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Americans Eat More Processed Food Than, Well, Anyone

Tom Laskawy
Grist
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:09 UTC
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The New York Times had a small article and a big graphic recently on America's love affair with processed, packaged food:
Americans eat 31 percent more packaged food than fresh food, and they consume more packaged food per person than their counterparts in nearly all other countries. A sizable part of the American diet is ready-to-eat meals, like frozen pizzas and microwave dinners, and sweet or salty snack foods.
This probably doesn't come as too much of a surprise to anyone, especially given our outsized obesity rates compared to other countries. But the accompanying graphic helpfully illustrates a most unfortunate kind of "American exceptionalism."

It's worth pointing out, however, that there's nothing inherently evil about packaged foods. It's what's in them that counts.
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Family

Spanking Linked to Kids' Later Aggression

Denise Mann
WebMD Health News
Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:00 UTC
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© iStockphoto
Corporal Punishment for 3-Year-Olds May Be Linked to Aggressive Behavior When Kids Get Older

Moms who spank their 3-year-olds may be increasing their children's risk of aggressive behavior, such as bullying, by the time they turn 5, a study shows.

The study, published in the May issue of Pediatrics, adds to evidence suggesting that spanking and other types of corporal punishment set kids up for aggressive behaviors later in life.

"Children need guidance and discipline; however, parents should focus on positive, non-physical forms of discipline and avoid the use of spanking," study researcher Catherine A. Taylor, PhD, an assistant professor of community health sciences at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, tells WebMD in an email. "This message is consistent with that of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which 'strongly opposes striking a child for any reason.'"
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It is Official: Diabetes Drug Avandia Causes Heart Attacks

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Getty Images
A recently-released Senate committee report has uncovered that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the maker of the diabetes drug Avandia, concealed information verifying that the drug has caused tens of thousands of heart attacks in patients who took it. The 334-page report also indicts the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for failing to properly regulate the drug and ignoring the truth about its dangers.

It was also revealed that FDA officials had conducted confidential studies on Avandia and made recommendations that the drug be pulled from the market because it is unsafe. In 2007, however, an FDA advisory committee of scientists and doctors voted overwhelmingly to keep the drug on the market, while at the same time acknowledging that it increased the risk of a heart attack.

In the bizarre world of the drug industry, lies and deception are generally allowed to trump the facts. GSK responded to the allegations by claiming that extensive studies on more than 52,000 patients have shown no "statistically significant association between Avandia and heart attacks."
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Popular Diabetes Drug Smells Like Dirty Socks (or Dead Fish)

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Getty ImagesGlucophage
A group of doctors from the Medical College of Georgia have written a letter to the journal Annals of Internal Medicine explaining that a preventable side effect of a popular diabetes drug is causing patients not to take it. Glucophage, also known generically as metformin, has such a strong, distasteful odor that patients are becoming nauseated and ill from it.

Some patients described Metformin as smelling like dead fish while others said the smell reminded them of dirty socks. Many are refusing to take the drug because the smell is so distinctively sickening to them that they are unable to bear it.

According to the group of doctors, the problem could be easily remedied if manufacturers of the metformin would develop a pill coating that prevents it from releasing the smell into patients' stomachs. Integrating a time-release technology into the pills would prevent the burping up of the disturbing odor.

Metformin's expressed side effects include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, flatulence, distention, and abdominal pain, but none of these side effects are specifically indicated as having any correlation to the drug's odor. In fact, none of the literature for the drug makes any mention of odor as a side effect.
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Memory Loss Does Not Wipe Out Emotions

Catharine Paddock
Medical News Today
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:00 UTC
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© Getty Images
New research from the US suggests that emotions triggered by events can endure longer than factual recollection in patients with severe amnesia; the researchers hope their findings will increase understanding of Alzheimer's and related diseases and also bring comfort to caregivers and families in the knowledge that their loved ones may continue to feel the warmth of visits and conversations even if they can't remember what happened.

You can read about the research by scientists at the University of Iowa (UI) in Iowa City in the 12 April early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.

Lead author Justin Feinstein, a student in the UI graduate programs of neuroscience and psychology, told the media that:
"A simple visit or phone call from family members might have a lingering positive influence on a patient's happiness even though the patient may quickly forget the visit or phone call."
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Why the Japanese Can Easily Digest Sushi


ScienceDaily
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© iStockphotoResearchers have discovered that the enzyme porphyranase breaks down porphyran, one of the components in the walls of a red-colored marine algae used to prepare sushi and, surprisingly, in the bacteria that populate the gut of the Japanese.
Porphyran, a polysaccharide present in the cell walls of a red algae that is used notably in the preparation of sushi, is broken down specifically by an enzyme called porphyranase. This new enzymatic activity has been identified in marine bacteria and, surprisingly, in the bacteria that populate the gut of the Japanese. Scientists from CNRS and UPMC have explained this discovery by a transfer of genes between the bacteria, that allows the gut microbiota of the Japanese to acquire all the "machinery" it needs to consume the algae that surround sushi.

Their results are published in Nature on April 8, 2010.

Without intestinal flora, humans cannot break down the polysaccharides in their diet, which are one of the principal sources of energy for the brain. Indeed, intestinal bacteria contain enzymes that are known to "break down" polysaccharides (1), which are polymers made up of carbohydrates. They are essential because the human genome is not endowed with such enzymes.
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Optician Cures His Own Blindness with Herbal Medicine Made with Marigolds

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Getty ImagesMarigold
A retired optician says he has cured his own case of age-related blindness by self-medicating with a supplement containing a marigold derivative.

"I decided to this off my own back," said 73-year-old Harry Marsland. "I treated myself, which is the very thing you're not supposed to do in any profession. As a retired professional, I feel a responsibility to get this message across to as many people as possible."

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of blindness in people over the age of 60, and causes loss of vision in the center of the eye. "Wet" AMD occurs when abnormal blood vessel growth leads to the destruction of the eye's light-sensitive (photoreceptor) cells. "Dry" AMD occurs when the photoreceptors atrophy without blood vessel damage.
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Boost the Immune System and Prevent Flu, Colds and Coughs

Fleur Hupston
NaturalNews
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Getty Images
Many people think of colds and flu as inevitable and resort to going for a flu shot as a preventative measure or to taking plenty of medication in an attempt to cure colds and flu. Yet, by eating correctly, eliminating harmful foods, reducing stress and getting enough sleep, the immune system can be boosted to fight off colds and flu. Eat super foods and try simple lifestyle changes in order to combat sickness the natural way.

Boost the Immune System with Super Foods

Include fresh, organic vegetables such as broccoli, tomatoes, chicory, cabbage, garlic, mushrooms and spinach in the diet as often as possible to boost the immune system. Eat vegetables raw wherever possible to maximize health benefits.

Fruits to include would be lemons, grapefruit, oranges, bananas and dark colored fruit such as blueberries, black cherries, blackberries, black currants and black grapes.

Spicing up meals with ginger, cinnamon, cumin, oregano and cayenne will help to build the immune system in order to fight off colds and can even be taken at the onset of a cold to reduce the effects.
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Blackbox

Croatian teenager wakes up from a coma speaking fluent German


Mail Online
Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:38 UTC
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Mystery: A girl from the Croatian town of Knin, pictured, has baffled doctors after she could speak fluent German after waking up from a coma

Croatian doctors are baffled after a teenage girl who fell into a mysterious coma woke up speaking fluent German.

The parents of the 13-year-old from the southern town of Knin said their daughter had only just started studying German at school and had been trying to read German books and watch German television - but had never been that good in German.

But since waking up the teenager has been unable to speak Croatian and even refused it, but communicates only in perfect German far superior to her mastery of the language she had when she was taken ill.
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Bad Guys

If Mainstream Medicine Really Works, Why Are Americans So Unhealthy?

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© NaturalNews
Did you ever wonder why such an alarmingly high percentage of Americans are obese, diabetic, depressed and suffering from cancer, heart disease, kidney disorders and skin problems? Now consider the fact that Americans pay more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world. Americans pay the highest prices, by far, for medications, medical imaging scans, blood work, surgeries, chemotherapy and hospital stays. And yet what does America have to show for it? The most universally diseased population in the world -- and a nation on the verge of bankruptcy caused in part by mainstream medicine.

But this isn't a slam on America itself: It's an indictment of the mainstream medical system that has been running a monopoly medical racket in America for roughly the last hundred years. Under the system of monopolistic medical practices enforced by the FDA, AMA, FTC and state medical boards, "mainstream medicine" has taken a nation that was once relatively healthy and turned it into a disease dystopia where patients are actually taught that nutrition doesn't work and that they must submit to patented chemicals in order to be "normal" or healthy.

Mainstream medicine has reached such a level of insanity that its corporations now claim intellectual ownership over nearly 20 percent of the human genome. This has all been done to create a corporate monopoly over human genes in the same way that mainstream medicine has already created an FDA-enforced monopoly over isolated chemicals -- many of which were ripped off from nature.
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