Daily Loaf

Since 1996 my company, It’s Our Nature has had a vision of connecting our wellness to the health of the earth. Recently, Prevention Magazine provided a list of Surprising Signs That You’ll Probably Live Longer that correlate to a green lifestyle.

Here are some of the connections from Planet Green:

You walk to stay fit. Fit people–defined as those who walk for about 30 minutes a day–are more likely to live longer than those who walk less, regardless of how much body fat they have, according to a recent study of 2,603 men and women.

Green It: Walking for a purpose- The best way to stay fit is to include walking in your everyday life as a way to get from A to B. Park the car and instead choose to walk to the store or if you use public transportation, walk to the bus or train station. That’s why Europeans are so enviously thin; they walk to get somewhere not just to stay fit. Save fossil fuels and win the battle of the bulge by hitting the pavement.
Read the rest of this entry »

The study of yoga was first brought to the Western world by Paramahansa Yogananda as a way of spreading enlightenment.  He popularized yoga and meditation through his autobiography, Autobiography of a Yogi which was first published in 1946.  This ancient tradition offers many esoteric and physical benefits with regular practice. 

Some of the physical benefits include increased toning, flexibility, improved posture, improved lung capacity, as well as lowered blood pressure.  Yoga can also assist with many chronic conditions such as back pain, arthritis, asthma and insomnia.  Yoga also brings in a state of calm which reflects stress build up in one’s life.  We all know that stress effects your entire being, especially your physical health, as the emotional and mental create the physical health.
Read the rest of this entry »

Lately, I haven’t been sleeping very well. Friends and family tell me that it is because I am living alone for the first time in my life. Perhaps this is true, but what I’ve discovered from my newly-poor sleeping habits is my appreciation of dawn.

On the few nights when I get tired, I’ll rise to the occasion by wearing the most comfortable pajamas I own, fix myself some chamomile tea and hop into bed as soon as possible. This usually occurs at about 7:30 p.m. Tragically, I’ll wake up at about 5:30 in the morning, bright-eyed, rested and smiling, but with no one to talk to. After lying in bed for about 30 to 45 minutes deciding what to do with myself, I decide to take the opportunity to use my subdivision’s gym. The best part about this: I will be the only one there.

I know I’ve made myself pretty clear on the fact that I like to workout, I enjoy the adrenaline rushes, and fitness is slowly taking over my life, but when it comes to gyms, I have a lot of hang-ups about to gym personalities. Read the rest of this entry »

Wikipedia describes a marathon as “a long-distance foot race with an official distance of 42,195 kilometers (26 miles, 385 yards, or exactly 26 7/32 miles) that is usually a road race.”
I would describe it as 26.2 miles of sheer determination, dedication, and a touch of insanity.

The author training for Disney during the winter of 2008.

The marathon is not something everyone has on their bucket list. It’s not for everyone. Some people have other goals and aspirations, but for me it always seemed like a really cool thing to do. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would become one of those crazy runner types. You know the ones who get up at the buttcrack of dawn and head out for a 10, 14, 18 or even 20 mile run? You know the ones who run five or six days a week? What exactly makes those people do it?

I started my quest to the marathon in 2008 when I added the words “run a marathon” to my list of things to do before I turned 30. I was 28 at the time, had no “running friends”, no idea of how to train for one, and absolutely the worst case of procrastination known to man. To give you a glimpse of my over all health, I was a typical gym goer. I’d run about three to five miles a few days a week, eat and drink too much on the weekends and come Monday it was all about repentance. I wasn’t really out of shape, but I wasn’t even ready for a 10K, let alone a marathon.

I registered for the 2009 Walt Disney World Marathon about a year before. I began serious training about 8 weeks out (NOTE: Terrible idea). See? My procrastination knows no bounds. Luckily, I found a running group in Brandon and they helped me along. They also told me I was nuts and shouldn’t do a marathon on such little training. Being a stubborn person, I did it anyway.

My longest run before Disney was 18 miles. It was not enough. I made it to mile 18 of the Disney Marathon and felt my entire body start fighting against me. By mile 20 I was run-walking. By mile 21 I was run-walking-cursing. By mile 22 I thought I had lost my mind because my legs hurt so badly. By miles 23 and 24 I wanted to quit. Sheer determination and stubbornness kept me going. I almost flipped the bird to a spectator who cheered to me, “You’re almost there!”, at mile 25. The last 1.2 miles were brutal, both mentally and physically. I kept thinking, “well you can scratch this off the list and never do it again.”

But then something happened. Read the rest of this entry »

Holly Benson, secretary of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, sounded more like my grandpa at a barbecue when she suggested poor people can solve health care woes like heart disease and diabetes with a quick jog around the block. After all, she told a radio host earlier this year, unemployment “means you have a lot more time to go running.”

[About Daily Best of the Bay: Creative Loafing is posting writers' and editors' picks for Best of the Bay 2009 each day until the BOTB issue is released on Sept. 16. Vote now for your own BOTB choices in our Readers' Poll!]

Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Living with the land: Florida’s first Earthship (video) – Eric Stewart gives a firsthand look at Florida’s first Earthship in Manatee County, and gets his hands dirty while helping out.

Not getting a million-dollar bonus this year? Think local stimulus- Scott Milinder shows us a real stimulus package that will work for us: we all commit to “Buying Local First.” According to recent economic studies, shifting your buying habits to locally owned businesses creates more circulation of money, more economic activity and more jobs in the local economy.

Eco-friendly summertime fashion accessories- Are you searching for a unique and beautiful purse to enhance your summer wardrobe? Then why not consider one of these recycled handbags that are made from recycled items that help to promote a cleaner and healthier world, reports Jen Meier.
Read the rest of this entry »

Reducing your beef (or all meat, for that matter) consumption could make quite an impact on not only your health, but also on the environment.

Beef contains high levels of cholesterol and saturated fat, as well as chemicals and growth hormones. Many scientific studies have linked the consumption of red meat to heart disease, stroke, and breast and colon cancer.

According to the National Research Council, beef has the highest levels of herbicides of any food food sold in the US. This is obviously due to all of the pesticides used on the corn and soybeans that is then used for cattle feed. The NRC says that beef rates as second highest on the list of foods that pose the greatest risk of cancer due to pesticide contamination (tomatoes being the highest on the list). Their studies also show that over 95% of all cattle in the US are receiving growth hormones and other pharmaceuticals, many of those then showing up in the cuts of beef we buy at the grocery store.
Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Dream Momma, This little dream has been bothering me so I thought I would send it to you. In the dream my boss and his wife stopped by my house and my bed wasn’t made. (I always make my bed every day unless I’m so sick that i need to be in it.)

Hi Messy Bed Dreamer. I’m going to assume that when your boss and his wife stopped by you weren’t really sick in bed. So, what are you sick of? The dream says your job. The house is your life and the bed is your job, relationship, family, health, lifestyle, religion, social life, (Circle all that apply). Read the rest of this entry »

When I was in public school, I developed such a phobia of sex from my health teachers’ slides of flesh rotting STDs and flamboyant Priests’ speeches about vaginas being highways to hell, that I genuinely feared my dick would spontaneously combust upon touching a girl. Consequently, I was a virgin well into college (actually, the static state of my virginity had more to do with the fact that I couldn’t grow pubic hair until I was 18, but it feels better to blame religion and the government).

But times are changing. Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) just published a pamphlet advising students that it’s their “right” to have an enjoyable sex life. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this past week:

Reconstructing a historic bat tower in Temple Terrace and how to build your own bat roost- Grant Rimbey investigates efforts in Temple Terrace to reconstruct an historic tower for bats, discusses a large community bat roost he designed for the Florida Bat Conservancy, and tells how you can purchase (or build) your own bat roost for your yard.

Summer Solstice: A brief history- Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, occurs this Sunday- June 21st. Here are a few facts you might not have known about it, from Linda Taylor.

Organics: How to eat well without breaking your budget- With the increase of demand over organic food in the last ten years you would think that a wide range of these products would be easily accessible. Here’s some some advice from Kelly Rothwell on purchasing healthy, organic food in this region without breaking your budget.
Read the rest of this entry »

Below, is an interview I just conducted with Arlen Slobodow, a local filmmaker who just completed a documentary about air pollution caused by fossil fuels in the Tampa Bay area and how it affects our health and the health of our planet. Also, see my last post which goes more in depth about the film.

The following interview was conducted by phone on the evening of Tuesday, June 16, 2009.

Matt De Vlieger (M): How did you get involved in documentary filmmaking?
Arlen Slobodow (A): I have always been interested in social change work and have found mass media a good way to accomplish that. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, I received an email from a local filmmaker, Arlen Slobodow of Public Media Productions, asking me to take a look at a 17-minute video he just completed on public health and the environmental consequences of air pollution in the Tampa Bay area.  Because I am such a supporter of local independent media production, things that inspire action for the public good, and combating big polluters, I thought I’d share it.  Also, be sure to check out my interview with the film’s writer/director/producer, Arlen Slobodow, in my next post.

Video after the jump
Read the rest of this entry »

With the increase of demand over organic food products in the last ten years, you would think that a wide range of these products would be easily accessible to most Americans, but this unfortunately is not the case yet. Many of the large companies are beginning to see the need for organic products and are beginning to expand their offerings in an effort to appease these needs. In the mean time, until organics are widely available at an affordable price, what are we to do? I am writing to offer some advice on purchasing healthy organic food in this region without breaking your budget.
Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this past week:

Stretching your diet and exercise comfort zone: moving through a plateau: contributor Kelly Rothwell lists a few ways to work through your diet and exercise plateaus.

Greenpeace comes to Tampa with bad news about Florida’s emissions: Joshua Michael Poll takes a look Greenpeace’s report that Florida is one of the biggest emissions producers in the world.
Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever heard the Vietnam-era quote, “war is not healthy for children and other living things?” It is a staunchly obvious and painstakingly reasonable appeal that cuts to the ethical core and casualties of war.  I read an article this week that reminded me of it, but instead of war, the murderous culprit in this story is climate change.

A new report by the Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF) says that global warming already kills about 300,000 people a year.  If that projection is not startling enough– or if you have more of an economic mind, and are not much swayed by stacks of human figures—the report also says that climate change costs around $125 billion in economic losses annually.
Read the rest of this entry »

Life is for learning and growing. As we go through the many lessons that are presented to us daily we grow or expand multi-dimensionally. Sometimes we take the easiest road, while other paths take us up above and over the most challenging mountain peaks imaginable. Considering what growing and expanding brings us in the long run, let’s focus on stretching our comfort zones in all we do. You can stretch your zone in baby steps or take giant leaps by trying new foods or activities or facing your fears head on.

Have you ever reached a point during a diet or exercise program where your progress ceases completely? This is a natural progression that occurs when your body has reached a maintenance point where you are able to stay at your current weight doing exactly what you have been doing. It can be very challenging to work through these plateaus especially when you have a long way to go to reach your ultimate goal. How can you get through a plateau?  Stretch your comfort zone! Read the rest of this entry »

One of life’s great pleasures (especially here in Tampa) and health benefits — coffee has it all. Caffeine, aroma, deep flavors and, to coffee connoisseurs around the globe, coffee is a known as a tonic that prevents diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and cancer. No wonder we hold a fascination with brewing this tasty bean!

Here’s a tip: next time you grab your morning joe, sprinkle a little cayenne on top. Not only does the spice help wake you up, but this pepper is packed with vitamins A and C along with the full spectrum of B vitamins. And taken in tiny daily doses, it can help prevent heart attacks and strokes. Read the rest of this entry »

the Meridians, photo healingfabrics.com

An acupuncture study conducted in Seattle, released this month by the Archives of Internal Medicine, that substituted acupuncture needles with toothpicks to stimulate the meridian points, has acupuncture physicians and other Natural Health practitioners scratching their heads. The study used pointed toothpicks to stimulate the body’s meridian or acupuncture points and the results in pain relief were nearly identical to the cases where acupuncture needles were used.

“This study missed the point, ” said Acupuncture Physician Dr. Christy Giallourakis of  the Center for Oriental Medicine in Tarpon Springs, Florida. ”The problem with Western studies of traditional Chinese medicine is that the person conducting the study has to use experts on the placement of the meridian stimulus so that any results will be accurate.  There are 26 meridians but there are many, many, extraordinary points and these points can be inadvertently stimulated by someone who does not understand the system.”  What is used to stimulate the points has little effect on the outcome of the stimulation. “If you put any kind of stimulation to the point you will have a reaction.”

Acupuncture is based on the energy meridians of the body: these meridians are pathways of subtle energy that connect and compliment every organ and function in the body. Along these pathways is an interconnected system of subtle energy that can interrupt pain or enhance sensation depending upon the combinations of stimulated points. The interruption of pain is an important factor in healing. Read the rest of this entry »

Since the mainstream media has shoved off to cover the last moments of America’s Next Top Model and the finals of the American Idol competitions, I want to bring you up to date on the Swine Flu. 

First of all it is important to understand that in the USA’s rush to make the naming of this virus politically correct and to protect the flagging pork industry, they settled on H1N1 virus. H1N1 is a group of viruses, influenza A(H1N1).

Viruses are not typical and change often so by using this general title for this virus, Public Health has dumbed us down. Other groups of influenza viruses are A(H3N2) and B/Yamagata and B/Victoria viruses but the list is massive and complicated. To call this virus H1N1 is like using the term car to categorize a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. Yes it is a car but, there are many cars and among cars the 612 Scaglietti is most unique.  This “swine flu” is an A(H1N1) but it is not the only A(H1N1) virus. Read the rest of this entry »

Staying on track with your diet can be challenging enough during the busy work week, but it is especially challenging when you are out of your normal routine.  We travel for many reasons, for business, relaxation and the occasional visit to friends and family in need.  All occasions many times can be reasons to let your diet slide, but there is no need to!  By letting your diet slide you run the risk of gaining 5 even 10 pounds, which sets you back tremendously on your accomplishments and can be damaging to your will and self-esteem.   In lieu of starting over with your diet accomplishments follow these simple tips and return home feeling positive about your meal choices. Read the rest of this entry »

A different view of stress….

“What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”.

“It is only in passing through the furnace, that iron becomes steel.”

The New Way of Thinking that will get us to the New World requires that we revisit and reframe our understanding of everything that touches our lives. In my last post I gave the old/new way of looking at stress, as a biochemical event that is modifiable by one’s own actions. Now I’d like to propose the radical idea that stress might actually be good for us in an epigenetic sort of way. Read the rest of this entry »

A "Mexican Kiss"

The media is having a field day hypnotizing Americans with fear over the impending Porkacolypse, but is this newest incarnation of doomsday  actually keeping us from getting laid?

I realize everyone is tired of the Swine Flu. All my friends roll their eyes at its mere mention. I get it. But trends around my college campus are beginning to shift, and I’m starting to worry. I mean the slutty chicks are still willing to lay any wookie, but the marginally wild women who drink apple martinis on barstools while their thongs creep out the top of their business skirts are becoming even more inaccessible. They are sitting on barstools with their legs crossed, like ladies for God’s sake. My boy Shawn who NEVER has a problem landing a lady had two drinks he bought for prospective partners sent back with a “No thanks.” The girls are turning down free booze now? He’s lucky I like girly drinks.

(READER POLE AFTER THE JUMP) Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian manufactured performance enhancement diet supplement Hydroxycut, used for weight loss and body building, has been pulled from the market in a voluntary recall at the request of the US Food and Drug Administration.

This is technically not a drug and is advertised as a “Diet Supplement”. The distress to the liver caused by this supplement has caused 23 reports of liver problems including the death due to liver failure a 17 year old boy. In at least one case a person survived their trouble by receiving a liver transplant. Read the rest of this entry »

As promised I am writing to update you on my process through the Master Cleanse.  It was one of the most challenging experiences of my life and I will absolutely do it again!  You can do anything if you stick your mind to it and I owned this journey and stuck with it for 8 days.  There are many benefits physically to allowing your body to cleanse of old toxic matter and resting your digestive tract for a few days.  Once you get into the process you see how much your body holds onto and you feel more empowered to control what you allow into your temple each day.  You realize even more the importance of eating healthy, organic food. Read the rest of this entry »

Spring is a time to clean house, the garage, the kitchen junk drawer, that closet of unknown items that has not been touched since last spring. Along with my many trips to Good Will in my effort to reduce my unneeded goods, I have decided to clean my physical and mental self. Just as we clear the energy in our temples for the new, we too must clean out our physical temples in preparation for the new. I have set out on an adventure called the Master Cleanse along with many personalized remedies to coincide with this eight day journey through the old in order to reemerge new, refreshed and ready for what is coming my way. Read the rest of this entry »

This new and exciting strain of swine influenza has Mexico running in circles looking for a US Citizen to blame for the epidemic.  The CDC is running in circles hoping that this flu strain is just a late bloomer and will not become an historic event that exposes the limited control Public Health actually has over the public’s health; and the rest of us, hungry for yet another reason to fret, hang on every word that is being scrawled or belched about this airborne death. Read the rest of this entry »

The big news today is about the threat of the “new” swine flu. The outbreak started in Mexico with a cluster of twenty deaths from severe viral pneumonia. Since then multiple milder cases have been reported in Mexico, the United States and Canada. Two interesting facts need to be investigated. Read on to find out how to protect yourself and your family.  Read the rest of this entry »

Are you green? Words can mean different things to different people. The word “green” seems to be based upon a genuine concern for health; your health, the health of those around you (both near and far) and the health of the planet. This simple concept is a great foundation for your own embellishments if you desire to be green. You might express that concern by recycling, or buying and consuming healthy food. Of course, merely focusing on health can be somewhat nebulous and open to a good deal of interpretation. If your taxes contribute to the deaths of innocent people half way around the world can you call yourself green? How much trash would you have to recycle to make up for the death of small child in Afghanistan? Maybe those questions aren’t in good taste. If you need a happy face on everything find another blogger.

From this architect’s point of view it seems more and more fashionable, marketable, and finally cost effective in terms of building life cycle to build green. I joined the United States Green Building Council (USGBC)a few years back and quit after I found out that they had recently approved some products made of plastic. Somehow that didn’t quite fit into my definition of green. Maybe I was wrong in thinking that we should be more concerned with our carbon footprint. Maybe my studies in homestead sustainability from 35 years ago got in the way. Maybe I was just wrong and uninformed. Anyway, my middle ground was joining the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC). It was more local; I like that about an organization in which I am a member. Read the rest of this entry »

As a kid I never liked salads. Do all kids feel that way? I think they do. I recall wondering what they contributed to my meal at a restaurant other than something to do while waiting for my steak and subsequent dessert. And even at the nicest restaurants, they consisted of iceberg lettuce, 2 or 3 onion slices (that were quite awkward to eat) a wedge or two of tomato and some stale croutons. Then, of course, you could order whatever goop you wanted atop the salad. House dressing was something with oil and vinegar and too many dried herbs.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else, or did my parents only take to trashy places? Perhaps you shouldn’t answer that in fear of me needing some sort of therapy later. Read the rest of this entry »

“Ugh, my cuticles are dry!” my Canadian pipefitter boyfriend said over the phone, 3,000 miles away. “I think I need to moisturize.” He has the most rugged job out of anyone I know, and yet he moisturizes daily. Aveeno, he swears by it.

“Now that you’re moisturizing, it makes me want to moisturize,” I said, not wanting to be out girled by someone who pounds steel together in the Canadian cold all day, as I reached for my Burt’s Bees Baby Bee Buttermilk Lotion. “Mine’s all natural.” Read the rest of this entry »

Each month Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Maxim, Men’s Health, and Playboy come out with rehashed articles recounting the health benefits of sex. I don’t need “fitness experts” to tell me that most any type of moderate physical exertion has health benefits (see declaimer below). This is not one of those articles. This blog is an open letter to adult entertainment companies, urging them to produce a sex-tape workout series.

Sure, everyone knows regular sex can be like a workout, what with the shortness of breath and the need for a towel afterwards, but few people know how to get the most of this workout. It’s an untapped market. Most everyone needs guidance on how to use the equipment(sex swings, sex ramps, restraints) and which positions burn the most calories. Pop and Peep culture have created an obsession with sex and body image, which have in turn caused a boom in the sex and health industries. It’s time to combine and capitalize on these markets.

Will it sell? Exhibit A: Carmen Electra’s Aerobic Striptease-fifteen minutes of hot, steaming Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know the coral reefs are being suffocated by tourists’ sunscreen? Going to the tanning bed sets up a controlled environment so you can regulate your light absorption and then have a base tan that will help you avoid sunburn and use less sunscreen, therefore preserving the coral reefs and other oceanic life affected by multitudes of tourist sunscreen!

Raydiance Tanning and Spa (and Wellness Gardens and Tea house) offers a multitude of services to keep your lifestyle “green”, healthy and inexpensive. In light of our new proposals for a universal health care system as well as the one already in place it has become all too obvious we need new ways to stay healthy that integrate into our everyday life, because the health care is way too expensive and only used in dire need. There is now a resource to end this cycle of frustration, and it located so conveniently there is no excuse to make a step to integrating preventive health care into your world.

Read the rest of this entry »

Deadly Sophisticated

One by one, city by city, smoking bans have edged out the agitated and the addicted.  There was a time when cigar bars were a sure ticket to safe smoking pleasure and the promise of smoking freedom but it turns out that cigars are carcinogenic.  Cigar smoke is concentrated and the monoxides and tars that end up in your lungs surpass those in cigarettes.  The cigar rollers will tell you that this is not true, cigar lovers will tell you that they are fortified against disease because they do not inhale and they allow no cigar juice to go down their throats; cigar smokers are laboring under this shared fantasy, but the research stats do not support their collective chimera.  The second-hand smoke of cigars is much more rich and just as deadly as second-hand cigarette and pipe smoke.  A minority of cigar smokers can not resist the rich flavor of fired burly leaf and inhale, this is really risky.

There is a strange feature of our society that most people don’t breathe deliberately unless they are smoking.  My smoker friends breathe deeply every time they have a cigar or cigarette but when I have encouraged them to breath as deeply with out the tobacco, they cough like Marines coming out of the teargas hooch.  In offices I am always amused to see smokers in the fresh air while their non-smoking colleagues toil in the artificial air of the office building.  Living irony.

The clove cigarette was a sign of intelligent life in the ’90s.  Sophisticate, artsy types began smoking clove cigarettes because they were naive enough to believe that someone would produce a smokeable product that was made purely of herbs and cloves.  There is tobacco in clove cigarettes.  People soon became addicted and abandoned the clove cigarette for more concentrated delivery systems like American Spirit cigarettes.  American Spirit claims that they are the cleanest of the cigarettes on the market. I have read their propaganda and while they might not add a portion of the 599 elements that are included in the recipes of other cigarettes, trying to build a reputation of wholesome cigarettes by comparing your product to the average cigarette is like pushing the argument that a .22cal bullet entering your skull is somehow more safe than a .32cal bullet entering your skull.  (The burning of tobacco creates 4000 chemical compounds)

"Mike, pass the strawberries."

Since 2005, hookah bars have been bubbling up all over the place.  A hookah is a big water pipe that has many tubes coming off it so that many people can have a social experience by breathing in the very same mixture of herbs and spices and, oh yes, tobacco.  People believe that this hookah smoke is less harmful than cigarette smoke or cigar smoke or clove cigarette smoke because they have been told it is less harmful.  Your hookah smoking experience can be enhanced by having a piece of sharp, dark chocolate to nibble on to counter the sweeter flavor of the apple brandy that is wafting through your olfactory and lungs.  Yes, there are many ways to enjoy this more safe style of smoking; except that it is not safe.

"I wish I hadn't given my strawberries to Mike."

Research is suggesting that one who is smoking from a hookah is getting more of all the things we loath about cigarettes, more of the vile stuff than even cigarettes can deliver; And, the smaller the hookah, the greater the delivery of monoxides and nicotine and carcinogens.  In fact, water pipes deliver the highest levels of carbon monoxides, much higher levels than those of average cigarettes the kind of cigarettes that American Spirit’s promoters like to use as a watermark for comparison.

It comes back to the ease of delivery.  According to a 2005 report that was published by the World Health Organization, a person takes between 5 and 7 minutes to smoke a cigarette, during this time a cigarette smoker drags on the cigarette between 8 and 12 times and fills his lungs with up to 0.6 liters of all the legendary, cancerous junk that has made cigarettes one of the greatest health risks in the World.

According to the W.H.O. research, hookah smokers take between 50 and 200 drags off the pipe in a comparable smoking session and inhale up to a full liter of smoke.  When you allow the statisticians to boil all this down, the hookah smoker will get as much smoke in her lungs in 5 to 7 minutes as a cigarette smoker will in the same amount of time, provided the cigarette smoker smokes 100 cigarettes.

Here’s a handy gadget for those interested in restaurant hygiene. Clean Scores provides a record of health inspection scores for local restaurants.

Taqueria Mi Mexico, for example, got a perfect score on their last inspection (but fared a little worse back in April).

It’s not perfect, there are several restaurants I searched for that it couldn’t find, but it might help tilt your decision about that sketchy corner dive that’s peaked your curiosity.