It is that time of year again. During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. These men raise vital awareness and funds for men’s health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives.
While I couldn’t grow a mustache in even 30-days, I encourage you to participate in Movember. There is more information about the initiative at us.movember.com.
Rainfall didn’t arrive until later in the day on Sunday so I went to check out this large one-day festival. Cooking demonstrations, food to sample and for sale as well as lots of entertainment and good people watching filled this four block festival along the Rose Kennedy Greenway park. 
Local shops like Southie’s American Provisions and local farmers had all sort of locally grown food and drink. Unfortunately, the weather was gloomy so I was happy when I bumped into the sun at the festival.
The variety of stalls selling so many products made me think twice about how easy it can be to buy from local and sustainable sources.
Want to find out more about this annual festival and the organization that makes this possible? Check out the event website, here.
Click on image to enlarge
The third annual Boston local food festival will take place along Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway on Sunday from 11AM to 5PM. The festival which attracted more than 30,000 last year addresses the virtues of locally grown and produced food and strives to increase accessibility and availability of healthy local food for all.
You can get more details about this free festival by visiting the event website, bostonlocalfoodfestival.com.
My good friend and fellow blogger over at You Think You Know clued me in to a new local business called Bell Tower Foods (BTF).
Formed by young professionals who met at Boston University’s School of Public Health, this group is passionate about encouraging healthy eating habits and fighting obesity so they have created the city’s first mobile grocery vehicle.
Think of it as a healthy grocery store on wheels
Really cool, right? Want to learn more? Check out their website, belltowerfoods.com. You can also like their facebook page, here.
Designer Ben Pawle has developed a one-handed condom wrapper. I can’t imagine why it has taken this long to come up with such a sensible design.
His website says, “his condom addresses the need for newly sexually active young adults to avoid embarrassment when trying to don a ‘dom” Whatever the reason, it makes sense. Now it would be great if condom manufacturers would use this packaging.
“I told everybody that my brother ate my turtle. They looked at me kind of funny. But nobody ever said they were sorry to hear about my turtle. Never once.” Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
I thought of Judy Blume earlier this week when I heard that she was recovering from a mastectomy. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in June. I was glad to read that she is now recovering and it made me think about how horrible cancer is. It seems that every family at some point is impacted by this terrible disease. If you live in the US you can always volunteer or make a donation like I just did to the American Cancer Society.
Most people I know admit that they do not get enough sleep and the health risks of lack of sleep are fairly well documented so I was intrigued by the BuzzFeed article about napping last week called, Everything you’ll ever need to know about napping.
I swiped part of the infographic from the article. Click on the image above to enlarge so you may more easily read the description of each nap type. Do you nap? If so which type of nap do you take most often?
Earlier this week The BostonInno blog had this interesting infographic in an article regarding the benefits of urban farming based on a recent report conducted by the Conservation Law Foundation (CFL). That report had his to say about urban agriculture in Boston.
Boston is ideally positioned to play a lead role in coordinating with the Massachusetts Food Policy Council, other New England states, and cities around the region to build a vision for a New England regional food system and make it happen. Boston is emerging as a national leader in urban agriculture innovation, and can be a voice for the benefits of urban agriculture and as one of the region’s largest consumers, help to build the market for regionally grown food.
Seems like an interesting conversation to have. Are you familiar with other urban agriculture projects here in the US or abroad? I love the idea of supporting locally grown fruit and vegetables.
The full article is here.
Last week Gallup released a study about obesity in the U.S. They also ranked each of the 50 states from least obese to most obese.
For the second year in a row Colorado had the lowest obesity rate. The study also examined levels of high blood pressure and diabetes, and found that, like last year, these lists look similar to the list of the most obese states, with both obesity and chronic disease clustered among Southern and Midwestern states.
Curious to see how your home state ranks? Here is the list of most and least obese states.
Earlier this week, BuzzFeed had an amusing article entitled, 19 Things that will drive your OCD self insane. It features images like this with a fig newton out of place that is certain to drive some people absolutely cuckoo.
If you are OCD you may not want to check out the 18 other photos. If you know or love someone who suffers a bit from OCD, poke fun at them by printing these photos and taping them (off center and crooked of course) around their home.
AIDSVu at Emory University has released an interactive map illustrating the prevalence of HIV in the U.S. The AIDSvu map shows the U.S. still has a significant problem with HIV and AIDS. If you visit their website you may analyze the data by race, age and gender. The deeper shades of red indicate more HIV cases.
~50% newly diagnosed AIDS cases in U.S. are in the South
Eight of the ten U.S. states with the highest rates of new HIV infection are located in the Southeast. High rates of poverty factor in as well, as does the region’s low ranking on many basic health measures.
AIDSVu has pulled together a quick video which reminds us that AIDS still ravages communities and education and prevention remain our most powerful tools to combat HIV and AIDS.
Are you struggling to get yourself to the gym and remain active? Last week a new study reported in The Daily News linked weight loss with an increase in testosterone and sex drive for middle-aged men.
The study found that men who incorporated two-and-a-half hours of exercise a week into their lives, as well as eating healthier food, saw dramatic results in the course of a year. There was a 15% increase in testosterone levels and a 46% decrease in instances of hypogonadism, a condition characterized by low testosterone levels that can be linked to low sex drive and erectile dysfunction, according to Mayo Clinic.
Recently I’ve seen several studies regarding potential health benefits of coffee; despite all the bad press that caffeine gets. Just last week I read about studies that claim coffee may lower the risk of heart failure.
Not one of these studies point out the reasons I like to drink coffee; first it definitely helps me wake up in the morning; second it suppresses my appetite in the afternoon; and lastly it keeps me warm when I’m cold which is nearly always.
Do you love coffee? Who cares what all those scientists are saying. What “benefits” do you derive from that delicious cup of java?
File this post under “Gross and Disgusting”. Wesley Warren Jr. suffers from a bizarre medical condition that has resulted in excessive watery fluid collecting around his testicles (Eeewww!!!)
Wesley denies he has turned down the chance to have surgery because he likes the notoriety. The surgery does carry significant risk that his penis and testicles could have to be completely removed if surgeons couldn’t stop the bleeding (again Eeewww!!!)
Whatever the real reason, I can’t help but feel badly for this man walking around with a 100lbs scrotum. Ick… Can’t stop reading? You can check out the full story on Huffington Post.
My co-worker’s father, an immigrant who came to the US and raised his children in Michigan, sent his daughter an email earlier this week. I’ve never met this man, but I wanted to share his email about the US Supreme Court’s pending decision on the constitutionality of the 2010 health care legislation, The Affordable Care Act.
“It is a deep and damaging flaw of our Constitution, I conclude, that a
Court of 9 aging mortals, never without medical care or the insurance to pay for it in their adult life, sits in closeted – secret for decades -
debate and discussion, on the effort of a duly elected Congress to assure
the health and economics of an entire nation. When that same small group is nakedly political, respect for law risks being undone for an entire generation in the population at large.”
BosGuy Feed
