By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, Staff Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — When Claire Paré was a classroom teacher, working in a setting where every minute, down to the bathroom breaks, was scheduled, she brought granola bars, fruit and protein shakes to school so she’d be prepared when hunger hits.

Then she transitioned to a job at education publisher McGraw Hill. Working remotely at home in New Hampshire, her children’s cheddar bunny crackers and Fruit Roll-Ups lured her to the pantry, confounding her commitment to healthy snacking.

“I have the opportunity to be judicious, but I choose not to most of the time,” Paré said. “I really do enjoy being able to put the time into making something, but oftentimes convenience just has to win out.”

Eating healthy snacks during the workday can be challenging. Many people find themselves facing down a mid-afternoon slump and accompanying sugar, caffeine or carbohydrate cravings after lunch. Busy adults racing from back-to-back meetings to family commitments often reach for what’s easy, whether it’s a candy bar from the office vending machine or potato chips from a kitchen cupboard.

The problem with eating packaged sugary or salty snacks to get through the afternoon is they may spike blood sugar levels but don’t give a sustained second wind, according to Beth Czerwony, a registered dietitian at Cleveland Clinic.

“It’s going to burn off really fast, so you’re going to get that boost of energy and then all of a sudden you’re going to get another crash,” Czerwony said. “Some people just chase that for a while, and they’re drinking coffee or their energy drinks and they’re eating their candy, and it just sets you up for these spikes and these drops.”

Here are some ideas for maintaining healthy snacking habits at work.

Peppering in protein

Foods that are high in protein, such as Greek yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese and beef or turkey jerky, can help people feel full for longer periods of time than snacks without protein, said Caroline Susie, a Dallas-based registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Eating a snack consisting of refined carbohydrates such as a bagel causes blood sugar to rise rapidly and then drop, so teaming it up with another source of nutrition is preferable, Susie said.

“When you pair that carbohydrate with lean protein or have a protein-forward choice, it contributes to satiety. So you’re just going to stay fuller longer,” she added.

Czerwony recommends snacks that combine lean proteins with complex carbohydrates such as crackers, rice cakes or fruit. The combination works because carbohydrates raise blood sugar, giving you a boost, while the protein takes longer to digest, helping to sustain you for longer, she said.

“The carbohydrates are like the kindling on the fire, and then the proteins are the logs,” Czerwony said. “You’re going to get the slow burn from the protein, but you need that sudden start, so you have the carbohydrates to get you going.”

The crunch you crave

Many people find it hard to resist crunchy foods. For a satisfying munch, the American Heart Association recommends sliced apples with a tablespoon of low-sodium peanut butter, pears dipped in reduced-fat cottage cheese, vegetables such as carrots, celery, bell peppers, cucumber or zucchini paired with hummus or tzatziki sauce, popcorn, rice cakes or unsalted nuts and seeds. You can also roast chickpeas, which provide both protein and carbohydrates.

For a packaged snack, read the nutrition label to check how much added sugar and sodium it contains, the association suggests.

The Cleveland Clinic recommends whole fruit, edamame, seeds, a handful of nuts or a single-serving package of tuna that you can eat with a fork.

Pack ahead

Bringing your own snacks to work can help you control the quality and quantity of what you eat, Czerwony said. Try slicing vegetables, cheese or low-fat meats on weekends to last through the week, she said.

“If you have all that stuff already made, then it’s easy in the morning to just grab it and go,” she said.

Take along a small, soft-sided cooler to help keep snacks like yogurt, sliced veggies or hummus fresh. “Get cute little bento boxes, get little containers, make it fun if that’s something that you want to do, because we’ll eat things that are more attractive instead of just being in a Ziploc,” Czerwony said.

Petra Durnin, a Los Angeles-based senior director at commercial real estate firm JLL, blends greens, nuts, berries, avocado, banana and chia or flax seeds into homemade smoothies, which she makes in large batches. At night, she moves one jar to the fridge to thaw for the next day. An afternoon smoothie keeps her full until dinnertime and less likely to reach for chips, chocolate and sugar, she said.

“I feel like I have better brain clarity,” Durnin said. “I’m able to push through the afternoon and work more efficiently. I don’t feel bloated, bogged down. It just feels better.”’

Occasionally indulge

Adopting healthy snacking habits doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself entirely of treats. If a coworker is celebrating a birthday, an occasional slice of cake won’t completely derail healthy habits.

“Let’s not demonize food,” Susie said.

Before dipping into a bag of chips, eat a meal that includes lean protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fat, and then add something healthy to the snack while keeping an eye on portion size, Susie said.

“There’s not going to be a perfect substitute for chips. You can eat carrots all you want, but you can’t trick your body with thinking that they’re chips,” Czerwony said. “If you want a chip, have the stinking chip and just be done with it.”

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However, a constant hankering for chips could be a sign of a dietary deficiency, and it’s worth figuring that out so “those types of things are more treats than something that’s in the routine mix of what you’re eating throughout the day,” Czerwony said.

Gisela Marx, 53, rarely gets a chance to sit or eat while working as deputy front of house manager at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. On event days, she works from 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. or later. She packs healthy snacks such as watermelon and nuts.

She also keeps an emergency stash of Reese’s Pieces, which her boss has to replenish if he eats the last one.

“Just having it there is a comfort. I can always have it if I want it,” Marx said.

Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

By CORA LEWIS, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — As job-seekers look for work in a challenging environment, an increasing number are falling victim to job scams that promise good pay for completing easy online tasks, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

The scams start innocuously, often with a tailor-made text or WhatsApp message, and the scammers take time to build trust with the victim before cashing in on the relationship.

“Most of the people who end up losing money to a scammer are behaving pretty rationally,” said Kati Daffan, assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission’s division of marketing practices. “Scammers are sophisticated, and they keep changing their tactics.”

Reported losses to job scams increased more than threefold from 2020 to 2023. In the first half of 2024, they topped $220 million, according to the FTC. Gamified job scams, or task scams, represented a significant portion of that growth. About 20,000 people reported experiencing gamified scams in the first part of 2024, compared to 5,000 in all of 2023.

Daffan said that that the number is certainly an underestimate, because many people don’t report their experiences of job scams to law enforcement or government trackers.

“Only 4.8% of people complain,” she said.

Here’s what to know:

How the scams work

The scam typically begins with an unexpected text or WhatsApp message from a “recruiter” offering online work, according to the FTC. The mystery texter will say you can “make good money” by “product boosting” or doing “optimization tasks” for an online platform or in an app, which might involve liking videos or rating product images.

This “job” promises to earn you money from “commissions” per click. Once you complete the tasks, you’ll see an increasing tally of “earnings” on the platform or in the app. These earnings are fake.

Eventually, the app or platform will ask you to deposit your own money, typically in crypto, to complete more tasks and withdraw your (non-existent) earnings. But if you do make the deposit, you lose your real money, and you never receive the illusory pay.

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Who gets targeted

Eva Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, said these types of scammers typically prey on job-seekers who are new to the job market, people who have been out of the job market for some time (such as homemakers re-entering the workforce, whose children are grown), and immigrants, who may be less familiar with the employment landscape or who face language barriers.

“Often the job will have an easy interview or no interview, promise to let you work from home, and let you start right away,” Velasquez said. “Sometimes they’ll start with praise, and the person will feel their skills are recognized. ‘Oh, you think I’m great? Tell me more.’”

Velasquez emphasized the vulnerability of people looking for work, especially given ongoing economic uncertainty, who may choose to accept a role even if it initially feels shady.

“Sometimes the ask is to leave phony reviews for products,” she said. “The scammers are probably selling those reviews illegally, but a job-seeker might look at a line and say, ‘I’ll cross that line. I’ve got to eat.’”

Tips for spotting a task-based scam

Ignore any generic and unexpected texts or WhatsApp messages about jobs, no matter how specific or complimentary the messages.
Never pay to get paid, or to get a job. That requirement is a red flag that the position is a scam.
Don’t trust employers who says they’ll pay you to rate or like things online, without an above-board process for using the actual products or services you’re rating.

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

It’s 1980 in Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, and a war rages, while a high-stakes election could change this country forever. For 7-year-old Bobo (Lexi Venter), life continues on at her white English family’s rural farm, where she’s grown accustomed to their military escorts for trips to town, and that she’s not allowed in her parents’ bedroom at night, lest they mistake her for a “terrorist” and shoot her.

Through the eyes of a child, the most complex conflicts can be reduced to their core truths, lyrically expressed in “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,” the directorial debut of acclaimed American-South African actress Embeth Davidtz, who also adapted the source material, a 2001 memoir by British-Zimbabwean writer Alexandra Fuller. Davidtz pulls triple duty, co-starring as Bobo’s mother Nicola.

Bobo invites us into her world via matter-of-fact narration, explaining things how she sees it: colonialism, war, race and African culture out of the mouths of babes. From this perspective, the heated politics and civil unrest of this time are tempered, though not softened, as she tries to make sense of the world around her, simplifying and flattening into binaries; this or that. “Are we African or English?” “Are we racist? I heard it on the radio.”

Our lens into this world, Bobo is the planet around which “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” revolves, embodied with wild abandon by Venter, whom Davidtz found when she put out a call for a free-spirited young girl, untrained in acting.

Davidtz has captured something like lightning in a bottle with Venter’s performance of pure, feral girlhood. As Bobo, she is a whirling dervish, entirely unencumbered by self-consciousness on screen thanks to Davidtz’s canny direction. She chokes on ice, and picks a wedgie. She asks inappropriate questions and is perfectly confident roaming the sprawling family farm, on horseback or motorbike, always barefoot. She may be often dirty and unkempt, but she composes herself with proper English manners when necessary. She is simultaneously innocent and knowing.

Davidtz carefully stitches together the performance through editing and voice-over, maintaining Venter’s authentic spirit. Bobo switches from know-it-all explanations to whispered incantations, superstitious wishes from a child. “If you love me you’ll turn around” she whispers at the sight of her father’s (Rob van Vuuren) retreating back, as he heads off for a military tour (though the details are never quite clear — Bobo is lightly neglected by her parents).

The one person who does pay attention to her is Sarah (Zikhona Bali), one of their African servants. She is tender, loving and playful, telling her stories of African mythology. Bobo’s own mother drinks late into the night, and frequently passes out in a silky negligee, clutching a machine gun.

Embeth Davidtz as Nicola Fuller in “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.” Davidtz also wrote and directed the film. (Sony Pictures Classics/ZUMA Press/TNS)

“Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” captures the complex dynamics of being a white minority, a strange social, cultural and political place to inhabit. Bobo feels African because this is her home, what she knows best. She loves Sarah and embraces her culture. But she also apes her own mother’s haughty, entitled “lady of the manor” ways. Nicola’s behavior is only made more ridiculous by their hardscrabble and dangerous existence in the bush — they’re certainly not living a life of luxury.

Davidtz, who directs the film with striking beauty and a visceral immediacy, is also gripping in her performance as Nicola, battling alcoholism and grief. As filmmaker, Davidtz parcels out information about the family’s past trauma like a repressed memory stubbornly surfacing, bobbing to the top of their consciousness.

Their farm is Bobo’s whole world, but questions of property ownership and colonialism are at the heart of this conflict, both political and personal. Jacob (Fumani Shilubana), one of their employees, talks about how the farm used to be the land of his people, where his ancestors are buried, from whom he seeks solace and guidance. His connection to this place is ancient and spiritual, not legal or financial.

And yet we find that Nicola has a spiritual connection to this land as well. Her own dreams are intertwined with this place; she has buried her own loved ones in this soil. As the communist leader Robert Mugabe is elected, his declarations empower Africans to take up residence on the farmland, and her imperialist grasp slips, the beginning of the end for this family here.

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Davidtz saw cultural similarities in this story to her own childhood in South Africa, and with this astonishing cinematic jewel, presents a sensorially transporting snapshot of this place in time — the family, racial and political dynamics, and how a child might synthesize it all. Through Fuller’s story, Davidtz saw herself, and in adaptation, she distills the universal truths derived from its specificity.

‘Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight’

4 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for violent/bloody images, language, sexual assault, and some underage smoking/drinking)

Running time: 1:38

How to watch: In theaters July 11

The law of the land?

I read with interest a recent letter under the heading “Someone had to.” I find it fascinating that Donald Trump was lauded as a great “law of the land” champion and enforcer in this letter. There are so many directions one could go here, but I will focus on one.

On January 6, 2021, a large and violent mob overpowered law enforcement and took over the United States Capitol Building. The mob’s unambiguous intention was to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election by blocking its congressional certification. If you don’t want to call this an “insurrection,” fine. But there can be no debate that this attempt violated a cornerstone of our political system: the peaceful transfer of power. There can be no debate that the actions of the mob were profoundly unlawful.

In the aftermath of January 6, more than 1,500 members of the mob were brought to justice and convicted of relevant crimes through legitimate legal procedures. Donald Trump, however, referred to these criminals as “political prisoners” and set them all free through an executive order as soon as he was inaugurated.

Trump has based all of his statements and actions pertaining to the January 6 violence on the false notion that the 2020 election was stolen from him. All charges of 2020 election irregularities potentially influencing the outcome have been thrown out in the courts. This includes a US Supreme Court made up of three liberals and six conservatives, three of those conservatives having been appointed by Trump himself.

The law of the land proclaimed Joe Biden the winner in 2020. Trump has demonstrated through his blanket January 6 pardons and countless other actions (as president and private citizen) that he is contemptuous of laws of the land when they conflict with his interests.

The “Someone had to” letter-writer said it best: “What happens when laws are only applied based on who is in power? You stop having a republic, and start playing with authoritarian fire.”

Peter Langworthy, St. Paul

 

Some are working hard. Others …

How is it that so many of our lawmakers have turned into wimps? Allowing one unethical and manipulative man to control their decision-making.

Many of us, before we vote, research the candidates. Learn where they stand on issues that impact us, not only personally, but our state and country as well. Candidates we believe are intelligent and independent thinkers. Granted, there are many who are still working hard to keep democracy a reality in the United States. And then there’s the wimps.

God Bless America!

Ursula Krawczyk, St. Paul 

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This new odor

While grocery shopping and visiting a museum recently I noticed a smell that was new to me. A friend informed me that it was marijuana. Years ago smoke from cigarettes and cigars filled the air. How are we going to regulate this new odor in our air?

Recently on TV I saw manufacturers making all kinds of marijuana delights (looks and tastes just like candy). How are we going to keep these out of the hands of young children and teenagers?

Minnesota made a mistake when they legalized marijuana. How can we stop this? Just say no, don’t use or buy, and help keep ourselves and our children safe.

Mary Anne Gruetzman, New Brighton