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Ingredients
- 2 cups oil for frying
- 30 (6 inch) corn tortillas, torn into strips
- ¼ cup chopped onion
- 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 (7.75 ounce) can Mexican-style hot tomato sauce
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Directions
- Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Fry tortillas and onion in hot oil until crisp and golden brown, stirring frequently. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Drain the skillet, leaving only a thin residue of oil.
- Place the skillet over medium heat. Return fried tortillas and onion to the skillet and stir in beaten eggs; season with salt. Cook and stir until eggs are firm.
- Stir in tomato sauce and water. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and continue cooking until cheese is melted.
Chia – the super seed to lower bad cholesterol:
Article and recipe by Lonneke Botello Hernandez
Did you know that chia seed are species of the mint family!?
Chia seeds are native to Mexico and form a very important part of the Aztec empire, due to their amazing nutritional benefits, they were once a main source of food in the Aztec empire dating back to 3500BC.[1] However Mayans were believed to be one of the first to use chia seeds in their everyday life and named the seeds “chia” meaning strength in Mayan. This is because of the energy and endurance these seeds provided during battle, making their warriors stronger!
Nowadays, with advanced technology, we have we have discovered that as well as the energizing and hydrating benefits these powerful little black seeds can also aid in weight loss, digestion, heart health, as well as lowering bad cholesterol.
What is cholesterol and is it all bad? You have two main types of cholesterol, the good HDL and the bad LDL. Now the bad is not all that bad, as long as we have a healthy balance of both the HDL and LDL to not cause damage to our organ systems, particularly our heart. Cholesterol plays important roles in our body such as building cells, digesting food, and making important hormones, required for the normal functioning of our body. The good HDL takes excess cholesterol that we produce from the blood and tissues to the liver in order to remove it from the body, whereas the bad LDL cholesterol keeps the cholesterol in the blood and tissues, which create damage and can cause a buildup of plaque in the arteries, leading to many unwanted heart related issues.[2] This is why there is an important balance of HDL and LDL cholesterol needed in the body to prevent cholesterol related issues, and luckily chia seeds are a cholesterol balancing superfood that can aid in this healthier balance!
Daily consumption of chia seeds (1-2 Tablespoons) has been proven to increase overall HDL cholesterol levels[3] which helps to reduce the overall amount to LDL cholesterol found in the blood and tissues, providing a very positive outcome when it comes to artery heart and brain health. Furthermore, chia seeds have the highest plant source of the good fat – omega 3 fatty acids, as well as fiber, form a complete protein, and are rich in minerals Calcium, Zinc, Copper and Phosphorus.[4] In particular the fiber found in chia seeds is mostly soluble fiber, soluble fiber has the ability to bind to excess cholesterol and expel it out of the body via the digestive tract, thus lowering the overall LDL cholesterol levels in the blood and tissues, as well as slowing down digestion to aid in a better balance of blood sugar levels and have you feeling fuller for longer, positively resulting in weight loss.
For the best health benefits consume chia seeds organic and soak in liquid before consuming to release the most nutrition and cholesterol lowering abilities. There are two varieties of chia seeds black or white, both are of equal nutritional content.
Chia seeds can be simply added to your daily drinking water, crushed and used as a topping on oats or cereals, or give this Piña Colada Chia Pudding a try using coconut and fresh pineapple, yum!
To find out about the beauty and antiaging benefits of omega 3, and which foods to find them in get on the pre-order list of my book The Food Fountain of Youth, which includes more tasty recipes high in omega 3.
Lonneke B.H. is a Clinical Nutritionist, specializing in Beauty and Antiaging Nutrition, with over thirteen years of clinical experience, she has helped countless people to enhance and improve their long-term health and wellbeing, as well as aid in slowing the signs of aging through individualized dietary advice. Lonneke´s book The Food Fountain of Youth is set to release in August 2024, pre-sales will be available soon via her website www.aslon.com.mx/beautynutrition. Follow her on Facebook Lonneke BH – Author, or Instagram lonneke_bh, for more beauty and nutrition tips.
Piña Colada Chia Pudding (no alcohol)
2 servings
1 can of unsweetened coconut cream or milk
5 Tablespoons of Chia seeds
½ cup fresh pineapple pieces
1 Tablespoons of agave
¼ Cup Shredded coconut for topping
Start by chopping the pineapple into small bite sized pieces and set aside. Next, place the coconut cream/milk into a sealable small bowl or container, add in the agave and whisk in the chia seeds slowly, ensure to mix well to reduce clumping together. Leave for 5 mins and then whisk again to ensure smooth pudding. Next spoon in the small, chopped pieces for fresh pineapple and combine well. Sprinkle the shredded coconut on top.
Cover and leave in the refrigerator for a few hours to thicken (overnight is best).
If you like your chia pudding thicker add in another tablespoon of chia seeds and mix in well and leave for a few hours more, or if you like it thinner add in more coconut milk and mix well. Top with shredded coconut and a slice of fresh pineapple when serving for a tropical cholesterol lowering pudding!
This chia pudding will keep in the fridge for up to a week, enjoy!
[1] https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/objects/guidedreading/guidedread007.pdf
[2] https://magazine.medlineplus.gov/article/cholesterol-the-good-the-bad-and-the-unhealthy
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10339661/
[4] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/food-features/chia-seeds/
The ‘unbelievable’ benefit of learning a new language
Ever wanted another reason to dust off your Spanish textbooks, unfold creased vocabulary lists from last summer or restart your daily streak on the language learning app you habitually swipe past? This might just be it.
In 2023, after years of planning, research and independent trials, University of Chicago professor Boaz Keysar sat down to examine the results of his latest psychological experiment. He sought to find out whether thinking in a foreign language affects the quality of our decision-making.
The results were “unbelievable,” according to Keysar.
Making decisions in a foreign language can help our choices become more rational, flexible, open-minded and logical. The data from Keysar’s trials showed that the process of moving from our native tongue to a second language can change the way we think.
The reason is that brain functions related to thinking in a foreign language and the cognitive processes used create a level of emotional distance in what we say and the decisions we make.
Changing our morals for the better?
A high-speed train is barrelling down the tracks below the bridge you’re standing on. You see five people walking on the tracks ahead, who in short order will be hit by the train and killed instantly. The only way to save them is to push the person next to you off the bridge and onto the tracks, thereby bringing the train to a stop and saving the lives of the five further ahead.
Would you sacrifice the life of one person to save five?
Keysar, himself bilingual, wanted to find out whether the way a person would react to this ethical dilemma would vary if they thought about the problem in one’s mother tongue and in a second language.
The utilitarian response — meaning the best outcome for the most people — is to actively push the man in front of the train because you would save four lives. But many decide against it because the idea of actively taking a life fills them with dread and terror and would instead opt to take no action.
Keysar used this problem for his first experiment. Fluent second-language Spanish speakers were asked to consider the decision in Spanish and in their native English. The results showed unequivocally that, those asked in their adopted Spanish, would choose to push the man in front of the train to save the five otherwise certain for death.
According to journalist David Robson, the “effect was so big that Keysar delayed publishing the results” because Keysar simply “couldn’t believe the data.”
Keysar then increased the sample of participants dramatically and later expanded his experiment to include people from the United States, Europe and Asia. The results were equally one-sided. One sample found that participants “were twice as likely to choose the utilitarian option when speaking and thinking in a second language.”
In July 2023, Keysar teamed up with a fellow professor, David Gallo to further examine the benefits of learning another language. Gallo described how “speaking in your native language can lull your brain into being less able to process information objectively.”
“Your emotions start to impede your rationality,” he said. “This speeds up your decision-making, meaning you more prone to mistakes.”
Other benefits of learning a second language include increased memory and reduced likelihood of illness. (Unsplash)
Testing the theory in Oaxaca
After reading Keysar’s research, I wanted to put the theory to the test, but I had reservations about whether thinking in another language would change the decisions I make. I called my Spanish teacher, Barbara, who rather paradoxically, is also one of the most in-demand English teachers in Oaxaca city.
I first heard about her — and her reputation — from Mexican friends. Barbara is originally from Poland, with word-perfect English and fluency in Spanish.
My partner and I became her first and only Spanish students in the spring of 2023, and the way she thoughtfully spoke about teaching English was so impressive.
Speaking about the barriers to language learning, Barbara described how “We all have different needs, fears, and difficulties when it comes to learning. We also have different experiences to relate to.”
Gordon put the theory to the test in Oaxaca city. (Roman López/Unsplash)
The fear and difficulty of language learning is something every learner has felt. It hinders us from taking the next steps to getting better in a new language, which once achieved could be the very thing that enables us to think more rationally.
“We, as adults, learn best by doing, trying, practicing and, also, failing,” Barbara added. “But on top of that, we need to know why we are trying. What is this learning for?”
Barbara’s opinion points to the rationality in learning. Thinking logically is something we aim to do with learning as soon as we formulate patterns in verb endings and sentence structures, and then try to commit them to memory.
And by doing this, we take one step closer to being able to achieve fluency, which would allow us to think in a foreign language if we put our minds to it.
Keysar and Gallo’s research might not seem relevant to everyone. But it’s a fresh perspective on the benefits of language learning traditions which are as old as time. At the very least, it’s another hidden benefit of spending an extra five minutes rewriting your most recent lesson notes, pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone to go to a Spanish-speaking hairdresser or restarting this time, life-long streak on Duolingo.
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New Vaccine Could End the Increase in Dengue Cases in Mexico
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported a concerning surge in dengue cases across the Americas in February 2024. Mexico was not spared, experiencing a 368% increase in viral infections (transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito), compared to the previous year.
In response, the Vaccine Advisory Committee (CAV) of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) highlighted the potential of a new vaccine – Butantan-DV. This Brazilian-developed, single-dose vaccine demonstrated promising preliminary results in a Phase 3 trial involving participants aged 2 to 59.
The study, titled “Live, Attenuated, Tetravalent Butantan-Dengue Vaccine in Children and Adults,” was conducted by the American National Institute of Health (NIH) and showed a 73% efficacy rate in preventing symptomatic dengue across all age groups, regardless of prior exposure.
While still under development, the Butantan-DV vaccine offers hope for Mexico, considering the significant rise in dengue cases. While Mexico currently has two approved dengue vaccines (Dengvaxia and Qdenga), the arrival of Butantan-DV could further strengthen national efforts to contain the epidemic.
However, Mexican health authorities have not yet commented on the approval process for this new vaccine, leaving its availability timeline uncertain.
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‘It was an oasis’: Mexico City frets about water
Lake Zumpango (Mexico) (AFP) – Agustin Garcia looks with dismay at the dry bed of the lake where he once fished for a living — a symptom of the water problems facing Mexico and its capital, one of the world’s biggest cities.
Abandoned boats sit on the dry Zumpango lakebed north of Mexico City ©
“It was an oasis here, something beautiful, and now it’s dry,” the 55-year-old said by the sunbaked shore of Lake Zumpango to the north of Mexico City.
After water supply cuts in several neighborhoods this year, nervousness is growing among the 20 million residents of the Mexico City metropolitan area about whether they will avoid major shortages before the rainy season arrives.
The use of tanker trucks to deliver water has already increased, while some residents have installed big storage tanks as they anxiously await the regular downpours that usually begin in May.
Despite talk in the media of “Day Zero” when the taps might eventually run dry, the government has insisted there is no need to worry.
The increased jitters follow a significantly less wet than usual rainy season last year, combined with hotter than average recent temperatures, which have left reservoirs near Mexico City more depleted than normal.
Rainfall in Mexico in 2023 was 21 percent below average, making it the driest year since record keeping began in 1941, according to a report published by the National Meteorological Service.
A worker fills a tanker truck with drinking water to distribute in Mexico City
“This is part of global environmental change,” said Roberto Constantino, an expert at the Metropolitan Autonomous University.
Variations in meteorological cycles are “predominantly causing the lack of water,” he told AFP.
Juan Manuel Nunez, an expert at Iberoamericana University, believes that “rapid urbanization and careless management of our water resources” are also part of the problem in Mexico City.
Water leaks involving aging pipes are not uncommon.
Activists have also called for tighter control of water use by major corporations such as breweries and construction companies.
‘Feel devastated’
In Zumpango, six boats lay abandoned on the dusty lakebed — a far cry from past years when Garcia and his colleagues caught carp and other fish.
“I feel devastated, weak, unable to earn an income so that I can continue to support myself,” he said.
“We were all used to feeling an early morning breeze, seeing the ducks, seeing the herons,” Garcia said, adding that some fishermen gave up and went to the United States to seek work.
Around a dozen rigs, reportedly for drilling and pumping wells to supply Mexico City with water, were seen in the area, further upsetting locals.
“No to water theft. The water is ours,” read graffiti on a nearby wall.
The National Water Commission did not respond to AFP’s request for information about the equipment.
With less than three months to go before Mexico holds presidential elections, candidates have put the water issue at the heart of their campaigns.
Opposition hopeful Xochitl Galvez has promised to treat 100 percent of wastewater for recycling — following the example of other cities such as Los Angeles and Singapore.
Ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum has proposed that water be recognized in the constitution as a national resource, and opposes giving new concessions to the private sector.
‘No lake, no life’
It is not just Greater Mexico City that has been affected.
In 2022, residents of the northern industrial hub of Monterrey, one of Mexico’s wealthiest cities, faced weeks of water rationing due to depleted reservoirs.
In the western state of Michoacan, Lake Cuitzeo — one of the biggest in the country — has lost more than half of its surface area.
“The authorities aren’t interested. They only remember the lake when they are campaigning,” said fisherman Rafael Vazquez.
More than 140 families in his community of La Mina depend on fishing, he said.
A heat wave is forecast to continue in the coming days, offering little sign of respite.
“If there’s no lake, there’s no life,” Vazquez said.
Mexico in peak asparagus production leading up to Easter
The supply of asparagus is good right now and it looks as though it will stay that way for the next few weeks. “Currently, Mexico is in peak asparagus production,” says Cruz Carrera of Five Crowns Marketing. “Last year we ran into weather conditions that hindered the overall volume of asparagus. This year weather conditions have been ideal and as a result, the industry is in very good supply.”While Mexico ships asparagus year-round from a number of regions, right now production on the vegetable is underway in the Caborca region. The country largely has the North American asparagus market to itself given that Peru is done shipping its volumes and domestic production has not yet begun.Aggressive promotions
As for demand, it’s good as well for asparagus. “The retail chains are aggressively promoting which is great for the industry given the amount of supply we are currently experiencing,” says Carrera. “Our direction is to continue promoting through the remainder of March.”Ahead is also an early Easter this year–Easter is the biggest holiday pull for asparagus. “We anticipate sufficient supply along with strong demand for the holiday,” says Carrera.