Friday, April 20, 2012

Batch of links

- It is a sad, sad day here in the life of a lactose-free girl. Lactaid has discontinued its lactose-free half-and-half. True, I hardly ever used it, and I’m sure low sales were the reason Lactaid discontinued it. But there’s so much more room for lactose-free cream in the market! I’m looking forward to getting some Natrel this summer when I visit Canada, and I can only hope that Lactaid follows suit in the States and starts making it!

- I’ve said before that too many people are aware only of the term “lactose-intolerant” without actually knowing what that means, which gives way to those people unleashing misinformation unto an unsuspecting general public (things like “goat’s milk doesn’t have lactose” – seriously, were you dropped on your head as a baby?). Anyway, now Miley Cyrus tweets nonsense like “I am allergic to gluten and lactose and that’s why I’m thin.” Sometimes I think people should have a degree before they’re allowed to write on the internet! There’s no such thing as an allergy to gluten OR lactose. There’s gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance, wheat allergy and dairy allergy, none of which are the same thing and none of which will prevent you from having a normal weight if the condition is managed properly. Also, note to Miley: when cooking vegan, gluten-free or otherwise, don’t stick your hand in the blender.

- When baking, do you know when to use a metal pan, a glass one, a ceramic or a silicone one? Here are some tips.

- An interesting article about guerilla cooking, or more precisely, cooking lunch in a poorly equipped office.

- For those of you who want to get rid of a few books you won’t read anymore and want to know when/where they’ve found a new home, try Book Crossing. The idea is simple: you sign up on the website and are assigned a tracking number, which you write into your book. You then share it (the preferred method is to “release it into the wild”), and whoever finds it can enter its number online, allowing you to know that your book has found a new reader. Of course, you can always donate books any way you want (charity organization, hospital, library, school, nursing home, etc.), but having a tracking number eases the separation. If you’d rather trade them, consider Paperback Swap. For selling and buying online, there’s always Abe Books.

- Top 10 misconceptions about yoga. I used to do yoga, and I liked it. Maybe I should start again. I’m just so apathetic about working out…

- Sarah Haskins: I just love her take on how the media and advertising treat women – it’s funny because it’s true. Plus, here’s an (unrelated) neat video about the high price of materialism.

- A gallery of real women’s bodies: just enter your height, weight and body shape, and you’ll see pictures of other women with bodies similar to your own. I love this site because I think that most body types are not represented in the media, which can lead women to mistakenly think that their body type is not acceptable.

- And finally, I mentioned before how much I love Dove Silky Smooth Dark Chocolate (not high-brow, but oh-so-good), and the new packaging says that it’s now made with Rainforest Alliance Certified ™ cocoa! One more reason to buy it! (It’s not vegan, but it is lactose-free, and the packaging has no warning about nuts, peanuts or gluten.)

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