Taking a break with the family
With the school and university break last week, we decided to travel to the mountains with some family and friends to ski for three days. Sometimes it is hard to get away as other activities and responsibilities have priority over taking personal time. But it is important for health and well-being.
All but two of our group of 19 are teenagers or adults. Traveling in a group such as this can be an education for everyone. Managing time, energy levels, ability levels and money are all part of the planning. Accepting food preferences, noting food tolerances and meal planning for quantity cooking are opportunities to learn.
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Buying in bulk, renting rooms with kitchens and careful meal planning helped us have healthy, well-balanced meals that satisfied hungry appetites. In the evening we made a five-gallon cooler of bunwiches for noon lunch at the hill. Other coolers held fruit and vegetables, juice, milk and pop, snacks and desserts. For the evening meal, we gathered together in one suite. Suppers included spaghetti and meat sauce, soft and hard tacos and chili, and roast beef and vegetables cooked in crock pots.
Planning conserved our resources. We didn’t lose valuable ski time, energy and money waiting for restaurant meals. Three lunches, three suppers and snacks totaled less than $15 a head.
National Farm Safety Week
The safety week in 1997 is March 12-19 … and all year long, goes the theme.
Now that we are home and back on the farm, we are thinking of spring activities and farm safety. As part of its ongoing efforts to promote farm safety, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, with support from the Canadian Agriculture and Farm Safety Program, sponsors the annual National Farm Safety Week. By pointing out the dangers and increasing awareness of potential health risks to farm families, CFA hopes to reduce the number of farm injuries and fatalities as the 1997 cropping season approaches.
Information kits on National Farm Safety Week are available from the CFA. For more information phone 613-236-3633.
Lactose intolerance
One of the reasons I appreciated doing our own meal planning on our ski trip was to accommodate individual needs, such as lactose intolerance.
This is a common condition. Individuals vary greatly in the quantity of lactose they can ingest before feeling symptoms. People with this condition tend to avoid milk and milk products. While this may seem a natural solution, it is not a good one. Working around lactose intolerance is worth the effort in order to get essential nutrients. Milk products contain 15 essential vitamins and minerals. While other foods provide calcium, most contain too little, or the calcium is in a form the human body absorbs poorly.
Ninety-nine percent of the calcium in your body is in bones and teeth. The remaining one percent, found mainly in the blood, helps control blood clotting, muscle movements and nerve impulses. The skeleton is a calcium reservoir. Lack of calcium for long periods, can deteriorate bone mineral.
Everyone begins losing bone mineral at about 35 years of age. The rate of bone mineral loss is related to hormones, nutrition, activity and genetics. Women are more susceptible to mineral loss. Lactose intolerant individuals without calcium supplements are even more likely to lose bone strength. Bent backs, loss of height and easily broken bones are symptoms of osteoporosis.
Many lactose intolerant people can buy special products. Lactaid tablets aid in digestion of milk products while Lacteeze, a milk substitute, or lactaid milk, a 99 percent lactose-reduced milk, contain only a small percentage of lactose or milk sugar and can be tolerated by most lactose intolerants. Calcium supplements that do not contain lactate or milk solids are necessary for many to get the required calcium intake.
Coping with migraine
Another individual in our ski group, our daughter Marla, suffers from migraine headaches. In the past, a change in altitude, among other things, has caused a migraine. After six migraines in December, seven in January and a ski trip planned, I was concerned.
Our daughter got her first migraine at the age of eight. The neurologist said the history is typical of migraine which often begins at that age. Like any parent, I wanted to learn more about prevention. Chatelaine in December 1990 featured an article about migraines in children. At the bookstore, I found the book How to Find Relief from Migraine by Rosemary Dudley and Wade Rowland.
I contacted the Allergy Foundation of Canada and The Migraine Foundation in Toronto and learned that migraine triggers fall into four categories: dietary (the most common), hormonal (in females), stress (emotional and physical), and weather (especially sudden decreases in barometric pressure).
Recently a friend told me about a natural herb called feverfew. We discussed this herb with our local pharmacist. Marla has taken it twice a day for a month and it appears to reduce or alleviate the frequency and intensity of the symptoms, sometimes leaving a “migraine hangover.” She plans to use it until Grade 12 exams are over. It is early for us to say, but it seems to help.
