The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Jobless journalist opens Slovenia’s first dog bakery Posted: 01 Sep 2013 04:32 PM PDT But that's just what happened for Nastja Verdnik, a 26-year-old journalism graduate who has opened the Balkan country's first bakery for dogs. "I used to make biscuits for my dog, but never dreamt of making a career out of it," Verdnik told AFP in her tiny shop in the northern city of Maribor, where she sells home-made biscuits, muffins and cakes, including for dogs with allergies. After graduating from Ljubljana University last year, her hunt for a job in journalism led nowhere. She had already made biscuits for friends' dogs and even sold small quantities to a local pet shop. "I saw at the employment office a programme for promoting entrepreneurship among young people," she said, so put forth the idea for a dog bakery and got immediately backing . "Hov Hov" - Slovenian for "woof woof" - was born. "There are more dogs registered in Slovenia than children under nine. And owners, before getting a dog, know they will have the financial resources to keep it," said Verdnik. Her confidence was boosted by research showing during a dog's lifetime, owners can spend the equivalent of the price of a car on their pet. Since she opened in June, her business - strategically located at the entrance to Maribor's main park, a favourite playground for dogs - has not stopped growing. "In September I will open a new shop in the capital, Ljubljana, and later might do it also abroad," she said, with eyes on neighbouring Croatia or Austria. Once a major industrial centre, Maribor has struggled more than the rest of Slovenia with the economic crisis. Unemployment in June was 18.1 percent, compared with 12.6 percent in Ljubljana. Anger over rampant corruption in city hall also prompted violent demonstrations last winter. But dog biscuits have proven remarkably crisis-resistant, with people in and around Maribor willing to go the extra mile to indulge their pets. "We are not from this neighbourhood, we live on the outskirts of Maribor, but we care about the quality of our dogs' food and we also like buying them home-made biscuits," Vera, the owner of two greyhounds, told AFP. Hov Hov's selection ranges from the classic beef, lamb, venison, turkey and tuna to banana, peanut butter and even mint-flavoured biscuits to fight bad breath. The snacks cost three to four euros ($4-5.50) for a 150-gram (5.3-ounce) package and are available in gluten-free and no-egg versions. She makes all shapes and sizes - bones being a favourite - and will even make special birthday cakes. "I only use healthy ingredients as I would for my own pets," said Verdnik, who gets advice from a veterinarian friend and adds no artificial ingredients. And it's not just the canines who are eating Hov Hov's biscuits, as some of their owners confess to nibbling the vegetarian treats, said Verdnik. "This is our second visit: now we have returned with a list of orders for our neighbours and friends," said Marija, the owner of a German shepherd. Keeping up supplies means baking at home an average of five kilogrammes (11 pounds) of biscuits each day. To cope with increasing demand, Verdnik plans to rent a kitchen and probably hire one or two helpers in September. "Two hands aren't enough any longer," she said. She has not totally ruled out journalism. But if she did ever find a job, she would only use her skills "to write about pets, pet-food and related issues", she said. – AFP/Relaxnews, September 2, 2013. |
| More fresh fruit lowers risk of diabetes, juice boosts it Posted: 01 Sep 2013 04:28 PM PDT British, US and Singaporean researchers pored over data from three big health investigations that took place in the United States, spanning a quarter of a century in all. More than 187,000 nurses and other professional caregivers were enrolled. Their health was monitored over the following years, and they regularly answered questionnaires on their eating habits, weight, smoking, physical activity and other pointers to lifestyle. Around 6.5 percent of the volunteers developed diabetes during the studies. People who ate at least two servings each week of certain whole fruits, especially blueberries, grapes and apples, reduced their risk of Type 2 diabetes by as much as 23 percent compared to those who ate less than one serving per month. "Our findings provide novel evidence suggesting certain fruits may be especially beneficial for lower diabetes risk," said Qi Sun, an assistant professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. On the other hand, those who consumed one or more servings of fruit juice each day saw their risk of the disease increase by as much as 21 percent. Swapping three servings of juice per week for whole fruits resulted in a seven-percent reduction in risk, although there was no such difference with strawberries and cantaloupe melon. The paper, published on Friday by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), says further work is needed to explore this "significant" difference. It speculates that, even if the nutritional values of whole fruit and fruit juice are similar, the difference lies with the fact that one food is a semi-solid and the other a liquid. "Fluids pass through the stomach to the intestine more rapidly than solids even if nutritional content is similar," says the paper. "For example, fruit juices lead to more rapid and larger changes in serum [blood] levels of glucose and insulin than whole fruits." The study also points to evidence that some kinds of fruit have a beneficial effect for health. Berries and grapes, for instance, have compounds called anthocyanins which have been found to lower the risk of heart attacks. But, say the authors, how or even whether this also applies to diabetes risks is for now unclear. The investigation looked at data from the Nurses' Health Study, which ran from 1984-2008; the Nurses' Health Study II (1991-2009); and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986-2008). Ten kinds of fruit were used in the questionnaire: grapes or raisins; peach, plums or apricots; prunes; bananas; cantaloupe melon; apples or pears; oranges; grapefruit; strawberries; and blueberries. The fruit juices identified in the questionnaire were apple, orange, grapefruit and "other." – AFP/Relaxnews, September 2, 2013. |
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