Onions are a staple in many delectable cuisines around the world, but sometimes it’s hard to tell how cooked onions are when we eat them. Sauces, pepper, and even other ingredients in the dish can mask its quality and may pose a different effect for those with high blood pressure. Rumor has it that raw onion is good for high blood pressure and there are a few studies that could convince you to give this a try.

Nutritional value of Onion

Onions are the distant cousins of garlic, shallots, chives, and leeks. This means they share similar nutritional values like being low in calories while boasting a respectable amount of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Vitamin C in particular is its most copious nutrient; particularly excelling in iron absorption, tissue repairing, and collagen production.

Onions specifically have the ability to produce quercetin, an antioxidant that has anti-inflammatory properties that can reduce blood pressure effectively. Onions are also heavy on carbohydrates when compared to other kinds of vegetables are a solid source as long as it is not the primary ingredient in your meal.

Read Sweet Potato Health Benefits: The Organic Affordable Super Food

Raw Onions v Cooked Onions: Which offer more health benefits

Onions can be eaten either raw or cooked, but raw and slightly cooked are your best options should you want to maximize your nutritional intake. Raw onions have a much higher level of sulfur compounds; what this means is that the nutrient assists to lower blood sugar levels, reduce the generation of unhealthy types of cholesterol and even aid to prevent certain kinds of cancer. Cooked onions will still have some degree of this nutrient, but if you’re looking to use the full range of the onion’s nutrients, going slightly cooked at most is the way to go. If the properties of sulfur compounds are not that important to you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with cooked onions either.

How onion lowers blood pressure

No matter how you look at it, some level of dieting is required if you want to lower your blood pressure quickly and effectively. Salt is the number one criminal in any meal that contributes to high blood pressure. Salt thickens and hardens arteries overtime and this can lead to either a heart attack or stroke. It's easy to underestimate how much salt is in your meals if you aren’t deliberate with your meal choices, but when cooking at home, it can easily be controlled.

Read Zinc: Health Benefits, Food Sources, and Daily Requirements

The next requirement is going to be tough for many - cutting down caffeine and alcohol. Adrenaline is a given catalyst to heightened blood pressure and its effects are rather self-explanatory. Opting for more fruits and vegetables is universally a good thing, but especially important in reducing high blood pressure. Generally, these foods are packed with great complementary nutrients like fiber and vitamins.

What are the alternatives to Onion to reduce blood pressure?

Chicken Soup

Despite all the perks of onions, if this vegetable isn’t for you, not all hope is lost. Believe it or not, chicken soup is the first dish on the list that aids to reduce blood pressure. The protein found in chicken legs specifically contains a good amount of collagen. Despite finding success in Asian nations like Japan and China, chicken soup should not be substituted for traditional medicine.

Berries

Berries have a reputation for its respectable amount of antioxidants. Compounds specifically called anthocyanins have been studied to play a role in relieving hypertension and lowering overall blood pressure. It’s not difficult to make berries work; with sugar-free yogurt, other fruits, and pastries; berries serve as a fine dessert or snack that will give your body the boost it needs to reduce blood pressure.

Bananas

Potassium also plays a critical part to reduce hypertension and Banana contains this nutrient in spades. With each banana serving approximately 422 milligrams of potassium, this fruit should not go unnoticed as a regularly consumed snack. Slices of banana in cereal, bread, and on its own are highly recommended. Bananas go well with ice cream and certain kinds of pudding but will pose other issues if consumed in conjunction with one another too frequently.

Oats

Oats are also high in fiber, containing a particular subcategory called beta-gluten. It has the ability to lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure and is one of the healthiest carbohydrates around. It is simple to consume and can either be used as a beverage or a cereal substitute. It can also be used on a savory note and sprinkled with meat and nuts.

Also read; Is Being Vegan Good For Your Body?

Pistachios/Almonds

If you’re staying off the carbs and would rather try something more along the lines of keto, pistachios and almonds are decent snacks that have proven to be reliable and relieving hypertension and blood pressure spikes. Using fat as an energy replacement may be tricky as excess intake can lead to an increase in weight. Ideally, going for a handful of these nuts every other day would be your best bet as an alternative to onion to lower blood pressure. 

Lily Chowdhury, eminent theatre activist and wife of the late martyred intellectual playwright Munier Chowdhury, passed away on Monday. She was 92.

She breathed her last at around 5 pm on Monday.

Her son Asif Munier confirmed the news on his Facebook post on Monday night and informed media that his mother died at her Banani residence, finally succumbing in a long battle against several old-age complications.

According to Asif Munier and other family members of Lily Chowdhury, her body will be kept at the Banani residence for the relatives and loved ones to pay last respects till 10:30 in the morning on Tuesday.

Also read: Theatre activist Shyamal Bhattacharya passes away

Her body will be then taken to the Central Shaheed Minar and kept there from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on Tuesday for people of all walks of life.to pay their last tributes to the late theatre activist.

She will be buried at the Banani graveyard beside the graves of her husband Munier Chowdhury and son Mishuk Munier after the Zohr prayer, according to family members.

Mishuk Munier was a noted cinematographer who passed away in a tragic road accident on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway, along with prominent filmmaker Tareque Masud on August 13, 2011.

Also read: Theatre activist Ishrat Nishat remembered with love, respect

Born on August 31, 1928, in Tangail, Lily Chowdhury completed her MA from Dhaka University. She got married to Munier Chowdhury in 1949.

She completed Munier Chowdhury's unfinished translation of A Streetcar Named Desire, the famous play of American playwright Tennessee Williams. Besides, she acted in theatre and television plays and was actively involved in the Bangladeshi theatre arena.

 

Things may seem grim with the epidemic dramatically reducing the number of guests allowed at a wedding, but the plus side is that many have found this festive occasion more personal as a result. With the closest of people only allowed at a wedding, it can make the occasion seem more purposeful. Naturally, the honeymoon that comes after is the next stage of such an emotional event. Here we are going to highlight some of the best honeymoon destinations in Asia to consider in Summer.

Top Honeymoon Destinations in Asia

Maldives

This destination is the tropical getaway that many imagine when the word “honeymoon” is thrown around. The Maldives is the epitome of a beach paradise and everything you could possibly imagine can be done in these turquoise waters. Snorkeling and scuba diving are a must when visiting, and booking a resort by the beach is necessary for both of you to enjoy the view.

Local eateries also boast some of the best seafood dishes within the region. Typically, the facilities of any resort like Cocoa Island Resort or Baros Resort Maldives offer stellar facilities, but beach vacations tend to have a sweet spot of just under two weeks.

Read Bandarban Tourist Spots – Best Places to See and Craziest Things to Do

El Nido, Philippines

If you’re a fan of the water, but yearn for a little more sports, El Nido is one of the best destinations in Asia for that. El Nido doesn’t necessarily pride itself on scenery like the Maldives, but it has many adventure trails that encourage hikes, mountain biking, waterfalls, and even natural hot springs.

Some of these locations are tucked away in secluded areas, but El Nido is renowned for its versatile range of activities and the beach is only a part of it. If you and your spouse are the sorts of travelers who’d like to stay engaged for the whole day with exercise and activities, this treasure in the Philippines is a perfect choice.

Read: Visit Chalan Beel at Natore in Bangladesh to Pacify Your Soul

Borneo, Malaysia

Another getaway for nature lovers, Borneo engages couples who love the outdoors, but not necessarily the exercising part of it. Beaches have been left untouched by locals and are certainly worth exploring, along with its vibrant national parks and wildlife.

Borneo is one of the last places in the world to have Orangutans in the wild. Additionally, wildlife sanctuaries are open to the public, housing extremely rare wildlife under good care. Borneo’s immense respect for its natural wonders has resulted in an untampered range of breathtaking sights that rival some of the best in the world.

Read Explore Durgapur Netrokona Bangladesh – Piece of Heaven on Earth

Bali, Indonesia

Bali is a classic vacation spot that is both rich in Indonesian culture and accessible to tourists from all over the world. Bali is extremely versatile in its appeal, priding itself with an array of activities at affordable prices. Temple visits, trekking, museums, diving, waterparks, and markets are all possible in this small location.

If you want to get bang for your buck and scratch that wanderlust itch, it’s difficult for Bali to disappoint. The locale also knows how to showcase its more luxurious side - offering many premium villas, clubs by the poolside, and top-of-the-line eateries. Bali is the place to be for couples who’d like to go on an undefined adventure with a splash of spontaneousness.

Also read: Planning to visit a tourist site? Here are 3 tips

Singapore

If your partner and you are ready to live a few days in complete luxury, Singapore is your best bet in Asia. This developed country is filled to the brim with luxury items, malls, and some of the best restaurants in Asia. Well-known spots like Marina Bay Sands, Sentosa, and Orchard Road are all-in-one locations that offer stellar hospitality, premium restaurants, and an almost limitless range of boutique shops.

Beaches, parks, and trekking trails are available should either of you want a break from the urban life, but its cityscape is the real highlight.  If both of you are hoping to splurge without much restraint, there won’t be many places that can rival Singapore.

Read Singapore Tourist Attractions: Best places to visit and craziest things to do.

Taipei, Taiwan

Taipei fills a very unique niche in traveling that could grab your attention if you’re looking for a unique blend of mountainous landscapes and street culture. Taiwan is home to exquisite markets and street food - famously known for the Miaokou Night Market. Hot springs are in abundance and many can be found when trekking at the Yushan Peaks. Mountains and street food seem like polarizing attractions but can definitely make for a fun getaway that has tons of potential for romance.

Read Visit Sadullapur Golap Gram, Rose Village at Savar for Day Tour

Sri Lanka

Much like Borneo, Sri Lanka adds a South Asian flavor to an itinerary of coasts, parks, trekking routes, and scenic beach sunsets. One of the nation’s most recognizable tourist attractions is the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage - an interactive haven of elephants that encourages guests to pet and feed them.

Adding to the wildlife appeal, the Yala National Park is a safari that enables many visitors to sightsee endangered animals with a qualified guide. Sri Lanka is lenient on the wallet and is deceptively extravagant for how little is required.

Cautions

So far we have discussed some of the best honeymoon destinations in Asia in Summer 2021. However, don't forget to follow the necessary hygiene steps to stay safe from the COVID-19 and other diseases. Before planning your vacation in an overseas country, do proper research about the guidelines, etiquettes, and relevant costs of your honeymoon destination. Happy traveling!

Choi Sang-min, the father of a nine-month-old baby living in the southwestern city of Gwangju, was surprised when his boss recently just signed off without ado on papers he had submitted requesting parental leave.

"It was not what I'd expected. Because I heard that when a male colleague applied for parental leave a few years back, he was called in to the boss' office 'to have a word' with him," the 37-year-old college employee said.

"All I did was go and tell him, do the paperwork. That was it," he said.

Also read:Paternity leave on the cards: Minister

It was not much different for Yoon Hyo-suk, a father of two who decided to take a year off from work at an advertising agency in Seoul in July 2019 to "take the baton" from his wife and look after the kids, who were aged five and two at the time.

"Some people, of course, tried to talk me out of it, but there was no more gossiping about why a man was taking leave to take care of his kids," Yoon said.

"I realized there were so many other men like me taking leave and coming back the next year. It has become almost like a routine," he said.

Fathers choosing to be away from work for child-rearing are no longer considered a peculiar breed in South Korea. Their decisions are fairly easily accepted at workplaces and the cases are getting more common, backed by the growing positive view of fathers actively engaging in parenting, alongside expanded government benefits.

Data by the Ministry of Employment and Labor show that 27,423 working fathers, excluding those in the public service and education, took long-term parental leave in 2020, up 23 percent from the previous year.

Also read:Shakib seeks permission to skip NZ tour

Fathers accounted for 24.5 percent of the total number of parents on parental leave, a big jump from the 2017 figure of 13.4 percent, apparently driven by the surge in child-rearing demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The younger the age group you belong to, you don't perceive raising a child as husbands helping their wives, but as a shared duty that you do together," Kwon Me-kyung, a research fellow at the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education (KICCE), said.

A recent study by the KICCE found that 18.6 percent of 1,000 married couples with one child or more said that the father in their household either has taken parental leave or is planning to do so.

The percentage was higher among those in their 20s with 30.4 percent, 23.6 percent for people in their 30s and 14.2 percent for the group in their 40s.

For Choi, the decision was half voluntary and half inevitable.

"My wife is having a hard time taking care of the baby alone and we're a single-income family," he said. "But I want to be as progressive as possible in doing my part in raising our child. So I've been saving up to prepare for the time I'll be away."

South Korea first introduced the parental leave in 1987 for mothers only with a child under age 1, before it was opened to fathers from 1995. But the allowance programs had not been properly established until the early to mid 2000s.

In an effort to encourage more people to take parental leave, the government introduced a "bonus system" in 2014 of giving a larger monthly allowance if the second parent of a family takes time off after their spouse uses it up.

The second parent on parental leave can receive up to 2.5 million (US$2,260) in monthly allowances in the first three months, while the maximum allowance for those on such leave for the first time in their families is 1.5 million won per month.

Since February last year, a mother and father are allowed to take leave together. Starting next year, the upper limit of the first three-month allowances will increase to 3 million won per parent.

"The focus of policy support has moved on from helping women have more children and helping them keep their work-home balance, to providing as much benefits to fathers so as to encourage them to participate in child-rearing," Jung Jae-hoon, a social welfare studies professor at Seoul Women's University, said.

Also read: Workers to enjoy greater facilities; amended law coming

Industry circles have jumped on the bandwagon, with large enterprises taking the lead in encouraging male employees to take parental leave. Retail giant Lotte Group has made it compulsory for male employees with children to take time off.

"We cannot say that fathers taking parental leave have become a general trend, but we're certainly going in that direction," Jung said.

Under the current system, parents working in the private sector, with one child or more under the age of 9 or below elementary school third grade, are eligible for parental leave for up to 12 months.

There were only 819 men who took parental leave in 2010. It went up steadily to 3,420 in 2014, 7,616 in 2016 and 17,665 in 2018, according to the labor ministry.

The COVID-19 outbreak has added to the growth. The number of fathers who applied for the parental leave bonus surged 52.8 percent to 7,338 in the first half of 2020, ministry data showed.

Kwon of the KICCE noted that the government's latest blueprint for child-rearing support underlines "quality of life."

"I think there is a realization that the value and joy of raising children have been overlooked. So what the authorities are trying to do is to enable working parents to spend more time with kids without having to worry about the financial shortfall," she said.

Yoon, the father of two from Seoul, recalled that being with his kids during the period of leave as "one full hectic and miserable year," but said it was worth the time.

"I think I might use the remaining one year before it's too late. I've become better at knowing what they want, what they like and don't like, and getting closer to them," he said. "That's not something that you can learn from someone or anywhere else."

 

Having bad eyesight has always been common in the general population, with about 75% of adults requiring some form of vision correcting assistance on a day-to-day basis. Glasses can be an affordable solution for most situations, but contact lenses are often preferable when it comes to sports, a day at the beach, formal events, or outdoor activities. There have been a few disaster cases with contact lenses over the past few years, but the market has stayed more relevant than ever due to its general attention to safety. Regardless, it’s important to address the side effects and danger of contact lenses should you decide to use them regularly.

How Contact Lenses Are Made

There are two ways contact lenses are made, either by lathe cutting or injection molding.

Lathe cutting is a process when plastic disks are spun and shaped at a steady rotation (kind of like pottery), controlled with computerized cutting tools. Before completion, the sculpted plastic goes through polish and hydration, followed by internal quality testing.

Injection molding on the other hand uses heat instead. Sculpting plastic in its liquid state and shaped via molds. Despite plastic being the most well-known material, companies have developed “soft” hydrogel lenses, primarily out of silicone that aims to provide better comfort and performance.

How to Use Contact Lens Properly?

Dirt in your contact lenses are extremely dangerous for the eyes; which means thorough washing of hands before making contact with your lenses is essential.

Soft contact lenses are more popular these days, and making sure that they aren’t inverted is the next step. If inverted, the contacts will fall right off your eyes and unfasten themselves from your eye with every other blink. How you can tell is if the rim of your lens is pointing outwards slightly, rather than being perfectly cupped.

Next step would be to widen your eyelids with your fingers till the eye is fully uncovered. It will be intimidating at first to put a foreign object into your eyeball daily, but over time, it will be a seamless process.

Contact lenses should be removed daily and should not be kept on over 12 hours per day. Depending on the type of contact lens you’ve bought, the daily brands can be discarded after removal, while monthlies will have to be properly sanitized and safely kept.

What Happens If I Wear Contacts For Too Long?

Corneal Neovascularization

One of the biggest side effects of prolonged contact lenses use is its reduction of oxygen flow in the cornea. There’s an official term for that and it’s called “Corneal Neovascularization”. When cutting off oxygen, your eyes will begin to create new blood vessels to continue the appropriate flow of fluids - if the blood vessels were to increase haphazardly, this could result in long-term eye damage by gradually preventing light from reaching the cornea. The effects won’t be noticeable immediately, but over time, your vision will deteriorate and the damage will be irreversible.

Conjunctivitis

Conjunctivitis, or as many have called it, “Pink Eye” is a short-term problem that may immediately arise if your contacts are left on longer than needed. Inflammation of the conjunctiva (which is the membrane that surrounds the white in your eyes) will cause the notorious pink puffiness that results in itching, fluid discharge, and pain. Certainly a side effect worth putting on regular glasses for.

Also read: How to protect eyes wearing right sunglasses

How to Use Contact Lens Safely: Some Hygiene Tips

Contact lens hygiene is critical to understand before taking up this journey, as a slip-up in this department can lead to disastrous results.

Attention to sanitizing and cleaning your contact lenses should be a priority if you go for weekly or monthly versions. DO NOT use tap water or to a certain extent, bottled water to clean your lenses.

With these sources, bacteria will be in abundance and allowing it to contaminate your lenses will result in the aforementioned symptoms from earlier while introducing additional eye infection symptoms. Such results include redness, swelling, sticky tears, blurry vision, light sensitivity, pain, and itching.

Contact Lens Brands

Many have opted to go for colored lenses without prescriptions to spice up their aesthetics, but knock-off brands fall under this category too and can pose a risk of infections too. Searching for officially licensed optometrists and ophthalmologists that sell credible products can be the difference between years of safety and regular eye infections. As long as you’ve committed to products sold officially, there shouldn’t be much else to worry about in terms of branding. Some key names to look out for include Acuvue, Air Optix Dailies, Soflens, and Biofinity.