I would write you, but I want to see if you'll write me first.

Dr. Joseph Mercola on Natural Health Products and Articles

Dr. Joseph Mercola on Natural Health Products and Articles

I opened my e-mail the other day to this article sent by my mother, an avid health advocate. The article talks about the dangers of Agave Nectar, a natural syrup used by many as a sugar replacement. The sweet syrup comes from the Agave plant, a desert plant that grows in the Southern U.S. as well as Mexico, Central and South America.

I had been using this syrup in my baked goods ever since my sister mentioned the product to me several years ago. I've baked with it and used it as a maple syrup replacement. It is a delicious, natural product that I have kept in stock since learning about it.

The article, written by Dr. Mercola, notes 7 reasons why NOT to buy/use agave nectar as a sugar replacement, its high fructose content listed as number 1. He then lists several other reasons: The syrup we buy in stores is highly processed, it may be a highly sprayed crop, it has no nutritional value...et cetera.

What I was motivated to write about, is this: How can we, as consumers, use a product for years, believing that there is nothing better to buy, and that it's without a doubt one of the healthiest choices, when in fact, it's the complete opposite?

There's something wrong with this picture. Where are we getting our information from? Who should we trust when it comes to what we put into our bodies, what is "tried and true", and what is healthy?

If you rely only on Internet doctors and their articles, you will be misinformed.

If you rely only on what your neighbor tells you that she thinks is "the best out there", you will be misinformed.

And If you follow the same traditions that your mother has been using for her entire life, you may very well be misinformed.


There's only one person you can trust in this case, and that's yourself.

pensées.

J'attends toujours des bonnes nouvelles.
Ça fait trop de temps que je n'ai pas entendu quelque chose de vraiment bon.
Ça pourrait être un e-mail de lui, une lettre ou même juste un petit mot...pour me dire qu'il m'aime.
Est-ce trop à demander?

Ça pourrait aussi un 'oui' qui vient de l'un des universités auxquelles je me suis postulée il y a quelque temps.
Aujourd'hui, j'ai reçu un 'non'. J'attends un réponse de trois autres universités.

Au moins, demain sera un voyage. Je vais à Nice pour voir une copine qui étudie la musique là bas.
Je ne resterai plus que deux nuits, donc je vais essayer de m'amuser bien.

La bande dessinée que j'ai lu cet après-midi m'a vraiment frappé.
Elle racontait une histoire d'un vieux homme qui a attrapé la maladie Alzheimer.
Il a très vite perdu sa mémoire, et l'écrivain a même dessiné des visages comblées et flous à la fin de l'histoire, pour que l'on pourrait essayer d'apercevoir les effets d'Alzheimer chez le personnage principal.
Ça m'a rendu un peu triste et j'avais envie de faire des choses de nouveau pour mieux vivre ma vie, pleinement.
Maintenant, les choses passent très lentement.
Il faut que je trouve un moyen de passer mon temps et de me distraire un peu.

Student status.

I wish I were a student again.

I know when I get my Masters I'll be able to achieve that status. There are just so many things I adored about college, I am kind of anxiously waiting to go back, already.

What I miss the most:

1) Sense of belonging
Sure, you can still have a sense of belonging without going to a university or wearing your school colors every day. But walking around the same campus, seeing the same people, and hearing the bells chime your school's alma mater gives you a fuzzy feeling you can't get anywhere but on a campus.

2) People you see every day
They become family. Especially the ones you live with. You share everything with them, the highs and the lows. They keep you from getting too stressed. They're always there, and you know you can call on them if you need help. Familiar faces= more fuzzy feelings.

3) libraries.
I never was without an open, available library around me until I came to France. Sure, there is one small library here, but it's certainly not as large as the ones you'd find on a college campus, where you can bring your lunch and just spend hours reading countless books. And, they're all at your disposition. Come finals, the library becomes your home. And for me, I loved going. It was a quiet "escape" from the rush of everyday life.

4) campus activities
When I was taking 21 credits at the end of my senior year, I'll admit I wasn't as involved in my campus activities. But freshman year brought me the most fun, and filled my schedule with other things besides class: Going to parties, hitting the gym, prayer groups, dinners, football games, shopping trips, the list goes on. You could never not find a group of people willing to go out and do something whenever the cabin fever bug bit.

5) student discounts
(I'm still using them today, almost a year after I graduated). Who can complain? We pay dirt for airline tickets, transportation fees, movie/play tickets, an so on. Even after you're no longer a student, you still get benefits and discounts from being under 25.

6) being around people my age
Again, being in a small town of 4,500 reiterates the fact that there are limited people my age here in France. Clearly, being on a campus you're enveloped by people you can relate to, talk to, grab a coffee with when the mood strikes, play pool at the corner bar...but nowhere else do you have that constant presence of friends, acquaintances, professors that become friends, and so forth.

I suppose this post was necessary after listening to a Harvard lecture online about philosophy. The camera made it feel like you were present in the lecture hall, and the professor was right in front of you. I got a strong sense of longing for that atmosphere. Who knows, maybe if I get my Ph.D. one day, I can work and live in that atmosphere for as long as I choose. But being a student is a time one should cherish, because after that, the real world kicks in and you've got to start paying back those loans, find your own apartment, maybe live with a lot fewer roommates (who might not even be your age), and move to wherever your job takes you. It's inevitable for us, so we should enjoy being a student when we are and not take any of that time for granted.