Tip 1: Movement

Yes, we understand that you may work at a desk in front of a computer nine hours everyday so your options may be limited, and after work you may feel so tired that you don’t even have the energy to work out. Not so fun-fact: roughly 250,000 deaths per year in the U.S. are directly related to a lack of regular exercise.*

A half hour a day of exercise is recommended, but recent studies show that shorter, spaced out workouts in a day can also do the trick. So if you’re feeling cooped up in your office, break up the day by taking small walks around your building to bump up your heart rate instead of dreading a workout before or after work.

courtesy of The Georgetown Dish.com

1. Chocolate is made from the seed of the Theobroma cacao tree. In its raw form, the seed possesses a bitter flavor. In the production of chocolate, the seeds are fermented in order to change the flavor.
2. Due to a high concentration in flavanols, recent research suggests that the cardiovascular system may benefit from chocolate. Flavanols improve blood flow to the heart and brain, lower blood pressure and have antioxidant qualities.
3. Flavanols are also the reason for chocolate’s natural bitter taste. The more processing that occurs in creating your favorite candy, less flavanols remain in the chocolate. Less flavanols means less healthy. Food manufacturers are currently exploring techniques to preserve flavanols in the manufacturing process.
4. The specific flavanol thought to be responsible for most of these cardiovascular benefits is called “epicatechin.”
5. Research into the potential health benefits of chocolate was in-part inspired by the Kuna people of Panama, who drink five to seven cups per day of a cocoa drink. The Kuna people have higher kidney function and lower rates of heart disease than other Panamanians, which sparked interest in the possible correlation between the cocoa drink and health.

The earliest documented consumption of chocolate was in 1100 BC, and it has remained one of the world’s most popular food types and flavors. Now isn’t that delicious? You know what I have the taste for right now?

A female human heart pumps about six beats faster per minute than a male heart, which can be explained by the gender difference in heart size. A male heart is bigger (by about 25 percent), so it can pump more blood in a single beat.

But having a quicker heart beat doesn’t equal quicker finishing times for runners. Because men’s hearts can pump more blood, on average, they tend to run faster than women.

Your Heart Doesn’t Stop When You Sneeze

The increased pressure in your chest can affect blood flow to the heart, briefly changing its rhythm, but contrary to common belief, your heart doesn’t skip a beat when you sneeze. That doesn’t mean you should stop saying “bless you” or “gesundheit” after a sneeze, though. It’s only polite!

Despite the name, your heart doesn’t stop during heart failure either. It just can’t pump blood as well as it should. The only time the heart stops is during cardiac arrest.

MAINTAIN HEALTHY HAPPY HEARTS – inside and out!

The Heart Sits in the Center of the Chest, Not On the Left Side

Does this blow your mind because you’ve always been told it’s on the left? When we place our hands over our hearts to pledge allegiance, we actually go a tad too far to the left. The heart is located in the middle of the chest, snuggled between the lungs.

A small percentage of people are born with dextrocardia, a condition in which the heart points more toward the right side of the chest than the left. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, people who have dextrocardia with situs inversus (when visceral organs like the liver and spleen are reversed too) can live normal lives without any disability.

In many cases, though, dextrocardia is associated with other heart defects or other misplaced, and even missing, organs that might require surgery to correct.

It’s important to watch your normal heart rate over time, too. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found people whose resting heart rates increased from under 70 beats per minute to more than 85 beats per minute over 10 years had a 90 percent increased risk of suffering from heart disease compared to those whose heart rates stayed around 70 beats per minute.

MAINTAIN HAPPY HEALTHY HEARTS – inside and out!

– Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, every time you breathe!

– Your heart rate can rise as much as 30% during a yawn.

– Your hair grows faster in the morning than at any other time of day.

– The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year!

– You inhale about 700,000 of your own skin flakes each day.

– When your face blushes, the lining of your stomach turns red, too.

– Unlike dogs, pigs, and some other mammals, humans cannot taste water. They taste only the chemicals and impurities in the water.

– There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people in the world.

– The most pushups ever performed in one day was 46,001.

– The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 ft.

– The aorta, the largest artery in the body, is almost the diameter of a garden hose.

– Pain occurs when sounds are above 130 db (decibels).

– Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

– Stress can result in more headaches as a result of the body rerouting blood flow to other parts of the body.

– Dieters who sleep more take off more fat that those who sleep less.

– Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

– It takes twice as long to lose new muscle if you stop working out than it did to gain it.

– Your ears secrete more earwax when you are afraid than when you aren’t.

– When you take a step, you are using up to 200 muscles.

– The lifespan of a tastebud is ten days.

– Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end.

– Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks so that it doesn’t digest itself.

- By weight, Bone is five times stronger than steel.

- Fidgeting can burn about 350 calories a day.

- It is possible for you to survive even after the removal of the spleen, the stomach, one kidney, one lung, 75% of the liver, 80% of the intestines, and almost every organ from the pelvic and groin area.

- Smokers get ten times more wrinkles than non-smokers.

- A human being loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a day.

- A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water.

- The levels of two stress hormones, cortisol and epinephrine which suppress the body’s immune system, will actually drop after a dose of laughter.

- Scientists estimate that laughing 100 times is equivalent to a 10-minute workout on a rowing machine.

- The human brain uses approximately as much energy as a 10 watt light bulb.

- Coughing can cause air to move through your windpipe faster than the speed of sound – over a thousand feet per second!

- Your brain is about 2% of your total body weight but uses 20% of your body’s energy.

- The energy used by the brain is enough to light a 25 watt bulb.

- More electrical impulses are generated in one day by a single human brain than by all the telephones in the world.

- How much does human brain think? 70,000 is the number of thoughts that it is estimated the human brain produces on an average day.

- After age 30, the brain shrinks a quarter of a percent (0.25%) in mass each year.

- Albert Einsteins brain weighed 1,230 grams (2.71 lbs), significantly less then the human average of 1,300g to 1,400g (3 lbs).

- Each year Americans consume 50 billion aspirin tablets or 15.5 million tons.

- 89.06 is the percentage of people who report normally writing with their right hand, 10.6% with their left and 0.34% with either hand.

(resource:  brainhealthandpuzzles .com)

1) What is the most popular type of home-baked cookie?

Sugar

Chocolate Chip

Oatmeal Raisin

2) When baking at home, which of these is NOT an explanation for tough, hard cookies?

Too much butter

Too much flour

Overmixing

3) Which cookie was invented first?

Animal Cracker

Oreo

Fig Newton

4) Which cookie is traditionally used to make the layered dessert, “Tirimisu”?

Shortbread

Lady Fingers

Nilla Wafers

5) What does the word “Biscotti” mean?

Cream Dough

Cooked Twice

Sweet Cookie

6) What type of cookie is traditionally made with egg whites and ground almonds or coconut?

Snickerdoodles

Fortune Cookies

Macaroons

7) What brand uses animated elves in its advertising campaigns?

Keebler

Pepperidge farm

Nabisco

Where were fortune cookies invented?

Mexico

Japan

China

9) Why is gingerbread dough perfect for constructing houses?

The cookies stick together right out of the oven

The cookies hold their shape when baked

The dough contains a small amount of cement mix

10) Mexican wedding cookies, aka Russian tea cakes, and Pecan Butterballs, are sprinkled with what before serving?

Cocoa Powder

Confectioner’s Sugar

Cinnamon

ANSWERS:

1) Chocolate Chip

More than 50% of cookies baked at home are of the chocolate chip variety. Chocolate chip cookies were invented at the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts by proprietor Ruth Wakefield around 1930.

2) Too Much Butter

If you add too much flour to the dough or overmix the batter before baking, the result will likely be a hard, tough cookie. Adding too much butter to the dough will result in a greasy cookie.

3)Animal Cracker

The first animal crackers were produced in the United States by Stauffer’s Biscuit Company in 1871. Nabisco’s Barnum’s circus version hit the market in 1902. The modern version of the Fig Newton was created in 1891 and is named for the city of Newton, Massachusetts. And lastly, the Oreo cookie was invented in 1912. All three of these cookies are currently produced by Nabisco.

4)Lady Fingers

Ladyfingers are used in tiramisu because the cookies so readily absorb the sweet syrup and liqueur used to make the traditional Italian dessert. These delicate cookies are made from sponge cake batter that’s been piped into long, finger-shaped cookies and dusted with sugar before baking.

5) Cooked Twice

While Italians use the word “biscotti” to refer to all types of cookies, Americans think of “biscotti” as the long, dry cookies that are served with hot drinks for dunking. The name is derived from “bis,” meaning twice, and “cotto,” meaning cooked. Baking the cookies twice results in their hard, crumbly texture.

6) Macaroons

These dense, moist cookies were traditionally made with egg whites, sugar, and almond paste, but in North America, they are often made with shredded coconut instead of almond paste. Italian Jews adopted this cookie for Passover, because the chewy sweets have no flour or leavening.

7) Keebler

The Keebler elves, led by Ernie the Elf, became the mascots of the Keebler Company in 1968. The elves worked in the Hollow Tree Bakery, creating “uncommonly good” products in their “magical oven.”

Japan

The Japanese have been making their original version of fortune cookies since the late 1800s. Some speculate that Japanese immigrants who owned Chinese-American chop suey restaurants in California in the 1950s introduced these folded cookies to the American dining public.

9) They keep their shape when baked

Gingerbread cookies contain a fragrant mix of molasses, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The cookies hold their shape when baked, making them ideal for gingerbread houses. You can measure and cut the dough, and be assured the pieces will be the same size and shape when they come out of the oven.

10) Confectioner’s (powdered) Sugar

These buttery shortbread cookies incorporate ground nuts in the dough and are always sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar, giving them a festive, snowy appearance.

Quiz by Delish’s Sara Schwartz