Is it necessary to provide our body adequate diet and nutrition? Is good nutrition important to our health? Eating well means achieving or maintaining adequate nutrition that is necessary for every person to improve and maintain optimal health. Eating healthily includes special diets for weight loss, lowering cholesterol level, blood pressure and controlling diabetes mellitus. It also includes nutritional guiding principles and healthy recipes. Basic nutrition and diet therapy are the two most important factors we should consider to keep our health to the fullest.A person’s diet is composed of the food they eat while nutrition is the means of nourishing our body appropriately. Adequate diet and nutrition means that your body is getting all the vitamins, nutrients and minerals it requires to function at its best level. Therefore, eating a healthy diet and nutrition is your primary way to get good health.Most people believe that a balance of diet and nutrition, including physical activity can help them reach and keep a healthy weight. However, the benefits of good nutrition, outweighs the weight. Good health can also improve heart and other body organs function, including mental health; improve school performance, better wound healing and fast recovery from injury or any diseases. Having enough diet and nutrition in our body system can also boost our immune system, increasing the body’s ability to fight off diseases and infections.Every individual has unique nutritional needs, and every person’s diet and nutrition should meet those specific needs. For instance, an infant requires different diet and nutrition than an adolescent. Also, the nutritional needs of a pregnant woman are much different from those of a toddler. On the other hand, a person’s height, current weight and activity level can also influence the quantity and quality of nutrients their body needs.Here are several tips for healthy diet and nutrition:1.Eat foods that are rich in fiber. Taking in fiber rich foods can make you feel full much longer as they stay extensively in the stomach compared with carbohydrates, tricking your brain that there are still enough foods in your tummy. Thus, keeping you off from food cravings.2. Include fruits and vegetables in your diet and nutrition. It is recommended to eat fresh frozen fruits rather than ready made fruit juice for most of your drinks. Eat adequate amount of dark green leafy vegetables, beans and peas most of the time as they contain lots of fiber.3 Eat lean meats. This is one way to reduce calorie intake, especially fats that go with meats. Other protein-rich foods include fish, peas, pork, seeds, nuts and beans.4 Eat all food groups in moderate amount. Be sure you know the limits of salt, fat and sugar especially those foods that are high in saturated and trans fat as they tend to raise bad cholesterol level in the blood, increasing our risk of having heart diseases.Generally, a healthy diet and nutrition is the one that provides your body balance nutrition. It is necessary to make smart selections from every food group, balance between food and physical activity and obtain most nutrition out of your calories.
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.
Why OpenCart Is Ideal For Your Online Ecommerce Business
The themes, plug-ins, extensions, and tools provided by ecommerce platforms make it easier for enterprises to take their businesses online. You have option to choose from several ecommerce platforms according to your precise needs and objectives. Unlike other ecommerce platforms, OpenCart is open source and free. Hence, you can use this online store management system to build and run ecommerce websites without paying any monthly fees. In addition to reducing ecommerce application development cost, OpenCart also comes with features to accelerate custom web store development.It enables you to build and customize ecommerce applications using popular technologies like HTML, PHP and MySQL. Also, OpenCart makes it easier for you to build, maintain, and upgrade the web store by supporting model-view-controller (MVC) pattern. Also, it helps you to promote and sell products to more customers by supporting multiple languages, currencies, and payment gateways. You can even take advantage of the features provided by OpenCart to create a robust ecommerce website according to your precise needs.Features that Make OpenCart Compete with Commercial Ecommerce PlatformsSupports MVC PatternAs mentioned earlier, OpenCart is developed based on MVC pattern. The MVC pattern enables you to accelerate web store development by keeping the user interface and business logic layers separated. The separation further helps you to maintain the ecommerce website quickly and make changes to its source code without any hassle. At the same time, you can customize the open source ecommerce platforms according to your precise needs simply using HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL.User-Friendly Admin InterfaceOpenCart further comes with a simple and user-friendly admin interface. It allows you to manage multiple stores through a single admin interface. You can even use the admin interface to categorize users/user groups, and set precise access and privileges for each user. At the same time, you can use the admin interface to access important information related to customers, sales, and orders. The latest version of OpenCart also comes with an admin interface which is accessible on both computers and mobile devices.Supports Unlimited Products and CategoriesOpenCart makes it easier for you to sell a large number and variety of products by supporting unlimited products. It even allows you to organize and display the products in a structured way by creating multiple categories and subcategories. You have option to create many categories and subcategories, and assign products to individual categories. OpenCart also allows you to sell both physical and digital products. You can even boost online sales by providing the marketing features provided by the open source ecommerce platform.Helps to Drive Online SalesIn addition to facilitating sale of both physical and digital products, OpenCart further helps you to promote the products and increase online sales. The admin dashboard provided by the ecommerce platform enables you to create and monitor digital marketing campaigns from a centralized location. At the same time, OpenCart also helps you to boost online sales by implementing reward programs and improving customer journey. You can even take advantage of an integrated system provided by OpenCart to promote the products effectively through customer reviews, comments, and ratings.Supports Multiple Languages, Currencies, Payment Gateways and Shipping MethodsUnlike other commercial ecommerce platforms, OpenCart does not allow you to sell products through various online sales channels. But it helps you to sell products to customers regardless of their current location by supporting multiple language, currencies, and payment gateways. In addition to supporting thirty-five payment methods, OpenCart also allows you to set up recurring payment option for customers and sell product through subscription. At the same time, you also have option to choose from several shipping options according to the shipping address of individual customers. These options help you to sell your products in a flexible way and improve shopping experience of global customers.Choose from Many Themes and ExtensionsOpenCart is developed as a modular ecommerce platform. It allows users to customize and extend its functionality by adding specific modules. You have option to extend the core functionality of the ecommerce platforms by installing extensions for bestsellers, latest, special, manufacturer, and information. Also, you can use the Extension Installer provided by the platform to add modules without writing additional code. Likewise, you can make the web store appealing by downloading a beautiful theme from the OpenCart marketplace. At present, you have option to choose from over 13000 themes and extensions. However, some of these themes and extensions are commercial and paid.Refines Product SearchMost users nowadays love fast and responsive ecommerce websites. They even expect the website to allow them to find and compare relevant products without any hassle or delay. OpenCart enables customers to gather information about relevant products through refine search. You can crate filters to make it easier for customers to find and buy relevant products. The filters can be created just like categories. But the filters will make it easier for customers to evaluate and compare products based on a number of parameters including price, manufacturer and condition.Keeps the Ecommerce Website ResponsiveA large percentage of customers nowadays access ecommerce websites on their mobile devices. Hence, you need to make the ecommerce website accessible and look good on smartphones, tablets, and desktop/laptop computers. OpenCart is developed as a responsive ecommerce solution. It makes the web store accessible on a variety of devices by keeping it responsive. You can even enhance the mobile-friendliness of the web store by using responsive themes.On the whole, you can always consider using OpenCart as an alternative to commercial ecommerce platforms. But you must not forget that OpenCart, like other ecommerce platforms, has its own shortcomings. For instance, OpenCart lacks some of the robust features provided by other ecommerce platforms like caching and hook system. Also, it requires you to use additional plug-ins and extensions to enhance the ecommerce website’s functionality and performance. However, it has been evolving consistently to compete with other commercial ecommerce platforms. You can still consider using OpenCart build a custom ecommerce website developmnet without investing extra time, effort, and money.