Health & WellnessS


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Not All Apples Are Created Equal

Don't ask the US federal government whether there are any health benefits to eating organic food. It won't tell. No mere coincidence, then, that no pictures of farmers or farms (or fertilizers or pesticides) appear in the USDA food pyramid logo. The federal government encourages the consumption of more fruits, vegetables, and grains, but stops short of evaluating the farming systems that produce these same foods. An apple is an apple regardless of how it has been grown, the USDA food pyramid suggests, and the only take-home message is that we should all be eating more apples and less added sugars and fats.

But this message may be too simplistic. Over the past decade, scientists have begun conducting sophisticated comparisons of foods grown in organic and conventional farming systems. They're finding that not all apples (or tomatoes, kiwis, or milk) are equal, especially when in comes to nutrient and pesticide levels. How farmers grow their crops affects, sometimes dramatically, not only how nutritious food is, but also how safe it is to eat. It may well be that a federal food policy that fails to acknowledge the connection between what happens on the farm and the healthfulness of foods is enough to make a nation sick.

Attention

Just How Secure Is Your Employer-Based Health Insurance?



Secure health insurance
©Unknown

Last week, the Economic Policy Institute released a disturbing report revealing just how many white-collar workers have lost their employer-based health insurance in recent years - even though they didn't change jobs.

Many workers believe that if they hold onto their job, their insurance is safe. Professionals with jobs near the top of the occupational ladder are especially likely to assume that their employer is not going to cut their coverage. That may well have been true in the 1990s, when the job market was tight - but not today.

Pills

Taking Common Painkiller (acetaminophen) with Coffee is Extremely Toxic to the Liver

Combining caffeine with the active ingredient in Tylenol (acetaminophen) may be extremely dangerous for the liver, according to new research conducted at the University of Washington and reported in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

Bomb

Puzzle, precaution over plastic

Last week, hard plastic baby and water bottles were not considered harmful.
Now, in the eyes of many users, they are toxic. Yesterday, CVS said it will join Wal-Mart, bottle-maker Nalgene, and other companies in pulling tens of thousands of the shatter-proof, transparent products off store shelves. Some parents are tossing hiking bottles into the trash, feeding their babies with glass containers, and searching for a safer alternative to see-through sippy cups.

Cow

In change, industry groups back downer cow ban

Washington - In a significant reversal, major meat and dairy industry groups on Tuesday backed a total ban on so-called downer cattle from entering the food supply.

Syringe

Propaganda Alert! Vaccines 'Golden Era' Is Under Threat

The development of vaccines is on the verge of a 'golden era' - but it may be threatened if the drive to cut costs by governments, including the UK, is carried out regardless of long-term health consequences, a leading academic warned.

Vaccine research is expanding fast - some two-thirds of world R&D is being conducted by European companies - but continuing pressure on prices could have a negative impact on investment, according to Professor Louis Galambos of the John Hopkins University, a world-leader in research and education in medicine and public health.

Comment: Can you say "S-H-I-L-L" ?


Syringe

Science gives us 'food' for thought

Folks, things seem be getting "curiouser and curiouser."

First, the powers that be changed the definitions of things - stuff like milk and, more recently, chocolate. The definitions are expanded so that more things that you and I had never thought about can be called milk and chocolate.

Recently, the courts have ruled that there is no difference between tested meat and non-tested meat. Or that food with growth hormones and food without growth hormones are the same. And I guess food that is genetically modified is just as good for us as the old-fashioned stuff.

Comment: Interesting piece, until he hits the last two paragraphs with its "We can control the marketplace" junk. How many times do we see this? Is it because the Times-Gazette has advertisers who sell or create GM foods? Is it in that old canard of wanting to be "objective"?

If they don't label foods as to whether or not they are genetically modified, how will we be able to tell the difference?


Eye 1

Sociopath brags of spreading AIDS

A MAN has posted videos on YouTube in which he claims to have deliberately infected thousands of women with AIDS.

The masked man - who calls himself "Trashman" and speaks with an American accent in a series of clips posted on the video-sharing website - claims to have infected between 1200 and 1500 women with the disease.

In the videos, Trashman reads the names and ages of some of the women he claims to have had unprotected sex with.

Cut

My aesthetician's boss is a raging psychopath

The Question

I recently went for a waxing, and on the morning of my appointment, my aesthetician called me and asked if she could change the time. No problem, I told her. She recently moved to a new salon downtown whose owner is, to put it kindly, a raging psychopathic witch who makes herself feel better by bullying and demeaning her staff. But once I got there, she told me the owner had yelled at her for 10 minutes after the call, shrieking the whole time that she was incompetent, stupid and inconsiderate to her client.

On my way out, the owner lit into my aesthetician again in front of me and several other clients, screaming at her and accusing her of undermining her and the business.

It only got uglier from there.

My aesthetician called me that evening to apologize and told me that she plans to leave at the end of the month.

I'd really love to have good triumph over evil, but what can I do?

Bulb

Miracle surgery lets the blind see

British doctors have carried out pioneering surgery to restore the eyesight of two blind patients.

Using the revolutionary procedure, they have given the men - both Britons - a "bionic eye" which enables them to see their families for the first time in years.

There are now real hopes that the breakthrough will pave the way for the treatment to become available for millions around the world within a few years.