Month: April 2015

Enhancing Your Health: Food, Protein, and Complementarity

Food, Protein, and Complementarity By Luz Mejia Last week, I provided the benefits of protein intake for our overall health. This week, I am sharing the importance of balancing the diet so as to get sufficient levels of all the essential amino acids which are essential to our health. This is why a diet containing a variety of wholesome foods is important. Certain foods have one or two amino acids that are in lower proportions than the others, and if one of these foods, such as rice or corn, is a predominant part of the diet, it can mean...

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Book Review: Asian and Feminist Philosophies in Dialogue: Liberating Traditions

Editors: Jennifer McWeeny and Ashby Butnor Publisher: Columbia University Press – 318 pages Book Review by: Paiso Jamakar The editors point out in their Foreword that there has been increasing interest in recent years on comparative (some call it cultural or global philosophy in colleges and universities. Numerous conferences every year, publications of books and journals, lectures given, academic positions offered, and other events attest to this growing desire for such philosophy. But what is lacking in all these scholarly activities is the contribution of feminist philosophers to this discourse among non-Western philosophers. This book aims to fill that...

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Book Review: Risk Management in Social Work: Preventing Professional Malpractice, Liability, and Disciplinary Action

Author: Frederic G. Reamer Publisher: Columbia University Press – 367 pages Book Review by: Paiso Jamakar There are large costs – in money, time, effort, damage to reputation, and emotional suffering – for social workers who get sued by their clients or are named as respondents in licensing board complaints. And some of the social workers who pay these costs did nothing wrong, but unfortunately became victims of the recipients of their services. While social work is a profession that – like other care-giving endeavors which bring about great psychic satisfaction in helping people better their lot – can...

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Book Review: African-American Children and Families in Child Welfare

Authors: Ramona W. Denby and Carla M. Curtis Publisher: Columbia University Press – 245 pages Book Review by: Laxmi Chaandi Cultural adaptation is the key to effectively achieving the three major child welfare goals in social work when it comes to helping African-American families, the authors of this book write. Those goals are: Protection Permanency Well-Being Ramona W. Denby and Carla M. Curtis point out that adapting to the specific needs and wants of African Americans is what they call the “mediating construct” in the current welfare system. This system has limitations in meeting their needs. They suggest different...

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Enhancing Your Health: What Is Protein and What Do We Need It For?

What Is Protein and What Do We Need It For? By Luz Mejia I have been asked to comment about proper protein nutrition for vegetarians, but before I comment on that topic, I would like to share some information about protein. Protein is an essential part of nutrition, second only to water in the body’s physical composition. Protein makes up about 20 percent of our body weight and is a primary component of our muscles, hair, nails, skin, eyes, and internal organs—especially the heart (muscle) and brain. Our immune defense system requires protein, especially for the formation of antibodies...

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