FOR RELEASE THE WEEK OF FEB. 6, 2000:
On a diet, why are those first four or five pounds so easy to lose?
What you are mainly losing that first week is water or fluid--not fat. According to Martha Raidl, University of Idaho extension nutrition specialist, that happens for two basic reasons:
--Salt holds on to water, and you've probably decreased your salt intake.
--When it is shortchanged on calories, your body breaks down protein from your muscles and stored carbohydrates, or glycogen, from both your muscles and your liver.
When glycogen breaks down, water is inevitably released as a byproduct of that biochemical reaction. When muscle cells break down, water is also released--because muscle cells are 73 percent water. Fat cells, on the other hand, are at most 20 percent water.
"If you are losing more than a pound or two a week, you are probably losing muscle mass--and you don't want to do that," says Raidl. "The less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism will be. And the slower your metabolism, the longer it will take you to reach your weight-loss goal."
When it comes to dieting, it's better to be a tortoise than a hare.
We've just moved into a new neighborhood and find that most people here pretty much keep to themselves--although the kids do say "hi" when they pass by. We've thought about asking the family next door to come over for dinner, but we're concerned that they'll think we're being too forward. What can we do to help warm this place up?
Harriet Shaklee, University of Idaho extension family development specialist, applauds your good intentions. With so much mobility today, neighborhoods may be short of people who act as natural hosts or hostesses. "We need to rebuild our human networks--not just for ourselves but for children," she says.
Kids today report feeling disconnected from adults other than their parents. "We hear so much about the harm that can come from children talking to strangers, but we've forgotten the big protective network that adults can provide," Shaklee says. "We need to stop being strangers."
With spring around the corner, she suggests organizing an informal block party or getting involved in volunteer programs at your neighborhood school--whether or not you have children who attend. Find excuses to borrow or to lend garden tools or baking ingredients. Ask your neighbors if their children would like to earn a few dollars helping you with yard work, car washing or other chores.
"The goal is to help children realize that there are other caring adults upon whom they can call for help," Shaklee says. "It's what so many of us think back fondly of, when we recall our childhoods."
How long will smoked fish last?
Considered a delicacy in the Pacific Northwest, smoked fish unfortunately has a short shelf life, says Sandy McCurdy, University of Idaho extension food safety specialist. "Even refrigeration won't guarantee that smoked fish will stay safe to eat."
The bacteria that cause botulism food poisoning can start to grow in refrigerated smoked fish in just two to three weeks. For safe, long-term storage, you'll need to freeze or can your smoked fish.
I repotted a large grape ivy into a plastic hanging pot with a reservoir built into the bottom of it instead of a hole. Water was supposed to collect in that reservoir and prevent root rot, but it looks like my ivy is rotting anyway. Is there anything I can do to rescue it?
"It's been my experience that houseplants tend to be overwatered by those who love them," says Jo Ann Robbins, University of Idaho extension educator. Robbins says "only three things keep them free of root rot--and therefore alive:" 1) holes in the bottoms of the pots drain the excess water out, 2) many plants are in clay pots that evaporate additional water from the sides and 3) even loving plant "parents" occasionally forget to water them.
Once the built-in reservoir at the bottom of a plastic hanging pot fills with water, it keeps the pores of the soil pretty well saturated, Robbins says. Because root-rot fungi thrive in saturated soil and because the plant is already stressed by its suffocating conditions, the end result is root rot.
Robbins does not recommend fungicidal soil drenches. To try to save your plant, unpot it and knock off as much old soil as possible without destroying the root ball. Discard that old soil: it harbors root-rot fungus. Add new soil, repot the plant into a container with good drainage--then stop overwatering.
"Even with these efforts, the plant may continue to decline," Robbins says. "In that case, discard both the plant and the soil and buy a new plant."
[READERS: Do you have a question about your home, yard or garden? Send it to HomeWise, University of Idaho Ag Communications, Moscow, ID 83844-2332 or email it to homewise@uidaho.edu. Mention of proprietary products or firms does not constitute endorsement by the University of Idaho Cooperative Extension System or imply approval to the exclusion of other suitable products or firms.]