Located on top of a cliff with a spectacular view of the Palea volcano, Nea Kameni, and the island of Thirassia, Oia is the most popular and arguably the most beautiful of all the picturesque villages of the Greek island of Santorini. Only about 11 km from Fira, on the north of the island, Oia will charm you with its traditional stone houses lining the narrow streets, breathtaking blue-domed churches, and sunbaked verandas.
While the village has its share of taverns, souvenir shops, and cafes, Oia is more quiet and laid-back than busy Fira and most people enjoy its quaint beauty by slowly exploring its narrow streets. Stroll through the village’s small port of Ammoudi by descending 300 steps down the cliff, or visit colorful galleries showcasing art from the many artists who fell in love with the village and made it their home. Oia, Santorini is considered by many ones of the prettiest places in the world. Best Beaches in Greece
Fast food is packed with sodium, and you can easily consume most of your daily allowance in one meal. At McDonald’s, a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese and medium fries contains 1,630 milligrams of sodium while a Quiznos 8″ Chicken Mesquite sub has 2,230 milligrams. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams a day, moving toward an ideal limit of no more than 1,500 milligrams, so you can see how these meals are not helping you there.
See, the body copes with this influx of salt by holding on to water to maintain the proper sodium balance in the body. That’s when you experience bloating. Stop eating fast food and just watch the bloat subside, allowing your jeans to fit better.
You lower your risk of heart disease.
Eating fast food more than twice a week makes you 1.5 times more likely to develop heart disease than people who infrequently or never eat it, a study published in the journal Circulation found. The high fat and sodium content of fast food is to blame. In fact, if Americans reduced their sodium intake, there would be 120,000 fewer cases of heart disease, 66,000 fewer strokes, and 99,000 fewer heart attacks each year, according to the British Medical Journal. And to keep your ticker in tip-top shape, be sure to avoid any of these 50 Foods That Can Cause Heart Disease.
It’s not just years of relying on the fried food of these restaurants that will affect your body, either. Mice who ate a diet of junk food displayed memory loss and a lack of cognitive ability after just one week, according to a study published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. Sorry to break it to you, but those effects extend to humans, too.
Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University compared people’s blood levels of trans fats to their brain volume via MRI. They found that trans fats actually shrink your gray matter, replacing good fats in its membranes and affecting its ability to function. Yep, fast food can fry your brain. That’s not all either. Check out these 17 Side Effects of Eating Fast Food for more shocking truths.
Your mood improves.
Think a Whopper with cheese is comfort food? Think again. Eating fast food is associated with a higher rate of depression, and the risk gets higher the more fast food that’s eaten, a study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition found. The reason may lie in a separate study published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity: Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who ate a diet high in foods that trigger inflammation—such as soft drinks, refined carbs, red meat, and margarine—had a 41% higher risk of depression over 12 years compared to women who ate a diet rich in inflammation busters like healthy fats, vegetables, coffee, and wine. So, alright, that black coffee from McCafe gets a pass.
You reduce your risk of diabetes.
Eating a diet high in saturated and/or trans fats—hello, fast food!—can lead to insulin resistance, a condition in which the body releases more and more sugar into the blood. Over time, this can lead to weight gain and a vastly increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. In fact, regularly eating fast food doubles your chance of developing insulin resistance, according to a study published in The Lancet.
You get stronger bones.
Those deliciously salty fries can have unappetizing long-term effects: Excessive salt consumption is associated with high blood pressure, strokes, and reduced kidney function, according to researchers at the University of Stony Brook. And, as if negatively impacting your heart, brain and kidneys weren’t bad enough, some studies suggest sodium also affects your bones by competing in your body with calcium.
So what exactly does this mean? Well, the more sodium you take in, the more calcium your body loses via your urine. That can lead to bone demineralization and a decline in bone mass, which increases the risk of osteoporosis and breakage. Essentially, skipping out on the fast-food leaves you with stronger bones!
You have more energy.
Fast food is high in sugar, and it lurks in menu items that don’t sound remotely sweet. Wendy’s Apple Peca Chicken Salad has 23 grams of sugar—and a salad is supposed to be a good choice to make! When you consume a high amount of refined sugar and simple carbs, the pancreas secretes insulin to keep your blood sugar low. Because fast food doesn’t contain enough complex carbs to give you lasting energy, your blood sugar levels crash soon after you finish eating, leaving you tired, and craving another quick hit of energy from more junky sugar and carbs. When you stop eating fast food, you’ll feel better, as you won’t be groggy and dealing with those crashes.
I wrote my first book a few years ago. I was just learning things and since it was self-published, it had grammatical errors and probably misspellings. I hope to one day correct that. The same goes for my second book. On my third book, I think I did much better. It has been a gradual progression of teaching myself and working hard to provide a quality book.
I hope you will like the poems though. They are genuine and from my heart. Some I have posted on my webpage. I have a lot of poems. I have tried to collect them and save them for future use.
I guess this is my “Heart Series” and I hope to keep going with it.
With the exalted title of the largest land-based arthropod in the world, it’s a wonder that the giant coconut crab doesn’t get more press than it does. These animals are generally nocturnal and live in many coastal and forest regions of Indo-Pacific islands.
They get their name from their ability to climb coconut palm trees, where they clip off the coconuts, return to the ground, peel of the coconut husks, and hammer the fruits open with rocks or their large claws. On some islands, the giant coconut crab is also known as the robber crab or palm thief because of its habit of taking shiny items.
Giant coconut crabs primarily eat nuts, seeds, and fleshy fruits such as coconuts. However, as omnivores, they will consume other items as well.
These large crabs have a body length of about 16 inches and a leg span of three feet. They can weigh up to nine pounds. There are even accounts of them growing to become more than six feet across and weighing up to 30 pounds. They can also live more than 30 years.
These crabs are unusual because they can’t swim. Though they require water to survive, even smaller ones can drown in water. They have an organ called a branchiostegal lung, which can be described as a cross between gills and lungs. This lung allows the crab to take oxygen out of the air but also has to be kept moist to function. Because of the nature of this lung, one of the most likely times to see coconut crabs is during a rainstorm, as the moisture allows them to breathe more easily.
Though an adolescent has many predators, the only danger to a fully grown coconut crab is mankind—the crab is a delicacy as well as an aphrodisiac in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Female crabs are particularly in high demand if they have eggs that can be harvested.
© Courtesy of Photocreo Bednarek – Fotolia.com
Mws R Writings 