👨🏽‍⚕️ Men's Health Week 12th - 18th 👨🏽‍⚕️

Celebrate National Men’s Health Week, June 12-18, 2017

Get Good Sleep

Adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep. Insufficient sleep is associated with a number of chronic diseases and conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression. Also, poor sleep is responsible for motor vehicle and machinery-related accidents.

Toss out the Tobacco

It’s never too late to quit. Quitting smoking has immediate and long-term benefits. It improves your health and lowers your risk of heart disease, cancer, lung disease, and other smoking-related illnesses.
Also avoid secondhand smoke. Inhaling other people’s smoke causes health problems similar to those that smokers have. Babies and kids are still growing, so the poisons in secondhand smoke hurt them more than adults.

• Smokefree.gov
• Protecting Our Children from Secondhand Smoke
• Tips from Former Smokers

 

 

Move More

Adults need at least 2½ hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week, and muscle strengthening activities that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms) on two or more days a week. You don’t have to do it all at once. Spread your activity out during the week, and break it into smaller amounts of time during the day.

• Physical Activity for Everyone
• Physical Activity and Disability

 

Eat Healthy

Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables every day. Fruits and vegetables have many vitamins and minerals that may help protect you from chronic diseases. Limit foods and drinks high in calories, sugar, salt, fat, and alcohol.

• Nutrition for Everyone
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Eat Less Salt – What You Can Do

 

 

Tame Stress

Sometimes stress can be good. However, it can be harmful when it is severe enough to make you feel overwhelmed and out of control. Take care of yourself. Avoid drugs and alcohol. Find support. Connect socially. Stay active.

• Tips for Coping with Stress
• Excessive Alcohol Use and Risks to Men’s Health

 

Stay on Top of Your Game

Pay attention to signs and symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, excessive thirst, and problems with urination. If you have these or symptoms of any kind, be sure to see your doctor or nurse. Don’t wait!

• Cancer and Men
• HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases
• Heart Disease Signs and Symptoms

Keep track of your numbers for blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, body mass index (BMI), or any others you may have. If your numbers are high or low, your doctor or nurse can explain what they mean and suggest how you can get them to a healthier range. Be sure to ask him or her what tests you need and how often you need them.

• High Blood Pressure
• Checking Your Blood Glucose
• Cholesterol
• BMI

Get vaccinated. Everyone needs immunizations to stay healthy, no matter how old you are. Even if you had vaccines as a child, immunity can fade with time. Vaccine recommendations are based on a variety of factors, including age, overall health, and your medical history.

 

WEAR BLUE DAY 2017

Whether it is your friend, brother, dad, boyfriend, spouse, or boss, show them you care about them and their health by wearing blue. If Friday of Men’s Health Week doesn’t work for you then pick any other day of the year and start a fun Wear BLUE day at work.

Host a Wear BLUE day to raise awareness and money for education about men’s need to seek regular checkups, or testicular cancer education, prostate cancer education, or other health issues that affect men. (Cardiovascular disease, skin cancer, lung cancer, diabetes, gout, and more.)

Men live sicker and die younger. Wear BLUE was created by Men’s Health Network to raise awareness about the importance of male health and to encourage men to live longer and healthier lives.

Men’s health awareness can mean many different things.

It means raising awareness of making healthy lifestyle choices, making regular annual visits to the doctor, getting educated on heart disease or diabetes, starting general health conversations with their male friends, and much more. The information, tools, and resources on this website can help you plan an impactful Wear BLUE event where you live, work, play, and pray.

http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/wearblue/

 

 

{ Over and Out }  Egypt A. Assanti { aka } Big Sister Southern Heat - ESD " Baroness " 👑 💋

 

🍲 National Soul Food Month 🍲

National Soul Food Month 2017

🍲 June is National Soul Food Month

Soul food originated in Africa and came to the United States with African slaves. Foods such as okra and rice, which are common in West Africa, were introduced to the Americas as a result of the transatlantic slave trade. These foods were dietary staples among the slaves. Foods such as corn from the Americas, turnips from Morocco and cabbage from Portugal would become staples in African-American cuisine. Slaves were fed as cheaply as possible; they were given the scraps: pig ears, pig feet, ox tail, ham hocks, hog jowls, trip and skin of animals. The slaves developed dishes using the scrap parts and these dishes became a part of their daily diet. They used onions and garlic to add flavor and lard for baking and frying. In addition to the scrap animal parts they were given the small intestine of the pig, or chitterlings, which were a poor dish for Europeans during medieval times.

 

🍲 These cooking rituals would be passed on from generation to generation of African-Americans, and these recipes are alive and well even today. Of course these dishes are not prepared in the same manner as during slave times, but they have not changed a whole lot. For instance, chitterlings are prepared in African-American homes during the holidays every year. In my family, my mother, grandmother and aunts prepare chitterlings every Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. Chitterlings are cooked with onions and garlic the same as the slaves, but are prepared in much nicer cookware and maybe with a little vinegar. Fried corn, a major staple in soul food, was introduced to the slaves by the Native Americans and continues to be a popular dish today. Other products made from corn, such as cornbread, grits, whiskey and moonshine are still a part of the African-American diet.

When I think of soul food, I think of Sunday dinners that include fried chicken, fried corn, macaroni casserole, collard greens, turnip greens, cornbread, fried pork chops smothered in gravy, black eyed peas, potato salad and sweet potato pie. I can smell these wonderful dishes right now. Some people say soul food is not exactly the food a person cooks; it’s that the person cooks from the heart. Personally I think the enslaved African women put their heart and soul into the food they were cooking for their families.

 

 

 

 

 

🍲 Suggestions to help celebrate National Soul Food Month:

· Ask family members and friends to share their favorite soul food recipes during the month of June.

· Share your soul food cooking experience and how soul food can be made with less fat and less salt.

· Make a special low-fat soul food meal for that special someone.

· Ask an older family member or a member of the community to share their most memorable stories about soul food cooking.

· Help young children learn how important soul food is to American history.

· Spread the word to your church, school, civic group, and community that June is National Soul Food Month and that this event is something to be proud of.

Soul Food History belongs to all of us, let celebrate it together.

 

 

New Recipes for National Soul Food Month  

 

http://www.soul-food-advisor.com/Soul_Food_Lovers_Newsletter-newsletter0342.html

TWICE BAKED POTATO CASSEROLE 
6 medium white potatoes 
2 cups sour cream
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
½ cup butter or margarine, melted

Baked potatoes at 400 degrees for approximately one hour. When cool, peel potatoes and grate coarsely. Combine all ingredients. Pour in a 9x13-inch greased baked dish. Baked at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Yield: 8 servings.

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STIR-FRY CABBAGE AND TOMATOES 
1 tablespoon oil
2 medium onions, peeled and sliced
1 medium head of cabbage, coaresly shredded
2 teaspoons sugar
salt and pepper to taste
2 medium tomatoes, chopped in large pieces

In hot oil in a large skillet or wok, saute onions for 2 to 3 minutes. Add cabbage and seasonings. Stir-fry until cabbage is crisp-tender. Do not over cook. Add tomatoes and heat through. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

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GRILLED VEGETABLE KABOBS 
12 lg. fresh mushrooms
Boiling water
1/4 c. Italian dressing
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 med. zucchini, cut into 1 inch diagonal slices
4 cherry tomatoes

Place mushrooms in medium bowl; cover with boiling water. Let stand 1 minute; drain. Combine dressing, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce in small bowl. Alternately thread mushrooms and zucchini on four skewers. Grill kabobs over medium coals about 10 minutes, turning and brushing frequently with dressing mixture.

Remove from heat. Thread cherry tomatoes onto ends of skewers. Continue grilling 5 minutes, turning and brushing with remaining dressing mixture. Garnish as desired. Makes 4 servings.

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LOW FAT STRAWBERRY YOGURT PIE 
1 (9 ounce) graham cracker crust
1 quart fat-free or low-fat frozen strawberry yogurt, softened
1 (12 ounce) carton frozen “light” whipped topping, thawed
1 pint fresh strawberries, capped and crushed
Artificial sweetener to taste

Use an electric mixer on low speed. Stir yogurt and whipped topping together until blended. Spoon into crust. Freeze. Before serving, top with crushed strawberries combined with sweetener. Yield: One 9-inch pie.

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For more low-fat soul food recipes, visit Low Fat Recipes

Great Soul Food Recipes offering a variety of regular and low-fat menus. 
 Recipe Center

To read more about soul food history visit: Soul Food History

 

 

{ Over and Out }  Egypt A. Assanti  { aka } Big Sister Southern Heat "ESD Baroness" 👑 💋

 

☀🌞🌤 Gun Violence & Gun Safety Awareness Month

National Gun Violence Awareness Month

On June 2, the nation, or a good part of it anyway, will be #WearingOrange for a cause. The cause is a national day for gun violence awareness followed by the month of June with more awareness events and actions. The reason? The parents of one young girl are asking us to do this in her memory. For on June 2, tomorrow, she would be 18 years old. The reason they will not be celebrating her birthday is because she was shot and killed in January of 2013 just days after playing with her Chicago school band at President Obama’s inauguration. Her name was Hadiya Pendleton.

Here’s more about the day of gun violence awareness. Some New York lawmakers declared June to be gun violence awareness month in 2011.  The idea has since spread and now has the endorsement of gun violence prevention groups and other groups from all over the country representing tens of thousands of Americans, if not more. In 2013 a group of Hadiya’s friends promoted the wearing of the color orange in memory of Hadiya and other gun violence victims:

 

Hunters want to be safe from being shot while hunting. So do Americans want to be safe from the gun violence that takes far too many lives.

“You don’t want to be invisible”. Exactly. Victims sometimes become invisible. Every day in our country over 80 people die from gunshot injuries. There are many mass shootings in our country which get the attention of the public, the media and even lawmakers for a while. And then, the corporate gun lobby steps in and does their job of making themselves the victims of proposed changes to laws that would actually prevent senseless shootings. It’s totally backwards and insane, in fact, but it happens. It makes absolutely no common sense. But it is the America we have, not the country most people want or deserve.

 

The message is changing. That must happen before the culture and laws change. Our message is strong. We understand that gun violence has become a serious national public health and safety epidemic and we also know that we can do something about this epidemic with the right prescriptions and treatment.

 

We owe it to the lives lost to promise to do something to stop others from not being able to reach their human potential. Hadiya”s young life had already shown the promise of success. Her life was taken far too soon in a senseless act of violence. You can see more information on the website named 

 

No one wants to lose a loved one or a friend to a gunshot injury yet far too many of us have and do.

We are better than this. Let’s get to work. Do this for Hadiya and for the 32,000 Americans who die every year from gunshot injuries. Make your voices heard above the loud and often obnoxious din of the gun lobby’s deceptions and opposition to common sense.

 

Lawmakers in both the House and the Senate proposed making June 2 a day of remembrance for victims of gun violence, an event largely propagated by gun control groups.

“We have communities where parents are afraid to let their kids outside to play, to sit on their own front porches or even walk to the corner store,” said Kelly in a statement. “No one in America, no matter your region or zip code, should ever have to live this way.”

The day, June 2, was recognized last year by gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety for its “Wear Orange” event.

The idea originated from friends of Hadiya Pendleton, a Chicago teen who was shot in the back and killed while standing with friends in park after taking her final exams in 2013. She was killed one week after performing at events for President Obama’s second inauguration.

Months after the murder, on June 2, her friends dressed in orange to honor her on what would have been her birthday and promote non-violence.

 Everytown adopted the custom and defined wearing orange much like a hunter does for safety. The official kickoff was a success on social media and gained broad support of celebrities.

However, gun rights advocates, who likened participants to convicts rather than hunters since they also wear orange, were largely indifferent.

 

http://www.guns.com/2016/05/27/national-gun-violence-awareness-day-proposed/

 

{ Over and Out }  Egypt A. Assanti { aka } Big Sister Southern Heat  "Baroness"  👑 💋