Health-Points: Thursday 1.29.09
- I thought astronauts only subsisted on Tang and freeze-dried ice cream. But experts think silk worms are another option. Yeah, the bugs that make silk, mainly because they don’t produce a lot of poop, but the average spaceman would need to eat 170 worms a day; via DiscoBlog.
- Despite good intentions, many dieters breakdown and splurge on crappy food. According to a new report, ice cream and sorbet, mayonnaise, margarine, crackers and cookies are the top five diet-breakers, with ice cream and sorbet taking the top spot; from Marketing Charts.
- The U.S. Agriculture Secretary wants to update our food safety system, saying a modernized system should focus on early detection of potential dangers. But some people are calling for a separate food-safety agency, instead of the FDA and USDA sharing the duties; via Reuters.
- A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine claims winter temperatures may cause high blood pressure in the elderly. Among the participants, 8,801 adults over the age of 65, those with high blood pressure in the summer, 23.8%, jumped to 33.4% in winter; WebMD explains.
- Sitting down too much may worsen sleep apnea. Research in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reveals sitting a lot causes fluid to build up in the legs and when laying down the fluid shift is greater, making sleep apnea worse; Reuters reports.
- More and more food is turning up counterfeit. It’s dubious, wild fish is turning out to be farm-raised fish, soybean oil if being mixed with high-grade extra virgin olive oil, honey is cut with high fructose corn syrup and sugar-water is diluting maple syrup; USA Today investigates.
Image credit: Ksionic
