Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Why Focus (Not Effort) Is The Key To Getting Stuff Done

Around the time I started this blog, I was obsessed with habits. The psychology is fascinating and the idea that you could reprogram your behavior was compelling. After all, how much could you accomplish if you never failed to act on what you planned?
The science of behavior change makes it exciting too: operant and classical conditioning, trigger patterns and variable reinforcement. It turns the seemingly dull task of building good habits into an exotic discipline.
During that time, I got pretty good at it too. Exercising regularly, reading a book a day, cutting out television. I saw we were all robots, operating on unseen patterns. My only difference is someone had shown me the control switch.
Looking back now, in spite of the fanciness of the psychological tricks, I think I neglected the power of what may have been the most important rule: never more than one habit at a time.
Focus is an underestimated resource. What’s more, unlike willpower or motivation, which can be fickle to summon, focus can be created easily.

Stop Doing So Much Stuff

Being more focused is easy: stop having so many damn goals.
Sometimes I’ll get emails from students who are in a double major, active in sports, chair in student government, volunteering, and desperately trying to prevent from burning out. Then they go on to ask me how they can focus more in their studies.
The problem is that their life is the antithesis of focus. Part of the blame comes from the belief that being “well-rounded” is essential on resumes, so they fill their time with draining activities. (For an excellent critique of this strategy, read Cal Newport’s fantastic book.)
It’s obvious that the stress would disappear if these students decided to drop most these small goals and focus on only one or two big ones. What’s less obvious, but also likely, is that by harnessing focus in one or two goals, their accomplishment would go up enough that it would more than compensate for the other gaps.
Focus is a philosophy, not a resource. You can be focused by choice, just by choosing to have fewer goals to work on.

The Hardest Year in My Life (a Case Study in Focus)

As an example of the power of focus, I want to contrast two years in my life. One where I burned out and felt enormous stress, and the other where I felt almost none and I was generally pretty relaxed.
The difficult year was in college. Like the hypothetical student I discussed, I severely lacked focus. I had two positions in student government, full classes, and a demanding schedule of competitions. Not to mention trying to sustain this blog which would eventually become my full-time business.
I was so burned out by the end that I left the country for the year, with little to show other than aches from my misadventure.
The year of low stress and relaxation? This past year, doing the MIT Challenge.
To an outsider, last year seemed a lot more difficult. After all, trying to learn the content of a 4-year science degree from a tough school seems far more difficult than trying to balance a few student council positions while taking a couple business classes.
The difference was focus. The total difficulty of my hardest year was aggressively compounded by the fact there was so many different goals. The MIT Challenge was more difficult and impressive in isolation, but avoided the temptation of distraction.

Too Much Motivation?

Very few psychological factors are universally positive. The opposite of depression, is not bliss, but mania. Often the two coexist, with those suffering from manic depression experiencing both extremes.
There are those that suffer from too little motivation. Cultivating motivation from apathy is a difficult task, but not an impossible one.
But less frequently to we recognize the opposite problem: too much motivation. Too much enthusiasm leads to starting many projects you’ll never finish. It leads to splitting your focus in the misguided belief that such splits are sustainable.
If the opposite of depression is mania, not happiness, then the opposite of laziness is not productivity, it’s this. The middle ground, where you’re enthused but focused, is the work equivalent to the meditative contentment which is neither depressed nor manic.

My Advice to Get Things Done (Which Most People Won’t Follow)

I’m going to give a piece of advice for getting more work done and actually achieving all those goals you claim to have, but haven’t made much progress on yet. But it’s also a piece of advice I’m guessing most people will ignore, even though it wouldn’t be too hard to implement. Here it is:

Only have one goal at a time.

This doesn’t mean you must devote your life obsessively to only one end. All it means is that if you’re going to have goals at all, put one as the focus and let the others be optional, for a dedicated period of time.
What if you have two goals that are both really important to you? Well then let one be your focus for this month and let the other be your focus for the next.
Having a goal doesn’t mean everything else in your life is completely ignored. I still went to the gym, wrote blog articles, met new people and paid my taxes during the MIT Challenge. The difference was that I knew they weren’t my focus, so my job was only to try to keep them running smoothly.
The temptation to lose focus won’t come from laziness. Laziness may actually be a positive attribute since it discourages you from picking up new goals. The discipline to focus comes from resisting the enthusiasm to try new projects.

The Action Steps to Use this to Get More Done

The action steps to start using this to accomplish more are quite simple:
  1. Decide what is your focus right now. There can only be one.
  2. Commit to keeping it as your focus until a certain time. It might be a deadline for a project, as it was with my challenge, or it might be arbitrary. Focus doesn’t work if it switches too rapidly.
  3. Everything other than your focus, the aim is to keep it running smoothly, but no active self-improvement and absolutely no new voluntary commitments.
If your goal is a small one, make the commitment period shorter. If you have two major goals, flip a coin and commit to the first one for the next month and the second for the month after.
If your project is long-term, make it a focus in the beginning until you think you can continue it successfully with it being a non-focus. My business was a focus for the first few years, but during the MIT Challenge it became a non-focus. That didn’t mean I stopped blogging (indeed, I maintained two blogs during that time), but that I only sustained output.
For many people these action steps won’t be enough. Their existing load of commitments is so vast that they are already overextended. Merely trying to keep all of these activities as non-focuses will still leave them burned out.
If you’re in this situation, phase out your existing commitments over time. Eventually, you can get to a state where you could meaningfully focus on one goal in particular.
To the people who claim that focus is a luxury they can’t afford, why not just try it for one month? Experience tells me that after an experiment, you’ll realize that you can’t afford not to focus.

Source:- http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2012/10/15/focus-not-effort/
                                     

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

One Small Effort

You’re only a moment away from making real progress. One small effort can get you started.
It’s nice and comfortable to stay where you are, without taking action, without making progress. Yet after a while that comfort turns into stagnation, and you’ll feel painful regret for not moving forward.
Now, however, you have the opportunity to avoid that regret. Now, you have the chance to make valuable use of this very moment.
It really doesn’t take much to get started, and the payoff can be enormous. Once you make that first small effort, the next one comes more easily, and the one after that even more easily.
Soon, you’ll have real, solid momentum. And before long, you’ll have a real, valuable achievement.
Life is yours right now to live. Start with one small effort, and fulfill your greatest possibilities.


Source:- http://greatday.com/motivate/110221.html

Monday, 28 September 2015

NHS Fitness Studio - Exercise Videos



Hover over the green tabs (Go to the actual article) http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-fitness-studio/Pages/welcome-to-nhs-fitness-studio.aspx to choose a workout from the NHS Fitness Studio's selection of online exercise videos.
Take your pick from among 20 instructor-led videos in our aerobics, strength and resistance, pilates and yoga categories.
No gym fees, no intimidating group classes, no timetables: exercise from the comfort of your own home whenever you want.
Whether your aim is to lose weight, get fitter, improve your strength or simply de-stress, these workouts should offer something for you.
The workouts have been created by fitness experts InstructorLive and range from 10 minutes to 45 minutes in duration. The exercise routines range from kettlebell workouts to meditation and mindfulness techniques, and include classes such as Beditation, Wake up! workout, Yoga with LJ, and Belly dancing for beginners.
You will also find links to our popular exercise programmes, such as the Couch to 5K running plan for beginners, Strength and Flex podcast and the 10-minute workout series.
All of these exercise routines count towards your recommended 150 minutes of physical activity a week. Regular exercise has been proven to help you to reduce the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke. Research shows that physical activity can also boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy.

Source:- http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-fitness-studio/Pages/welcome-to-nhs-fitness-studio.aspx

Sunday, 27 September 2015

Tell It Like It Is

Yeah, people who don't tell it like it is make me ill.
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I pushed the heavy wooden door open and started to walk through. At the same time, a younger man was starting to come out though the same door. Obviously, we both could not get through the doorway at the same time. He backed up a couple of steps, held the door open for me, and, with a smile, said, "You first, old man."
When I tell my friends about this, they say, "That was really an unkind thing for him to say." Or, "Man, that was rude." Or, something like that. But I tell my family and friends how much I appreciated his comment, because it reflected the truth.
Compare that with what happened at the car wash. When it came time to pay the bill, the cashier said to me, in a condescending voice, "How are you, young man," emphasizing the "young man." Anyone who looked at me, an eighty-year-old man, knows quite well that I am not a young man. So, even though it is not especially pleasant to hear, I appreciated the first man telling it like it is -- referring to me as an "old man."
What is it about today's culture that makes it popular to fudge on telling the truth? It seems to me that it has to do with our infatuation with being politically correct, whatever that means.
The last two weeks I have written about being the coordinator for a group of young French people visiting St. Louis to learn about how we in the United States fund non-governmental social service agencies. During the interview with the staff members of an agency that helps immigrants get settled in St. Louis, one of the French persons asked whether or not it appeared likely that the United States Senate and the United States House of Representative would be able to reach an accord to deal with our illegal immigrant situation. The staff person he was talking with was quick to correct the young Frenchman: "We do not refer to them as illegal immigrants; they are undocumented immigrants."
Why not call it as it is? "Old man," not "Young man"; "Illegal immigrants," not "Undocumented immigrants." Or, in an article in the St. Louis Post- Dispatch, July 11, 2013, page A7, about the Republicans in the House debating among themselves what their position should be in dealing with immigration, the Associated Press used the term "unlawful" immigrants.
I was taught that life is too short to spend time beating around the bush. My father always said it is important to be kind in one's comments, but to be direct. He contended that beating around the bush leads to unnecessary misunderstanding, and I have found that to be correct. Just tell it as it is so people can deal with the very root of the situation!
As an ordained minister, time and again I found that many problems were made worse by people trying to "sugar-coat-the pill": for example, a behavioral problem -- with children or adults -- made worse by not facing the truth of the problem head on; official boards not shooting straight with church members about financial issues, prolonging facing up to the issue and dealing with it; or honestly discussing changes in worship that many older people do not like but young families applaud.
As a college president, I found the same thing: beating around the bush causing unnecessary misunderstanding -- such as, faculty members not talking in-depth with the students, roommates not dealing honestly with one another when they didn't get along, administrators and faculty members letting differences in governance issues fester before really telling one another what is bugging them. And I have seen the same thing in business: owners and managers and employees not shooting straight with each other from the outset, fearing hurting the morale of the workforce or fearing being fired.
How many times it would have been better had everyone just been honest with one another in the first place instead of hiding the true crux of the matter. I'm sure you can recall many such instances, personal and professional, as can I.
I studied at the University of St. Andrews fifteen years after the end of World War II. The people frequently talked about the war years and how much they appreciated the fact that Winston Churchill told them the truth. They related the way that Churchill, in his evening radio broadcasts, would always tell them how bad thing were -- that he never sugar-coated the pill -- and then when he told them about something good that had happened, they knew he was telling them the truth.
Just think how refreshing it would be if: we could be relatively sure that our government is always telling us the truth instead of our having to decipher the vocabulary of political correctness; or if our political parties would forget about making themselves look good as an election approaches and just deal honestly with the real issues at hand; or if our presidential administrations, Republican and Democrat, would stop the practice of using biased spokespersons in daily briefings to put their administrations in a more favorable light.
Do you remember the early morning walks that Harry Truman took, inviting reporters to go along with him! He didn't need professional "spin doctors" to talk for him! And whether you agreed or disagreed with his decision to relieve the very popular General Douglas MacArthur of his command during the Korean War, President Truman, the Commander-in-Chief, did not beat around the bush -- he solved the problem and moved on, not worrying about being politically correct or consulting the polls to determine if such a move would be popular.
It has been my experience in life that most people are able to deal with the truth, even if it is bad news. It is uncertainty that is hard to deal with. And wondering if someone is telling you the real crux of the matter leads to uncertainty and anxiety.
I'll admit that I did not like to be reminded that I am an old man, but as my father always suggested, the man who held the door open for me and said, "You first, old man," did so with a cheerful voice that caused me to reply, in an equally cheerful voice, "Thank you very much. I hope your day goes well."
In my opinion, it would be so much better if people just stopped beating around the bush, stopped trying to be politically correct, stopped putting off the sometimes unpleasantness of dealing in-depth with a problem and just told it how it really is from the beginning.

Source:- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-b-bradshaw/tell-it-like-it-is_b_3591738.html

Saturday, 26 September 2015

Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy

Kidneys are vital to your overall health, so it's important to look after them. Five simple lifestyle steps can help you keep them in good shape.

Stay hydrated

Drinking plenty of fluid will help your kidneys function properly. Your urine should be straw-coloured. If it's any darker that may be a sign of dehydration.
During hot weather in the summer, when travelling in hot countries, or when exercising strenuously, you need to drink more water than usual to make up for the fluid lost by sweating.

Eat healthily

A balanced diet ensures you get all the minerals and vitamins your body needs. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables and grains, such as wholewheat pasta, bread and rice. Don't eat too much salty or fatty food.

Watch your blood pressure

Have your blood pressure checked regularly. Raised blood pressure has no symptoms, but it can increase your risk of kidney and heart problems. A simple, quick and painless blood pressure check is available free of charge at your GP surgery and many high street pharmacies.
If your blood pressure is higher than it should be, your GP can suggest lifestyle changes or, if necessary, prescribe medication to reduce your blood pressure.

Don't smoke or drink too much alcohol

Try to stop smoking completely and limit yourself to two small drinks a day for a man and one small drink a day for a woman. Smoking and drinking too much alcohol raise your blood pressure. High blood pressure is one of the most common causes of kidney disease.
Read more about how to stop smoking.
Read more about how to cut down on alcohol.

Keep slim to help your kidneys

Being too heavy raises your blood pressure, which is bad for your kidneys. Try to keep yourself at a healthy weight by keeping active and not overeating.
Your body mass index (BMI) is a helpful measure of whether you're a healthy weight. To work out your BMI, use this healthy weight calculator.
Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as walking, cycling or swimming, every week.
Source:- http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Kidneyhealth/Pages/Loveyourkidneys.aspx

Friday, 25 September 2015

Salt And Obesity

I never really talk about salt as I don't put it on or in anything but I guess I could still be consuming too much.
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Introduction

Obesity is an increasing problem in the UK. A third of all British adults will be obese by 2012 if current trends continue, equating to 13 million people. Obesity is defined as a Body Mass Index over 30. Male obesity in the UK has increased from 13.2% in 1993 to 23.1% in 2005 while obesity amongst women has increased from 16.4% to 24.8% over the same period.1 Obesity amongst children is also a problem, increasing from 10.9% in 1995 to 18.0% in 2005 amongst boys aged 2-15. Amongst girls of the same age group obesity has increased from 12.0% to 18.1%.(1)

Obesity is huge health burden and is associated with many health conditions. These include diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea and shortness of breath. In 2002, the direct cost of treating obesity was between 45.8 and £49.0 million pounds and the indirect cost (treating consequences) was around 1 billion pounds.(1)

Who is at risk of obesity?

Everyone is at risk of obesity if they consume an unhealthy diet or have an unhealthy lifestyle. However, those most at risk include ex-smokers, people of black African descent, inactive individuals and children (or adults) who also have a high intake of sugared-soft drinks.(1)

How does salt contribute?

Whilst salt is not a direct cause of obesity it is a major influencing factor through its effect on soft drink consumption.  Salt makes you thirsty and increases the amount of fluid you drink. 31% of the fluid drunk by 4-18 year olds is sugary soft drinks2 which have been shown to be related to childhood obesity.(3,4)
It has been estimated that a reduction in salt intake from 10 g/d to the WHO recommended level of 5 g/d would reduce fluid consumption by ≈350 mL/d. A study which analysed the sales of salt and carbonated beverages in the USA between 1985 and 2005 showed a close link between the two, as well as a parallel link with obesity. (5)
An analysis of the NDNS for young people (4 – 18years) showed salt intake was associated with both fluid intake and sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption.(2) A reduction in salt intake by 1 g/d was found to be associated with a difference of 100g/day in total fluid and 27 g/d in sugar-sweetened soft drinks. This demonstrates that salt intake is an important determinant of total fluid and sugary soft drink consumption in children. Reducing salt intake could therefore be important in reversing the current trend of increasing childhood obesity.
Figure 1Relationship between salt intake and fluid consumption in children and adolescents. Source: He et al, 2008 (2)

Current Salt Intake and Dietary Advice

Almost everyone in the UK (and the rest of the Western world) eats too much salt. The daily recommended amount is no more than 6 grams a day; the current average salt intake is 8.1g a day although many people are eating more than this.
People with or considered at risk of obesity should ensure that they keep their salt intake below the recommended maximum of 6g. This can be achieved by simple changes, such as consuming less processed foods and checking product labels before purchase.
To further reduce your risk of obesity you should make sure you eat at least 5 portions of fruit/vegetables per day, increase the amount of exercise you do (at least 30 minutes, 5 times a week) and reduce the amount of saturated fat, fat, sugar and calories that you eat.

References

1. NHS Information Booklet. Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet: England, 2006.  http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/opan06/OPAN%20bulletin%20finalv2.pdf [accessed 04/09/09
2. He FJ et al. Salt Intake Is Related to Soft Drink Consumption in Children and Adolescents: A Link to Obesity?  Hypertension. 2008; 51, 629-634
3. Ludwig DS et al. Relation Between Consumption of Sugar-sweetened Drinks and Childhood Obesity: a prospective, observational analysis. Lancet. 2001; 357, 505-508,
4. James J et al.  Preventing Childhood Obesity by Reducing Consumption of Carbonated Drinks: Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial. British Medical Journal. 2004; 328,1237
5. Karppanen H, Mervaala E: Sodium Intake and Hypertension. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2006; 49, 59-75
6. Hoffman IS & Cubeddu LX. Salt and the Metabolic Syndrome. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2009; 19(2), 123-12

Source:- http://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/salthealth/factsheets/obesity/index.html

Thursday, 24 September 2015

"Back to the Roots " : Fat Chance Bellydance

Such fun, American Tribal Style by Fat Chance Bellydance



Get off your butt and DO SOMETHING!

Source:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4062YvVXlZg

                   

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Fat Chance Belly Dance

So!  This tribal style belly dance, in fact, it's American Tribal Style.

You can go to Carolens's classes or buy a DVD and do it at home or if you organise workshops you could book her to come and hold a workshop with your people
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Video Source:- http://fcbd.com/

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

AGE UK Bury Belly Dancing Class



Belly Dancing Class


Our class at the Jubilee Centre is a great way to increase your fitness while having a bit of fun!
Katy, our tutor, has trained with some of the best teachers and dancers in the UK and Egypt and has a Postgraduate Diploma in Dance and Wellbeing.

Katy says “My classes are aimed at creating a village type atmosphere with everyone feeling they can take part. The only rule I have is that you must enjoy yourself!”

If you would like to know more, there is a introductory guide available below.

The classes are open to all women, aged 50 and over. They take place every Tuesday at 2.00 pm for one hour and the cost is £3.25.

And just in case you were wondering, all bellies remain well and truly covered up!

Call Age UK Bury:

0161 763 9030



Source:- http://www.ageuk.org.uk/bury/activities--events/belly-dancing-class/

Monday, 21 September 2015

BELLY DANCE - TASTER

You in London?  Well book a taster at City Academy then!================================

Classes starting soon

DATE
DAY
TIME
DURATION
TEACHER
VENUE
PRICE
BOOKING
28 Sep - 28 Sep
Mon
6.30pm-7.30pm
60 mins
£15.00
16 Nov - 16 Nov
Mon
7.40pm-8.40pm
60 mins
£15.00

After this class, you could try...

Find out more about our Belly Dancing courses below:

Sunday, 20 September 2015

Ellen Learns to Belly Dance

Take the plunge guys!
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Source:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcGZCX2KC9o
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This product is great for you beginners out there!
  
                              

Saturday, 19 September 2015

Ellen's Astounding Anaconda Dancer

When you grow up to be 11 will you be this good?
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Source:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mavy9X6Cno4

Friday, 18 September 2015

1001 Bellydance Moves - Slow Moves Demo

Not straight after breakfast folks!
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Source:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ2gt9CptB0

Thursday, 17 September 2015

America Catches Some Of The World’s Best Salmon But Eats Some Of The Worst

So You Eat Salmon Do you?
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The US is a salmon-catching powerhouse. Nearly one-third of the world’s wild salmon supply comes from US nets. Even when you take into account farmed salmon, US fishermen still bring around one-tenth of the total supply of salmon to the market. But more than half of America’s salmon catch is going overseas:






It’s not that Americans aren’t eating salmon. They are—just not their own. Two-thirds of the salmon eaten by US consumers is imported—mostly from farms in Chile, Canada and Norway and from processing factories in China. More than just a quirk of taste, this habit of snubbing domestic salmon in favor of foreign farmed fish exemplifies a more disquieting trend for US industry, argues journalist Paul Greenberg in his book American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood (purchase required). It’s the result of an American seafood ignorance that could threaten both the country’s long-term status as a fishing powerhouse and its secure supply of nutritious protein.






The network of freshwater streams and coastal waters of the US’s Pacific Northwest is one of the country’s most bounteous natural resources, supplying many hundreds of millions pounds a year of salmon, some of the most nutritious wild protein in the world. In the early 1900s, species including the king and coho salmon abounded in Oregon, Washington, and northern California.





Sockeye salmon are seen in Bristol Bay, Alaska, in an undated handout picture provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay watershed poses serious risks to salmon and native cultures in this pristine corner of southwest Alaska, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report released on Wednesday. REUTERS/Environmental Protection Agency/Handout via Reuters
Sockeye teem in Bristol Bay, Alaska.(Reuters)

But a dam-construction bender during the New Deal in the 1930s and 40s destroyed the spawning habitats for millions of salmon. The salmon populations of the Snake and Columbia River systems in particular were decimated, leaving Alaska as the last major US source of wild salmon. The fine web of ponds and streams that form southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay is the biggest remaining sockeye salmon run on the planet.





America’s distinctly un-fishy meat diet.​

So why are Alaskan fishermen sending more than half of their catch overseas?

Part of it has to do with processing. Since many Americans don’t like picking out bones and are squeamish about eating something with its head still on, they need their seafood broken down and packaged before it hits the frozen section of the grocery store. But deboning and filleting fish is a lot harder to mechanize than, say, carving up a chicken or a hog. So the US has outsourced the vast majority of its processing capacity to places like China, where labor is relatively cheap.

For a long time, when Alaskan fishermen sold their salmon to processing plants in China, after it was defrosted, filleted, deboned, and refrozen, it would be shipped back to the US. Nowadays, a rising share of American-caught salmon is simply staying in Asia, says Greenberg, thanks to China’s surging wealth and Japan’s dwindling fish supply.

But tepid US demand for salmon has been a huge factor too. “Our coastal populations once ate a lot more fish. And the interior would have eaten a lot of freshwater fish that was instead quickly eradicated due to agriculture,” says Greenberg. “There was a mandate in this country to boost the production of land food—we made that a national priority. And once you lose the taste for fish, it’s hard to get it back.”

As a result of that cultural and economic emphasis on “land food,” Americans now eat a little less than half of the global annual average seafood consumption—and consume 13 times as much red meat and poultry as they do seafood.

The health benefits of seafood are finally starting to dawn on Americans. Salmon is an excellent example; it’s packed with omega-3 fatty acids that are thought to promote heart health. Sockeye salmon is rich in antioxidants as well. But instead of demanding their own Pacific salmon, Americans are mostly eating the blander-tasting, farmed Atlantic variety imported from countries like Norway and Chile, or other farmed fish from China.

This isn’t necessarily healthier. Some of these salmon come from farms that aren’t always the cleanest. For example, fish (though not salmon) from Chinese farms has been found to contain potentially carcinogenic chemicals. And as Greenberg notes, less than 2% of imported fish are directly inspected by the US Food and Drug Administration. What’s more, the US’s lax labeling laws mean that by the time salmon hits American dinner tables, it’s often hard to tell where it came from. (For comparison, Japan requires labels to indicate both where the fish was caught and where it was processed.)

Neither are salmon farms all that ecologically sound (paywall). Scientists worry the introduction of Atlantic salmon farms on the Pacific coast could warp the wild stock’s gene pool and spread diseases against which wild Pacific salmon haven’t developed immunity. The millions of salmon that escape each year are effectively invasive species that threaten to skew local ecosystems. Many farms pollute waterways with excess fish excrement and uneaten feed, which can contribute to algal blooms and other ecological menaces. “Is that something consumers should be underwriting?” Greenberg says.






On the other hand, American consumers can be confident that when they do consume Alaskan wild salmon, it’s caught by what Greenberg calls one of the best-managed fisheries in the world, and from waters kept clean by environmental standards.

In that sense, eating American fish is important not just for the country’s salmon supply; it also creates an economic incentive to keep streams and oceans clean, Greenberg argues. Just as America’s reliance on land-raised meat once did, sourcing fish from overseas farms makes it easy for American consumers to ignore industrial threats to US fishing resources, such as the gold and copper mine proposed in southwestern Alaska, which many believe will risk poisoning the Bristol Bay sockeye run if the US government allows construction to proceed.

What can the US do about all this? Rebuilding America’s seafood-processing industry is a good place to start, says Greenberg. The sheer scale of America’s catch implies that there would be plenty of work for US-based processing factories to do. As for the labor cost issue, the steady rise of China’s labor costs since processing jobs left American shores means US factories wouldn’t face the competitive disadvantage they once might have. And keeping fish in the US makes it easier for it to find its way to American—and not Asian—plates.

But it ultimately falls to American consumers to tip the balance, says Greenberg. “We should stay the course as far as what we’re catching—we have good rules, we have good laws,” he says. “[But] we should eat the fish that we catch instead of trading it away.”

Source:-http://qz.com/234197/america-catches-some-of-the-worlds-best-salmon-but-eats-some-of-the-worst/