HEALTHY Mexican food
Chimichangas. Enchiladas. Quesadillas. Guacamole. All these words have a few things in common- one of them is FLAVOR. Another one is CALORIES.
As Mexican food has evolved and migrated from its origin, it has accumulated grease and cheese. It wasn’t always this ways. According to yourtotalhealth.com, a website designed by NBC and Ivillage dedicated to health, Mexican food was created as a health dish that incorporated “fresh ingredients such as vegetables, fish, and fruit.”
Healthy Ingredients
The ingredients that make up Mexican food palate are “some of the richest in antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E, and in cholesterol-free protein” according to yourtotalhealth.com. What are these ingredients? Here are a couple examples:
-Beans: Protein and fiber.
-Corn: Protein
-Tomatoes : Great sources of Vitamin C and A.
-Varieties of squash, such as pumpkin: Vitamin A and/or beta-carotene.
-Avocados: Vitamin E
-Chiles: Vitamins A and C.
Cooking Healthy Mexican:
-Steam or grill your meat- do not fry!
-Warm tortillas: Wrap 5 or 6 of them in aluminum foil and warm in a 325-degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
-For tortilla chips or tostadas: Put them in a 350-degree oven, turning until crisp, about 8 to 10 minutes
How to Eat Healthy at Mexican Restaraunts
If going to Mexican restaraunts is hard for you because of the oh-so-many unhealthy choices, here are a couple tips from About.com's weightloss articles to think about when dining out.
-When in doubt, choose soft over crunchy. For example, tortillas. Soft aren't fried, crunchy are.
-Salsa over dip. Those cheese dips taste as good as they are greasy.
-Fajitas, bean burritos and sauteed chicken dishes are a do. Chimichangas, enchildadas, and nachos are a don't.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
To save a life... or to not save a life...that is the question.
Hospitals all accross America are facing choices of life or death when it comes to helping Illegal Immigrants get care through emergency rooms. While it would seem heartless to reject someone in desperate need of healthcare, hospitals are beginning to close down (if not closing thier doors to the uninsured) due to insufficient funds from helping those who can't attain or afford health insurance, a large chunk of whom these are illegal immigrants.
Personally, I don't know how anyone with a beating heart could turn someone down without insurance, but a a part of me does get angry that my money will be paying for other's healthcare when I'm already having a hard time paying for myself. These people are getting a free ride- it's the same thing with car insurance. You get in an accident with an uninsured vehicle, you end up paying for your damages, and they get a ticket.
An example of what one family went through and recieved medical care was written in World Net Daily:
Cristobal Silverio emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker. He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8- all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" -an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently. But Flor was born premature, spent three months in the neonatal incubator and cost the San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, oldest daughter Lourdes married an illegal alien gave birth to a daughter, too. Her name is Esmeralda. And Felipa had yet another child, Cristian.The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1,000 per month in public welfare funding for the family. Flor gets $600 a month for asthma. Healthy Cristian gets $400. While the Silverios earned $18,000 last year picking fruit, they picked up another $12,000 for their two "anchor babies." (World Net Daily 2005)
All the money they needed/recieved nearly makes up half a million dollars.The US spends $1.3 billion every year in illegal immigrant incarceration, education, and medical car.
Watch newscast on costs of Illegal Immigration:
Other articles written on this issue:
Florida and California"> are two states that have been spending hundreds of millions to keep hospitals afloat due to helping those without healthcare.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Healthy Border 2010 Program
The Healthy Border 2010 Program is a program designed to improve the health around the US/Mexico border. The program is proposed by the US-Mexico border health commission, a binational health commission that started to address border health issues in 2000.
2 Goals of the program:
Improve the quality and increase the years of healthy life
Eliminate Health disparities
This program is interesting because they acknowledge the fact that each side of the border have different healthcare policies and healthcare systems. The program does not want to impose on the management of each side of the border, but rather, address health related issues and topics that need improvement. When addressing border health, the commission has found 20 common elements to focus the program on.
The 20 common elements the program is working to help/change are grouped into eleven areas:
Access to health care
Environmental Health
Immunization and Infectious Diseases
Injury Prevention
Mental Health
Currently, various projects have made their way into the program and have dispersed in several areas. For example, one project in Texas, Ten against TB, is an initiative specifically related to Tuberculosis that brings together TB technical staff (lab experts, health officers, etc.) from different areas of the border.
Healthy Border 2010 is considered a "direct descendent" from the 1979 Healthy People program, a program that set goals for 1990 to improve the health in 15 areas nationwide. After success with the goal, the program then turned into the Healthy People 2000 program, which then conformed with World Health Organization program. The new 2010 program was established in 2000 and is working today to help change the health around the border.
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