Sunny Health

It would almost be cruel to impose abstinence, what with the influx of mooncakes that taste as good as they look on our little island.

The good news is, it is possible to enjoy your mooncakes if you pay heed to some tips to make your snacking experience healthier.

- Limit yourself to a quarter of a moon cake every other day. Do not have more than one normal-sized mooncake in a week.

- Snow skin mooncakes, fruity mooncakes, green tea mooncakes, vegetarian mooncakes and other healthier alternatives are generally lower in fat than the typical traditional mooncake, but they are still made with 1 - 2 tablespoons of oil, sugar and flour, so one should exercise moderation when consuming them. The restriction of no more than a quarter each day should also apply.

- Snow skin moon cakes may contain more sugar than traditional mooncakes. Depending on how much icing is used and the type of filling, they are not necessarily healthier than traditional mooncakes.

- Salted egg yolks contribute to higher fat and cholesterol content. If you love egg yolks, select a mixture of mooncakes with and without egg yolks instead of choosing all with egg yolks. Then you can still enjoy your egg yolks and greater variety without reaching an unhealthy level.

- If available, choose low-sugar and no-sugar mooncakes. This is especially important to diabetic patients.

- The typical mooncake is not suitable for certain people with particular illnesses as they are rich in cholesterol and sugar. Consult your doctor, know your dietary restrictions, and exercise moderation.

- Mooncake is difficult to digest. Wash it down with hot tea or lemonade. Consuming it with fruit (i.e. pomelo, cucumbers) helps to provide a more balanced meal and takes away the feeling of heaviness and greasiness. Moon cake is very filling and should not be treated as a dessert. In other words, do not consume it too near a main meal (the recommended buffer time is 3 hours), and do not consume close to bed time.
- Mooncakes are high in fat and sugar content, but low in other nutrients, and should not be consumed as breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal and fuel for the day, and it should be nutritious and healthy. In fact, like all junk food, mooncakes should not be used to substitute any meal.

- Store your mooncakes in the fridge to avoid bacterial growth. Make sure to finish them before their expiry date.

- If you can make your own mooncakes, you will have full control over what goes into it, and can replace the unhealthy components with healthier ones. Lard can be replaced with healthier vegetable and nut oil. Instead of sugar, use low-calorie sweeteners to create the sweet taste. Mashed sweet potatoes mixed with dried fruits, nuts and seeds make a far healthier filling.

With the right attitude and eating habits, you can enjoy your mooncakes free of guilt!

Sources:
http://yourhealth.asiaone.com/content/3-health-tips-buying-and-eating-mooncakes/page/0/0
http://tcm.chinesecio.com/en/article/2009-09/30/content_71376.htm
http://www.chinese.cn/zhuanti/zhongqiu/en/article/2009-09/29/content_70889.htm

Do you tend to feel particularly blue after a long weekend or a few days off work/school?

It is common, inevitable, and rather depressing, and may spell trouble if you have something crucial like a test, important assignment or presentation and need as much positivism as possible to get you through, but the good news is, you can prevent it.

It is believed that because most of us tend to stay up late on weekends, and then sleep in the next day, this short disruption in sleep pattern throws off our biological clocks. We even eat at different schedules, and get light exposure later. There is in fact a term for this, called social jet lag.

It would of course be a killjoy to suggest that one should spend the weekends as they did their weekdays. So here are some tips on how to bounce back quickly on Monday while letting your hair down over the weekend! Treating it is actually pretty similar to how one would deal with jet lag.

Get sufficient sleep on week day nights - 7 hours of good quality sleep on weekdays means you prevent a sleep debt from adding on to the late weekend nights that will only make the following week miserable. Ample rest will ensure that you're at least awake and alert, and less cranky on Mondays.

Refrain from sleeping on on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It is of course all right to get up one or 2 hours later than usual, but sleeping in until afternoons for example, will hinder your adjustment to your usual sleep schedule. In any case, sleeping away in the mornings and even afternoon is such a waste of a precious weekend when the time could be spent with your loved ones or indulging in your favourite past time!

If you're out partying late at night on Friday / Saturday, instead of attempting to sleep away the fatigue, take short naps of no more than 20 minutes beforehand, and after. This refuels you without messing your sleep schedule.

Keep yourself moving. Hit the gym or take a walk, which is especially helpful in keeping you from wanting to hit the bed sheets again. Some people just want to spend the whole weekend being a couch potato or playing video games. However, do at least head out of the house to do some shopping or catch up with friends. Being on the move prevents the lethargy from sinking in, which can make your commute to work or school on Monday particularly painful.

Get as much sunlight in the morning as possible. Sunlight diminishes the melatonin levels in the body that makes one sleepy and increases serotonin levels (a hormone that makes one feel happy). It is also a valuable source of Vitamin D, and getting sun exposure in the morning on those precious weekends is especially important to office workers who barely see the sun on weekdays.

The suicide of Robin Williams is an immeasurable loss to the entertainment world and all who look up to him, but on the bright side, it has encouraged more to discuss their struggles with depression, and for the sceptics to take it more seriously.

One can be identified to be depressed if he/she has lost interest in once pleasurable activities, and/or experiences feelings of hopelessness. But clinical depression manifests in different manners from person to person. Other common signs include:

- Lack of concentration or difficulty in doing tasks that were previously thought to be easy
- Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
- No appetite or can't stop eating
- More irritable, short-tempered and aggressive than usual
- Reckless behaviour
- Those who drink or smoke may indulge in these in greater frequency
- Thoughts that life is not worth living.

Depression often happens after a major setback in life, such as the loss of a loved one, being fired, losing (or fear of) bodily/vital functions as possibly in the case of Robin Williams who was revealed to have Parkinson's Disease, etc. However, depression can also be due to genetics, or seasonal changes in countries with four seasons.

Adding on to the complexity of this problem is that most people are not able to put themselves in the shoes of the depressed, even psychiatrists, if they have never suffered from depression before. Often, they tend to belittle the struggles of depression, and that is what makes depression overlooked.

Depression is sometimes also misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder, because there are times when the patient feels cheerful, and other times, absolutely down. While these are signs of bipolar, they are also perfectly normal in depression, as depressed people do not necessarily feel down all the time.

A depressed person, especially one with suicidal thoughts, is in a delicate state of mind. You can't regard them as a regular individual whining about life's hassles, because that is not what they are doing. Talking is not a means for them to let of steam, but a cry for help. Aside from ensuring that he/she is getting professional help and taking the necessary medicines, here are some things you can say or not say, to let them know that you care, even if you can't help them.

What to say: You’re not alone in this.
What NOT to say: There’s always someone worse off than you are.

What to say: You are important to me.
What NOT to say: No one ever said that life was fair.

What to say: Do you want a hug?
What NOT to say: Stop feeling sorry for yourself.

What to say: You are not going crazy.
What NOT to say: So you’re depressed. What's new?

What to say: We're here to help each other through difficult times.
What NOT to say: Try not to be so depressed.