Author Archives: shbak

We cannot live without drinking water.

Posted on October 26, 2014 | 3 comments

How much water do you drink a day?

Your body is composed with about 60 percent of water: Muscle consists 75%, brain consists 90%, bone consists 22% and blood consists 83% of water. However, body loses water every moment through sweating, breathing and urinating. Therefore, you should drink enough water everyday to keep adding up the amount of water you lose!

There are so many benefits to drinking lots of water a day. Water helps you lose weight. Water stops headaches, dizziness and clears skin. Also, water helps organs to be healthy. Water regulates body temperature and helps with metabolism. Are you a big fan of coffee? You can try to drink more water and stop drinking coffee. Water can make you feel energetic just like coffee, but water is healthier!

By Jorge Barrios (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Jorge Barrios (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

If you do not consume enough water, you will see some dehydration symptoms. There are several symptoms of dehydration: Increased thirst, dry mouth, swollen tongue, decreased urine output, dizziness and more. If you feel any one of these symptoms, drink water. It will solve relieve your symptoms.

There are many ways you can consume water. Drinking any kind of drinks such as teas, coffees or soft drinks will help your body be hydrated; however, water is the best drink than any other drinks because it has no calories, no sugar and no food color. Also, eating water-rich foods such as lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, watermelon and grapefruit can keep you hydrated.

Photo of watery Grapefruit. Photo by Flickr

Photo of watery Grapefruit.
Photo by Flickr

 

It depends on your weight, sex and your current health conditions, but it is recommend to drink eight 8-ounce glasses, which is about 1.9 liters, of water a day. I started two weeks ago to drink at least 1.5 liters of water a day and I try to drink a glass of water right after I wake up, to keep myself awake. Also, I try to carry a water bottle so that I can drink water anytime, anywhere. I really recommend downloading an app that helps you keep up the amount of water you drink a day. Moreover, if you cannot drink plain water, try to slice in some lemon or lime.

This video made by HealthiNation summarizes this post and reminds you the importance of drinking water.

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Drink water and keep the doctors away.

Michelle Bak

3 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Uncategorized

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Don’t worry, you can still look beautiful even if you are late for class.

Posted on October 6, 2014 | 1 comment

Did you have an experience when your pretty classmate came late in the morning class and you did not recognize her? Please do not blame her for looking different. Women usually take at least 10 minutes to do makeup; however, if they wake up late, there are only two choices: give up on makeup or be really late on class or work. I am sure that most of the women have thought of this at least once, “uh, I am too lazy to do my makeup and remove it at the end of the day.”

There is one solution for that: permanent makeup. Your eyeliner will not smudge even when you cry unexpectedly, your eyebrow will stay at the pool party and your lip colour will stay vibrant even after you ate hamburger. If you cannot give up on your eyebrow and your eyeliner, but it is hard to wake up 10 minutes early, think about getting a permanent makeup. You can sleep 10 more minutes but still look great with your perfect looking (permanent) makeup.

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Before and After the permanent makeup. Source: Click on the image will lead to flickr

Permanent makeup is also called micro pigmentation, which is a skill used for tattoo. Perhaps, the steps for getting a permanent makeup are very similar to the procedures for getting a tattoo. Permanent makeup has some good effects on people. For example, it gives hope to people who have lost their natural brows by disease such as alopecia totalis or accidents. Also, women would not have to worry everyday about drawing asymmetrical, two totally different looking eyebrows.

Eyebrow permanent makeup process. Source: Click on image will lead to flickr

However, there are many side effects for this makeup. According to CNN, the permanent ink that is used for eyeliner, lip color, or eyebrow may cause allergies, swelling, cracking, peeling, blistering, scarring, infection or granulomas. These reactions can be severe and hard to recover. FDA states that it has not administered the pigments used for tattoo or permanent makeup, but it did restrain some of the pigments that were reported to have side effects. Also, since permanent makeup is similar to tattoo, it cannot be removed easily. You would have to think carefully about the shape and the colour before you get it done. Moreover, permanent makeup is quite costly, so if you are okay with waking up a bit early and getting your makeup done, you might want to do that. However, if you do get permanent makeup, you will not need any extra makeup products, so you can save money. After all, it is fully up to you. Would you try getting a permanent makeup even though you know all those side effects?

Here is a video from a technician, Tracy Fensome. She shows the procedure for the lips permanent makeup.

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Michelle ShinHwo Bak

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Posted in Uncategorized

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Insects: great source of food for the future

Posted on September 15, 2014 | 2 comments

Population is growing and as it reaches 9.1 billion in 40 years, food has to be produced 70% more. However, the source of foods, which is Earth’s resources, is dwindling as the population grows. So people are looking for a new food source that can replace the ones that we now eat and be more productive. What can be easily found, and what can be farmed inexpensively without any environmental harm?

According to the FAQ Forestry Paper, insects are the new food source for the future. There are some cultures around the world where people have been eating insects for centuries: Africa, Asia and Latin America…etc.The most commonly eaten insect during the rainy season in Africa is the caterpillar. Insects, for both Africa and Latin America, are very good source of  nutrients when people cannot go fishing. Also in Southeast Asia, various kinds of edible insects are consumed depending on the season and their habitat. As these countries show, entomophagy, a term used for insect eating,  is not a new idea, and soon, eating insects may be prevalent around the world.

Edible insects

https://www.flickr.com/photos/entomovores/7226481696

Moreover, even though you think you are never going to eat insects, you are eating foods unconsciously that contain insect products. For example, color extracted from an insect called cochineal is used in food products, or even in medicines. Cochineal extract is a red dye that is commonly used in many different drinks and it is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Insects can cause allergies according to the article, however, they do not have other harmful health risks.Now, why do people use insects in food products and eat them as food?

Insects are very good source of food because they are high in protein, fats, iron and other essential nutrients .They can be nutritious alternatives to other protein food sources such as meats.  Also, the FAQ Forestry Paper states that insects do not need much food to live and they do not need a big land to be farmed. Environmentally, insects do not emit much greenhouse gas from farm manure and urine as the most livestocks do.  Also, landclearing is not needed for farming insects, so we can keep the land as it is. Therefore, if we look at the efficiency, farming insects and eating them as the source of protein and other nutrients is better then faming livestocks and eating them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/entomovores/7226483268/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/entomovores/7226483268/in/photostream/

The following video describes how the insects could be our future food source.

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It does still sound very strange if we think about a menu that is full of insect names, but who knows you might love the taste of insect.

By Shinhwo (Michelle) Bak

2 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science in the News

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