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Fun Facts about Mexico

January 5th, 2013

Mexico for a long has been an interesting nation, many view it’s coastal islands as vacation paradises and its long history has left many wondrous structures all around it’s lands. There are many who consider that to not be the real Mexico, a country which has seen blood a lot in recent years because of the drug problems. Despite its continuous strain on the nation it still has some wonderful things about it. In this article we will see both good and bad.

  • One of the most obvious mistake people make about Mexico is that they think it’s in Latin America or Central America but technically speaking it’s not even though it may look that way. Central America is still used in speech but the term has officially been abandoned. Everything north of Venezuela and Colombia is considered part of “North America”.
  • If you asked anyone what’s the country situated south of the USA they would say Mexico, well they are right but the official name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos which in English would translate to The United Mexican States. Fortunately or…unfortunately? As of a recent congress meeting, the President wants to change the name to Mexico.
  • Mexico is second only to Brazil in the amount of Catholic members and also this ranking is true for drug offences.
  • Mexico is so virulent in its practice of Religion that in the months of pilgrimage and holy weeks, some people have traditions of re-enacting the crucifixion of Christ but of course without killing themselves and coming back to life.
  • Mexicans also use the term “jajaja” to laugh, although phonetically it sounds the same as the laughter of anyone else. This isn’t particular to Mexico but in other countries such as Finland and many others.
  • Mexico City, the capital is built on the old city of Tenochtitlán, not only of the greatest Aztec cities of all time but also the greatest city in the American continent pre European arrival. Unfortunately the city was built on top of a lake and since has been forever sinking because of the minerals in the soil not being strong enough to sustain the city.
  • The ground isn’t the only place dying in Mexico City, the air and atmosphere is too.  Thanks to it being one of the largest populated cities in the world and also some unethical environment management, breathing air in Mexico City is as good as smoking a cigarette. Although the government are bringing some good ideas to change the current climate, there is still lots of work to do.
  • There always needs to be one fact that compares a certain area to the size of Texas, so here it is. Mexico is 7 times the size of Texas.

Those were a few interesting facts about Mexico, not all good and not all negative.

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Why Low Carb is Better than No Carb

November 26th, 2011

Carbohydrates have gotten a bad reputation the past few years. To hear Dr. Atkins speak, you would think we should all eat nothing but meat, and eschew carbs entirely forever. Unfortunately, this is taking things a bit too far. Going all out on any kind of diet leads to bad things, and moderation is needed no matter what you do. So while it’s great to go with low carbs, you do need carbs. The following are some reasons why.

Keeping Your Muscles Healthy

Your muscle mass is nothing more than a collection of proteins that your body uses for two things: moving around and as an emergency source of energy. If you do not eat carbs, your body will assume that you are starving. Since muscles use calories, it makes sense to make them smaller if you aren’t getting enough already. So you need carbs to make sure your muscles aren’t cannibalized by your body.

Carbs Provide Energy

Without sugars, your cells will die. Your body turns carbs into sugars, which allows you to do all the things you want and need to do. If you don’t get carbs, you won’t be able to do anything for very long and you’ll soon begin to feel as sluggish as slow moving niobrara oil – not a good way to live.

Carbs Support Proper Bowel Movement

A lot of people never think about this, but fiber is a type of carbohydrate. Since your body can’t break down fiber, it simply moves through your system. Like a broom, it sweeps out things that aren’t good for you, and this is extremely healthy. So you need to eat carbs, if only to get your fiber.

Breaking Down Fats and Proteins

Fats and proteins are difficult to break down, so your body has to work harder for this process. Without carbs, your body will not have enough energy to power the process of breaking down proteins and fats.

So your body won’t be able to access the massive amounts of energy you’ll have taken in, and all the food you’ve eaten will go to waste while you starve. The process won’t be quick, but it will eventually happen.

Carbs are a vital part of staying alive and doing everything else you need to do, including digesting and drawing nutrients from the fats and proteins you eat. Without carbs, you will starve, and your body will not function well at all. So ignore the people who say carbs are evil, and simply eat smaller amounts of carbs instead of forsaking them altogether.

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Fun Facts about Quitting Smoking

November 20th, 2011

You probably already know that quitting smoking is definitely a good idea from a health perspective. In order to give you some more angles on this topic however, here are 7 fun and interesting facts about quitting that you may find intriguing or even surprising. These facts are all well supported by studies and experimental evidence.

Focusing

It has been shown that simply focusing on quitting smoking increases your chances of successfully quitting. The more you focus on this outcome, and the more intense that focus is, the higher the odds of your dropping the habit will be. This stands to reason in many ways, but it’s nice to know that there is experimental evidence to back this up.

Avoiding Cues to Smoke

Avoiding the typical cues to smoke – others lighting up, having a smoke in the car as you turn in the radio, and a routine in which you tend to have cigarettes at certain times – increases the odds of your quitting. You can try things like changing around your usual routine, leaving the room when someone else lights a smoke, and so on to avoid having familiar things cue you on to smoke.

Strategies

The more strategies you employ to help you quit smoking the greater your likelihood of quitting. You can consult a bunch of different sources that offer quit smoking advice and select several strategies to employ. You might, for instance, use an E cigarette, employ some focusing and affirmation techniques, and avoid some smoking cues. These techniques all in conjunction with each other would make it more likely that you would quit than trying each of the techniques on their own (though that, of course, could work as well).

Exercise

Exercise has been shown to go hand in hand with successful attempts to quit smoking. So you might add a regular workout each morning or every other morning to the set of strategies you are employing (as mentioned above). This will tend to encourage other goals and values than just getting to the next cigarette.

Quitting Makes you Sexy

There is a lot of evidence to support the fact that quitting smoking makes you more attractive to the opposite sex. These are only statistical averages based on people that are surveyed and so forth, and some may find smoking attractive, but the weight of the evidence points to the fact that the majority of people find a non smokers to be the sexy.

Heart Disease Risk Reduction

Risk of heart disease beyond the ordinary non smoker averages has been shown to reduce by a half after you have quit smoking for just one year. It continues to decrease as more time passes. There are still other considerations such as diet and the amount of exercise you get that play into the overall heart disease risk, but quitting smoking puts you at a great advantage here.

Expectant Mothers

Expectant mothers can reduce their risk of their baby’s experiencing perception, motor control, and attention problems by quitting smoking. This is a sure motivator as regards quitting to anyone who cares about the health and well being of a newborn.

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