Family News and Events

Family News and Events
Harmonious day planned for Birr

For those in the family with an ear for harmonies, the Birr Festival of Music and Voice will be returning for its second edition this May Bank Holiday weekend after an extremely successful debut last year.

Focusing on choral, classical, and chamber music, the festival features a variety of Irish singers and musicians performing recitals in the picturesque setting of the Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, which hosts nightly concerts from the Friday until the Monday.

Highlights include a performance by Cara O’Sullivan, one of Ireland’s leading sopranos and a recital by pianist Finghin Collins with John Finucane, the principal clarinettist with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and a true virtuoso.

The event takes place from May 4-7 in the Birr Theatre and Arts Centre with admission prices ranging from €10 to €26.

 

Link between obesity and liver health found

Obesity may negatively affect liver health in children as young as 8 years old, a new study had revealed.

The study, which was carried out by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, analysed the waist circumference of children aged 3 to 8 years old and found that children with a bigger waist circumference were more likely to have markers for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common chronic liver condition in adults and children, and in some cases can lead to liver cancer.

“Many parents know that obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes and other metabolic conditions, but there is far less awareness that obesity, even in young children, can lead to serious liver disease,” said Jennifer Woo Baidal, Director of Pediatric Weight Management at Columbia University Medical Center, adding that we need better ways to screen, diagnose, prevent and treat the disease.

 

The weight-fighting fork

It is ubiquitously accepted in the medical community that eating too fast leads to poor digestion and weight control. For example, food that is eaten too quickly is often poorly chewed and this makes the work of the digestive tract much more difficult.

Attempting to combat this problem, the HAPIfork, powered by Slow Control, is an electronic fork that helps you monitor and track your eating habits. It also alerts you with the help of indicator lights and gentle vibrations when you are eating too fast. Every time you bring food from your plate to your mouth with your fork, this action is called: a ‘fork serving’. The HAPIfork also measures how long it took to eat your meal, the amount of ‘fork servings’ taken per minute and intervals between ‘fork servings’.

Slowing down your eating may be the first step is seeing those pounds drop.