Is What’s On The Outside Of Your Packaging What’s Inside?
The Prevention Institute, a nonprofit health advocacy group out of California, studied 37 heavily marketed foods with pictures of fruit on the packaging. Fifty-one percent of the products contained absolutely no fruit, a few had minimal amounts! Yikes, you have to be vigilant on all of these fruit claims. Just take a stroll down the fruit juice isle and try to figure out which product is real 100% juice.
We all have had that experience of buying something based up its package or label and then find out what is inside is not what we expected. I know it’s wishful thinking that we can believe all those fantastic marketing claims (a lot of people do as evidenced by the product’s popularity). Think get thin quickly, eliminate wrinkles in 10 days and, the new favorites, protect your heart or lower your cholesterol. The last example is a tribute to the fact that marketers are finally talking advantage of marketing to an aging population.
Consider the recent flurry of activity regarding misleading claims on trans-fats. Companies are taking this seriously and changing their claims. I have learned this: ICK, no wonder they are making changes.
People are concerned with what we perceive to be “healthy” as listed on the package’s ingredients statements and then find out that it is misleading or false. Some claims (even though they are within the context of the law) can lead consumers astray by giving foods an undeserved “aura of health.”
Here is the definition for false advertising which includes packaged goods:
False Advertising -”Any advertising or promotion that misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities or geographic origin of goods, services or commercial activities” (Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1125(a)). So think about that when you are developing your product packaging. Can your claims be substantiated or are you “stretching” the truth, as in the case of fruit pictured on the outside but not actually inside?
I found lots of great information on how to read and UNDERSTAND a packaging label. WOW, it is confusing even to a seasoned professional. It is almost as if they are deliberately (ha, ha) confusing the consumer into make a purchasing decision. I did a little investigation before writing this article and was shocked by the number of product manufacturers that have been sued for false advertising claims. This is a huge expense to defend the claims or pay to settle one that we consumers pay for in the product price.
From cold sore treatments to orange juice, they all have been sued for making unsubstantiated claims on their product packaging. Things as simple as this lawsuit against cereal packaging claims was aimed at food companies including Kraft Foods, General Mills and Kellogg alleging that “low sugar” breakfast cereals are leading the customer astray.
The suit claims that these cereals are misleading because they are not any healthier than cereals with regular levels of sugar. The food industry, in general, is coming under increasing pressure from food lobby groups and parents, to “clean up its act” and offer healthier alternatives to help combat the obesity epidemic facing America. Sugary cereals are frequently cited by these groups as guilty culprits, encouraging children to eat empty calories instead of nutritional whole foods.
No product packaging is immune. Consider these “hot” buttons currently being scrutinized if you manufacture products that make claims on any of the following attributes:
• Weight loss claims to reduce or lose weight in a specified manner or period of time;
• Healthy choice claims which imply or state benefits to a consumer from consuming;
• Organic or natural food claims that indicate the product is uncontaminated or pure from chemicals and additives;
• Nutrition claims such as rich in vitamin C that can not be proven or the alleged benefits proven.
This is just a start. Look for proof of environmentally friendly packaging and materials to be in the next wave of packaging being heavily scrutinized. Is it really “green” or just “greenwash?”
You can’t stop the lawsuits and media spin; however, you can ensure you do your best to prove to the consumer that what is on the outside of the packaging is also what is inside.
Get the Packaging Diva on your team. Visit packaginguniversity.com/ to find out about the latest packaging innovations and “Consumer Trends That Can Make Or Break Your Business” or call me for more details at 1-678-594-6872.
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Flexibility in Five Minutes a Day
In her book, “Life and Death in Shanghai”, Nien Cheng describes her life in China during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Because she and her late husband had worked for a foreign firm, her home and all her possessions were confiscated by the Red Guard, her daughter was tortured and then killed, and she was imprisoned and held in solitary confinement for six years. Ms Cheng was in her fifties when all this happened.
Conditions in prison were terrible and several times she came close to death. Describing one on her lowest points, when she barely had the strength to stand, she writes:
“…I thought that if I was going to survive the Cultural Revolution, I must discipline myself with physical and mental exercise. Inspired by my own resolution, I stood up rather abruptly. Dark shadows almost blinded me, and I had to sit down again. But from that day onward, I devised a series of exercises that moved every part of my body from my head to my toes, and did them twice a day. At first the exercise exhausted me, and I had to interrupt it with frequent periods of rest. Also I had to avoid the prying eyes of the guards, as exercise other than a few minutes of walking in the cell after meals was forbidden. Nevertheless, I managed to exercise each day and after a few months recovered my physical strength somewhat, as well as my feeling of well-being.”
Several years later, the political situation in China shifted and Ms. Cheng was released from prison. Despite all the hardships she had been through, her health quickly improved. Her friends commented that she looked much younger than her actual age. Eventually she moved to the United States.
It was fascinating for me to read about Ms Cheng’s system of movement exercises because it closely parallels a procedure described in the book “How to Learn the Alexander Technique – A Manual for Students” by Barbara and William Conable. This book emphasizes a procedure the Canables have named “body-mapping” – essentially a systematic process of exploring on your own body precisely how the major joints and muscle groups work.
This is not the sort of study one usually associates with anatomy – what I think of as “anatomy at a distance”, that is learning about the human body without relating it to the body of the student who is doing the learning. Nor is it at all like the detailed study of cadavers done in medical schools.
Body-mapping is all about the practical application of basic anatomical knowledge to yourself as a living organism, learning about how you function at rest and in movement.
In their book, the Conables write:
“In recent years some (Alexander Technique) students have expressed a longing to do flexibility work but have assumed they couldn’t devote enough time to it. To one of these students I said one day, ‘Well, you could do worse than simply put your joints through their range of movement each day.’ He came back a week later and said, ‘I did what you suggested and it was amazing.’ “What was that?’ I asked. ‘Put my joints through their range of motion each day.’ He showed me how much flexibility he had gained in a week doing that, and we began to systematically play with the idea. Sure enough, it works like magic and takes only about five minutes a day, with no necessity that the five minutes be consecutive. The student simply begins with the joint of the head and the spine…rotating the head and tilting, then moves on the the jaw…then on to the ribs, moving them at their joints with the vertebrae by taking a good breath. Then the student moves all four joints of the arm structure and the hand joints. Then the spine, bending forward, backward, to each side, spiraling, and twisting. Then the hip joint, knee, and ankle and the foot joints. That’s it. Done correctly this routine increases flexibility faster than anything I know, and I have wondered and wondered why. I now think two factors contribute, first the quality of attention brought to the movement, which is the kind of attention that makes it possible for the body to learn from each movement. Second, some of the movements are ones that many people rarely make, like rotation at the upper arm joint with the shoulder blade and rotation at the hip joint. The body seems to delight in these movements and the availability seems to free the joint.”
If you’d like to become more flexible, the experiences of Ms Cheng and of Baraba Connable’s students point to a simple, efficient and effective way to achieve that goal.
***
“Life and Death in Shanghai” by Nien Cheng was first published by Grove Press, New York, 1986. It is currently available in a paperback edition. The quote cited above is found on page 203.
“How to Learn the Alexander Technique – A Manual for Students” by Barbara and William Conable, and a great many other books about the Alexander Technique, is available from the Alexander Technique Bookstore at alexandertechnique.com/books alexandertechnique.com/books
“Body Mapping”, an introductory article on the topic by Stacy Gehman, can be found at alexandertechnique.com/articles/bodymap alexandertechnique.com/articles/bodymap
Robert Rickover is a teacher of the Alexander Technique living in Lincoln, Nebraska. He also teaches regularly in Toronto, Canada. Robert is the author of Fitness Without Stress – A Guide to the Alexander Technique and is the creator of The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique ( alexandertechnique.com alexandertechnique.com)
Weight Loss Diet Plans For Real And Steady Results
A fast weight loss diet plan sounds almost too good to be true. Is it even possible to lose weight quickly, look and feel amazing without being forced into an unsafe diet or without taking harmful drugs?
Well, to lose weight successfully, you will need some sort of weight loss diet plan. You have to set some goals and go after them. And results wont come overnight so you will have to be patient. There is no such a thing as an effective and safe fast weight loss plan. You cannot simply pop a pill and burn off all the extra fat in a couple of weeks or even a couple of months. Your body just does not work that way and will either reject or shut down from abusing it with this strategy.
Here is a healthy weight loss diet plan with everything you need to lose weight safely and consistently:
1. Exercise.
This is nothing new really, but exercise is by far the most guaranteed way to ensure success in your goals. Exercises is the element that will make or break your success at losing weight, and you should push for no less than five thirty minute sessions of moderate exercise per week. The good news is that research shows has shown that three quick ten minute workouts give you as good results as one thirty minute workout.
The goal of weight loss exercise is to burn up stored fat and calories, although exercise offers many other health benefits as well. How many calories you burn depends on how often, how long and how hard you exercise.
While aerobic exercise works the best for losing fat, any extra hard physical work helps burn calories. And since your diet plan can include all parts of your daily lifestyle, you could think about ways you can bump up your physical effort such as making several trips up and down the stairs instead of always using the elevator, parking at the end of the lot to get some extra aerobic walking, and walking or riding a bike instead of taking the bus or driving when your destination is nearby.
2. Stay dedicated to becoming healthier, not on becoming thing.
Many people find it easier to follow their dieting goals for long term success when their focus shifts from wanting to be thinner to wanting to be healthier. Change your thinking to selecting the right foods that will be best for your health, than worrying about your body weight. The Food Pyramid offers basic guidelines for what foods and the amount of foods you should eat each day to get the nutrients your body needs for maximum health.
Not only will you be losing weight safely, you will enjoy how much better you feel from eating the right foods and having the extra energy to exercise and workout without feeling sluggish or heavy. You will be working on fulfilling your weight loss goals from two separate but equally important perspectives: exercising throughout the day for burning excess calories and fat, and eating the right foods to look and feel healthier which will give you more energy to lose even more weight.
Switching to a brand new eating style that promotes safety in your weight loss diet plan must focus on decreasing your total caloric intake. But lowering calories doesnt mean giving up taste, satisfaction or even easy meal preparation. One way you can decrease the calories you consume is by eating more plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains, like whole grain bread and oatmeal. Discover the variety in the healthy foods there are that will to help you achieve your goals while experiencing new foods you might never have knew existed!
3. If you choose to use any weight loss diet pills, stay away from those marketed as fat burners that contain Ephedra. There are herbal plant extracts out there that can stimulate caloric energy release in a process called Thermogenesis, which is accelerated when you exercise, as well as plants like Hoodia Gordonii which can suppress the appetite while giving you more energy, and even fat binders which find to the fat in foods you eat and flush out that fat before it becomes absorbed in your body as new stored fat and calories.
Using weight loss diet pills that are based on herbal plants will be least likely to give you any side effects you may experience with prescription drugs, and can help you feel better about eating and maintain a positive attitude toward weight loss as they help you lose weight even faster.
All in all, a good attitude is crucial for your weight loss diet plan to work. A good feeling about where you want to be and how you want to look and feel can help you maintain the patience needed to see results and not try to see fast results. Fast weight loss or hurrying will only result in sacrificing safety for results that be gained back and then some.
Intead of fast weight loss, opt for long term, realistic goals and take baby steps. They work wonders!
George Watson is a popular Weight Loss researcher. Read more about betterweightloss.info/weight-loss-diet-plan.php weight loss diet plans at his betterweightloss.info weight loss pills website, betterweightloss.info betterweightloss.info
Importance of Controlling Your Mind
Since ancient times, the human philosophers have realized the importance of mind in governing the human affairs. They knew that a person’s external circumstances were the result of his internal thoughts. They were aware that if the person thought riches, he would be riches, while the thoughts of poverty, success and failure would produce the corresponding effects in the person’s circumstances. Today, modern science has acknowledged the truth of these findings. Hence it becomes crucial for a person to control his mind.
Yoga has specific techniques which deal with the science of mind control. We will study the nature of mind as is recognized by yoga in this chapter. Shankaracharya has defined mind in four different ways as per its functions: manas for the job of resolving and doubting; buddhi for the decision and judgment; asmita for the consciousness of its individual existence and chita for remembering the previous experiences. Mind is a vast collection of thoughts and traces of the past experiences. When you are born, your mind is the collection of samskaras collected over the previous births. Those samskaras, whose fruits have already been enjoyed have been wiped out. But as you grow up, new samskaras are being added continuously due to various acts performed by you from birth to death. This translates into the law of karma which states that the events one faces in his life are the results of the activities done by him in the past and his mind at birth contains the samskaras from his previous births. Our
Yoga recognizes five factors, basic to the mind of every person. They are called kleshas because they are the forefathers of every human misery. They are: avidya which is the false knowledge or ignorance of one’s true self in relation to the objects; asmita or ego feeling since in yoga, body and soul are two different aspects; raga is the liking of pleasurable experience; dvesha or aversion to pain; abhinivesha or fear of death. Yoga understands the human behaviour from the perspective of these five qualities which are assumed to be present in a person since birth and are considered as the impurities of the mind. They make a person unstable and agitated. Hence yoga has given way of dhyana and pranayam to cleanse your mind.
Kevin Pederson, the webmaster for Yogawiz,mentions all about