Rejoice! We're heading into the warm weather, which means swimming, boating, hiking, barbeques, picnics and outdoor sports! It's summer, and the living is easy! But it's also the start of a new bug season. How can we avoid those unwanted pests of Canadian backyards everywhere: mosquitoes! First, be sure to get rid of standing water around your property, where mosquitoes can breed. PIck up any vessels, like garden pots, and turn them over so they can't fill with rainwater. If you have a birdbath, water barrel or ornamental pond, flush it out once a week to break the egg-laying cycle. Mosquitoes breed in still water, so agitating it will upset their development. Did you know there are about 75 different...
Walk into any drugstore, and you will be dazzled by the sparkling rows of hair care products, cosmetics, perfumes, soaps, lotions and other body care products that create a visual plethora of hip graphics and flawless faces, all of which are marketed to you, the consumer. Those gorgeous models and shiny tresses are meant to entice you into buying the product to re-make you into that wondrous big brand image. But in all the flotsam and jetsam of labels and ingredients, what exactly are you buying? You might be surprised. Turn that jazzy packaging over, and read the ingredient list. Did you find a lot of long, confusing words describing stuff you've never heard of? And do you have any...
November 2 to 8, 2015 is NHP Week, an annual celebration of the health and happiness that millions of Canadians receive from natural health products (NHPs). This year, the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA) commissioned a national survey on popular natural health claims to see if Canadians can distinguish fact from fiction. They asked 1,500 Canadians from coast to coast 15 true-or-false questions to test their knowledge, with surprising results! ______________________________________________________________________________ The Buzz about Honey Statement1: Honey has antibacterial properties: True Did you know that honey is the only edible substance on Earth that never expires? This wonder of nature boasts many benefits and Canadians are definitely curious. Our survey found that 84 per cent of Canadians knew that honey...
Who does not love the warm, heady embrace of superior quality chocolate melting on the tongue? There are literally thousands of recipes involving chocolate, from your favourite chocolate chip cookie to a $250 French Madeline chocolate truffle. But what is this mysterious elixir that can be a sophisticated aphrodisiac, or comfort food eaten in pajamas?Chocolate comes from the Cacao tree. Many people would not recognize the large pods that grow on the trunk and limbs of this tree, much less the beans inside, as chocolate. And in fact, there are two different versions of this product: cacoa and cocoa. Cacoa is the raw version of chocolate (think cacoa butter, nibs or powder) that is made by cold-pressing the unroasted, fermented,...
