Super size me by Patricia Castro

The fact that the number of obese is increasing, while the occurrence of age is decreasing, has become a public health problem, since obesity brings numerous health problems that may lead even to the death of the individual. This represents one of the major causes of death. Thus the type of power and lifestyle that provide these obesity has been the target of many warnings.

  The video will deal with foods that contribute, and for that obesity frame, the fast-food food seen as the main villains of healthy living to be extremely calorie and very high sugar content.

 So the video speculated a possible responsibility of fast food companies (emphasizing Mc Donald’s) in the rampant increase in the number of obese and also by the fact that obesity occurs increasingly early, since their advertising material and their establishments are present in local diverse and affordable.

The video shows numerically how great investment in advertising, these companies do. This being one of the arguments to hold these companies for this alarming increase of obesity in age groups ever lower, this massive investment in advertising that enchants and involves people of all ages, leading to consumption of these products, which almost never feature affordable way to be taken home the instructions on the caloric values ​​in food are available for the fact that they are sold without information accessible to their caloric values. ​​Other argument would these companies have stores or counters in places considered inadequate as schools, where the presence of these printed would deforming the eating habits of children and adolescents.

I know that advertisements are extremely enticing, but I believe we are all to blame for this current reality, since all the time for many reasons, we make choices for these fast food rather than something healthy.

Of course, sometimes we do not have the awareness of real gravity that those choices may pose to our health. So we choose those foods with a view only in its practicality as a way to address a need for fast and undeniably appetizing way.

Thus we deforming our food and our children habit, since their choices are made mostly from something that was previously offered. I personally believe that the food habit is formed within the family.

However also find extremely inconsistent offer these types of food (fast food) in establishments in its essence are trainers, since these foods are notoriously what can be said of taste deformers, toxic as the video at times called them.

May seem a little more radical if we have a look minimally biological realize that nutrition is the basis of everything in one’s life, influencing even in their learning and behavior as well as the video says.

Author: Patricia Castro

Cheesecake

Once given the choice for me to pick some food and write about it, instantly it came to my mind: Cheesecake! So, in a nutshell, I’m gonna be writing about this amazing sweet that I really love to eat.

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First, let’s learn a bit about it:

Cheesecake is a sweet dish consisting of one or more layers. The main, and thickest layer, consists of a mixture of soft, fresh cheese (very predictable), eggs, and sugar; if there is a bottom layer it often consists of a crust or base made from crushed cookies (or digestive biscuit), graham crackers, pastry, or sponge cake. It may be baked or unbaked (usually refrigerated). Cheesecake is usually sweetened with sugar and may be flavored or topped with fruit, whipped, nuts, fruit sauce, and/or chocolate syrup. Cheesecake can be prepared in many flavors, such as; strawberry, pumpkin, key lime, chestnut, or toffee.

The recipe to bake it follows below:

1-1/2
cups  graham cracker crumbs
3
Tbsp.  sugar
1/3
cup  butter or margarine, melted
4
pkg.  (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1
cup  sugar
1
tsp.  vanilla
4
 eggs
1
tub  (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping(Do not thaw.)
6
oz.  BAKER’S Bittersweet Chocolate
1
cup fresh raspberries

And here’s how to make it:

HEAT oven to 325°F.

MIX graham crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan.

BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

BAKE 55 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate cheesecake 4 hours.

MICROWAVE COOL WHIP and chocolate in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 to 2-1/2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after each minute. Cool 15 min.; slowly pour over cheesecake. Garnish with raspberries.

That’s all.

The best dessert on earth, or at least my favorite by now.

 

steak parmigiana

Ingredients

Beef

  • 1 kg of beef (rump or soft round beef or little duck)
    • 1 cup (tea) of all purpose flour
    • 2 eggs, beaten (optional)
    • 3 tablespoons (soup) of milk
    • 1 cup (tea) bread crumbs
    • Oil enough for frying
    • Salt

Sauce

  • 3 tablespoons (soup) of olive oil
    • 1 cup (tea) medium onion, grated
    • 3 cups (tea) tomato sauce
    • 1 pinch of sugar
    • Salt
    • 2 tablespoons (soup) of chopped parsley
    • 200g mozzarella cheese

Roasted Potatoes

  • 1 tablespoon of butter
    • 3 boiled potatoes and round chopped
    • 1 cup (tea) onion ring
    • 2 tablespoons (soup) green onions
    • Salt

How to prepare:

Breaded steak: beat the eggs with the milk and a pinch of salt and set aside. Season the steaks with salt and besmirch in wheat flour. Pass the fillets into the egg mixture with the milk and finish passing in bread crumbs. Fry in hot oil, leaving golden brown on both sides. Place on a paper towel to remove excess oil and set aside.

Steak parmigiana: in a saucepan, heat the oil and saute the onion. Add tomato sauce, sugar, salt and allow to establish for 10 minutes. Finish with parsley. Put the sauce over the steaks breaded, top with cheese and bake for cheese melt.

Roasted potatoes: in a frying pan, place the butter and potatoes and let earn color. Add the onion and leave until golden. Finish with green onions and salt.

 

My opnion about the dish:

This is a very special dish for me, I do not remember well when was the first time I ate but I can guarantee that since my childhood I am passionate about the beef parmigiana. I remember that whenever I go out to a certain restaurant in my hometown (Campina Grande, PB) I often ordered this dish. I recently went on vacation to visit my family and my friends and my mother surprised me by making this delicious dish. I do not know where it came from or in what time, but the steak parmigiana suits all occasions and seasons. For people who have not had the opportunity to taste it, it’s worth ordering the next time you go to a restaurant.

 

The Most Intelligent Serial Killers

Intelligents and killers. It’s incredible how a person apparently normal, with more skills, use their intelligence to do the evil. Hard to explain, but with the psychiatry, the secrets about the criminal minds are explained more clearly. The documentary “Most Evil” is interesting, because one research is made to find what motivated some of the most horrifying crimes of the United States history.

A scale of 22 types of criminals elaborated for the forensic psychiatrist, Michael Stone describe one by one the characteristics of the majority murders. One killer can be classified in many categories according to the characteristics their crimes.

All the cases are repugnant. The case of Theodore Bundy is terrible. Sarcastic, the killer didn’t expose any repentance. Apparel, he was considerate a normal guy. Intelligent, studious, good professional. Only appearance. He was the most cruel killer of the United States. His performance in his judgement causes revolt. Theodore defended himself. It’s terrible to see a murder trying explain his crimes, justify it. It’s not comfortable to see it.

These things made me think about life. Sometimes, we think that we know someone, their practices, habits, their lives. But, really, we don’t know anything. You could be side by side with a murder and don’t know it. In the reality, we really don’t know anyone. The life of another person is more complex than we imagine. This fact is important to take more care of us. We can’t believe in someone so easily. It’s very difficult nowadays, because in many situations, we don’t pay attention all the time.

Regarding the structure, the fail point of the documentary is not to consider important studies about  the human behavior to try to explain what happened to a person to kill another.  Other areas can help someone to understand this situation. According to Sociology, for example, when we came to the world, we were expose to a lot of impressions, habits, practices that define our personality. We came to the world as a white page, without anything.

A lot of killers were exposed to a culture of violence in some moment in their lives. It’s important to pay attention in this concept, because it’s a way to know more about these people.

The analysis of the psychiatry identifies this characteristic that influence the person for the rest of his life, but it doesn’t investigate his practice and habits more deeply. Think about the psychiatry or the neurology  to find the only way to identify why the person commits crimes is the easy manner to construct “a true of science”. It’s dangerous, because it’s more prudent to consider that the problem is more complex than appear.

Anyway, the documentary shows the dark side of the people taken as normal in the society. Individuals with skills, more accurate intelligence, but with violent behaviors.

Moqueca Capixada: tradition and flavor

Last month I was for the first time in Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo state (in Brazil), and I ate the famous Moqueca Capixaba. It is a very tasteful food and the capixaba people has pride of that food. They say (all the time) that “Moqueca is only the capixaba way, because the others (referring to moqueca baiana) is peixada“. Some historians said that the Moqueca Capixaba is originated by portuguese foods and the Moqueca Baiana is some adaptations of African slaves.

moqueca1
Now it’s time to taste… I hope that you enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 kg of fish (badejo, dentão, robalo, papaterra, dourado, namorado or xerne);
  • ½ Kg of shrimp;
  • 1 pack of coriander;
  • 1 pack of green onion;
  • 1 onion (medium size);
  • 3 garlic clove;
  • 4 tomatoes;
  • chilli pepper;
  • olive oil;
  • Annatto;
  • Soybean oil.

METHOD OF PREPARATION:

1. Clean the fish: remove the scales, viscera and pick it up in parts of 5 cm width.

2. Wash the fish with lemmon juice and leave it in a plate with water and salt.

3. Rub the clay pot some Soybean oil (only two spoons) and olive oil (one spoon).

  1. Put the fish that you taked off that plate with water and salt.
  1. The fish must be directly at the pot and not one piece on the other piece of fish.
  1. Chop coriander, green onion, tomatoes, onion, crushed garlic and put at the pot in the very order on the fish.
  1. Switch the sides of the fish to take the flavor of spices in all fish.
  1. Put some olive oil and lemmon juice over the food.
  1. Wait for 40 minutes (maximum one hour).

10.  Melt 3 spoons of Annatto in some Soybean oil.

11. Put this mix on the Moqueca and begin the cook.

12. When the cook begins boil, check the salt and the pepper.

13. Put the shrimps and mix them with the broth to take its flavor.

14. Don’t put water nor cover the clay.

15. Check the salt and the lemmon during the cooking.

16. Let cooking just about 20 or 25 minutes.

17. Sometimes, during the cooking, you must shake the clay (with thick cloth) to the fish don’t glue on the clay.

18. Serve with rice and mush made with flavor of madioca and broth of Moqueca.

CURIOSITIES:

1. The capixaba people believes that the flavor of the real moqueca is because they cook it in a clay pot. This kind of pot gives a special flavor and preserves the food hot during a long time;

2. The clay pot is made by craftsmen that uses the clay of mangrove and cook the pot until it is hard;

3. There are another kinds of Moqueca (with shellfish). Everyone is very delicious;

4. The Espírito Santo State has another delicious dishes, like: Capixaba pie and all kinds of Chocolates made by Garoto factory. The Capixaba pie is a dish made with all kind of shellfish but specially cod and scrambled eggs. This dish is only served at easter period. The Garoto´s chocolate is very famous anytime of the year and the factory allows visits. It could be a very delicious and smelly visit. They have a museum too, that tells about the history of the Garoto’s chocolate. It’s very interesting!

 

Internacional Shrimp

I chose to talk about international shrimp’s recipe because it’s my favorite kind of food and because I really like shrimp, it’s very delicious and easy to make. I love to eat it on dinner with wine. The last time I ate it was on Camarões restaurant at midway mall. Once I cooked international shrimp on a lunch with my friends at home.

 

International shrimp

  • 2 cups of cooked rice
  • White sauce
  • 400 to 500g peeled and cleaned shrimp
  • Salt, lemon and black pepper (as you want)
  • Butter
  • 150g of ham cuted in cubes
  • 150g mozzarella cheese cuted in cubes
  • Potato sticks

 

The recipe is made in layers. In the first layer, put the white sauce, in the second layer, you put the rice. Spread half of the shrimp in the third layer and then the ham. Put the mozzarella cheese in cubes over the third layer, cover with white sauce and then repeat all layers. Remember to reserve about 6 or 10 shrimps to decorate your plate. Cover with white sauce again, put over a lot of mozzarella cheese, take to the oven (160ºC) for about 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and finish the plate with potatoes and the shrimp that you’ve already reserved.

 

 

 

Get me a pizza!

The top 3 on my list of things that I love to do the most, eating is in third place, coming after reading and playing games of any kind! I really don’t know why I’m not fat! My favourite food ever is pizza. If someone asks me: “If you had to choose to eat just one food’s type for your entire life, what would it be?” Definitely pizza. I would just change the flavors according to my taste. One of my dreams is to eat Pizza in Italy, the country that created this peace of heaven. The precursor of pizza was probably foccacia, a type of flat bread, they just started adding toppings. I’m addicted to it, no kidding. If I could, I would eat it everyday, but I know it’s not healthy. The best thing about pizza is that no matter where you eat, it is a meal that you know for sure that is going to be good. My favorite pizza flavor is Pepperoni! It’s a kind of sausage that is a little spicy. And I love spicy food. I’m not a huge fan of meat but I do love Pepperoni. When I’m on vacation, my whole family goes to our beach house and we make home made pizzas for dinner! It’s very fun! To make pizza, the first thing we need to do is the dough. For that, we need to have flour, salt, sugar and olive oil. You have to mix all this ingredients together by using a mix paddle, then, when it’s all good, you have to wrap the dough with plastic and let it rest for a while. The time you leave to rest makes the pizza even more crusty! When the dough is ready, you need to flat it with your hands. Turn and stretch the dough until it will not stretch any further than wait for five minutes before putting the toppings. Before you put all the topping of your choice, you have to take a spoon to spread tomato sauce on the dough. The toppings are everything that you like to eat! I’m addicted to cheese, so all the pizzas I make comes with lots and lots of cheese. Pepperoni is really hard to find, especially a good one, so when I’m at home, I don’t use it. I put oregano, a lot of basil and tomatoes! When you finish putting all the ingredients, you just have to put in the oven and wait for 10 to 15 minutes! Making pizza is really easy and fun as well! I wish I could do it more often, but unfortunately, me and my family only goes to the beach house for a long time 2 times a year, but when we do we have an amazing time, going to the pool, playing games and eating a lot of pizza.I think that the best thing about home made pizza is that you don’t have to wait for what it looks like an eternity for the delivery guy to arrive, and also you don’t have to worry about your order being wrong!

What makes a family

Your family is not necessarily who birthed you or brought you up. It’s who loves you and who you love, unconditionally. We can travel all around the world to learn something more about other families but in the end being a family is about having a few people you know that are going to be by your side no matter what. In many cultures we learn different things about habits that make us unique. Here in Brazil, people are very happy and everything is a reason to party, so, families reunions are really common, not just with the immediate family, but with other relatives as well. I love that kind of parties! We also still have a few indigenous tribes which have their own traditions that are passed to the hole community in rituals. For us, some of them are strange but it’s essential to respect them, ’cause we learn a lot from it, for example, the importance of nature and the many things that we can use that comes from there, like herbal medicines. In other countries like Japan, the people is more shy and closed, but they have so many cultural values! One of my dreams is to go there! The Japanese people appreciates honor and respect, with the elders especially. What I love the most about Japan is the importance they give to their culture and how they pass to their children so it never fades away, I think that’s fantastic! Unfortunately, I disagree about some family traditions. In Saudi Arabia the women are not treated the way they should be. There, men have all the power and they control women on how to dress, they have to cover their entire body but the eyes and men also says how they should behave. The punishment for breaking these rules are abusive. I seriously hope that someday this changes, but I think it’s going to take a while because their mind are still closed for a lot of things. It’s amazing how much you can learn about other families and yet they all have the same meaning: that family makes us who we are. Another thing that every family should do is accept the other members the way they are. Sometimes it’s not easy, but home is a place that you can go so you can feel safe and nothing brings that sensation more than knowing that you have someone who will always believe in you and will accept you for who you are. The foundation of a happy family in all cultures is that you have to be proud of your family, because your life story is connected to everything that involves them, your best memories will always include the time you’ve spent with all your family members and the stories that you’re going to tell to your children in the future when you decide to have your own family will be about the wonderful experiences that you had once lived with all the special people that made a significant part of your life.

CHINA: the rebirth of an empire

China (or People’s Republica of China) is a big country (approximately 9.6 million square kilometers) which is the most populous country in the world (over 1.35 billion). The country is formed by 22 provinces, and it’s governed by Communist Party and the capital city is Beijing.

China1

In Tourism, China has expanded over the last few decades and China became the third most visited country in the world. China has a long History that goes back to its ancient civilization. China’s political system was based on hereditary monarchies, known as dynasties. The country has a very complex economic system with cycles of prosperity and decline.

In this year (2015), the National Geographic did a documentary that was produced and directed by Jesse and Jeremy Vever, which is called “CHINA: THE REBIRTH OF AN EMPIRE”. The objective of this article is to talk about my personal impressions of that documentary.

The documentary begins with the question: is China really an Empire? It shows that China is a very promising country in construction, transportation, fashion, gourmet (meal) and other areas, but even Chalmers Jonhson (autor of Blowback Trilogy) and Wei Jinsheng (exiled dissident former CPC Member) agree that to become an Empire is necessary more than just to be promising. Chalmers Jonhson said that “China is growing but not is qualified like an empire right now”. He argues that the decline of US (caused by crises that made Americans lost their Jobs) is a condition to China assume this role.

The video continues talking historically about when a country lives with conflicts, eventually, become an Empire and they show the follow cases:

  1. Rome after wars;
  2. Britain after wars and black death;
  3. Germany after Nazism;
  4. Japan and Russian after wars;
  5. USA after many wars (civil wars, wars with Indians and military operations in other countries, like Afghanistan).

The main part of the documentary is tChina2o show how the neighbor countries see China and there are many ways to do that because of the culture and economic interesting of each country. In Korea, they talked about the risks of nuclear weapons on North Korea. Moonchung-in (a political Science of Youngei University) said that “In the order to became a full-fledged nuclear weapons state that country should satisfy four conditions, witch are: i) the possession of nuclear warheads; ii) have delivery capability; iii) nuclear tests; iv) possess miniaturization technology”. The specialist defends that North Korea doesn’t have all the four conditions and China doesn’t stay against that country because she approves the political dictatorial regime.

Japan was a rival of China for centuries and despite attempts of union (like in 1998 Olimpic games), there are many protests about anti-democratic system in China. In Pakistan and India exist protests specially about freedom of Uyghur and Tibet peoples. However, China helps the development of Pakistan with trades, on the North and the construction of Gwadar Porto, on the South. In Afghanistan, China helps in many areas, because the country suffered with the occupation of USA. So, China helps to develop that country. Nepals deals with a civil war on the border with China.

In addition the relationship with the neighbor countries, the documentary talks about Hong Kong, which is one of the most developed cities in the world and lives with many adaption problems after the unification with China. The Chinese regime prohibits the practice of Falun gong (an spiritual practice) and there are many conflicts with “one country/two systems”, because the culture is very different. Taiwan (island managed by China) is showed like the first tentative to bring democracy to the region; like a transition approved by China.

The documentary is a good opportunity to know about this subject and think about the future. My opinion about this case is very similar to the opinion of the President of Alliance Fraçaise in Taiwan: “We need to accept that China will became a big power in the world, but the problem is what kind of China do we want in the future… an authoritarian China… I don’t think this is good for the world”.

WONDERS IN AUSTRALIA

WONDERS IN AUSTRALIA

The Devils Marbles

Australia has many natural wonders. One which is of special interest to Brazilians are the Devils Marbles,  huge granite boulders scattered across a shallow valley, 100 kilometres south of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia as a similar formation is located at Fazenda Pai Mateus/Cabaceiras  in Paraiba – Brasil.

These are believed to be the only two sites of this type in the world. Formed by erosion over millions of years, the Devils Marbles are made of granite, which surfaces like an island in the desert. They vary in size, from 50 centimetres up to six metres across. Many of the giant stones are precariously balanced on top of one another, appearing to defy gravity. They continue to crack and erode today, creating an ever-changing landscape.

Kakadu National Park
Kakadu is the premier national park in Australia and offers some of the most stunning displays of wildlife you can find on the continent. Saltwater crocodiles can be found all over the park, as well as kangaroos and wallabies. In addition to stunning rock outcrops and wildlife, Kakadu some of the oldest aboriginal artwork in Australia. Many of the rock drawings date back over 20,000 years. Kakadu was location for many of the scenes from the movie Crocodile Dundee.

Uluru/Kata Tjuta 
Uluru (Ayer´s Rock) is probably the best known natural icon in Australia. The iron content in the rock makes its colors change through the course of a day from bright to dark red. Sacred to the local aboriginal Pitjantjatjara people, it is also of great cultural significance as well as natural significance. Often overlooked, nearby Kata Tjuta is actually higher than Uluru, but has been eroded into several pieces.

Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is so big, the scope of it can really only be appreciated from the air, or even better, from orbit. By far the largest coral reef system in the world, the Great Barrier Reef extends over 2,600km, almost the entire length of the coast of Queensland..

Giant Eucalyptus Trees of Tasmania
Tasmania is the most unspoiled wilderness in Australia. In addition to its pristine beauty, it is home to many unique species of plant and animal including the threatened Tasmanian Devil. The most dramatic of all the things in Tasmania is the Eucalyptus Regnans, the giant eucalyptus tree. Also known as the Swamp Gum, Mountain Ash or Tasmanian Oak, it is the largest flowering plant and hardwood tree in the world and is second only to the redwood tree in height.

The Great Ocean Road
One of the greatest drives in the world is the Great Ocean Road  on the southern coast of Victoria. Carved by thousands of years of battering by the Great Southern Ocean, the sandstone formations of the Great Ocean Road are truly stunning. The Twelve Apostles, London Bridge, Lord Ard Gorge are just some of the significant erosional features which can be seen on the drive near the town of Port Campbell.

These are a few of the natural wonders of Australia, but there are many more to see.

DevilsFazenda Pai Mateus em Cabaceiras/PB

Márcia Rocha Dawe