#33. How can Bubble tea perk up your day and damage your skin at the same time.

Mint milk tea with pearls.

That’s my sister’s favorite bubble tea. Twice a week, she’ll get her “perk me up” drink from one of her regular bubble tea stores. There’s no way she could have avoided it. Why? Because it’s like stalking her at every single hidden corner she turned. You can find at least 2 or 3 of them located within a 1km radius, at the train stations, shopping complex or even within the housing estates. It’s like the Bubble tea stores placed “Locate your friends” trackers into the drink concoction . It’s a serious addiction that is still hard for many, including my sister to fight off.

And when did Bubble tea gotten so popular? Its origin- Taiwan and was invented during the 1980s. Many may not know that tea is one of the largest industries among Taiwan’s food and beverage sector. In fact, high mountain tea leaf is one of their more famous item. However, purely drinking traditional tea wasn’t trendy anymore as some termed it as an “old people’s drink”. With creativity and innovation, turning it from hot tea to cold tea, experimenting with fruit infused tea and sweetened milk and complementing its texture by adding a typical Taiwanese dessert called “fen yuan”- sweetened tapioca ball; traditional tea was given a second chance of life. Not only did it became a trend, it also became a lifestyle in Taiwan. With 67% of the total tea earnings coming from the Bubble tea industry in 2016, tea business is definitely big and also a significant part of Taiwan’s economy. The Bubble tea caught the world by storm and grew like beansprouts. Ranging from brands like ChaTime which is listed on the Taiwanese stock exchange to Quickly with footprint of more than 2,000 stores in 4 continents, its international appeal and influence is not to be ignored. When I turn 50 and if it’s still trendy, guess it would be my potential retirement job to head back to Taiwan and open a bubble tea store.

But something so simple has its downside. Why does drinking a cup of Bubble tea make you feel happy? A cup of bubble tea has the following basic ingredients:

A 400g serving of bubble milk tea with pearls holds 231 calories as compared to a 330ml can of soft drink with 140 calories. A daily recommend sugar intake is about 10 per cent of our daily energy intake, an approximate of 40g to 55g (8 to 11 teaspoons) a day. The biggest calorie culprit is none other than the tapioca balls made from tapioca starch and brown sugar. Imagine a cup of bubble tea contains 6 teaspoons – that’s almost 55% of our recommended daily intake in one cup. Consuming that amount of sugar, one ought to have increased endorphins that boosted the mood and provided a moment of temporary chemical “high”.

If we don’t control our sugar intake, our insulin level will spike leading to a burst of inflammation throughout the body. Enzymes that break down collagen and elastin will result in sagging skin and wrinkles. The digested sugar will also attach permanently to the collagen in your skin through a process known as glycation which increases the aging effect and exacerbate skin conditions such as acne and rosacea.

Sounds scary doesn’t it? But it’s always good to enjoy our food and beverages. Or practice to consume in moderation or simply just pick and enjoy a healthy choice- add less sugar syrup, real milk no creamer etc when you purchase your next cup of Bubble tea!

To the next cup of healthier Bubble-tea time!You are what you eat.

Reference:

https://qz.com/581715/america-is-a-coffee-country-does-bubble-tea-stand-a-chance/

http://www.menshealth.com.sg/weight-loss-nutrition/bursting-bubble-tea-fad/

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/travel/article/bubble-tea-inventor/index.html

http://worldteanews.com/insights/new-initiatives-aim-to-expand-taiwan-tea-business

http://www.asiaone.com/asia/what-you-should-know-about-taiwanese-teas

https://m.mic.com/articles/amp/152810/so-what-is-bubble-tea-exactly-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-drink-and-boba-balls

https://greatist.com/happiness/can-sugar-make-us-happy

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/10/sugar-bad-for-skin_n_4071548.html

#32. When you hear your own voice

I was “spring cleaning” my iPhone and replayed a video that I took recently of someone doing bungee jump. Listening to my own narration of what was happening by the second, it reminded me again how funny I sounded on video. Was that my actual voice? Oh gosh, high pitch and squeaky, no wonder my friends called me a witch when I was a kid.

Try recording your own voice on the voice memo and replay it again. What you thought you sounded like is pretty much different from the voice memo playback! So again, why do we sound different when we hear ourselves on video?

According to Greg Foot in a BBC video, it’s because when we speak we hear our own voice in 2 different ways. The first would be through the vibrating sound waves that hits the ear drum, the way other people hears our voice. And the second way is through vibrations inside our skull set off by our vocal chords. The vibrations actually travel through our skull which causes the ear drum to vibrate again. Meanwhile, change takes place when they travel through the bone and as they spread and lower its pitch, giving a false sense of bass. So that’s when you hear the recording of the voice and somehow it sounds distinctly higher.

So if you would like to know if you have a superb singing voice, try my tactic- record your own singing and playback.

For me, it’s back to singing in the showers!

#31 Reality TV?

Child Poverty Documentary

Maybe it might be more entertaining to watch variety shows or documentaries about real life celebrity families talk about their 1st world problem or even that 1 out of a billion male human species trying to find the Right One amongst a whole collection of women inside a fish tank. But sometimes, it’s good to really understand what’s in our backyard. Minus the glitz and glitter, poverty is still real.

Quoted in the short film, 1 out of 12 Americans are unemployed. Many of them are families with kids. Living on the streets, and thinking about when’s the next meal, that’s stressful for a kid. As one kid quoted, no kid should go through this, worrying about no shelter or even the next meal. I can somewhat understand how she must have felt when she said that. A portion of my growing up years, I was in a situation where I had to grow up a lil faster. Working 2 shifts 6 days a week while schooling so that I can pay for school and for meals. There were many ‘wants’ that as a teenager you have to drop because the ‘need’ to survive was top priority. It might put an adult to shame if a kid can conclude at the end of the film that there will always be many dead ends but you just got to change and move on. Indeed a life changing event that made a young kid understand and adapt her mindset to such circumstances.

If you ever have the chance to help anyone in need, either an adult or a kid, it’s not to pity them but give a word of encouragement- “You’ve have done well.” Nothing works better than motivation to change and move on.

To a happier world and many more happier kids, let’s start by sharing what we have – a positive mindset. Things will work out if we try.

#30 What about the tipping culture?

Tipping varies from country to country. A tip in America may range between 15-20% of the total bill and for some countries, like Singapore, it’s already embedded into the bill as a service charge (10%).

An additional source of reward on top of the minimum wage some receive and maybe helping to promote a better service industry culture; putting in your best for that extra buck, there are benefits to the system. For example, if service charge was already embedded into the bill, will you expect better service from the servers because you know you will still have to pay for the service regardless at the end of the meal. And will you be fuming mad if the service was awful but you can’t retract the payment for service? Doesn’t it make tipping after the meal based on the type of service we received, a better experience? Will this help to manage a consumer’s expectation or even feel better about yourself for tipping according to the variation of service received? Maybe consumers should be given the choice to reward accordingly?

Nonetheless, tipping culture varies and it might make a difference to another person’s livelihood. And here’s what a well travelled generation should observe based on Good Housekeeping Institute Tried and Tested tipping guidelines.

#28 if you want to be heard, whisper

For anyone who had had someone tell you that being too softspoken won’t get you any attention.

For anyone that’s an introvert and only speak when there’s a need to.

For anyone that has been told that you’re too quiet in meetings.

For anyone who has doubts about their volume.

For anyone that like to be heard but wants to avoid the yelling war.

It’s okay, there’s an alternative, “WHISPER”.

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Repost:

If You Want to Be Heard, Whisper

Communication isn’t about being the loudest in the room. It’s about connecting with your intended audience.

by Amy Blaschka, People tell me things; I write their stories.

Struggling to be heard? Your natural inclination may be to raise your voice, literally or metaphorically.But this world has a cacophony of noise. Tons of distractions. A million reasons that make it difficult to listen.Yelling louder won’t help you break through. Worse, you’ll just be another person/brand/company “screaming” at others.Instead, consider doing something completely counterintuitive: whisper.Or don’t speak at all; use non-verbal forms of communication.Because doing so may provide you with a point of difference. And because you stand out, you’ll get attention. The right kind of attention.And when you have that, you can finally deliver your message and be heard.Remember, communication isn’t about being the loudest in the room. It’s about connecting with your intended audience.Respectfully, kindly, creatively.And I for one would much rather connect with someone who cares enough not to yell at me.—————————————————————————————————————————————–