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SPICE UP YOUR LIFE We have all heard the phrase “you are what you eat”, understandably so as it’s an old one. In fact it’s thought to have originated back in 1826 when Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” Ultimately, what we consume has a significant impact on our bodies and the way in which they function. If we nourish them, our bodies have a better chance of performing optimally. The nutrients in the food that we eat help formulate the foundation of the function and structure of all the cells within our bodies, it’s what fuels us and also what helps us grow and heal. They are essential for sustaining our everyday [...]

CUTENESS OVERLOAD Moo Deng the baby hippo, Biscuits the seal and Pesto the giant, baby penguin have taken social media by storm, it’s hard not to doom scroll without seeing a cute critter or a few hundred flooding the feeds lately. The real question is why do we find these animal babies so cute? Why do they light up parts of our brains and emotions like they do, even though they don’t resemble our own young? The brains’ perception of cuteness even distinguishes the young from old i.e. animals such as lions that are dangerous and terrifying as an adults, but as cubs we associate them with the (relatively) harmless domestic kittens that we know and love. The now very viral “Can I [...]

MIND ALTERING IMAGES How much time do you spend on the internet per day? Be honest. It’s more than you may be comfortable admitting to others, or yourself. The truth of the matter is though, that you aren’t alone. The average person spends approximately six hours and forty minutes online every day. South Africa is significantly above average in this regard. According to 2023 statistics, the average South African spends a whopping nine hours and 27 minutes online daily across multiple devices. It is estimated that we spend slightly more time on mobile devices at an average of five hours and 13 minutes a day versus the four hours and 25 minutes spent on computers. With so much time spent online, it calls [...]

Adult ADHD The terms ADHD and ADD are often thrown around to describe children with high to excessive levels of activity and ‘excitement’, although the flippant use of these terms is often incorrect. Not every super active or distracted child or adult for that matter suffers from ADD or ADHD. The same analogy can be made between hyper-organisation and Obsessive Compulsive Order (OCD) as well as someone who is sad being termed depressed. In actuality, all of these classify as mental health disorders and need to be properly diagnosed by a medical professional. While ADHD and ADD are largely associated with children and are more commonly diagnosed at that age, that’s not to say that adults don’t suffer from either of these- the [...]

AI-Allies Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not so slowly working its way into our daily lives, whether we are cognisant of it or not. Some AI functions and tools are overt and we go looking for them purposefully, just like ChatGPT. It requires some level of input from us in the form of prompting in order for it to assist. If you ask the App how it defines itself, it provides the following explanation: “ChatGPT is considered an overt form of AI. Users interact directly with the model through conversation, making it clear that they are engaging with an AI. This transparency allows users to understand that they are communicating with a machine designed to generate text-based responses.” On the converse side of AI, [...]

Is the end of Ultra-processed Foods in sight? The term Ultra-processed food comes from the NOVA food classification system which was developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo who devised a system that divides food into four different categories based on the levels of processing they undergo throughout their production. The four categories are defined as follows: unprocessed foods which include the majority of our fruit and vegetables as well as eggs, nuts and seeds – ultimately foods that have had very little added to them, they aren’t altered. This is then followed by Processed Ingredients i.e. “foods that are added to other foods” such as oils, salt and sugar. Processed foods are the third category and are produced by combining [...]