we're back now with more of "today" on a monday morning. it's the 15th day of november, 2010. looks like it's getting a little nicer out here for these nice people who gathered on rockefeller plaza after a picture perfect weekend here in the northeast. out on the plaz i'm matt lauer along with al roker and natalee morales who came back from the museum in one piece. your brain's okay? coming up in this half hour, we have got a sad and frightening

story, a 13-year-old girl out in ohio who's been missing since last wednesday was found gagged and tied up in a basement not far from where she lived. her mother, her brother and i guess family friend are still missing. it is a puzzle story. we'll have the latest on that coming up straight ahead. also coping with chronic inflammation, it's linked to all sorts of serious health conditions, including believe it or not cancer and diabetes. but often times sufferers don't realize they have it. we're going to tell you a couple of foods that you should be eating to incorporate into your diet to alleviate some of the symptoms of diabetes and maintain your long-term health. good morning once again, in the news, the obama administration is set to announce it's troop withdrawal strategy. the military plans to scale down

troop numbers every few months in transitions similar to last summer's withdrawal from iraq. and if it is approved, all combat troops could be out of afghanistan by late 2014. a british couple has been released after being held captive by somali pirates for more than a year. paul and rachel were freed on sunday, they were sailing around the world when captured off the eastern coast of africa. a 13-year-old ohio girl has been found bound and gagged but alive. authorities are searching for her mother, brother and a family friend. they have been missing since last wednesday. >> reporter: this is a bizarre and a frightening kidnapping, that young girl, 13-year-old sarah maynard lived in this home with her family, but she was found early yesterday in a

stranger's home about 10 miles away from here. the most important good news is she is fine right now, said to be in good condition in a nearby hospital. but her mom, her brother and a family friend are still missing, a search will begin again this morning and a suspect in her disappearance is expected this morning in court. in the basement of this rural ohio home, a stunning discovery. 13-year-old sarah maynard found bound and gagged unable to yell for help as s.w.a.t. team members raided the house sunday morning. police say the home belongs to 30-year-old matthew hoffman who's been arrested on kidnapping charges. investigators say hoffman is key to unraveling this mystery, that he can lead them to tina hoffman, sarah hoffman, -- -- he connected

himself to the family, that a lot of that remains to be seen as the investigation continues. >> reporter: as doctors care for the money girl shts v, investigators are building a timeline. co-workers were concerned when the mother didn't show up for work at dairy queen. >> there was an unusual amount of blood in that house. >> reporter: the mother's truck was later found abandoned. her cell phone and credit cards haven't been used since the family disappeared. this weekend volunteers combed wooded areas. hoffman is described by neighbors as a loaner who moved into the neighborhood last year. authorities say he was convicted of setting condo complex on fire in 2000 causing $2 million in damages. this morning, sarah maynard is safe and this community hopes the same is true for her mother,

brother and their family friend. now it's unclear if that suspect matthew hoffman actually knew any of the victims. he's been uncooperative with police according to the sheriff since he was picked up 24 hours ago. as for the 13-year-old say sarah maynard, she has been speaking what detecti with the detectives but they're not sharing exactly what she said. a powerful explosion at a hotel on mexico's posh caribbean coast was likely caused from the buildup of natural gas from a nearby swamp. five tourists were killed sunday in the blast at the grand rivera princess hotel in cancun. a history of the justice department reveals that it allowed nazis to settle in the united states after world war ii. u.s. officials gave nazis, quote, safe haven in exchange for aiding in post war intelligence gathering. extending the bush era tax

cuts is on the agenda today as congress returns for a lame duck session. leading republicans say they might be willing to work with president obama on a short term extension of the bush tax cuts. megamind held on to the top spot bringing in $30 million. unstoppable was in second place, and due date was bumped down to third. her wedding was called off just days before she could say i do. the bride and her father hosted a different kind of party. they welcomed a local homeless shelter to their banquet hall for a preholiday feast. that's a winning family. it is now six minutes past. let's go back outside to matt. >> making the best out of an uncomfortable situation, we like that, thanks very much, let's get a check of the weather from mr. roker.

>> i like these folks, today came with their own version of our news ticker. >> 134 is our mutual birthdays and our anniversary added together. so we're celebrating. >> let's check your weather and see what's going on. we'll show you we have got a lot of wet weather down in the gulf as low pressure comes out there and is going to work its way into the northeast. we have got rain in the pacific northwest. some mountain snows back through the cascades, sunny skies in the great lakes, although a little on the chilly side. >> there is a little bit about what to start this monday morning. it should burn off as we head through the mor

>> a lot of harry potter fans. natalee? al, thank you this morning on "today's" health, chronic inflammation, it's a medical condition that develops slowly through the body and if left untreated it could lead to a host of health problems. dr. kerrey peterson is a contributor to women's magazine. the article in the magazine called the enemy inside of us, chronic inflammation. what are some of the underlying health problems it can cause? >> what we are slowly learning is that chronic inflammation is a cause of a whole host of diseases. it's been linked to depression, allergies and even cancer. this process is something that if left uncheck kd cause a whole slew of problems.

>> what exactly is chronic inflammation and what is the effect on the body. >> what chronic inflammation is when the immune response goes out of control. when we get a cold or twist an ankle, the immune system is engaged, it sends white blood cells in and they attack the infection and we see pain, redness, swelling and once our body heals, they retreat. but in chronic inflammation, there's a faulty distress signal so now the immune system is engaged unnecessarily and the white blood cells come in but there's no infection to attack. so instead what it does is it starts to damage our own tissue. >> how is it different chronic with acute inflammation. >> acute inflation is a short-lived attack, the immune system comes in and does it's job and retreats. with kroining inflammation, the

immune system is continually engaged. >> what are somal of actual triggers? >> there's several, one of them we know that's a trigger is being overweight. basically when your fat cells expand in size when you're too large, this triggers the immune system, the immune system comes in, the white blood cells will inflame the red blood cells which is why overweight people are prone to diabetes. and also if you're overweight, it can impact the liver as well. the liver cells can become damaged as well from being overweight. >> and if you're eating too many high fatty foods, that's something that can also then trigger this reaction, high anxiety, depression. >> high fat foods like bacon, lard, fatty meats can trigger inflammation, a lot of the things in your diet, high sugar foods that have a high glycemic index. you had mentioned stress, stress

and anxiety cause the production of a stress hormone called cortisol and cortisol can trigger the immune system unnecessari unnecessarily. >> what the is difference between acute inflammation and chronic inflammation? >> with acute inflammation you see the redness and the swelling, so there is no warning. >> not necessarily, it depends on whether the chronic inflammation is causing a particular disease. if you have rheumatoid arthritis, there's chronic inflammation and you get joint pain. but there's no isymptoms that don't manifest at all. >> if it is chronic inflammation can lead to certain diseases, how do you test for it. >> there are some markers that you can check. like c reactive proteins to see

if you have inflammation a. but overall, this is an elusive process that we don't have a direct test for it at this time. >> how do we fight it if we don't even know it's there. >> there is things that you can add to your diet. one is omega 3 fatty aseih sids. fruits and vegetables, another great thing to incorporate into your diet. particularly the orange and red vegetables. grape grapes. >> a healthy weight and a healthy attitude. >> right. >> and still to come, this morning what you can do to help your teen avoid costly mistakes on his or her college

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at olayprofessional.com. ? this morning on "today's" real estate, answers to your most pressing real estate questions. how to attract buyers to foreclosed properties. nice to see you. we have got geneva on the phone. >> caller: good morning. >> what is your question for barbara? >> caller: we have been trying to sell our home now for over a year and we were told that if we offer help for a down payment it might help bring in a buyer who has excellent credit, but not enough money to put down on the property. is this a wise decision to go with? >> what do you think, barb? >> i think the best thing you

can do is give an incentive for a buyer with teeth in it and a financial one is the way too to go. here's the rub, i don't like the fact that you're calling it secondary financing or a secondary -- what you should be saying is owner financing, or even better than that, you should be saying no down payment, and you would even be wise to put a sign in front of your house. >> are you going to take that advice? >>. >> caller: i have no choice. >> let's go to another e-mail, this one from lauren is boulder, colorado. lauren writes, we want to buy a home in boulder, colorado. i notice many properties have been on the market for over 60 days, how low of a bid is appropriate on a $500,000 house on the market over 60 days, i don't want to bid too high or

too low. >> you're in an area of the country where prices are actually starting to move up. it's pretty tricky to put in a low bid and you should think long and hard before doing it. thinking that knowing how long the property has been on the market is nonsense thinking, the truth is you should be concerned on whether the people are motivated to sell. that will determine the fight more than any other factor. if you can possibly arrange to visit the house when the owner is home and simply have small talk and say, hey, where are you moving to, are you found anything yet, why are you moving? those kinds of questions let you know how desperate someone is to sell. and as far as putting in a bit, you should put in a bid 10% to 10% lower than the asking price. >> becky is on the phone from star tree, indiana. >> caller: my question is, my

son graduated three years ago from college. he has a full-time job and he's been saving money to build a home on a five-acre tract of land that he owns with no debt. what options are available for him? >> would the student loan have any affect on that? >> they never leave unless you throw them out. but the fact of the matter is since he's been paying that loan, it will actually help his credit because it establishes him as a good credit risk. getting the student loan out of the way, where's the best play to go for a mortgage? is fha. that should be an easy loan for him to get. make it his last meal tonight. >> not that barbara's pushing him out too quickly. let's go to glenn from jackson, mississippi.

>> caller: barbaras my wife and been saving for a long time, we have been trying to buy property -- when the market crashed, we ended up being stuck with 30 pieces of property including my own home. we have spent most of our savings and i spent my 401(k) and most of my retirement fund to maintain them and we h're ki of at a stand still on what to do now. >> congratulations on your courage, you did it with the right intent when the market russ rising. the answer depends on how you purchased the property. most people purchase it in a corporate name. if you did that and you didn't give a personal guarantee, you should actually look at your portfolio, there's a park place

and a boardwalk in every portfolio, try to keep those and dump the rest. if you personally guaranteed the mortgages, the problem is, you're going to have to relinquish your good credit rating, but times that's worth it if you can leave with your shirt on. i'm struggling for happy notes here, but the truth is that that market has already leveled out, it's not going down, it's not going up. so you have a little breathing room here and bank are a little more willing to deal when prices are falling. >> vanessa writes can i get my name off of a deed if i didn't marry my former fiance? >> that depends entirely on whether he's willing to let you off that deed. here's the real thing, where are you on the mortgage. because if you're on the mortgage, then you have to get the bank's approval to let you off the mortgage. that's a different story because he's got to prove that he can afford the more gajs all on his

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those are our voices. listen to meredith. ♪ i'm alone and i want to be the last one landing ♪ ♪ >> i don't banana, it's all comedy. >> matt is singing great. >> he looks like a rocker. he has the hands on the headphones. ♪ put your hands in the air >> his kids are going to go nuts for this. >> this is really embarrassing. go to todayshow.com and check it out. i'm not sure if that's so much viral as it is bacterial. >> it has to go viral before it's a viral video. >> we're going viral tomorrow with the bed intruders song.

we'll have the results tomorrow. >> you have all week, we have a surprise every day this week. meantime coming up in this half hour, we have got taking the stress out of our college applications process. i have a teenager doing this now, it is so tough and there are mistakes that are actually ones that a lot of young people make that can hurt their ability to get accepted to college and we're going to go through some basic mistakes that you can help the young person in your house. also the superfoods you should be eating if you're going through menopause. >> and "today's" kitchen, we have got a hearty stew and moon shine with leftover coffee. >> okay, but first, before we get to all of that, let's get a check of the weather. >> let's show you what's going on as far as your week ahead, above normal on the east coast, west coast, and also around the

upper mississippi river valley. much above normal for the eastern third of the country and in the latter part of the week, we have got warmer weather in the great lakes, also in the southwest, wet and cooler than usual along the plains and the pacific northwest coast. >> there is a little bit of fog to start this morning. it will burn off as we head to the morning. slight chance for a couple of >> and that's your latest weather. and coming up the six foods women going through menopause

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[ both ] goodnight, grandma. [ female announcer ] be there to read them a story every night. read it to me again. [ female announcer ] hallmark recordable storybooks. this christmas, make it wonderful at your hallmark gold crown store. "today's" woman is brought to you by aveeno, the beauty of nature and science. >> this morning on "today's" woman, six super foods for menopause, it's a fact of life but you don't have to suffer through it. the foods that provide relief and better health during the process. good morning, madeleine. we know that hot flashes of course are one of the main symptoms of menopause. what are some of the other things? >> short-term effects are night sweats, brain fog, difficulty concentrating these kinds of things and they're really disturbing for women. some women are not bothered at all. there's also the longer term effects that we feel afterwards and with low estrogen, we put

ourselves at risk for heart disease and our bones. it's so important to look at these short-term symptoms as well as the longer term health affects. >> these superfoods can actually help you while you're going through some of the changes in your body. >> food is just food, it's not medicine, you can't expect to drink a glass of soy milk and your hot flashes go away. remember, you have to eat these things often in combination and over time to realize the results. >> so incorporating them into your diet. first we have soy, what foods are we talking about that you should be incorporating into your diet that have soy? >> in america we don't eat a lot of soysoy milk or tofu, you can have soy burgers.

and edamame. always talk to your doctor first, for most healthy women, there's no problem with adding soy. but add slowly because we're not as americans used to this. >> next food is flaxseeds and flaxseeds you hear a lot about them being the supercedes. >> they're another kind of a plant estrogen, when you say what is the magical ingredients. there are no magical ingredients but nature helps replenish some of the estrogen that's going away through the natural process of menopause. do not confuse this with flaxseed oil. but you can have flaxseed as a regular grain, and this is again a plant estrogen. it's going to help to supportthrough this process. >> about one to two servings per day on that point. and chickpeas, a lot of us use them on top of salads.

>> they actually contain as flaxseed a kind of plant estrogen it provides weak estrogen to help you through this process, but chickpeas are good sources of protein and they have a lot of fiber. studies have thrown these foods can help women through this process. >> fresh fruits and vegetables. how do they help? >> when we look at weak estrogen, colored fruits and vegetables, women have to think about color because a small amount of plant estrogens will help you maintain good nutrition through this process so think color and that's a plus. >> next dairy, and you say incorporating nonfat or very low fat dairy products is very important. >> we switch to the longer term.

we have plant estrogens for night sweats and brain fog. now when you think about thinning bones, estrogen really protects our bones, so what we can do diet wise is to incorporate more calcium and vitamin d to help strengthen our bones. dairy is not a terrible things on occasion, but all that fat is not good. >> here we're talking about good fats, oily fish. >> this is going to be protective for the heart and also healthy for the brain. >> madeleine bernstein, as always, thank you. what you can do to help your important college application [ female announcer ] millions of lips have found true love!

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class is expected to be the largest ever, 2.5 million students. so the competition is tougher than ever so we have got some tips to help your college bound teen avoid the most common application mistakes. we have got pat cullen, she's the ceo of ivey white. a lot of kids who are heading to college are fill tougt college application. you fill out one, it's good for all the schools. is there a down side to this? >> no, it's a standard application accepted by more than 100 colleges. you can fill it out once, but many schools have their own supplements to the college application. >> let's take a look at these mistakes that we were just talking about. number one, this is something i think that especially because these kids are stressed out, they're in their senior year, they have got so much going on, but making basically not

following directions, not really writing down everything they should? >> especially with essays, you need to adhere to word counts, character counts, you need to answer the essay questions and you would be surprised at how many students don't do that. they go over, they write too much or they don't specifically answer the question. should parents take a look at that to make sure they do that correctly? >> parents, you have to be careful because it's important for the student's voice to come through and colleges are very wise to a 47-year-old's voice versus a 17-year-old's voice. so you would be doing your child a disservice if you're going to write the essay for them. but you can certainly go to your english teacher or your high school college counselor or your independent counselor to help you with your application. >> another mistake is being redundant. >> exactly. so many students write their activity and their personal statement about the same topic. so they're writing about soccer

in their activity essay and also -- talk about different parltss to who you are. and you want to tell them something that they can't learn from the rest of the application. >> and they learn a lot from the essay and the difficulty with that is there's so much pressure on the students to write an essay, they work all summer and they've been working all fall on the essay, but they submit the same essay with all the different application and you say it may be a mistake not to personalize the essay. >> for the college application, you can use the same essay, but for the personal essay, when they say why do they want to come to this college. they want to go -- they just change the name of the school and that's how they personalize it. but sometimes they'll even send the wrong essay to the wrong school, with the wrong college's name. >> be careful about that. >> another suggestion you say is be careful how you list

extracurricular activities there's a right way to do it and a wrong way. >> if you just did it in ninth grade and you quit or you just spent an hour per month on something, it's better to do a few things whole heartedly and you definitely want to list them in order of importance, there's a 12-line grid on the application. and you can always upload a short extra resume. >> important to you. in other words if you have been swimming in school all -- several years of your high school career, and that's been the thing, that's what you want to put number one or maybe you're a debater and that's something you've been doing on the side. >> you want to think about summer experiences, jobs, internships, the things that have been really important to you. >> not asking for recommendation letters. some teachers max out and say i'm only accepting ten students

to write letters for so you want to ask them at the end of freshman year. you want to ask a teacher who really knows you the best. not the teacher who necessarily give you the easy a. >> another common mistake is to not completely fill out the application or actually to have spelling or grammatical errors. >> exactly. >> proofreading is so important and spell check is not going to catch your black belt in marital arts and it's not going to know if you used the wrong college's name on your application. that's why it's important to proofread the whole thing. make sure you release your test scores from the testing agency. >> you've been helping us all along. i know i'm going to be one of those parents. thank you so much. and we have got coming up next, affordable meals for your whole family even though it includes beer. that's right. it's a beef soup.

this morning on "today's" kitchen, hot chef, an interesting twist on the classic stew. beer, moon shine and leftover coffee? nathan, good to see you. we're getting started here, you have some interesting combos here. for this time of year, a got dish. >> i'm going to go over the 101 of beef stew. this is a top round, you're going to caramelize it. >> why do you like top round. >> it's a cheap cut, we're doing soup, so we're not going to take something really expensive because it's going to tender up. we need some salt and pepper. basically we're going to let this caramelize just a little bit. when you have sugar, it starts

to caramelize, it creates a beautiful browned color. protein will do the same thing. we'll get to that in just a minute. i also want to show you a neat little trick with these carrots. this is a french cut called the obliques, cut it on an angle, give it a little bit of rotation, on an angle. you keep rolling, you want to give it a try in you want three perfect sizes. that was terrible. >> that was just horrible. >> you can go ahead and dump them in there, if you like. we also have some onions and some celery. and we're going to let this caramelize for about ten minutes or so. right now everything's been caramelizing, you see the beautiful brown, that's the flavor, so we're going to reintroduce that. you know how we do that?

we do it with moon shine. this is real moon shine. we're going to add just a touch. and check it out, will start to boil immediately. >> our director jack daniels -- >> any whisky is good, just to bring out the flavors on the bottom. you see it's starting to boil a little bit. all that flavor is going to start to release and come up with from the bottom. >> i notice you've got guinness here. >> that's actually a little bit of coffee. we're using a little bit of bold coffee, we want to bring out that natural boldness. y and we have some beef stock. >> there's another can right here. drink up. >> just in time. that smells good. >> we're creating a broth with the guinness and the beef stock. >> how long do you cook this for? >> we're going to let this simmer for about an hour.

>> when do we add the potatoes? >> we add the potatoes actually to the broth. go ahead. >> there's some garlic in there. >> it starts to reduce a little bit, the starch from the potatoes starts to thicken up and it gets really nice and hearty. we're going to break bread this morning. this is a nice chibatta. >> thank you so much. >> rock 'n roll, baby.

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