"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother." -- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

My Loving Creator...

Surrounded by stunning views of Table Mountain, The Eatery at Durbanville Hills Wines offers you the chance to celebrate your amazing mom this Mother’s Day.

. Chilly days and long nights; soup-suppers and cozy nesting nights. It’s also cough-and-sniffle season for the unwary. “Don’t get caught,” says PharmaChoice spokesperson, pharmacist Liezl van Tonder. She offers essential flu facts to get you through the season without coming down with a cold or flu:

Do you want to be fabulous at 40, fit at fifty, sexy at 60 and sassy at 70? Are you looking to unlock the secrets of healthy ageing and maybe rejuvenate body and soul in the process? Let Patrick Holford and 30 other top health specialists show you how at the Positive Ageing Edutalks & Expo, taking place from 2-4 March 2012 at the Misty Hills Hotel in Muldersdrift, Gauteng.

Research has shown that the average South African child is not getting enough fibre in his/her daily meals.

On ESI-Africa dated 29th of April 2010 - President Jacob Zuma has called on South Africans to save energy in an effort to avoid the load-shedding that plunged the country into

Rooibos tea has formed part of the diet of South African children for generations, and with good reason.

Given its unique ability to cure and soothe, coupled with its lack of caffeine, this remarkable tea has been used by moms to help relieve a range of little ones’ ailments such as insomnia, food allergies, stomach cramps and eczema.

Mommy, I want some sweeties and juice…. You are in the middle of your shopping spree and you just want to keep the children quiet. You reach for the first thing that can keep them busy and you can continue enjoying the shopping….

Have you thought of the E-numbers that can influence you child’s mood? Maybe you should start paying attention to the following.

E-numbers code the different types of colorants, flavourants and preservatives added to food. Some is less harmful than others, but one must be aware of the dangers lurking in the food that we give our children. I am going to highlight some of the more dangerous ones to keep an eye out for.

Christmas is past and the New Year is here. 2010 actually came at such a pace that my head is still spinning! With the new year also comes a lot of new year resolutions, and I truly hope one of yours is in the same line as mine, and that is to make sure that my family and I embark on a much healthier lifestyle.

It is holiday time, and the only thing we are really thinking of at the moment is Christmas shopping and having a bit of time for ourselves, but it is still very important for our children to get their 5-a-day (fruits and vegetables) during this period. You might think that this is difficult, but if you do some careful planning before you do your shopping, and with a couple of clever tricks it is actually quite simple.

Portion size

It’s important to remember that children’s portion sizes is much smaller than that of grown-ups, so you don’t really have to force your child to eat a lot (a child’s handful of berries or half an apple is a portion). Don’t force your child to eat all their food in their plate if they don’t want to.

Rather dish up smaller portions, and your little one will surely ask for more if they are still hungry. To force your child to eat more than their body needs, will result in the body storing the extra energy as body fat.

For the past two and a half years, this has been my reality, and obviously, my family has been closely involved in the process of building up the resource base for Cape Town Kids. We like exploring new things and revisiting old favourites, and we some times stumble upon places that are unexpectedly family friendly. Even though we generally do our outings as a ‘personal affair’, the users of Cape Town Kids are mostly in the back of my head, because I love sharing new ideas and discoveries with them!

One area that is still on my list of ‘minor challenges’, is the ‘perfect’ restaurant for a family meal, and I know I share this with many other local and visiting families, especially those with small children. The choice of truly family friendly restaurants is still fairly limited, but I have noticed a positive attitude towards families in more restaurants, as well as an increase in activities attracting families.

My belief is that it should be possible to have a positive restaurant experience even with small kids, without having to compromise on quality. Two children under 4 years form quite an expert panel when it comes to testing a place for its family friendliness, and we have had lots of fun on this journey. Within minutes they will show you the risk-factor of the playground (if one exists), on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 would be coffee-sipping, relaxingly safe from the parent’s point of view, and 10 would be ‘next stop emergency room’ (most of them tend to range somewhere in the middle). They also have the fascinating ability to seek out all those hidden dangers that manage to slip through the first scan at arrival; like an unprotected staircase down to the basement, steak knives neatly arranged on a counter in easy toddler reach or the waitress with the highest heels and the hottest soup in her hands…

With the advent of satellite television, CD players and the Internet, the idea of extracurricular activities may seem outdated. Technology, however, has yet to capture the same level of interest with the 6- to 9-year-old crowd as does hands-on experience.

By age 6, most children have already been introduced to some type of extracurricular activity, according to Joan Bergstrom, author of School's Out: Resources for Your Child's Time. The problem is finding a balance between school and these activities.

Easter was always an exciting time in my house. As far as I know we were the only kids that ever got Easter presents. It would not be elaborate gifts like we would get on Christmas, but they were nice none the less. It would be a small doll or some plastic earrings. I don’t know when or why it stopped, but it did.

After the presents we would then go to church for Easter Sunday service, come home, finish our lunches as fast as we could to get to the best part of Easter… THE CHOCOLATE EASTER EGGS! We were sometimes allowed a marshmallow egg before Easter Sunday but that did not satisfy our appetites as much as the big chocolate bunnies staring at us from the cupboard would.

With the schools closing for a short holiday and your kids on your hands, why don’t you do something to make this Easter more exciting and inclusive for them. It sure beats waiting for Easter to arrive and being tempted by bunnies from the cupboard.

When we went from just being a couple to having a family, we discovered all the amazing things you can experience just because there is now a little person in your life to offer new perspectives. At the same time, we realized that we still wanted to have spontaneous trips to nice breakfast restaurants or to go for nice hikes in the mountains; we still wanted to visit wine farms, bookshops and galleries; we still wanted to discover new places. But we soon noticed that so many people with kids just stop doing these things for a period of their lives while their kids are young, and thought 'maybe that’s just how it has to be' ?

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) - www.madd.org - circulated this poem to raise awareness and support.

I went to a party,

And remembered what you said. You told me not to drink, Mum So I had a sprite instead.

I felt proud of myself,

The way you said I would, That I didn't drink and drive, Though some friends said I should...

Scrapbooking with photos has been around since photographs became available to ordinary people. Old scrapbooks tended to have photos mounted with photomount corners and perhaps notations of who was in a photo or where and when it was taken. Modern scrapbooking has evolved into creating attractive displays of photos, text and memorabilia.

No one knows why scrapbooking as a hobby has taken off in recent years. It may be that the most compelling reason is the strong social network that scrapbooking can provide. It is now a multi-billion dollar industry with a large number of companies creating scrapbooking products.

Across the world, "scrappers" or "scrapbookers" get together and scrapbook at each other's homes, local scrapbook stores, scrapbooking conventions, retreat centers, and even on cruises. Scrappers share tips and ideas as well as enjoying a social outlet.

The Glycaemic index (GI) was developed to measure the speed at which carbohydrate-containing foods are broken down into glucose and absorbed into the blood stream. Our bodies convert carbohydrates (sugar and starches) in to glucose to be used for energy. This raises our blood glucose levels. (Also referred to as blood sugar levels. )

Following a diet based on the benefits of raw food is an excellent way to lose weight on a naturally way and it will help you to improve your health. It is not only important that you eat it; you must know what the benefits of raw food are.

You know the old saying “Power is knowledge” this is definitely true when it comes to dieting. I’m sure they didn’t realize it but our grandparents (the cavemen) were only eating raw food. They didn’t cook their food; heck they didn’t even know how to create fire.

Are you consistently:

Forgetful?

Day-dreamy?

Unable to sit still?

Always late?

Suffering from lost-key/lost-list/lost-out syndrome?

A chronic multi-tasker?

Lost without a diary/task planer?

Lost even with one?!

Looking at piles of unfinished work?

Suffering through work filled with too many careless mistakes, caused by your lack of focus?

50-HOUR SPORTS CHALLENGE TACKLES CHILDHOOD OBESITY SA sports stars encourage kids to get moving

CAPE TOWN, 22 September 2009: The fourth annual Kellogg’s® Health of the Nation 50-hour sports challenge kicked off on Friday the 18th September at the Western Province Cricket Club in Cape Town. The weekend’s events brought together a total of 3 000 school children from disadvantaged backgrounds to participate in a variety of sports for 50 hours non-stop, aiming to makes things fun by “keeping the ball alive”.

The Health of the Nation initiative aims to educate children about the importance of keeping physically active, eating healthy, drinking clean water as well as the benefit of good personal hygiene practices. At the event, children were also treated to a hilarious educative industrial theatre piece before healthy lunch. They were also given t-shirts & drawstring-bags to commemorate their participation in this great event.

Promoting our key healthy living messages and delivering words of encouragement- sporting legend, Paul Adams as well as celebrity Good Hope FM DJ, Suga and MEC for Education, Western Cape were in attendance with Mr. Donald Grant, officially opening the challenge at 14h00 on Friday afternoon. Showing off their ball skills, Mr. Grant and Paul Adams rolled-up their sleeves and played interactive games of cricket and rugby with the kids too!

The publication of The Big Dental Lie is truly a breakthrough in South Africa and globally, both from a toxicological as well as a ecological dentistry point of view!

Dr Ilona Visser has taken us to a place where one cannot but come to a better, more profound understanding of the subterfuge and the deliberate lies which have marked the use of mercury amalgam fillings in dentistry in our country and world-wide over the decades.

As a clinical metal toxicologist I see the ruined lives of those who enter my practice on a daily basis - people who have shattered personalities, families and bodies due to the ravages of mercury amalgam fillings.

The Big Dental Lie.pdf

CANDIDIASIS Candidiasis (yeast infection, moniliasis) is an infection by the yeast Candida, formerly called Monilia. Candida ususally infects the skin and mucous membranes, such as the lining of the mouth and vagina. Rarely, it invades deeper tissues as well as the blood, causing life-threatening systemic candidiasis. This more serious infections is most common in people with poor immunity – for example, people with AIDS or those receiving chemotherapy.

Candidais a normal resident of the digestive tract and vagina that usually causes no harm. When environmental conditions are particularly favourable (for example, in warm, humid weather) or when a person’s immune defenses are impaired, the yeast can infect the skin. Like dermatophytes, Candidagrows well in warm, moist conditions. Sometimes people taking antibiotics kill the bacteria that normally reside in the tissues, allowing the Candidato grow unchecked. Corticosteroids or immunosuppressive therapy after organ transplantation can also lower the body’s defenses against yeast infections. Pregnant women, obese people, and people with diabetes also are more like to be infected by Candida.

Is your health a priority to you? Do you know your blood pressure number? The Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa (HSFSA) offers FREE blood pressure screenings to members of the public, saving you money and possibly saving your life. Twice a month, our screening team can be found at a local shopping centre in Cape Town, testing up to 100 people a day. The test is quick, easy and painless.

Why is it important to get tested?

High blood pressure (Hypertension) is known as the ‘silent killer’ and unfortunately many South Africans are unaware of the increased risk of not knowing their status. About six million South Africans suffer from high blood pressure. “Two out of three people with high blood pressure are unaware of the condition. There are many risk factors that predispose one to developing high blood pressure such as an unhealthy diet, excessive alcohol intake, being overweight and lack of exercise,” says Shân Biesman-Simons, Registered Dietitian and Director of Nutrition and Education at the HSFSA.

As explained by Holly Davids Do you REALLY want to….now this is the question that burns inside when we catch ourselves cheating on a new eating plan or skipping that exercise routine….the beginning to the end.

If we really wanted to – we would do what it took and that’s the basic principles: eat healthy, drink water, exercise.

The power of the mind probably the greatest tool in the search for self-acceptance and dealing with the stuff we need to address when losing weight becomes an issue.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said: “Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.” There are many different ways to achieve a goal. It seems though that we are mostly using one, or perhaps two, strategies repeatedly, regardless of whether or not they work. Franklin D. Roosevelt suggested that if what we are doing is failing us, doing ‘something else’ is our answer.