The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.

If you’ve followed my work, you’ve read some startling research summaries that explore the havoc stress can wreak on one’s physical and mental health (such as the Yale study, which found that prolonged stress causes degeneration in the area of the brain responsible for self-control). The tricky thing about stress (and the anxiety that comes with it) is that it’s an absolutely necessary emotion. Our brains are wired such that it’s difficult to take action until we feel at least some level of this emotional state. In fact, performance peaks under the heightened activation that comes with moderate levels of stress. As long as the stress isn’t prolonged, it’s harmless.

More at Forbes.com

Subway, one of the world’s biggest bread bakers, is about to remove a chemical from its breads that raised the ire of an influential health activist and food blogger.

The world’s biggest sandwich chain says it’s in the process of removing the chemical known as Azodiacarbonamide from its sandwich breads — a chemical that Vani Hari, who runs the site FoodBabe.com, says is commonly used to increase elasticity in everything from yoga mats to shoe rubber to synthetic leather. It’s used for the same reason in bread, she says, as a dough conditioner.

Click here for the complete article