Kansas Senior Press Service Weekly Newsletters Kansas Senior Press Service Weekly Newsletters By: Barbara Mayer
I always wondered what neighbors thought when my mother mopped our front porch every Saturday, rain or shine. We never sat there or used it for anything.
The back porch was where we hung up our dish towels to dry, shined our shoes, set out tomatoes to ripen, and where Mom darned our socks in the warm sun.
Back-porch people wore aprons or overalls with their sleeves rolled up ready to do what needed to be done, or just rested after the day’s chores were finished.
Front-porch people were “uppity,” Mom said. She had no use for neighborhood show-offs.
Barbara Mayer lives in Kansas City, Kan.
Five to ten servings: that is the current number of vegetables and fruits people need to eat each day, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR). This number may sound daunting even to fruit and veggie lovers. The good news is that eating a single serving of vegetables or fruits doesn’t entail eating an entire head of lettuce or a whole pineapple. You can meet your dietary needs easily without stuffing yourself in the process.
A single serving of vegetables or fruits generally measures one half cup, cooked or raw. But depending on how the vegetables and fruits are prepared, serving sizes may vary. One serving of fruits or vegetables can mean the following: one cup of raw leafy greens like spinach; a medium sized piece of fruit; a quarter cup of dried fruit; or a six-ounce glass of one hundred percent juice. If you are used to filling up on meat or starchy foods like pasta, it will probably be hard to meet your daily quotient of vegetables and fruits. But once you make plant-based foods the foundation of your meals, you will not only get enough of them but will also start to crave them.
It is tedious to count vegetable and fruit servings every day. That’s why AICR formulated a meal program that makes getting all of your servings easy: The New American Plate (NAP). The concept behind NAP is to eyeball your meals and make sure two-thirds of your plate contains vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans. If you do this for each of your three meals every day, you will have no problem getting the recommended servings of these foods. Without jotting down details or keeping a mental list, NAP will boost your consumption of potassium, antioxidants and phytochemicals.
It will also boost your consumption of fiber. Eating an abundance of vegetables, fruits, beans and whole grains is crucial for getting enough fiber in your diet.
Studies show fiber intake positively correlates with decreased risk of heart disease and some cancers, including colon cancer.
The recommended amounts of dietary fiber today are 21 to 25 grams for women and 30 to 38 grams for men. One standard serving of vegetables and fruits is equivalent to two grams of fiber. To put this into perspective, one half cup of dried beans has between 6 and 9 grams of fiber, and a slice of whole grain bread has twice the fiber of refined white bread. If you replace junky snacks with fruit or a handful of nuts and eat high-fiber cereal for breakfast, you can easily get the nutrients your body needs.
Source: American Institute for Cancer Research
By: Pam Owens
Many people with disabilities depend on television as a primary source of information and entertainment. Some have expressed concern that when the new Federal Communications Commission rulings go into effect, requiring only HDTV format broadcasting, their televisions will become obsolete. Here is information concerning that change.
At midnight on Feb. 17, 2009, federal law will require that all full-power television broadcast stations stop broadcasting in analog format and broadcast only in digital format. The following questions and answers will help explain what the law will mean for you and your television viewing:
Why are broadcast TV stations switching to digital? Congress mandated all-digital broadcasting, also known as the digital television (DTV) transition, because digital is a more efficient transmission technology that allows broadcast stations to provide improved picture and sound quality as well as more programming options through multiple broadcast streams. In addition, all-digital broadcasting will free up many frequencies to be used by public safety providers such as police, fire, and emergency rescue, and for the provision of advanced commercial wireless services for consumers.
How will I receive digital broadcasts if I don’t subscribe to cable or satellite? If you receive only free over-the-air television programming, the type of TV you own (either a digital TV or an analog TV) is very important. Consumers who receive only free over-the-air television may view digital programming through a TV set with a built-in digital tuner (integrated DTV) or a digital-ready monitor with a separate digital tuner set-top box. Both of these digital television types will be referred to as a DTV. The only additional equipment required to view over-the-air digital programming with a DTV is a regular antenna, either on your roof or “rabbit ears” on your TV.
If you have an analog television and do not own a DTV, you will have to purchase a digital-to-analog set-top converter box to attach to your TV set to be able to view over-the-air digital programming.
How will I receive digital broadcasts if I do subscribe to cable or satellite? If you receive cable or satellite television service, contact your cable or satellite provider about any additional components, such as a digital set-top box, that you may need to watch digital broadcast programming. If you’re a cable subscriber, you can also receive digital programming using a “digital cable ready” or “plug-and-play” television. Using this type of television, digital cable subscribers do not need a separate set-top box. With these televisions you also can obtain from your cable operator a CableCARD that will permit you to view programming.
Pam Owens is an Accessibility Case Manager with the Johnson County Human Services and Aging Department in Olathe, KS.
A new study released by the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) finds that older Americans are significantly more likely to receive their television signals over-the-air, and are therefore less prepared than the rest of the U.S. population to transition from analog to digital-only television in 20 months.
The study revealed that Americans aged 65 and older are consistently more likely to receive television signals via an over-the-air antenna than are Americans under 65. These findings cover the period between the first quarter of 2002 and the first quarter of 2007. In the most recent quarter, 24 percent of households with Americans 65 and older received their TV programming over-the-air, while only 19 percent of younger households were over-the-air. Moreover, the study found that of Americans aged 65 and older who rely solely on over-the-air connections to television programming, only 17 percent own a digital TV.
In addition, 41 percent of Americans 65 and older and 55 percent of those younger than 65 have purchased a new television set in the past 3 years. That suggests that the older viewing population may not be as attuned to recent changes in TV appliance offerings and may not be spending as much time in retail outlets that sell TV sets, the study concluded. Since this older population may not be exposed to DTV transition messaging from electronics retailers, they will need special focus in efforts to educate the public about the February 2009 end of analog TV transmissions.
“The latest findings confirm what we have long suspected—that older Americans need to be specially addressed so that they have the information they need about the digital transition. They need to know that digital over-the-air television will continue to be free, will offer them many more channels and will give them a better picture,” said APTS President and CEO John Lawson. APTS has long called for a greater federal investment in consumer education about the DTV transition.
The study results are based on nearly 12,000 telephone interviews concluded in the first quarter of 2007 conducted by research firm CENTRIS in Fort Washington, Pa. It also marks the first time that APTS data studied the impact of the digital transition on a specific segment of the population.
Article from Media Daily News- July 25, 2007