Avocado oil isn’t the only product without enforceable standards. Honey, spices, and ground coffee are other common examples. Foods that fetch a higher price are especially ripe for manipulation, especially when adulterations can be too subtle to detect outside a lab.

The vast majority of avocado oil sold in the US is of poor quality, mislabeled, or adulterated with other oils, researchers report.

In the country’s first extensive study of commercial avocado oil quality and purity, researchers report that at least 82% of test samples were either stale before expiration date or mixed with other oils.

PEOPLE ARE SURPRISED SOME OF THE SAMPLES DIDN’T CONTAIN ANY AVOCADO OIL.

In three cases, bottles labeled as “pure” or “extra virgin” avocado oil contained near 100% soybean oil, an oil commonly used in processed foods that’s much less expensive to produce.

“I was surprised some of the samples didn’t contain any avocado oil,” says Selina Wang, Cooperative Extension specialist in the food science and technology department at the University of California, Davis.

“Most people who buy avocado oil are interested in the health benefits, as well as the mild, fresh flavor, and are willing to pay more for the product. But because there are no standards to determine if an avocado oil is of the quality and purity advertised, no one is regulating false or misleading labels. These findings highlight the urgent need for standards to protect consumers and establish a level playing field to support the continuing growth of the avocado oil industry.”

Wang and Hilary Green, a PhD candidate in Wang’s lab, analyzed various chemical parameters of 22 domestic and imported oil samples, which included all the brands they could find in local stores and online.

“In addition to testing commercial brands, we also bought avocados and extracted our own oil in the lab, so we would know, chemically, what pure avocado oil looks like,” Wang says.

Test samples included oils of various prices, some labeled extra virgin or refined. Virgin oil is supposed to be extracted from fresh fruit using only mechanical means, and refined oil is processed with heat or chemicals to remove any flaws.

Fifteen of the samples were oxidized before the expiration date. Oil loses its flavor and health benefits when it oxidizes, which happens over time and when exposed to too much light, heat, or air. Six samples were mixed with large amounts of other oils, including sunflower, safflower, and soybean oil.

Only two brands produced samples that were pure and nonoxidized. Those were Chosen Foods and Marianne’s Avocado Oil, both refined oils made in Mexico. Among the virgin grades, CalPure produced in California was pure and fresher than the other samples in the same grade.

NO STANDARDS FOR AVOCADO OIL
Ensuring quality is important for consumers, retailers, producers, and people throughout the industry. Retailers want to sell quality products, shoppers want to get their money’s worth and honest producers want to keep fraudulent and low-quality oil out of the marketplace.

But since avocado oil is relatively new on the scene, the Food and Drug Administration has not yet adopted “standards of identity,” which are basic food standards designed to protect consumers from being cheated by inferior products or confused by misleading labels

Over the last 80 years, the FDA has issued standards of identity for hundreds of products, like whiskey, chocolate, juices, and mayonnaise. Without standards, the FDA has no means to regulate avocado oil quality and authenticity.

Avocado oil isn’t the only product without enforceable standards. Honey, spices, and ground coffee are other common examples. Foods that fetch a higher price are especially ripe for manipulation, especially when adulterations can be too subtle to detect outside a lab.

Wang is working to develop faster, better, and cheaper chemical methods to detect adulteration so bulk buyers can test avocado oil before selling it. She is also evaluating more samples, performing shelf-life studies to see how time and storage affect quality, and encouraging FDA officials to establish reasonable standards for avocado oil.

Wang has experience collaborating with industry and the FDA. Ten years ago, she analyzed the quality and purity of extra virgin olive oil and discovered that most of what was for sale in the US was actually a much lower grade. Her research sparked a cascade of responses that led California to establish one of the world’s most stringent standards for different grades of olive oil. The FDA is working with importers and domestic producers to develop standards of identity for olive oil.

“Consumers seeking the health benefits of avocado oil deserve to get what they think they are buying,” Wang says.

Working together with the industry, we can establish standards and make sure customers are getting high-quality, authentic avocado oil and the companies are competing on a level playing field.”

5 WAYS YOU CAN AVOID BAD OIL
The flavor of virgin avocado oil can differ by varieties and region. In general, authentic, fresh, virgin avocado oil tastes grassy, buttery, and a little bit like mushrooms.
Virgin avocado oil should be green in color, whereas refined oil is light yellow and almost clear due to pigments removed during refining.

Even good oil becomes rancid with time. It’s important to purchase a reasonable size that can be finished before the oil oxidizes. Store the oil away from light and heat. A cool, dark cabinet is a good choice, rather than next to the stove.
How do you know if the oil is rancid? It starts to smell stale, sort of like play dough.
When possible, choose an oil that’s closest to the harvest/production time to ensure maximum freshness. The “best before date” is not always a reliable indicator of quality.

‘The Half of It’ is one of the most astonishing and well made romantic comedies in the field of media and entertainment of all time. It is a Netflix original directed by Alice Wu who in a descriptive yet vaguely unique manner has portrayed her reflection towards apparently simple yet complex concepts like friendship, queer love and identity crisis which never fails to startle the audience in a thoughtful manner.

If you are someone who is absolutely fascinated by the concept of Love, then you should definitely consider giving it a watch since it covers this topic along with some other relevant yet rare topics in a very unique and unusual way that will blow your mind away with its story, craft and characterization.

The protagonist is an introverted and shy teenager named Ellie Chu who agrees to help her friend Paul to impress his crush Aster. It starts with Ellie sending letters and then messages to Aster on behalf of Paul without exposing her identity. Aster however finds these letters really impressive and both of them(Ellie and Aster) find a metaphysical and psychological connection between the two of them very soon.

Apparently this movie can be misinterpreted by anyone as a typical teen romance showing an archetypal love triangle. However, by the end of the movie it gets clear how it is so much more than just a typical romantic film and how it goes beyond the domain to show an unusual queer bonding between Aster and Ellie, along with a profound and pure friendship that Paul and Aster/Paul and Ellie share.

This film also puts forth a very essential subject of migration and the struggle that follows. Ellie and her father moved from China to U.S and since then they have had to face racial discrimination in several fields. It gets so ugly that her father, despite of having a PhD degree, fails to establish himself in the materialistic pseudo-intellectual society of U.S.

The way the complexities and layers of the societal as well as the psychological spheres have been portrayed through the film is exceptional and is very rare in the field of media. Unlike most of the contemporary romantic films, it does not follow a preconceived and archetypal style of events. The art of characterization has also been exemplified exclusively by the makers of the film. Some movie critics have also claimed that the story is partly autobiographical since the director seemed to have spoken about her own experiences from her college days while promoting the film in various places, which is another aspect that many people find absolutely different and interesting.

Among all the films that are being made lately, I found it to be one of the most relevant ones in terms of the issues it puts forth to the audience. The gradual development of the characters is elaborated beautifully. The duration is less than 2 hours which is perfect to draw attention of the audience and it never, at any point gets monotonous due to its rhythmic and gradual mode of cinematography. It might as well be considered to be a beautiful tribute to friendship and love which is very rare yet simple and beautiful at the same time. I am glad to have found it on Netflix and this Netflix original therefore would be highly recommended to each and every cinephile out there who tens to search for individualism and uniqueness in movies from time to time.

– Suvasree Bandyopadhyay

Child labour means childern under the age of 14 working or labouring at different places while childern between 14-18 are adolescents and they are allowed to work.
We see many reports asking to stop child labour, they punishes people who supports such activities. But still in this world, millions of children under tha age of 14 works in different fields. Due to working in such young age, children are deprived from studies, they donot goes to school, they spends their whole time working and earning money. Government just goes on asking to stop child labour but nothing helps, many companies are blamed for hiring childern to do work in their companies and on making a case against them, they fires all the childern working in their company, however this doesn’t affect the company performance much but the livelihood of that child affects.

No child wishes to work at such age, every one wants to go to school, play, have fun with their friends, siblings, but they can’t do it because they have some duty, responsibility to uphold their family. In case children don’t have father and their mother also earns but can’t earn enough to uphold family needs, then how can they even have money to send a child to school, and the child also needs to work to earn for his family. In some cases child don’t have any of the parent and sometimes father is drunkard or ill to uphold family’s responsibility. There can be many cases which can led a child to do work. For this government made no policy, no act.

Their is another thing called bonded child labour where child parents took money from someone and when they are unable to repay those money then the child has to work as a labour to pay the debt. Government has made acts regarding this and this type of child labour has decreased a lot but not completely, now also many children works as a bonded labour.

Child labour can’t be stopped by any government acts or policies, we need to work at individual level to stop this, stop hiring children for works but this won’t make thier lives better because still they won’t have money to go to school, hence try to help at least one child to study, admit one child to school, and uphold his education expenditure. If each family do it for one child then it will surely make a difference.

If you are one of those people who cannot focus on the important tasks just because you are mindlessly scrolling through posts on social media, then this is for you!

Instead of being delighted for our lives, we are busy constantly comparing it with others on social media. No wonder why every other person is unhappy. Excess of anything is bad and when this obsession goes unchecked, you should really stop and ask yourself; is social media toxic?

It has seeped into our lives in such a way that it is almost impossible to consciously not being a part of it. Everything we do is related with it and we all have become slaves to it. Whenever we go to a new place or have something new to eat, we think of adding that on social media instead of enjoying that very moment without being slave to this virtual world. Although it comes in handy as it keeps you connected with your loved ones and keeps updated on everything. But at the same time we should be aware when it starts to dissolve toxicity in our lives.

Everyone is uploading there happy pictures, the next part of their lives online. No-one is sharing their failures or issues or setbacks. So it can happen “if someone is going through a tough phase in life and logs on, he/she will get further depressed as they might compare their life with the happy person on social media (you know how it goes when everyone is having a ball and you do not). Although it may seem like everyone’s life is so good and happening all the time but it is not. It is the biggest lie we all say proudly via social media. Everyone is facing their demons every day. Everyone has their own problems to deal with and even the ones you feel have no problems are facing their own setbacks.

All we do is scroll! Scroll! And scroll! It makes us feel like a Caesar. We need to realise it’s opportunity even if we know. Most of our mentors and admired icons are online. We might never meet them in real life but it doesn’t mean you cannot still have them positively influencing your lives. Don’t have money for future studies? There are a lot of free courses online to sharpen your skills and a lot more to surf.

If you feel that social media is toxic to you and is taking a lot of your time, just start noticing its effects on your mental health.

All you need to do is reach out to your potential and improve your life.

Stress is the response that your body gives to difficult or challenging situations. It gives you tension both physically as well as mentally.

Stress has many bad effects on your physical and mental health. It reduces your productivity at a personal and professional level. It makes you a weaker person from within who is prone to various kinds of diseases. It has a bad impact on your behaviour and confidence.

Today in this fast-moving world, while being in the process of building a stable career we focus on everything except ourself. We are hardly getting any time for us. As a result, we are failing to live a satisfactory and cheerful life and becoming more and more closer to a stressful life. Stress has become an uninvited guest in everyone’s life.

Stress is our biggest enemy. But, like every enemy, this one also can be conquered. So, I have just listed down a few points that could prove helpful to fight stress.

What can be done to deal with stress?

● To deal with stress, the best and the first thing that should be done is to take your own help. You should start talking to yourself and find out what is bothering you and what is the reason that is stressing you out?

● Talk to someone who is close to you about your stress issues. When you discuss your problems with your dear ones, you feel much better. Their suggestions prove to be useful as they help to bring positivity in your thoughts.

● Engage yourself in some or the other activity. Keep your mind busy doing some kind of work. When you are involved in an activity, you hardly get time to think about the things that stress you out.

● Spend time with your family, friends or the people you love. Create lovely memories with them. Try not to remain alone or don’t isolate yourself from others as this will make you feel lonely. Loneliness can increase your stress even more.

● Practice yoga or do exercise or any type of sport. Doing such physical activities daily for some time will absolutely prove useful to change your mood and relieve your tension. This is because during physical work, your body releases endorphins hormones which reduce stress and make you feel happy.

● Try to be happy and joyful in your life. Do not take unnecessary tension for small things and keep a positive approach while handling tough situations. Don’t lose hope easily.

● Do what you like the most. Read a book, plant a tree, listen to music or dance without any hesitation. When you do the thing which you like, you are able to restore back positivity and happiness in your ideas. Thus, you can stay away from stress.

Everybody has stress in their life. The reason behind it varies from person to person. It is very difficult to live a stress-free life. But, trust me this is not impossible. By adopting some methods and remaining calm and patient you can definitely win the battle over stress.

ONLINE EDUCATION DURING COVID 19

Due to the covid 19 pandemic all over the world the education institution are closed. Now, Students do not need to get up early in the Morning for school, there is no more morning PT classes and no more scolding of teachers. But the education will not stop there; Indian education system has turned towards delivery of education via the internet — or online education. Teachers are using online platforms like Google classroom, zoom, skypy, whatApp for classes. Online classes ensuring that education will not stop due to corona virus. We human have not experience this before and most of us were not prepared for it sure. It’s a first time experience for all.

Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes corona virus have caused might be here to stay.

There are many online platforms are providing free courses and online classes to help the students during this pandemics.

As it is a new experience for students so it has both positives and negatives impact on students

I would like to talk about positive side of it, now students do not have to travel for attending the classes now they can attend classes in their phone, it will save their time and students can use that time for self studies or for other activities. Another plus point is there is a button of mute on online platforms which help in muting the unwanted sound and noise from background that is not possible in a normal classroom it help both the teachers and students to actively focused on class.

However the other side of E-education is: as it’s an online platform teacher is not able to keep eyes on students plus not able to know who all are actively attending the classes. It will make student introvert as there is less changes of interacting with everyone. There is possibility that students only attend the classes that they want to attend it will impact the attendance of students.

Some students without reliable internet access and/or technology struggle to participate in digital learning. The Indian youth are also characterized by limited digital skills. Only 17.6 per cent of the youth could use a computer and 18.4 per cent could access internet. Especially the rural children do not have the online facilities like access of internet even some do not have mobiles and computers.

I can conclude it by saying that E-education is a good way of delivery education to students during this time but of now it is only urban quintiles in India are the somehow ready for online education. Government education policy during the covid19 needs a more egalitarian means of delivering education. The emphasis on online education has to be accompanied with changes in curriculum, textbooks, teacher training, examination systems and pedagogy. And most important to access basic facilities to rural children of online education, only than country like India will able to use E education as a way of delivery education to students.   

For me, my family has always been and will forever remain my first priority. My family members have supported me until now in every good and bad situation. For me, they are my greatest strengths.

The family consists of those people who are linked to each other by blood. These people are bonded by love, care, respect, and affection. Having a caring and loving family is really a blessing. Nobody can actually love and care for you as your family does.

It is therefore very important to realize the worth of family in your life. It is equally important to respect and love your family members as much as they do.

In this fast-moving life, we hardly get time to spend with our family. Many of us take our family for granted. But this is truly wrong as our family is very precious for us and we should value our family members. By spending time with them, we can make some unforgettable memories that can be cherished forever.

Why your family is considered as your biggest strength?

● The love that your family members give you is unconditional. This love doesn’t have any hidden motive and is completely pure. It is this love and affection that helps you to face the hatred that the real world gives you.

● You get to learn so many things from your family. Your family members are your first teachers. They teach you good human values. They help to boost your confidence and improve your overall personality. They show you the right path in life.

● The strength given by your family members makes you so powerful from within that you become capable enough to handle tough situations and deal with the evil people in real life.

● Family is your biggest support. Your family members are those people that never leave you alone. They stand by you and help you to get through hard times.

● Family members are the ones who are responsible for your success. Each and every member of your family contributes to your success in whichever way possible.

● Even when the entire world is against you, your family members will never isolate you. They are the ones who will fight with everyone for you. They protect you and try to keep you safe from this cruel world.

● Your family encourages you to do good things in life. But, it also corrects and stops you whenever you are going on the wrong path. Family is like a true guide that gives you advice which always proves to be useful for you.

You make many friends in your actual and virtual life during your lifetime. You get a chance to meet many people during your professional life as well. These people and many of your friends leave such a good impact on you that you start considering them as your family. But remember, there is a huge difference between someone whom you have considered as a family member and your actual family member.

Therefore, respect, love, and spend time with your family. Trust me, this will make you happy from within.

Government has denied issuing a public notice related to postponement of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate-2020.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) informed all the candidates, parents and public that no such decision has been taken by concerned authorities. It advised the public to be aware of any fake message and rely only on the information available at the official website www.nta.ac.in and ntaneet.nic.in.

The NTA said that it has come to the notice of agency that a fake public notice dated 15th June with the subject line – Postponement of National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) UG July – 2020 is circulating on various social media platforms.

The agency has taken it seriously and is investigating the source of fake notice issued with an intention to misguide candidates, parents and the general public. The NTA said that stringent action would be taken against such anti-public elements.

Last month, Union Human Resource and Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank informed that the NEET exam will be held on 26th July, 2020 from 2 PM to 5 PM.