Category Archives: Health

Health, Nutrition

11 Amazing (scary) Facts about the McDonald’s McRib

 

 

 

 

It might be one of the 11 amazing Facts but the fact that the human body can process this as food is amazing.  Read this article by  Dina Spector and Kim Bhasin | Business Insider – Mon, Dec 17, 2012 12:02 PM EST.ht_mcdonalds_McRib_sandwich_thg_120918_wmain

 

The McDonald’s McRib is back, hitting restaurants nationwide today. The legendary boneless pork sandwich, famously molded to resemble a rack of ribs, is both a feat of modern engineering and shrewd marketing.

It garners almost as much attention for its pseudo-meat shape as its impermanence on restaurant menus.

The barbecue-sauce-smothered sandwich was supposed to return at the end of October, but was pushed back to help boost end-of-the-year sales.

Better late than never.

1. The McRib came about because of a shortage of chickens.

In a 2009 interview with Maxim, Rene Arend, McDonald’s first executive chef and inventor of the Chicken McNugget, explains that the McNugget was so popular when it was first introduced in 1979 that demand quickly outstripped chicken supply.

The legendary pork sandwich was developed out of necessity. Franchises that didn’t have the Chicken McNugget needed a new hot-selling product — and that’s when Arend scrambled back to the test kitchen.

2. The McRib was inspired by Southern BBQ.

Flickr/Southern Foodways AllianceRene Arend modeled the McRib after the barbecue-sauce-slathered pork sandwiches he ate during a visit to Charleston, South Carolina.

The decorated French-trained chef, who oncewhipped up fancy culinary creations for the Drake Hotel, is also credited with coming up the unique shape of the sandwich.

Although the McRib doesn’t contain a single bone, Arend suggested the meat be patterned after a slab of ribs instead of the classic round patty.

3. The McRib is a product of “restructured meat technology.”

Rene Arend came up with the idea and design of the McRib, but it’s a professor from the University of Nebraska named Richard Mandigo who developed the “restructured meat product” that the McRib is actually made of.

According to an article from Chicago magazine, which cites a 1995 article by Mandigo, “restructured meat product” contains a mixture of tripe, heart, and scalded stomach, which is then mixed with salt and water to extract proteins from the muscle. The proteins bind all the pork trimmings together so that it can be re-molded into any specific shape — in this case, a fake slab of ribs.

4. The whole process from fresh pork to frozen McRib takes about 45 minutes.

Director of McDonald’s U.S. supply chain Rob Cannell explained how regular pig gets transformed into the famed McRib in an interview with Maxim: “The McRib is made in large processing plants—lots of stainless steel, a number of production lines, and these long cryogenic freezers. The pork meat is chopped up, then seasoned, then formed into that shape that looks like a rib back. Then we flash-freeze it. The whole process from fresh pork to frozen McRib takes about 45 minutes.”

5. The entire McRib sandwich contains about 70 ingredients — including a flour-bleaching agent used in yoga mats.

Flickr/Calgary ReviewsAs it appears out of the box, the McRib sandwich consists of just five basic components: a pork patty, barbecue sauce, pickle slices, onions, and a sesame bun.

But, as recently reported by Time magazine, a closer inspection of McDonald’s owningredient list reveals that the pork sandwich contains a total of 70 ingredients. This includes azodicarbonamide, a flour-bleaching agent often used in the production of foamed plastics.

The entire sandwich packs a whopping 500 calories, 26 grams of fat, 44 grams of carbs, and 980 milligrams of sodium.

6. The McRib debuted in 1981, disappeared in 1985, and has resurfaced from time-to-time since 1994.

Depending on where you read, McDonald’s introduced the boneless pork sandwich sometime between 1981 and 1982. The fast-food concoction vanished in 1985, only to reappear as a limited-edition item in 1994.

The McRib has become something of a legend for its on-and-off appearances on McDonald’s menus. The fleeting nature of the sandwich has generated a cult-like following.

7. Individual restaurants can actually order the ingredients for the McRib at any time.

The McRib pops up at McDonald’s locations across the country sporadically. It’s so random because the individual restaurants are able to offer the McRib whenever they feel like it. The practice has even inspired websites devoted to tracking McRib availability across the nation.

8. McDonald’s keeps the McRib scarce because the sandwich’s entire brand relies on it.

McDonald’s has always known about its customers’ weird obsession for the sandwich, and its marketing completely leverages the McRib’s scarcity. Take its “Save The McRib” campaign in 2010, where it encouraged McRib fans to go online and sign a petition to keep the sandwich around for a while longer.

But a strategy like that only works with something that’s as popular as the McRib is. If you make an unknown item scarce, nobody’s going to care.

9. It’d be incredibly difficult for McDonald’s to create more McRib-esque products, because that cult-like following is so hard to replicate.

McRib lovers are fanatical, but it wouldn’t be this way if the phenomenon hadn’t had decades to marinate in the hearts and minds of its fans. A wholly devoted fanbase for a new product would take years to develop, and even then, there’s no guarantee that it would work.

McDonald’s struck gold with the McRib, and it doesn’t want to do anything to affect its brand. Even now, by offering the McRib nationwide twice just a year apart, it’s walking a fine line. At what point will consumers get sick of it?

10. There’s also speculation that the McRib is really just a big commodity trade by McDonald’s.

The Awl’s Willey Staley argues that whenever the sandwich springs up, hog prices are almost always in a trough.

Here’s more of his argument on why McDonald’s behaves like a trader: “Fast food involves both hideously violent economies of scale and sad, sad end users who volunteer to be taken advantage of. What makes the McRib different from this everyday horror is that a) McDonald’s is huge to the point that it’s more useful to think of it as a company trading in commodities than it is to think of it as a chain of restaurants b) it is made of pork, which makes it a unique product in the QSR world and c) it is only available sometimes, but refuses to go away entirely.”

11. Animal rights group sues McRib meat supplier over inhumane treatment of pigs.

Not everyone is ecstatic about the return of the McRib. Last November, the Humane Society of the United States filed a lawsuit against Smithfield Foods, the pork supplier of McDonald’s McRib meat, claiming the meat distributor houses its pigs in unethical farm conditions.

A 2010 undercover investigation by the animal rights group shows pigs crammed into gestation crates covered in blood and baby pigs being tossed into carts like rag dolls (WARNING: the video contains some pretty graphic content).

Original Article: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/11-amazing-facts-about-the-mcdonald-s-mcrib-170212930.html

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$1000 winners for November

You have seen the daily $500 winners of the BeachBody Challenge but these are the 10 $1000 winners for Novemeber.  These 10 people will be going for the chance to win $100,000 next June!!

What are you waiting for come join me in a challenge group today!

 Challenge Group Information


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CoachGShort’s Newletter 12/9/2012 – Tips for the New Years

Here comes New Years!  We now only have three weeks until the New Year starts and that means New Year resolutions for many of us, but how many of us have made these resolution but failed to achieve those resolutions?  Here are a few tips that can help with making sure that you meet those goals this year and while these can be applied to any goals we are going to focus on working out.

  1. Set realistic goals – This can be difficult as we only have the results of others  when we are starting out.  So I recommend that people shoot for a 1/2 lbs. per week if you are trying to lose weight.  An example of a non-realistic goal is something like “I will not eat out all year” when you eat out 3-4 times a week.  Start small and workout up to your goal.  “I will only eat out 2-3 times a week.  This will only require a small change into your life.
  2. Plan ahead – Those that fail to plan, plan to fail.  Time is one if not the most valuable thing that we have, and is one of the things that we tend to waste the most of.  When setting a goal making sure that we schedule when we are going to be working on that goal(s) is essential.
  3. Outline Your Plan – Along with planning when you are going to work on your resolution it is important to make sure that you know what to do with the time that you have set aside for your resolution.  This is where BeachBody Programs come in so handy.  Set aside the time and follow the plan and you will improve.
  4. Why did you make your resolution? – Making a “Pro” and “Con” list will help you stay on track during the hard days.  Most resolution are a Marathon and not a Sprint meaning that we are working to change habits in our lives and that takes time.  So focusing on what we are able to do when we achieve our goals can help us push ourselves.
  5. Talk about it!  This is where accountability groups and having a coach comes in.  By having people to talk to and hold you accountable you are more likely to accomplish our set goals.  There is power in numbers and having a group of people going through the same thing that you are working towards can help motivation.  Having a coach to talk to and direct you will allow you direction when you are struggling.
  6. Reward Yourself – Having a goal that you are going to give yourself when you accomplish your resolution will give you the extra push for you to keep pushing forward.  Just make sure that your reward is not counterproductive to you goal.  Also remember with the Beachbody Challenge you always get a free t-shirt and the chance to win up to $100K!

Health, Medical

Do you know the signs of a Stroke?

During a BBQ, a woman stumbled and took a little fall – she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) …she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Jane went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Jane’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital – (at 6:00 PM Jane passed away.)
She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Jane would be with us today.
Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this.
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough. RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Thank God for the sense to remember the ‘3’ steps, “STR”. Read and Learn! Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
  • S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
  • T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. Chicken Soup)
  • R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS. If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
  • New Sign of a Stroke ——– Stick out Your Tongue NOTE: Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is this: Ask the person to ‘stick’ out his tongue. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.  Please Share

 

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STRESS!!! Who needs it?

The holiday season is upon us and as we didn’t have enough stress already, now we get parties, family, presents, shopping, wrapping, etc…  It doesn’t see to ever stop.  Here is an article built to help with the stresses of everyday.

Ways to Relieve Your Stress

By Sarah Stevenson

Back in Paleolithic times, stress and its associated hormone release was an important survival tool. Things like adrenaline gave us the juice we needed to dodge a famished cheetah, while cortisol helped out should that cheetah decide to pursue us for a long, long time.

 

The problem is, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Prolonged exposure to stress and its merry band of hormones can lead to all kinds of problems, including inflammation, fatigue, and many modern ailments, such as fibromyalgia and IBS.

In our busy, always on, always online world, it’s like we’re all being chased by cheetahs every single day. So it’s time to take that cat by the whiskers and let stress know who’s boss. Here are 30 quick tips to help you release stress in a matter of moments:

  1. Smile. When you smile, feel-good chemicals are released into the bloodstream, taking the place of stressful chemicals.1So smile and watch the world smile back at you.
  2. Take a deep breath. The act of deep breathing allows your mind to focus on the present moment and stop the worry train. Take a deep inhalation through your nose, allowing your lungs to fill up completely, and as you exhale through your nose, allow your lungs to empty entirely.
  3. Calm music. Relaxing music’s long, slow, spaced-out beats require less energy for the brain to process, and its predictive structure can be almost meditative.
  4. Man CallingCall a friend. Research suggests that people who have close ties with friends and family are all around happier, healthier people. Hearing the comforting sound of a loved one can help make a stressful situation less so.2
  5. Visualize. Whether you take a few minutes to visualize a serene setting that you’d love to be in, or imagine what the life of your dreams looks like, visualization gives your mind a break from the stress you’re feeling.
  6. Scream. This is a quick, harmless way to relieve pressure that has built up. When you are all plugged up, sometimes all you need is to let your steam out. So be a little teapot short and stout; when you get all steamed up, give it a shout.
  7. Make to-do lists. Knowing what needs to be done can help you navigate what you need to do for the day, and it allows you to focus on the tasks at hand and not on remembering all of them. As you finish them, check them off. At the end of the day, you’ll see how much you have really accomplished. Making this list the night before can even lead to a less stressful morning.
  8. Focus on the positive. Someresearchers believe that your thoughts can affect your physical body. Anxious, sad, and angry thoughts can make your entire body feel more stressed because they cause the brain to release the stress hormones, while pleasant, peaceful thoughts can make the body feel less stressed because they can cause the brain to release the pleasure hormones dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin.
  9. Relax your muscles. Focus on one muscle at a time; tense it for a few seconds then relax it and notice that sensation of relaxing. Begin at the top of your body and work your way all the way down until your body is completely relaxed.
  10. People Playing GamesPlay a game. Getting together with a group of friends to play catch, engage in a board game, or jam out on Rock Band®will take your mind off what’s causing you stress, at least for a little while.
  11. Aromatherapy. Research has proven that lavender, chamomile, and sage all have stress relieving properties when taken in through the olfactory system. Burn a scented candle, use an oil diffuser, drink some tea, or bring those herbs into your space to lower your blood pressure.3
  12. Laugh. Laughing gets endorphins and dopamine coursing through the bloodstream. These feel-good chemicals will help you feel happy and relaxed.4
  13. Get a good night’s sleep. Staying up too late can cause one to wake tired and depleted, and even everyday tasks will take more time and energy. Having trouble getting a great night’s sleep?
  14. Imagine them in their undies. If people stress you out, why not try the age-old idea of imagining them in their underwear? How intimidating is a person walking around in their skivvies?
  15. Journal. Mental health professionals currently promote journaling as a proper behavioral technique to reducing stress. Get the anxiety and negative emotions going on inside your brain onto paper. That way it doesn’t weigh the mind down.5
  16. Cup of TeaHave a cup of tea. Chamomile tea to be exact. Chamomile tea has calming agents that can relax the body both through breathing them in and drinking them.
  17. Take a hot bath. Soaking in a hot bath relaxes the muscles that tense up every time stress hits the body. Ease them by slipping into a warm tub for a half hour or more.
  18. Go for a walk. When it’s too much, step away from it and get some fresh air into your lungs. Even a short, five-minute walk can help give you a fresh perspective and relieve stress.
  19. Have a good cry. Being brave and keeping a tough exterior can create a pressure cooker effect. Seeing a sad movie, listening to a touching song, or just allowing emotions to flow when faced with something sad can help give your body the release it occasionally needs.
  20. Plan something fun for the future. When you’re under a lot of pressure, this can give you a light at the end of the tunnel to look forward to. Just don’t make planning this stressful too.
  21. Get sweaty. Exercise relieves stress. Research even says that if you have a hard workout right before bed, you’ll get longer, more restorative sleep.6
  22. Couple KissingBe affectionate. People who kiss, touch, and hug produce less stress hormone and more feel-good chemicals than those who do not. When we are touched, our pre-frontal lobe gets a signal that we have another “carrying the load.” Our body then gets the “OK” to relax.8,9
  23. Tell a joke. Step away from the seriousness of the stress you’re under and share a joke with someone else. You’ll improve his or her day and you’ll get the satisfaction of bringing joy to someone else.
  24. Drink less caffeine. I know that’s just mean, right? But it’s true. If the body is all jacked up on caffeine, it has more energy but is also in a very reactive state, which can lead to mega stress.
  25. Create a mantra. Negative self-talk can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Create a positive mantra instead such as: “I live in a loving, peaceful world” or “It feels like a lot, but I can handle it. I’ve done it before and I can do it again.”
  26. Have a dance party. Pump up the volume and break out any move that feels good. You might feel silly, but the combination of exercise and feel-good music will put you in a better frame of mind.
  27. Tony StretchingStretch. When you are faced with a stressful situation, your body tenses up immediately and quite often does not relax unless you consciously make an effort to relax it. Stretching is a great way to relax those tense muscles. Stretch several times a day. Your body will thank you.
  28. Play with your pet. Research suggests that people with animals live longer, happier lives. Dogs love to lavish you with bouncy attention and some cats are content to rest in your lap for hours. Either way, their unconditional love will ease your stress.11

Resources:

  1. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=smile-it-could-make-you-happier
  2. Scherer, K. R. (2003). Vocal communication of emotion: A review of research paradigms. Speech communication, 40(1), 227-256.
  3. Motomura N, Sakurai A, Yotsuya Y. Reduction of mental stress with lavender odorant. Percept Mot Skills. 2001 Dec;93(3):713-8.
  4. Bennett MP, Zeller JM, Rosenberg L, McCann J. The Effect of Mirthful Laughter on Stress and Natural Killer Cell Activity. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, March-April 2003
  5. Richardson, K. M., & Rothstein, H. R. (2008). Effects of occupational stress management intervention programs: a meta-analysis. Journal of occupational health psychology, 13(1), 69.
  6. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise-and-stress/SR00036
  7. Carey, B. (2010). Evidence that little touches do mean so much. The New York Times.
  8. Harlow, H.F. The nature of love. American Psychologist, 1958, 13, 673-685.
  9. Brody, S. (2006). Blood pressure reactivity to stress is better for people who recently had penile–vaginal intercourse than for people who had other or no sexual activity. Biological Psychology, 71(2), 214-222.

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