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Curious: This is The Most Common Nightmare – For You Too?

Nightmares don’t just affect children – every second adult suffers from scary scenarios in their dreams. The topics are often similar – and sometimes strange. However, one particular nightmare is dreamed very often.

The most common horror scenarios in dreams

Why we dream is still not fully understood. Dreams should help us, for example, to consolidate what we have learned or to process what we have experienced. Nightmares, on the other hand, can teach us how to deal with fearful situations.

As with books and films, nightmares can also be referred to as “classics”. Because there are some themes that repeat themselves in many people. These include, for example, dreams in which those affected fall into the abyss, freezing in dangerous situations, deaths of loved ones, monsters and war scenarios. According to a study, Germans most often dream of spiders. In the interpretation of dreams, spiders can stand for deception, fears and intrigues, but also for luck or creativity. Here it is crucial in which way the spiders appear in your dreams.

If you have a nightmare about a spider sitting or crawling on your bed, there may be intrigue in your community. If the spider runs over your body in a dream, bad luck is said to be approaching. However, if she weaves a web, it can mean something joyful for you. By the way, the topics of dreamers are different internationally. So most Britons probably dream of expecting offspring. Many Portuguese dream of the end of the world and in Poland, according to surveys, most people dream of cats.

Nightmares – what you can do about it

We’re powerless against dreams, aren’t we? Not necessarily. There are methods that you can use preventively, but also if you have already had a bad dream.

If you have had a nightmare, you can write down the dream after waking up; this should not occur again. You can also change the dream by writing and think of a “happy ending”, for example.

Medications such as antidepressants or sleeping pills can encourage restless dreams. You should talk to your doctor about this. If nothing helps against the bad dreams, you should seek help from a therapist.

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Lifestyle

Dirty Joints? With This Secret Trick They Become Clean Again

Joints don’t get nicer over time. Whether in the kitchen, bathroom or laundry room. Either dirt collects or mold forms due to moisture. You can find out here which trick you can use to get your joints clean again.

With this secret trick, joints become clean again

At some point it is enough and you can no longer bear the sight of dirty joints in the kitchen, bathroom or laundry room. Whenever you look at it, the question pops into your head as to how you can get the joints nice and bright and clean again. A wide variety of advice, tips and tricks are circulating. White wax is supposed to help: After cleaning, simply rub the joints with a white candle to give them impregnation protection and preventively help to give them a new shine. However, caution is advised here. At the latest with the next hot shower or when washing the dishes in the kitchen, the wax melts, dissolves more difficult than right and, in the worst case, clogs the drain. The rest that does not come off usually remains as a sticky gray mass and is difficult to remove without leaving any residue.

The trick with the baking powder is a lot more promising: simply dilute a packet of baking powder with a little warm water to create a spreadable paste. With a few dashes of lemon you can improve the effect if necessary. In any case, it smells even fresher. Brush the paste onto the grout with a (preferably discarded) toothbrush. Wait about 20 to 30 minutes and let the mixed baking soda paste work. In the case of stubborn dirt, you can scrub a little with the toothbrush and finally rinse everything off with a little water. Finished!

Baking powder usually contains baking soda, which, when combined with e.g. citric acid (hence the dash of lemon), becomes an active so-called raising agent. If there is no baking soda in baking soda, it is usually other acidifiers, such as tartaric acid. Baking powder also contains a release agent, such as cornstarch. Together with moisture and heat (therefore ideally use warm lemon water) carbon dioxide is released. When baking, the tiny CO2 bubbles ensure that the dough rises. Using this to clean your grout will loosen deep-seated dirt and unhealthy mold. To clean your grout, you better use baking soda instead of a chemical club for the sake of the environment. This is an effective, cheap and, above all, much healthier alternative.

Dirty joints – how to prevent

Tiles and joints belong together and are usually laid where it gets wet and damp. As a rule, it can hardly be avoided that dirt or water gets on and into the joints. However, there is something you can do to stop discoloration and mold from forming.

As a preventive measure, you should always keep the area around the tiles clean and rub dry after showering or using the sink, for example. Regular airing of the rooms also helps. This way you can delay the baking soda cleaning that will eventually be necessary.

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health

Planetary Health Diet: This Diet Saves the Earth

Alarming climate values, diseases of civilization, and famine do not leave science untouched either. With the Planetary Health Diet, researchers have now presented the optimal meal plan that takes equal account of the health of people and our planet.

Can our diet positively influence not only our own health but also that of our planet? An international research team has dealt with this question and developed the “Planetary Health Diet”.

What is the goal of the Planetary Health Diet?

The Planetary Health Diet is the result of a large-scale research effort, the results of which have just been published (1). A team of researchers from 16 countries and from a wide range of areas from politics to agriculture, health, and environmental protection designed the optimal menu that should not only help prevent diseases such as heart attacks and diabetes, but also the limits and resources of our planet taken into account.

According to the research committee, the Planetary Health Diet should continue to ensure nutrition for the world population in 2050, which is forecast to grow to 10 billion. The report also shows that not only eating habits need to change, but also agriculture. Among other things, this should become more sustainable and do without fossil fuels in order to stop the loss of biodiversity. According to scientists, food waste must also be reduced by 15 percent.

What ends up on the plate with the Planetary Health Diet?

“What we eat and how we produce it determines the health of people and the planet. And we are making a serious mistake right now,” says Tim Lang, one of the study’s authors from the University of London. Because especially the consumption of red meat and sugar must be reduced by half. The proportion of vegetables in our food, on the other hand, should be increased. Fruit, nuts, and legumes should also be consumed in large quantities. How suitable is the Planetary Health Diet for everyday use?

With the values ​​of perfect nutrition determined by the scientists, one should of course take into account that these are daily average values. After all, 13 grams of the egg cannot be used to cook a filling meal. However, extrapolated to a week, the information can serve as an orientation for the weekly menu – then nothing stands in the way of an omelet once a week.

The main concern of the research team with the Planetary Health Diet was that it could be implemented in as many countries and culinary cultures as possible. “There is no one answer, there is one diet,” explains Tim Lang. It does not make sense, for example, to idealize the Mediterranean diet or to generally recommend eating fish to everyone in the world. Jessica Fanzo, one of the study’s authors, explains that it’s more about providing a reference meal plan that can and should be adapted for any diet around the world.

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Food

Eating without Carbohydrates: This is How it Works

Low-carb nutrition – i.e. a diet with no or only a few carbohydrates – is no longer an insider tip. But which ingredients can be used to replace bread, pasta, and the like in everyday life? The siblings Alex and Anne from “Eating Without Carbohydrates” is also dealing with this question. In an interview, they tell us more about their favorite recipes, how their blog came about and why a low-carbohydrate diet doesn’t automatically mean giving up.

How did the idea for “food without carbohydrates” come about?

Alex: The whole idea was a mixture of a bet with my sister and my nutritional situation at the time. I created several Facebook fan pages with my sister. To put it simply, “Eating without carbohydrates” had several hundred fans practically overnight…and without any posted content – ​​so it was clear to me that I urgently needed a website with recipes. Fortunately, I’m a media designer and was able to implement it directly in a night session.

Why do you eat low carb?

Alex: For me personally, low-carb is the perfect balance for my training days. Because on these days, carbohydrates are not only allowed to me but also an integral part of my diet. Understanding what happens in the body with the right amounts of nutrients is just plain fun. Anne is more vegan/vegetarian-oriented.

What can we expect from “eating without carbohydrates”?

Anne: We geared the recipes and the whole concept behind “food without carbohydrates” to the long-term goal of a healthy diet. This means that carbohydrates are of course also allowed here. The name is not to be taken literally. However, we do not limit the amount to a few grams per day (as with many other low-carb diets), but are a bit more generous. What we want to convey: is low-carb with “eating without carbohydrates” is not a diet, but a long-term and balanced form of nutrition.

So low-carb and indulgence don’t have to be a contradiction in terms?

Anne: No, absolutely not. Especially if you still have some leeway with the carbohydrates. The thought that enjoyment is neglected here is actually more than wrong.

What (positive/negative) memories do you have of your first attempts at cooking?

Alex: Especially in the area of ​​”low-carb baking” it took a while. A lot went wrong here at the beginning. The worst but also the funniest memory is an exploded mug cake from the microwave.

So I would recommend the baking area to advanced low-carb fans. Precisely because a lot of conventional foods (such as flour and sugar) have to be replaced here, this is not so easy. Just because another product (and there are many) has the suffix “-flour” does not mean that it can also be used 1:1 like normal flour. Otherwise, it would be very useful. It doesn’t matter whether it’s almond flour, coconut flour, or guar gum…each behaves differently in terms of water retention and quantity.

In most low-carb dishes with very common ingredients, however, the ingredients do not differ from other “normal” recipes. So there are no difficulties with the preparation here – provided you can cook a bit.

How did you learn to cook in the first place or was it in your genes?

Anne: We actually always cooked together with the family when we were children. For us, it was just time together in the kitchen and then eating. So I would say that we learned cooking skills from grandma, grandpa, and our parents. Incidentally, these do not go beyond any normal limits. If you are interested in it and have fun with it, that’s actually all you need.

Do you have to be strict with yourself to eat like you?

Anne: No, and that’s exactly what our concept is: It’s by far not “as strict” as comparable diets or programs. Of course, discipline is also part of it on many days and you have to clench your teeth from time to time, but after these situations, you feel all the better. And if you don’t make it, that’s part of it as well. Unfortunately, the quality of life should not be included.

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Food

Carrots: This is How They Become Crunchy Again

When carrots go soft, there is a very simple trick to make them crunchy again.

With this trick you can get them crispy again!

Only if your carrots already show mold should you not eat them under any circumstances. Softened carrots can be used in a soup or in casseroles, for example.

As a rule, the orange-colored vegetables keep for seven to ten days in the refrigerator. But you should definitely remove the carrots from the plastic packaging immediately after buying them in the supermarket. This ensures that water forms in it, which causes the carrots to go moldy. If the carrots lose their freshness, there is a very simple trick you can use to get them crunchy again:

Place or set the carrots in a large container.
Cover them completely with cold water.
Leave the carrots in the fridge for at least 8 hours, but preferably overnight.
The next day you can take them out of the water and prepare crunchy carrots.
The cold water ensures that the roots can absorb enough water again. In this way, the carrots regain sufficient moisture and volume. This makes them fresh and crisp again at the end. Since the root vegetables take up more space with the enriched water, you should also choose a container that is large enough.

Tip

A tip at the end: After shopping, you can wrap the root vegetables in a damp cloth at home and put them in the vegetable drawer in the fridge, then the carrots usually stay crisp longer and don’t even have to take a bath in cold water.

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Lifestyle

Growing Potatoes on The Balcony: This is How it Works – and What You Have to Pay Attention to

no garden? You can also plant potatoes on the balcony. We’ll tell you how to do it!

Potatoes for the balcony – the preparation

If you want to grow potatoes on your balcony, success starts with the preparation. It is best to use ripe potatoes for planting. It’s best to buy seed or seed potatoes from a gardening store. For planting on the balcony, let them pre-germinate in a box in a dark, cool place. This can already be done in March and takes about four weeks.

The right location is important. Potatoes like it warm and light. But make sure that they are not directly in the midday sun. Use vegetable soil or regular garden soil that you have mixed with some compost for the potatoes. So your plants have enough nutrients. Your potatoes also need enough water and space: Potatoes want to spread and always need a lot of water. The soil should not dry out.

Plant bag, bucket or tub: you need that

If you have prepared everything and the sprouted potatoes are ready, you can almost start. But first you have to decide whether you prefer to work with plant bags, buckets or tubs:
Plant sacks: You can buy special plant sacks in specialist shops, but you can also use plastic sacks made from strong PVC fabric. Even rice or jute sacks are suitable for planting potatoes.
Buckets: Buckets or closed tubs are also suitable as long as they are large enough. In order for you to be able to harvest enough potatoes, your container should definitely have a volume of ten liters and a height of about 40 centimeters.
Pots: As with the plant bags, you can also get plant pots from a gardening store. Here you need dark-walled plastic buckets that are as high as possible so that the soil is warmed up well by the sun’s rays.
It is important, no matter which planter you choose in the end, that you ensure sufficient drainage. Potatoes do not tolerate waterlogging, which is why an additional drainage layer made of gravel is worthwhile. For drainage, you can equip your planters with a hole or some slits before filling. Then the water can drain well.

Growing potatoes on the balcony: Here’s how

With the right equipment, you can now plant your own potatoes step by step:
First fill the drainage layer in your planter (think of suitable holes or slots beforehand).
Now you fill in a 15 centimeter high layer of soil that has been enriched with sufficient nutrients.
Now you can spread the seed potatoes evenly over the soil. About four potatoes per pot. Fill in enough soil to just cover the tubers.
Keep everything moist.
After about 14 days, the potatoes are already 15 centimeters high. If the plants have reached a height of 30 centimeters, you can refill 15 centimeters of soil. After that, you can add soil twice more at intervals of 10 to 14 days. This will cause your plants to form more tubers and new shoots further up the shoots.
After about three to four months, the first potatoes are ready to be harvested. At the latest when you watch the leaves of the plants wither, it is time to harvest. Potatoes can usually be harvested from May to October, depending on when and how they were planted. Simply empty your planter. Then you can enjoy your first own balcony potatoes.

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health

Study Shows This Simple Eating Trick Will Keep You Happy and Healthy

Good food is well known for making us happier inside and out. A study shows how a simple trick can increase this effect.

Basics of the study

Every person has a different way to feel more comfortable. While for some it is relaxation methods such as yoga or meditation, others rely on sports, painting or talking to friends. But it is not uncommon for people to feel completely at ease after a delicious meal.

Based on the assumption that good food makes you happy, Edith Cowan University (ECU) initiated a study to prove that there is a connection between good food and our mental health.

A total of 657 people took part in the study, each of whom underwent a seven-week cooking course focused on preparing healthy food. After completing the cooking course, it was examined to what extent participation in the program affected general, but also mental health and subjective vitality. The term “subjective vitality” includes, among other things, perceived energy, willingness to perform and zest for life.

Cooking yourself: Good food should make you even happier

The results were impressive: The participants not only had a higher self-confidence when it came to cooking in general, but even adopted new and healthy eating habits in everyday life. In all three areas that were examined after the study, positive effects were found in the test persons: in general, but also in mental health and subjective vitality.

Basically, the study shows that there is a connection between health and healthy eating. Significant for an improvement in nutrition is not only healthy cooking, but also cooking at home – which increases the good feeling even more. According to the researchers, such nutritional improvement is also a way to combat mental health problems, obesity and other metabolic health disorders.

How much time is invested in cooking and the quality of the ingredients used is less relevant. It’s more about consciously turning to healthy cooking and doing something good for yourself; for example, just eating more fruit and vegetables can have a big effect.

Conclusion

In summary, it can be said that a healthier diet can be implemented at home and can have a positive effect on your physical and mental health. The question of how food can make you happier can be answered easily: Cooking at home is fresh, healthy and fun.

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Lifestyle

Better Than Hamsters: This is How You Cleverly Stock Up on Supplies For Emergencies

The phenomenon of hamsters is currently reappearing frequently. It makes more sense to cleverly stock up on supplies for emergencies instead of hoarding indiscriminately.

Everything about hamsters and possible alternatives

For example, you could process and preserve vegetables so that you have something of regional vegetables for a long time throughout the season. For preserving, you simply have to fill finely chopped beetroot, peas and carrots into boiled disposable glasses, pour water over them and add about half a teaspoon of salt. Finally, put the closed disposable jars in a preserving pot, fill it with water and, depending on the food, let it boil for about 10 to 90 minutes.

Alternatively, you could try lactic pickling. This works particularly well with cabbage vegetables, cucumbers, beans and peppers. You simply have to put the raw, finely chopped vegetables in a mason jar and fill it with boiled salted water. Close the jar tightly and leave it at around 20 degrees for 1.5 weeks. Finally, let the glasses rest for about five weeks at cooler temperatures of up to ten degrees. If you cool the pickled vegetables well, they will keep for about three months. You can even freeze ready meals, sauces or soups. It is important that the food has cooled down before you freeze it.

Helpful food storage tips

You can also use regional and seasonal fruit and berries to make jam or compote. If you want to make a compote from pears, apples, cherries and plums, you need about 2 kilograms of fruit, a squeeze of lemon juice, a stick of cinnamon, 1 vanilla bean and sugar to your liking. First you cut and clean the vegetables. Then you put it in a pot and fill it with water so that the fruit is covered. Ripe fruit usually requires little added sugar. Then let everything boil down and fill it into mason jars. When storing it is important that you choose a dark place where the temperature is below 20 degrees.

If you keep potatoes in a dark, cool, dry and frost-free place, they will keep for several weeks and are therefore worth stocking up on. The same goes for apples, root and tuber vegetables. Store apples in a cool but slightly damp place; here they usually last for several months. You can ideally store the root or tuber vegetables longer in a wooden box with slightly damp sand. To create your own supply, it can make sense to grow winter vegetables. These include Brussels sprouts, lamb’s lettuce, green cooling, beetroot and salsify. You can get suitable seeds in organic shops, for example.

In order to be able to store food longer, it is helpful to sort the contents of the refrigerator correctly. To top it off, you should store packaged cheese and already cooked or cooked food in fresh storage boxes. Dairy products such as cream, quark and yoghurt as well as opened products are best stored in the middle. If you have perishables such as sausage, fish or fresh meat in the fridge, you should store them at the bottom. The fridge door is ideal for storing butter, eggs, mustard, olives and opened drinks. In the vegetable drawer you can store lettuce, herbs, mushrooms, leeks, cabbage and root vegetables. You can also store dry supplies such as spices, sugar, salt, flour, rice and oatmeal for a very long time if you keep them dry and tightly closed.

With a well-planned and organized stockpiling, you are well prepared for emergency situations even without hamsters.

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Curious Cooling Trick: This is How You Can Effectively Reduce Heating Costs

Heating costs go up and up. A curious cooling trick can ensure that the heating does not have to be turned up high in the first place.

Become cold hardy with these tips

Anyone who thinks here is a tip on how to set the heating particularly efficiently or where to get cheap gas is wrong. In order to save on heating costs, we bridle the horse from behind. In the cold season, we like to dress warmly, make ourselves a grain pillow, curl up under the blanket with a cup of hot tea. It’s lousy outside, so we’d rather watch Netflix than take a walk in the park. All this leads to: We hardly move. And if you don’t move much, you freeze faster.

It sounds banal, but the best trick to save on heating costs is to “freeze less”. To do that, we need to expose our bodies to the cold more often. Sensitivity to cold can be trained. Anyone who hasn’t had hot shower water on a trip abroad knows that, after a while you get used to it. When you expose yourself to cold, your blood vessels constrict. If you warm up again, the blood vessels dilate. If this process is repeated regularly, it can permanently create more blood vessels.

There are a few methods to train cold tolerance. Let’s start with the beginner tricks first. When showering, dare to let the water get colder from time to time. This is not only good for strengthening you against the cold, but also stimulates circulation. Don’t be afraid to get some fresh air, even when the temperature is low. Walks, but also jogging and hiking can help. Another option is going to the sauna, during which you go outside again and again. All of these methods stimulate blood circulation and ensure that you no longer freeze so quickly. Anyone who has taken a walk along the lake or river during the cool seasons may have seen courageous people taking an ice bath. This method is becoming increasingly popular to boost the immune system. However, ice bathing also involves risks and is therefore recommended for advanced swimmers.

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Study Shows This is What Happens to Your Body When You Smoke Cannabis

Smoking cannabis has different effects on the body. Researchers have now investigated whether there is also a risk of thrombosis.

Cannabis: what happens in the body?

As the University of Saarbrücken announced, the scientists compared the blood cells of three marijuana smokers with those of three non-smokers. All test subjects are in their mid-30s. Prof. Kaestner and his team observed that the red blood cells swelled immediately after contact with the cannabis active ingredient dronabinol – more so in people who regularly smoked marijuana than in non-users.

Dronabinol – also known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – stimulates a specific ion channel on red blood cells during smoking. The channel called TRPV2 regulates the uptake and release of certain messenger substances into and out of the cell. Cannabis consumption increases the concentration of sodium ions in the blood cells, which means that more water is absorbed. This causes the cell to swell.

However, the situation does not last long. Within an hour, the cells returned to their original shape. According to Prof. Kaestner, however, the risk of thrombosis for cannabis smokers increases slightly during this time. Because the blood cells are larger and rounder, they tend to get stuck in small capillaries. In addition, when smoking cannabis, the vessels constrict, which also increases the risk of micro-thrombosis.

Scientists: health risk is unclear

According to the German Society for Angiology (DGA), in the event of a thrombosis, vessels such as veins are blocked by a blood clot. Leg and pelvic veins in particular can be affected. If a clot forms in these areas, there is a risk of the clot being carried through the bloodstream to the lungs. A pulmonary embolism is imminent. Various factors can lead to thrombosis. One danger is, for example, prolonged lying down, for example during a hospital stay. In this case, thrombosis stockings prevent vascular occlusion. However, the tendency to thrombosis can also be inherited.

The disease can be fatal. According to figures from the DGA, around 100,000 people die every year in Germany as a result of a pulmonary embolism. This is the third most common fatal cardiovascular disease after heart attack and stroke. If thrombosis is suspected, action must be taken quickly. As a first step, the patient is injected with an anticoagulant substance. This prevents the clot from growing and leading to a pulmonary embolism.

Prof. Kaestner cannot say that the observations of the Saarbrücken researchers actually pose an immediate health risk. This question was not part of the study.

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