Reset, five tips to keep glycemic index down

Have you noticed that growing tire around the middle of your waistline? Or are you having a hard time trying to lose that last five pounds? Or maybe even suffer from memory lapses? Liz Pascual (left), a New York-based holistic food expert, dietary therapist and a low glycemic index practitioner said in a lecture last week, that the leading cause of weight gain, low energy, mood swings and hormone imbalance is sugar which comes from carbohydrates.

First some definitions. Glycemic index is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion are referred to as high glycemic index foods and those that break down slowly are low glycemic. All carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars. These sugars are absorbed into the bloodstream. As the sugar level rises, the pancreas release a hormone called insulin, which is needed to move sugar from the blood into the cells, where the sugar can be used as a source of energy.

A high glycemic diet may increase a person's risk of developing health problems. Liz described four stages: Stage one is if you are experiencing fatigue, headaches, insomnia and daytime sleepiness. Stage two is if you are suffering from aches and pains, PMS, migraines and weight gain. Stage three is when you are having trouble loosing weight, waistline bulge, high blood pressure, memory loss, high triglycerides, mood swings and even nervousness. And lastly, stage four may lead to heart disease, breast cancer, uterine cancer, diabetes, kidney stones, hypertension, arthritis, incontinence, polycystic ovary disease, gallstones and stroke.

Sharing with you some five tips (she actually has eight!!) to keep your blood sugar down:

1. Eat five small meals a day consisting of good carbs, protein, fat and fiber. The good carbs are the low glycemic foods such as wholegrain bread and non-white rice. As a general rule, try to avoid anything white, that goes for white rice, white bread, white pasta, white cakes etc. There is a variety of non-white rice available and if you are to choose, the healthiest would be black rice over red, red over brown. The good grains are Quinoa seeds and barley. For vegetables, avoid potatoes and corn and choose kamote instead. For fruits, oranges contain the most sugar and also kiwi, mango, pineapple and papaya. The best would be fruits with no seeds like berries and even Yakon. And if you will eat bananas, go for the local “saba”. The best source for protein would be organic, hormone-free meats, or smoke salmon from Norway.

Cinemalaya goes to UP

Yipee!! My fav film Last Supper No. 3 won Best Film in the 5th Cinemalaya Film Festival and Dinig won the National Council for Children’s Television.

The winners in the 2009 Cinemalaya are:
Best Film: “Last Supper No. 3”( Note: most watched film selling at least 1,100 tickets in the first six days of screening that began on July 17).
Special Jury Award: “Colorum” and “Ang Panggagahasa kay Fe”
National Council for Children’s Television Award: “Dinig Sana Kita”, which also won Audience Choice (Full Length) and Best Musical Score for Francis Florentino Reyes, a member of rock band The Dawn.
Best Director: GB Sampedro (“Astig”) and also won Best Sound Recording (Ditoy Aguila, Junnel Valencia, Mark Locsin), Best Editing (Charliebebs Gohetia), and Best Supporting Actor (Arnold Reyes). The film was co-produced by TV host-manager Boy Abunda and has the most stellar cast among the entries.
Best Actress: Ina Feleo “Sanglaan” as well as Best Supporting Actress Tessie Tomas.

Schedule in UP from July 28 to August 4:

July 28, Tuesday
5 p.m. - Engkwentro by Pepe Diokno
7 p.m. - Nerseri by Vic Acedillo Jr.

July 29, Wednesday
5 p.m. - Astig by GB Sampedro
7 p.m. - Last Supper No. 3 by Veronica Velasco and Jinky Laurel

July 30, Thursday
3 p.m. - Shorts A (Musa, Behind Closed Doors, Tatang, Hulagpos, Wat Floor Ma'am)
5 p.m. - Shorts B (Ugat sa Lupa, Si Bok at and Trumpo, Latus, Blogog, Bonsai)

July 31, Friday
5 p.m. - 24K by Ana Agabin
7 p.m. - Mangatyanan by Jerrold Tarog
9 p.m. - Ang Panggagahasa kay Fe by Alvin B. Yapan

August 3, Monday
5 p.m. - Colorum by Jon Steffan Ballesteros
7 p.m. - Dinig Sana Kita by Mike E. Sandejas

August 4, Tuesday
5 p.m. - Sanglaan by Milo Sogueco
7 p.m. - Best Picture (Last Supper No. 3)

Tickets are priced at P80. For ticket reservation and inquiries, contact 0915-6040072.

Cinemalaya starts this wknd!!!

Good news to all indie fans out there, Cinemalaya's 5th film festival will open this weekend at the CCP. 25-year old indie filmaker Raya Martin's Cannes-entry with Adolfo Alix Jr Manila will open the festival. Laurice Guillen's brain-child, Cinemalaya has been the seeding ground of budding filmakers. Raya's first film Bakasyon won the Ishmael Bernal Award for Young Cinema in 2004 and in 2007, he was named Best Director for Autohystoria.

This year's ten finalists debuting are (synopsis and sked below):

24K directed by Ana Agabin
Manok is a middle-class treasure hunter who’s been digging for Japanese treasure for years. He and his companions are in the final stage of their current site in the mountains of Suyo, Ilocos Sur, an area reputed as a Japanese stronghold during World War II. All the signs at their site indicate that they are certain to find treasure. With their resources nearly depleted, Manok convinces his godfather in marriage, Freddie, to finance the rest of their operations. Manok, Freddie, and another friend, Boyet, journey back to the site hoping that, as their medium predicted, they will find gold before Manok’s wife gives birth in a month’s time.
Getting back to the site turns out to be more difficult than expected. Manok and his companions manage to make it back to the site but in the process stir up some trouble in the community. Soon, mysterious things happen at the site. With each of them becoming more and more paranoid, Manok struggles to keep the group intact long enough to unearth the treasure that he believes is just within their reach.
Sked:
July 19, Sunday 6:15 p.m. (CCP MKP Hall)
July 21,Tuesday 2:45 p.m. (Tangahalang Huseng Batute)
July 22, Wednesday 9:00 p.m. (CCP Main Theater)
July 23, Thursday 6:15 p.m. (Tangahalang Huseng Batute)
July 24, Friday 9:00 p.m. (CCP MKP Hall)
July 25, Saturday 2:45 p.m. (CCP Main Theater)
July 26, Sunday 3:30 p.m. (CCP Little Theatre

H1N1 scare

I've been down with a persistent cough and slight fever for the last three days and decided to go to the hospital last night to check on my chest pain. Boy, what a mistake! I forgot about the H1N1 standard operating procedure instituted now in ERs.
My condition actually started with an itchy throat last Tuesday after lunch and then turned into a dry cough in the evening. TP suggested to take Ciprobay which helped her with her colds. The next day, my condition worsened - I had fever, pain in my hands and feet, sniffles and then, the nagging cough. Val recommended to take baking soda mixed with water and Mandy, calamansi juice with a dash of salt. Doc AP added to my arsenal, muscolvan for my cough, decolgen for colds, and paracetamol for fever every four hours. He said not to take antibiotics and besides my ailment may be viral not bacterial; however, since I've started, he said to complete the 5-day course.
I was much better yesterday - the colds disappeared and I was moving about. But my chest was painful thus, the trip to ER in Medical City where everyone was wearing masks and most of the patients were coughing. The attending nurse took my vitals and started asking questions like "where you ever out of the country the last ten days?" Bingo! Forgot. He said to proceed to the second floor, for H1N1 cases. H1N1? yikes.
The internist on duty, Dra. Casipit went through the list of symptoms. I didn't have runny nose, loss of appetite muscle pain, difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or even experienced altered state. But since I have asthma, I face greater risk of developing complications and therefore, have to undergo tests which consisted of the painful nose and throat swab, CBC and xray. I thought of escaping at this point. My aunt who accompanied me to the hospital warned that if I did, the department of health will hunt me down.
So, I complied and went through the tests. I had to wait for the results though before I could be discharged. After three hours in the hospital, the doctor cleared me (yipee!) and prescribed more meds. She also said that the chest pain is caused by the cough. Duh! She should have told me that in the first place instead of undergoing all the tests and having to wait in the germ-infested environment.
I'm glad that I'm cleared. I'm getting all sorts of reaction for my condition. A friend of mine texted this afternoon "I'll be in your hood, is it safe for me to visit you?"

Ireland!!

I love this beautiful green GREEN city filled with warm hospitable people. Irealand is the home of great literary figures Joyce, Beckett, Yeats, CS Lewis and even singing sensations Bono and U2! I was here for the wedding of my Singaporean friend Vivian Loo who married Irish James in his hometown in West Cork.

Drove down from Dublin all the way southwest, over 300-kms with fellow Asians Sarah, Winnie and Ngan (correction, Asian-Americans except for Winnie who's Thai-Shanghai raised in Singapore and married to an American-Hongkongnese). First stop was the 19th century Kilhaiman Gaol in Dublin, a prison where the leaders of the "Easter Rising" of 1916 were executed (i.e. rebellion staged to end British rule). The place was eerie and reminded me of Alcatraz.

Did you know that there are about 2,000 castles in Ireland? We drove all the way down to Kilkenny to see the 13th-century Castle and to lunch. Then down to the second largest city in Ireland-- Cork, for dinner and a stop in the pub for some stout (my fav is now Murphys!!!); and finally to Clonakility where we were billeted.

The drive was well worth it! Driving is the only way to see the colorful towns with their doros, windows and walls painted in bold red, purples green, etc. and healthy cows grazing on lush lush greenery. Warning though - driving is on the wrong side of the road. I had fun driving from Kilkeny to Cork at 140-160kph on the M8-N8 motorway and mind you, that fast on a rented-toyota! Its quite safe to speed up despite its two-lane motorway and narrow, winding single-lane roads.

The wedding took place at historical St. Fachtna Church in Rosscarbury.The guests were mostly family, neighbors and schoolmates. The uncle of James officiated the wedding and the reception was in the top-end Indochyndon resort overlooking Clonakility Bay. I can't believe the stamina of the Irish. We left past 3am where the groom's 71-year old dad was still dancing!! There were two "bands". First a one-man "band" playing mostly country music, waltzes and the second, a 3-man band (guitar, banjo, accordion) playing traditional irish and ceili music. I had fun dancing the Seige of Ennis, two pairs in one line moving down. The alcohol was flowing until the wee hours and lots of food! After dinner, we were served a snack at 11ish which consisted of fries, sausages, sandwiches and the infamous black pie!

The next day we did more sights near Cork County like Blarney Castle where we braved kissing the stone at 90-ft (left photo, view from top), suspended upside down. Unfortunately, I found out later on that Trip Advisor named the Blarney Stone as the "world’s germiest" tourist attraction. About 400,000 tourists kiss the stone each year hoping to receive the gift of gab which the Irish are famous for! Trip Advisor likened kissing the stone to "smooching a petri dish full of unfanciful delights". Oh well, at least I found out later on, after the attempt and I'm alright.

Here's an Irish "hello" to everyone May the road rise to meet you: <