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The plastics backlash Garbage, including plastic waste, is seen at the beach in Costa del Este, Panama City. Photograph: Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images

It was once the height of metropolitan chic: the dash into Starbucks for a skinny decaf caramel latte en route for work, the takeaway cup a mark of upward mobility. Those were the days of Sex and the City, when the culture of doing everything on the go eating, drinking, socialising was taking hold.

But in the past 10 years, in the developed world at least, the accoutrements of a disposable society the coffee cup, the plastic bag, the bottle of water have become items of shame as we see them pulled from dead marine mammals, clogging rivers in developing countries or lying on beaches littered with detritus.

Since 2010, more than 120 countries have banned or legislated against the use of plastic bags. European countries, including the UK, have considered levies on takeaway coffee cups and multimillion-pound brands such as Coca-Cola and Nestl have faced high-profile campaigns designed to get them to clean up their waste. Fast fashion has come under fire too.

These movements are in their infancy and the scale of the problem is still growing. Some companies are taking their own steps, but legislation in Europe will force their minds to focus on reducing their waste footprint. And while images continue to spread across the globe exposing how our lifestyles damage wildlife and the environment, the backlash against a disposable society is likely to continue. Sandra Laville

The 2010s were a decade of hard-won progress in gender equality and reproductive rights globally. The launch of a campaign to increase access to modern forms of contraceptive in 2012 has resulted in 53 million more women and girls now using family planning in some of the worlds poorest countries. Two-thirds of countries have achieved gender parity in primary education. And, although the figure is still low, more women are now sitting in parliament than in 2010: 11,340, compared with 8,190.

The #MeToo and Times Up movements have propelled sexual violence and harassment into the spotlight and young women have become the face of high-profile global campaigns, including the Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai fighting for girls education, and Greta Thunberg for action to tackle the climate crisis. One notable campaign was the struggle against female genital mutilation (FGM), which gathered pace through the decade.

But any progress is tempered by statistics that show one in three women globally will experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. Efforts by conservative religious groups to roll back womens rights, particularly sexual and reproductive rights, have intensified and are having some impact. The Trump administration has emboldened these groups by introducing an extreme policy that bans funding to overseas groups doing any work related to abortion.

However, women are mobilising in their tens of thousands to fight the backlash, setting the stage for a turbulent start to a new decade. Liz Ford

Giving a DVD or CD as a gift in 2010 was commonplace. Not any more. In the past decade, not only has the music industry shifted from CD to MP3 (with a smattering of a cassette and vinyl resurgence thrown in) and TV platforms from live services to on-demand catch-up players, but paid-for streaming is now the unequivocal norm across most of the developed world.

Since Netflix switched its primary business model of DVD rental to streaming in 2010, its user base has soared. The recent release of the $159m Scorsese epic The Irishman amply demonstrates that Netflix has the financing to eclipse even the most established of Hollywood giants for its own content. Other producers are following suit, from Amazons Prime Video service, which accounts for over 26 million users, to the BBC and ITVs new BritBox platform. Streaming has become the default.

The situation is even more marked in the music industry. Since its launch in 2008, Spotify has grown to 248 million monthly active users and is valued at $23bn. Streaming now accounts for more than half of major record label income. As CD sales drop by almost 29% year on year, labels are increasingly relying on streaming as the main platform for their new and established artists, with services such as Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music all providing rival alternatives. Even MP3 downloads are dropping by almost 28% each year, a shift exemplified by Apple shutting down its flagship iTunes service to become a part of its streaming platform, Apple Music.

Potential unlimited access to thousands of hours of TV, film and music is clearly a tantalising prospect not to mention the environmental advantages of moving away from physical products. The access to this information has become more important than ownership. Few predict that the tide of streaming will turn back any time soon. Ammar Kalia

Ten years ago, being vegan came with a certain social stigma. It was the kind of diet that led to eye-rolls at dinner parties, a limited range of restaurant options and the continuous fielding of the question: So, what do you eat?

But over the course of a decade veganism has gone mainstream in the developed world. According to a poll commissioned by the Vegan Society, there are now 600,000 vegans in the UK, up from 150,000 in 2014, as well as millions adopting vegetarian or flexitarian diets. Its no surprise that companies have been scrambling to make the most of this flourishing new market.

One in six food products launched in the UK in 2018 had a vegan claim and all the major supermarket chains have increased their vegan offerings. Who could forget the nationwide buzz generated by the Greggs vegan sausage roll earlier this year, which flew off the shelves and boosted company profits? Now McDonalds has announced the launch of its first fully vegan Happy Meal.

Concern over animal welfare, along with a desire to be more environmentally friendly and eat healthily, has largely fuelled the demand, with record numbers signing up to Veganuary every year, from 3,300 in 2014 to 250,000 in 2019. And the trend is not just consigned to food: sales of cruelty-free cleaning products have soared, while Superdrug reported a rise of over 300% in sales of vegan-labelled beauty products from 2015 to 2018.

There are now countless vegan events and dozens of cookbooks, and restaurants from Wagamamas to Pizza Hut offer vegan options; in just a few years, consumer pressure has forced society to accommodate lifestyles free from animal products better than ever before. The shift shows no sign of letting up either, with some reports suggesting that a quarter of the population will be vegetarian by 2025. Jessica Murray

In early December, thousands of Britons were paid to charge their electric vehicles or run a laundry load to make use of the record-breaking renewable energy generated by the UKs wind farms. It is the latest example of how the renewable industry has turned the energy system on its head in the past 10 years.

At the turn of the decade, wind, solar and hydro power projects made up less than 8% of Britains electricity. Today, more than a third of the electricity mix comes from the fleet of renewable projects, which have grown fourfold in 10 years. Globally, investors have ploughed $2.5tn into renewables since 2010 to drive its share of the worlds power generation to 12%.

The burgeoning industrys greatest feat has been to cut the costs of renewable energy technology far faster than expected. A global survey by Bloomberg New Energy Finance found that solar power costs had fallen by over 80% since 2009, while onshore wind had plunged by 46%. In the UK, the cost of offshore windfarms has dropped by half in the past two years alone; they are now cheaper to build and run than fossil-fuel plants.

The ultra-low cost of renewables means wind and solar farms will spread even faster in the years to come. By 2030, the UK government expects offshore windfarms alone to provide almost a third of the UKs electricity, with total renewables making up about half of the electricity system. Renewable energys greatest decade will light the way for even greater decades ahead. Jillian Ambrose

It was the decade when we finally turned to face our mental health problems, didnt much like what we saw and started to do something about it.

In 2010, depression was still the illness that dared not speak its name: wherever you lived, few people mentioned it in public apart from the occasional brave celebrity outlier. Certainly there were no MPs, chief executives or presidents on the record about their psychological disorders.

By the end of 2019, its still not easy to tell the world that there is something not quite right with your brain. But its perhaps easier than it has ever been. You may well still face discrimination particularly if you suffer from one of the rarer conditions that are still taboo, like schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder. But people will understand.

Many family doctors will have a better grasp now than they did 10 years ago (though they may not be able to do much for you). Your workplace will probably have mental health first-aiders, employee assistance programmes and, if they are really smart, psychiatric conditions added to employee insurance policies. Your friends will all know someone who has been through something similar.

What changed? The internet undoubtedly helped (though Googling your symptoms remains a very bad idea): a torrent of blogs, videos and advice columns helped to shed light on the darkness. Campaigns by British royal family members and mental health charities cut through. MPs including Charles Walker and Kevan Jones came out. Portrayals in TV shows, films and novels multiplied.

The next step is to crack the treatment conundrum. By the end of the 2020s, mental ill-health will be so common that it may even become the rule rather than the exception. But it will still feel like the most dreadful thing that can ever happen to a human, and the demand for services will have gone up, not down. Mark Rice-Oxley

At the start of the 2010s, transgender people did not exist in the mainstream. They were portrayed by cisgender actors in Hollywood, excluded from US and UK gay rights groups and denied basic legal recognition. But now, trans and non-binary people are stars on screen and breaking barriers in media, politics, sports, courtrooms, science and other industries.

In 2013, the US whistleblower Chelsea Manning came out as trans and became a global LGBTQ+ icon. In 2014, the actor Laverne Cox graced the cover of Time magazine, which declared a transgender tipping point. Caitlyn Jenner came out the following year.

While cis male actors repeatedly won awards for playing trans women in the first half of the decade and beyond, this kind of casting eventually became untenable; in 2018, Scarlett Johansson dropped a role as a trans man amid massive backlash, while Tangerine, A Fantastic Woman, Pose and other projects raised the bar by giving trans actors leading roles.

Celebrities such as Indya Moore, Asia Kate Dillon and Sam Smith also came out as non-binary, pushing mainstream awareness of gender-nonconforming people, who have long existed in cultures around the world.

With expanded societal and scientific recognition that gender is fluid, states across the US passed laws allowing people who are neither female nor male to mark a third gender on IDs. Germany, Nepal, Austria and other countries also expanded gender options. Teens increasingly rejected gender labels and intersex rights activism blossomed.

There has been a dark side to the progress: unprecedented assaults on LGBTQ+ rights and increasing reports of violence, harassment and discrimination, particularly against trans women of colour. The decade of visibility and backlash has set the stage for continued civil rights battles with growing movements of trans and non-binary people organising to fight back. Sam Levin in Los Angeles

A decade of steady quantitive growth for womens football in England has been studded with qualitative leaps in the sports development.

In 2011, the FA launched the Womens Super League and moved the game out of the shadow of the mens into the summer. It was a bold step and reaped instant rewards. The average attendance of 550 in that first season was an increase of 604% on the previous season average. At the decades close, that average had reached 4,112.

The English national team, the Lionesses, have provided the biggest public window into the game, with consistent showings through the decade. That has generated a surge in the number of women and girls playing football: there are now more than 11,000 registered teams and more than 2.6 million women over 16 playing at one level or another.

This is all a result of multimillion-pound investment from the FA and commercial partners. In 2018, the FA announced an additional investment of 50m in the womens game over six years. A league sponsorship deal with Barclays is believed to include investment of as much as 20m.

There is a real momentum behind womens football. Professionalism means the product on the pitch has improved dramatically and a home Euros to help start the decade off in 2021 is likely to be another moment that propels the sport forward. Suzanne Wrack

The jury is still out on whether vaping will take over from more traditional methods of consuming tobacco but, in terms of pure numbers, it was indisputably one of the trends of the decade.

The first e-cigarette is credited to a Chinese pharmacist called Hon Lik, who said he invented it after his father died of lung cancer. Those that arrived in the UK in 2006 were described as cigalikes, devices heating nicotine to produce inhalable vapour but still masquerading as cigarettes.

Measurement of e-cigarette use began in 2012, at a time when less than half the adult population of the UK had heard of them. In that year, there were 700,000 users (1.7% of the population). In 2019, that had grown to 3.6 million (7.1%). According to ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), just under 2 million of todays vapers are ex-smokers, 1.4 million are current smokers and 200,000 have never smoked. The reason most often given for vaping is to quit smoking. Most public health experts in the UK, with some notable exceptions, think e-cigarettes could save lives. Nicotine is strongly addictive but not proven to do harm, whereas the smoke and tar from tobacco kill up to half of those who use cigarettes.

But e-cigarettes have developed a bad name in the US, at first because of Juul, a stylish device looking like a USB stick that took off among high-school pupils. It contains three times the level of nicotine permitted in Europe. A panic among parents and teachers became a national scare when reports began to pile up of adult vapers with lung diseases. As of mid-November, the authorities have reported 2,172 cases of lung injury and 42 deaths.

If e-cigarettes can weather the storm and irrefutable data is collected to show they are a big help in quitting smoking, they could still have a bright future. But after such reputational damage, the adolescents of 2030 may be asking: Vaping what was that? Sarah Boseley

The technical specification says it all. In 2010, the top-of-the-line iPhone 3GS had a 480-pixel-high screen, 32GB of storage and a 3-megapixel camera. Going into 2020, the equivalent iPhone 11 Pro has a 12-megapixel camera, 512GB of storage, and about 17 times the pixels in the screen. Weve dropped the smart, too, and the mobile. Its just a phone now and it lies at the heart of everything.

It also costs 1,400. That, more than anything else, shows the real change that smartphones have wrought over the past decade: from an optional extra, sold to boost the value of phone contracts, to the core of modern life. Apple can charge such a price because phones are firmly established as central to productivity, to entertainment, to communication and to education.

The proliferation of phones across the globe is one of the stories of the decade. There are an estimated 3.2 billion smartphone users worldwide, a penetration rate of 42%. That spread overwhelmingly on Googles Android operating system has let countries leapfrog previously essential stages of development: from sub-Saharan Africa, where mobile internet is crucial to economic development even though fixed lines are still scarce, to China, where cashless stores are more common than in the US despite a 10th of the take-up of credit cards.

In the developed world, phones have killed the concept of being online. Once, the internet was a place you sat down to connect to. Now, were all online all the time, and the reality-distorting effects are bleeding over into meatspace. Misinformation on Twitter makes the front pages; CGI-Instagram influencers are licensed for fashion ads.

That change will last. Phones may alter unrecognisably over the next decade, with smart glasses, voice assistants and wearables taking more of the interactions, shrinking the phone down to an always-on and always-on-you hub. But the blending of realities is here to stay. Alex Hern

In 2010, the traditional media ecosystem was fraying but largely intact: television still attracted big ratings, print newspaper sales were struggling but had yet to fall off a cliff and many people still used traditional phones that could do little more than call and text. Although we were spending increasing amounts of time online, people still generally accessed Facebook through the site on a desktop computer. Instagram was in its infancy. Twitter was still quite niche.

But as smartphone usage took off in the early part of the decade, everything changed. Suddenly, checking a social network turned from something that took place a maximum of a few times a day, perhaps on your lunch break when the boss wasnt looking, into an addictive habit. With people constantly checking Facebook, new ways of communication and new formats of conveying news took hold. As hundreds of millions spent more time on these networks, the advertising cash followed them. By the end of the decade the social network that started as outsiders had grown into lightly regulated behemoths. Their algorithms exerted enormous influence over commerce, the media, and politics. They were credited with anything from allowing small businesses to flourish to undermining journalism and helping extremists to gain power.

Whether the same social networks continue to exert the same amount of influence in 2030 depends on two things. First, whether governments have the political will to regulate or break up these companies. And, second, and potentially more damaging, whether they can convince the public to keep using them and not spend their time elsewhere. One scary lesson for Mark Zuckerberg is that no one is talking about the risk MySpace poses to democracy. Jim Waterson

The shale revolution has made the unthinkable inevitable. In the blink of a decade, fracking has transformed the US from an energy-hungry importer to one of the worlds most important energy producers. The US is poised to enter the 2020s as a net exporter of oil and gas for the first time since records began.

At the centre of the boom in shale oil and gas was a technology breakthrough. Across the US shale heartlands in Texas, North Dakota and New Mexico, hydraulic fracturing unlocked vast reserves of oil and gas trapped in unyielding layers of shale. It was an engineering feat that has upended global energy markets and rewritten the rules of geopolitics.

The impact has been profound. By declaring its energy independence, the US has claimed its right to step back from the instability in the Middle East in favour of a US-first diplomatic policy. It has ignited a surge in manufacturing, which has helped fuel trade tensions with China. It has hardened the stance against the climate agenda, oiling the US exit from the Paris climate agreement. Since 2010, the amount of shale oil and gas produced has increased sixfold.

Within the first half of the decade, the rise of North Americas upstart frackers triggered the start of the most severe oil market downturn on record. By the second half of the decade the Opec oil group determined its production policy around the prospects of US frackers. Today, the worlds biggest oil companies have staked multibillion-dollar investments on their claim to the next phase of the US shale era.

There is yet to be a convincing successor to the US shale boom elsewhere in the world and with good reason. Environmental concerns, densely populated areas and fierce public opposition have kept frackers at bay across Europe. Efforts to ignite a US-style shale boom in Argentina have been slow to gain traction but may soon take off. Jillian Ambrose

Austerity has defined the decade. Trillions of dollars may have been pumped into the banks to reboot global growth across the developed world but cuts to public spending and welfare benefits, rather than Keynesian stimulus, was the remedy adopted by western governments battered by the worst economic shock since the great depression.

In Britain, cuts imposed by the Conservatives determined the 2010s, fuelling political dissatisfaction that led to the Brexit vote. But the austerity drive spread around the world. Greece was at the centre during the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, as markets feared contagion for other euro-area nations, known together as the PIIGS: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain.

Austerity was the condition attached to international bailouts to stop the rot. Cutting the way to prosperity was all the rage. The belief was that governments could mend their finances while central banks rebooted economic growth by cutting interest rates to zero and firing up the quantitative-easing money press.

The trick worked to a degree, stopping the last recession from turning into another great depression. The US has enjoyed the longest uninterrupted stretch of growth in modern history.

But austerity dismantled the mechanisms that reduce inequality. The 2010s mark the weakest economic expansion on record, wage growth has stalled, the public realm lies in tatters, improvements in living standards are stagnating, politics has shattered into extremes and the world economy remains on life support. A third of young people are still out of work in Greece, where the economy remains a quarter smaller than in 2007. More than 14 million in Britain are struggling in poverty.

Austerity dogma is fading and increasingly regarded a mistake. But after defining the past decade, it will still influence the next. Government spending is starting to rise to repair the damage, but trust in establishment politicians to deliver is shot. The 2010s incubated more radical ideas that will colour the 2020s, while the consequences of austerity will continue to be felt. Richard Partington

In 2010, migration was much less visible on the global agenda, other than in central America and parts of south-east Asia. Today it is a pressing issue on most continents.

There are currently more than 272 million people around the world living outside their country of birth 3.5% of the global population. This is an increase of 51 million since 2010. It shows that the rise in the global number of migrants has outpaced the increase in the worlds population but perhaps not by as much as political rhetoric suggests. Forced migration meaning refugees and asylum seekers has risen much faster than voluntary movement of people seeking better opportunities. One in seven migrants is younger than 20.

Despite the global compacts on migration and refugees adopted last year and despite the broad benefits that migration often brings the issue is arguably more politically sensitive than at any point since the end of the second world war. Governments across Europe and in the US and Australia have put up fences and forced back people seeking refuge.

Migration patterns are tough to predict since they reflect evolving crises and instability but also longer-term societal changes in demographics, economic development, transport access and connectivity. There is every indication, though, that rising population, climate pressure, food insecurity and conflict mean migration will remain as potent an issue through the 2020s. But evidence does not support a dramatic rise in either the number or proportion of migrants.

The latest UN projections suggest zero net migration between now and 2050, which would mean migrants would remain at about 3.17% of a global population of 9.8 billion. Lucy Lamble

When G20 world leaders gathered in London in April 2009, only one politician Silvio Berlusconi could justifiably have been called a rightwing populist. Fast-forward a decade, and three of the four largest democracies on the planet now have far-right populists at the helm: Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Narendra Modi in India and Donald Trump in the US.

In Europe, radical-right populist parties are rarely winning elections but they are securing more votes, more seats in parliament and more power-sharing roles in coalition governments than at any time since the second world war. In the two western countries that arguably suffered most under the rule of 20th-century fascists Germany and Spain far-right parties using populist rhetoric are the third-largest parties in parliament. And they control the government in Poland and Hungary the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbn, has gone a long way toward his goal of transforming the EU country into what he hopes will be an illiberal democracy.

Political scientists do not agree how we got ourselves into this hole, and are even less sure about how we can scramble out. Many explanations for the causes of the rightwing populist wave point to the effects of financial crisis of 2008, the September 11 attacks (and the security clampdown that followed) and, in Europe, the so-called migrant crisis in 2015, which brought into focus long-simmering unease over mass migration.

Others point to the dominance of a neoliberal economic order implemented not just by conservatives but also those who identified as centre-left and paving the way to rampant globalisation and inequality. But no one should discount the impact of a technological era, which has rewired the entire information ecosystem, eroding trust in institutions and rewarding the kind of angry, tribal, divisive and sensational political debates in which rightwing populist thrive. Paul Lewis

What will be the great trends of the 2020s? Let us know your thoughts by emailing theupside@theguardian.com

Continued here:
From renewables to Netflix: the 15 super-trends that defined the 2010s - The Guardian

Helen Puttick, ScottishHealthCorrespondent

Supermarkets and online grocery stores should be reorganised to nudge shoppers towards meat alternatives such as buckwheat and chickpeas, researchers have said.

A study involving people from all walks of life in Scotland found that most were resistant to designing new dinners in which favourites such as steak and sausages are replaced with alternative sources of protein.

Experts from the Rowett Institute, the leading diet and nutrition centre in Aberdeen, have suggested that foods be reshuffled around inside big supermarkets so that the meat aisle also includes possible substitutes such as kidney beans and fava beans. Alexandra Johnstone, a senior researcher at the institute, said there should also be prompts for alternatives when people shopped online.

The World Health Organisation recommends reducing consumption of red

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Redesign stores to promote veggie options, say diet experts - The Times

As Streetsblog readers know, we mark the end of the year with our annual Streetsie awards for the best and worst people, projects, ideas and efforts in the livable streets movement. Well be rolling out our year-end awards every day until New Years Eve, so sit back,look back, and enjoy

Two thousand nineteen was a year in which Not in My Back Yard groups fought vital transportation projects tooth and nail often taking to the courts to stop them.

Yet even so, the citys Department of Transportation inaugurated some sterling additions to the urban landscape that will make New York safer, cleaner and faster-moving. Heres a review of the most exciting transit projects of the year:

At some points this year, the busway appeared mired in court as NIMBY lawyer Arthur Schwartz and his band of wealthy-neighborhood associations plotted to foil the rollout of a transit project that benefits thousands of daily riders by brandishing specious claims about the need for environmental review. The project debuted in October and has not caused the massive traffic spillover onto side streets that its opponents predicted.

Its the exact kind of stand-out project that urbanists hope will revive the fortunes of cities by cutting carbon emissions, eliminating parking, and reclaiming streets from single-occupancy vehicles.

The results have been even more exciting than we thought, and its lifted our spirits to see the positive response, not just that the buses are moving faster, but the street feels calmer, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said. Amen!

Finally waking up to the streetscape changes wrought by e-commerce and for-hire vehicles, DOT gingerly began a program designating some curb space in residential areas for trucks to load or unload all the parcels that people have been ordering. The need for such zones everywhere is obvious the glut of double-parked delivery truck, private vehicles and taxis, often blocking bus and bike lanes, has contributed to noise, pollution, crashes and even a number of traffic deaths.

Even so, some car-loving residents of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, complained loudly enough about losing a few places where they stored their private cars for free that the DOT backed off on some streets. But Trottenberg defended and strengthened the program. It should be expanded citywide.

Along Morris Park Avenue in the Bronx, a small group of business owners led by anti-street safety Council Member Mark Gjonaj won a court order that for a time halted the DOTs safety redesign of a roadway where 426 pedestrians and cyclists have been injured, with one fatality, since 2010. The road diet plan to tame speedway-like conditions would make it more difficult for residents and delivery trucks to unsafely double-park.

But, again, residents and some business owners objected to a loss of parking on the specious grounds that the city had not conducted enough of an environmental review. But the city prevailed, and an overjoyed Trottenberg heralded the safety benefits.

As we have seen dozens of times under Vision Zero, simple road diets like this save lives, she said.

Fat, fatal Eighth Avenue in Manhattan went on a road diet that will give its pedestrians and cyclists more protection by taking room away from drivers on the Theater District thoroughfare.

The DOT is transforming the area between 38th and 45th streets by reducing car lanes by 20 feet, extending a northbound protected bike lane that ended at 39th Street, and widening, by 10 feet, the overcrowded sidewalk from 39th to 41st streets.

The changes cant come fast enough for the deadly roadway. Between 2013 and 2017, drivers killed one pedestrian on the70-foot-wide avenue between just 38th and 45th streets, and severely injured 15 pedestrians and five cyclists. There were 220 total injuries in those five years on just seven blocks! Cyclist Chaim Joseph was killedat 45th Street earlier this year.

In yet another instance of the few NIMBYs car owners blocking progress for the many transit riders, some Queens residents (again represented by Arthur Schwartz) took to the courts to try to stave off a part-time, dedicated bus lane on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood because it would take some metered parking.

But a sensible judge didnt take their word for it. He went to the street and looked for himself, andruled for the city. Now thousands of riders are enjoying bus speeds that have risen from the snails pace of 2.6 m.p.h. to 6 m.p.h, a 125-percent improvement.

The Central Park West protected bike lane which now extends north from Columbus Circle to 77th Street, despite the hindrance of a NIMBY lawsuit was a blood issue for safe-streets advocates. The death in 2018 of cyclist Madison Lyden, who was forced out of the streets then-unprotected bike lane by an illegally parked cab, then run over by a truck galvanized the bike community, which came out in force to protest the NIMBYs action.

Not only was the NIMBY crowds well-funded suit thrown out of court, cars were kicked from the curb through the repurposing of public space that many drivers think belongs to them. Now activists are asking DOT to make the lane even safer, by installingsplit-phase turning, a design that gives pedestrians and cyclists a separate signal phase from drivers so they can get through intersections, and bus boarding islands, to ensure that northbound buses can safely pick up passengers without having to fight through traffic.

The busway! Nothing gets Streetsblog more excited transportation-wise than this ultimate win-win: a road design that banishes cars in order to help bus riders. May it be the template for further such efforts.

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Streetsies 2019: The Best Transportation Project of the Year - Streetsblog St. Louis

The following article is not necessarily beef related. However, we feel it deserves an honourable mention, as its not everyday you get to see what happens behind closed doors of an Irish machinery manufacturing facility.

In June of this year,Keenan based in Borris, Co. Carlow opened the gates of its plant to Irish dairy and beef farmers, along with machinery enthusiasts.

The diet feeder manufacturer also provided a factory tour, in which visitors could see exactly how a Keenan feeder wagon is built.

In addition, as part of the open day, the company showcased some of its Keenan approved range, alongside other machines both new and old.

Speaking to AgriLand on the day of the visit Keenan machine inventory manager Michael Doyle (pictured below) outlined what happens to a second-hand feeder once its traded into the Carlow-based site. He also told us what it takes for a machine to make the approved grade.

Diet feeders come in varying conditions and types ranging from fresh machines to older models. Well get machines that have been working every day of their lives for 25-30 years, so the condition will vary.

Firstly, when a machine comes to the factory, well take a look at the physical condition and see how it looks.

Naturally, we cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear; that cant be done. So, if it looks good, well investigate further, Michael explained at the time.

Like any machine, wear and tear comes hand-in-hand and Michael outlined the main parts that have to be examined on every paddle mixer the body, chains, blades and the paddle rubbers.

Michael explained that the approved range comprises machines that are top-of-the-range, second-hand units. The timeline from in-take to finished article for an approved feeder is approximately two-to-three weeks.

We strip these down completely; we strip out the gearbox and the auger, so we will go through everything to make sure its fully functional and put it back together.

Then its shot-blasted and re-painted; new stickers are then applied. The approved machines are all less than 10 years old. We dont approve those that are over 10 years old, but every model in theory is available as approved, he said.

On a new machine, we give 12 months warranty; three months warranty on the approved range. Theres no warranty on other second-hand feeders, but we ensure theyre in good working order.

All approved machines have new hydraulic pipes, tyres, hoses, rubbers and so on.Other second-hand machines range from 2007 to 2012.

Commenting on why farmers upgrade their machines, he said: The most common reason guys change their machine is that the paddle rubbers and the body blades are worn. So, the machine is actually working as an easy feeder.

Other reasons include: chains; tensioners on the chains; and springs around the drive systems. We also look at the bearings.

When we open up the front covers, we look to see are the chains slack and thats a tell-tale sign; if its tensioned up, the machine has been looked after. Obviously, you look to see has the machine been greased, he added.

Keenan which claims to have sold over 30,000 machines globally provides diet feeders to both dairy and beef farmers in Ireland and the company is expanding its range.

Our main customer base is the dairy farmer, but we do have a lot of beef farmers and there are more beef guys coming to us now, as they realise the difference in feed efficiency.

The typical-sized machine for a beef farmer tends to be the smaller range the 14-16m MechFibre machines are popular. We are finding a lot of dairy men are going from the 14m [machine] to a 20-24m model.

Touching on prices, he said: We start off with machines available for 5,000-7,000; we go the whole way to a self-propelled machine at approximately 150,000-180,000.

Typically, an approved machine will work out at around 70% of the cost of a new one. Of course, the prices of new machines depend on the individual models and extras such as bale handlers, hardened body liners and so on.

Keenan, part of the Alltech empire, unveiled its brand-new tub feeders in 2017; the tub feeders result from a tie-up between Keenan and Italian firm Storti.

Commenting on this arrangement, Michael said: The self-propelled was key for us, and Storti provided the engine part of that unit.

The vertical-auger feeder was an add-on to that. It brought us into the market very quickly and we didnt have to go down the route of development; the decision was made and within six months we had a product on the market.

To date, two self-propelled diet feeders have been sold in Ireland to dairy farmers in Co. Donegal and Co. Limerick.

As part of the open day, a live demonstration took place showcasing a Keenan MechFibre380 equipped with a bale handler, steering axle, fold-down tray, magnets, an InTouch box and a capacity of 24m.

Keenan area sales managerMelvyn Dowling explained that the diet feeder has the capacity for five-to-six bales, depending on dry matter (DM).

A Keenan VA2-24S tub feeder was also put through its paces. This twin-vertical-auger machine also with a capacity of 24m has a 20mm floor, a bale handler and an InTouch box.

Cathal Bohane who heads up the nutrition division at Keenan outlined that the MechFibre380 works at a rate of eight revolutions/min, while the vertical-auger feeder operates at 25 revolutions/min.

Commenting on the importance of a consistent diet, he said: When we looked at mix quality initially, we mixed the exact same ingredients and the exact same proportions in two different ways, and we got 1L of a difference in milk production from the cows, in addition to an increase in protein.

The rumen was healthier in those animals. The InTouch controller can store all the diets and this unit will guide the operator through the correct loading order and amount of each ingredient leading to a consistent diet.

At the end of the day, the diet you have on paper is completely different to the diet that is fed to the animals, he added.

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Revisited: What takes place behind the scenes at the Keenan factory in Co. Carlow? - Agriland

A new cost analysis indicates that the cardiometabolic costs associated with poor diet in the United States are almost $50 billion.

The study, conducted by Brigham and Womens Hospital and published in PLoS Medicine, was based on a validated microsimulation model (the Cardiovascular Disease Policy Model for Risk, Events, Detection, Interventions, Costs, and Trends [CVD PREDICT]). The model estimated cardiovascular annual disease (defined for the purposes of this study as fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction, angina, and stroke) and type 2 diabetes costs associated with suboptimal intake of certain food groups. The researchers chose 10 food groups for the analysis: fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, whole grains, unprocessed red meats, processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, polyunsaturated fats, seafood omega-3 fats, and sodium. They used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), creating a representative U.S. population sample of participants (aged 35 to 85 years). Using the CVD PREDICT model, the researchers then looked at individual risk for cardiometabolic disease and the associated costs based on current participant dietary patterns. After that, the authors re-calculated the costs for cardiometabolic disease if it were completely optimized with the healthiest amounts of all 10 food groups.

According to the study results, the researchers found that poor diets accounted for $301 per person in terms of cardiometabolic disease-related costs. When scaled up, this amounted to an estimated $50 billion nationally. Eighty-four percent of this was due to acute care. The data also indicated that costs were highest for those with Medicare ($481/person) and for those eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid ($536/person). The three dietary factors that contributed most significantly to these costs, according to the authors, were consumption of processed meats, low consumption of nuts/seeds, and low consumption of seafoods containing omega-3 fats.

We have accumulating evidence from the Food-PRICE collaborative research work to support policy changes focused on improving health at a population level, said study co-senior author Renata Micha, of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts, in a press release. One driver for those changes is identifying the exorbitant economic burden associated with chronic disease caused by our poor diets. This study provides additional evidence that those costs are unacceptable. While individuals can and do make changes, we need innovative new solutions incorporating policy makers, the agricultural and food industry, healthcare organizations, and advocacy/non-profit organizations to implement changes to improve the health of all Americans.

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Unhealthy Diets Are Responsible for Almost $50 Billion in Health Care Costs in the U.S. - DocWire News

The Buff Dudes brothers Brandon and Hudson White regularly tackle the toughest diets and workouts on their YouTube channel. Recently they took on the vegan diet, and now they've decided to do the complete opposite by tackling the carnivore diet.

If you're unfamiliar with the diet, it's basically as it sounds. No potatoes. No vegetables. No nuts. No 3 a.m. tacos unless they're made with meat tortillas.

The brothers hit up Costco to buy meat in bulk. Hudson explains he normally eats a lot of chicken but opted for meat with more fat, like salmon and rib eye, to account for the lack of carbohydrates in his diet.

During the first week, Hudson enjoys this new style of eating for its simplicity. He consumes two hard boiled eggs before the gym, then bacon and eggs after working out. Lunch is ground beef and dinner is a rib eye steak.

However, he soon gets tired of eating meat all the time and eventually drops ground beef from his diet.

"I burp ground beef. I dream about ground beef. I'm over it," he says.

But he does enjoy the diet for its ease. "It's kind of a meal prepper's dream," he says. "You just eat the same thing day in and day out." At one point, Hudson celebrates his birthday and is surprised with a meat cake.

Brandon, on the other hand, doesn't feel so great on this all-meat plan.

"I'm feeling pretty exhausted at night," he says.

In addition to the fatigue, eating large amounts of meat has left Brandon constipated. And when he does finally use the restroom, the results are less than stellar.

"The consistency is really....not good," he says.

However, the Buff brothers agree on one point: the carnivore diet helps with weight loss. At the beginning of the experiment, Brandon weighed 225. A month of eating all-meat helped him lose 12 pounds. Hudson lost roughly six pounds in the same time period.

Of course, there are other ways to lose way that don't involve giving up, well, everything.

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What Happened When Two Bodybuilders Tried the Carnivore Diet for 1 Month - Men's Health

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Meghan Markle received the title "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex" when she married Prince Harry in May of 2018. But before she married into Britain's royal family, she was an actress on the hit show Suits, and ran her own lifestyle site called The Tig. Meghan has always been passionate about health, exercise, food, travel and the latest trends in all of it. And she's dropped her tips through the years on how she stays zen and balanced. Here are 40 pieces of her best health advice.

1Be chill about aging.

"As Im getting older, my approach to aging is quite different," she told Best Health in 2016. "I make sure that I take care of my skin and body, especially with the work hours I have. And I dont just take care of myself for aesthetic reasons but because how I feel is dictated by what Im eating, how much rest Im getting, and how much water Im drinking. If I dont have time for a long workout, Ill grab my dog and go for a quick run. Being active is my own moving meditation."

2Make fitness a priority.

"Meghan Markle's fitness definitely takes priority; shes very focused on her health," Meghan's trainer, Craig McNamee, CSCS, founder of Catalyst Health in Toronto, Canada, told WomensHealthMag.com in 2018. "When she gets to the gym, theres no real complaining. She gets down to business right away and really enjoys it." (Another reason the royal is #goals.)

3Try running.

"Meghan is an avid runner, so she already did a lot of treadmill work on her own," McNamee explained to WomensHealthMag.com in 2018. "Wed look at what her run frequency was like that week" and build workouts around that.

4Take your skincare seriously.

In an interview with Allure in 2017, Meghan revealed her tried and true exfoliator. "I really love the Tatcha Rice Enzyme Powder," she said. "It just sort of foams on your face and gives you a really subtle exfoliation." In addition to exfoliation, Meghan also mentioned being a fan of Jan Marini skincare products. "I've been using their serum lately," she said. "It's a nice glycolic one that makes your skin really glow-y."

5Enjoy motherhood.

She previously said about parenthood, "Its magic. Its pretty amazing. And here I have the two best guys in the world, so Im really happy."

6Be realistic about social media.

"You see photos on social media and you dont know whether shes born with it or maybe its a filter. Your judgement of your sense of self-worth becomes really skewed when its all based on likes, Meghan said on her trip with Prince Harry to New Zealand in October 2018.

7Focus on your posture.

"Generally speaking, we had a full-body approach," her trainer McNamee told WomensHealthMag.com in 2018. "And since Meghan was onscreen, we really focused on posture." To do so, he always included posterior chain (glutes, back, hamstrings) exercises, in addition to plenty of core (abs, back, obliques, pelvic floor) work.

8Pick up strength training.

Meghan is also into circuit-based strength training. When she was still filming Suits in Toronto, she and her trainer McNamee met up three to four days a week, for 45-minute training sessions. "For Meghan, we tried to schedule these workouts early in the day, to make it a priority," he told WomensHealthMag.com in 2018. McNamee took a high-rep (20 to 25), low-weight strategy for Meghan's fitness routinerather than heavy lifting.

9Stay close with your mom.

Meghan and her mom, Doria Ragland, have an incredible bond. According to Oprah, Doria also loves yoga (and is currently a yoga teacher).

10Make time to stretch.

"Yoga is my thing, she confirmed to Canadian magazine Best Health. I was very resistant as a kid, but she [mom Doria] said, Flower [her nickname for Meghan], you will find your practice just give it time. In college, I started doing it more regularly," she added.

11Find makeup and skincare that works for you.

Meghan shared with Allure in 2017 about her makeup routine. "I don't wear foundation in real life. My routine is very simpleI call it the five-minute face. It's just Touche clat, curled lashes, mascara, Chap Stick, and a little bit of blush. That is my favorite kind of look. If I'm going to amp it up for night, then I use M.A.C. Teddy eyeliner, which is a really beautiful brown that has some gold in it."

12Drink your greens.

"It's easy to fall into the trap of rushing for a coffee when you hit that 4 p.m. slump," she told Today. "But if I blend some apple, kale, spinach, lemon, and ginger in my Vitamix in the morning and bring it to work, I always find that sipping on that is a much better boost than a cup of espresso."

13Keep working on self-acceptance.

"My 20s were brutala constant battle with myself, judging my weight, my style, my desire to be as cool/as hip/as smart/as 'whatever' as everyone else. My teens were even worsegrappling with how to fit in, and what that even meant," Meghan wrote in a blog post on her 33rd birthday on her old website The Tig in August 2014, accodring to Marie Claire. "[I]t takes time. To be happy. To figure out how to be kind to yourself. To not just choose that happiness, but to feel it."

14Use resistance bands.

Meghan's trainer McNamee told WomensHealthMag.com in 2018 that she particularly loves doing lower-body exercises using a mini bandwhich can conveniently be used just about anywhere.

15Be a supportive friend.

This past summer, Meghan flew from England to the United States in order to support her close friend Serena Williams as she competed in the US Open final. Best. Friend. Ever.

16Learn to enjoy cooking.

"I grew up on the set of a TV show called Married with Children, where my dad was the lighting director," she told Best Health in 2016. "Because of the content of the show, my dad would have me help in craft services, which is where they make all the food and nibblesthats where I started to learn about garnishing and plating. After being there every day after school for 10 years and seeing the appreciation of food, I started to learn the association between food and happiness and being able to entertainI think thats where the seed was planted."

17Challenge yourself in your workouts.

"Wed take into account any yoga postures she was trying to improve, and focus our efforts in those areas," Meghan's trainer McNamee told WomensHealthMag.com in 2018. In other words, if Meghan was dead-set on mastering a headstand, McNamee would include some more core exercises in her fitness routine.

18Find a nutrition plan that works for you.

Meghan revealed to The Chalkboard in 2015 that her daily breakfast at the time consisted of a Clean Cleanse vanilla shake with blueberries or an acai bowl with fresh berries and Manuka honey. She also shared the recipe for her favorite smoothie, which also uses Clean Cleanse vanilla powder.

The Clean Cleanse powder is part of the Clean Program, a 21-day nutritional cleanse that, according to the program's website, can boost your skin, sleep, digestion, energy, weight loss, and mental clarity.

19Block out gossip.

Meghan has previously said she doesn't read anything in the press, and that she and Harry make any effort to drown out noise when it comes to their relationship.

"It has its challenges, and it comes in wavessome days it can feel more challenging than others. And right out of the gate it was surprising the way things changed. But I still have this support system all around me, and, of course, my boyfriend's support. I don't read any press. I haven't even read press for Suits. The people who are close to me anchor me in knowing who I am. The rest is noise. Of course it's disheartening. It's a shame that that is the climate in this world, to focus that much on that, to be discriminatory in that sense. I think, you know, at the end of the day, I'm really just proud of who I am and where I've come from and we have never put any focus on that. We've just focused on who we are as a couple. And so when you take all those extra layers away and all of that noise, I think it makes it really easy to just enjoy being together."

20Volunteer your time to a cause you care about.

This year, it was revelaed that Meghan regularly volunteered at a soup kitchen in Toronto when she was working on Suits.

"Meghan Markle was an active supporter and volunteer of St. Felix Centre during her time living in the city while working on Suits. She volunteered on a regular basis in our kitchen as part of our Community Meals Program. The duchess also donated food from the set of Suits, and on one Thanksgiving she brought in all the food, turkeys and the fixings for over 100 people."

21Experiment with different eating styles.

She told Best Health in an interview in 2016: "I try to eat vegan during the week and then have a little bit more flexibility with what I dig into on the weekends."

22Check out new fitness studios.

In Meghan's guest editor's letter in Vogue, she mentioned an affinity for London-based fitness studio Heartcore's Ritual class. "Heartcore's new Ritual class is a high-energy, cardio-based mat workout incorporating elements of yoga, Pilates and barre," the description in Vogue reads.

23Embrace your favorite food.

In an interview Meghan did with former First Lady Michelle Obama for British Vogues September issue (which Meghan guest-edited, btw), Meghan revealed she loves tacos.

"So, over a casual lunch of chicken tacos and my ever-burgeoning bump, I asked Michelle if she would help me with this secret project," the Duchess wrote.

24Be independent, even when you're in a relationship.

I can tell you that at the end of the day I think its really simple, she told Vanity Fair of her relationship with Prince Harry. Were two people who are really happy and in love. We were very quietly dating for about six months before it became news, and I was working during that whole time, and the only thing that changed was peoples perception. Nothing about me changed. Im still the same person that I am, and Ive never defined myself by my relationship.

25Make food a family affair.

"I am a big fan of Sunday suppers. Whether we're eating lamb tagine, pot roast or a hearty soup, the idea of gathering for a hearty meal with friends and family on a Sunday makes me feel comforted," she told Today. "I enjoy making slow-cooked food on Sundays, like Filipino-style chicken adobo. It's so easycombine garlic, soy (or Bragg Liquid Aminos), vinegar, maybe some lemon and let the chicken swim in that sauce until it falls off the bone in a Crock Pot."

26Speak about your passions.

Meghan said during a panel discussion on International Women's Day in 2019, Your confidence comes in knowing that a woman by your side, not behind you, is actually something you shouldn't be threatened about but, opposed to that, you should feel really empowered in having that additional support that this is really about us working together."

27Find a creative outlet, like writing.

Before becoming royal, Meghan ran a lifestyle site called The Tig. She shared with Allure in 2017, "The Tig has been sort of swirling in my mind for years as something I wanted to do. My mom was a travel agent, so off-the-beaten-path travel has always been a big part of my life. And growing up in California, farm-to-table dining was something that I experienced. I'm the person friends come to when they want to find the perfect restaurant or boutique hotel on the outskirts of Paris. As opposed to scouring the Internet for a travel guide, wouldn't you rather ask the people who are really cool who go there? That's what I do. So I wanted to get all of that and put it together on one site."

28Always have healthy snacks on hand.

She previously told Good Housekeeping what snacks she likes: "Hummus, carrotsbecause I love them and so does my dog, Bogart, strangelya green juice, almond milk, for sure, and a chia seed pudding I make every single week. So easy, so good. I really love to cook."

29Value your education.

According to Glamour UK, while speaking to students and staff at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, the Duchess of Sussex talked about the value of education and the cost of university.

As a university graduate, I know the personal feeling of pride and excitement that comes with attending university, she began. From the moment you receive your acceptance letter to the exams you spend countless late nights studying for, the lifelong friendships you make with your fellow alumni to the moment that you receive your diploma, the journey of higher education is an incredible, impactful and pivotal one. I am also fully aware of the challenges of being able to afford this level of schooling for many people around the world, myself included. Getting honest about the difficulties of paying for life as a student, she said, It was through scholarships, financial aid programs and work-study where my earnings from a job on campus went directly towards my tuitionthat I was able to attend university. And, without question, it was worth every effort.

30Start your day with hot water and lemon.

Meghan shared with Delish in 2018 that when she shot Suits, she'd have hot water with lemon right when she woke up, then eat steel-cut oats with bananas and agave syrup for breakfast.

31Spend time with furry friends.

The Duchess of Sussex had two dogs when she was living in Toronto at the time she met Prince Harryrescues named Guy and Bogart. According to Vanity Fair, Guy made the move with Meghan to London when she and Harry began seriously dating, and Bogart remained behind in Toronto with friends of Meghan's.

32Let yourself indulge.

Meghan shared with Delish in 2018, "I'm always hoping I'm having lunch with people, so we can share fries. It's its own food group for me."

33Practice moderation.

According to Harper's Bazaar, Meghan named her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig after her favorite brand of red wine, Tignanello. "God, do I love wine; a beautiful full red or a crisp white. But if its cocktails, I love a spicy tequila cocktail, negroni, or good scotchneat," she said. "Do the things you enjoy within reason," she says. "Know your body and what works for you and youll be fine."

34Define yourself how you want to.

"You don't have to play dress up to be a feminist. You are a feminist exactly the way you are. You can be a woman who wants to look good and still stand up for the equality of women. There's no uniform for feminism; you are a feminist exactly the way you are," she told Create & Cultivate in 2017.

35Practice meditation.

According to Bustle via Meghan Markles former blog, The Tig, she practiced Vedic meditation. Vedic meditation comes from the Veda, which is the ancient Indian system of knowledge from which yoga, meditation, and Ayurvedic medicine all stem, according to the New York Meditation Center.

36Mix veggies into your favorite dishes.

Meghan told Delish in 2018 that a friend convinced her to slow-cook zucchini for four to five hours, until it breaks down into a "filthy, sexy mush" to toss with pasta. "The sauce gets so creamy, you'd swear there's tons of butter and oil in it, but it's just zucchini, water and a little bouillon," Meghan said.

37Take breaks from your daily routine.

Meghan told Delish in 2018, "When I'm traveling, I won't miss an opportunity to try great pasta. I come back from vacation every year with a food baby, and I've named her Comida. I get to the set and I'm like, 'Hey, Comida's here, and she's kicking.'"

38Work on being kind to yourself.

"We just need to be kinder to ourselves. If we treated ourselves the way we treated our best friend, can you imagine how much better off we would be?" she said. "Try to find a space inside of you that reminds yourself that yes, you can have questions and self doubt, that's going to come up, that's human. But at the end of the day, you are enough exactly as you are."

39Try Megaformer workouts.

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Markle shared her love for the Megaformer, a machine created by workout guru Sebastien Lagree, founder of the Lagree Method. "[It] is hands-down the best thing you could do for your body," Markle said. "Your body changes immediately. Give it two classes, and you will see a difference."

40Carry tea tree oil.

She told Allure in 2017, "The one thing that I cannot live without when I'm traveling is a small container of tea tree oil. It's not the most glamorous thing, but if you get a cut, a mosquito bite, a small breakout, no matter what it is, it's my little cure-all. It's inexpensive, it's small enough to carry on, and I bring it with me all the time."

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40 Meghan Markle-Approved Diet And Workout Tips To Try - Women's Health

In her late 40s, Kelly Ripa is arguably in the best shape of her life. Her biceps are ridiculous, her skin is all glowy...and have you seen her abs?! Kelly's jacked body didn't just happen by accident. But although she hustles in the gym, she also takes a super relatable approach to fitness. Here's how Kelly looks *so* amazing, and the health tricks she swears by.

1Make fitness a priority

Kelly does. Her routine includes running, SoulCycle classes, and the AKT method's cardio-strength classes. Kelly has trained for years with AKT's founder Anna Kaiser, and it shows.

2Follow an alkaline diet

Kelly follows an alkaline diet, which is where you only eat foods that are low in acid (aka alkaline). She started the diet after having a slew of injuries. "It has changed my life," she told viewers. "I swear I think it's responsible for me not being in pain."

3Give your skin time to breathe

Kelly's shared plenty of no-makeup pics on Instagram and, with skin like that, can you blame her?

4Snag a good dermatologist

Kelly told People that her skin completely changed after she started working with cosmetic dermatologist Fredric S. Brandt. I didnt have a routineI washed my face with soap, she said. He really sort of gave me an inside-out frame of mind in terms of beauty and taking care of myself. Once Ive done the damage, he erases it with his miracle concoctions, lotions, potions, lasers and needles.

5Consider anti-inflammatory supplements

Kelly takes anti-inflammatory supplements, including Omega-3 fish oil, black cumin seed oil, and turmeric, her personal nutritionist Dr. Daryl Gioffre told People. Plus, she drinks Alkamind Daily Greens every morning and Alkamind Daily Minerals during her workouts.

6Focus on your health

"Why is she so energetic and smiling? Because health equals energy," Gioffre told People. "She works as hard on her health as she does on the showshe probably [works] harder than anyone I know."

7Incorporate ballet into your workouts

Kellys long-time trainer Anna Kaiser told People that they do arm workouts on a ballet bar, alternating between pulsing in a half plank and pushing off the bar for a power move.

8Go all in with resistance bands

Kelly uses resistance bands to work all her arms inner and outer muscles. "We love that contraction and how that feels," Kaiser told People.

9Push yourself

Kelly's all about pushing her body to achieve new goals. This year, she helped nab the Guinness World Record for the Most Ballet Dancers En Pointe Simultaneously. Kelly and hundreds of other dancers all stood on their toes for a minute, and Kelly told viewers that she had to train for it.

10Be consistent

Kelly once shared that she works out at least four times a week, usually with Kaiser, for 60 to 90-minute sessions.

11Bring what you love into your workouts

"I love to dance, and she loves to dance," Kaiser told Women's Health. Together, Kelly and Anna do dance cardio, functional training, and circuit training, along with some serious core work. "You need to find something that you love to do, and that will help you show up...that thing that makes you feel really jazzed, and makes you feel great after, too," Kaiser said.

12Don't be scared of carbs

Kelly has made it clear that she loves her carbs. While her husband Mark Consuelos is on the keto diet, Kelly said she could never do it. "Mark says that I'm 'carb-o,' because I always eat his bun if he gets a burger. And the fries," she told Bon Appetit. "But you know, I work out, so I feel like I'm allowed."

13Snack healthy

Kelly told Bon Appetit that she loves to snack on nuts, dried fruit, and peanut butter ThinkThin high protein bars.

14Have some PB&J

Kelly is big into the sandwiches. "I get ciabatta bread, and now I eat half a sandwich before bed, with chunky Skippy peanut butter or Justin's honey peanut butter and Bonne Maman strawberry or raspberry jam," she told Bon Appetit.

15Live a little

Kelly told Bon Appetit that she's taken a more laidback approach to her diet over time. "At 48, I'm sort of saying, 'Who cares? Life is short," she said.

16Start your day with a really intense cup of coffee

Kelly is huge into Bulletproof coffee with the "darkest roast coffee" she can get. She adds a spoonful of Organic Valley ghee, and two shots of espresso. "It fills me up and I feel satiated, so it keeps me from being ravenous during the show," she told Bon Appetit.

17Hit the snooze button

Kelly sets her alarm for 5:30 a.m., but she told Women's Health that sometimes it can take her up to a half hour to actually roll out of bed.

18Try partner yoga

Kelly shared these pics of herself and Mark on an anniversary trip to the Bahamas. In her caption, Kelly joked that trust and flexibility keep their relationship alive.

19Find a sleep schedule that works for you

Ripa doesnt usually go to bed until 1 a.m., and she usually gets restless around 3:30 a.m. Mark will say, Why are you awake? Im not sure, she told Good Housekeeping. Still, she ends up getting around five hours of sleep a night.

20Focus on your whole core

Kelly's trainer Anna Kaiser told WomensHealthMag.com that she really tries to focus on moves that target the entire core, not just the abs. "Every exercise we do works your full corethe butt, the abs, and the backat the same time," she said. "If youre training functionally, youre hitting those muscles from all planes of motion."

21Switch it up

Kelly likes to mix things up here and there when it comes to her workouts. "I think its important for people to work out with a program that offers everything, not just one type of workout over and over again, so youre balancing the amount of cardio and strength youre doing, and youre switching it up," Kaiser told WomensHealthMag.com.

22Take snacks on the go

When Kelly is traveling, Kaiser said she always recommends Kelly travels with some healthy snacks.

23Focus on your core, not your abs

If you only focus on your abdominal wall, your back isnt going to be as strong, and so theres going to be an imbalance in your body, Kaiser told WomensHealthMag.com. You want them to be strong together and work together, and not have one overcompensate.

24Have yogurt for breakfast

Kelly is big on starting her day with Greek yogurt. I put honey and granola and make it look like some parfaitits a must, she told Good Housekeeping.

25View the gym differently

"It would have never have occurred to me to exercise before I had kids. Ever. Now, I find that I need it to clear my head," Kelly told WomensHealthMag.com. "I need strength and stamina because raising kids is the toughest job there is. And its the most rewardingbut it's exhausting, and it's hard work. My childless self would have died laughing seeing me in a gym."

26Fuel up before you sweat

Kelly said that she doesn't feel like eating after a run or big cardio workout. "So, before I'll have a beautiful salad. Sometimes I'll have a protein bar. Or nuts. Something that's supposed to be good for me," she told Good Housekeeping.

27Work out, even when you dont feel like it

Kelly told WomensHealthMag.com that she makes herself work out even when she doesn't feel like it. "Sometimes it's not so pleasant, and you don't want to wake up to go on a jog in the morning, but I just force myself to do it," she said.

28Go all in with Sunday breakfast

Kelly told Good Housekeeping that she likes to do a "full hot breakfast" on Sundays. "Mark likes me to make him breakfast in bed. We're both so busy during the week, I rarely have time. But on Sunday, it's the one time that I can do something really nice for him," she said. "And everybody enjoys my scrambled eggs, because I put cream in the eggs and some cheese in there. They're not fat-free, but they're delicious."

29Make the most of your workout time

Kelly is "extremely busy and AKT is super efficient as well as effective and crazy fun," Kaiser told InStyle. "We have such a blast together and she can get everything she needs, strength, cardio, power, stretching, in one place, instead of running to different boutique studios trying to fit it all in.

30Get some great exercise music

Good exercise jams are "everything," Kaiser told InStyle. She and Kelly are "both obsessed with finding the best music. It really drives the workout," she said.

31Try to eat clean

"For the most part, Mark and I have very clean diets. But we love cream in our coffee," Kelly told Good Housekeeping.

32Focus on the mental perks of exercise

Kelly says she gets more than an amazing body out of working out. "I feel like my mind is a little quieter when I exercise," she told Good Housekeeping.

33Know your heart history

Kelly told Good Housekeeping that she tries to work out to keep her heart healthy. "I don't have the best family history heart-wise, so I really try to keep my heart strong," she said.

34Go all in with exercise every day

"I try to make my heart beat out of my chest, hard-core, once a day for at least a half hour. I think that's very important," Kelly told Good Housekeeping.

35Know your weaknesses

Kelly told Good Housekeeping that she works out so consistently because it's super easy for her to fall out of her routine. "I'm the kind of person who, if I take one day off, well, it's very easy for me to take the next day off and then quit exercising. If I don't do it every day, I won't do it at all," she said.

36Start slow

When she first started working out, Kelly told Good Housekeeping that she would do it for three days a week, walking for a half hour on a treadmill. "Then it was five days a week, and then I started jogging. It was like a drug. The gateway drug is the treadmill," she said.

37Be cool with dessert

"I'm not militant about anything. If there's cheesecake in the house, I'll have some. If I'm in the mood for something, I'll have it," Kelly told Good Housekeeping. "I don't obsess about anything. I could have three or four 'cheat days' in a week and then not have dessert for another three months."

38Be in the moment

Kelly told Good Housekeeping that she recommends that people "appreciate every second, even when you're exhausted."

39Find what you need to chill

"I deep-breathe, and I do a lot of yoga," Kelly told Good Housekeeping.

40Figure out an eating plan that works for you

Kelly told Good Housekeeping that she loves cheese and high-fat foods, but she tries to keep herself in check. "I would love nothing more than to have pizza and french fries every day, but I try to limit those treats to once a week," she said.

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Kelly Ripa's Diet And Workout Routine That Keeps Her Looking Young - Women's Health

A variety of fried snacks and soft drinks are for sale in Mexico City's Centro Historico neighborhood. Meghan Dhaliwal/for NPR hide caption

Hunger once seemed like a simple problem. Around the globe, often in low-income countries, many people didn't get enough calories.

But increasingly, hunger exists side-by-side with obesity. Within the same community, some people are overweight while others don't have enough to eat.

And the tricky part: You can't "fix" hunger by just feeding people empty calories. You've got to nourish people with healthy, nutrient-dense foods, so they don't become obese.

A new report published in The Lancet shines a spotlight on this paradox. The dual problems of undernourishment and obesity often referred to as the double burden of malnutrition.

For example, people can begin life not getting enough calories and become stunted below average height for age but by adulthood can become overweight due to an abundance of cheap calories.

Similarly, an obese teenager even in a wealthy country like the U.S. can easily grow overweight from eating junk food yet still be deficient in micronutrients that are key for optimal health.

"The new nutrition reality is about countries having not just undernutrition or just having obesity but about ... the combination of both," says Corinna Hawkes, a report author, and director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London.

The report finds an estimated 2.3 billion children and adults are overweight and more than 150 million children are stunted. The problem, researchers say, is that the ideal diet includes plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains and beans, but much of the globe has developed a taste for snack foods full of refined carbohydrates and sugar.

"The poorest low- and middle-income countries are seeing a rapid transformation in the way people eat, drink and move at work, home, in transport and in leisure," says report author Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "The new nutrition reality is driven by changes to the food system, which have increased availability of ultra-processed foods that are linked to increased weight gain."

Popkin and his co-authors argue that systematic changes are needed to fix the problem: Everything from changing food production and processing to how foods are priced, labeled and marketed.

"All relevant policies and investments must be radically re-examined," says Francesco Branca, Director of the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development at the World Health Organization.

And, given that poor diets are now linked to more deaths than smoking, there's an urgency, researchers say.

"We can no longer characterize countries as low-income and undernourished, or high-income and only concerned with obesity. All forms of malnutrition have a common denominator: food systems that fail to provide all people with healthy, safe, affordable and sustainable diets," Branca says.

We asked experts and thinkers in global nutrition to share initiatives and policies aimed at tackling the problem. Some are old, some old; all these efforts take on urgency given the scope of the problem.

Grow healthier foods

Focusing on the production and distribution of nutrient-dense foods is a good place to start, says Danielle Nierenberg, president and founder of Food Tank. She points to the work of the World Vegetable Center, which helps farmers in Asia and Africa grow an array of vegetables in an effort to prevent micronutrient deficiencies and malnutrition.

"One of the most interesting things they do is help provide resources for women farmers to create value-added products, like vegetable powders. These have the dual benefit of preventing food loss and waste, and providing essential nutrients throughout the year, as well as a source of income," Nierenberg says.

She says in addition to projects like this, the group works to improve vegetable breeding practices.

"This focus on veggies will help transform diets and health but only if governments and policy makers realize their importance," Nierenberg says.

She also points to the work of the International Center for Research in the Semi-Arid Tropics' (ICRISAT) Smart Food project that is promoting grain crops like millets and sorghums to improve nutrition. Both are nutrient-dense and provide a mix of fiber, protein and micro-nutrients.

"Milllets and sorghums have long been neglected and they have an image problem they're thought of as 'birdseed' or considered poor people's foods," Nierenberg says. "But they're highly nutritious, they have a low glycemic index, they're resilient to drought and disease and they're delicious."

Money talks

To address obesity and poor nutrition, we can't rely on people to use willpower to make healthier choices, says Will Masters, professor in the Friedman School of Nutrition and Science Policy at Tufts University. Instead, he argues that government regulations and taxes can play a key role in shifting what we eat and drink.

He points to the U.K., where the government introduced a tax on sugary drinks that took effect in 2018. The policy was structured to give manufacturers an incentive to redo their products: When a company reduces sugar in its products below a certain threshold, they can avoid the tax.

There's already some evidence that the policy has led to changes on store shelves. The U.K. grocery retailer Tesco reformulated all 251 of its house brand sodas to reduce sugar and avoided the levy. "Tesco customers are now consuming on average over 20% less sugar from our soft drinks than in 2011," a Tesco executive told The Guardian in 2016.

"It's a clear example where taxes are a stick that leads the company to dial down the sugar in these beverages, " Masters says.

Governments can also design food subsidy programs that encourage healthier eating among low-income beneficiaries of government food aid. The idea is that people who are low-income beneficiaries of government food aid don't just need calories they need nourishment. And they may need to be educated on how to get it.

Professor Hawkes, who is one of the authors of the new Lancet report, cites Egypt and Mexico as examples. In Mexico, "people who received cash [for food] also received training and education about healthy eating," she says.

With a change in government in Mexico last year, these programs are in flux. In the U.S, the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) federal nutrition program also combines food assistance with nutrition education and support for low-income moms.

Promote breastfeeding

To prevent undernutrition early in life, there are increasing efforts to promote breastfeeding around the globe, says Jessica Fanzo, professor of global food and agricultural policy and ethics at Johns Hopkins University. The added benefit is that breastfeeding can also help protect against obesity and type 2 diabetes later in life.

"There is strong evidence suggesting that exclusively breastfeeding children has both short-term and long-term benefits to child health and nutrition," Fanzo says.

She points to the growth of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, which was started by WHO and UNICEF back in the early 1990s, in an effort to promote breastfeeding. A hospital or clinic maternity ward can be designated "baby-friendly" when it implements a series of steps such as not accepting free or low-cost baby formulas, helping mothers start breastfeeding within a half-hour of birth, giving newborns no food or drink other than breastmilk (unless medically necessary), keeping babies in the room with their mothers to encourage breastfeeding on demand and giving no pacifiers to babies.

The program has been implemented in hospitals and clinics in many countries, and has been shown to be effective in helping women both initiate breast feeding and stick with it. Fanzo says it's one evidence-based way to promote health and good nutrition.

Invest in farmers

To transform the food system, governments have to help farmers, especially in low- and middle-income countries, says Ertharin Cousin, a distinguished fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and former executive director of the World Food Programme.

She says there are lots of initiatives that can work aid to secure financing, technologies to improve storage so farmers don't lose their harvests, access to improved seeds and fertilizer.

Cousin says there are lots of unfunded business opportunities within the food and agricultural sectors. Together with a group of partners, earlier this year she started a hybrid nutrition impact fund, Food Systems for the Future (FSF) Institute. She says the goal is to improve nutrition outcomes for underserved and low-income communities.

Get to know your veggies

Imagine growing vegetables that you never eat. That's the reality for some farm families in the highlands of Guatemala.

"Many of these moms work in the fields tending to a marvelous variety of vegetables that are largely grown for export," says Roger Thurow, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs who focuses on food and agriculture.

There's a big opportunity, he says, to improve nutrition by making people more comfortable using vegetables in the kitchen. He points to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Program by Primeros Pasos, a clinic in the western highlands of Guatemala that teaches families the importance of eating the nutrient-dense crops around them. The moms in the program attend regular nutrition classes, which include cooking lessons.

Within the U.S., the group Share Our Strength operates Cooking Matters in cities throughout the country. Classes are held to teach families who have very limited budgets to shop for and cook healthy meals. It's one of a growing number of programs aimed at changing behavior by teaching people how to cook and educating them about the important health benefits of good nutrition

Thurow writes in his book, The First 1,000 Days, about other initiatives, including a home visitation program in Chicago to help support and educate moms in low-income neighborhoods about the importance of good nutrition. In his book he describes a doula a health worker who assists a woman during pregnancy and delivery bringing a bag of fresh produce to pregnant women when she comes to see them.

"It's basically house-to-house combat against malnutrition," Thurow says.

See more here:
Overweight Yet Undernourished: How To Solve The Global Hunger Paradox : Goats and Soda - NPR

Did you grow up eating low-salt food because someone in your family had high blood pressure (BP)? If yes, youre probably luckier than you realise.

One in four Indian adults has hypertension. Increasingly people in the 25-34 age group are falling prey to this disease that increases wear and tear in the blood vessels. Though there are many reasons for this, a high-salt diet is not blameless.

Heres how it affects your health:

Ever noticed how you feel thirsty after going through a bag of chips? Regular salt contains roughly 40% sodium (the rest is chlorine). When we consume a lot of salt in a short time, the body tries to dilute the sodium in our blood with water. When the amount of water in the blood rises, the overall volume of blood increases. Now the heart has to pump more. Hardworking as it is, the heart likes to work just the right amount. Too much strain on the heart can weaken the heart muscle, or even lead to heart failure.

Salt poisoning isn't only real, it's already affecting public health in evident ways. Image: WWW

Research has also linked high-salt diets to increased risk of kidney disease, brain stroke, diabetes, dementia and poorer bone health.

High BP affects every organ in the body, especially the heart. BP is measured in millimetres of mercury - any reading over 140/90 is considered high. This reading means that blood vessels withstand at least 140 mm of pressure every time the heart contracts and 90 mm when it relaxes.

Over time, the blood vessels become rigid as a result of high pressure. This sets off a vicious cycle. High BP makes the blood vessels rigid, and rigid blood vessels increase BP further and high BP also increases the chances of cholesterol plaque buildup in the arteries which can become choked. This, in turn, can lead to a host of problems like heart attack and brain stroke.

Between 2009 and 2011, German scientists ran a bunch of tests on astronauts on two simulated missions to Mars over 105 days and 205 days, respectively (the second mission was for 520 days, but the scientists studied the astronauts for a little less than half that duration). Every 30-60 days, the scientists changed the amount of salt in the astronauts diet. The variations were 12 grams of salt a day, 9 grams daily or 6 grams per day.

At the end of the period, they found a connection between high salt intake and water retention in the kidneys not only did the test subjects have less water in their pee for days when they ate more salt, but they also started drinking less water because their kidneys were retaining water already.

The scientists found one more thing: changing the amount of salt in the daily diet also triggered a change in the production of two hormones aldosterone, which cleans the sodium out of the kidneys, and glucocorticoids, which keeps the metabolism ship-shape. This hormonal imbalance, they said, can cause a range of metabolic disorders, from diabetes to metabolic syndrome.

Salt affects the excretion of calcium through our pee. More salt equals more calcium loss equals loss of bone density, and potentially, the formation of kidney stones. Its fitting that the way to pass the smaller kidney stones is to drink lots of water, which also improves the overall salt-water balance in the blood.

Scientists at New Yorks Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, and the Department of Neurology, Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, Knight Alzheimers Disease Research Center, Washington University, have found that the more salt you eat, the more tau proteins build up in your brain. Usually, tau proteins help the brain cells get nutrition. But when theres an imbalance of tau proteins, it can lead to a decline in brainpower. The scientists published their research inNature Neuroscience- a peer-reviewed journal - in October 2019.

For more information, please read our article onRock Salt: Benefits and Side-effects.

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.

Updated Date: Dec 24, 2019 12:28:59 IST

Tags : Effects Of Too Much Salt, Healthy Diet, High In Salt, High-Salt Diet, Low-Salt Diet, Salt, Salt Health Effects, Salt Health Problems, Side-Effects Of Salt

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Diets low in salt aren't just 'good for health' they keep life-threatening conditions at bay - Firstpost

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