Maniolas

A  mother’s first    embrace is her baby’s first breath. With these touching words, the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific recently launched the “First Embrace” campaign for early essential newborn care in Manila, with health workers and policy makers promoting the recommendations in the Action Plan for Healthy Newborn Infants in the Western Pacific Region (2014-2020). First embrace — this is probably the first time you’re hearing this. It simply refers to the skin-to-skin contact between the mother and her baby immediately after birth. It’s the first time the mother, having gone through the throes of heavy labor, happily lays her eyes on her newborn, holds her baby and feels the warmth of her baby’s embrace, those dainty little hands latched on to her while their hearts beat in perfect rhythm as one. It’s a feeling like no other — and no mother would trade it for the whole world. As it promotes natural bonding between mother and child, skin-to-skin contact has life-saving benefits for babies and improves the condition of those born premature, sick or by Caesarean section. “First Embrace is something, that if we get in place in this region, we can save 50,000 newborn lives a year and ensure a healthy start for the baby,” asserts Dr. Howard Sobel, WHO coordinator for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health. “And for every life saved, we’re also preventing 10 to 20 infections and other problems babies would have. So, we’re looking at literally half a Read More …

We’ve been cooking a lot of chicken dishes lately, particularly white chicken meat, which has a little less fat and fewer calories compared to dark meat. We are really trying our best to make healthier choices when it comes to our meals. Chicken breast meat has more protein and less cholesterol, so it’s the better choice. We like adding it to our salads, or serving it with some roasted or steamed vegetables and we look forward to sharing our chicken recipes with you! She Said: Our New Year’s resolution to eat healthier meals has been going well so far. We’ve been eating more fruits and vegetables and we’re slowly choosing lean meats over fatty cuts. she said: Now, we only hope to be successful when it comes to desserts! We both have a weakness for all things sweet and can’t resist chocolates, cakes and cookies, but we’re really trying our best most especially for the Lenten season. This recipe calls for skinless chicken breast fillet. The accompanying sauce is a French classic, made with mustard and heavy cream which you can substitute with milk or even plain yogurt. It makes a perfect sauce for pan-seared fish and as topping for pork tenderloin, too. Serve this with some steamed string beans and rice on the side and you’ve got yourself the perfect lunch. Enjoy! Lifestyle Feature ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: Chicken in Creamy Mustard Sauce(adapted from The Pioneer Woman) 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast 2 tablespoons olive oil Read More …

LONDON — Put down the donut. And while you’re at it, skip the breakfast cereal, fruit juice, beer and ketchup. New guidelines from the World Health Organization says the world is eating too much sugar and people should slash their sugar intake to just 5 to 10 percent of their overall calories. The guidelines, released Wednesday after a year of consultations, are focused on the added sugars in processed food and those in honey, syrups and fruit juices. The advice does not apply to naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables and milk. “We have solid evidence that keeping intake of (added) sugars to less than 10 percent of total energy intake reduces the risk of overweight, obesity and tooth decay,” Francesco Branca, director of WHO’s nutrition department, said in a statement. To meet the lower threshold set by the new guidelines, Americans, Europeans and others in the West would have to slash their average sugar intake by about two-thirds. In the United States, adults get about 11 to 15 percent of their calories from sugar; the figure for children is about 16 percent. In Europe, sugar intakes range from about 7 percent in Hungary and Norway to 17 percent in Britain to nearly 25 percent in Portugal. Lifestyle Feature ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: Some experts said the 10 percent target was more realistic for Western countries than the lower target. They said the 5 percent of daily calories figure was aimed mostly at developing countries, where dental Read More …

Our Lady of Lourdes: No prayers are left unanswered. Three days before Valentine’s Day, Catholics celebrate the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes. The first Lourdes Apparition of Our Lady to St. Bernadette was on February 11, 1858. While healing and other miracles about Lourdes in France are well-known, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes (NSOLL) in Kanlaon, Quezon City is like a well-kept secret. A confessed Marian devotee, I and my family went to Lourdes (believe it or not, I made my husband drive all the way from Paris, which we now call his penitential drive) to thank her for her powerful intercession. After reading a book about all the answered prayers, my daughter and I started sending prayer requests online to www.PrayerRequest.eu. She has never failed a single request and when I thought I would be turned down for the first time, the positive response happened after a few months. My friend Tess Arvisu has been an active parishioner of NSOLL for several years now and has been diligently inviting us every year to visit the shrine. We were glad we finally went this year. We managed to arrive in time for the last Mass despite the heavy traffic. We wondered why the pews were still full and why no one left after the Mass. As minutes went by, more and more people arrived, filling up the church. Excitement built up and we noticed two out of five devotees have their cameras, tablets, and Android Read More …