Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals and fiber that are key to good health. Now, a newly released study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists suggests plant foods also may help preserve muscle mass in older men and women.

©Peggy Greb

A diet rich in alkaline-producing fruits and vegetables may help preserve muscle mass.

The study was led by physician and nutrition specialist Bess Dawson-Hughes at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass.

The typical American diet is rich in protein, cereal grains and other acid-producing foods. In general, such diets generate tiny amounts of acid each day. With aging, a mild but slowly increasing metabolic "acidosis" develops, according to the researchers.

CLAIMS that childhood obesity in Australia has been exaggerated serve to trivialise a real problem, Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Rosanna Capolingua says.

New research shows Australia's childhood obesity epidemic has been exaggerated and the problem is increasing only among lower-income families.

Doctors have come a step closer to understanding what causes cot deaths. In a 10-year study of sudden unexplained infant deaths dealt with at Great Ormond Street hospital in London, the researchers found a link with bacterial infection.

At present, they caution, the link is merely an association. They cannot be sure that infections found during autopsy were what caused the deaths. However, the study does go some way to confirming suspicions among medical professionals that bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli are sometimes the cause.

If you have a vagina, chances are someone has called you a slut at least once in your life. There's just no getting around it.

I remember the first time I heard the word "slut" -- I was in my fifth-grade science class. A certain little girl (terror) named Eleena had been making my life miserable all year in a way that only mean little girls can. She had turned all my girlfriends against me, spread rumors and the like. She walked up to me at my desk and said, "You called me a slut." I had absolutely no idea what the word meant. I just sat there, silently. She repeated herself: "You called me a slut, but you're the slut." I don't remember how long after that I found out exactly what "slut" meant, but I knew it had to be terrible and I knew I didn't want to be it.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu that has killed 241 people is not the only one that could trigger a pandemic, according to research in America. A few H7 strains of the flu virus have started to evolve some of the traits they would need to infect people easily, scientists have discovered.

The government has uncovered new plans to ban corporal punishment against children.

"Beating children has to be banned by law. It is unacceptable as a method of bnnging up children," said Labour minister Jolanta Fedak to the TVN24 news channel.

"There is consent for beating children among the general public. This has to stop. We want to change the law on counteracting violence in such a way that corporal punishment will be banned," said Fedak.

Asked whether spanking a child will also be banned, the minister did not answer directly, but said only that the line between scolding and beating is very thin.

A New York organization whose members are raising alarms about the damage from fluoride in America's water supplies says a government study available online suggests the additive can be blamed for a multitude of problems stemming from thyroid imbalances, including cardiac disease, depression, constipation, fuzzy thinking and fluid retention.

Eurobodalla Shire Council has done a backflip on last week's controversial decision over water fluoridation.

Most councillors have now voted to have fluoride added to the shire's public water supply.

(Made by Monsanto, the world's largest manufacturer of poisons and pollutants), Aspartame is not only used in food, per se, but is also used in pharmaceutical products. You might be surprised by the number of products that contain aspartame. A sample research project was initiated in April 1994, with requests to companies that produce pharmaceuticals. A number of companies failed to respond to a request for information. Some companies did respond. Pumping aspartame into children appears to be a priority! Frequently it is not listed on the outside of the package but in the small print on the slip of paper inside the package.

Aspartame is banned in all childrens products in the European Common Market. Why not in the U.S. and Canada?

Because Monsanto pays off the FDA, the American Medical Association, The American Dietetic and Diabetic Associations, Congressmen and Senators and virtually anyone who gets in the way, and in other countries too. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation caught them red handed and aired a program where Monsanto was trying to bribe a couple of Canadian Doctors at Health Canada.

Author Peter Sills writing in the Toronto Globe and Mail said, after a three and a half year court case against Monsanto, brought by railroad workers exposed to dioxin following a train derailment had ended and in which the jury awarded a $16 million in punitive damages against Monsanto, "The evidence of Monsanto executives at the trial portrayed a corporate culture where sales and profits were given a higher priority than the safety of products and it's workers. They (Monsanto) just didn't care about the health and safety of their workers. Instead of trying to make things safer, they relied on intimidation and threatened layoffs to keep their employees working.

If you find a product you bought contains this poison return it to the store and insist on getting your money back or a substitute that does not contain aspartame.

The following is a brief list of the use of Aspartame By Pharmaceutical Companies.

Disordered eating among women in the U.S. may be more widespread than we thought. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of young American women report experiencing disordered eating behaviors, and ten percent report symptoms of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, or binge eating disorder, according to new study findings published in HealthDay News.

These findings resulted from information provided by more than 4,000 women in an online poll conducted by SELF Magazine in conjunction with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). The women ranged in ages from 25 to 45.