1. Load up on lycopene

The antioxidant properties of lycopene may protect our immune cells from destructive free radicals, molecules that can harm cells and damage DNA. The best way to get lycopene—which is in the skin, and gives red tomatoes their rich colour—is through cooked or processed tomatoes (juice, sauce and paste). Cook tomatoes with a little healthy oil (e.g., olive or canola), which helps carry the lycopene into the bloodstream.

2. Care for your heart

Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C, which, like lycopene, is linked to reducing the risk of heart disease. Most of the vitamin C is concentrated in the jelly-like substance that encases the seeds. Tomatoes are also high in salicylates, which have an anti-clotting effect on the blood, and may be partially responsible for tomatoes’ protective effect against heart disease. Many recipes advise removing the seeds to prevent a bitter flavour. But to conserve nutrients, use plum tomatoes, which have less-bitter seeds.

3. Help control asthma

A new Australian study found that adequate intake of lycopene and vitamin A helped reduce exercise-induced asthma symptoms.

4. Feed your bones

Tomatoes contain vitamin K, which plays a key role in clotting blood and maintaining strong bones. And, research from Boston University found that vitamin K deficiency is linked to a higher prevalence of hand and knee osteoarthritis.

5. Add vitamin A

Vitamin A helps maintain healthy skin, hair, mucous membrances, bones and teeth. One cup (250 mL) of chopped tomatoes provides over half of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A for women.

Source: Best Health
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Value those friends who gave you good memories. Don’t ever change them for any material things in this world. Time has always taught us a lesson. Once you have disappointed them, you will hardly find a way to call an old friend when the time comes that will you need them. ~Unknown

A wounded heart will heal in time, and when it does, the memory and love of our lost ones is sealed inside to comfort us. ~Unknown

ADHOC photo

A smile is a language everybody understands. It costs nothing but creates much. It happens fast but its memory may last forever. keep smiling. ~Unknown

You can complain as much as you like about your life and the problems nothing will change unless you stop complaining and start making things right yourself. ~Anurag Prakash Ray

From among all… adverse conditions, the foremost is jealousy. Jealousy can rob us of our freedom and interrupt loving relationships between people. Jealousy occurs when we cannot tolerate others encountering situations that seem to involve more happiness than what we have. When we continually feel the need to have others beneath us and none equal to us, that is jealousy. When we are controlled by jealousy, we only feel comfortable when others come to us for assistance; we only feel at ease when others are looking to us with hope. We cannot stand being in situations where others have something that we need.

When we become jealous, we are not willing to see the positive qualities of others. Whether we are alone or in a group, when we are overcome by jealousy our eyes are not willing to see the good things in others; they are constantly looking for other’s faults. We build up intolerance toward the faults of others. In particular, when we see others enjoying good fortune that exceeds our own, we cannot stand it. In this way, we create extra and superfluous difficulties for our minds to deal with.

A better approach would be to pay more attention to our own conduct than to the conduct of others. ~17th Karmapa

Asian elephant Seila eats food in her enclosure at Kampot’s Teuk Chhou Zoo last month. Vireak Ma

Charles Parkinson, The Phnom Penh Post
Fri, 25 September 2015

Elephant conservation NGO EARS Asia has been ejected from Teuk Chhou Zoo in Kampot province and forbidden from caring for its two elephants, amid mounting pressure for a proposed animal swap involving the pair to be called off.

In a statement posted on their Facebook page yesterday, EARS Asia spoke of the devastation felt by founder Louise Rogerson, who has overseen the care of elephants Kiri and Seila for the past three years, after she was barred from entering the zoo on Wednesday.

The move by the zoo follows the launch of a campaign by EARS Asia in August to prevent Kiri and Seila from being swapped with animals living at the Hirakawa Zoo in southern Japan.

“This will not stop us in our campaign to bring to the world the absurdity of the Cambodian and Japanese trade deal. This also means that our campaign is working,” reads the statement.

While that campaign has been run by the EARS Asia board in Hong Kong without Rogerson’s participation, her ejection follows a series of articles in both the Cambodian and international press highlighting concerns surrounding the proposed deal.

Those concerns focus on the ability of Teuk Chhou Zoo to properly care for any new animals it receives, as well as the stress the journey would cause the animals involved.

During a visit to Teuk Chhou Zoo in late August, the Post witnessed hungry and unkempt animals, with several carrying visible injuries and many showing signs of severe psychological distress. Continue reading →

The practices of loving kindness and compassion are incredibly relevant for everyone. Moreover, training in these qualities provides a common bridge between all different religions and areas of our world society. No matter whether we are people who teach a spiritual path or someone else, everybody can practice love and compassion, but it is important that we do so in an impartial way. ~ 17th Karmapa

RFA photo/Sireymuny