I’m still in a new year’s “top 10 list” mood, so I’ve made a list of my top 10 favorite posts from 2009. These are the ones I feel can have the most impact on expat’s lives, and are not necessarily the most popular. My faves revolve around preventive measures and are not so much China-specific. Let’s jump in:
- Asian Fruits & Vegetables: Which Are Healthier? – includes one of the most useful-to-daily-life PDFs I’ve ever seen from any government. Memorize it!
- How To Prevent Heart Attacks & Strokes – even in China, heart disease is still the #1 killer. This slide show shows some basic lifestyle choices that can reduce your risks up to 80% — without medicine
- Chinese Medicine and the Flu: I Say Tomato, You Say 西红柿 – part of a series of articles revolving around flu basics, but triggering insights on TCM and Western medicine
- Fruits & Veggies: How Many Servings Do You Need? (And How Much Is A “Serving”, Anyway?) – again, more basics but how many actually know how much servings to eat? Now, you can find out in 20 seconds…
- My Air Quality Journal: 太可怕！ – one of my many pollution posts; this one highlighted my really fun experiments with a handheld pollution monitor — and the many surprising conclusions…
- Top Things Your Ayi Should Know – This one was very popular as well; it provides bilingual PDFs on food safety, hand washing, first aid…
- Air Pollution: How Bad Is It, Really? – This article goes into detail about air pollution in China, as well as what we can all do about it
- Do You Know Your Cardiovascular Age? – Again, heart disease is the #1 killer; with a bit of your medical records you can create a wonderfully informative graph of your 10-year risk of having a heart attack — as well as tips on what you can do to reduce that risk
- Do You Know Your BMI? – obesity is a worldwide issue. One basic is your body mass index; do you know yours? Now you can find out…
- Organics Quiz: Do You Know Your Labels? – There are a lot of round green stickers on Chinese foodstuff, and many do not mean organic; now you can navigate with knowledge.