Breakfast
skippers beware
The busiest season of the year is soon approaching, fall activities are in full swing and for many of us who are rushing around, it means poor eating habits. I recently read an article in Healthy Living, a publication from the Saskatchewan government, which encourages us to improve our diets by focusing on breakfast. Only 71 percent of Canadians eat breakfast. The remaining 29 percent skip it some or all the time.
Studies show that skipping breakfast:
- Results in lower grades for students in their morning classes.
- More morning accidents for truck drivers.
- Lower productivity for other workers.
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And because breakfast skippers’s blood sugar tends to be low, they are usually more irritable and have a tougher time concentrating and solving problems. A good breakfast is not coffee and juice. People need a source of protein, complex carbohydrates and vitamin C which their bodies cannot store.
Good protein sources are milk, yogurt, lean meat, peanut butter or hard cheese.
Complex carbohydrates can come from whole grain cereal, an oatmeal muffin or toast. Be sure to read your labels to ensure a low sugar content and check to see if there are whole grains in the ingredients. Cereals that contain the least amount of sugar include Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, Grape Nuts, Puffed Wheat, Weetabix and plain oatmeal.
Combining some of the above suggestions with some fruit will provide a substantial breakfast.
Eating breakfast may mean getting up a little earlier or getting things organized the night before, but the benefits will exceed a few little inconveniences.
Toy safety checklist
It seems that the minute Halloween is over, toy displays and advertisements pop up everywhere, luring children into the seasonal hype. For those of us buying children’s gifts, it is hard to know what to buy. We want to provide a toy that allows for creativity, has long-term playability, gives value for money and most importantly, is safe. To help you with your toy selection this season, the Toy Testing Council has the following hints.
Before buying:
- Use recommended age labeling as a guide and look for warnings and other safety messages on toy packaging.
- Avoid buying toys with sharp points or edges.
- Examine toys to make sure that wheels on toy cars, eyes and noses on soft toys and small parts of larger toys cannot break off and cause a choking hazard.
After buying:
- Read and follow all instructions that come with the toy.
- Throw away all toy packaging and wrapping, especially plastic bags and packing pellets.
- Teach the child how to use the toy properly.
- Check toys regularly to make sure they are not broken or badly damaged. Throw away ones that cannot be fixed.
- Make sure that batteries in toys are not accessible to a child and are properly installed; they could overheat and explode if the wrong ends are in contact. Batteries should not be left in toys for long periods. Old batteries can leak and cause acid burns. If the small button-type batteries are swallowed they can remain in the body and leak battery acid that will cause internal burns and poisoning. If a child swallows a battery, call the Poison Control Centre in your area immediately.
- Supervise children playing with balloons. Do not let children play with uninflated balloons or pieces of broken balloons since they could choke on them.
- Throw away broken pieces of crayon.
- Remove toys and mobiles that are strung across cribs and playpens when baby begins to push up with hands and knees or at five months (whichever comes first.) Children can get entangled and strangle in the strings on mobiles and crib toys.
Toy storage:
- Teach children to put their toys away. They can be dangerous to both children and adults if they are left lying on the floor or stairs. Many children are injured by falling on toys or being hit by toys.
- Make sure that toy boxes have good ventilation in case a child crawls inside. Make sure the lid of the toy box is lightweight and well supported with a hinge so it can’t slam down on a child’s head or trap a child inside. If your child has a toy that you feel is unsafe, check with Health Canada, which is listed in the blue pages of the telephone directory or the Toy Testing Council. Both organizations are located in Ottawa.
Be a smart shopper
While shopping for toys and other items in the holiday season, be sure that you pay the right price. A pamphlet has been prepared by the fair business practices branch of Industry Canada with the assistance of the Consumers’ Association of Canada to educate consumers with regards to shopping skills.
What is a universal product code?
Most items bear a unique universal product code. It looks like this:
Many stores use these codes to record sales. In most cases each cash register is connected with the store’s computer, which holds the price and other product information linked to each code.
When a cashier passes the UPC symbol on a package over an electronic scanner, a beam of light reads the symbol. The computer decodes the symbol and sends the price to the cash register. The cash register then prints the price on a receipt for the consumer and also shows it on the display screen.
What measures can you take to ensure that pricing errors are not made?
Electric scanners seem to be a new and improved wave into the future but they can make mistakes, just as when prices had to be manually punched in. Perhaps there are problems with the store computer the day that you were in the store. Nothing is foolproof. Stop errors by:
- Watching the display screen for prices. If you think you are being overcharged for a product, speak up right away in an assertive and reasonable manner. No one wants to deal with an aggressive and angry customer. Ask the cashier to correct the error before you pay.
- Bring a copy of the store’s flyer or newspaper ad to the checkout counter. Some advertised discounts may not be recorded in the computer. The special price may have to be entered manually by the cashier. You can help the cashier by drawing attention to these specially priced items.
- Read your receipt before you walk away. If you notice an error, again ask the cashier to make the necessary adjustments to the total. If you have left the checkout lane, or do not notice a problem until you get home, go back to the customer service department, or see the cashier or store manager as soon as possible.
If you cannot get back to the store soon, perhaps a phone call to bring the store’s attention to the problem would be beneficial. That way, the store can make note of your problem, and be better prepared to solve the problem when you return.
What else can I do?
If you notice a pattern of electronic scanning errors in a particular store, talk to the customer service department or store manager. The retailer may not realize a problem exists until it is pointed out. If you have questions, contact the federal government’s fair business practices branch.
