Americans love to drink. Being a teenager, we are more prone to drink beer or liquor. One type of alcohol that is very underrated is wine for teenagers. Adults are more likely to drink wine and they have the right idea according to Health.  Wine has a lot of benefits that we are unaware of.

First off, wine preserves memory. When Health researchers gave memory quizzes to women who drank wine at least once a day they were shown to do better than women who do not drink wine everyday. Wine also does wonders for preventing brain clots along with the reduction of blood vessel inflammation, which helps prevent heart disease.

Wine has also been shown to help keep a person’s weight down. Studies show that daily wine drinkers weigh less than those who have it occasionally. Studies also show that daily wine drinkers have smaller wastes and less abdominal fat than those who are beer or liquor drinkers. Wine has also been proven to help encourage your body to burn extra calories. If that isn’t an incentive to drink wine, I don’t know what is.

Wine can also help build stronger bones. Daily wine drinkers have a higher bone mass than those who do not drink wine. Wine also is a catalyst in boosting estrogen levels. Estrogen slows the body’s self destruction and therefore helps build stronger bones.

There are a lot of benefits to wine that many people are unaware of. Teenagers don’t really want to drink it not because they are unaware of it health benefits, but mostly because it is easier for them to get beer or liquor. I am not glad that I am aware of the benefits to wine and that way if it is ever offered to me, I will not refuse. 

Whether its online, in a mall, or at local boutiques, we all love shopping. It has almost become part of our culture, heck we even have an entire day dedicated to shopping, or better known as Black Friday. Anyways, most of us go shopping on occasion, to pick up that season’s necessitates. For others, it can actually be an addiction, better know as “shopoholism,” that can lead to financial downfall. 

Donald Black, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa College of Medicine states that, “like other addictions, it basically has to do with impulsiveness and lack of control over one’s impulses. In America, shopping is embedded in our culture; so often, the impulsiveness comes out as excessive shopping.”

Media plays a huge role in our generations’ lives. We always have our phones attached to our hands, Netflix is always playing in the background, and we are constantly getting updates on the famous people starring in those Netflix shows. Sometimes, we feel connections to those people in our favorite shows. This connection is better known as a parasocial relationship. Parasocial relationships are most are most common with celebrities, sports team, or other television stars, often referred to as personas. These relationships were created by the media in order to resemble real life relationships. Over time, the relationships with people in shows or celebrities on E! become our “friends.”

One of the main reasons that parasocial relationships occur is that the chance of rejection is eliminated. This one sided relationship can also be a relief from strained complementary relationships of a person’s real life.  With the development of other technologies in our world, parasocial relationships have moved past television stars and characters. Now, people feel relationships with bloggers, famous social media pages, and gamers. Also, the level of intensity has also developed immensely. Shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Teen Mom, and other reality TV shows, have helped watchers get inside these personas’ lives and have them feel connected on an even more personal level. These personas are also very involved on various social media outlines,which help fans feel even more connected to them when they post them doing everyday things, or their favorite products. 

Because of our tech-savvy generation, we are always on some form of social media. The show you love might not always be on, but you can always be following the people you connect with. This 24/7 access has  increased internet dependency may lead to increased parasocial interactions. This leads to fans being able to have constant communication by commenting on pictures, tweeting at them, and sharing their posts on Facebook. By them feeling like they are talking to them, its strengthens the interaction and only keeps it going longer.

Parasoical interaction usually occurs when viewers are having feelings of loneliness or feeling isolated or have various social anxieties. By feeling like they connect with these celebrities. For example, in television, the persona may be considered a friend, comforter or even a counsellor, comforter. Also, the persona usually stays the same. If they are known for being generous, they will usually stay that way. Fans can always count on them to stay reliable. Fans can also count on personas to be there every Tuesday from 6-8 or every Thursday from 9-11.

Those with parasocial relationships are often very appreciative towards their favorite personas for helping them to get through difficult times in their lives, so it not always seen as a “bad thing” or a “social disorder”. For example, if someone is seriously ill, when Ellen comes on every afternoon, they can take that time as a time spent with a friend who can make them laugh, and can relieve their stress of of countless treatments or worrying if they are going to get better or not.

Like everything else, there is the good and bad to parasocial relationships. As long as it doesn’t get to a stalking point, I don’t see any kind of issue with it.

One of the many things that a person can find attractive about another is their smile. But what is a nice smile without white teeth? There are many ways to whiten your teeth such as, strips and bleaching, but those can actually be harmfully for your teeth and make them more sensitive. There are actually more natural way to whiten teeth that are way less harmful.

The first way is with baking soda and lemon juice paste. Baking soda, or  Sodium bicarbonate, is only mildly abrasive so it is less harmful than strips or bleaching. Baking soda scrubs the yellow surface of your teeth away which ultimately leads to whiter teeth. Baking soda is also very alkaline, or the opposite of acidic, so that helps balance the Ph of the lemon juice paste that is also involved in this process. The lemon juice paste acts as a “natural bleach.” However, its good to alternate between water and lemon juice when making this paste because there is still some acidity.

The next paste includes strawberries, salt and baking soda again. Strawberries are very high in Vitamin C. Vitamin C helps break-down the yellow plaque on teeth. Strawberries also contain malic acid enzymes that help to remove stains from coffee or tea on teeth. The salt in the paste acts as an abrasive and actually scrubs away the plaque. The baking soda in this paste has the same purpose that it does in the other paste.

The final paste isn’t really a paste.  Rinsing your mouth with coconut oil has shown to have positive affects. This is an older remedy that is very unique.  It doesn’t sound like the most appealing ay to whiten teeth thing, but  it does make a difference in the color of your teeth. It won’t make a difference by “whitening” per say, but there is lauric acid in coconut oil that can rid teeth of bacteria found in plaque. In addition to promoting witness, coconut oil also promotes gum health, and help keep your breath fresh.

Having nice, white teeth is always a plus, but the ways that are presented to us after always the safest. By using these natural ingredients to whiten your teeth, you will see results and they won’t make your teeth more sensitive and you’ll be able to enjoy all of the foods you want to eat.

As the weather is getting colder, I don’t know about any of you, but my mind goes straight to the holidays. Pumpkin scented everything is out, and before Halloween even approaches, stores have Christmas decorations lining the aisles. Before we know it, we will all be leaving for Thanksgiving break. Although this is a very joyous time, it come with one big negative….weight gain.

So why do we gain so much weight over the holidays? According to WebMd, we aren’t too concerned about our diet or depriving ourselves of all of the fatting and sweet foods that come across our plates It is a time to be spent celebrating and spending time with family and friends. They additionally  address that added stress of finding the perfect gifts for family or making sure you don’t burn the turkey for the third year in a row also helps pack on all of that holiday weight.

Jack A. Yanovski, M.D., Ph.D., Susan Z. Yanovski, M.D., Kara N. Sovik, B.S., Tuc T. Nguyen, M.S., Patrick M. O’Neil, Ph.D., and Nancy G. Sebring, M.Ed., R.D of the New England Journal of Medicine, conducted a study on the study of weight gain during the holidays. They took 200 subjects and saw them at four times during a six to eight week interval: during late September or early October, during mid-November (before Thanksgiving), in early or mid-January (after New Year’s Day), and in late February or early March. At each visit their height and weight were measured. All of the subjects were weighed at the same time of day, either after breakfast or before lunch.

Also at these visits, subjects would have to fill out questionnaires. They included a health screening form as well as forms that evaluated stress, dietary and activity patterns, and depression, including winter seasonal affective disorder. All of these factors contribute to weight gain especially, winter seasonal affective disorder.

According to Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, medical director of the Bariatric Institute in Ottawa, Seasonal affective disorder  also known as SAD is a type of depression that affects people over the winter. This disorder causes sufferers to eat more when the weather gets colder and the days get shorter. Freedhoff sates,  “We know that food itself is a comfort as far as mood goes, because it actually impacts the same circuitry of the brain as drugs do. So people use food medicinally to make themselves feel better“. People who struggle this SAD find themselves eating more of the high-calorie comfort food of the holidays.

At the visit in either February or March, the subjects were asked if they                                                                      believed they had gained weight. They believed that they gained anywhere from 1.47kg to 1.57 kg. Here are the results:

Of the 200 recruited subjects, complete data on weight from the first four visits were available for 195, or 98%.  The subjects’ weight clearly changed significantly during the duration the of this study. The mean weight increased significantly during the holiday period. The average subject gained anywhere from 1.12 kg to 1.79 kg during the holiday period. However, after the holidays, subjects began to see the error of the holiday eating habits and began to lose anywhere from .07kg to 1.14 kg.

Weight gain during the holidays is something that no ones wants, but it is almost inevitable. Due to the colder weather and yummy food, it is hard to eat healthy and get out and exercise. By the time post holiday rolls around, we will actually find ourselves losing weight just because we aren’t eating all of that fatty holiday food. Just enjoy 🙂

Working out sucks on so many levels. You’re sweating and probably in pain, but its all somewhat okay because you’re sweating and in pain to your favorite song. Theres no doubt that listening to music enhances your work out.

According to an article from Active.com, research of listening to music while exercise started in the 1920s and is still being done today. One of the first studies done in 1935, lead by PD Robert Sewak, discovered that a simple tempo change in a song cause the respiration rate of a person to change. As they uncovered more data, researchers found that music also changed the heart rate of the person, affected their blood pressure and metabolic rate, and reduced stress and fatigue. All of these things help energy flow around the body. The real question now it how does music do this?

After the music enters a person’s ears, the sound waves then turn into vibrations. These vibrations than travel to the brain. One they are in the brain, they influence the brain and therefore your body movements. For example, Dr. Costas Karageorphis, author of Inside Sport Psychology, conducted a study on cyclists who listened to music through headphones rather than just in the background. He found that those who listening through headphones needed 7% less oxygen to do the same amount of work than those who listened without headphones.

Dr. Karageorphis also looked further into his data to find that music helps in many other areas. First off, music helps distract from the physical activity one is doing. That is mostly why I listen to music while working out..to actually forget i’m working out. He also discovered that music creates emotion while exercising. For example, if a song comes on that correlates with a happy memory, it will boost your energy.

Dr. Karageorghis also states the positive effect of music synchronizing with movement. By doing this, it results in greater endurance and more calories burned. This is majorly why so many athletes listen to fast music while working out. The tempo of the music is a direct reflection of the beats per minute your heart does. For runners, they listen to fast tempo music, but for yoga people, they listen to slower-tempo music. The slower music helps calm their body and help them practice balance.

No matter the physical activity, I am a firm believer in listening to music while working out. It makes the activity seem not as bad and distracts from the sweat dripping down your back and you sing along (hopefully in your head) to your favorite song.

#true

For many of us, this is our first time away from our home. Our bed, parents, friends and siblings can be thousands, or even a half a world away. Even if they are only three and a half hours away, like me, they seem a half a world away. Homesickness is very common in college freshman. The feeling of homesickness isn’t something new, but there are new developments on what homesickness actually is.

According to an article written by CNN, there has been a clear sense of what homesickness actual is. They report on the co-findings of Chris Thurber and Edward Walton. They co-wrote a paper that was published  the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics about the topic of homesickness. They define homesickness  as “distress and functional impairment caused by anactual or anticipated separation from home and attachment objects such as parents.” When one suffers from homesickness, they feel anxiety, sadness and nervousness. Their subconscious is filled consistently with thoughts of home, according too Thurber.

Josh Klapow, who is a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the University of Alabama’s School of Public Health that homesicknesses isn’t necessarily about missing your home. He elaborates to state that homesickness is actually the desire for love, protection and security. We are also missing the routine and the sense of normalcy from back home. All of these things relate back to being home, so they are associated with home. When the constant feelings of being loved and protected from our friends and family are no longer prevalent in our everyday lives, we desire them and also our homes.

Klapow says that homesickness is something that comes in waves. The forever longing to be love and protected by your parents will not be consistent throughout your day. From personal experience, I can say that once you get yourself busy with work, the gym, and making new friends, it will not be as prevalent. Although once you are by yourself, thats when it hit. When homesickness strikes, it can affect not only you, but your parents as well.

One of the biggest things according to Klapow for parents to do is to not communicate with their freshman child every second of everyday. By doing this, parents are only adding fuel to the homesickness fire. An alternative he suggests is to set up a specific time once or twice a week for a phone call or FaceTime. He emphasizes that college is a time for freshman to make strong connections
with their peers. The relationship that is eventually made with peers will fill the voids of homesickness. This will also help in the transition for independence.

While homesickness can eventually be dealt with, but it can not be prevented. Thurber states that we get homesick because “there are things that we love,”. “It’s the byproduct of the strength of our attachment. If there were nothing in the world we were attached to, then we wouldn’t miss them when we’re away.”

While now it may be tough to be away from home, just remember home doesn’t have a football game on Saturday in a stadium that probably holds more than your towns population. 🙂

For many of us, this is our first time away from our home. Our bed, parents, friends and siblings can be thousands, or even a half a world away. Even if they are only three and a half hours away, like me, they seem a half a world away. Homesickness is very common in college freshman. The feeling of homesickness isn’t something new, but there are new developments on what homesickness actually is.

According to an article written by CNN, there has been a clear sense of what homesickness actual is. They report on the co-findings of Chris Thurber and Edward Walton. They co-wrote a paper that was published  the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics about the topic of homesickness. They define homesickness  as “distress and functional impairment caused by anactual or anticipated separation from home and attachment objects such as parents.” When one suffers from homesickness, they feel anxiety, sadness and nervousness. Their subconscious is filled consistently with thoughts of home, according too Thurber.

Josh Klapow, who is a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the University of Alabama’s School of Public Health that homesicknesses isn’t necessarily about missing your home. He elaborates to state that homesickness is actually the desire for love, protection and security. We are also missing the routine and the sense of normalcy from back home. All of these things relate back to being home, so they are associated with home. When the constant feelings of being loved and protected from our friends and family are no longer prevalent in our everyday lives, we desire them and also our homes.

Klapow says that homesickness is something that comes in waves. The forever longing to be love and protected by your parents will not be consistent throughout your day. From personal experience, I can say that once you get yourself busy with work, the gym, and making new friends, it will not be as prevalent. Although once you are by yourself, thats when it hit. When homesickness strikes, it can affect not only you, but your parents as well.

One of the biggest things according to Klapow for parents to do is to not communicate with their freshman child every second of everyday. By doing this, parents are only adding fuel to the homesickness fire. An alternative he suggests is to set up a specific time once or twice a week for a phone call or FaceTime. He emphasizes that college is a time for freshman to make strong connections
with their peers. The relationship that is eventually made with peers will fill the voids of homesickness. This will also help in the transition for independence.

While homesickness can eventually be dealt with, but it can not be prevented. Thurber states that we get homesick because “there are things that we love,”. “It’s the byproduct of the strength of our attachment. If there were nothing in the world we were attached to, then we wouldn’t miss them when we’re away.”

While now it may be tough to be away from home, just remember home doesn’t have a football game on Saturday in a stadium that probably holds more than your towns population. 🙂

As I look around my dorm room, its very clear that I’m obsessed with pictures. Theres pictures of my friends, new and old, and my family. I go on my phone and theres over two thousand pictures of friends and family plus just random things I decide to take pictures of. I know I love to take pictures, but why?

I never really thought about it until I read it in this article, when we take a picture, we are essentially freezing time. Those random pictures on my phone of a pretty sunset or a walk in the woods will never happen again, and I was lucky enough to get it on camera. Everything remains constant in a photo, and we are able to analyze every single part of it. For example in this picture I took:

With this still image of time, the eye has time to scan and further analyze every aspect that this one captured moment in time has to offer. The eye is attracted to the light, but an easily be moved to see the trees and then the shadows. There are so many portions of this photo that, jus by looking at it, we miss. By having the power to “freeze time” the moment is preserved forever.Another reason as to why we take pictures is for the preservation of memory. By taking pictures, we can hang on to memories we don’t want to lose. Taking pictures helps you to hang on to those memories a little longer. Pictures are the closest thing that we have to time travel and whenever I look at pictures of me and my friends in high school or from places I’ve travel too, a wave of nostalgia overcomes me. For example, here is a picture of my trip to Spain:

When ever I look at this picture, a flood off memories come back to me. I remember what I wore, what my friends wore, the beautiful city of Toledo, my tour guide, the food, and most importantly, a week that will forever my infamous in my life. Crazy how just one picture can do all that.

Every single picture that you posses tells a story of your life. Places you have traveled too, things you’ve eaten, experiences, and moments of people we love. Every photo is a glimmer of a moment that can be held onto forever. If that moment wasn’t captured, it would just become a distant memory.  Matt Dutile wrote in the article “Why We Photograph”  that ,”The collections of images we take over the years are a window into who we were and what we valued. Ultimately it comes down to a simple truth – seeing that moment captured makes us genuinely happy.”

Since I previously wrote a blog post about how much I love peanut butter, I thought I would broaden my horizons and write about my overall love for food. I love anything that has to do with food and eating, it honestly baffles me that I’m not 450 pounds. What baffles me even more is why do I like the foods I like, and why I don’t like others.

One of the main reasons why we like some foods and not others are based off of genetics. As stated in this article, we all experierance bitter flavors differently because the bitter receptor gene varies from person to person. For example, one of my favorite foods is kale. Kale is known to have a very bitter and distinct taste when it is eaten raw. Personally, I prefer it raw, as does my mom. On the other hand, my dad prefers cooked kale because it is not at bitter (and also covered in olive oil and salt but thats a different story). I now know that my bitter receptor gene is from my mom, not my dad.

<3

We are also born with other predispositions to liking certain foods according to psychologist Elizabeth Phillips, whose research focuses on the psychology of tastes and eating, is the executive vice president and provost of the Arizona State University. She says we are predisposed to liking sweet foods like fruits, not only for their taste, but for nutrients and energy. She also talks about the  predisposed to dislike the bitter as mentioned before.The bitter taste that is found in most vegetables, like kale. This could explain why its so hard to get kids to eat their vegetables sometimes.

When we are born, we have reactions to sweet and bitter tastes right away. Shortly after, we develop a taste preference for salt. We are also built to enjoy fatty foods: combing fat-sweer and fat-salt. This is mostly for their high calorie count which essentially provides us with the necessary energy we need. Aka hello freshman 45.

Fat-salt and Fat-sweet foods we hate to love 🙁

However, according to Phillips, most of our tasted preferences are learned, most before we are born. When we are in the womb, we inhale and exhale amniotic fluids (ew) that flavored by our mother’s dietary habits. In one study done, infants seemed to enjoy carrot-flavored cereal if their mothers consumed carrot juice on a regular basis during pregnancy. For the next two years after birth, infants will eat almost anything because taste preferences have been shaping. After the age of 2, Phillips says we become neophobic you don’t like new food. At this point, if you have not consumed a flavor through amniotic fluid, breast milk, or sold foods–you probably won’t like it.

If there is food that we don’t like, we can actually teach ourselves to like it. Studies suggest that it takes anywhere from 10 to 15 exposures to a new taste to start to like it. So essentially, we don’t just eat foods because we like them, we like them because we eat them. Wow. 

If there really is something that you can’t bring yourself to eat at least ten times, the trick now is to build preference through association. Phillips did this with a group of kids and broccoli. We are all born with the predisposition to like sweet, but not bitter, as previously stated. What Phillips did was to get the kids to eat broccoli, she put sugar on top of the broccoli. After quite some time, the kids started to eat the broccoli without the sugar.

So we like things because we are either born to like them or we learn to like them over time. Science is cool:)

Amen sista

Hi, my name is Nicole Fiorillo and I am from Middletown, NY. I am currently a freshman at Penn State, but I was here over the summer so I am pretty well adjusted at this point. I am enrolled in the College of Communications and majoring  in PR.

I am doing this course because my academic advisors referred to it as the “non-sciencey” science. They also exclaimed that Andrew was such a great professor. These two factors   intrigued me into looking into the class more and eventually deciding to enroll.

I have always loved certain things about science. For example, I love astronomy. The whole subject fascinates me. Also, the fact that I can point out The Big Dipper in the sky simply amazes my friends and family (no idea why). Although, I could not major in any kind of science. I do not have the kind of mind for it and am not very good at math.

I am very excited to be taking the course and I plan to learn a lot.

Heres a picture of the ceiling of the grand staircase of the Royal Palace in Madrid when I went to Spain over spring break.

Learn FGL’s lyrics to Every Night