Disease Proof

America’s had some great inventors, like George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison, and Benjamin Franklin, and they are no doubt spinning in their graves. Via Jalopnik:

If the world needed any more proof that Americans are some fattie mcfatties, we present the French-Fry Holder. This $10 device fits in cup holders and holds a standard cardboard container of french fries. It even has a small holder for ketchup, for those fattersons that need to add a little more flavor (and sodium) to their deep-fried potato sticks. A no-slip grip secures the device in any cup-holder to prevent any wasted fries. Weren't French fries designed to be the perfect food while driving? Sure, we're all about driving safety, which this device addresses, but we wonder if the morbid-nature of this product outweighs its positives.

What makes this doubly amusing is my brother, Joey “Ketchup Boy” Pugliese, sent this over—seriously, the guy dips turkey burgers into puddles of ketchup.

A spokeswoman for the city law department said the city expects restaurants to begin complying with the rule by midnight on Tuesday.

The health code provision, which affects businesses that have at least 15 establishments nationwide, requires that restaurants post caloric information on menus and menu boards in the same font and format used to display the name or price of the menu item.

In a lawsuit, The New York State Restaurant Association argued the rule is a violation of free speech and will make menus difficult to read.

After a judge ruled in the city's favor, the association asked an appeals court to delay the rule from taking effect until its appeal had been heard. That request was denied.

Honestly, I don’t see anything wrong with telling people what’s in their food, but, I’m not sure calorie-count is the worst offender; sodium, trans-fat, saturated fat, etc.

The new hard evidence is microfossils of plant material that investigators found in the dental plaque of 35,000-year-old Neanderthal teeth, said lead study author Amanda Henry, a graduate student in hominid paleobiology at The George Washington University.

"The formation of dental [plaque] traps the plant microfossils from food particles within the matrix of the plaque deposits, so the microfossils are protected and are a unique record of the plant foods put into the mouth," Henry said.

"So we can say with confidence that this individual Neanderthal ate plants," she added.

Maybe if they ate more plants they would have stuck around longer because primitive people that mostly eat meat, don’t live that long. Dr. Fuhrman explains:

Similar statistics are available for the high meat-consuming Maasai in Kenya. They eat a diet high in wild hunted meats and have the worst life expectancy in the modern world. Life expectancy is 45 years for women and 42 years for men. African researchers report that, historically, Maasai rarely lived beyond age 60. Adult mortality figures on the Kenyan Maasai show that they have a 50% chance of dying before the age of 59.1

But, populations who eat mostly plant foods live a lot longer. More from Dr. Fuhrman:

We now know that greatly increasing the consumption of vegetables, legumes, fruits, and raw nuts and seeds (and greatly decreasing the consumption of animal products) offers profound increased longevity potential, due in large part to broad symphony of life-extending phytochemical nutrients that a vegetable-based diet contains. By taking advantage of the year-round availability of high-quality plant foods, we have a unique opportunity to live both healthier and longer than ever before in human history.

Maybe centuries from now when they dig up my bones, archeologists will say, “This guy must have eaten a nutrient-dense vegetable-based diet!”

Two more types of freshwater fish in southeastern North Carolina have been found to have elevated levels of mercury. They are yellow perch caught south and east of Interstate highway 85, and black crappie caught south and east of I-95. State public health officials are urging pregnant women and children to avoid eating those fish altogether, and urging others to limit their consumption of those fish to no more than one meal a week.

The two species join a growing list of freshwater and saltwater fish that are high in mercury. The state’s high-mercury list now includes the following freshwater fish: blackfish (bowfin), wild catfish, jack fish (chain pickerel), warmouth and yellow perch south and east of I-85 and largemouth bass across the state, as well as black crappie south and east of I-95.

Ocean fish on the state’s high-mercury list include canned white tuna (albacore tuna), all fresh or frozen tuna, almaco jack, banded rudderfish, cobia, crevalle jack, greater amberjack, South Atlantic grouper (gag, scamp, red and snowy), king mackerel, ladyfish, little tunny, marlin, orange roughy, shark, Spanish mackerel, swordfish and tilefish.

As a fisherman—and a bad one at that—mercury contamination worries me. For reference, here’s Dr. Fuhrman’s list of fish with the highest mercury levels. Take a look:

• Tilefish
• Swordfish
• Mackerel
• Shark
• White snapper
• Tuna

• Salmon
• Flounder
• Sole
• Tilapia
• Trout

Ever heard of goji berries? You should have -- they're the new kids on the superfoods block, the health food that everyone seems to be talking about these days (including us -- we wrote about them here, here , here and here.) Still not sure what all the hype is about? Here are some health benefits that have been attributed to goji berries:

• Boosted liver protection and immune function
• Improved eyesight
• Increased sexual function and fertility
• Increased muscle strength
• Improved circulation
• Greater longevity

Here's a bit of history on the goji berry: Also called the wolfberry, Lycium barbarum, gou qi zi Fructus and lycii, they grow naturally in areas of China, Mongolia and the Himalayas in Tibet. They're packed with antioxidants, vitamin C, iron, beta-carotene and zeaxanthin, which is part of the reason they're so good for you.

Dr. Fuhrman is a BIG advocate of goji berries. Check it out:

Goji berries are burnt–red in color and about the size of a raisin. Slightly sweet and tart, they taste like a cross between a raisin, a cranberry and a cherry. Gathered and sundried in the wilds of Tibet and Mongolia, they are not fumigated, processed or artificially sweetened in any way. Goji berries, which contain 18 amino acids, 21 trace minerals and are rich in vitamins and antioxidants, can be used in many recipes. Some folks like to soak them in water for 10–15 minutes to soften and plump them up. They make a great nutrient boost in smoothies.

I love goji berries! Here are the impressive nutrition facts for an 8 ounce bag: Goji Berries.

• A new study challenges the “fit but fat” theory. Lindsey Tanner of the Associated Press reports:

The new study involving nearly 39,000 women helps sort out the combined effects of physical activity and body mass on women's chances of developing heart disease, said Gulati, who wasn't involved in the research.

The study by Harvard-affiliated researchers appears in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.

Participants were women aged 54 on average who filled out a questionnaire at the study's start detailing their height, weight and amount of weekly physical activity in the past year, including walking, jogging, bicycling and swimming. They were then tracked for about 11 years. Overall 948 women developed heart disease.

• Nicholas Bakalar of The New York Times wonders if drinking lots of water is healthy. Take a look:

Numerous claims have been made about water — that it prevents headaches, removes dangerous “poisons,” improves the function of various organs and is associated with reduced risk for various diseases. But none of these is supported by scientific evidence. The authors were not even able to find a study leading to the “eight glasses a day” rule, whose origin remains unknown.

The researchers, in the June issue of The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, say some studies have found evidence that drinking extra water helps the kidneys clear sodium, and long-term sodium retention might increase the risk of hypertension, but no clinical significance for the phenomenon has been established. Water also helps clear urea, but urea is not a toxin.

• Apparently, nap time is good for us. Dennis Drabelle of The Washington Post explains:

I never used to be a napper. In fact, daytime slumber was virtually beyond a congenitally wired type like me. My buddies would catch 40 winks on the long bus ride home from our high school, but for me that was out of the question. With age, however, my metabolism has changed. After the double whammy of a late-morning run and lunch, I'm pretty much a goner. I lie down and nod off in much the same way that Marlene Dietrich fell in love in that old song of hers: because I can't help it.

While it lasted, though, my nap resistance put me in sync with the American way of sleep: Do it all at once and strictly at night. Traditionally, we've begrudged ourselves naps. They may be forced on toddlers, recommended for pregnant women and tolerated among senior citizens with nothing better to do, but they've been frowned upon for worker bees in their prime. Recently, however, sleep scientists have discovered advantages to napping, which they view not just as solace but also as something akin to brain food. No longer written off as a cop-out for the weak and the bored, the nap is coming into its own as an element of a healthy life.

• According to Jane E. Brody of The New York Times you name it and exercise can help it. Take a look:

If only the millions of others beset with chronic health problems recognized the inestimable value to their physical and emotional well-being of regular physical exercise.

“The single thing that comes close to a magic bullet, in terms of its strong and universal benefits, is exercise,” Frank Hu, epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, said in the Harvard Magazine.

• Pennsylvania is moving closer to a statewide ban on smoking. From The Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

A House-Senate conference committee claims it's getting closer to adopting a bill that would ban smoking in most Pennsylvania workplaces, but it can't seem to close the deal.

The deeply divided six-member committee had planned to meet today to vote on compromise legislation to prohibit people from lighting up in most workplaces and public places.

But late yesterday, the chairman called off the meeting, saying the bill still isn't ready despite months of negotiations.

Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, a staunch critic of smoking, said the delay should only be for "a short period," meaning, probably, a few days.

• Health insurance premiums are shooting up, while income crawls. HealthDay News is on it:

According to an analysis of government statistics being released Tuesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the average dollar amount employees must pay per year for family health coverage went up by 30 percent from 2001 to 2005. During that time, incomes increased by just 3 percent.

"Nationally, insurance premium costs are going up ten times faster than people's incomes," said RWJF spokesman Michael Berman. "And in some regions, the gap is even greater. So what we've tried to do with this report is highlight for the nation's leaders what families already know; that it's getting harder and harder to afford health insurance in America."

• New York City will soon become more bicycle-friendly. TreeHugger passes it on:

Perhaps because Mayor Bloomberg's plan for congestion pricing in New York City has failed, the Big Apple is now trying to make up for it by becoming more bicycle-friendly. As it is, 112,000 New Yorkers bicycle on an average day, an increase of 10% over the last decade. The proposal, which is part of a new Department of Transportation strategic plan, hopes to double that number by 2015, as well as

• Add 200 miles worth of new bicycle lane between 2007 and 2009
• Install 37 bicycle shelters and 5,000 bike parking racks by 2011
• Install 15 additional miles of protected on-street bike lanes by 2010 and 30 miles from 2011 to 2015

• The FDA has rejected Merck’s new cholesterol drug. Bill Berkrot of Reuters reports:

The company declined to discuss details in the so-called not approvable letter from the Food and Drug Administration. It would not comment on whether the agency had asked for further data or new clinical trials.

The drug, which was expected to be called Cordaptive, combines long-acting niacin with a new drug that prevents the flushing side effect common to niacin -- an uncomfortable sensation of burning in the face and neck that leads many patients to discontinue taking it.

Analysts widely expected the drug to be approved, especially after a committee of European regulators last week recommended it be cleared for sale there.

• Honda has invented a “walking assist device.” Big ups to Elijah for finding this one:

It's far from the only strength-boosting exoskeleton out there, but Honda's so-called "walking assist device" is one of the few that you can actually take for a test spin -- if you happen to be attending the Barrier Free 2008 trade show in Osaka, Japan next week, that is. Apparently employing some of the same technology developed by Honda for its ASIMO robot, the walking assistant is able to obtain information from hip angle sensors to help keep its wearer upright, with the device's motors also able to increase the wearer's natural stride. That, Honda says, should make the device ideal for the elderly or those with weakened leg muscles, although we're sure they could find at least a few other buyers if it ever actually hits the market at a reasonable price.

• Jacki Donaldson of That’s Fit passes along 10 quick cures for stress. Check them out:

What follows are 10 of the tips for sabotaging the stress in your life, every one somehow related to nutrition and fitness.

1. Eat a healthy breakfast
2. Eat more fiber
3. Eat oatmeal
4. Eat almonds
5. Drink black tea
6. Hydrate
7. Stretch
8. Exercise
9. Do yoga
10. Sleep

• Mike Howard of Diet Blog has got broccoli’s back. Take a look:

Broccoli also contains the phytonutrients sulforaphane, indoles, kaempferol and isothiocyanates (they'll be a test later). These difficult-to-pronounce compounds have significant anti-cancer and other health effects. Here's what the literature says about it:

• Men who ate more than a serving of either broccoli or cauliflower each week almost halved their risk of developing advanced-stage prostate cancer
• Broccoli appear to have a unique ability to eliminate Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) - a bacteria responsible for ulcers. It has even been shown to eliminate Helicobacter when resistant to antibiotics.
• Crucifers, including broccoli provide significant cardiovascular benefit. Those who diets most frequently included broccoli, tea, onions, and apples-the richest sources of flavonoids-gained a 20% reduction in their risk of heart disease.

• The Government Accountability Office claims the White House undermines the EPA. More the Associated Press:

The administration's decision to give the Defense Department and other agencies an early role in the process adds to years of delay in acting on harmful chemicals and jeopardizes the program's credibility, the Government Accountability Office concluded.

At issue is the EPA's screening of chemicals used in everything from household products to rocket fuel to determine if they pose serious risk of cancer or other illnesses.

A new review process begun by the White House in 2004 is adding more speed bumps for EPA scientists, the GAO said in its report, which will be the subject of a Senate Environment Committee hearing Tuesday. A formal policy effectively doubling the number of steps was adopted two weeks ago.

1 cup walnuts
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup pecans
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup raisins
1 cup dates, chopped
1 cup unsulfured dried apricots, chopped

Mix together and store for snack food.

Goji Oat Clusters

1 1/2 bananas
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup date sugar
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoons arrowroot powder
2/3 cup raw walnuts, ground
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup oats
1/4 cup Goji berries
1/4 cup raisins or currants
6 dates, pitted and chopped
1/2 cup raw walnuts. chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Blend bananas, applesauce, vanilla, and date sugar in blender until creamy. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, arrowroot powder, ground nuts, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the blended wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in oats, Goji berries, raisins, dates, and chopped nuts. Bake for 10 minutes.

Applenut Flax Bars

1 cup oats
4 large medjool dates, pitted and chopped
1 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup Brazil nuts, chopped
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
2 tablespoons raw cashew butter

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and press into a 9X9 glass baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and press once again. Allow to cool before slicing.

The researchers looked at magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans from 50 healthy middle-aged men and women, measuring amounts of a variety of chemicals in the white and gray matter of the brain. Gray matter consists of the bodies of nerve cells, while white matter is made up of the connections between these cells.

Five of the study participants were obese, 15 were overweight, and the remaining 30 were normal weight.

The higher a person's body mass index (BMI), the ratio of body height to weight, the lower the concentration of N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), a brain chemical that serves several functions and also acts as a marker for overall brain health, in the white matter of the brain's frontal, temporal and parietal regions. Heavier people also had less NAA in their frontal gray matter, and lower concentrations of choline-containing metabolite -- substances key to the formation of cell membranes--in their frontal white matter.

The strongest relationship between BMI and brain chemistry was seen in the white matter of the frontal region, which is believed to be particularly vulnerable to aging-related damage, the researchers note.

Obesity carries with it a lot of health complications. Here’s a brief list from Dr. Fuhrman. Take a look:

• Increased overall mortality
• Adult onset diabetes
• Hypertension
• Degenerative arthritis
• Coronary artery disease
• Obstructive sleep apnea
• Gallstones
• Fatty infiltration of the liver
• Restrictive lung disease
• Cancer

• In a study, sedentary lean and overweight people were fitted with "magical" underwear which monitored every movement of the body. Subjects were fed 1000 calories above their weight maintenance levels. People who can activate their NEAT don't gain fat when overfed, while those who don't switch on their NEAT were gaining literally 10 times more fat!
• About 30% of a person's daily expenditure comes from NEAT. (The other portions are from basal metabolism and thermic effect of eating). Those who are active have higher percentages of NEAT. This is the factor we have control over.
• NEAT burns more calories than exercise in most non-athletes.
• Levine suggests that offices, schools and other public places need to be more conducive to activity. Some ideas are walking workstations and walk-and-meet tracks, where carpet tape is laid down to map out a walking route.

Pendulum

Bridges


Decline Pushups

A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at some of the factors that inhibit people from adopting a healthier, plant-based diet. The study found that the more knowledge subjects obtained about the benefits, the more they had their questions answered, and the more prior myths were shattered with science, the more likely they were to adapt to a healthy diet and achieve good health.1 For some, change has to occur in steps, and it has to be at one’s own pace. Remember, however, that your willingness to change and your success is proportional to the knowledge you obtain. This is a knowledge-based program. Gaining the knowledge is the most critical factor to enable behavioral changes that will lead to healthier habits.

Some people will decide to ignore the life-enhancing information presented here. That decision is made on a subconscious level. A multitude of diets, nutritional supplements, and even drugs promise weight loss without changing the way you eat. This promise alone is enough to keep people from doing the work to change; it gives our subconscious minds a way out. The subconscious mind is not logical. Many of these diets have been debunked, but that doesn’t damage their allure to our subconscious minds where most decisions are made. The good news is that you are not at the mercy of your genes or your subconscious mind, and you can control your health and weight. Heart diseases, strokes, cancer, dementia, diabetes, allergies, arthritis, and other common illnesses are not predominantly genetic. They are the result of incorrect dietary choices. With knowledge, you can be empowered to make new choices by changing the way that you think.

Ideas have a life of their own. They have inertia. Once they are accepted and popular, they become difficult to displace. Much of what is now widely accepted as nutritional gospel is based on scant evidence, mistaken old notions, bad science, and myths advertised to us by food manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and the government. At this point, even scientists and physicians accept the myths and gaps in nutritional information. Many current, popular dietary notions have uncertain origins, but since they have been around a long time, they generally go unquestioned. Once they become this ingrained, they are difficult to change, and they form our cognitive health model. Due to that, when people are presented with new information that falls outside the model, it is difficult to accept.

By laying stakes on their weight-loss goals, John Dirks and Adam Orkand have stumbled upon a method — and a healthy hobby — that keeps them in shape.

After confronting their own corpulence on a February 2007 Maui vacation with their families, the friends vowed to get down to 200 pounds. In gentlemanly fashion, they decided that friendly wager would make things interesting: The loser — or "nonloser" — would pay the winner $200…

… After three months of careful eating, exercise, daily weigh-ins and good-natured jibes, both men had met their goal. And they've kept the weight off for more than a year. So in December, the two decided to share their experience and success by creating www.fatbet.net, a largely noncommercial Web site that allows the public to place their own fatbets.

"We originally created the site for guys, since they didn't seem to have a place to go for support," says Dirks.

"And men are often in denial," Orkand adds, "thinking they're still in shape for football when they're actually carrying 20 or 30 extra pounds."

Nonetheless, Fatbet is a gender-neutral, free tool. An on-screen graph plots weight entries in relation to a gradually descending blue line. The guys found immediate feedback particularly motivational.

Well, I’m not a gambling man, and, I’m not sure how I feel about Fatbet, but, I guess you could get SOME social support from it and social support is a very important part of good health. Dr. Fuhrman explains:

Despite medical advances, 85 percent of Americans will still die from heart disease, cancer, or diabetes. The real key to longevity is not better treatment; it is prevention. By comparison with our sickly nation, people who survive past 100 years are remarkably disease-free. They are generally physically active, independent, and socially connected. They are not the feeble stereotypes that we often associate with getting old. This is not merely about living longer; it is also about staying younger and healthier into your later years, so life can be enjoyed to its fullest.

It’s radical and I’m not one to openly condone gambling, but if betting can help get you slim and healthy—what the heck!

Whey protein is incontrovertibly one of the most widely used and accepted forms of protein available in supplement form. While some people avoid whey because it is a derivative of milk and/or milk products, others make a whey protein shake or two part of their daily diet. But, enter into any GNC or Vitamin Shoppe store and you'll immediately feel a wave of whey protein confusion roll right over you. There are so many brands and types of protein to choose from…

…Starting first with whey protein concentrate, this form of whey protein is not as potent as isolate. It can contain anywhere between 29 and 89 percent protein. And, as the amount of protein in concentrate decreases, the amount of fat and/or lactose usually increases. As for whey protein isolate, this purer version contains at least 90 percent protein and little to no fat and lactose.

The whey fad is way overdone. Go to any gym and you’ll see dozens of people sucking down protein shakes and, like Chris says, there are so many brands and types, but according to Dr. Fuhrman, they’re all equally worthless:

Consider that the maximum muscle mass the human body can typically add in one week is about one pound. That is the upper limit of the muscle fiber’s capacity to make protein into muscle; any protein beyond that is simply converted to fat. It also is not necessarily advisable to gain a pound of muscle per week. Although athletes have a greater protein requirement than sedentary individuals, this is easily obtained through the diet. The use of protein supplements is not merely a waste of money, it is unhealthy.

Studies on supplemental amino acid consumption have not supported claims that such supplementation increases growth hormone or provides other touted benefits. In fact, increased whey protein added to the diet of rats increased tumors and cancers.

Frankly, protein shakes and diet drinks strike me as unnatural. And the hoopla over protein is even more overblown. Maybe that’s why, in another post, Chris wants to know if you’ve got enough protein in your diet. Take a look:

Every body is different, just as everyone's lifestyles are different. To that end, the amount of protein one person may require may be vastly different than another. Fortunately, there has been research done on this very topic, producing some semblance of an answer.

According to a study published in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, people who train at least 12 hours per week for at least five years need 1.37 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day to maintain their nitrogen balance. Sedentary individuals, according to the study, require only 0.73 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. This is not to say that you'll shrivel up and die if you fail to get this amount of protein every day. This is merely the amount suggested to maintain muscle mass over a longer period of time.

Dr. Fuhrman insists if you’re eating a healthy diet, you’re getting plenty of protein. There’s no need worry. He explains:

The average American consumes about fifty percent more protein than the recommended daily amount. Yet we often see—in addition to misinformed athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and bodybuilders—businessmen and women, homemakers, and those seeking to lose weight turning to protein powders, drinks, and nutritional bars in their quest for even more protein.

It is true that resistance training and endurance workouts can break down muscle protein and increase our need for protein to fuel repair and growth. But the increased need of protein is proportional to the increased need for calories burned with the exercise. As your appetite increases, you increase your caloric intake accordingly, and your protein intake increases proportionally. If you meet those increased caloric demands from heavy exercise with an ordinary assortment of natural plant foods—vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts, which contain more than 50 grams of protein per 1000 calories—you will get the precise amount of extra protein you need.

Personally, I don’t worry about my protein intake. Like Dr. Fuhrman says, focus on the micronutrient quality of your diet, not the macronutrient density—protein is a macronutrient.

1. Lifting incredibly slowly builds incredibly big muscles: "The best increases in strength are achieved by doing the up phase as rapidly as possible," says Gary Hunter, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., the lead study author. "Lower the weight more slowly and under control." There's greater potential for growth during the lowering phase, and when you lower with control, there's less chance of injury.
2. If you eat more protein, you'll build more muscle: More important is when you consume protein, and that you have the right balance of carbohydrates with it. Have a postworkout shake of three parts carbohydrates and one part protein.
3. Leg extensions are safer for your knees than squats: "The knee joint is controlled by the quadriceps and the hamstrings. Balanced muscle activity keeps the patella in place and appears to be more easily attained in closed-chain exercises," says Anki Stensdotter, the lead study author.
4. Never exercise a sore muscle: If you're not sore to the touch and you have your full range of motion, go to the gym. Start with 10 minutes of cycling, then exercise the achy muscle by performing no more than three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions using a weight that's no heavier than 30 percent of your one-rep maximum, says David Docherty, Ph.D., a professor of exercise science at the University of Victoria in Canada.
5. Stretching prevents injuries: Warming up is what prevents injury, by slowly increasing your bloodflow and giving your muscles a chance to prepare for the upcoming activity. To this end, Dr. Gilchrist suggests a thorough warmup, as well as conditioning for your particular sport.
6. You need a Swiss ball to build a stronger chest and shoulders: A Swiss ball is great for variety, but center your chest and shoulder routines on exercises that are performed on a stable surface, Ballantyne says. Then use the ball to work your abs.
7. Always work out with free weights: Free-weight exercises mimic athletic moves and generally activate more muscle mass. If you're a seasoned lifter, free weights are your best tools to build strength or burn fat.

The researchers focused on health records from more than 175,000 ethnically diverse women who gave birth in a dozen Kaiser hospitals in Southern California from 1999 to 2005. Experts believe the findings likely reflect the overall U.S. population.

The actual number of pregnant women with pre-existing diabetes was small. In 1999, there were 245 such women; by 2005, there were 537. That translates to a rate that rose from 8 per 1,000 pregnancies to 18 per 1,000.

The rate increased the greatest among 13- to 19-year-olds giving birth. It ballooned from about 1 per 1,000 pregnancies to 5.5 per 1,000 during the seven-year period.

Blacks, Asians and Hispanics were more likely to have diabetes before pregnancy than whites.

The rise of diabetes among women of childbearing age mirrors the prevalence of the disease in the general population. The most common form of diabetes is Type 2, which is linked to obesity.

About 15 million people in the United States are diagnosed with diabetes, and 1.5 million new cases were diagnosed in people age 20 and older in 2005, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Soon thereafter Hannah’s behavior began spiraling downward, until she was eventually diagnosed with autism in 2001. Then late last year the government reached a settlement with the Poling family on the theory that the vaccinations she received might have aggravated an underlying mitochondrial condition, thus contributing to Hannah’s autism.

Although the case has been touted as proof that vaccines contribute to autism, public health experts and vaccine advocates disagree.

“Scientific evidence has failed to confirm any link between vaccination and various disorders, including but not limited to autism,” explains Tara C. Smith of Aetiology, “Studies have shown again and again that any risk that comes from vaccines is negligible compared to the risk of contracting the infectious agent.”

But the case has nonetheless fueled parents’ concerns about having their kids vaccinated.

“I feel vaccines contribute to autism…The vaccine schedule is driven by profits the pharmaceutical companies make by convincing parents and physicians that they must vaccinate their kids,” explains one mother of a child with autism living in Clinton, New Jersey.

And the recent push to make the HPV and flu vaccine mandatory only feeds the worry and criticism. So, as public concern and outcry continues to build, shouldn’t parents have the right to decide exactly what their child does or does not get stuck with?

“Like all medications, immunizations are not without risks and the risk-benefit ratio has to be considered for each individual and each immunization individually, in a rational attempt to reduce overall risk,” explains Dr. Joel Fuhrman, MD, author of Eat For Health and Disease-Proof Your Child.

“My philosophy has always been to teach and inform, so patients can make decisions they feel most comfortable with. This also includes allowing individuals to make choices that I might not always agree with,” said Dr. Fuhrman.

Now, to public health experts the prospect of an unvaccinated population is unfair.

“People think of measles and chicken pox as these benign childhood diseases…But obviously kids who’ve died from them aren’t around to lend their voices to the debate,” said Tara C. Smith. “These parents say they won’t ‘sacrifice’ their children to the ‘greater good,’ so instead they put all our children at risk.”

But for others the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and public officials creates concern.

“In 2001 the Homeland Security Act introduced a provision to protect drug manufacturers from liability should any of their vaccines ever be proven to cause harm…This is basically acknowledging that there is harm,” said Robyn O’Brien, founder of AllergyKids.com.

That’s why Mrs. O’Brien encourages parents to obtain the package insert from the vaccine manufacturer that comes in the box of vaccines delivered to the pediatrician’s office, before you inject your child with anything. These inserts list all the risks of a particular vaccine. (An online listing of vaccine inserts can be found at The Institute for Vaccine Safety).

Mrs. O’Brien feels most pediatricians are so busy seeing patients that they don’t have time to familiarize themselves with the information on the insert, so, it’s up to parents to seek out all relevant information.

Maureen Drummond, founder and spokeswomen for The NJ Coalition for Vaccination Choice (NJCVC) offered this piece of advice. “Don’t be motivated by fear…Pull out all the stops to gather that information before you vaccinate. Go beyond what public health, doctors, and manufacturers put out there. Look for that package insert!”

The NJCVC supports the passage of legislation that will provide a conscientious belief exemption to mandatory vaccinations. “A ‘Conscientious Exemption’ acknowledges that every individual needs to reserve the right to refuse any procedure, including vaccinations that carry the risk of injury or death,” explains Mrs. Drummond.

Currently most parents rely on religious exemptions to avoid having their children vaccinated. However, a religious exemption requires a doctor’s support and is commonly challenged by school nurses. Conscientious Exemptions would alleviate the need to claim belief in a higher power and would allow a rightful exemption based solely on parental decision.

With valuable information merely a keystroke away, parents and caregivers are better educated than in years past, so if they’re willing to do their homework and make an informed decision, shouldn’t they be rewarded with the right to vaccinate or not to vaccinate?

When Swedish researchers surveyed 103 pregnant women about their alcohol use and also tested their urine and hair to check for alcohol byproducts, they found that seven had levels "highly suspicious of heavy drinking," but just one admitted to drinking at all.

"You cannot solely rely on the self-reports given by the women; you have to add some other measure of (alcohol) consumption to get a better test of how many women consume (alcohol) during pregnancy," Dr. Inger Sundstrom Poromaa of Uppsala University, who led the study, told Reuters Health…

…Ninety-four of the women studied, or 91 percent, said they hadn't consumed alcohol at all during their pregnancy. Of the nine who admitted to drinking while pregnant, six said they drank once a month or less often, while three said they drank two to four times a month. Seven said they had one to two glasses of wine each time that they drank, one said she had three to four glasses, and another did not report how much alcohol she consumed.

However, hair tests detected alcohol use in 19 of the women, with levels in seven suggestive of heavy drinking. Based on the results, 25 percent of the women did in fact drink alcohol during pregnancy, but just 8.7 percent admitted to doing so on the AUDIT questionnaire.

Now, Dr. Fuhrman considers alcohol as one of the things you shouldn’t consume while pregnant, and, he points out that alcohol is very problematic for good health. Take a look:

Moderate drinking is defined as a maximum of two drinks for men. Consuming more than this is associated with increased fat around the waist and other potential problems.1 For example, alcohol consumption leads to mild withdrawal sensations the next day that are commonly mistaken for hunger, which leads people to eat more than is genuinely necessary, resulting in weight gain.

When you’re eating for health, it’s definitely drink at your own risk—that probably goes double if your pregnant.

Twenty years ago, Dr. R. J. Shephard of the University of Toronto in Ontario and his colleagues proposed that adequate aerobic capacity was a key factor in helping very old people to maintain a high quality of life and live independently. In a review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Shephard analyzes the latest data on the issue.

Regular aerobic exercise improves the body's ability to take in oxygen and use it, but a person's maximal aerobic power falls steady as people age.

According to Shephard, studies of aerobic training response in older people have shown that workouts, especially more intense physical activity maintained for a longer duration, can improve aerobic power. In fact, seven studies of this type of exercise found people's aerobic power increased nearly 25 percent -- equivalent to reversing 12 years' worth of aging-related loss of fitness.

Based on his review, Shephard concludes that elderly people who engage in progressive aerobic training can maintain their independence longer, in effect by turning back the clock on the loss of aerobic fitness that occurs with aging.

So, what are you waiting for? Get moving! And why not give these exercises a try:

• 5 Push-Ups of Power
• Exercise, Have a Ball!
• Tai Chi and Diabetes
• Exercise...Like a Superhero!
• A Forrest of Core Fitness

Foods that are refined, including chips, cookies, bread, and pasta, lose a dramatic amount of their nutrients in the refinement process. Plus, the process that browns foods and turns a grain into a baked flake or chip creates acrylamides—carcinogens that make these foods even more harmful. These processed foods are not only nutrient-poor, but they also contain elements that contribute to our health problems. They are typically high in salt, chemical food additives, trans fats, MSG, sodium nitrate, and other unhealthy ingredients.

So, ignore the hype surrounding this latest marketing fad, and, ignore the snacking advice of this loopy dietician:

The 100-Calorie Healthy Snacks

• 7 baby carrots (five calories each)
• 2 tsp. all-natural almond butter or peanut butter (about 66 calories)

• Small fruit salad
• 1 TB slivered almonds (33 calories)

• 2 TB hummus (50 calories)
• 5 baby carrots
• As many cucumber and celery sticks as you'd like

• 1/2 medium banana (55 calories)
• 1-2 TB shredded coconut (for dipping!) (30 calories)

Sure, these all sound like good options, but personally, I don’t count calories. I just eat lots and lots of healthy food. Like today, for lunch I had an entire bag of baby spinach again—yes, an entire bag!

Gayle Orner at Oregon State University in Corvallis added the carcinogens dibenzopyrene (DBP) or aflatoxin to the feed of trout for one month, with or without the food dyes Red 40 - one of six recently linked to hyperactivity in children - or Blue 2.

Nine months later, trout that had been fed either of the dyes in combination with aflatoxin had 50 per cent fewer liver tumours, compared with those that had been exposed to aflatoxin alone. Trout that had been fed DBP in combination with Red 40 had a 50 per cent lower incidence of stomach cancer and a 40 per cent lower incidence of liver cancer.

"The public perception is that food dyes are bad, but some of them may have good points as well," says Orner, who presented her results at the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego, California, last week.

Bizarre and about to get bizarre-er. Apparently flavored milk may be just as “healthy” as plain milk. Reuters reports:

Using national survey data on more than 7,500 2- to 18-year-olds, researchers found that those who drank flavored milk had similar intakes of calcium, vitamin A, potassium and saturated fat as those who drank only plain milk.

And both groups, the study found, got more of these nutrients than children who drank no milk at all.

One reason parents might be wary of chocolate or strawberry milk is that the added sugar might encourage excess weight gain. But in this study, milk drinkers and non-drinkers had a similar average body mass index (BMI), the researchers report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

These studies are exactly the kind of junk-science that causes people to run out and buy harmful food—in this case dye and milk—for starters, milk is no health food. Dr. Fuhrman explains:

There are many good reasons not to consume dairy. For example, there is a strong association between diary lactose and ischemic heart disease.1 There is also a clear association between high-growth-promoting foods such as dairy products and cancer. There is a clear association between milk consumption and testicular cancer.2 Dairy fat is also loaded various toxins and is the primary source of our nation’s high exposure to dioxin.3 Dioxin is a highly toxic chemical compound that even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency admits is a prominent cause of many types of cancer in those consuming dairy fat, such as butter and cheese.4 Cheese is also a power inducer of acid load, which increases calcium loss further.5

Now, as for food dye, listen, if you’re really looking to prevent cancer, just stick with fruits and veggies. More from Dr. Fuhrman:

Foods are nutrient dense when they contain a high level of micronutrients per calorie. Vegetables win the award for the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. Therefore, as you move forward in your quest for nutritional excellence, you will eat more and more vegetables. In containing the most nutrients per calorie, vegetables have the most powerful association with protection from heart disease and cancer.

Flavored milk and food dye? Welcome to bizarro world.

Actually, it’s pretty bad. I just scanned through the lunch and dinner menu and both menus don’t offer much for the discerning nutritarian. I kind of expected it. As an Italian guy, I can tell you firsthand, since I started eating a vegetable-based nutrient-dense diet. I’ve cut out A LOT of traditional Italian favorites; things like pizza, chicken parmesan, lasagna, antipasto, and meatballs.

Sure, now I’m the black sheep at family get-togethers, but that doesn’t bother me. I’ve been crazy for years. So eating lots of fruits and vegetables and doing Yoga is pretty tame for me. Okay, enough about me, back to the Girasole’s menu.

Okay, I’ll start with the appetizers. Well, there’s a whole mess of them—mess being the operative word—lots of gooey cheese, sausage, and prosciutto. Yeah, not exactly health-promoting, but, there are two menu items I could roll with.

The first is the Funghi Trifolati. It’s made with Portabello mushrooms, domestic mushrooms, sautéed white wine, herbs, garlic, and bread crumbs. Not perfect, I know. But comparatively speaking, it’s not bad. The sautéing and the bread crumbs are a concession, but mushrooms are great and so is garlic—right?

Next up is the Vongole in Bianco or Rosso. Relax you don’t need to know Italian. It’s prepared with clams, and your choice of white wine and garlic broth, marinara, or far diavolo sauce. This one is certainly iffy. According to Oceans Alive clams have some contamination issues. So, even if I ordered them with the marinara sauce—which I would—I’d still have to deal with the typical seafood concession.

Alright, truth be told. I probably wouldn’t eat either of these appetizers, but in a pinch and if for some reason I HAD to order an appetizer. I’d go with Funghi Trifolati. Hey, let’s just move onto the salads!

Now, the Insalate is not the slam dunk it can sometimes be. For example, consider the Mozzarella Fresca e Pomodoro. It’s hardly a salad—this is actually a pretty common Italian food—its just mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, basil, and olive oil. Not exactly a salad packed with phyonutrients—egad!

As for the real salads, I like the Tre Colori—in fact, I think this is the best option overall—it’s prepared with arugula, radicchio, Belgian endive, and lemon vinaigrette. Nothing too bad here, just order the vinaigrette on the side and you should be all set—agreed?

At first the Capricciosa caught my eye, until I looked closely. The lead ingredient is organic greens—GREAT—right? But it quickly gets a whole lot worse; provolone cheese, olives, and salami. I saw that stuff and all I could say was, “Feets don’t fail me now!” No thanks.

And that’s it folks. I don’t see anything else I’d consider ordering. There are pasta dishes, but I hardly eat pasta anymore and none of Girasole’s are worth taking the refined pasta hit. Like I said, when you’re an Italian nutritarian a lot of your traditional ethnic food goes out the window.

Alright, now it’s your turn. Perhaps I’m in a stupor. Maybe Girasole really is a great place for nutritarians to grab a meal. So do me a favor, check out Girasole’s menu and let me know how you handle Eating to Live on the Outside. Make a comment or send an email to diseaseproof@gmail.com. Until then, eat wisely! Peace.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has moved to ban certain cattle parts from being used in animal feed. Reuters reports:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees animal feed, said excluding high-risk materials from cattle 30 months of age or older from all animal feed will prevent any accidental cross-contamination between ruminant feed (intended for animals such as cattle) and non-ruminant feed or feed ingredients.

The new rule takes effect in April, 2009.

Contamination could occur during manufacture, transport or through the accidental misfeeding of non-ruminant feed to ruminant animals.

Canada and the United States banned the inclusion of protein from cows and other ruminant animals such as goats and sheep in cattle feed in 1997, following a mad cow outbreak in Britain.

Could this help restore consumer confidence? Because as it stands right now Americans are losing faith in the FDA. From Business Wire:

Majorities of U.S. adults give negative ratings for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on a number of measures, such as ensuring new drugs come to market quickly (60% negative) and managing recalls or withdrawals when safety concerns arise (53%). The perception that the FDA does a good job ensuring the safety and efficacy of new prescription drugs (35% positive) has declined from 45 percent in 2007 and 56 percent in 2004, even though the general population considers this to be the most important task for the FDA to focus on (61%).

Further, only 26 percent think the FDA does a good job ensuring the safety of prescription drugs that are manufactured outside the U.S. This is no surprise, particularly coming on the heels of the recent Heparin contamination incident, which stemmed from materials made in China.

Granted, the report focuses on prescription drugs, but, you’ve got to admit. The FDA could do a better job keeping tabs on things. Two examples:

• A Very Meaty Recall...
• Spinach Points

Japan does not plan to halt imports of U.S. beef after the discovery of a U.S. shipment that included parts banned due to the risk of mad cow disease, Japan's government spokesman told a news conference on Thursday.

Tokyo has suspended imports from the meatpacker that supplied the beef, a National Beef Packing Co plant in California, after the discovery. "It seems it was shipped to Japan by mistake," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.

"I don't think there is a need to suspend imports," he said.

But Machimura added that Japan would increase testing, aiming to check 10 percent of incoming U.S. beef cargoes, up from the current 1 percent.

You can’t discount the bravery of the Japanese, I wouldn’t eat any beef, mad cow disease-risk or not. Why is red meat bad? Check out: War Against Cancer, Serve Beef?

A California mother sued Nalge Nunc International Corp, claiming the company knew, but downplayed risks, that a toxic substance in its popular Nalgene plastic sports bottles could leach into the bottles' contents and sicken consumers.

The case, filed on Tuesday, is believed to be the first consumer class action over the use of Bisphenol A, or BPA, in plastic sports bottles since Canada moved to ban baby bottles containing the substance and the U.S. government expressed concern over its safety last week…

…The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, accuses Nalge Nunc of continuing to assert that BPA is safe long after dozens of studies linked the substance to hormone disruptions, infertility, early puberty, and cancer.

The lawsuit was brought by Lani Felix-Lozano, who said she bought the company's reusable beverage containers for herself and her two daughters, now ages 11 and 13, for several years.

To be on the safe side, I was at the store looking at stainless-steel water bottles yesterday—a tad pricey!

I was surfing the newswires and this Dunkin’ Donuts advertisement caught my eye, and, annoyed the heck out of me! Take a look:

Clearly, being overweight or obese is bad for your health, but, is it suicide? You decide. Check out these ads from This is my book:

(Via Diet Blog.)

The low-fat food craze is almost as perverse as the low-carb craze. Most low-fat foods are hardly the healthy alternatives they are marketed to be. Jacki Donaldson of That’s Fit explores the issue in, “Low-fat foods are not free foods.” Here’s a bit:

Visions of low-fat Wheat Thins are swimming through my head right now -- I've been known to demolish a whole box of these treats.

I remember during my sweet-tooth days enjoying an occasional package of fat-free Twizzlers. Fat-free. Smart choice, right? Nope.

No matter how low-fat the food, calories still matter most. Eating low-calorie foods such as veggies means you can eat larger amounts. But starchy foods, like rice, bread, and yes, Wheat Thins, are higher in calories. Which makes them bad for weight loss and management.

Jacki’s right. These low-fat foods are bupkis! Just take a look at the nutrition facts for Low-Fat Wheat Thins and Strawberry Twizzlers:

The study, which appears in the April 15 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Research, focused on fat from corn oil, which is made up primarily of omega-6 fatty acids — the polyunsaturated fat commonly found in the Western diet. Omega-6 fats are found in high levels in baked and fried goods, said William Aronson, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and the study's senior author.

Researchers fed one group of mice a diet with roughly 40 percent of its calories coming from fat, a percentage typical in men eating a Western diet. The other group received a diet with 12 percent of calories from fat, considered a very low-fat diet. Researchers found a 27 percent reduced incidence of prostate cancer in the low-fat diet group.

Aronson also studied cells in the prostate that were precancerous, or would soon become cancer, and found that the cells in the mice eating the low-fat diet grew much slower than those in the high-fat group.

Yeah, if you’re looking to avoid any kind of cancer, you’ve got to eat plenty of plant foods. Take fruit for example. More from Dr. Fuhrman:

Fruit is an indispensable requirement to maintain a high level of health. Fruit consumption has been shown to offer the strongest protection against certain cancers, especially oral, esophageal, lung, prostate, and pancreatic cancer.1

And dairy products are no better. Here’s Dr. Fuhrman again. Take a look:

When the death rates for prostate cancer and testicular cancer were examined in forty-two countries and correlated with dietary practices in a carefully designed study, they found that cheese consumption was most closely linked with the incidence of testicular cancer for ages twenty to thirty-nine, and milk was the most closely associated with prostate cancer of all foods.2 Meat, coffee, and animal fats also showed a positive correlation.

Its got to be hard concocting all the fairytales of the benefits of high-fat diets.

Food prices have doubled as commodities prices have soared around the world. This puts people on the brink over the edge and may cause widespread starvation and rioting (some of which we’ve already see in Cairo, Mexico City, and the Philippines). The crisis is so bad that this week President Bush released $200 million in emergency food funding to help nations in need.

Walk through the slums of Mumbai, wonder out into the rural areas of Third World countries, as I have, and you’ll see how little margin for food error there is. This is serious. These are lives.

The World Food Bank reports that its reserves are the lowest they have been in about 30 years. Rice and wheat have become so expensive that nations have stopped exporting them. This causes panic and problems the likes of which the world has never seen. Meanwhile, recent health reports show the obesity rate for US adults stands at 64%. The Environmental Protection Agency says one of the most common items at landfills is tossed food

Okay, America might have a lot of food, but we eat too much of the wrong stuff—that’s why we’re so fat! It’s the quality of food that’s important. Dr. Fuhrman talks about it in his new book Eat For Health. Here’s a bit:

What makes a food healthy is how many nutrients it delivers to your body. In other words, for optimal health we must eat foods that are rich in nutrients, in particular, foods that deliver the maximum nutrients in each calorie. This can be a strange concept for many people because they are accustomed to judging whether or not a food is healthy by analyzing how many calories, fat grams, or carbohydrates it has. Try to wipe those ingrained ideas from your mind. With this plan, your primary concern will be the nutrients in the foods you eat. However, to eat this way, we must first understand what nutrients are and which foods are richest in them…

…Eating foods that are rich in micronutrients is essential to achieving optimal health. A micronutrient-heavy diet supplies your body with 14 different vitamins, 25 different minerals, and more than 10,000 phytochemicals, which are plant-based chemicals that have profound effects on human cell function and the immune system. Foods that are naturally rich in these nutrients are also rich in fiber and water and are naturally low in calories, meaning they have a low caloric density. These low-calorie, high-nutrient foods provide the ingredients that enable your body’s self-healing and self-repairing mechanisms.

News like this worries me, because a lot of developing countries see America and start to emulate the good and—unfortunately—the bad too and the Standard American Diet is NOT something worth copying.

An organization of state restaurants asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to stop the city from immediately implementing a requirement that some chain restaurants post calories on menus.

The New York State Restaurant Association said in court papers submitted to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that implementation should be blocked because the case raises legal issues that the courts have yet to address.

The widely expected request came after U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell ruled last week that the city requirement was constitutional and might help the city achieve its goal of reducing obesity.

He held off enforcement of the requirement until Friday so the restaurant association could appeal. Restaurants breaking the rule will not be fined until at least June 6.

Who knows if it’ll actually help curb the city’s weight problems, but shouldn’t people know exactly what’s in their food—any thoughts?

• Wow, who would have thought? Smoking and obesity shortens women’s lives. The AFP reports:

Life expectancy has declined for many women in the United States, largely due to smoking-related diseases and obesity, a study published Tuesday showed.

Nearly one in five US women saw the number of years they are expected to live decline or hold steady, starting in the 1980s, showed the joint study by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Washington.

The study looked at data from more than 2,000 county "units" between 1959 and 2001.

• Tara Parker-Pope of The New York Times explores the plastic-BPA issue. Here’s a bit:

BPA migrates into food from polycarbonate plastic bottles or the epoxy resin coatings that line canned food. The typical adult ingests an estimated 1 microgram of BPA for every kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight. Babies who use polycarbonate bottles and formula from cans get more, an estimated 10 micrograms per kilogram of body weight. A microgram represents a trace amount. Consider this: a single M&M is about a gram. If you cut it into 100,000 slices, one slice would equal about 10 micrograms.

The 2003-4 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found detectable levels of BPA in 93 percent of urine samples collected from more than 2,500 adults and children over 6.

• Officials are looking to ban “downer cattle” from entering the food supply. More from the Associated Press:

Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer wasn't able to estimate how many additional cattle might be affected by a total ban, and the overall economic impact is difficult to calculate, though Mark Dopp, of the American Meat Institute, said it wasn't expected to be significant. Dairy farmers get several hundred dollars for each cow they sell for slaughter.

Undercover video taken at Westland/Hallmark Meat in Chino, Calif., showed workers shocking cattle and pushing them with forklifts to force them to slaughter. That led to the recall of 143 million pounds of beef, though authorities said the health risks were minimal.

Downer cows are more prone to infections such as mad-cow disease, partly because they typically wallow in feces.

• A new study claims “eating locally” has little effect on global warming. From National Geographic News:

On average, food racks up about 1,000 food miles (or 1,650 "food kilometers") traveling from farms to processing or packaging plants before reaching Americans' dinner plates, the study estimates.

The whole supply chain—including delivering grains to feed cattle and delivering fuel to farms, for example—adds another 4,200 miles (6,750 kilometers).

Yet all that shipping, driving, and flying accounts for only a sliver of foods' climate impact—just 11 percent of the total—compared with the impact from producing the food itself, the study showed.

• Bad news for Chipotle, their restaurants are being linked to a disease outbreak. From the U.S. News & World Report:

About 180 people who ate at a Chipotle restaurant near Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, became sick with a gastrointestinal illness, the Akron Beacon Journal reports. Health officials began investigating the outbreak after people started arriving at local emergency rooms complaining of diarrhea, nausea, and severe vomiting.

Many of those affected were Kent State students who had eaten burritos at the restaurant on Thursday and Friday. Some had donated blood and gotten a coupon for free food at the restaurant, according to WLWT, the Cincinnati NBC affiliate.

• Amidst the push to go green, plastic bags are becoming a scourge. More from The CBS Early Show:

While most environmentalists take aim at plastic, paper comes from trees, and processing bags creates greenhouse gases.

So, Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman points out, the best bag is the one you can use again and again -- provided you remember to bring it with you to the store -- and can get out of the habit of using them!

Some are even becoming fashion statements! The now chic "I'm not a plastic bag" by designer Anya Hindmarch quickly sold out in London and New York at $15 each, but are readily available at more than double that price on eBay!

• TreeHugger takes a look at BPA-free aluminum water bottles. Check it out:

In our post on Bisphenol A from Nalgene water bottles and other polycarbonate bottles, a number of commenters asked about the lining in SIGG aluminum bottles, expressing concern that their linings might leach BPA. So we asked them, and received a response from the CEO, Steve Wasik. He says that SIGG uses a proprietary liner formula from a Swiss supplier with "an impeccable reputation for quality" but that "as there are many copy-cat manufacturers in the market (most based in China) that would like to get their hands on this formula, our supplier has an agreement with SIGG to keep his formula confidential."

Wasik continues: "Very thorough migration testing in laboratories around the world is conducted regularly and has consistently shown SIGG aluminum bottles to have no presence of lead, phthalates, Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), Bysphenol A (BPA), Bysphenol B (BPB) or any other chemicals which scientists have deemed as potentially harmful.

• Big surprise, the least healthy breakfast cereals are marketed the heaviest. Reuters reports:

Breakfast cereals for children are less healthy than cereals meant for adults, and those marketed the most aggressively to kids have the worst nutritional quality, according to a new analysis of 161 brands.

"The cereal the parent is eating him or herself is probably better than what they're feeding their child," Dr. Marlene B. Schwartz of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, the lead researcher on the study, told Reuters Health.

Schwartz and her colleagues also found that health claims made for kids' cereals were often misleading. Cereals sold as "low fat" or "low sugar" were not lower in calories, as parents might assume, and while brands touted as "whole grain" did have more fiber, they had just as much salt, sugar and fat as other brands and the same calorie content.

• Freakonomics asks the question, “How Is New York Like a Japanese Farm Stand?” Take a look:

New Yorkers handed over $45 million in internet sales tax last year alone. Still, that’s less than half of what the government thinks it’s owed.

So, starting in June, 2008, New York will require the largest online retailers to collect sales tax on purchases shipped to the Empire State.

Japanese farmers have had somewhat better luck with the honor system, which they employ in thousands of unmanned produce stands across the country. Many of the stands see payment rates approaching 90 percent. But in Japan, as in New York, the free ride may be coming to an end, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports, as farmers start to insist on being paid in full.

• According to new research, aerobic exercise may protect the brain against aging. Reuters is on it:

In an analysis of pooled data from previous clinical trials, researchers in the Netherlands found that when healthy adults older than 55 improved their fitness through aerobic exercise, there was also often an improvement in memory, attention or other mental abilities.

The findings appear in the Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

Aerobic exercise is any activity, such as brisk walking, that gets the heart rate up and imp