Habits irritate others the most

Find out which of your habits irritate others the most | GulfNews.com

Dubai: You may think the seemingly ‘little things’ you do like jumping queues and not throwing your garbage in the chute are excusable as very few people, if any, point it out to you.

Living in a cosmopolitan city has its own perks and perils. And it also comes with pesky issues that confront residents every day such as people parking irresponsibly, turning up late in meetings, littering, among others. Despite warnings, city fines, and common knowledge, some people’s habits prove really difficult to break.

Gulf News did a random and informal survey among 100 residents who live or work in Dubai to shed light on the habits people have that irritate them most. The results show problems with trash and parking are high up in residents’ list.

Asked what could have caused this apparent lack of discipline or loss of civility among some residents, Dr Saliha Afridi, clinical psychologist and managing director of the LightHouse Arabia Clinic, told Gulf News it all boils down to the residents’ innate cultural differences.

“Dubai is a very special city. It’s not a melting pot—people have not melted together. It’s actually like a salad bowl where everything exists separately. And so people are coming from their world, their background, their knowledge, their experiences and they’re thrown to work, on the roads, the malls. So, it’s not about being intolerant, it’s more of a culture shock that happens,” Dr Afridi said.

To read these 10 habits please click here !

Try to stop eating these type of easy-to-make meals.

Stop! This meal will do you no good | GulfNews.com

You know the drill: you get back from work late in the evening, are too tired to rustle up a meal from scratch and your family is hungry. If you are a bachelor, your are subject to all the aforementioned clauses too. So what do you do? You grab a few ready-to-eat meals, peel off the plastic from the top and heat it up in a microwave oven. Or if they come in aluminium foil, you place them in boiling water and your meal is ready in a jiffy. Throw in a few slices of bread or some leftover rice and your meal is done. No chopping, frying or the minutiae of garnishing with herbs and all those hassles.

The ready-to-eat meals industry grown at an astonishing pace over the last two decades. They come in a range of cuisines that can beguile the most committed cook. Italian? Mexican? Indian? Thai? Chinese? Greek? Take your pick. With more and more people leading busier lives, meal preparation is a chore most like to avoid at the end of a long day at work. It’s a given, then, that nutrition takes a backseat under the circumstances.

Many of these meals claim that they taste just like home-cooked meals. That’s an elevator pitch. The truth is that they are nowhere near as noutritious or wholesome or healthy as home-cooked emals.

1) According to a British study, not even one out of every 100 meals in the supermarket freezers complies with the nutritional guidelines set by the WHO (World Health Organisation).

2) The single most worrying aspect of ready-to-eat meals is that they are alarmingly high in slat and sugar levels. High salt and sugar consumption is a cause of many health proeblems from diabetes to hypertentison and heart disease. Adults should eat no more than 6gms of salt a day, that’s about 1 full teaspoon. Children should eat much less. The daily recommended amount of salt children should intake depends on their age. “Read the nutrition labels on food packaging to help you cut down on salt.” 

3) These meals also contain high amounts of fats, transfat and artificial colour. “All these can cause internal problems such as high blood pressure, and affect the heart and kidneys.”

4) Office goers who take along a noodle pot which simply needs boiling water and some standing time to cook, are particularly at risk of nutritional deficiences because these foods contain little health-giving nutrients.

“If you have to eat ready meals, then opt for the ones which have lower fat, lower salt content and fewer calories.”

5) Ready-to-eat meals are rich in presrvatives which is how they enjoy a long shelf life. Why would a chicken curry otherwise have a pouch life of 3 months? Some preservatives can be natural, like salt or sugar, or they can be complex chemicals manufactured in laboratories, and these can increase health risks.

6) Many of the ready-made meals have trans-fats which increase your levels of ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol and decrease ‘good’ HDL cholesterol. So limit foods that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil or shortening.

7) Packaged meals frequently have their nutritional value compromised, as ingredients start to degrade over time. Vegetables lose their vitamins, grains lose their texture.

8) Diabetics should also be wary of such meals as they are usually high in calories and have larger portion size. “Most ready meals are over-sized. Even though that little package may seem to serve only one, many are actually for two or more servings.”

9) Many ready-to-eat meals claim they are low-fat. This entices people to eat more of them. Just because the packet says ‘low fat’ does not mean the food is low in calories. Portion control is important for all foods, even those claiming to be low in fat or calories. Check to see how many servings are in a pre-packed ready meal. Also, many meals have rich and creamy sauces as a base. 2,500 calories a day

Average requirement for a men

2,000 calories a day

Average requirement for a men

(These values can vary depending on age and levels of physical actvity, among other factors.)

10) Many pre-packaged meals contain high-fructose corn syrup and research is beginning to suggest that this liquid sweetener may upset the human metabolism, raising the risk for heart disease and diabetes. To spot fructose on a food label, look for the words ‘corn sweetener’, ‘corn syrup’, or ‘corn syrup solids’ as well as ‘high-fructose corn syrup.

11) “Most ready–to-eat meals are low in fiber and dietary fiber is one important dietary component to lowering cholesterol. The recommended intake of fiber is 20gms-35 gms for adults. A guideline as how to choose foods with good sources of fibre:

a) High fibre food. Tthe food product has 5 gms or more fiber per serving.

b) Good source of fibre’. The food product has 2.5gms to 4.9 gms of fibre per serving.

c) More or added fibre’. The food product has at least 2.5gms of fiber per serving.

12) if you must eat a ready meal, also eat a fresh salad as a side dish to compensate for lack of fibre and nutrients. Follow the meal with a fruit selection as well for a balanced effect.

“The healthiest and safest diet for us to consume is one that is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and food that is cooked at home,” says Amera.

(Information: Amera Marian Varghese. nutritionist, Medcare Hospital, Dubai).

For more facts, click here!

How to Speak in a British Accent

How to Speak in a British Accent: 10 Steps 

Tips

• Also, one of the words in English which shows very easily which accent someone has is "Water". In Britain, it would sound more like "war-tah". In the U.S., it sounds more like "wa-der".

• When you say "at all" pronounce it like "a tall" but with a British accent.

• As well as accent, watch out for slang words, such as lads or blokes for boys and men, birds or lasses(in the north of England and in Scotland) for women. Loo for the toilet, but bathroom for a room you clean yourself in.

• When in doubt, watch Monty Python or Doctor Who. Watching Harry Potter can help too.

• With some very strong regional accents, there is a tendency to replace th with a ff - "through" may sound like "froo", and "birfday" for "birthday." Billie Piper of Doctor Who speaks this way.

• Always use British English words if they are different to US English. The British tend to be protective about the differences. In particular, use "rubbish" and "tap", not "trash" and "faucet". Also, it's good (but not essential) to say "schedule" with "sh_", not "sk_" but you must learn how to say "specialty" with 5 syllables, not three (as spe-ci-al-i-ty).

• As with any accent, listening to and imitating a native speaker is the best and fastest way to learn. Remember that when you were young you learned a language by listening and then repeating the words while imitating the accent.

• Listen to British peoples talk. It will improve your vocabulary.

• As a child, your ability for the ear to process different frequencies of sound is greater, enabling you to distinguish and reproduce the sounds of the languages that surround you. To effectively learn a new accent, you must expand the ability of your ear by listening over and over to examples of the accent.

• It is easier to learn accents by listening to people. A formal British accent can be heard on BBC news, where it can frequently be heard. Formal British speech is more deliberate and articulated than American, but as with newscasters everywhere, this effect is deliberately exaggerated for TV and radio broadcast.

To read the 10 steps, click here.

Surviving Eid with your waistline intact

Surviving Eid with your waistline intact | GulfNews.com

We’ve all worked hard during Ramadan, fasting and avoiding really fattening foods (well, some of us have and some of us haven’t), so with Eid upon us, the temptation is to think, finally, I can stuff my face and let go of all my restrictions! Right?

Wrong.

Beware of overeating this Eid, because not only will you put on weight more quickly, you could also fall sick. Having fasted and deprived your body of three proper meals and two snacks a day, your body is now in starvation mode, while your stomach has shrunk considerably due to the long hours spent without food or beverages. So if you overload it suddenly, you could suffer from one of two scenarios:

1. Gastroesophageal reflux: Under this condition your stomach just can’t handle the sudden deluge of food, and it regurgitates the food or drink.

2 Sudden weight gain: For those who manage to keep the excess food down, you will notice a sudden weight gain during the Eid period. This is because your body is in starvation mode and it will automatically store everything you feed it. This works on a primitive instinct carried forward from a time years when humans didn’t know where the next meal would come from.

Faced with all those goodies, and having deprived yourself for 30 whole days, you may struggle to cope — the temptation is even more pronounced if you have to visit relatives and friends for whom the words “no more cake” just do not exist. Try the following ten great tips for surviving Eid with your waistline intact.

1. Start Eid day with a healthy breakfast. This should ideally include some oat porridge, brown bread with eggs, or healthy cooked hash browns with baked beans. The general idea is to have a breakfast that has a low Glycemic Index, which means it releases energy slowly. Once you are armed with a wholesome breakfast, you are less likely to be tempted by all the goodies being offered to you.

2. It is important to pace yourself as the day progresses. As we all know, most of the visiting happens between breakfast and lunch.

3. Keep a log on your phone, noting down all the goodies you are indulging in. This way you will be able to look at it at regular intervals and realise that you are probably way over your calorie budget already by lunch time.

4. Make sure you have a hearty lunch. However, if you have indulged between breakfast and lunch, it is OK to go easy on this family meal. You can pretend to eat a lot more than you normally would.

5. Ensure you have only one helping of whatever it is you choose. Take a quick look around the feast and decide what it is that you are going to enjoy. Do not fall into the trap of trying everything; this is lethal, as you will pile on the calories dramatically. People often try everything that is laid out and then go back to what they enjoyed the most — ending up taking in anything up to 2000-3000 calories in one meal.

6. Ideally, you should aim to allocate 300 calories for breakfast, 500 calories for lunch and about 400 calories for dinner.

7. Remember to take into account the desserts and snacks that you will be indulging in while visiting people.

8. Try and get more fluids inside you to leave little space for food. Green tea is a great option.

9. Try saying NO a couple of times. If your protests fail and your host looks like they are going to have a coronary, opt for non-fried options if possible.

10. Limit yourself to one small piece of Eid dessert at each stop. And instead of the soft drinks ask for some green tea with no sugar, as you will be getting enough of that with your picks throughout the day.

Ahlaam Ali is a Dubai-based lifestyle and nutrition consultant. You can contact her on powwereat@gmail.com

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Ramadan in UAE to begin on July 10, Eid Al Fitr on August 9:

Ramadan in UAE to begin on July 10, Eid Al Fitr on August 9: Sharjah Planetarium | GulfNews.com

The Sharjah Planetarium at the Department of Culture and Information announced that the Ramadan Crescent will form on July 8, 2013 at 11:14am and set at 19:08pm, five minutes before the sunset.

The crescent will be seen on July 9 in the evening. So the first day of Ramadan will be July 10, astronomically, corresponding to Ramadan 01, 1434 H.

It also announced that the Shawwal crescent will appear on July 7 at 00:51am and set with the sunset, making it difficult to be seen, and hence completes the last day of Ramadan (30 days). So Friday, August 9, will be astronomically the first day of Shawwal and the first day of Eid Al Fitr.