Zwangere vrouwen moeten zeker op hun gewicht letten. Het heeft grote invloed op hun kinderen

Hoewel een groot deel van de vroeggeboorten wordt geweten aan bijvoorbeeld roken, staat overgewicht bovenaan als oorzaak van kinderen die te vroeg worden geboren. Bij een kwart van de te vroeg geboren kinderen is de moeder te zwaar. Bij etnische groepen is dat zelfs meer dan 30%. Het onderzoek is gedaan in Amsterdam maar de resultaten zijn volgens de onderzoekers redelijk algemeen uit te leggen. Zij benadrukken ook dat er bij zwangere moeders aandacht moet worden besteed aan hun gewicht.

Veel kinderen zijn zelf ook te zwaar. In 2006 was eenzesde van de kinderen obese, volgens onderzoekscijfers van BUPA. In de Verenigde Staten is onderzocht dat kinderen van te dikke ouders zelf ook een grotere kans hebben te zwaar te worden. Alle reden dus om (ja, voor de feestdagen en het nieuwe jaar met goede voornemens) stil te staan bij een goed gewicht!

Mercedes-Benz' great heritage. Making decisions and acting fast can be of business advantage

Last week, I spoke to a business man who has a couple of marinas and a huge historical Mercedes-Benz collections, and a yacht transport firm. We came to talk about what he found valuable in business. His reply was: ‘Make decisions fast and act. It gets business going. If you don’t decide, you do know one thing for sure: the business will not move. If you appear to have made a wrong decision, you always can decide to do it differently. At least, you know the results of your action.’

It was striking that later this week, I had to inform a person who takes a long time to decide to start with our business that if he had decided – more importantly: acted -quicker, he would have a deal that could be more attractive to start. He is missing out the starting package, and the first weeks of his business (because he did not start yet). Two examples with one person where making a decision faster could make his business run better. He is missing out on that particular part. I’m following my plan, working with people who actually make a decision and act upon it. They will earn.

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In the UK, there are good places to live and feel happy. Image by IceNineJon via Flickr

I haven’t called in sick for the last 22 years. Yes, I may have had an accidental cold and sneeze. But that’s about it. Do you know more of them, people who never seem to have their aches and pains, never are ill? How can they do it? I know it roughly and recognised quite a lot from a handy list.

1. Don’t sit on a chair all the time, keep moving! Just exercise a bit for half an hour a day (even in Europe this is more than average), take the stairs instead of the elevator (even in the tube stations, it may be faster).
2. Eat healthy building blocks: anti-oxidants, salvestroles (in broccoli)
3. Stop thinking all the time, worrying is not good! Stress is neither. It undermines your immune system and exhausts the body.
4. Sleep well. This is the recovery time you need. Not everybody may have to sleep for eight hours, but you need to have a quality sleep.
5. Invest in your social network: it keeps you healthy and fit. Research has revealed that socially active people don’t have a cold so often. And making other people happy is contageous and causes a chain reaction.
6. Wash your hands regularly, using soap. I’m sometimes amazed people don’t do this at obvious moments. Did you know that a filler at a fuel station carries even more bacteries than a toilet seat?

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The headline in our (Dutch) newspaper ‘Pension Cut Expected’ attracted my attention this morning. The pension funds should be better now? No, in contrary. Roughly half of the (big) pension funds in the Netherlands (compulsory contribution, collective arrangements) are expected to announce a shortage and cutting payments in 2013. These cuts can vary from 3% in average up to 15%. Also contributions are expected to increase. Where is that money going?
In other countries, the situation is no different. In the UK, the penion age is increasing and people are even adviced to think about changing career, especially when doing physically demanding jobs.

A comfortabel old age is apparently not what you will expect if you are depending on collectives or state pension. The trouble is that when you are at that point, it is difficult to make a difference. For me, the thought that retirement would mean ‘more time, less money’ scared me. For a long time. That made me think and working towards a sustainable solution that makes me independent of other people’s decisions. What’s happening in these days only confirm my vision and the importance to not be reliant on those systems. Did you think of your future? Really?

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Forbes describes in a great article how any business can survive and grow, in any economy. I think the article touches to a couple of enrtepreneur’s characteristics and bare business basics. For example the stock market. This seems to be a guidance on the overall economy, and according to me it is heavily overvalued in the media. It is a derived, parallel market which turns everybody’s eyes away from what is most important: running a business that makes money. And there still is money, and people still want your products and services – you may need to emphasise the solution you can bring to them. You may need to re-focus on the benefits that you and your company may bring to the clients – perhaps this can be drastical. Where are you saving the client headaches and money? Show this and you have a benefit that is worth the price. Look where potential clients will be and allow to be found. You must be the solution – but your (potential) clients need to be aware of that. So communicate!

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Image by Jarod Carruthers via Flickr

Apologies English readers, a Dutch post this time.

We horen vaak van mensen dat ze voedingssuppletie onzin vinden. ‘We eten al afwisselend en krijgen daarbij genoeg en gezonde stoffen naar binnen’. Dat blijkt dus niet te kloppen. Onderzoek wijst uit, dat de eigen adviezen van het Voedingscentrum tekortschieten en waar veel mensensen denken voldoende vitaminen en micronutriënten (als sporenelementen en mineralen) naar zich toe te trekken, dit niet het geval is. Belangrijke elementen als ijzer, foliumzuur en selenium bijvoorbeeld zijn in de voedingsadviezen ondervertegenwoordigd. Dergelijke tekorten worden ook door onderzoek van het orthomoleculair instituut aangegeven. In een erg toegankelijk artikel in Sport + Fitness schrijft Janine Moeken over de teruggang van voedingsstoffen in groenten en fruit. Om aan dezelfde voedingsstoffen te komen als verschillende jaren terug, zul je veel meer moeten eten. Geen twee, maar twintig bananen bijvoorbeeld. Als je dat allemaal letterlijk neemt, kun je fysiek niet meer de groenten en fruit eten, het is gewoon te veel in volume. En dan te bedenken dat de ADH, de aanbevolen dagelijkse hoeveelheid, vaak is gebaseerd op het lichaam in rust. Kortom: als je een beetje actief bent en zeker als je sport, dan moet je gewoon aanvullen. Niet in hoeveelheid, maar de juiste stoffen. Zelfs sportmensen staan daar veel te weinig bij stil. Bij ziekenhuisopnamen blijkt 40% van de mensen een groot tekort aan voedingsstoffen in het lichaam te hebben, uit onderzoek van sporters loopt dit op naar zo’n 98%. De enige manier om dat aan te tonen is bloedonderzoek. Veel mensen die hard roepen dat ze dat niet nodig hebben, zullen dit denk ik nooit echt gedaan hebben. In ieder geval niet in mijn ervaring.

Ik hoor vaak dat als je met mensen praat over supplementen: is dat niet gevaarlijk, (veel) supplementen gebruiken? Het antwoord is gewoonweg nee. Ten eerste hebben we het nodig omdat we vaak tekorten hebben en dus juist aanvulling nodig is. Ik citeer een artikel van Orthokennis. Uit onderzoek in de VS blijkt dat er geen mensen zijn overleden aan een ‘overdosis’ aan supplementen. Wel vallen er veel doden als gevolg van medicijngebruik. Niet alleen zware medicijnen, maar ook bijvoorbeeld aspirine of pijnstillers. Daarom is de verkoop van bijvoorbeeld NSAIDs in Nederland bijvoorbeeld beperkt.

Het enige waar je bij supplementen wel op moet letten is de kwaliteit. Want die verschilt enrom en een leek die op de etiketten kijkt kan dat vaak niet beoordelen. Vaak is het eigenlijk dat je waar naar je geld krijgt. Het is dus verstandig je goed te informeren. Maar zeker om je in de materie te verdiepen. Je er is namelijk maar een persoon die er baat bij heeft goed voor zichzelf (in het opzicht van voeding dan) te zorgen. Heb je daar zelf wel eens bij stilgestaan?

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A lot of people enjoy where they living, they do the work they like. They say. But did you ever get a blank sheet of paper and write down how and where you would live, work and what you would do if there would be no limits? If money was no issue? Would you live in the same town, in the same street, in the same country? Would you drive the same car, spend the same holiday? Would you go to your work, to an office?

Then you really see what you want to get outof life. Sonja and Mike work with us in the business. They decided to live in Legacy, Plano (TX) because they like it. They take the liberty that a passive income offers. But they still will expand and helping other people to get most out of life. They want to. I want to get there. We both made a plan that makes this possible. This little movie shows the goodbye they received in the office (Dutch spoken), and they will receive some characteristic Dutch delicatessen. Do you have a plan that will make possible what you really want to get out of life?

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The European Commission‘s Joint Research Centre has developed three new methods to detect an illegal clouding agent which can be found in sports drinks imported from Taiwan.

In late May, the Taiwanese authorities informed the European Commission that significant amounts of phthalates were illegally added to certain categories of sports drinks. These chemicals are believed to affect reproductive performance and fertility, and have been linked to developmental problems with children.

The Taiwanese Food and Drug Administration has published the names of 879 products of more than 300 producers that contained high amounts of phthalates. More than 200 products from 34 producers were exported to 22 countries. These include some EU Member States, in particular Germany and the UK, where some products were withdrawn from the market.

What are phthalates? Normally, producers of sports drinks, jelly and fruit pulps use a palm-oil based product to obtain a cloudy appearance, but in the Taiwanese incident, this was largely replaced by the two cheaper substances: bis-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (commonly abbreviated DEHP), and – in one case – di-iso-nonyl phthalate (DINP). DEHP and DINP are commonly used as plasticizers in many plastic products. These substances, however, are prohibited in the production of food, and their use in plastic toys and childcare products is restricted in the EU.

List of products that contained high amounts of phthalates, published by the Taiwanese Food and Drug Administration

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Yes, we did it! In Dutch, we say: shoot a billygoat (een bok schieten) – which means that you have done something stupid. But we did it, today, in a clever way. We took some arches and arrows and shot animals: a rabbit, a fox, a billygoat, a deer. They were plastic which is normal practice in the so-called 3D archery discipline. It was a surprise: we had expected to have to point to targets in a field so we were not dressed for walking in the woods (especially looking at our shoes) but it was so much fun! Where golf involves walking on a field, hitting small balls to a put and trying to find the ones that went off-track, 3D archery is more or less the same. In woods, artificial animals are hidden and a marker is a reference to put at least one foot. With a ribbon, the track leads to the next animal. In a competition, you go with about five archers. And you have to target the animals with the arrows, and find and retrieve the arrows that missed target (which sometimes is a challenge!). We did it at short distances: 30m max which is kids game for the experienced archers, who brought compound arches where we used Olympic arches. The movie below shows our way round. After this challenging work, our hunger was taken care of by a huge barbecue which was prepared for us. Wouldn’t want to have missed it! Did you ever practice archery? And for golfers who are archers as well: which sport do you like better?

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