May Ray Day an opportunity to enjoy fun in the sun

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Fort Hays State University's Glen McNeil shares details of the benefits and risks of taking in some sun, on national May Ray Day.

 

Transcript:

EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.

 

James Bell 

As the weather gets warmer, more people are sure to be enjoying the sunshine. This May Ray Day, Glen McNeil from Fort Hays State University share some information about the health benefits of sunshine and some of the dangers on this episode of the Post Podcast.

 

Glen McNeil 

Devil's Food Cake. Yeah, I brought that up. I heard you talk about it.

 

James Bell 

I did. It's Devil's Food Cake day.

 

Glen McNeil 

Yeah. So I want to quiz you now. Because I know you read some things. You're looking at me?

 

James Bell 

I'm I'm nervous. Because all I know I know is it's made a choice. It's called Devil's Advocate. Well, that's a good one. I'm gonna say because it's not angels. fruitcake, it's the opposite. That's probably wrong. I'm sure.

 

Glen McNeil 

That may fit somewhere. But that's not the reason that goes along with that the food history. It was popularized in the 18th century. And at that point in time, deviled was a word used to describe foods in general, that were very dark, rich, spicy, and then had chocolate in them. Okay, very chocolatey food. So a chocolate cake like that people had referred to as a sinful cake. Well, then the food term came in and it became Devil's Food was a sinful cake because it was so rich and chocolatey. And people participate in it so the name became devil Devil's Food Cake became popular in the United States in the 1900s. Okay, moved moved, basically to Europe from here. And it's pretty stable now. And of course, now you can go out and buy a box of deviled foods cake and, and it's it's made from that. But they're, they're originally were two varieties that finit fit into that. Both of them are still with us today. One of them is the very chocolatey dark colored cake that we refer to as the devil's Devil's Food Cake. Can't quite get that out. The other one is a cake that a lot of people eat and that's red velvet cake. I love red velvet cake. Yeah, original cry. Okay, my aunt used to make red velvet cake for all the holiday events. And she would hide one toothpick in it. Okay, and whoever got the piece with a toothpick in it didn't make any difference. Whether it's kids or adults, they had to clear the table and do the dishes.

 

James Bell 

Oh, I thought it was gonna be a pro. No, it was oh, it was not worth

 

Glen McNeil 

1. So people used to when she would cut the cake. Everybody's looking for the toothpick. And some people even got wise the adults got wise first and they would take a fork and they go through the pieces of cake before. Be sure they didn't take that one. But she always did that. That was always kind of fun. You know, at the holiday times for that. And when we look at it, red velvet cake and devils fruitcake very similar textures. Very similar cakes, except for the color. Okay, red. Devil's Food Cake uses cocoa powder, which is a process it's called Dutch cocoa powder. It's a process process by which they make a richer, less Outland chocolate. So it has a more natural flavor. A you know very smooth texture which red velvet cake. Those two. The main difference between the two if you were to make them at home or make them from a commercial recipe, is that red velvet cake has buttermilk in it. Okay, it tends to give it a little bit more acid flavor. In fact, he has some home recipes have you add buttermilk and then a small amount of vinegar to make it even Tangmere originally when they made the the difference between the two is they added how would you get the color in a red velvet cake. Couple 100 years ago what would you use feats beaches.

 

James Bell 

I knew that one Okay, cuz like because I you know, gross. You think it's gross, but it's actually comes out

 

Glen McNeil 

of beaches, actually, for many, many years was used as red food coloring for for lots of things. Of course, today we got commercial food colorings, it's cheaper. It's easy to use, but they use beet juice and the beet juice in the buttermilk or at that point in time, just the soured milk. That's where vinegar and milk came in to mix the two together give it that sour flavor. Well, the beet juice has soured milk is what makes the difference between red velvet cake and the devil's food cake. So go get your box. Make your cake or if you really want to. There are lots of very simple cake recipes over the internet that you can get are a lot of families have a favorite Devil's Food Cake or a favorite red velvet cake and in terms of that and probably the biggest thing I can tell people these days if you want to try making one from scratch, spend the extra money and get yourself a box of cake flour. Okay cake flour most most homes have are all purpose flour. chairs just as it says all purpose cake flour does not form as as hard to sell. Okay doesn't form as hard to sell it has different levels of of gluten in it and different levels of starch in it and say all purpose flour does. Or bread flour were bread flour has lots of natural gluten in it cake flour has very little. So you get a you get a very nice round soft, tender Aircel and your cake and that's where that sponginess comes from.

 

James Bell 

Interesting. I didn't even know cake flour was a thing, because big I've made cakes but well most

 

Glen McNeil 

people use all purpose flour and most recipes will tell you to sift your all purpose flour, but you can even buy pre sifted flour and by sifting your flour you and you incorporate more air to it and you break up the starch based on the flour a little bit more. So you get a finer granule cake flour is like a pre sifted lower lower protein flour that you can use. It comes in a smaller box, it's not as large but most homes have all purpose flour because you can just do anything with it. Right you know that you want. My other thing today is now that food and cake which just because I like cake, and you brought it up, he doesn't like it. I don't know if I've ever met anybody that doesn't like certain types of cake. Yes. And the other thing has a little bit to do more to do with health. All right. And we always kind of go about you know, what are the days today? What are the different types of things we can do? Do you know what today is healthwise? I do not okay, it's called today is called National. May Ray de may Ray de may Ray day. Yes. Okay. Okay. And national may Ray Day is a day that is designed to encourage people it's not a real widely known one. But it's out there and it's May 19. And it's it's a day to encourage people to go out and enjoy the sunshine. Oh, okay. Okay, makes sense. And also it comes in May and Ray is our names involved with the person who pushed and identify this day, but they call it national may rainy day. So the big thing today is benefits of being in the sun. Now being in the sun today, low caution, supposed to be really hot. Okay, and and we know you know, when you get out and really hot and you want to make sure you're well hydrated. So whether it's water or decaffeinated product that you're drinking, or what's popular with the kids these days are these no sugar, Gatorade, no sugar, all sport, no sugar, whatever, they drink them just just like water, but you know water, water is fine for the process. And what we see so you know, the idea is get out in the sun. Sunday sunshine, vitamin is di D, okay? Sunlight, ultraviolet UV lights to the Sun penetrate your skin, okay, the epithelial near the outside layer of your skin, they convert a form of cholesterol, because a form of cholesterol to change goes to liver and gets converted into vitamin D. Okay, and, and so you get then you get the benefits of vitamin D, good healthy bones, okay, good for all of us doesn't make any difference what their what their age, some association with vitamin D is helping in, in dealing with bacteria within the body on the skin, that type of thing. There's information out there that talks about good levels of vitamin D can help lower your risk for cancer. Now, this doesn't mean you go spend the day in the sun, you're not going to get cancer. That's, that's not it. Because we also know that spending too much in the sun, time in the sun can lead to certain types of melanoma skin cancers. So you gotta get a balance here. vitamin D helps to regulate blood pressure a little bit. And some people will tell you that it can improve your sleeping habits depending upon how much you get a lot of things about vitamin D that are really good benefits there. So that with the sun and the bright sun, you have to have about about 60% Well 40 About 40% of your skin exposed to direct sunlight to get the benefit. So you're wearing a pair shorts and a short sleeve shirt, you're fine. Okay, you're gonna get the sunlight that you need. Now also, depending upon the time of the year, you know, as the Earth tilts on its axis in the sun, the time of year during the summertime, we get a lot better benefit from sunlight vitamin D, than we do during the winter. And we can store vitamin D. So you get out in the sun, you build up your reserves of vitamin D and that helps you get through the winter. Okay for that process. Now, the other side of that is you want to be careful if you're in the sun, especially if you're fair skinned. As you age I mean all of these things we hear about all the time about this Be careful of sun, wear clothes, wear clothes that cover your arms and legs, okay, then that cuts down on your skin exposure, okay to the sun, but if you're very sensitive, you want to do that or you want to spend a limited amount of time in the sun to be able to get the true benefit from it. wide brimmed hat Good idea. Most people, you know, have a tendency to sunburn on their cheeks, sunburn on their ears. Okay, a wide brim hat protects that. And if, if you're like me, unlike you, the top of my head has reached a point where I need to wear a hat. You know, never I used to have a thick head of hair and I never wear a hat. Okay, but I've reached the point where I, I wear a hat. And so that wide brim hat face, face and ears gives you that protection, light colored clothing that will breathe fits into that, if you the recommendation for the last few years has been sunglasses is a good idea to help protect your eyes. Okay, something that can help block the UVA and UVB rays, sunscreen. You'll find various things and recommendations on sunscreen. So I'm going to hit the broad spectrum in this and say you should be at least you least using the sunscreen and 50 Sunscreen of 15 will protect you from around 90 to 92% of those ultraviolet rays up to a sunscreen of say 30 which blocks or higher which blocks up to 97% of those UVB rays. So you know, that gives you protection and sunscreen really is kind of a relatively modern thing when you look at that and, and use for protection. I don't know if you use it.

 

James Bell 

And do you might see I've got a little peeling still on my arms from being out on all weekend. Wish I had to use a little bit more but absolutely I used to not know I didn't either. But it's it's a necessity now.

 

Glen McNeil 

Yes, it is. And especially with young children, and I put it on my ears and my nose and my cheeks. I think my arms may be past that point, you know, and my legs are white all the time. That doesn't matter. But I have a son who's very, like very light skinned. And so he puts it on all all the time and I have a son who's dark skinned, I don't even knows what it is, you know, he just walks outside and turns brown standpoint. So various difference that goes in those. And if you're going to be outside for a long period of time, you're gonna go watch kids baseball game or soccer game wide brim hat sunscreens Fine. Get a sun umbrella, take an umbrella with you. Outside of the fact that gives you shade when the wind blows through that small amount of shade. You may feel cooler, you know, but there's some benefits to do that. So and then the other part of it is which I think is great this time of year. The irises are in bloom. Peonies are in bloom everything else. So you get out and you look what the sun gives us. You mentioned the green grass, everything greens that comes up and it's really beautiful. So may Ray day for your health. Get out enjoy the sun but enjoy it in a positive healthy manner and it gets you outside. So you know, I don't know what else to say go on a picnic. Plant, plant flowers, plant flowers, plant flowers, I like flowers.

 

James Bell 

Trees. Yeah, and some trees trees are good

 

Glen McNeil 

too. My wife and I don't necessarily agree on what flowers should be. But you know, I've learned so long as we can get lots of colors I'm okay with planning whatever there is and, and already I didn't do it too much. I started really got into it about five, six years ago, you know and I put out a few garden plants and had these things scattered all over the yard and it gives me about an hour to two hours of work every day to 10 my flowers, my three tomato plants to cucumber plants. I mean those things and get outside but again Outside, enjoy it. So go enjoy