Do you worry that coffee could harm your health? Relax. Studies suggest that, when consumed in moderation — meaning two to four eight-ounce servings daily — coffee may in fact be good for you.

It is not clear whether the benefits come from coffee itself or its caffeine. Even decaffeinated coffee may have some caffeine, and there is limited research on other caffeinated beverages, such as tea. Per cup, coffee has about 100 mg of caffeine… black tea has about half as much. Studies show that coffee may…

• Reduce risk for some cancers. An analysis of nine studies found that drinking two cups of coffee daily lowered liver cancer risk by 43%. Coffee also may protect against colorectal cancer.

• Help prevent diabetes. Among 200,000 study participants, those who drank four to six cups of regular or decaffeinated coffee daily were 28% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people who drank two cups or less daily.

Possible reason: Chlorogenic acid, an antioxidant in coffee, slows sugar’s release into the bloodstream.

• Protect memory. In a study of 7,000 seniors, women who drank more than three cups of caffeinated coffee or six cups of caffeinated tea daily had less memory loss than women who drank two cups or less.
• Prevent gallstones. In a study of 80,000 female nurses, drinking two or more cups of caffeinated coffee daily cut gallstone risk by about 20%.

Why: Caffeine may aid the digestive fluid bile, reducing formation of cholesterol crystals that become stones… and stimulate gallbladder contractions, flushing away crystals.

• Lower Parkinson’s disease risk. In the nurses’ study, women who drank one to three cups of caffeinated coffee daily were 40% less likely than nondrinkers to develop Parkinson’s, a movement disorder caused by loss of brain cells.

• Improve physical performance. The amount of caffeine in two to five cups of coffee boosts endurance… helps the body burn fat instead of carbohydrates… and eases muscle soreness.

Reassuring: Coffee drinkers are no more likely to have heart attacks or chronic high blood pressure than nondrinkers. Coffee oils can raise cholesterol, but paper filters remove these oils. Coffee doesn’t appear to increase risk for ovarian or breast cancer. Some women say coffee worsens premenstrual syndrome and fibrocystic breast disease (benign breast lumps), but research does not support this.

Cautions: Both regular and decaf coffee can cause digestive upset. Caffeine can trigger migraine or cause insomnia. Animal studies suggest that at high doses, caffeine may weaken bones by blocking calcium absorption. Moderate amounts of caffeine do not impair fertility or cause birth defects, but consuming more than 200 mg daily may double miscarriage risk — so limit caffeine to 100 mg per day while pregnant.

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Bottom Line/Women’s Health interviewed JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH, a professor of medicine and women’s health at Harvard Medical School, and chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, both in Boston. She is one of the lead investigators for two highly influential studies on women’s health — the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study and the Women’s Health Initiative. Dr. Manson is the author, with Shari Bassuk, ScD, of Hot Flashes, Hormones & Your Health (McGraw-Hill).

Sheila Buff
When was the last time you bought a really good-tasting tomato from the grocery store? Weather permitting, you can grow a bumper crop of your own, much more delicious tomatoes this year and use them for salads, sauces and other recipes — and give them to grateful friends. Almost anyone can do it, even if you don’t have enough space for a garden. How to go about it…

CHOOSE THE RIGHT VARIETIES

The typical garden catalog might offer 10 to 20 tomato varieties — a specialty catalog might offer several hundred.

Not every tomato variety will grow well in every garden, but there are some stalwart varieties that are easy to grow, disease resistant and produce large crops of delicious tomatoes just about anywhere. Some top choices found in catalogs and garden centers…

• Small fruits — cherry tomatoes. Riesentraube, Sugary, Sun Gold (yellow), Sweet 100.

• Medium fruits — salad or slicing. Better Boy, Big Boy, Box Car Willie, Celebrity, Early Girl, Flammé (orange), Lemon Boy (yellow), Matina, Paul Robeson (black), Sioux.

• Large fruits — beefsteak. Brandywine varieties, German Johnson, Goliath, Mortgage Lifter.

Most tomato varieties will do reasonably well anywhere, but if you have a short, cool growing season — or a long, hot, and humid one — choose varieties that are best for your area.Good medium-sized red choices for short seasons — Early Girl, Jetsetter, Stupice. Good medium-sized red choices for long, hot seasons — Homestead, Porter’s Pride, Solar Fire, Sunmaster.

PLANT METHODICALLY

Tomatoes like good soil with lots of organic material (humus) in it, a fair amount of room, and plenty of warmth and sunshine.

Tomatoes hate the cold, so plant them after the last frost for your area (check with your local county extension or farm bureau to find the date for your area). Also, choose a spot that will get at least six hours of full sun every day.

If you grow your own seedlings, start the seeds indoors about six to eight weeks before the last frost date in your area.

Space the seedlings two to three feet apart (in all directions) or one plant per pot if you are using containers. Dig a planting hole six to eight inches deep or more — it should be deep enough to hold the roots and the stem of the seedling up to the first set of true leaves (not the small rounded leaves closest to the roots). Planting deeply helps your tomato plants develop strong roots, which will help them flourish.

Place a stake by each plant now, so you won’t disturb the roots later on when the plant is bigger. As the plants get taller, tie them loosely to the stakes with string or twist ties. This keeps fruit and foliage off the ground, making it easier to find and pick the tomatoes — and also keeps the branches from breaking under the weight of the fruit.

To keep down weeds, insects and plant diseases, and to help conserve moisture, cover the soil around the plants with a thick layer of organic mulch, such as dead leaves, grass clippings, straw, shredded newspaper — or use black plastic sheeting or landscape cloth.

Tomatoes in soil that has been enriched by organic gardening methods don’t usually need added fertilizer. If your soil isn’t as good, your tomatoes may need some help. Apply natural fertilizers, such as compost tea (soak a shovelful of compost overnight in a gallon or two of water, then pour off the water around the plants) or fish emulsion, available at any garden center, when the seedlings are first planted, again when the first blossoms appear and again when the first fruits start to turn light green. If you want to use a manufactured fertilizer, Miracle-Gro for tomatoes has the best mineral balance.

WATER DEEPLY AND OFTEN

The true secret of growing perfect tomatoes is watering them deeply and often. The best way to water is with soaker or drip hoses along the bases of the plants. These get the water down to the roots without wetting the foliage and fruit, where it can cause mildew and other diseases.

Tomatoes need to be watered on a regular basis. Check the moisture level every few days by digging down a couple of inches. If the soil is dry below the surface, you need to water.

Tomatoes need roughly two to three gallons of water applied per plant per week — more if it’s very hot and dry, less if it’s been rainy. If you use soaker hoses, let the hoses run for two to three hours. To hand water, gently apply about a quart of water around the base of the plant, let it soak in and then repeat once or twice more.

If your tomato plants start looking badly wilted or yellowed even though you’ve been careful about watering regularly, chances are a tomato disease is at work. Once these problems turn up in your garden, they’re there for good. Avoid them in the future by selecting resistant varieties. Resistance to the most common tomato diseases is indicated by these letters after the variety name on the seed packet or label on the container (if you bought seedlings)…

• A stands for Alternaria arborescens fungus.

• F for Fusarium wilt.

• N for nematodes (tiny worms that attack roots).

• T for tobacco mosaic virus.

• V for Verticillium wilt.

Check with your local county extension agent or farm bureau to find out more about specific tomato diseases in your area and for help identifying what’s hurting your plants.

HARVESTING YOUR CROP

For best flavor, pick your tomatoes when they’re still two or three days away from being fully ripe. Let them finish ripening indoors on a countertop away from direct sun. Homegrown tomatoes will often have some green at the stem end even when they’re ripe. They may also still have some green on the shoulders. Pick them anyway — by the time they turn completely red, if left on the vine, they will be overripe. Most important of all: Never put tomatoes in the refrigerator! Their taste and texture will be ruined.

TOMATOES FOR SMALL SPACES

No space for a garden? If you have a balcony, patio, porch or a sunny window, you can still enjoy homegrown tomatoes.

The secret is to choose a variety designed for container growing. These varieties are all small, compact plants with small fruits that will grow well in pots or even hanging baskets. The most popular variety is called, unsurprisingly, Patio. Other container favorites include Florida Basket, Red Robin and Sprite. For really small spaces, try Tiny Tim — the plants grow to only 18 inches — or Micro-Tom, the world’s smallest tomato variety. These plants grow to only eight inches. For tomatoes in containers…

• Use the largest container possible for the space.

• Pick the sunniest spot.

• Protect the plants from wind by putting them in a sheltered spot or putting a windproof screen around them.

• Fertilize as needed.

• Water often, daily if necessary. Plants in containers dry out quickly. Check the soil daily for moisture.

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Bottom Line/Retirement interviewed Sheila Buff, author of several books on gardening, natural history and the outdoors, including The Great Tomato Book (Burford Books). Ms. Buff lives in Milan, New York. www.sheilabuff.com.

Knowledge is power.

When you are looking to make any major purchase or take out any long term insurance the first thing you should do is arm yourself with all the facts you need and this is by no means any different with your home owners insurance. Work out the value of your home and write up a list of the personal items in your home. This list should include absolutely everything that you would need to replace in the event of it being damaged beyond repair, stolen or broken. This itinerary will not only prove useful for calculating the level of cover you require but also for making a claim should the need arise.

Calculating your cover.

Home owners insurance is a little different to other insurance. Car insurance uses book value of your car, the insurance company being safe in the knowledge that you will be able to replace your car should the unthinkable happen. Going out and buying a house is a little different to this. There isn’t a set value on a house and you can’t just buy the house itself. In order to come up with a value on your home you need to find out the market value for similar houses in a similar area. In order to reduce the cost of your monthly premium you should seriously consider excluding a small amount of the money because while you need to insure the building and outbuildings you don’t to insure the surrounding or housing land.

Shopping around.

This is the key aspect to gaining cheaper home owners insurance and is a step that has been made much easier with the introduction of the Internet. Comparison sites are regularly available that will allow you to get quotes from a large number of home owners insurance companies. This will give you a much better picture of the type of price you should expect to be paying and will let you decide which policy has the best cover combined with the cheapest price.

Selecting your home owners insurance policy.

Once you’ve got your list of quotes in you should be able to tell pretty quickly which of the offers appears the best. Check it over to make sure it offers exactly what you are looking for and if it does you are onto a winner. If there are a couple of quotes around the same price look them all over to see if any have outstanding extra services that may make you give them slight preference over the others.

Renewal time.

You will need to renew your policy or change insurance provider on an annual basis and when this time comes you should check that the policy you are applying for still has everything you need. By doing this you will be able to stay on top of the prices you are paying and the coverage you are receiving.

For more info on Insurance visit:
http://www.bruisedonion.com/guide/insurance/

“Company’s coming and my place doesn’t look right…”

You know how it goes, you have visitors coming tonight. You’ve cleaned every room in the house (well, maybe not the bedroom). You’ve planned the menu, and…it’s just not quite right. Perhaps you’ve been hankering for a change or maybe it strikes you out of the air, the room needs Something, but what?

Here’s five fast tips for when that re-decorating demon strikes and you haven’t the budget or time to do much.

You can likely do all of these ideas for significantly less than $50, but because they are simple, I’ll explain along the way what makes the difference.

1)Fresh Flowers
You don’t need a $50 bouquet to make a room, but a stale look will get an instant boost with a bit of living, breathing, greenery. Consider a $20 tropical, large enough to fill in an empty corner, and spend another $20 on a colorful bunch of fresh cut flowers (if you shop well, you can even get the vase). This will give your room instant punch!

2)Bowl of Fruit & Table Cloth
If you’re at the market anyway, don’t overlook the zest and color that a large bowl of fresh fruit lends to the kitchen, dining room, or even the coffee table. Great look that works well in all decors; fill a pottery dish with a variety, or a tall glass vase with a single fruit (ie: lemons or limes) or even line up a row of green apples along the coffee or dining table for a contemporary feel. And since fruit is inexpensive, give yourself a shot of change by selecting a new table linen in the trendiest color of the season to give your room a real lift or invest in a crisp white or cream cloth for a classic look.

3)Baskets
You don’t have to be a country girl (or guy) to appreciate the cozy look of baskets. Even the most modern room can benefit from a bit of wood or rattan. But the main purpose here is to hide clutter. You’ll feel so refreshed if you add a few baskets to fill with magazines, toys or hobby material. It’s the easiest way to contain the everyday clutter that you can’t stow away. And clearing space is always a good look!

4)Throw Cushions
I’d bet you could find two throw cushions for less than $50, so if you do, add a throw blanket as well. Cheap and shamefully easy, this is the way to go if you’re ready to make more of a statement. Great opportunity to bring some contrast into a dull room, consider light pillows for a dark room, dark pillows for a light one, and absolutely try adding a trendy color to a neutral room. And at this price, you can change it next season!

5)Paint
Admittedly for the more ambitious, this is a fantastic way to create a stunning look in little time. However, this is an article on FAST ideas, so let’s not tackle the whole room right now. If company’s coming this weekend, try a new look by painting a feature wall a stunning but complementary color (ie: the fireplace wall, that blank wall behind the couch…you get the idea.) Or even tape off a smaller section (this is called color blocking) to focus attention on a collection of pictures, or behind a mirror, or around the fireplace.

For more Interior Decorating tips and advice visit:
http://www.bruisedonion.com/guide/interior%20decorating/

It seems everyone is applying for loans so that they can make improvements to their home. Some individuals will burn through thousands of dollars to improve the look if their home. Major improvements such as new flooring or a deck can require a significant amount of money. However, you don’t have to go to those measures to make improvements to your home. There are three key areas of your home that can make the most difference in the appearance of your home – the entrance, kitchen and bathroom. Just doing one of the ideas listed below can make a huge difference in your home. But why not do all three when it can be done for less than $100?

Entrance

The old saying that, “First impressions are usually the last”, can easily apply to the way people react when they enter your home. Has your welcome mat lost its welcome appeal? It’s time to spice up your entrance so what you hear are “oohs” and “ahhs” when people cross your threshold. If you have a spacious porch, a potted plant in a metal planter can create a pleasant atmosphere. Contemporary planters are about $10.

If you’re really adventurous, a coat of brightly-colored paint on your front door can create a splash. If you take on this challenge, it’s a good idea to make sure that the paint complements your home. For example, if your home is mostly red brick, a red door would make a dynamic look. A gallon of interior/exterior gloss enamel in red or any other bright color will set you back no more than $20.

Kitchen

When you look in your kitchen, what catches your eye first? Probably all those nifty cabinets that discreetly tuck away your dishes, right? After a number of years you might crave a different look. For starters, you might want to give them a good cleaning. This one step alone can make a difference. You would be surprised the amount of dust and grease that can accumulate on cabinets. Depending on the material that your cabinets are made of, simply removing the cabinets from their hinges and wiping them down with the damp cloth is sufficient. There are chemicals on the market, but you need to make sure that the chemicals are made for your cabinet material.

Once your cabinets are shining again, you can then add or replace knobs. Knobs range from simple unfinished versions that cost as little as $.50 to decorative insert pulls that costs around $3. With the average kitchen containing about 12 cabinets, your cost won’t go over $36.

Bathroom

Guest bathrooms are usually confined to a small space. Why not give this room a lift? You undoubtedly have a nice set of guest towels and matching accessories. These items are not necessarily cheap so unless you want to go over your $100 spending limit, you can leave those items as they are. What you can add are wallpaper trim, artwork, and color. There are numerous styles of wallpaper trim that you can choose a new look for your bathroom. You can go as conservative and as creative as you want. To complement the wallpaper trim, you can add artwork. You don’t have to go out and purchase expensive artwork. You can use your imagination to come up with some ideas. For example, a few seashells, colorful fabric, and an empty picture frame are all you need to become your own favorite artist.

If you have any leftover paint from your door, you can use this to paint a wall in your bathroom, as long as the color doesn’t clash with the other elements of your bathroom.

For more Home Improvement  tips visit:
http://www.bruisedonion.com/guide/home%20improvement/