Delicious Lighter Potato Gratin

Potato gratin is a classic dish for a reason – everyone loves it! The combination of cheese, potato and that creamy, delicious sauce is a delight for your taste buds, and will have to going back for seconds. Unfortunately, like many tasty dishes it’s not the healthiest, so this version has a couple of changes to create something a little lighter.

While there’s nothing wrong with treating yourself every now and again, it’s always good to make healthier choices where you can and this gratin does just that! Instead of cream, use light evaporated milk and cut the cheese down to just 2 tablespoons. If you really want to step the flavour up a notch, try sprinkling some french onion soup mix between layers.

Ingredients

• 185ml can light and creamy evaporated milk
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 700g desiree potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 small brown onion, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan cheese

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C and Lightly grease a 6 cup-capacity baking dish. Combine milk and garlic in a jug.
• Layer one-quarter of the potatoes over base of prepared dish. Top with one-third onion. Repeat layers, finishing with potato.
• Top with milk mixture, breadcrumbs and parmesan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until potato is tender and breadcrumbs golden.

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3 Books to Help You Create a New Lifestyle that Lasts

For far too long we’ve been led to believe that “going on a diet” and “losing weight” is something you force rather than something you learn.

And where has it gotten us? Well, according to this article, 38 percent of adults are obese, along with 17 percent of teenagers—numbers that have been increasing year over year.

That’s not how I work – which you’ll know if you’ve been reading me for a while.

We all know what happens when you force a diet or weight loss: you relapse. You yo-yo. You live in one extreme for as long as you can handle it and then, inevitably, slip into the other extreme.

That’s a hard way to live.

You know what? I’ll be honest here: to change your lifestyle is a tall order. It’s really difficult, and it takes effort. But the difference between forcing an outcome (weight loss) and mastering your diet (lifestyle) is that, at some point, the process stops being a change in lifestyle and starts being what you do, day in and day out, because that’s who you are now.

It stops being so hard, in other words. It becomes easier and easier, more and more real.

But forcing a diet, losing some weight, and then relapsing? That doesn’t get easier. That’s just giving yourself the same pain over and over (and we’ll explore why on earth you’re doing that in another post.)

Which pain do you want: the pain of continually losing weight and then putting it all back on? Or the much shorter-term pain of actually changing your lifestyle and making a habit of being healthy?

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Let’s assume it’s the second one…I’m assuming you’re a sane human being, after all 🙂

The philosophies outlined in the following three books will help you through the process to create a new lifestyle (and relationship with food) that’s permanent and real:

1. Antifragile by Nassim Taleb

If a mirror breaks, it is undoubtedly worse than when it wasn’t broken. This we can agree on.

When a Phoenix dies, it rises from its own ashes. It’s no better but no worse than before. It is reborn exactly the same as before.

Now, the hydra…when one of its heads gets cut off, grows two more. In other words: it doesn’t get better despite being harmed, but precisely because it was harmed. It is, as Taleb would say, “antifragile.”

Humans are hydras. You’re a hydra. All the pain in your life can make you better—if you let it.

I say this because when you’re changing your lifestyle, there are going to be times when you mess up. When you make bad choices. When you regress into what you used to be, even if momentarily. Welcome to being human. Imagine if you used every one of these “mess ups” to get better? To grow? To become more and more antifragile?

How strong and powerful could you become?

2. Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? by Ben Hunt-Davis

The Great Britain Men’s Eight rowing team [check this] won gold at the 2000 Olympics. They’d also skipped the opening ceremony, a once in a lifetime opportunity for most of them.

These two things are not unrelated. In fact, they’re 100 percent related.

After toiling in obscurity for years and years, they decided to try something totally new and completely different. (A good lesson here). They decided that every decision in their lives leading up to the Olympics should revolve around one question:

“Will it make the boat go faster?”

It’s the perfect question because it’s a “yes” or “no” answer. Something either makes the boat go faster or it doesn’t.

Now, you understand why they didn’t go to the opening ceremony. How would that make the boat go faster? It wouldn’t. It would be a late night and it would be wasted energy. It was a clear, but also difficult, No.

How does this apply to you? Well, you can ask a similar question about any decision you need to make:

“Will this help me create my new lifestyle?”

All the unimportant will be removed, and what will remain is what will take you toward your new lifestyle and toward the person you envision yourself to be.

3. The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer

There’s a voice in your head, isn’t there?

When you think about it, it’s always been there.

Here’s the fascinating thing: it’s not you.

How can that be? You’re the one hearing it.

So…if it’s not you, then what is it?

It’s just a thought. That’s it. AThat means it doesn’t have to control you if you don’t want it to control you.

All those times you’ve made poor diet choices, all those times you’ve craved something sugary, all those times you’ve said “fuck it” and gorged yourself numb…I’m willing to bet they’re all because of the voice. Because it told you to do something and you obeyed.

Your voice is not you. It’s just a thought. Your thoughts do not define you. Because you have infinite thoughts and if each one defined you then there’d be infinite Yous. But there’s only one you. The witness behind your thoughts.

How’s that for life-shifting insight?

Now, you can take a step back and realize that you can simply observe this voice rather than do whatever it tells you.

For example, it might say, “Oh, my god, I really want a donut.” Then you, the witness behind that thought, can take a step back and simply observe that these thoughts are happening. If you really pay attention, they’re actually quite funny. Since they don’t define you, you don’t have to act on them. In fact, then you can make the choice you really want to make and that you know will make you truly happy: a healthy choice.

Isn’t taking a step back from the voice worth getting good at?

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Don’t Let Your Dissertation Run Your Life

A Ph.D. student recently came to me to talk about exploring different careers. He lamented that while in graduate school, he gradually stopped doing everything in his life that was not research related. In undergrad, he was an avid outdoor adventurer, climbing mountains and rafting rivers. He loved volunteering with kids and the elderly because he could see his impact directly. But over time as his research project developed, he left these parts of his life behind because he “didn’t have time.”

Let’s compare this to the nonacademic world. For many, work is driven by deadlines. You have to produce something by this date and time in order to: a) please the client, b) please your boss or c) move on to the next part of the project. But in academe, all deadlines are “as soon as possible.” There is a never-ending sense of urgency. Do you have that chapter finished? If you’re not getting results, you should work harder and stay later. How many of us are guilty of analyzing data or writing a paper while on vacation?

When it comes to careers, the spread of research into your time will hold you back. From graduate school, you will gain a degree, technical skills, broader research skills and subject-matter expertise. But if you allow research to take over, you will be missing these important aspects: working with people outside your field, seeing what different careers actually look like, having experiences other than your research, developing key transferable skills, building a network of people who can refer you to jobs -- as well as maintaining and enhancing physical health, mental health (read the research if you haven’t), a social life and an understanding of who you are in the world.

I recommend that you seek out opportunities such as the ones below to get outside of your office, lab or library. Advocate for yourself with your research mentor and negotiate that you need a number of hours every week to pursue specific activities. Or just stop working late every night and coming in every weekend -- and see if anyone even notices.

Teaching and outreach. One of the most common activities for graduate students is to teach undergrads or other graduate students. Your department may require you to be a teaching assistant, or you may participate in outreach to local institutions. Even so, consider what you are gaining from the experience. Are you better at managing people, managing timelines, conveying complex ideas to novices, training, coaching or building rapport? Consider teaching new lessons or taking on additional responsibilities so you will have experience with spearheading and taking initiative.

Committees. We’ve all ignored the emails from the department administrators asking for volunteers for various committees, but what did we miss out on? Planning a symposium or conference can give you experience with working on teams, dividing responsibilities, holding each other accountable and organizing. Inviting faculty members for a weekly speaker series can help you improve your abilities to convince others, manage a budget and handle logistics.

Professional development. Many campuses offer opportunities to develop skills supplemental to or outside of your research. Seek out those workshops and programs to learn to negotiate, manage a team, lead, be a faculty member at different institutions, apply for grants, search for jobs, present and talk about your experiences. Writing is a vastly transferable skill, and you can find courses to help you write for the news media, policy organizations, regulatory affairs, federal agencies, patent agents or users of a product.

Volunteering. Academic research can often feel disconnected from the populations it’s meant to serve. Volunteering for local organizations is a great way to reconnect with people and have a direct impact through doing something small. Plus, you will gain abilities in communicating with other people who come from different backgrounds, building trust, active listening, understanding the needs of others and fulfilling the needs of clients.

Hobbies. A peril of thinking about your research all day, every day is that you lose opportunities for inspiration. When we allow our minds to change focus, it can help us reframe problems we’re working on. Tapping into your creativity can allow your brain to work in different ways and make new connections. So unearth that guitar from the closet, use a camera that’s not on your phone, take a cake-decorating course, design websites, read a sci-fi novel or blog about bad movies. When applying for jobs, you can mention hobbies on a résumé or in an interview to be more memorable.

Sports and physical activity. I gained 20 pounds in graduate school. Many graduate students exercise less and eat fewer healthy foods. Get your fitness back on track by joining an intramural sports team or finding a pickup basketball game at a gym. Camp and hike at nearby parks and trails. Not only will you build teamwork and coordination skills and reduce stress, but you’ll also have good topics for small talk when networking and interviewing.

Meeting professionals. Are you unsure of what careers best suit you? Or do you want to learn which companies match your interests and values? The best way to accomplish both of those tasks is to meet people who are in such careers. You can attend networking events or you can target individuals through LinkedIn and your current and previous institutions’ alumni associations. If you ask about shadowing opportunities or trying out a portion of their work, you’ll be able to write about your experience in an application and speak knowledgeably about the job in interviews.

Imagine you are the hiring manager for a company, and you’re interviewing two candidates. One has strong research skills from a top university. The other has not only strong research skills from a top university but also experience working on team projects, the proven ability to communicate research findings to nonexperts and over all seems more at ease. Whom would you hire?

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Washington ‘swamp’ sucks life from Trump trade strategy

Donald Trump won the US presidency vowing to rip up decades of trade policy and drain the Washington “swamp” of lobbyists and “globalists” as part of his America First push to bring back manufacturing jobs.

Yet six months into his administration, the swamp seems not only undiminished but to be swallowing up his strategy on trade.

“I think with trade, the swamp is still there in full force,” says Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of Nucor Steel and Trump campaign adviser on trade policy, and an economic nationalist who has confessed his disappointment with the president’s failure to deliver on his grand promises.

Mr Trump and US officials continue to pledge bold action on trade. There are signs of a toughening line on China, with the administration considering whether to launch a probe into Beijing’s intellectual property and technology-transfer regime. On his third day in office Mr Trump also delivered on his promise to pull the US out of the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiated by the Obama administration.

But Mr Trump’s trade threats are greeted with growing scepticism by pro-trade members of the business community, who have won a number of battles by exploiting divisions inside the administration.

Democrats have also spotted a vulnerability in the president’s failure to deliver on one of his campaign’s core populist promises. Senate Democrats unveiled their own trade policy proposals on Wednesday, including curbs on Chinese purchases of US companies, as part of their bid to lure back blue-collar voters who backed Mr Trump.

Democrats have also been emboldened by Mr Trump’s tangled plans for the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. After threatening in April to withdraw from what he still regularly calls the “worst trade deal”, Mr Trump’s administration will later this month embark on a renegotiation that, according to its own publicly released objectives, appears likely to result in few, if any, significant departures from US trade orthodoxy.

Mr Trump is also facing an uphill battle in the Senate from both Democrats and Republicans for his plan to install former congressman Scott Garrett, a long-time conservative opponent of the US Export-Import Bank, as its new head. Mr Garrett has previously called for the bank, which provides finance and help for US exporters, to be shut down.

But the biggest frustration for economic nationalists is the delay to the plan to clamp down on steel imports, which officials promised in late June was just days away.

The plan, which involves using a cold war-era law that allows US presidents to invoke national security to restrict imports, is aimed primarily at forcing China to cut the vast steel output that has driven down global prices. But it has become bogged down in an internal debate fuelled by lobbying and counter-lobbying from steelmakers, the broader US business community and US allies and trading partners in Asia and Europe.

The steel scramble has pitted advocates of a tough approach, such as Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, and economic nationalists in the White House, against pro-trade figures such as Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs executive who leads Mr Trump’s National Economic Council. It has also has seen Mr Trump’s US trade representative, former steel lawyer Robert Lighthizer, who is said to be increasingly close to Mr Cohn, remain conspicuously on the sidelines in what some see as a sign of his scepticism about the exercise.

Mr Ross complained to members of Congress at a recent private briefing that the plan was now facing “complexities”, including the clashing interests of steel producers and users and threats of retaliation from trading partners such as the EU.

The result, according to people briefed on the discussions, has been the morphing of a bold plan to impose a single tariff of as much as 25 per cent on imports into something far more complicated.

The most likely scenario now is an elaborate system of quotas and tariffs that would exclude imports from Canada and Mexico, they say. It would also include a 90-day period for businesses to lobby for the exclusion of certain products and for the administration to mount a new round of negotiations with other steel manufacturing countries.

Mr Trump himself has created potential problems by repeatedly saying the steel move is intended to combat “dumping” by countries such as China. By doing that, trade lawyers say, the president has hurt the US case in the event of a challenge at the World Trade Organisation.

Under WTO rules countries can only use approved measures for individual products to combat dumping — the export of products below cost. But Mr Trump’s targeting of “dumping” claims and his plan to use the cold war-era law appear to violate those rules, lawyers say.

“No one should be surprised when other WTO members point to the administration’s own statements to show that this . . . violates the WTO,” says Gregory Spak, head of the international trade practice for law firm White & Case.

Some in Washington see Mr Trump’s slowing trade agenda as a sign he is being forced to confront the complexities of both governing and the global economy.

“It is not the morass of Washington, it is economic reality that is beginning to hit him in the face,” says Daniel Ikenson, head of trade policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.

But some damage has already been done, Mr Ikenson warns. Mr Trump’s protectionist threats have changed global norms on trade by encouraging other countries to follow a similar path, he says.

The president’s withdrawal from the TPP has also hurt US competitiveness in countries such as Japan, which last week imposed temporary tariffs of up to 50 per cent on imports of frozen US beef, he points out, adding: “There has been a big cost to all this.”

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Morford: John McCain is no one's hero anymore

It was a good day for death, a good day for shameless cruelty, for the worst tendencies of the human animal; it's a good day to have that sickening, sour feeling in your stomach turn to abject disgust at your fellow man – Republicans very much in particular – as the Senate GOP, with coward John McCain’s help, shoved through a motion that will allow them to continue to destroy lives, take away the health care of millions and leave countless thousands to die.

Oh, John McCain. The cantankerous war hero, the nobly decorated war veteran, the once-outspoken critic of all political BS, the ill-fated presidential candidate, hereby returning from his government-paid sickbed, where he is receiving hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars’ worth of insurance-funded surgery and brain cancer treatments, to a hero’s welcome in the Senate, only to cast a vote that could ultimately take away that same health care from millions of others, resulting in the death of thousands of women, children, disabled, the poor, Republicans, war vets like him – you know, everyone.

It’s nothing short of appalling, which is saying a lot in the age of Trump. McCain voted, along with 49 other lockstep Republicans, to allow the GOP to keep trying to destroy Obamacare, AKA the most popular and successful health care legislation in modern history – a move absolutely no one wants, aiming toward a sadistic social policy that is already the worst devised in all of American history, opposed by everyone from the insurance industry to the AARP, 7,000 Catholic nuns to the vast and overwhelming majority of America.

So why do it? For the so-called “win.” For Trump’s sociopathic ego. For a show of heartless Republican solidarity, perhaps, despite how the vote was nothing but political cowardice of the highest and most revolting order, a shameless kiss of the Trump ring. With the exceptions of Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Maine's Susan Collins, the GOP still kneels before Trump’s megalomania, because they're drunk on the poisonous power he affords them.

For McCain in particular, the sting of his vote is particularly sickening. Despite his famous bluster and “maverick” grumpiness, the 80-year-old Arizona senator has voted lockstep with Trump's policies more than 90 percent of the time, veering away only on inconsequential items like sanctions on Russia and a political appointee or two. He has voted against LGBT rights countless times. He inflicted Sarah Palin on the world. He is a war hawk bar none. He hasn’t been any sort of “maverick” for years, if ever.

Regardless, many on the left still consider him a potential savior – sporadically at least – one of the few credible, sagacious Republicans who could (maybe, hopefully, someday) stand up to Trump’s air-headed, authoritarian bloviation and speak with a level head, set the record straight, push back on the Trump administration's annihilation of America.

Apparently, he will do no such thing. As today’s vote proved, he will only "heroically" hobble out of his sickbed and fly to D.C. to cast the vote that could decimate 1/6th of the American economy, put one million out of work, kill thousands, treat cancer just like his own as a pre-existing condition, set caps on said treatment, bankrupt families, destroy Planned Parenthood, and on and on.

McCain’s legacy, such as it was, is no more. His heroism appears to have been leeched out of him, leaving a strange, hollow shell full of political kowtowing and baffling flip-flopping. His famous good humor, his irascibility, his erratic but laudable skill at reaching across party lines (a lifetime ago, as a presidential candidate), these qualities are now but dust in the political wind. If Trumpcare passes, McCain will be merely the “heroic” enabler who helped the nightmare happen.

While it’s theoretically possible McCain only voted on this particular motion to make it appear like the GOP can actually “get something done,” and his final vote, if/when Republicans can’t come up with a decent alternative to Obamacare (which they most certainly cannot), will be against it, this is just legislative masturbation, more sadistic maneuvering, a pathetic show of "force." It's also, more than likely, a lie.

Today, despite his weird speechifying to the contrary, McCain merely joins with the rest of the heartless GOP, AKA the most dangerous, anti-intellectual, globally despised, mean-spirited cult of conservative white politicians America has ever known. He appears to have sacrificed whatever remained of his integrity and humanity for – well, it’s hard to know what, exactly. But whatever it is, it sure ain’t legacy.

I sincerely hope McCain beats brain cancer. I’m sure he’ll enjoy the best medical care his fully paid government insurance can provide. But McCain is no one’s hero anymore. And cancer just had a very good day indeed.

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What's the least stressful way to commute

According to recent research, cycling to work can reduce your risk of early death by 40%. But if avoiding an early demise isn’t enough to get you on a bike, there’s also a more immediate benefit – if you commute by bike, you will feel less stressed and be more productive at work. A study last week in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management found that, for the first 45 minutes of work, employees who cycled in had less stress than those who travelled by car. And how stressed you feel early in the morning is apparently a strong predictor for how you will feel throughout the day. The authors say it “can shape how subsequent events are perceived, interpreted and acted upon”.

The solution

Given that cycle commutes in cities can be blighted by air pollution and heavy traffic, that there is a reduction in stress levels by biking to work may seem counterintuitive. Or it could be that other commutes are even worse. The study was done in Montreal on 123 employees at an information technology company and it was small – only 25 were cyclists. This is actually more than the country’s national average – only 6% of Canadians cycle to work. In Britain about 4% of commutes are on bikes. In contrast, in Copenhagen, which has prioritised cycling so that no car or bus can travel faster through the city than a bike, about 40% of commuter trips are by bike.

Even allowing for injuries and pollution, the risk-versus-benefit analysis for cycling comes down firmly in favour of pedalling as much as possible. A study of 264,377 people from the UK Biobank who were asked to record how they commuted found that during the five years of the study, those who did their commute by bike were less likely than any other commuters to die of anything. Walking to work reduced heart disease but not dying from cancer, and benefits were only seen at more than six miles a week. Studies show that, while cars are the favourite way to commute because they provide freedom and control, driving in heavy traffic and having to concentrate is stressful. Public transport may be even more stressful because it can be boring and you can’t control it. Think Southern Rail. Research shows that cycling wins out because commutes by bike are rated more interesting and exciting. Cycling isn’t always feasible – but some research suggests a third of people who drive to work live within a comfortable cycling distance. And the benefits of a cycling commute are also going to be felt after the journey home.

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HOW TO SLEEP WELL: FILL YOUR LIFE WITH PURPOSE, STUDY SAYS

Though we may constantly feel tired, sleeping isn't always easy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2016 found that one in three Americans doesn't get enough sleep. This can lead to a host of health problems, and more and more Americans are resorting to sleeping pills to ensure they're able to get a good night's rest. The American College of Physicians has recommended against using prescription drugs to treat insomnia, if possible, and now there may be hope for sleeping well without popping a pill. According to a new study, the best way to get through the night in peace may be to simply have a solid sense of purpose in your life outside of bed.

The study, conducted by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, found that people who felt their lives had purpose experienced better sleep quality than those who didn't. They were also 63 percent less likely to suffer from sleep apnea, and 52 percent less likely to suffer from restless leg syndrome. The aim of the study, published Monday in the journal Sleep Science and Practice, was to examine the relationship between purpose in life, overall sleep quality and the presence of sleep disorders in a bi-racial sample of older adults: people who are more likely to have problems sleeping.

“Helping people cultivate a purpose in life could be an effective drug-free strategy to improve sleep quality, particularly for a population that is facing more insomnia,” said Dr. Jason Ong, one of the study's authors and an associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Purpose in life is something that can be cultivated and enhanced through mindfulness therapies.”

To conduct the study, the Feinberg School's team of researchers gathered 825 people between the ages of 60 and 100. Participants were given surveys on their purpose in life and their sleep. The average age of the participants, 79, was high because people have more trouble sleeping as they get older (almost 40 percent of older adults suffer from a sleeping disorder). Trouble sleeping is also more common among African Americans, which made up more than half of of the pool of participants. None of the study's participants suffered from dementia.

Through establishing a link between purpose in life and sleep quality, researchers found that the idea of purpose in life may be applied in a clinical setting, and recommended further research into the connection between positive psychology and sleep health. The more this is studied, the more effectively treatments like mindfulness therapy can be used to curb issues like sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome, which means fewer people will have to rely on prescription pills to make it through the night undisturbed.

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Feetures Expands Offerings With Lifestyle Collection

The new line incorporates the same technology found in Feetures running socks, allowing users to wear the socks from the boardroom to the BBQ.
Feetures, manufacturer of run specialty performance socks, has expanded its product offerings with a lifestyle collection.

The lifestyle collection will include a variety of styles for women and men, and will offer the signiture targeted compression and seamless toe features that helped elevate the brand. All socks in the collection will be made with Feetures’ proprietary iWick polyester, a fabric more durable than merino wool that provides moisture management all day.

“We consistently hear from our customers that they want the comfort and support of our running socks in a sock they can wear every day,” said Joe Gaither, VP of marketing. “These new socks are designed for you to Go. Do. Live., meaning they will effortlessly take you from work to play, and everywhere in between with the performance features our customers have come to love from Feetures running socks.”

Women’s lifestyle options come in ultralight or cushioned and include a Texture Crew, which is a high performance version of a cable knit design. Styles include a variety of colors and patterns, such as stripes and sunburst designs. The men’s lifestyle collection includes a dressier line of socks for business, as well as argyle and stripe patterns in ultralight or cushioned styles. Both the men’s and women’s crew collection will be available in October.

In addition to the crew styles, Feetures is debuting a Hidden Collection of socks to be worn with low cut shoes such as boat shoes, ballet flats or loafers. The Hidden socks utilize Feetures’ proprietary Heel Hugger silicone strip and an arch band to keep the socks in place from sight. The Hidden socks come in two styles for women, Hidden and Hidden Super Low, while men’s styles will be offered only in Hidden. They will be available in February 2018.

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Column: Add some Poutine to your routine

I know it’s been a long holiday weekend for you, hopefully filled with enough hot dogs and beer to make ’Merica proud, so I’m lobbing you a softball for this month’s dish.

We’re venturing to the Great White North, specifically Quebec, for Canada’s national dish, Poutine. It’s a mess of fries, cheese curds and brown gravy that any American would be proud to call their own.

Poutine, as far as recipes go, is kind of like the hamburger of Canada: everyone claims to have invented it, no one can quite prove it, and though there are a hundred variations, simple is always best.

This is a fast-food, greasy diner kind of dish. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Hand-cut, twice fried potatoes? Sure, but frozen is fine too. Homemade gravy using great-gram’s recipe? If you like. Or just use a mix. Or a can. The only requirement for the cheese curds is that they be fresh. If they don’t squeak when you bite into them, the Poutine just won’t be right.

I opted to make my own fries since it’s a once or twice a year treat that my kids love. I had in mind the whole time I was prepping them that was the way to go. I made a batch of golden brown, crispy, skin on (of course) fries that were Instagram worthy. They were the envy of my friends (in my head) for which I heartily congratulated myself. Then, I poured on the gravy, from a mix if I’m being honest, and they were soggy within minutes. So in this case, I’d say go for the best quality frozen fries and bake them in the oven to save yourself time and calories.

Like I mentioned, this can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. If you don’t want to make gravy, there are actually good quality mixes available that will do the job just fine. If you have leftover gravy, this can be your go-to dish to use it up. Whatever works for you, works for the dish. Although I did see one recipe that called for making your own cheese curds, and I have to draw the line there. Who has the time and inclination to make their own cheese curds? If it’s you, no judgment though.

Anyway, for simplicity’s sake, I’m not going to give you a strict recipe. If you want handmade fries, use about 4-5 good-sized Russet potatoes. Leave the skin on. Soak them in cold water for at least an hour and use the double-fry method. (I’ve written about that before — if you aren’t a regular reader, your punishment is to Google it. I’m not going to explain it twice.) Use about a cup or so of brown gravy, to taste, and about 1-2 cups of white cheese curds, again, to taste.

Both my kids liked these, because fries and cheese of course. My husband and I liked the flavor but both agreed the cheese curds would suit both of our tastes if they were smaller. The curds we bought were huge and didn’t get as melty as I would have liked, so I suggest using smaller curds or cutting them up a little before adding them to the fries.

Though I wouldn’t make it all the time because I somewhat value my health, I won’t count Poutine out of consideration for one of those gotta-have-it junk food days.

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How garbage food became normal

So what's a good family meal for an easy weeknight dinner? A quick stir fry with lean protein, veg and noodles ready in 20 minutes - or maybe a mushroom omelette with salad and sourdough?

Or there's this idea from McDonalds heavily promoted on TV recently: a family box of burgers, chips and coke, "made for midweek dinners, made for families"?

How did we reach this point when it's OK to push a product like this as an everyday family meal when it's the kind of food that, eaten regularly, makes us fat and sick - and is the polar opposite of the nutrient and fibre rich foods that keep chronic disease at bay?

Over the last 30 years or so our food supply has been so hijacked by over-processed junk that on average 58 per cent of the food budget goes on 'discretionary choices', meaning food we don't actually need for health like foods high in added sugar, salt and saturated fat, and alcohol.

Yet while health authorities wring their hands over rising levels of chronic disease, it's OK for supermarkets to flog breakfast foods loaded with added sugar. It's also perfectly fine to mislead consumers by implying a food is healthier than it actually is. The selling point on the front of Only Organic Kindy Yoghurt Rice Cakes is its organic-ness, which looks healthy enough until you read the fine print on the back and see the main ingredient is organic cane sugar - which makes up 30 per cent of a product made for one- to five-year-olds.

This load of over-processed food isn't just adding to weight woes - it's also displacing more nutritious whole foods, leaving us short on fibre and important nutrients.

How did we let this happen?

"Because the food system is now designed for the maximum profit of the food industry and not to nurture good health," says Professor Amanda Lee, Senior Adviser with the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre which works to prevent lifestyle-related disease.

"Discretionary food and drink is in our faces all the time. Humans have an innate desire for sweetness and for the mouthfeel of fat and we have a learned response to salt - and the junk food industry has preyed on these preferences."

"Junk food is cheap to produce and demand for it has been created by advertising and pricing," adds Jane Martin from the Obesity Policy Coalition, which has also protested about the McDonalds' burgers and chips for midweek dinner ad. But their complaint that the ad undermines the promotion of healthy balanced diets was dismissed by the Advertising Standards Board last week.

Could it be that Australia's lack of a strong traditional food culture has also made us easy pickings for convenience food? Maybe. Countries with strong food cultures and traditions like France, Spain and Italy have done better at holding on to home cooking says Lee.

"People talk about the French Paradox but I don't think there is one. The evidence suggests it's because the French have a policy of maintaining their traditional food culture - they have government subsidies for farmer's markets, for instance," she points out. "In Australia we embrace different cuisines from other countries but don't have a strong food culture of our own - and at the beginning of European settlement the food we relied on was cheap and had a long shelf life."

Can we improve processed foods by reducing ingredients like salt and sugar, as some manufacturers have done? It's helpful to a point, says Lee, especially with reducing salt - but it still doesn't turn a highly processed food into a nutritious choice.

Not only that, but by careful manipulation of ingredients like adding fibre in the form of inulin or more 'fruit' in the form of pear juice, processed food can earn a higher rating in the front of pack star rating system, she points out. "This is the problem with focussing on single ingredients and not the quality of the food as a whole."

Although Australia has been slow to get tough with food manufacturers when it comes to tighter regulations on marketing junk to kids, for instance, there are signs of a shift, says Martin - like the removal of soft drinks from vending machines in NSW hospitals later this year and banishing soft drinks and confectionary from Victorian schools.

But it's in poorer countries that can't afford the burden of sickness that comes with junk diets where bigger changes are happening. Mexico has a sugar tax, while Brazil's dietary guidelines strongly urge people to avoid highly processed food and stick with whole or minimally processed food. In Chile, foods high in saturated fat, sugar and salt carry a warning label and aren't allowed to be marketed to children and sugary drinks are taxed, says Jane Martin.

"Globally, diet is the number one cause of chronic disease. Wealthy countries like Australia can try to quadruple by-pass themselves out of trouble but the lower and middle income countries can't afford to, so they're investing in prevention," says Amanda Lee. "They're generating evidence that we can use in the west to create more change."

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Having Trouble Sleeping? New Therapy Suggests Less Is More

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Everybody sleeps, but some do it better than others.

For those tortured by sleepless nights, there’s a new therapy that uses the motto – if you want to sleep more, try sleeping less.

“When I’d go to bed, I would start and be like, okay, if I go to bed now, I’ve got eight hours. And then, an hour goes by, and it’s like okay, now I only have seven hours, then it’s six hours, and then it’s the morning,” Megan Grant said.

That was the unhappy and unhealthy way Grant slept, or tried to sleep at night.

“I would just sort of lay in my bed trying to sleep,” Grant said.

Dr. Matthew Lorber suggested a new therapy that had the 20-year-old Grant getting up and out of bed if she was lying awake for more than 30 minutes.

“I was like, what do you mean? Like, that doesn’t sound right to me,” Grant said.

It’s called restrictive sleep therapy.

“Once you’re tossing and turning for 30 minutes, get out of bed, and don’t go back into bed until you’re tired again,” Dr. Lorber said.

“The concept of just lying there and like resting in bed felt better like than going and doing something else, so I was very, like, reluctant at first,” Grant said.

But, she liked the idea of drug free therapy even as Dr. Lorber prepared her for the discipline the process required.

“When I suggest to someone that if you’re up to 3 to 3:30 in the morning get out of bed, get out of your bedroom, they do – they look at me like I’m crazy first, but I think rationally; intuitively, it does make sense,” Dr. Lorber said.

“Admittedly, the first few nights of this will probably be terrible,” Dr. Steven Feinsilver said.

Dr. Feinsilver is an expert on sleep disorders.

He said once patients are out of bed they should simply try reading, no TV, or electronics, no food or alcohol.

“It seems very backwards, kind of counterintuitive, that we ask people to sleep less when we’re trying to get them to sleep better,” Dr. Feinsilver said.

The idea is to quiet the mind, staying calm as they wait to get tired again.

Dr. Feinsilver added it can take several weeks to re-learn how to sleep.

“Eventually, you’re going to sleep, and that’s a very simple idea, but it really works. It works very neatly” Dr. Feinsilver said.

“Every night I’m like, love going to bed, it’s the greatest feeling. I get in my bed, and I’m cozy, and like ready to go. It makes such like a world of a difference,” Grant said.

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Cyndi Lauper: Why quality of life can bring equality

How to ensure equality for everyone when we're all so diverse and different? A question for our guest contributor Cyndi Lauper, the singer and co-founder of True Colors, an advocacy group for homeless LGBT youth:

For me equality has always been plain and simple. "You either are or you aren't, Blanche," to kind of quote one of my favorite Bette Davis lines.

I had the opportunity to be on the same planet with a lot of inspiring people who actually did change my life, and the lives of the people I love, through their work for equality.

There were many great civil rights leaders, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Harvey Milk. I could go on.  And Maya Angelou -- where would I be without her books?

So today, I was talking to my husband about equality, and he said, "Why don't you just drop the E and emphasize the word quality? Maybe by just concentrating on making the quality of life better for people around you, you might naturally end up with greater equality."

So that got me thinking how right he is -- that he's really just talking about the old Sunday school lesson they beat into you at Catholic school: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Or better still, if you want people to listen, you've got to listen to them.

And let's not forget my favorite: What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

So, I think today I will emphasize the word "quality" rather than discuss the word "equality," because maybe less talk and more quality caring might lead us to do more action.

And everyone knows action speaks louder than words, right? Be it in sports, or in family, hey, even in romance. Like I had to tell my first boyfriend, "You gonna stand around all night, or you gonna do something? 'Cause I got things to do."

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