Month: December 2005

Bananas: Good for what ails you …

Posted on by rchapin

A very interesting article that came in today’s digest from the http://paleofood.com listserve about the benefit of eating bananas.
Bananas: Containing three natural sugars – sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber, banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout.

No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world’s leading athletes. But energy isn’t the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression: According to a recent survey, undertaken by MIND, amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills — eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood. Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it the perfect way to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit’s ability to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body’s water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high- potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine," eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrates, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best
value foods around.

Paleolithic Sugar-Free Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Posted on by rchapin

Posted to the http://paleofood.com ListServe by Ashley (http://ASHLEYMORAN.ME.UK)
Big bag of cranberries, jar of sugar-free apricot jam (the stuff sweetened with apple juice) and a healthy dollop of honey.

Pour some apple juice into the base of a pan, add all ingredients,
heat until cranberries have started to break up then simmer on low
heat until thickened.

New Study Links Anti-Acid Drugs with C-diff Infections

Posted on by rchapin

Another piece of research that points to diet-behavior as the best solution for GERD, gastritis and heartburn sufferes.

New research indicates a link between taking proton pump inhibitors and H2 blockers and increased risk of Clostridium difficile infections.

Click Here to Read the Full Article

Psoriasis Diet Tips

Posted on by rchapin

A good friend of mine mentioned that she noticed a spot of psoriasis on her.  I sent her an e-mail with a link to the previous article about diet and found this little tidbit.  Sounds interesting, although I haven’t yet tested it for myself.

Originally found on http://www.ageless.co.za/joe.htm

Click "Read More" to read the full article

Naturopathic treatment of psoriasis looks at the diet, the liver and
the metabolism of fat and proteins. To help alleviate this problem you
can look at replacing refined sugars and carbohydrates with a more raw
diet but that is high in essential fatty acids.

Flax seed oil, salmon, herring and mackerel can be looked at to
increase your intake of omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid and
eicosapentanoic acid (from the fish), which is used in the body like
alpha linolenic acid. Red meat should be cut from the diet and can be
replaced with tofu, nuts (except peanuts, walnuts and hazelnuts) and
beans to supply protein.

While yellow vegetables like carrots, pumpkin and yams will supply the
body with much needed vitamin A, all spices derived from flowers (such
as aniseed, cumin, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, paprika etc.) should be
avoided.

Except for the essential fatty acids discussed above, lecithin and
evening primrose oil can also be added to the diet, as well as vitamin
B and C. Folic acid, digestive enzymes, selenium, zinc and vitamin E
can also be useful in helping to treat psoriasis.
Milk thistle herbal tea can help to give your liver a helping hand, as
the health of the skin is coupled to the health of the liver.

Fresh yarrow juice can be rubbed on the affected areas, and a few drops
of yarrow essential oil in the bath can also be beneficial.
Warm compresses to the affected areas containing lemon juice or liquid
whey can help to soften the hardened scales.
Having a rising-temperature bath with coarse sea salt and an infusion
of horsetail and marshmallow three times a week can also be of use.

Website Buyer’s Guide

Posted on by rchapin

So you are looking to buy a new website and might not know exactly where to start.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the things to think about when deciding what you want in a site, and what you want in a vendor.

When purchasing a website, either updates to an existing site or a brand-new custom website, there’s a lot that you need to know just to pick the right designer/developer.

What you need to know before you buy a website.
This guide will tell you what you need to know about a website before you get one, helping you avoid mistakes that cost you both time and money.

It will tell you what to ask prospective web design and development companies, how to choose a hosting provider, and what kinds of things to think about before buying a site that will determine whether your site is a success or a failure.  At the end of the guide is a list of questions to ask prospective designers/developers, and hosting companies.

The 2 Stages of a Website.
There are two basic stages to having a website

  1. Acquisition: Getting a new site or upgrading an existing site
  2. Ownership and Maintenance:  This is the part that most web designers and developers never tell you about.  You’ll need to think about how you will update and maintain the site as time goes by.  If you site is to be effective it will need to be easy to change, otherwise there will be no way for you to keep it current and have it work properly for your business

Get started in the right direction: Figure out what it is that you are trying to accomplish.
Decide what you are trying to accomplish with your website that will help your business grow or solve a problem that is preventing growth.  If you can’t think of either, there is no reason for you to get a website.  All to often people just get websites without any idea how they will help the business.  Figure out what the site will do to help your business before you do anything and make sure that whoever you get to do your site understands what you are doing and why from a business prospective.  Too many web companies know nothing about business and will happily sell you whatever they can regardless of it’s value to your business.

Hopefully, your designer/developer will listen to your business needs and then be able to recommend some things to put on your site that will solve your current problems.  If they don’t ask you what you want to do with your site and know something about having tried that before you could waste a lot of money!  Make sure that you work with someone who has developed sites for other small businesses or you’ll end up spending a ton of money on a site that isn’t at all relevant to your customer base.

Buy only what you need, right now.
Don’t waste time and money trying to put together long-term plans for your site or buying functionality that you think you will need next year.  Only buy what you need, right now.

As soon as you launch your new site you’ll begin getting feedback from your customers and prospects and 9 times out of 10 what you thought you’d need in 6 months is not what makes sense for you and your business.

Moreover, if you choose the right developer they will be able to affordably add things to your website when you need them, without having to throw the whole thing out and start over.

What website software will your designer/developer use?  Will anyone else be able to use it?
Find out what type of software your designers use to build your site.  If it’s flat HTML then it doesn’t particularly matter because those sites typically run on any webserver with little or no modifications needed.  If they use FrontPage, run.  If you are looking for a Content Management solution make sure that they are using one that is either open source or another readily available commercial software package.

Acquisitions 6 pieces to an online presence:
To have a web presence and effectively market a business online there are 6 components that you’ll need.

  1. Design
  2. Production and Development
  3. Interactive Features, Databases, and Programming
  4. Hosting
  5. Domains
  6. E-mail

Design
The design of your site and how it looks is incredibly important.  In most cases people don’t even read the content on your site, but if it looks nice and is designed so that it’s easy to use, people will feel comfortable that you are a reputable company.

Website Production
This is one aspect to the technical side of your website.  You’ll need to have someone cut out and process the graphics; optimizing them for the web and fast download, and write all of the HTML for your site.

Interactive Features, DataBases, and Programming
If your site is going to include any interactive features such as calendars, online newsletters, forms, or password protected sections, someone will need to write the programs and integrate them into your site.

Hosting
There’s no way around this one.  If you want a website you’ll have to find a hosting provider.  There are literally thousands of companies out there that offer hosting for under $10/month.  That might sound like a bargain, but the first time you have a problem and need to get someone on the phone you can forget it.  These companies offer little or no customer service.  We suggest going with a company that might charge a bit more but that will be there for you when you need them.

Domains
Since you’ll likely want to have your website accessible via your own domain you’ll need to both register the domain and have the DNS hosted somewhere.  You’ll also need someone to keep an eye on the domain renewal for you.  I can’t tell you how many times we get customer that we are hosting calling us to complain that their site or e-mail is down only for me to discover that they let their domain expire.  When you are trying to run your business, it makes sense to find someone who will keep an eye on that for you.

E-mail
You will need e-mail to communicate with your prospects and customers.  Having a hotmail, yahoo, or aol account makes you look like a small-time operation and doesn’t allow you the kind of control you need over your e-mail.  What do you do when a salesperson quits?  How will you get the e-mails from the prospects and customers that he or she brought in?  Finding an outsourced e-mail solution that’ll let you use your own domain and give you control over your companies e-mail will help you avoid lots of headaches down the road.

Find a developer that provides all 6 services.
One of the biggest headaches that businesses have regarding their website is having to manage 3, 4, or 5 different companies to get all 6 services.  Trying to get designers to play nice with a web hosting company and programmers can be a nightmare, and in the end they all end up pointing the finger at each other with you holding the bag, out both time and money.  Finding a company that can provide all 6 services will be the choice that over-time will save you the most time, money, and headache.

Costs
There are three basic costs to Acquiring and Owning a website:

  1. Initial design and build out of features
  2. Hosting
  3. Updating the content and adding new features.

Ownership
So now that you have a website what are you going to do with it?  The three basic parts of website ownership are:

  1. Content updates
  2. Feature upgrades and enhancements
  3. Tracking and Reporting (this is optional, although I’ll describe the benefits of tracking below)

Content Updates
To keep either keep your site fresh or add things as your business changes you’ll need to be able to make updates to the site.  The most common things that people change are text and pictures, adding new pages, and tweeking the design.  Most designer/developers will charge you hourly to make these changes to your site.  Other developers will offer content management systems that will allow you and/or your staff to easily make changes to your site whenever you’d like.  Content Management Systems (CMS) typically add to your monthly but, if you are going to be making regular updates to your site this the way to go.  You get more control over your site and can better predict and budget for your monthly hosting/maintenance fees

Feature Upgrades and Enhancements
Adding new features to your site typically involves another work-order style purchase from your developer.  You sit down with them and spec out what you want and they tell you how much it will cost.

Before you go with a certain developer ask them what would be involved with adding a new interactive feature down the road.  Make sure that they build sites such that when you want to add something you can do just that and don’t have to throw away the whole thing and start over.  A lot of times people will go with the cheaper guy up front, not realizing that if they want to make changes they’ll have to start over from scratch.

Tracking and Reporting
This is an entire subject in and of itself, so I’ll only touch on it here, briefly.  Basically, you’ll want to be able to see what’s happening on your site so you can get an idea of what’s working and what’s not.

All to often people want to purchase Google AdWords or other search engine optimization services, but without a good tracking program running on your site, you are wasting your money because you’ll never be able to adequately determine if what you are doing is working.

We run tracking and reporting software on all of our sites.  It is the data that we glean from that software that helps us figure out what to change, add, or leave on our websites, and we highly recommend it.

Questions to Ask
Web Developer/Designer Questions:

  • What will it cost to make additions and changes to the site later?
  • How much will it cost to add pages?
  • What about adding additional and integrating interactive functionality and features?
  • How do you host websites that you design and build?
  • If they offer a content management system, ask them what software they use.
  • How do you organize and archive all of the files used to create my website?  If I want to take those files and go to another designer will it be something that another designer can use?
  • Do you provide: Design, HTML, programming, hosting, domain hosting, and e-mail services?
  • How much flexibility will I have after we design and build the site?  What if I want to add a calendar or password protected section?
  • Who will change and update the site?
  • Will I be able to make the changes?
  • How much will it cost for:
    • Day-to-day updates
    • Monthly hosting
    • Major feature upgrades:  Can you easily and cost effectively add new features to the site without having to throw away the whole thing and start from scratch?
  • What happens if I want to leave and go to another developer/hosting provider?

Hosting Companies:

  • Do you provide daily back-up services?
  • What operating systems do you use on your webservers?  We recommend Linux or Unix.  Windows web servers are incredibly unreliable and should you choose a host that uses windows you can expect a lot of downtime.
  • How much disk space do you offer?
  • What is your monthly bandwith allocation, and how much is additional bandwith should my site exceed my quota?
  • If they offer content management services:
    • Can I see a demo of the system?
    • Do you need any special software?
    • Do you need to know any special programming languages?
    • What software are you running?
    • What if I leave your company?  Will anyone else be able to provide service with the same software?

Armed and Ready to Shop
Now you’re ready to get out there and start looking for a developer, and armed with the list of questions below you will be able to ask intelligent questions and find the right designer, developer, hosting and e-mail provider to help make your online business endeavors a success.

If you have any questions and want more information feel free to give me a call at 301-946-5400 or send me an e-mail.

— Ryan Chapin
   President, Nuts & Bolts Interactive, Inc.

© 2005 Ryan Chapin