat).

• It is recommended that prior to arrival in the murdeikka and murdeeas on two occasions per week your bones and muscles are pursued by an incentive travel – pallimängud, aerobics, etc.

HEALTH - What’s so scary about a vegetarian Future? - WORLD

 

 

 

Whatever is happening to our food? Or to our meat, to be precise. Up until now meat – fatty, grisly, chewy meat, glistening in tallow – has played a central role on our plates. It has been accessible to everyone, everywhere and has become a food cheaper, quite literally, than chips. There have always been juicy steaks, BBQ ribs, greasy roasts and loins of lamb to keep our bellies satiated and our waistlines bulging.

But times they are a changing and meat is growing increasingly unfashionable as we have gained a deeper appreciation of the range of costs associated with meat-based diets. Not only is meat a risk factor for many of our own health problems but its production is one of the major contributors to global environmental degradation, climate change, fresh water scarcity and loss of biodiversity. Alongside these threats, there is also the small problem of our burgeoning population. By 2050 there will be another 2.5 billion mouths to feed on the planet and the traditional diet of blood and flesh will not feed them all. But if we start to be realistic about our population growth, the better we can focus on the challenge of feeding everyone.

So how can we feed 9 billion people on a shrinking planet? A growing number of scientists and researchers are already taking that question seriously. A report out last week from leading water specialists issued one of the starkest warnings yet about global food supplies, saying that the world’s population “may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 years to avoid catastrophic shortages”. Meals spent gorging on succulent tender steaks, all too often taken for granted, are looking numbered then.

That almighty bastion of meat culture McDonald’s has taken heed and spearheaded plans to open vegetarian restaurants in India. OK, Maccy D’s may well be cheap junk food but there will always be people across the world who eat cheap junk food and at least it will now be cheap vegetarian junk food. And as the other fast food conglomerates follow its example, like Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut, people will soon be eating vegetarian rubbish everywhere without even noticing the difference. But whether it’s a Maccy D’s veggie burger, artificial meat grown in a lab or local seasonal vegetables – its got to be good news.

Good news for the planet, us veteran vegetarians and of course the animals. But not so good if you’re a diehard meat eater who can’t get by without devouring a whole corpse at every meal. But as meals are turning more verdant by the day and the future is vegetarian, red-blooded carnivores should realise that it won’t be long before it’s either the lush veggie option for dinner or going to bed on an empty stomach.

Before all you meat devourers despair perhaps you should think about what is really in it for you. Try to look beyond the next meal to the long term and be honest about whether a vegetarian future really is as scary as it sounds. Following a vegetarian diet that is cholesterol-free, bursting in cancer fighting antioxidants and low in those bad saturated fats and calories can bring you a whole host of benefits that go way beyond animal rights. There’s no great scary mystery about vegetarian food, it’s only delicious, nutritious food sizzling in dividends.

Given that we are living longer, wouldn’t you prefer to enjoy those extra years in good health with a stronger, more energetic and attractive body? As meat becomes more scarce it will become prohibitively expensive, out pricing the proverbial chips, so vegetarian food could well be the only affordable food available. And if lab-reared in vitro meat tastes just as textured and succulent as farm-reared intensive meat, there really is no good reason not to embrace the dazzling developments of today’s technology if you can’t even taste the difference. But it may save someone else going hungry or claw back another species from the brink of extinction or turn climate temperature down a notch. Does it really sound all that bad?

It can be said with considerable confidence that a vegetarian future really could offer an answer to many of today’s uncertainties that affect us all – economically, socially and environmentally. As it stands the future couldn’t be gloomier. The forecasts are all the same – food instability, floods and global hunger. Just as long as you are not one of the billion people who are starving, right? But what if you were one of those billion and what if your children and future generations are less fortunate?

Exploring the possibilities to rise to these challenges is the only way we can have a chance of addressing the uncertainties. Why not take that deep breath and consider for one moment a very real option that could present a future that holds more promise to those to come in a world that has not been desecrated beyond recognition? If thinking realistically about our place in the future means contemplating a vegetarian diet, that can feed everyone and make the world a place worth living in, it really shouldn’t be that scary.

ESTILO DE VIDA Ell "mapa verde" porteño, actualizado y con más rubros - ARGENTINA

Ell "mapa verde" porteño, actualizado y con más rubros

Por Teresa Morresi / Especial

Se presentó la nueva edición de la guía verde de Buenos Aires, una herramienta ideal para incursionar en la alimentación sana y los productos naturales, cursos eco y otras actividades. La propuesta incluye el apoyo a sectores carenciados.

La oferta de los alimentos naturales creció a pasos agigantados, hay lugares para todos los gustos.

La oferta de los alimentos naturales creció a pasos agigantados, hay lugares para todos los gustos.

08/08/12 - 16:45

Se presentó la nueva edición de la guía verde, una herramienta ideal para los adeptos y los que quieren incursionar en la alimentación sana.

La Guía Natural Urbana & Orgánica, conocida también como "el mapa verde de Buenos Aires", es una fiesta para los rastreadores de alimentos naturales, negocios de diseños centrados en la sustentabilidad, mercados, propuestas de trabajos corporales no convencionales, accesorios eco, restaurantes, farmacias verdes y tiendas en las que se promueve el consumo responsable.

Este mapa, que ya va por su octava edición, cuenta con más de 400 referencias para hacer recorridos por diferentes zonas de la ciudad.

Una bitácora de viaje para quienes buscan productos ideados, elaborados o producidos con los principios del cuidado de la naturaleza y de la gente. La guía nace para compartir y contagiar a otros la intención de ir hacia una vida sustentable.

“Nos gusta definirla como un acortador de caminos, porque tiene información útil que nos ha llevado años encontrar y sentíamos que tenía que estar disponible para que otros pudieran llegar más rápido”, cuenta Alexis Ansaldo, que la edita junto con Pablo Moscato, equipo al que se sumó Natacha Vilella.

Comer sano, el eje
Esta guía se sustenta en la alimentación saludable como pilar y comienzo de un camino, pero no se agota ahí. Incluye las categorías de almacenes naturales, clases de cocina, deliveries, restaurantes, ferias, paseos verdes, cultura sustentable, donde a su vez hay diversas categorías, como construcción natural, eco aldeas, talleres de formación, juguetes e indumentaria, entre otros.

La novedad de la flamante edición es que suma algunos segmentos, como higiene, cosmética, mamás&bebes, aprendizaje evolutivo con centros de actividades vivenciales, descanso conciente con lugares del país en sintonía y salud natural con centros de salud y farmacias homeopáticas.

“En la búsqueda de cooperar para el despertar hacia un mundo más humano, hoy nos enfrentamos a un nuevo desafío, que la Guía funcione como herramienta para ayudar a quienes más lo necesitan. De tal manera, creamos el programa Exploradores Solidarios, destinado a ayudar a dar de comer a gente de la calle con el lema: Nada es sustentable mientras haya seres sufriendo”, explica Ansaldo.

El programa se lleva a la práctica de la siguiente manera: cada vez que se consume en los lugares adheridos al mapa, los comercios donan un 10% del monto al programa, dinero con el que se compra comida y elementos para ayudar semanalmente a gente en situación de calle.

La Guía se puede obtener de varias maneras: impresa (se retira en el circuito de anunciantes, tiendas, restaurantes y centros de actividades) o se puede bajar de la web en www.organicoopers.net. La novedad es que se puede navergar desde Google Maps, donde se encuentra como Guía Natural Google Map.

ENVIRONMENT / FORESTS - WORLD

Healthy forests key for green growth, says UN report

By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News

 

The world's forests, if managed properly, can help deliver a strong and durable global green economy, a UN report has concluded.

But the report's authors said that nations needed to do more to ensure the right policies are in place if forests are to meet their maximum potential.

In another initiative, an international collaboration has pledged to restore 18 million hectares of wooded landscapes.

The findings were launched at the Rio+20 summit in Brazil.

"Forests and trees on farms are a direct source of food, energy and income for more than a billion of the world's poorest people," said Eduardo Rojas-Briales, assisant director-general for Forestry at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"At the same time, forests trap carbon and mitigate climate change, maintain water and soil health, and prevent desertification," he added.

"The sustainable management of forests offer multiple benefits - with the right programmes and policies, the sector can lead the way towards more sustainable, greener economies."

The report, The State of the World's Forests 2012, the 10th in the SOFO series, highlighted some of the main avenues in which money could figuratively grow on trees, including:

• Critical life support systems - can perform a range of "essential ecosystem funtions", such as regulating water supplies and buffering floods and droughts.
• "Engine of economic development" - SOFO highlights strong link between reforestation and growth, and deforestation and economic decline, hence the anti-poverty role of forests.
• "Key component of greening other sectors" - wood is still the primary energy source for one-third of the world's population, therefore - with the right policies - it can expanded to provide a global greener, cleaner energy source.

The report, launched at the R+20 summit in Rio De Jainero, concluded that forests and forest products "will not solve the challenges of moving towards greener economies, but they will provide excellent examples and a source of hope".



Rising to the challenge

Also being announced at the summit was a joint pledge between a number of nations and NGOs to restore more than 18 million hectares of forest landscape.

The US and Rwanda goverments teamed up with the Brazilian Mata Atlantica Forest Restoration Pact (made up from government agencies, NGOs, private sector bodies and indigenous groups).

The annoucement forms part of the "Bonn Challenge", which was agreed in September 2011 and commits nations to restore 150 million hectares of forested areas by 2020.

"The largest restoration initiative the world has ever seen is now underway," said Julia Marton-Lefcvre, director-general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"[It] will provide huge global benefits in the form of income, food security and addressing climate change," she added.

"We urge other countries and landowners to follow suit."

The IUCN is involved in promoting Plant a Pledge, an online campaign to build public support for the Bonn Challenge.

Organisers hope people will sign a petition, which will be presented by campaign ambassador Bianca Jagger at the UN Climate Change talks in November.