Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

• At 66 years old rock and roll immortal, Sir Paul McCartney, isn’t slowing down. In fact, the newly named Fireman does Yoga six times a day. He does eye Yoga, something he picked up during a recent trip to India. It involves various eye movements to keep the eye muscles strong; from Healthy Hollywood.

• New findings in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggest postmenopausal women who exercise more have improved mental and physical wellbeing. Participants in all 3 exercise groups (the fourth was a control group) reported better quality of life and weight-loss of up to 4.10 pounds; via HealthDay News.

• The United Kingdom Conservative Party has placed a bid to change the law for stricter country-of-origin labeling of meat. Current regulations allow imported meat to be processed in Britain, i.e. made into prepared meals, sausage, pies and other foods, but labeled as British meat; FoodNavigator reports.

• Apparently an owner of the peanut company linked to the deadly peanut butter-salmonella outbreak that caused 600 illnesses and 8 deaths, urged his workers to ship tainted products after receiving test results identifying salmonella contamination. The owner was worried about lost sales; ENN explains.

• Another study in the Archives of Internal Medicine claims bad sleeping habits might cause psychiatric illnesses, like depression, or lead to unusual behavior that may cause doctors to mistakenly diagnosis someone with mental problems and prescribe unnecessary psychoactive drugs; NewScientists reports.

• A U.S. court has ruled against three families who claimed vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella vaccine caused their children's autism, concluding that the families were misled, saying evidence does support that thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative, damages immune systems; from Reuters.

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Salmonella in peanut butter is gross! But there’s something much creeper lurking in our food. The FDA calls them “natural contaminants” and they’re found in everything from curry, tomato paste, mushrooms and beer, stuff like bug eggs, mites, parasites, sand, grit and even rodent hair. A can of mushrooms may contain more than 20 maggots per 100 grams, curry is allowed 100 or more bug pieces per 25 grams and an 18-ounce jar of peanut butter can have roughly 125 milligrams of grit or 5 rodent hairs; The New York Times reports.

Good excuse to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Just be sure to wash them. Pesticide residue can ruin your day, i.e. boosting cancer-risk. Raw milk is another gross food too. To date, 26 states prohibit the sale of raw milk for human consumption. Cows’ stomachs host a variety of nasty buggers, like salmonella, E. coli and listeria. All can kill you.

Yucky, I just puked in my mouth a little. The bug remnants thing reminds me of the FDA’s crackdown on using crushed beetles to make foods red and purple.

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Amid a salmonella-peanut butter outbreak in the United States, this news from Japan, upcoming research found one-fifth of minced chicken from Japan was contaminated with salmonella. The analysis, conducted by a professor of veterinary microbiology at Tenshi College in Sapporo, Japan, examined 820 samples of chicken with a confirmed place of origin and determined 163 were tainted with salmonella. Japan’s 20% is very high, compared to the 4% to 9% uncovered during similar testing in Britain, Italy and Spain; The Asahi Shimbun reports.

Perhaps worse, right here in the U.S. a previous study revealed poultry trucks rumbling down the road leave behind a trail antibiotic-resistant bacteria, specifically Enterococcus, which is harmful to people’s health and puts residents living alongside roads traveled by chicken trucks at risk.

Oh man, all this talk about poultry trucks and salmonella is rekindling my fear of melamine milk and E. coli spinach. Eek!

Via TreeHugger.

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• In the Netherlands, a third person has died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human form of mad cow disease. Humans can contract mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, by eating meat from infected cows. Since 2005, two people have died from mad cow in the Netherlands; via Reuters.

• Investigators reveal the chopped peanuts, imported to the Blakely, Georgia plant, responsible for the salmonella-peanut butter outbreak contained a putrid substance later identified as metal fragments. And officials claim the FDA failed to adequately analyze the adulterated peanuts; from the Associated Press.

• Bad news for mushrooms too! A Pennsylvania farm has recalled enoki mushrooms because they may be contaminated with Listeria. The mushrooms were shipped to retailers in the U.S. and Canada. Listeria is not normally fatal, but can be in people with weakened immune systems; FoxNews reports.

• A British mother was given a suspended sentence after her 3-year old was filmed smoking. In the video the kids puts a cigarette into his mouth, lights it with a lighter and draws smoke into his lungs and does it with some accomplishment. He puffs away while his mother babbles on her phone; CNN investigates.

• Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is imploring America’s food processors to willingly cut sodium in foods by 25% over the next 10 years or NYC will impose laws on salt similar to those on smoking and calorie-content; via The New York Times.

• Speaking of New York City, a bakery in Greenwich Village started selling racist cookies in honor of our new president called “drunken negro head” cookies, igniting a firestorm of angry customers. The dope who knows the place said he is not racist, it’s all for fun and the cookies are art; from the Gothamist.

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