Broccoli For Healthy Aging
Broccoli is a powerhouse vegetable for the body. It contains vitamins A, B and C, which boost the body’s antioxidant level. This is especially essential as one ages in order to balance the chemicals in the body. An imbalance of them can cause heart disease or even some cancers. Broccoli is packed with iron and contains lots of fiber.
Grandma Nature
Bonnie Fatio and Leonie van Daalen-Röell
Go, Not Knowing Where!
What a blessing to have friends who are true age-esteemers and continue to contribute to our world! Leonie van Daalen-Röell is one of these friends. Leonie, who is Dutch and living in Geneva, Switzerland with her husband of 60 years, originally wrote Go, Not Knowing Where! for her American grandchildren.
Leonie’s happy childhood days on her family’s sugar plantation in the Dutch East Indies colony quickly becomes the story of terror, separation and internment during World War II in Indonesian, a war area we seldom hear about. This is followed by the difficult return to Holland and readjusting to normalcy. It is her personal record based on memory and a multitude of personal letters.
Go, Not Knowing Where! is a captivating, real, and informative story about one girl’s life during the transformation of the Dutch East Indies colony into the independent country of Indonesia.
Do you also have a story worth telling? Your story might also represent a precious contribution to convey history as it was lived, just as this age-esteemer‘s has.
Bonnie Fatio
The Feast Of Life
Think of Life as one long Feast,
From the “oven” of your birth
To your souffléd rise (like yeast!)
(A fine recipe for Mirth.)
Don’t ever think your “goose Is cooked”
(There’s many “fish to fry”!)
So plan a life-long Menu Book,
With Relish in supply.
Every day can be “baked” or “steamed”
(Depending on your Age Esteem!)
This “aspic” may seem a little trite
But wishes you a Good Appetite!
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Daylight Saving Time For Healthy Aging
This is the season when we spring our clocks forward for daylight saving.
Daylight saving time has been proven to be healthier for children and adolescents than standard time. As the days are longer they are outdoors for a longer period of time thus getting more sun and exercise by being more active playing or doing sports. This has a positive effect on obesity and on general wellbeing.
The same can be said for older folks who work in the garden for longer periods, for example, or who may go out more often during the summer evenings thus keeping more active, which is good for healthy aging. So take advantage of the extra daylight to exercise and move.
Grandma Nature
It Is Never, Ever Too Late
Get well wishes
Are welcome words indeed,
They sound almost delicious
And satisfy your needs.
How swell to be remembered
With cards and plants and food,
Cheer dwells in one’s heart chambers
And quells more somber moods.
Fare thee well oh injured “mal-mate”,
Go on a mending spree!
It is never, ever too late
To be well as well can be.
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem
An Experience In Age Esteem
Age Esteem abounded last night at an annual event in Grand-Saconnex, one of municipalities of Geneva, Switzerland when they awarded the “Mérite saconnésien”. It is a ceremony to award local citizens for the outstanding contribution they have made to the local community or to the world.
My dear friend Heli Bathija received this award for her work to save babies in Afghanistan. Heli is a medical doctor who retired from her career at the World Health Organization several years ago. Retirement gave her the opportunity to redirect her energies and experience to new areas of interest. One of these interests led her to found Hope For The Babies (HOBI).
The idea is simple, yet life changing and life saving. The mortality rate of newborn babies in Afghanistan is extremely high. This is for two reasons: 1) Mothers usually give birth at home in disastrous hygienic conditions. 2) Hypothermia. The babies die from the cold.
Dr. Bathija’s prevention was simple. Offer warm sweaters for the babies of mothers who come to the local health centers to give birth. It results in the mother giving birth in more sanitary conditions and the baby is kept warm.
Since Dr. Heli Bathija had lived and worked in Afghanistan, she had good contacts to make this happen. But where would all those sweaters come from? – From knitters, of course! So she set out to find women and men who knit, beginning with the knitting club in her own community. Today she has knitters in many parts of the world, including France, Canada, U.K., Finland…as well as many people contributing wool and money to help it happen.
Heli Bathija is a living example of age esteem, proving it is never too late to launch a new idea or to make a lasting difference. Through her age esteem she is enhancing the course of lives, not only of mothers and babies, but also of people who knit with a purpose – to give a fair chance to a newborn.
At this same ceremony, the knitting group of Grand-Saconnex also received the “Mérite saconnésien” for their outstanding contribution through the knitting of countless sweaters, blankets and bonnets for the newborns in Afghanistan. Without these dedicated women using their creative talents, Hope For The Babies may not have taken off in such a dynamic way, stimulating interest from other like groups.
Here, too, Age Esteem was evident since the knitters were elders in the community. Their leader, in light green in the above photograph, is 92 years old. She, and the other women in this group, are beautiful models of age esteem. It showed through their energy, relationships to others in the community and their commitment to making a difference.
Bonnie Fatio
Healthy Fats For Healthy Aging
Avocado is a good source of healthy fat and can be heated to a high degree.
Attention must be made as to which fats can be cooked on high heat. Non-virgin olive oil is one. In addition to olive oil, now a known heart-oil, there are others, which are as beneficial such as walnut oil, sesame oil, grape seed oil and pumpkin seed oil.
With such diverse taste in all of them, choosing which oil on which food is a personal choice.
Grandma Nature
The Doctor’s Advice
“You have brittle bones”
the doctor said,
(in very somber tones)
“but years ahead
to be a bit more positive
and optimistic every day,
you’ve verve and joy with which to live,
and Age Esteem along the way!”
Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®
Keep A Healthy And Active Mind
A nagging worry as we age is, “Will I be able to keep my mind in tact, or will I lose my memory?”
It is true that dementia becomes more prevalent as we age. However, there are many ways we can act to keep our minds and bodies healthy and active. The poster in the photo above arrived in my mail from the Alzheimer Association of Switzerland. Their mailings are useful with suggestions that are easy to implement immediately.
Here are the 7 Golden Rules for a Healthy and Active Life from their poster.
And remember that laughter is the best medicine!
People with age-esteem keep their minds and bodies healthy and active, and they laugh often!
Bonnie Fatio
Check Expiration Dates For Healthy Aging
Check the expiration dates on packages like pancakes and cake mixes that have yeast which over time develop spores.
Apparently, the mold that forms in old mixes can be toxic! Throw away ALL OUTDATED pancake mixes, brownie mixes, Bisquick, cake and cookie mixes, etc., you have in your home. If consumed when outdated, it could be fatal.
Grandma Nature
