Eating for Life

Some people ignore dietary advice to cut back on or cut out animal products, perhaps hoping that a 'magic pill' will come along that will make their illnesses go away. Common sense tells us that prevention is the best medicine. More and more people are finding wonderful ways to tempt their taste buds without tempting fate.

"Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country ... they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 per cent of our cancer rate." - William Castelli, MD, director, Framingham Heart Study, the longest-running epidemiological study in medical history

"There's no reason to drink cow's milk at any time in your life. It was designed for calves, not humans, and we should all stop drinking it today." - Dr Frank A. Oski, former director of paediatrics, Johns Hopkins University

"What do you think of meat-based diets like the Atkins diet?" I call them 'the make yourself sick diets' because they cause the body to go into ketosis - a state that occurs when we are seriously ill. I also use that designation because the very foods recommended - meat, chicken, bacon, eggs and cheeses - are the foods the Heart Association and the Cancer Society say cause our most dreaded diseases. ... There is only one way to fully satisfy your appetite with delicious foods and stay trim and healthy for a lifetime - that's a low-fat vegetarian diet with fruits and vegetables and a bit of exercise. - Dr John McDougall, medical director of the McDougall programme.

Eliminating animal foods from your diet reduces the risk of some of our biggest killers. According to Dr T. Colin Campbell, nutritional researcher at Cornell University and director of the largest epidemiological study in history, 'The vast majority of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented simply by adopting a plant-based diet.' Heart disease, cancer, strokes, diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity and other diseases have all been linked to meat and dairy consumption.It's never too late to change your habits for the better. Changing your diet isn't nearly as inconvenient as enduring a heart bypass operation, suffering paralysis from a stroke or facing chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer! Going vegetarian is the single best thing you can do for your health.

Vegetarians are typically slimmer than meat-eaters. A whopping 70 per cent of men and 63 per cent of women in the UK are either overweight or obese, conditions which lead to illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, gallbladder diseases, arthritis and musculoskeletal problems. In a study in the British Medical Journal, researchers studied 21,105 people and found that vegan men weighed 5.9 kilograms less and vegan women 4.7 kilograms less than their meat-eating counterparts. The study concludes, '[T]hese data suggest that a meat-free diet is associated with a low prevalence of obesity'.

The risk of developing heart disease amongst meat-eaters is 50 per cent higher than that of vegetarians. In fact, researchers have found that the longer and more often people eat meat, the greater their risk of heart disease.

Meat, dairy products and eggs are completely devoid of fibre and complex carbohydrates, the nutrients that we're supposed to be consuming more of, and are laden with saturated fat and cholesterol, which make us fat and lethargic in the short term and lead to clogged arteries and heart attacks in the long term.

ACT UP HELLAS (Aids Coalition To Unleash Power - Greece) will be informing and raising awareness of the public in the central train station of Piraeus in Athens. Our activities have started a month ago, with a DANCE FOR AIDS action and will go on until the end of 2006, with many educational programmes ( for children, youth and adults), more DANCE FOR AIDS actions in well-known clubs and bars of Athens, art exhibitions from our summer campaign (Safe Summer '06 - Keep The Promise) and many activities from all Universities in Greece and from many people who share our beliefs and work along with us in the fight against AIDS.
Today, the world unites, for the 25 years of HIV existance. However, we must keep working all year, every year, find efficient ways to inform, educate and support youth and everyone. Our leaders have promised to diminish AIDS by 2015. Lets remind them, push them and work with them to achieve that goal. Lets all keep our promises!
I 'll be waiting information about what everybody does this day and throughout the year.
Keep working!

Earlier this month, an incident came to the front in Greece. A 16 year old girl from Bulgaria -living in Greece- was raped by four of her male-classmates inside her school -in the toilettes- while two girls were recording everything with their cell-phone cameras. One cannot imagine what has been said over this, through media, public authorities and mouth2mouth discussions. Some ended up saying it was her fault, that she was the one to provoke them, so she "needed" it.
I really don't know how to react. Apart from the violation of her rights as a human - with her picture in some newspapers and on some TV programmes and everything happening in a closed community (it was in a region of Greece called Evia) - the school's first decision was to expell all of them from classes for 5 days. As if that would put things to place for the girl and the rest of students. The fact that they reformed the decision, doesn't change the situation.
When we say "we have an educational system", what exactly do we mean?That we provide academic knowledge to our youth? What? Where exactly is the social education? Shouldn't we do something towards that direction, instead of teaching only how to solve mathematical problems, what happened when and how we spell the words? Our children are growing up without knowledge of their rights, their body, even their mind and its power. Nobody teaches them that they should respect anothers opinion and way of life, they are taught that they are RIGHT and the rest are WRONG. They cannot have arguments because they were never taught how to think for themselves and be able to judge what they see.
I am determined to find a way to change that. I 'm already trying - being an educator - to achieve that. It might take two or three lifetimes, but I 'll manage.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and please send me your views.

Dear friends around the globe,

We are very glad to invite you to participate in the 3rd edition of "Creativity" (www.creativity.gr)!!!

CREATIVITY 3 "Love and Unity", an intercultural youth event organized by "Kids in Action" and aiming to bring together more than 200 young people from all over the world in order to express themselves in the themes of love and unity through a variety of artistic workshops.

Find all the information related to this activity under : http://www.creativity.gr/3/opencall

Should you have any question, please write to us on: opencall@creativity.gr
We want that you explode our mailbox!

Don΄t hesitate to forward this email to all your contacts that might be interested !!

Warmest regards on behalf of "Kids in Action",

Eduard Gutierrez
External Communications
"Creativity 3" Steering Committee


-- CREATIVITY 3 "Love and Unity"www.creativity.grinfo@creativity.grInspired an Initiated by:KIDS IN ACTIONLagada, 12, 4th54630 - THESSALONIKI0030 2310552655 (tel & fax)info@kidsinaction.grwww.kidsinaction.gr"Kids in Action is a non profit, non governmental,independent youth organization that activates inthe fields of inclusion and participation for all,empowering and encouraging young people to pioneerin the construction of a peaceful and diversity respectful Europe of Knowledge
Andreana Maniati
Coordinator of Youth Mobility Projects

Kids in Action
Civil non profit company
Lagada 12, 54630
4th floor
Thessaloniki
Greece
0030 2310 552655 (tel&fax)
info@kidsinaction.gr
www.kidsinaction.gr
www.creativity.gr


"Kids in Action is a non profit, non governmental, independent youth
organization that activates in the fields of inclusion and participation for
all, empowering and encouraging young people to pioneer in the construction
of a peaceful and diversity respectful Europe of Knowledge"

End of 2005, I have commissioned a big painting with the subject of Four Seasons.

The dimensions of the painting: 200cm X 150cm.

Each season is being represented by an ancient Greek God or Goddess.
The Four Seasons by Erato Tsouvala

Some details of the painting:


Spring (Venus)- Summer (Cupid) - Fall Persefone (Prosperine) - Winter (Mercury Hermes)

website for Art of Erato: http://www.arterato.org

Hi there!

My name is Manolis and I come from Greece.

I am writing to report on my efforts to raise awareness concerning the MDGs.

From 22nd August to 2 nd September I was a camp leader in one of the camps that my organization (Conservation Volunteers Greece) organizes. It was a sports camp where 10 volunteers from Japan, Mexico, Italy, Finland and Greece participated in different sports activities for 12 days. The sports camp took place in a special camp with sports facilities in Western Greece.

What I did was to organize an evening concerning the MDGs. I made a small presentation to the volunteers about the MDGs, give them all the necessary information and also provide them with useful sites on te internet where they could have access to useful information as the sites of takingitglobal and milleniumcampaign for youth.

After that I delivered them a small workshop on NVC (Non Violent Communication)which included:

Brainstorming on the blocks of communication

Brainstorming on facilitators of communication

Exercises in pairs on how to express negative feelings with an effective and non violent way

Exercises in pairs on how to listen to other people's negative feelings by showing empathy.

I really hope that this small presentation helped them to understand what the MDG are and be more sensitized and informed.

All the best to everyone

Manolis

The 4rth World Summit on Media for Children and Adolescents that will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 19-23 April 2004 has been recently announced.
Interested parties can access information on the event at www.riosummit2004.com.br and register.