via Blogger 5 Diet Tips to Forget & What To Do Instead

Costa Rica Travel News – The arrival of Americans to Costa Rica has grown 6% between January and March, with respect to the same period of 2017. This means a recovery after a decline in that indicator.

Looking at the first quarter of each year, we saw a jump of 21% from 2015-16 and then a 4% reduction in 2017. According to the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, 375,107 Americans visited during the first quarter of 2018. US tourism is the best source of visitors to the country.

While some worried about the decline last year, it was shown to be circumstantial. In 2016, for example, airlines opened many more seats. A second circumstance was the change in administration in the US.

European arrivals increased by 14% from the first quarter of 2017 to that of 2018. This may be due to the opening of new direct flights to European cities as well as the promotion of Costa Rica as a destination.

The increase of South American tourists rose by 11% and overall arrivals from all origins increased by 7.1%.

via Blogger More Gringos Coming to Costa Rica

Costa Rica News – The story of Sara Giberstein is one that should be told. She kept it to herself for her 86 years but now, with her daughter’s help, she is sharing her life story, which begins in Costa Rica.

Her family moved here from Poland but at some point had to go back because of a lack of work opportunities and missing the comforts of home.

Sara and her childhood friend, Samuel Rovinski, met again in 1972. They eventually married but the time between their childhood and marriage was anything but fairytale like.

Sara became a child victim of anti-Semitism during World War II. Although just 5 years old at the time, Sara remembers hearing bombs and running to the basement. They had to leave their apartment by order of the Nazis and hid out with 17 people in the basement of a family factory. The children were later sent secretly and separately to the outskirts where Catholic families would hide them until they felt the fear of a surprise visit by the Germans and she would have to flee again and be at the mercy of new strangers.

Her story in much more depth is written in “A Mountain of Sawdust,” “Una montaña de aserrín,” an absolute must read.

via Blogger Sara Giberstein; Costa Rica to Nazi Europe

Costa Rica News – In just under two months’ time, the 2018 IBSA Blind Football World Championships will kick-off in Madrid, Spain.

Costa Rica were the first Central American country to qualify and are ranked 42nd in the IBSA Blind Football world rankings.

Here are four facts you should know about ‘Los Volcanes’ (the Volcanoes).

• Costa Rica formed in 2012, and their first official international competition was at the 2017 IBSA Blind Football Central American Championships. This happened with the help of the IBSA Blind Football Central American development project.

• Costa Rica faced few obstacles in qualifying for Madrid 2018. They went undefeated in the group stages of the Central American Championships, scoring a total of 19 goals.

• Costa Rica went on to defeat host nation Guatemala 3-2 on penalties in the final of the tournament to win the first title.

• Watch out for Costa Rica forward Esteban Chávez, who picked up Player of the Tournament. His nine goals also won him the Top Goal Scorer award. Additionally, his performance landed him the International Paralympic Committee’s Americas ‘Athlete of the Month’ in November 2017.

The 2018 International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Blind Football World Championships will be held in Madrid, Spain, from 7-17 June, and will feature 16 of the world’s best teams. As well as the title on offer, the competition is also an important step on the road to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

The official draw for the World Championships will take place on Monday (23 April) in Madrid.

From Paralymic.org

via Blogger Madrid 2018: 5 Things to Know About Costa Rica

Lifestyle – It’s hard to pick up a magazine, check your Instagram feed or even talk to your friend without being given some diet tip, welcomed or not. Some advice out there is good, some not so much. There are a few tips that I’ve heard over and over that make me want to scream, “nooooo!”

Read on, and you may be happy to learn you can ditch these tips (along with that cereal that tastes like cardboard):

1. DON’T EAT BANANAS AND CARROTS, THEY ARE TOO HIGH IN CARBS AND SUGAR.

It is true that certain foods (even healthy ones) like bananas and carrots are slightly higher in carbohydrates and sugar (respectively) compared to other fruits and vegetables. But it’s also true that our country did not become obese by over consuming either of them.

A small banana has 23 grams of carbs compared to a small apple which has 21 grams. If you’re trying to lose weight, you do need to watch your total carb and sugar consumption (even from foods like fruit), but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a cup of berries after dinner one day and a banana in your oatmeal the next morning.

The key is not to over-consume — anything. Stick to this advice and don’t point that finger at the beets in your salad. Also, don’t lump carbohydrates or sugar found naturally in fruit and veggies into the same category as sugar from jelly beans, cake and cookies.

2. AVOID GLUTEN, NO MATTER WHAT.

If you don’t have celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity, going gluten-free may be unnecessary and could even cause you to gain weight and consume unhealthy artificial ingredients. A healthy diet — for anyone — should be naturally gluten-free, for the most part.

If you eat a whole, real-food diet of vegetables, fruit, lean protein, healthy fats with the proper amounts of unprocessed whole grains thrown in, you won’t be consuming much gluten at all. If you don’t have a specific medical need to cut it out, this should be sufficient for most of us.

The problem is that most of us consume gluten in the form of unhealthy foods like pasta, cake and refined breads. When a lot of people go gluten-free, they view it as a free pass to indulge in gluten-free products, like four pieces of gluten-free bread at breakfast and two gluten-free cookies after lunch. Sorry, friends but a cookie is still a cookie, even when it’s gluten-free. Gluten-free products generally don’t have any less fat, sugar or calories than the traditional counterparts.

So should we all reduce (or eliminate) gluten-laden products from our diets? Absolutely, yes, do away, to a large extent, with pasta, cakes, cookies and refined breads. But don’t substitute with gluten-free versions.

3. DON’T EAT EGG YOLKS, STICK TO THE WHITES.

Still ordering the egg white omelet at your favorite diner? Stop. Studies have shown that there is no direct correlation between the regular consumption of whole eggs and an increased risk of heart disease. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans was adjusted to reflect this by eliminating any recommended limit on dietary cholesterol (which eggs are high in), because they found it to have no effect on blood cholesterol. Something many of us dietitians have been chatting about for years.

Research also shows that adding up to one whole egg daily to your diet may lower your risk of stroke. Eating the whole egg also offers you inflammation-fighting antioxidants as well as vitamins D, B12 and minerals selenium, zinc and iron. Egg yolks are also the most concentrated source of choline, an under-consumed, essential nutrient important to brain health.

4. ALL CALORIES ARE EQUAL. WATCH THEM.

Still pulling out your calculator and adding up the calories you eat in a day? Save the math for your finances. While watching your total calorie intake is important, 100 calories of a cupcake or pretzels is not the same as 100 calories of avocado mash or almonds. These foods will vary greatly as far as what nutrients they provide for your health (a cupcake provides sugar and unhealthy fats, while avocado mash will give you fiber, healthy fat and antioxidants). They will also vary as far as how these nutrients affect hunger hormones and how they play a role in our satiety (staying satisfied), both of which will affect how much we end up eating and how much ends up on our waistline.

When you’re indulging in that cupcake, choose to see it as just that, an indulgence, and when you’re choosing a calorie-controlled snack, like pretzels, make a more nutrient dense choice that will work for you, not against you.

5. STICK TO LOW-FAT FOODS, FAT MAKES YOU FAT.

Fat. Is. Your. Friend. Fat does not make you fat. It made some kind of sense years ago to explore the idea that high-fat foods turned to fat in our bodies, but that scientific pursuit just didn’t pan out. Researchers have found that a diet low in fat and high in carbohydrate actually causes weight gain.

We’re fat smart now and we know that you need roughly 30 percent of your calories to come from fats (healthy fats!) in order for you to be your leanest and healthiest self. This means there is room at every meal for some kind of fat. Think peanut butter on toast at breakfast, cashews at snack time and sliced avocado on your lunchtime sandwich. Low-fat foods generally have added sugar (to add flavor) when the fat is removed. This ends up making you feel less satisfied, craving more food and triggering your fat-storing hormones. Instead of going for low-fat products, go for the real version and listen to your body. It will thank you.

This article originally appeared on TODAY Health and Wellness

via Tumblr 5 Diet Tips to Forget & What To Do Instead

Costa Rica Travel News – The arrival of Americans to Costa Rica has grown 6% between January and March, with respect to the same period of 2017. This means a recovery after a decline in that indicator.

Looking at the first quarter of each year, we saw a jump of 21% from 2015-16 and then a 4% reduction in 2017. According to the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, 375,107 Americans visited during the first quarter of 2018. US tourism is the best source of visitors to the country.

While some worried about the decline last year, it was shown to be circumstantial. In 2016, for example, airlines opened many more seats. A second circumstance was the change in administration in the US.

European arrivals increased by 14% from the first quarter of 2017 to that of 2018. This may be due to the opening of new direct flights to European cities as well as the promotion of Costa Rica as a destination.

The increase of South American tourists rose by 11% and overall arrivals from all origins increased by 7.1%.

via Tumblr More Gringos Coming to Costa Rica

Costa Rica News – The story of Sara Giberstein is one that should be told. She kept it to herself for her 86 years but now, with her daughter’s help, she is sharing her life story, which begins in Costa Rica.

Her family moved here from Poland but at some point had to go back because of a lack of work opportunities and missing the comforts of home.

Sara and her childhood friend, Samuel Rovinski, met again in 1972. They eventually married but the time between their childhood and marriage was anything but fairytale like.

Sara became a child victim of anti-Semitism during World War II. Although just 5 years old at the time, Sara remembers hearing bombs and running to the basement. They had to leave their apartment by order of the Nazis and hid out with 17 people in the basement of a family factory. The children were later sent secretly and separately to the outskirts where Catholic families would hide them until they felt the fear of a surprise visit by the Germans and she would have to flee again and be at the mercy of new strangers.

Her story in much more depth is written in “A Mountain of Sawdust,” “Una montaña de aserrín,” an absolute must read.

via Tumblr Sara Giberstein; Costa Rica to Nazi Europe

Costa Rica News – In just under two months’ time, the 2018 IBSA Blind Football World Championships will kick-off in Madrid, Spain.

Costa Rica were the first Central American country to qualify and are ranked 42nd in the IBSA Blind Football world rankings.

Here are four facts you should know about ‘Los Volcanes’ (the Volcanoes).

• Costa Rica formed in 2012, and their first official international competition was at the 2017 IBSA Blind Football Central American Championships. This happened with the help of the IBSA Blind Football Central American development project.

• Costa Rica faced few obstacles in qualifying for Madrid 2018. They went undefeated in the group stages of the Central American Championships, scoring a total of 19 goals.

• Costa Rica went on to defeat host nation Guatemala 3-2 on penalties in the final of the tournament to win the first title.

• Watch out for Costa Rica forward Esteban Chávez, who picked up Player of the Tournament. His nine goals also won him the Top Goal Scorer award. Additionally, his performance landed him the International Paralympic Committee’s Americas ‘Athlete of the Month’ in November 2017.

The 2018 International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Blind Football World Championships will be held in Madrid, Spain, from 7-17 June, and will feature 16 of the world’s best teams. As well as the title on offer, the competition is also an important step on the road to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

The official draw for the World Championships will take place on Monday (23 April) in Madrid.

From Paralymic.org

via Tumblr Madrid 2018: 5 Things to Know About Costa Rica

Costa Rica News – Costa Ricans participated in the HP Mars Home Planet contest held by HP.

Their proposal for a city for one million humans on Mars was among the finalists, out of 392 proposals.

Their team consisted of Pablo Mora Chatski, Michael Quirós, Federico Peña and Juan Pablo Duque, three engineers and an architect. They work for APAME Design. They named their design Areocell city.

To compete they had to follow certain rules, such as respecting the physics of Mars. They were very imaginative as well as thorough in researching energy sources available on the Red Planet. They came up with a plan of using solar, areothermal, nuclear and even human energy. People on Mars would have to exercise to maintain muscle mass and bone density and gyms can make use of the energy.

The materials they chose to use included sand, Martian concrete and frozen water. They would make giant igloos, to house thousands of people each, which would be interconnected. They’d use a series of tubes to transport waste and air.

via Blogger Costa Ricans Build City on Mars

Costa Rica News – As one of the world’s most popular places to set up an online gambling business, we are blessed to have other nations investing in our economy to run their offshore operations from. Our nation has long been considered a haven from which other countries conduct their businesses out of – as in their own countries the laws are much stricter, prohibiting setting up online gambling businesses in their own jurisdictions.

Are things about to change?

There are no laws in Costa Rico that outlaw online gambling operations and as such it has made us a popular location for those from overseas looking to set up shop. That’s not to say that these online gambling operations (both casinos and sports betting operations) are serving Costa Rican customers. Most of the online gambling houses running out of Costa Rico target the American market.

The projected figure for the overall online gambling market for 2017 was 47.11 billion dollars, calculated in 2015 – and a hefty amount of this was the funds being poured in from the US. The US is one of the most restrictive markets in the world when it comes to gambling. Casinos and sports betting are only allowed in less than a handful of states (think Vegas and Atlantic City) and betting outsides of these jurisdictions is illegal.

That’s not to say that the market isn’t flourishing though, thanks to websites that serve up betting options to punters from other places on earth. Sure, it’s illegal to run a betting house from the States, and it may even be illegal to bet in the States, but they aren’t going after the guy on the street – they’re only prosecuting businesses.

So for a business to be able to serve their gambling services from another spot on the planet, giving US citizens what they want, without running the risk of being prosecuted for it… Well, that’s a massive dangling carrot. Sure, company CEOs probably shouldn’t try travelling in the States for fear of lawful retribution, but if they don’t, then they’re pretty much untouchable. Sounds like a win for them.

You might be wondering whether all this is running on the right side of the law overall. While it might be a little hazy due to international lines, it is most perfectly legal under the structure of our country, government, and legislation. We do not have any specific online gambling licensing or legislation in place. How other countries choose to define and run themselves is not our domain.

Online gambling houses are able to operate out of Costa Rica because our laws do not expressly prohibit it, and our fees to set up a company within our country are comparatively inexpensive. To set up a company in Costa Rico costs a mere fraction of the costs associated with setting up a company in another country which also allows the same. People only need to set up a Costa Rican Corporation, register with the taxation department, and obtain a Data Processing License.

Has it worked for us, though, allowing others to set up these businesses in our country? It’s all well and good to provide others a place to do business from, so long as it’s being a big enough boost to the economy. The issue with egambling houses operating out of Costa Rico is that we don’t have fixed rules set in place or an authority to deal specifically with this type of company. It is here where we are missing the mark in terms of available profits.

Should we set up rules and regulations along with gambling taxation, etc. to deal with these type of operations we could be garnering far greater profits from online casinos and betting operations than we do currently. Other jurisdictions where people from overseas can come and set up an online gambling business, such as Belize and Malta have made legislation to licence and audit the companies, which puts a great deal more trust in players. As Clyde Jackson from NoDepositHero puts it, “Our players are more likely to place bets with a trusted site, operating out of a country where they know the rules are going to be fair and that their money is safe.” It’s for this reason that our popularity as an online gambling business haven has fallen.

By implementing rules and regulations surrounding egambling businesses within Costa Rico it could provide a significant boost to the economy. The incoming president may or may not take a closer look at tackling online gambling reform, however it would be a good discussion to have. If houses are already making profits out of our country, then why not either scrap it altogether if they disagree with gambling, or better yet, at least make some more profits out of this truly booming business?

It’s food for thought, and it’s likely to become a significant piece of legislation at one time or another, but the question is whether we’re likely to see change sooner or later.

via Blogger Judging the Success of Costa Rica’s Online Gambling Licensing