The Health Blog by Ryan Healy

Grocery Lists: Why You Need Them

My wife and I are "list people." We write to-do lists, items-to-pack lists (for vacations), and, most importantly, grocery lists.

If you want to be healthy or lose weight, then a grocery list will be your best friend. At home, away from the aisles of tempting food products, you'll be able to write a list of the things you need... and avoid the bad foods you want.

Once at the grocery store, your grocery list will keep you focused. If you can, organize your list so it puts you on a logical path through the store. This extra step will keep you from wandering by food that may cause you to lose resolve—food you intended to avoid altogether.

After you've gathered all the items on your list, proceed to check-out. Don't stop in the ice cream aisle and try to remember any "extra" items you may have forgotten. The longer you stay in the grocery store, the more likely it will be that you'll buy unhealthy foods that you'll regret buying later.

That's why you need grocery lists: to keep you focused; to prevent you from buying junk food; and to ensure you buy healthy foods. So do your grocery planning at home. You'll be amazed by how quickly a simple thing like a grocery list will help you start to improve your health.

Humidifier for Croup

My daughter has croup. And we're trying to prevent it from progressing to the "strident cough" the nurse warned us about. So I went out and purchased a $140 humidifier last night to replace the $9 Vicks humidifier we've been using.

The humdifier is an Air-O-Swiss. Instead of merely boiling the water like the Vicks version does, this one heats the water, generates a micro-fine mist through high-frequency vibration, then blows the mist into the room through a swivel-spout.

What's cool is that this Air-O-Swiss humidifier works whether you heat the water or not. You can heat the water before it's turned into a mist if you want the room temperature to remain stable; or you can leave the water at its normal temperature if you want to cool the room slightly.

According to the booklet of instructions I received with the Air-O-Swiss, dry air is a liability. This is what the booklet says:

Did you know that dry room air:

• Causes the membranes in your respiratory system to dry out, and also causes chapped lips and stinging eyes?
• Encourages infections and illnesses of the respiratory system?
• Causes weariness, tiredness and poor concentration?
• Stresses pets and house plants?
• Encourages the formation of dust and the electrostatic charging of textiles made of synthetic fibers, carpets and plastic flooring?
• Damages furnishings made of wood and parquet?
• Detunes musical instruments?

I haven't investigated, but I suspect that what the booklet says is true. But I also wonder, why don't that say that on the packaging of the box? Why tell me after I've purchased?

I was going to purchase the humidifier for my daughter anyway, but it seems this kind of information would persuade more people to pick up an Air-O-Swiss to alleviate all those negative things the booklet lists.

By the way, Annabelle slept through the night last night. No coughing attacks. That's a big improvement over the night before last when she coughed herself awake at 2:30 in the morning. (Yes, Stephanie and I were exhausted yesterday. But that's the way it goes with kids! :-)