Gattaca is Here

Remember the science fiction movie 'Gattaca?' In that movie a world was depicted where parents could choose the characteristics of their children or have the talents and looks of their natural children assessed. Occupations were then chosen for the children based on these considerations.
Well these days are closer than you think. There is a clinic in Los Angeles called The Fertility Institute that is advertising a new service in which you can select your baby's sex, hair color, eye color and even more.
The website at the Fertility Institute posted this futuristic statement on their website -“For the first time ever, patients having genetic screening for abnormal chromosome conditions in their embryos will be able to elect expanded testing that can greatly increase the odds of achieving a healthy pregnancy with a preselected choice of gender, eye color, hair color and complexion, along with screening for potentially lethal diseases, screening for cancer tendencies (breast, colon, pancreas, prostate) and more.”
Wow! The future is finally here! Initially this type of screening was supposed to be used to prevent us from having children with cancer and other fatal diseases. Now it is used to create a race of super children. It is very much like something Hitler and his cronies would cook up.
I am surprised that we can start fooling with Mother Nature like this at all. I think it is also something that is very petty. Since when do we judge kids so much on appearances in the first place? Isn't it almost a crime to choose a red head over a blonde if your DNA assigns you the blonde kid over the first place? I am not even going to get started over the racial and sexual discrimination that also might result from this.
The other thing that is disappointing about all of this is the lack of surprise at the end of the pregnancy. I am one of those moms who just do not want to know the sex of the child before the day it is born. I like the surprise of it all. I love not knowing what color of hair or eyes my child will have. It is part of the joy of being pregnant.
In fact that is what that movie Gattaca was partly about. Choosing your baby's chromosomes are not only discriminatory it is also not very human. In a way too it is an insult to Mother Nature who creates human beings to adapt to our environment so who knows what kind of chaos or disease we are courting by bringing selective human beings into the world.

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Eating in Moderation is the Key

Does your household pig out all the time? I have found that eating in moderation is the key to my own weight and the weight of my children in check.
As far as I am concerned, there are three simple concepts everyone should keep in mind about food: moderation, variety and balance. Moderation means keeping those portion sizes under control. Variety means eating different foods every day. Balance means choosing foods that provide you vitamins from each category.
The ideal of eating healthy is described by the Food Guide Pyramid. Found at https://mypyramid.gov/, The Good Guide Pyramid shows you exactly how to eat in moderation, in balance and also how to choose a variety of foods. This is a great site because it has personalization menu options that can help you create really healthy meals. It has certainly taught me ways to eat healthier both as an individual and as a family.\
In my experience finding balance with a diet is all about taking foods from each of the food groups and then making sure our bodies have adequate nutrients from delicious low crab foods rather than from processed foods.
I always get stuck for ideas on how to eat healthy when my brood and I go out to restaurants. It seems that hidden calories are everywhere -from breads and appetizers to the main course. Try grilled proteins instead of fried, and choose vegetables over starches. Every day, try to incorporate a healthy balance of grains, vegetables, fruits, and a small amount of fats and oils into your diet.
It is really bad news to eat the same thing day after day. Ingesting a variety of foods also ensures that we get all of the required nutrients we need, since there is not a single ‘super food' that has everything we need in it. Eating the same thing over and over also only initiates a desire to stray away from a healthy eating plan. I would never serve my kids salad day after day because they simply would get bored and sneak off to MacDonald's to get a fish filet or something.
Of course if the aim of eating healthy is to lose weight in a short time you might want to cut calories yet at the same time keeps up a variety of foods. Moderation is equally important, since there are no 'bad' foods out there, but 'bad' foods are those that get eaten way too frequently and cause us to gain weight
My family and I have a treat once in a while, but we do so in moderation. We eat meat portions the size of a deck of cards, cheese the size of four dice, grains the size of a tennis ball, vegetables the size of a fist, potatoes the size of a small computer mouse and we make sure we never hiver more than a teaspoon of oil on our salad. That is the quick way to visualize how to stay healthy.

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