Many synthetic chemicals, untested for their disrupting effects on the hormone system, could have significant health implications according to the State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Health Organization (WHO).

The joint study calls for more research to understand fully the associations between endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) - found in many household and industrial products - and specific diseases and disorders. The report notes that with more comprehensive assessments and better testing methods, potential disease risks could be reduced, with substantial savings to public health.

Human health depends on a well-functioning endocrine system to regulate the release of certain hormones that are essential for functions such as metabolism, growth and development, sleep and mood. Some substances known as endocrine disruptors can change the function(s) of this hormonal system increasing the risk of adverse health effects. Some EDCs occur naturally, while synthetic varieties can be found in pesticides, electronics, personal care products and cosmetics. They can also be found as additives or contaminants in food.

While the UK media becomes hysterical over the discovery of horsemeat in the food chain, RINF Alternative News takes a look at the real dangers of a handful of chemicals that are added to our food, which we consume everyday.

"Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa?," thunders the headline of a recent Guardian piece. Hard to say, but reality check: It isn't just vegans who enjoy quinoa. Like many occasional meat eaters I know, I've been eating it for years. Quinoa is also big among gluten-intolerant omnivores. So quinoa's truth - unpalatable or not - isn't just for its vegan fans to bear.

So what is going on with this long-time staple of the Andes and newly emerged favorite of health-minded US eaters?

First, the good. Quinoa is the grain-like seed of a plant in the goosefoot family (other members include spinach, chard, and the wonderful edible weed lambs quarters), and its appeal is immense. Twenty years ago, NASA researchers sung its praises as potential astronaut chow, mainly for its superior nutrient density. No less an authority than the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization hails it as "the only plant food that contains all the essential amino acids, trace elements and vitamins and contains no gluten." The FAO is almost breathlessly enthusiastic about quinoa - it has declared 2013 the International Year of Quinoa and even runs a Facebook fan page for it.

Time spent in front of the television during childhood and early adolescence is linked to criminal behavior in adulthood, according to research published online in Pediatrics.

"Antisocial behaviour is a major problem for society. While we're not saying that television causes all antisocial behaviour, our findings do suggest that reducing TV viewing could go some way towards reducing rates of antisocial behaviour in society," explained Bob Hancox of the University of Otago in New Zealand.

The study found that those who watched more television during childhood were at a significantly higher risk of having a criminal conviction and a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. The link between television and antisocial behavior held even after factors such as sex, IQ score, antisocial behavior in early childhood, socioeconomic status and parenting were accounted for.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that about 60% of adults in the United States do not consume the estimated average requirement for magnesium. What they don't tell us is that this 60% is based on minimum daily estimates set by the Department of Agriculture are set terribly low, so actually the number is much higher. In the best of times magnesium intake from white processed foods is on the level of starvation of this precious and very necessary mineral. Most Americans are actually malnourished and diseased because of it and because of the toxic loads they carry in their cells and blood.

The normal accepted recommended daily dietary amount of magnesium is only 300-400 mg. Many professionals feel this to be a bare minimum. Some would say that 1,000 mg is probably more in the range of what most people need due to stress (measured by cortisol levels) causing magnesium to be dumped into the sweat in increasing quantities. Actually there are all kinds of cellular stresses that drive down magnesium levels including chemical stress.

Radiation, chemicals and heavy metals put enormous stress on organs, tissues and cells. Magnesium mediates a good part of our body's ability to deal with and remove such toxic insults. Toxicities actually increase as magnesium levels fall. In plain language that means we have more allergic reactions, come down with the flu more often (never listen or trust anything the World Health Organizations says about the flu for most cases are actually not caused by a virus but by chemical stress), suffer from diabetes (diabetes is largely a result of these toxic stresses combined with overall malnutrition especially magnesium deficiency). Magnesium is the Ultimate Heart Medicine for you will always see deficient cellular magnesium in each and every case of heart disease, stroke, cancer and neurological decline.

Sayer Ji, the author of "The Dark Side of Wheat," discusses the emerging viewpoint that wheat represents a human species-specific intolerance that should be universally avoided.

Here are a few odds and ends of reports on recent research into how our brains and minds work. There are also a few other brain-related items and brainpower tips.

Why Did Our Brains Get So Big?

Richard Wrangham, a Harvard University biological anthropologist, has hypothesized that cooking was the human innovation that lead to our large brains. Man's ancestor, Homo erectus, appeared about 1.6 to 1.9 million years ago had a brain that was 50% larger than its predecessor, Homo habilis. It also had a large drop in tooth size. Cooking, Wrangham says, can account for both of these.

Cooking makes many food more easily digested. Studies of the diet of modern chimpanzees suggests that the available nutrition from plants and raw meats would not be enough to support the larger brain (Our current brains use up to 20 of our total calorie intake). Others theorize that a move toward more use of soft animal products was enough to support the larger brain.

Source: Scientific American, January 2008 Issue

The DSM-5 will likely lead patients down a road of over-diagnosis and over-medication.

After the American Psychiatric Association (APA) approved the latest version of its diagnostic bible, the DSM-5, psychiatrist Allen Frances, the former chair of the DSM-4 taskforce and currently professor emeritus at Duke, announced, "This is the saddest moment in my 45-year career of practicing, studying and teaching psychiatry" (A Tense Compromise on Defining Disorders).

The DSM-5 (the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) will be released by the APA in spring 2013. However, Frances states,

"My best advice to clinicians, to the press, and to the general public - be skeptical and don't follow DSM-5 blindly down a road likely to lead to massive over-diagnosis and harmful over-medication."

Mesolithic hunter-gatherers living on a meat-dominated, grain-free diet had much healthier mouths that we have today, with almost no cavities and gum disease-associated bacteria, a genetic study of ancient dental plaque has revealed.

The international team of researchers, led by a group at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of Adelaide, publish their findings in today's Nature Genetics .

The researchers extracted DNA from dental plaque from 34 prehistoric northern European human skeletons, and traced the changes in the nature of oral bacteria from the last hunter-gatherers to Neolithic and medieval farmers and modern individuals.

"Dental plaque represents the only easily accessible source of preserved human bacteria," says lead author Dr Christina Adler, now associate lecturer in dentistry at the University of Sydney.

Can we jettison misguided and dangerous recommendations on fat and heart disease - please?

Australian research makes a splash

It's not often that the mainstream media notices an academic meta-analysis, or study of studies - particularly if it goes against the tide of prevailing dietary advice. But that's what happened with a recent Australian study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Saturated fat: not so bad after all?

The BMJ paper was an update of a previous meta-analysis by the same investigators, looking at the consequences for cardiovascular health of replacing dietary saturated fats (i.e. butter) with polyunsaturated, omega-6 fatty acids (PUFAs). This time around, the group reassessed the results of the Sydney Diet Heart Study (SDHS), a randomized, controlled trial involving 458 patients that compared the rates of cardiovascular disease among subjects who increased the amount of omega-6 PUFAs - specifically, linoleic acid from safflower oil - in their diet with patients who continued their normal diet. As well as reanalyzing the results, the investigators incorporated them into their previous meta-analysis.

The SDHS results were clear: replacing dietary saturated fats with omega-6 PUFAs increased all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality and mortality from coronary heart disease. Not only that, but, "An increase of 5% of food energy from [omega-6 PUFAs] predicted 35% and 29% higher risk of cardiovascular death and all cause mortality, respectively". Similarly, the updated meta-analysis found that increasing dietary omega-6 PUFAs in isolation was associated with increased mortality risk from both coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease overall. And Omega-6's are the main components of polyunsaturated fats in the Western diet - and they are found in vegetable oils and margarines - the very things we started to eat more of forty or so years ago when we were warned saturated fats would give us heart disease!