Health & WellnessS


Cheeseburger

China's Bizarre Food 'Safety' Scene, and Our Own

Mark Bittman
The New York Times
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:25 UTC
Image
© unknownPork that glows blue because of the presence of bacteria was purchased in a Shanghai market in April.
Almost all of the attention we've paid to food safety in recent weeks has been fixed on the deadly E. coli outbreak in Germany. And justifiably so. But if you happen to have taken a peek at China in the last few months you would have seen an eye-popping string of food safety oddities culminating in the state-sponsored suppression of journalists.

As I mentioned in my column today there was the famous village wedding at which more than half of the 500 guests were hospitalized after eating pork contaminated with Clenbuterol, a drug that accelerates fat burning and muscle growth. (It makes pigs grow faster and leaner, and when consumed in excess by humans can cause nausea, convulsions, dizziness, vomiting and heart palpitations.) Clenbuterol was banned from pig feed in the 1990s, but is still used under the name "lean pork powder."

The sickening of nearly 300 people from ingesting pig steroids is probably the least bizarre of China's recent food safety "blunders." There are the watermelons that began exploding in Eastern China, due to (according to China Central Television) overuse of a chemical that makes them grow faster; the raw pork that glows blue because of phosphorescent bacteria; and the discovery that one in ten meals is cooked using oil dredged from the sewers (collected under the cover of darkness from drains behind restaurants, filtered, and resold).
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Smoking

Anti-Smoking Propaganda Alert! WHO: Nearly Half World Smokers To Die Of Tobacco-Related Disease

Sten Stovall
Nasdaq
Fri, 08 Jul 2011 02:54 UTC
anti-smoking
© unknown
Of the world's more than 1 billion tobacco smokers, more than 80% live in low- and middle-income countries and up to half will eventually die of a tobacco- related disease, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

Comment: An upcoming issue of the Dot Connector Magazine will be dealing with this subject in detail. Subscribe now; you don't want to miss it. Until your issue arrives, please take some time to educate yourself on the dirty tricks, manipulations and outright lies used by the anti-tobacco lobbyists. You might find this site a good place to start: http://www.kidon.com/smoke/index.html

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Health

Pregnancy Causing Obesity Epidemic, St. Louis Doctor Claims

Sarah Fenske
Daily RFT
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:15 UTC
Image
© zazzle.com
National experts have suggested that if a woman is obese, she should gain far less weight when pregnant than previously thought: just 11 to 20 pounds.

But one local doctor says even that is far too much. Dr. Raul Artal, chairman of the obstetrics and gynecology department at St. Louis University School of Medicine, says an obese woman who gets knocked up shouldn't gain so much as an ounce -- and then adds that pregnancy, not an unhealthy affection for fast food and the La-Z-Boy, is "the main contributor to the obesity epidemic in this country."

That astounding claim appears in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Reporter Michelle Munz interviews Artal for a story in the newspaper's Health section.
As the P-D article details, physicians concerned about the affect of low birth weight began encouraging women to gain 20 to 25 pounds during pregnancy. Underweight women were encouraged to gain as much as 40 pounds.
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Cow

The Lunatic Farmer: Joel Salatin

Craigmc
The People Who Feed US
Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:10 UTC
Image
© Mike McGregor
You would not be wrong thinking of Joel Salatin as a kind of food evangelist. After all, this self-proclaimed 'lunatic farmer' travels the country preaching common sense and real food with all the energetic fervor of a true believer.

Recently, Mr. Salatin spoke to a sold out audience (co-sponsored by The Woodstock Land Conservancy and the Woodstock Farm Festival), where he had plenty to say.

He was kind enough to make time to speak with us before taking the stage. His wit, wisdom and salient points made us realize how powerful a speaker, an advocate and, well . . . evangelist he is for the cause of good food practices.
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Beer

Excess Alcohol Could Damage Our DNA


Medical Xpress
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Skeptically Speaking
Researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) have uncovered for the first time how excess alcohol can cause irreparable damage to our DNA. In a new study published in the journal Nature today, MRC scientists also discovered a two-tier defence system in our cells that limits the threat of permanent genetic damage.

Scientists at the MRC's Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) have discovered that an overload of a toxic chemical called acetaldehyde, a by-product from the breakdown of alcohol in our body, can cause damage to DNA. They showed that our cells have two natural ways of protecting us against acetaldehyde. Firstly, this toxin can be removed by specialised enzymes. If this step fails, acetaldehyde builds up and damages DNA, but a second mechanism kicks in to repair the damaged DNA, using another set of enzymes known as the Fanconi proteins.

In pregnant mice which were genetically altered not to have these two defences, the equivalent of a single binge drinking session of alcohol caused catastrophic damage to the fetus. Not only did alcohol damage the fetus, but in the adult modified mice, this alcohol consumption damaged blood stem cells, obliterating the production of blood.

Dr. KJ Patel, lead author of the paper from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, said: "The findings show how critically reliant we are on both these control systems to prevent alcohol from causing irreversible mutations to DNA, both in the fetus and in our own cells.
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Beaker

US: In New York State Some People Who Drink Water Are More Equal Than Others

Lennard Davis
Huffington Post
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:59 UTC
In upstate New York, where I am living, there is a class of citizens protected from chemicals and harmful substances in drinking water, and then there are the vast majority of people like me, my family, and friends, who are experimental subjects being tested to see if known carcinogens like benzene will do anything harmful to us.

A few years ago, we would have called that an unethical, if not illegal, experiment worthy of the Nazi doctors and the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. Now we call it governmental policy. The just-released Executive Summary of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation report on gas drilling says that of over one million people who drink ground water every day, about a third will have their sources of water protected. But a shocking two-thirds, or 840,000 men, women, and children, will have no protections at all.

Basically the DEC is protecting those lucky people who live in cities and letting the rural population of New York State consume water that could be contaminated with a mix of chemicals so lethal that they are banned for human consumption.
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Cow

It's not all white: The cocktail of up to 20 chemicals in a glass of milk

David Derbyshire
Dailymail.co.uk
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:44 UTC
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© UnknownHealthy drink: Quantities of compounds found in milk were minuscule.
A glass of milk can contain a cocktail of up to 20 painkillers, antibiotics and growth hormones, scientists have shown.

Using a highly sensitive test, they found a host of chemicals used to treat illnesses in animals and people in samples of cow, goat and human breast milk.

The doses of drugs were far too small to have an effect on anyone drinking them, but the results highlight how man-made chemicals are now found throughout the food chain.

Comment: For more information about why milk isn't good for you, see this Sott link:

6 reasons why you should avoid milk at all costs...

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Pills

Best of the Web: Food Allergy and Joint Pain - Is There a Connection?


Gluten Free Society
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 01:28 UTC
arthritis pain
© Unknown
Most, doctors specializing in the treatment of arthritis, joint pain, and autoimmune diseases affecting the musculoskeletal system never even consider diet as an important factor in the development of these conditions.

I was formally trained in rheumatology at the VA hospital in Houston, TX, and I can say that diet and nutritional recommendations to patients were discouraged and in most cases frowned upon by our attending physicians. It was actually this experience that prompted me to dig deeper into the connection between autoimmune disease and food.

Over the past 10 years, I have treated thousands of patients with arthritic conditions. The most single effective therapies have always been diet and exercise. The paradox with exercise... It is harder to stick to if it flares up the arthritis. The problem with food...everyone reacts uniquely based on their own unique chemistry. But it only makes sense that if drugs can target inflammation as a treatment, why can't food. After all, isn't food a drug of sorts?

I have found that medical research greatly supports this connection, but more importantly, I have found that patients get better after eliminating inflammatory foods from their diets. What foods should we avoid to help recover from arthritis? Depends on the person. Everyone is unique.
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Roses

New Yorkers battle giant blindness-causing plants

Lester Haines
The Register
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:02 UTC
Botanical SWAT teams confront triffid-esque menace
plantblind
© The Register

Authorities in New York State have warned residents to keep a sharp look-out for the giant hogweed - the alien invader from the Caucasus Mountains which has the power to cause "severe skin and eye irritation, painful blistering, permanent scarring and blindness".

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is in its fourth year of battling Heracleum mantegazzianum (pictured), and has six botanical SWAT teams on standby to purge the 944 known New York giant hogweed sites of the menace. Citizens who sight the beast are warned not to approach it, but rather provide photographic and location information to the department.
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Bacon

UVa Research Finds Link Between Tick Bites, Red Meat Allergy

Tammie Smith
NewEraProgress.com
Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Richmond - The ticks were so bad last summer that Dr. Fred Robinson, a retired cardiologist, could hardly go for a walk in his yard in Midlothian without coming in to find a tick somewhere on his body.

They were a nuisance, but he now suspects they also are to blame for an unusual allergic reaction he has developed to beef.

It sounds improbable, but allergy doctors say patients such as Robinson are cropping up more and more, and research is pinning down a plausible explanation for what may be happening.

Much of that research is being done at the University of Virginia, where studies are also trying to help patients whose only remedy so far is to give up beef or other red meats.

"About 11 years ago I had a little teeny tick the size of a pinhead behind my left knee," Robinson, said, explaining his ordeal.

"I got part of the tick out. But part of it didn't come out. For years, it would flare up," he said, referring to the area on his leg where the tick was attached.
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