Reader's Digest Canada January/February 2022

Over the last two years, we’ve had no choice but to become experts at avoiding illness. The triple-filter masks. The hand sanitizer bottles stashed in our cars. The sixth sense on when there are too many people in an aisle at the supermarket. Just as important is how we care for our bodies and minds. As health writer Lisa Bendall reports in this issue’s cover feature on page 28, there’s compelling new research showing that we can control how well our immune system responds to infections and diseases. Instead of coping with pandemic stress by mindlessly snacking and excessively drinking, we need a healthy and varied diet. Instead of moping indoors about the state of the world, we need to nurture strong relationships with family and friends—even if it’s only over…

ANOTHER OPTION In “The Long Fight” (October 2021), the writer described two solutions for unexpected pregnancy: abortion in a hospital or clinic and abortion at home using Mifegymiso. Adoption was never mentioned. In the future, could Reader’s Digest also do a piece on the beauty of adoption and how challenging it can be to adopt a child in Canada? —JOYCE STIGTER, Medicine Hat, Alta. SHOCK WAVES I just finished reading “The Earth Yawned Open” (October 2021) by Jon Mooallem, about the 1964 earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska. As a 10-year-old living in Fort St. John, B.C., at the time, I remember it well! Everyone was talking about it. Our public swimming pool even developed a very large crack in it—and we were located more than 2,000 kilometres away. —VAL FIEBER, Charlie Lake, B.C. IN MY SHOES “Remind Your…

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FIVE YEARS AGO, Abhay Singh Sachal and a group of his Grade 10 classmates at Seaquam Secondary School in Delta, B.C., made their first video call to the Arctic. On the other end of the line: Abhay’s 23-year-old brother, Sukhmeet, a volunteer teaching assistant, and his class at East Three Secondary in Inuvik, N.W.T. The conversation started with typical teen small talk—asking each other about TV shows, music and school life. But as the teens grew more comfortable, the chat turned serious. Students in Inuvik detailed the legacy of residential schools on their families, including stories of alcohol abuse and suicide. Seaquam kids shared how they felt helpless to do anything about the threat posed by the climate crisis. Soon after both groups said their goodbyes, the brothers had an idea:…

URBAN FARMING ON A GRAND SCALE canada Imagine a city that grows most of its food on its very own rooftops, where tomatoes ripen on the vine year-round—even in the dead of winter. That’s the idea behind Lufa Farms, which operates four rooftop greenhouses in and around Montreal and delivers more than 25,000 freshpicked vegetable baskets to its customers every week. Founded in 2009 by Mohamed Hage and Lauren Rathmell, Lufa sprouted from the idea that urban farming could grow crops where people live, without using any new land, and deliver food without the carbon footprint of longdistance transportation. (In Canada, 92 per cent of imported produce travels more than 1,500 kilometres.) “When you buy a tomato in the winter, you’re probably getting one that’s been trucked in from California or Mexico,”…

An Innovative Pollution Solution Growing up kayaking around the southwest coast of Ireland, 20-year-old Fionn Ferreira saw the devastating effects of ocean pollution firsthand. Shocked by the amount of plastic littering the shores, he began learning more about the estimated 300 million tonnes of plastic waste humans produce every year. The most dangerous form of plastic, Ferreira discovered, is the kind you can’t see—microplastics, tiny fragments that can end up inside fish and our bodies. We ingest five grams of microplastics every week—about the equivalent of a credit card—from the food we eat and the water we drink. Even more microscopic plastic cles are shed from carpets and synthetic textiles. parti- After noticing that oil-spill residue on the beach attracted plastic particles, Ferreira set out to design a device that used ferrofluid,…