Weighty issue for Muslim lifter from America

Jun 13, 2011

Kulsoom Abdullah took up weightlifting a couple of

years ago when she was looking to get stronger. She quickly grew to love
the sport, entering local competitions and even allowing herself to
imagine one day making it to the Olympics.

But her dream was crushed last week. Abdullah, a 35 year old from Atlanta,
Georgia, was barred from entering the US championships next month
because her Muslim faith requires that she cover her arms, legs and head
– which violates international rules governing weightlifting attire.

“I’d hate to think that just because you dress a certain way, you can’t
participate in sports,” Abdullah said. “I don’t want other women who
dress like me to say, ‘I can’t get involved in that sport’ and get
discouraged.

“It would be nice to have an environment where it wouldn’t be an issue
of how you dress or having different beliefs and faiths.”

The debate over the attire of Muslim women in sport is not new.

Last week, the

Iran women’s football team had to forfeit an Olympic qualifier in Jordan
because the players wanted to wear the traditional hijab headscarf.
Fifa defended its decision by saying the scarves are banned for safety
reasons; the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Fifa
“dictators and colonists who want to impose their lifestyle on others”
and vowed stick up for the rights of the Iranian players.

Muslim
women have competed in other sports, such as athletics, wearing
neck-to-ankle bodysuits and the hijab, most notably Roqaya al Gassra of
Bahrain, who made it to the semi-finals of the 200 metres at the Beijing
Olympics.

“What we hear all the time is, ‘You’ve got to empower
Muslim women around the world’,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for
the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has taken up Abdullah’s
cause. “Well, how can you empower a Muslim woman more than being a
weightlifter?

“She should be encouraged and helped along in this process.
There shouldn’t be arbitrary roadblocks placed in her path.”

Some sports’ rules designed to keep an athlete from gaining an advantage
could run foul of a particular religion. Swimming, for instance, has
banned high-tech bodysuits that led to a rash of world records, ruling
they compromised the integrity of the sport. Now women can wear only
shoulder-to-knee suits that leave their arms and lower legs exposed.

Abdullah, however, made it clear that she is not trying to gain any sort of
competitive edge. When first starting out, she was allowed to enter
local meets wearing attire that made her comfortable: loosefitting
exercise pants, a tightfitting long-sleeve shirt with a T-shirt over it,
and the headscarf.

As she attempted to move up to higher-level
competitions, she ran up against International Weightlifting Federation
(IWF) rules, which forbid suits that cover either the knees or elbows
because judges must be able to see that both have been locked out to
complete a lift.

But Abdullah said a tightfitting shirt allows
judges to get a good look at her elbows. And, if it meant ensuring a
level playing field, she would be willing to wear a leg covering that
conforms to her religion but allows the judges to determine whether she
has completed a lift. Considering all the advances in athletic apparel,
that should not be a major issue.

Abdullah got a bit of good news last week when USA Weightlifting
agreed to take her case to the IWF this month. If the IWF agrees to
alter its rules, she might still get a chance to do some snatches and
clean-and-jerks at next month’s US championships.

While she is not yet lifting at an Olympic level, she has not given up

on that dream.

“She’s not seeking any kind of advantage. She’s seeking to maintain her
religious principles,” Hooper said. “In an atmosphere of goodwill, these
things can always be resolved.”

Five Fruits to keep you Cool this Summer

These
are time of scorching heat. Sun is ruthless and the heat wave
unsparing. But these are also the time when exotic fruits bloom in
plenty.

And these fruits can have an immensely chilling effect on us.
But the problem comes when an entire generation falls for Coke and
Pepsi and gets estranged with the bounties of nature. People are quite
oblivious about the health properties of these fruits. And even if they
know, few care about procuring them.

  IQSoft recommends these five summer fruits to beat the heat this summer:

Black Plum or Jambul

The fruit is useful in spleen enlargement. The seed of the fruit is
well-known diabetes. It reduces the quantity of sugar in the urine and
quenches the maddening thirst. The fruit is also a good source of
antioxidants.

Litchi

The luscious litchi/lychee or Chinese Hazelnut is a very delicious
fruit. People eagerly wait for its arrival during the summers. May-June
is the best season for the fruit. This sub-tropical fruit has very good cooling, demulcent and aphrodisiac properties. It is also a good thirst-quencher.

Mango

It’s not for nothing that Mango is called the ‘King of Fruits’ in
India. The vastly delicious fruit is a storehouse of vitamins A and C.
The ripe mango tones the heart, improves complexion, stimulates hunger,
improves vision and is greatly helpful in liver disorders, loss of
weight and physical abnormalities. The popular mango powder (amchur)
made from green/unripe mango is very beneficial in scurvy and pyorrhea.

Muskmelon

Muskmelon is a popular tropical fruit which is readily available during
the summers. The fruit contains Vitamin A, B, C and minerals like
magnesium, sodium and potassium. It has zero cholesterol and is safe for
blood cholesterol patients. When consumed with jaggery, it helps in the
curing of skin diseases. It greatly reduces the body heat when consumed regularly.

Watermelon

The succulent, scarlet-red watermelon is a delicious and health-building
fruit. It contains large quantities of easily assimilable sugar. Being
an alkaline fruit, it can be easily enjoyed by persons with acidosis.
Its juice quench the thirst like anything. Rich in vitamin A,B, and C,
products based on its juice can serve as wonderful cooling drinks. The
fruit is also beneficial for combating hypertension.

3 Everyday Food Ingredients That Make You Fat

There’s
a lot of ingredients in your food whose name you can’t even pronounce.
Those chemicals, disguised as food in your nutrition label are the
tricky uns worth thinking about – most calorie-loaded loads are always
rich in chemical additives, preservatives and artificial ingredients.

However, there’s also the simpler everyday villains in your pantry.

IQSoft tells you about the simple things in your food that will make you fat.

1-Monosodium Glutamate

Known as MSG, or Ajinomoto (the name of the company that produces it),
Monosodium Glutamate is described as the “essence of taste”. And if your
potato chips are flavored,
they contain MSG. MSG tells your brain that the food you are eating is
tasty by exciting your brain cells. It also enters your brain that is
known to correlate to obesity and other disorders (including short
height and sexual issues)

Which in turn will makes you fat.

Secondly, it may also increase your pancreatic insulin, another reason behind obesity.

Directly injecting MSG into rats has increased their appetite and induce obesity.

What contains MSG: Maggi Noodles, along with a lot of other packaged
noodles. MSG awareness is the reason behind the “MSG-free” you might see
on new “Health soups”It’s also in your chips, your salad dressing, It
goes by names like Accent, ‘Aginomoto, ‘Natural Meat Tenderiser,
Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein, and is in ALL your fast food (especially
McDonalds and KFC)

2-Sugar

Sugar, especially of the
refined variety is not good for you. It’s carbs which you may not burn,
and it also spikes your appetite. On nutrition labels, it might be named
as flour, corn syrup, dextrose,Carob powder, Dextrose, Fructose, Fruit
juice concentrate, Maltose.

“Most people probably have no idea
how much sugar they’re taking in,” said Jo Ann Hattner, a San Francisco
registered dietitian who teaches nutrition courses at Stanford
University School of Medicine.

Sugar, by itself isn’t bad. It’s too much of it – more than 12
teaspoons a day. With your nutrition label in front of you, remember
that 4 gram = 1 teaspoonful of sugar. This should include your daily
consumption of juice, chocolate, lemonade, biscuits, and even your ketchup (yes!). Incidentally, if you eat ketchup everyday, you might be eating close to 200 grams of sugar every week.

3-Sugar Substitutes

If sugar is bad for you, surely an alternative to sugar won’t be? Right?

Wrong!

Aspartame, responsible for “over 75% of adverse reactions reported to
the US Food And Drug Administration…” is present in anything that begins
with ‘Diet’ or substitutes sugar, including Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, Nutrasweet, Equal, Chewing gum, breath mints

Aspartame causes carbohydrate cravings – specifically cravings for the sugar content.

Trick yourself into not Smoking

Just like nicotine snuck into your system, you have to use the same wily ways to trick it out of your life.

There’s a lot of easy ways of doing this. Get your notepad (or notepad app) ready.

Don’t Buy a Pack

if you buy a packet of chips,
you’ll want to eat most of it (if not all). While it’s not
chip-addiction we’re cracking down on, the formula is the same. If you
buy one cigarette , you’ll channelize your laziness (into buying another
one) to actually reduce your time between cigarettes.

Smoke only Half a Cigarette Each Time

I don’t have to explain the 50% off on your health.

Remove the ashtrays

The tradition of easing into your comfy chair with a cigarette and a
ashtray- nix it. Throw away your lighters too. Make smoking a chore, an
annoying bodily necessity.

Enlist Fellow Quitters

Peer pressure got you into smoking, now use the same devilish social
conditioning to have the pressure of your fellow man’s expectations of
you. You can pool in your anti-smoking resources and motivate each
other.

Exercise

It’s a simple chemical reaction. Smoking => Nicotine => Dopamine in your brain => Happiness. If you’re already feeling good after enjoyable exercise (it can even be jumping with your kids, as long as you love it)

Change your Brand

You’re overriding the love you have of a specific blend of tobacco with something your throat will chemically dislike.

Smoke Alone

If smoking was bonding time
with fellow addicts, smoking alone will force you to have less of a
reason. On a deeper level, it will show it’s reality as an addiction.

Write down each Cigarette Smoked

“Pressure“
motivates a lot of clicks of the lighter. Write down the things that
made you want to light up in the first place. Start addressing those.

Smoke Free Zones

Libraries, cultural centers and cinema halls are all places where
smoking is banned. Hang out at such smoke-free zones – the entertainment
options will distract you from smoking.

Top 7 Foods to Help you Quit Smoking

A major change in your lifestyle cannot happen without changing your life holistically.

We have told some cool ways of sneaking the butt out of your reach and explored the relationship between smoking and weight gain, and this seems a good starting point to pay more attention to foods’ role in reducing, and then quitting smoking.

Reduce Cravings for Cigarettes

Avoid sugary foods, red meat, coffee and alcohol.

Sugar, because it precipitates an eventual crash from the sugar high,
andy you’ll crave another high. Red meat makes cigarettes taste good –
just ask smokers. Coffee’s buzz (and subsequent drop – leading to a
craving for another source of caffeine) and alcohol’s neurobiological
effect on your brain makes you crave a cigarette. And when you’re
drinking, you might not be able to remain firm in your resolution to not
smoke.

1-Apples

Maybe 2-3 apples a day. Apples contain
pectin, which reduces your blood toxin content. In adverse cases, it is
known to use an apple-only diet to completely purge the bloodstream diet
of the toxins from cigarettes.

(Above is Charlize Theron doing it all wrong!)

Apples are also crunchy and sweet, and appeal to smokers who need something to do with their mouth.

2-Cinammon

There are many ways you can use cinnamon as a quit-smoking aid.

cinnamon

Simply inhaling deeply on a cinnamon stick mimics the deep drag on a flavorful cigarette.

Secondy, cinnamon boosts brain activity, reduces nervous tension and memory loss – all the temporary side-effects of quitting smoking.

Cinnamon is also good for, well, everything. Your blood, your stomach – cinnamon is a tonic for most things.

3-Ginger and 4-Garlic

Ginger is hot stuff – literally. It makes you sweat out your toxins.
Garlic stabilizes your fluctuating blood pressure when you quit.

6-Milk and Other Dairy Products

Can you imagine smoking after a glass of milk? It sounds uncool. And, it’ll make your cigarette taste bitter.

Plan your daily dose of Horlicks around your regular sutta break.

6-Vegetables

Carrots, celery, broccoli, cucumbers are all foods that that can delay
your urge to smoke with their sheer crunchiness. They can make
cigarettes taste awful and are also known to reduce cravings for
nicotine

7-Salt

A weird tip that works – lick a wee bit of salt with the tip of your tongue. It’ll extinguish your urge to smoke

Tata Manza clocks an incredible mileage of 46.33 km per litre to join Limca book of records

The Tata Manza (Quadrajet Aura ABS) has clocked an incredible mileage of 46.33 km per litre. This feat has been…

The
Tata Manza (Quadrajet Aura ABS) has clocked an incredible mileage of
46.33 km per litre. This feat has been achieved by Narayanan Menon, a
resident of Coimbatore who has zoomed into the Limca Book of Records.

Narayanan R Menon, Managing Director of Aromen Engineering Company and a
proud owner of the Tata Manza has been certified for the remarkable
drive on the Coimbatore- Avinashi by-pass on 25th of May 2011. Menon’s
Tata Manza covered a long stretch of 72.3 kilometer on road by consuming
only 1.58 liters of diesel, which translates to an incredible mileage
of 46.33 km per litre.

A mechanical engineer, Menon himself does not credit an amazing mileage
to a ‘magic foot’ rather a combination of good driving and car
maintenance. For a country where fuel efficiency is a significant factor
for automobile ownership and with fuel prices increasing, the feat
certainly bodes well for the mileage conscious customer.

Top 10 Foods to Reduce Belly Fat

Not only does belly fat make your abdomen bulge out, it also poses grave risk to of diseases like hypertension, diabetes and stroke. While you should obviously give up oily stuff and junk food, you must incorporate these foods in your diet to get rid of a bloated belly.

Obese people find it the hardest to deal with the fat stored in and around the abdomen and the waist.

Not only does belly fat make your abdomen bulge out, it also poses grave risk to of diseases like hypertension, diabetes and stroke. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), men who have a waist more than 40 inches have heightened risk of heart diseases and diabetes.

The most common reasons for the accumulation of fat in the tummy are hormonal imbalance, excessive eating, intake of large quantities of alcohol, sweets and chocolates and lack of exercise. Stress is also one of the prominent reasons for the storage of fat in the belly. Stress triggers the secretion of a hormone called cortisol. Excess of cortisol stimulates the storage of fat around the waist. Then there’s another factor of improper digestion. Due to malfunctioned digestion gastro problems arise and this leads to a persistently puffy belly. As we add years, our efficiency of burning calories goes down, so sluggish metabolism also sets off the buildup of fat around the midsection.

If belly fat is one of your problems and you still thrive on a typical diet full of oily, starchy foods and carbs, it’s time for you to treat this article as a wake-up call. You would need to change your diet drastically. First of all, you should avoid eating two to three hours before bedtime to control the belly fat. At the same time, incorporate foods which can help you overcome the problem.

Here’s some information on foods which you should consume if you have a bloated belly.

Eggs: They provide good quality protein which in turn helps overcome hunger pangs.
Beans: Beans like black gram (chana), green gram (chana), chick peas and green moong bustle with fibre and proteins. They help you shed pounds and improve muscle tone.

Oat Meal: Befriend the good ol’ oats if you’re battling belly fat. Start your day with oats cooked in water or consume them with milk. They’re high in soluble fibre and low in fat.
Vegetables: Green vegetables are rich source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre. Consuming vegetables for dinner without chapatis and/or rice is helpful in shrinking the waist size. What’s more, most green veggies have only 30-60 calories per 100 grams.
Barley: Barley has a considerably low glycemic index and contains lots of soluble fibre. This helps in diminishing the circumference of the waist. Regular consumption cuts down the risk of cardiac diseases and type II diabetes.

Green Tea: Polyphenols present in the tea help boost metabolism. Green tea is less processed and contains higher levels of anti-oxidants. It greatly suppresses the appetite.
Milk: When we say milk, we’re not recommending full-cream milk. In fact, make sure you stay away from that. Go for non-fat milk which has the same amount of calcium and protein as full-cream milk but contains less sodium and helps prevent water retention. This reduces bloating.

Yogurt: It’s oozing with calcium and protein and has very less calories (80 calories in a cup of low-fat yogurt).The beneficial bacteria present in yogurt boost immunity and aid bowel movement.
Tomatoes: The luscious red tomatoes contain only 20 caloriesper hundred gram. They are rich in fibres, lycopene and potassium. They avert water retention, thereby also preventing bloating of the belly.

Olive Oil: People realise that veggies are good for health but many find their taste boring. Add a small quantity of olive oil. This will improve the flavour of vegetables and make them tastier. But its real benefit is that it can help you lose the hateful flab around your belly.