Plastic and hot food -- an unhealthy combination

Most people know that plastic and hot food are a bad combination in any regard. But we sometimes forget the details:
- Don't microwave in ANY type of plastic
- Don't pour hot food into any plastic container for storage -- not a plastic tub, bowl or bag.
- Don't drink hot liquids from a plastic or styrofoam cup -- choose stainless steel, porcelain, glass, or paper
- Don't stir hot foods on the stove with a plastic utensil -- choose wooden or stainless steel.

It's very simple -- plastic breaks down when it's heated and mixes with the food or liquid. Ingesting it is really unhealthy, in the short term and in the long term. Yes, it can cause cancer.

My Latest Health Discoveries

It's been a long time since I've read a book that seems life-changing. I recently read a book called Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber www.anticancerbook.com If you've ever had cancer, or pre-cancerous growth, or known someone who had or has cancer, you should read this book or recommend it to them. It takes all that you've heard about cancer and what you should do to avoid it, and sums it up. The next several blogs I write will be about various recommendations from the book.

College Admissions Part I

As I sat through another college information session with my high school senior tonight, I reflected on how far we've come. Setting aside the stress of the first semester of the senior year, which is extreme, I think that my daughter, my husband, and I are all much calmer and more confident in our understanding of how to help her find a good college match for her skills, ambitions, likes, and dislikes. I won't tell you that everything is resolved (it's only early October), but I think we've learned a lot.

Some tips:

• Start early and listen a lot
• Go to high school info sessions
• Listen to high school college counselors
• Visit the college counseling office at school -- learn the resources available
• Attend high school college fairs
• Read books
• Visit colleges in the Junior year - one small, one medium, one large
• Try to get your child exposed enough to various types of colleges so that they begin to understand what they want -- large or small, urban or rural, private or public, etc.
• Visit the collegeboard.com website and play with the criteria for choosing colleges
• Talk with other parents who have been through the process