Christmas 2009 Celebration

Unlike last 2 years where we have BBQ at home, this year, my family plan to have a simple Christmas 2009 celebration. Simple here is defined by less workload preparing the Christmas dishes and everything at home.

We went to Maria's Cafe to have dinner on the Christmas eve night. The menu on the night was specially made for the Christmas occasion with all the food having fancy names. Overall, I do not like the food, neither do most of my family members, except maybe my father. I am not to say that the food did not taste good, but it just didn't suit me. I would not comment on the overall service as during peak season, we will see staff forgetting about this and that.

Me at Maria's Cafe

All of them

Some of the food that we ordered

Salad

After we dine at Maria's Cafe, we went to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee before heading back home to get and open our presents. Lolz!!

At Starbucks

Well, that sums up what I did with family for Christmas. Overall, it was a tiring day as I just came back to Ipoh on the day itself, and we also need to sleep early that night as we have to wake up real early next day for church service.

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Blessed Christmas and Happy Holiday

Wish you all a blessed and Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday!!!

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Some Information on Coffee

Prevent Alzheimer's disease by drinking five cups of coffee a day.
As remarkable as it may seem, scientists have conducted a study which suggests you can go a long way towards
preventing Alzheimer's disease simply by drinking five cups of coffee a day.

Gary Arendash, a researcher at the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute in Tampa, Florida, says giving mice with Alzheimer's
the human equivalent of five cups of coffee, or 500 grams of caffeine, a day has plaque-busting effects
and reverses symptoms of impaired memory in aging Alzheimer's mice.
The remarkable thing is that a simple cup of coffee appears to have more effect on preventing
Alzheimer's than the expensive pharmaceuticals currently being used to treat the disease.Can
coffee really prevent Alzheimer's? More studies will need to be done. But this early research is very promising.


Fiber in Coffee – there’s more soluble fiber in coffee than there is in orange juice
At first sight, the notion of fiber in coffee may seem like nonsense.
But the fiber found in coffee is soluble fiber. You can’t see it, but it plays a very important function in our health.
In fact, it’s dietary fiber of the soluble kind that helps prevent cholesterol from being absorbed by the intestines.
Recent findings by researchers in Spain suggest that levels of soluble fiber in coffee are higher than anyone expected
- higher than the levels found in either wine or in orange juice.
Interestingly, the highest levels are found in instant coffee, not in fresh ground coffee.



Coffee may protect against oral cancers, according to a new study from Japan.
The study included information about diet, including coffee consumption.
Among more than 38,000 study participants aged 40 to 64 years with no prior history of cancer,
157 cases of cancer of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus occurred during 13 years of follow up.
Compared with people who did not drink coffee, those who drank one or more cups per day had
half the risk of developing these cancers, Naganuma's group reports in the American Journal of Epidemiology.



Your risk of developing skin cancer is reduced by taking exercise and drinking coffee.
Drinking coffee appears to lower the risk of developing skin cancer.
A research team at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey,
has shown that a combination of exercise and some caffeine protects against the destructive effects of
the sun’s ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation, known to induce skin cancer.
The caffeine and exercise seemingly work together in killing off pre-cancerous cells whose DNA has been damaged by UVB-rays.
So if you like coffee and take a little exercise as well, it sounds like you’ll be protected.



Coffee and heart disease – coffee drinking actively reduces your risk of dying from heart disease.

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine examined the relationship between coffee and mortality.
The results show that those who drank more coffee had a lower risk of dying of cardiovascular disease [heart attacks].
The association is explained mostly by a decrease in cardiovascular disease deaths, Lopez-Garcia says.
Women who drank two to three cups of coffee a day, for instance,
had a 25% lower risk of dying from heart disease than non-drinkers.
In addition, researchers from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center and
Brooklyn College have discovered that drinking plenty of coffee protects the over-65s from heart disease.

Coffee isn’t a treatment for anything, least of all heart disease.
But it is reassuring to see that as each month goes by, more and more studies are revealing a
broad range of health benefits associated with drinking coffee.
Coffee is not only delicious, and the perfect way to wake up each morning, but it is also good for our health.



Coffee and Diabetes – studies confirm that coffee drinking reduces the risk of the onset of type 2 diabetes.
Medical researchers have been aware of the beneficial connection between coffee and diabetes for many years now.
If you feel that your family medical history or lifestyle put you at risk of getting
Type 2 Diabetes, then drinking coffee can significantly reduce that risk.
Diabetes affects an estimated 18.2 million Americans, and the number rises each year.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease, and prevents the body from producing enough insulin.
Increase your brain power with coffee – a natural and effective stimulant.
This is something we all know anyway. You increase your brain power with coffee every morning when you first get up.
And when our concentration and focus begin to flag at work, we take a coffee break and perk ourselves up again with another cup.
We all know that coffee is a mild and natural neural stimulant, and don’t need scientists to tell us this.
That said, it’s reassuring to know that there are studies confirming what we already to know to be true.




NOw this if for all of ur gymers and joggers..
Reduce post-workout muscle pain – by drinking two cups of coffee before you start exercising.
It may sound a little unlikely, but a recent study indicates that drinking coffee can reduce the muscle pain you feel after a workout.
More specifically, the study looked just at women who were not habitual coffee drinkers.
It was in this group that drinking two cups of coffee before a workout seemed to help so much in reducing muscle pain.
(If it worked for the women in the study, we don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work for men either. Not that we’re medical experts.)
Here’s what researcher Patrick O'Connor of the department of kinesiology at the University of Georgia said...
"A lot of times what people use for muscle pain is drugs like aspirin or ibuprofen,
but caffeine seems to work better than those drugs, at least among women whose daily caffeine consumption is low."
Better than aspirin or ibuprofen? That’s pretty amazing, when you think of the number of people who take
over the counter pain killers to ease their muscle pain after exercise.
The researchers did add one cautionary note, however. Two cups of coffee, for the caffeine,
is about right. But don’t go crazy and have five coffees instead. You may end up having heart palpitations or, at least, a case of the jitters.
Anyway, it’s good to read about yet another study that shows coffee lovers some of the benefits of drinking our favorite brew.





Study affirmed coffee's benefits for its high level of antioxidants
Researchers from the University of Scranton released on August 29, 2005 that coffee is the No. 1 source of antioxidants in the American diet. Antioxidants are substances or nutrients in foods that can prevent or slow oxidative damage to our body.
When our cells utilize oxygen, they naturally produce free radicals (by-products) which can cause damage to other cells.
Antioxidants act as "free radical scavengers" and hence prevent and repair damage inflicted by these free radicals. Fruits and vegetables are hailed as the richest sources of antioxidants, but this study shows that coffee berries actually have a higher amount of antioxidants than tea and it is the main source from which most Americans get their antioxidants.
Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee appear to provide similar amounts of antioxidants.


Coffee constricts blood vessels
Coffee is also a diuretic - it constricts blood vessels and can dehydrate. So, the known side effect of taking a lot of coffee is dull skin.
However, if you limit your coffee intake and take lots of water after that, there is no reason why you should cut your regular cuppa out of your diet!
However, the properties of coffee and caffeine in constricting blood vessels might prove to be a goldmine yet.
Research has shown that using caffeine topically on the skin can help constrict the blood vessels, helping those with rosacea, and reducing dark eye circles or puffy eyes. Coffee is also a well known ingredient in helping reduce cellulite.
In fact, the Avon cosmetic says that caffeine is crucial in a good cellulite cream! Now who said caffeine was bad again?

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