The school district in the Albuquerque suburb of Rio Rancho reports that a 5-year-old has died from H1N1 influenza.
Category: Food, Drink & Health
Best ‘it’s a pain and they take your money’ line of the day
“Whereas only 10.3 percent of physician costs, 3.3 percent of hospital care, and 26.8 percent of nursing-care expenses were paid out-of-pocket in 2007, Americans paid 44.2 percent of dental bills themselves.”
The American Way of Dentistry: Why does it cost so much?
Gradually, paying for braces became an expected investment, part of the price of raising children, like test prep and college fees. Even now, dental plans rarely cover orthodonture, and the lifetime reimbursement limit is much less than the cost of braces, but parents feel pressured to buy their kids the straight, white smile that is the clearest physical indication of prosperity.
Food safety line of the day
Line of the day if you microwave hot dogs (I do).
“A microwaved hot dog isn’t fully safe to eat unless placed in a dish of water and cooked for at least 75 seconds on high, a food-safety study shows.”
Back to using the griddle for me — though, I’ve lived until now and I’d hate to add up how many vendor hot dogs I bought for lunch all those years I worked in downtown Washington.
Catch some Zs if you don’t want to sneeze
“Studies have demonstrated that poor sleep and susceptibility to colds go hand in hand, and scientists think it could be a reflection of the role sleep plays in maintaining the body’s defenses.”
Scary health line of the day
“The one variable that overwhelmingly predicted the presence of the germ was the presence of a cat. Cat owners were eight times more likely than others to have MRSA at home.”
Yummy
Consumers Finally Growing Some Damned Sense, Not Buying Bottled Water
From a Consumerist article:
We think it’s more likely that a lot of consumers who buy bottled water have started to figure out that:
- It’s hugely expensive—a back of the envelope estimate puts it at 5 cents an ouce versus less than 1 cent per gallon from a municipal water supply;
- It might be loaded with bad things you don’t want to ingest, like disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue, and pain medication;
- It has less safety oversight than plain old tap water, which is why bottlers don’t have to tell you where the water came from or what’s actually in it.
Consumerist has the links and details.
Blue food dye
NewMexiKen is taking the day off to celebrate the blog’s sixth anniversary.
The posts today are being written by readers just like you. This is from Debby.
I first heard about this Saturday on PBS’s news quiz show, “Wait, wait. Don’t Tell Me.” When asked, “What substance has been found to help spinal injuries?” the correct multiple-choice answer was “Blue M & Ms.” Really. The host added that research has also found that: “Eating too many brown M & Ms causes weight gain.”
Blue Food Dye Treats Spine Injury in Rats | Wired Science | Wired.com
Common, safe blue food dye may treat broken spines | Science | Reuters
Blue food dye helps heal spinal cord injuries – More health news- msnbc.com
Best beer summit line of the day
“Bud Light is considered a ‘lawn mower’ beer, perfect for after mowing the lawn or when you get home from work. It’s one step up from a nice, tall glass of ice water and generally one of the lightest pale lagers made in the United States.”
Matt Simpson who teaches “Beer Education” at Emory University. He goes on to say:
“Red Stripe is also a pale lager, but it’s an official handmade product, with a little more flavor and flair. And Blue Moon is also mass-produced, but it’s an ale. It’s a more flavorful beverage, with some floral character and hints of coriander and orange peel. None of these are microbrews or craft beers, but the closest is Blue Moon, a tasty beer that’s a macrobrewer’s attempt to join the craft beer market.”
Most significant news you can use of the day
You’ve got to quit drinking diet soda!
I’ll get off the food kick for now, but please take this last post on the matter to heart (literally, I’m afraid).
From Mark Hyman, M.D.’s Ultrametabolism
Steer Clear of Artificial Sweeteners Aspartame (NutraSweet), neotame, acesulfame potassium, saccharin, sucralose, and dihydrochalcones … a significant component of our diets. …
Questions remain about their safety, including both short- and long-term health risks. One of the side effects we know these sweeteners have is stimulation of hunger through the cephalic, or brain-phase, insulin response. …
A number of studies have shown that aspartame ingestion may actually lead to increased food and calorie intake. This is likely because artificial sweeteners make your body produce insulin by making it think sugar is on the way. As a consequence, your body tells you to eat more sugar to balance your insulin level. Artificial sweeteners do nothing to help in this regard. They do not act as sugar and do not balance your insulin. As a result you end up with excess insulin in your body, so you end up eating more food to take care of this problem. … What’s worse, it can lead to insulin resistance, which has many serious health consequences. [Emphasis mine]
But the problems with artificial sweeteners, don’t stop there. Animal and human studies show that aspartame may disrupt brain chemistry and induce neurophysiological changes (altered brain chemistry …) that might increase seizure risk, depression, and headaches. …
… While 100 percent of the industry-funded studies conclude aspartame is safe, 92 percent of independently funded research identified aspartame as a potential cause of adverse effects.
Insulin resistance … has also been associated with every major disease related to aging, including cancer, dementia, heart disease, and, of course, diabetes. [Emphasis mine]
And, of course, you shouldn’t be drinking soda with high-fructose corn syrup either. Soft drinks should be a treat (like when the older among us were kids). They should not be a daily regimen. Please heed. The beverage industry is the tobacco industry of our time and the threat to your health is every bit as significant.
The last of the idle food thoughts for now (except one)
Ideas, recommendations and quotes from Mark Hyman, M.D.’s Ultrametabolism
The following are examples of real foods (which are the only kind you should eat):
- Whole fruit, not canned fruit or fruit juices
- Whole vegetables, not canned vegetables
- Wild fish, not farmed fish
- Whole grains, not processed wheat
- Grass-fed beef, not feedlot beef
- Nuts, seeds, and legumes or beans, not fried or salted
1. Eat more fiber
2. Avoid sugar
3. Stay away from supersugar, high-fructose corn syrup
Eat breakfast. A real breakfast.
Those who skip breakfast eat more, have higher cholesterol and are more insulin resistant.
Don’t eat just before bed.
“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and supper like a pauper.”
Even more idle food thoughts
Having read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto Friday, today I began Mark Hyman, M.D.’s Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss
Hyman says pretty much the same things Pollan does, though Hyman is more technical and prescriptive, fitting a physician (Pollan is a journalist).
“There is no evidence that fat is bad for you.”
There are however, good fats, bad fats and ugly fats. Good fats (like the best, omega-3) come from wild and natural foods. Bad fats come from processed vegetable oils and industrial meats. Ugly fats (the trans fats) are man-made and deadly.
“When you want to eat a certain food, ask yourself if it is a food your ancestors might have eaten. If so, take a bite; if not, put it back!”
“If it has a label, don’t eat it.”
Hyman tells about the Pima Indians (of southern Arizona) who 100 years ago were thin and fit, with a metabolism totally suited to their desert environment. Seventy to eighty percent of their diet was carbohydrates. Yet once the Western diet was introduced with its high glycemic carbs (like the ones we eat), the Pima became in one generation the least healthy and most obese people on earth (second only to Samoans). 80% of the Pima people have adult onset, or type-2 diabetes, by age 30. Their life expectancy is 46.
Idle food thoughts
More from Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, which I read yesterday afternoon.
“The human animal is adapted to, and apparently can thrive on, an extraordinary range of different diets, but the Western diet, however you define it, does not seem to be one of them.”
“[T]oday corn contributes 554 calories a day to America’s per capita food supply and soy another 257.”
Omega-3. Get some. It’s essential and we don’t get enough. Get it from real food (not supplements). It comes from leafy plants (fish get it from algae).
“Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”
“Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting.” (Twinkies, this means you.)
“Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A) unfamiliar, B) unpronounceable, C) more than five in number, or that include D) high-fructose corn syrup.”
“Avoid products that make health claims.”
“Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.”
Buy local. “Shake the hand that feeds you.”
“Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.”
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
I’m reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, the successor to his popular The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I’ll pass along some idle food thoughts as I proceed.
Here’s the first:
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Stuff
Speechless: Dilbert Creator’s Struggle to Regain His Voice. Fascinating.
“The Doctor is Within” — Pico Iyer talks to and about the Dalai Lama.
And Tennessee and Arizona have legalized concealed weapons in bars.
“In both states, there is a catch. The new laws stipulate that armed patrons have to refrain from drinking while in the bars — in effect, creating a new category of customer, the designated shooter.” The Lede Blog
BTW “Ian Kinsler accomplished a feat so rare on Sunday, it only happened four times previously in major-league history.”
The best sippy cup
News you can use. (Because sippy cups will probably come in handy in old age, too). Slate reviews some BP-free sippies. The best is the cheapest. Cool looking, too.
Tom, would it be wrong to drink wine out of a sippy cup?
Best line of the day for my brother John
“The wine bottle is late-18th century technology. It’s time to move on.”
Colin Alevras, sommelier at DBGB Kitchen and Bar, a trendy New York restaurant, quoted at Louisville Juice.
Two best lines for the price of one
[H]e has performed all sorts of experiments to test how much people will eat under varying circumstances. These have convinced him that people are—to put it politely—rather dim. They have no idea how much they want to eat or, once they have eaten, how much they’ve consumed. Instead, they rely on external cues, like portion size, to tell them when to stop. The result is that as French-fry bags get bigger, so, too, do French-fry eaters.
From an interesting review of some of the literature on obesity by Elizabeth Kolbert.
Worst of Times, Best of Times
My favorite wine writer, Louisville Juice says it’s a good time to experiment:
The wine store owners I’ve talked to have adjusted their inventories, holding fewer trophy wines in inventory and putting more promotional emphasis on $10 – $20 wines. Distributors are bringing them targets of opportunity and promotional help that keeps margins up and traffic flowing.
That’s good, at least in the short term, for…wine drinkers. For now, we’re seeing more, different wines at prices that are nearly irresistible. That makes it a good time to move up from $8 brands to something a little more interesting.
If I understood the gist of the article right (which is doubtful, but let me try), there’s very little need to pay more than $15 or $20 for a bottle of wine these days.
How many of you expect to die?
Reposted from one year ago today:
“How many of you expect to die?” she asked.
The audience fell silent, laughed nervously and only then, looking one to the other, slowly raised their hands.
“Would you prefer to be old when it happens?” she then asked.
This time the response was swift and sure, given the alternative.
Then Dr. Lynn, who describes herself as an “old person in training,” offered three options to the room. Who would choose cancer as the way to go? Just a few. Chronic heart failure, or emphysema? A few more.
“So all the rest of you are up for frailty and dementia?” Dr. Lynn asked.
According to Dr. Lynn, cancer takes about 20% of seniors, peaking around age 65; heart and lung failure, about 25% peaking around age 75; and old age about 40%, peaking around age 85.
Life’s a bitch, then you die.
F as in Fat
Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity at 32.5 percent, making it the fifth year in a row that the state topped the list. Four states now have rates above 30 percent, including Mississippi, West Virginia (31.2 percent), Alabama (31.1 percent) and Tennessee (30.2 percent). Eight of the 10 states with the highest percentage of obese adults are in the South. Colorado continued to have the lowest percentage of obese adults at 18.9 percent.
Mississippi also had the highest rate of obese and overweight children (ages 10 to 17) at 44.4 percent. Minnesota and Utah had the lowest rate at 23.1 percent. Eight of the 10 states with the highest rates of obese and overweight children are in the South. Childhood obesity rates have more than tripled since 1980.
The Trust for America’s Health has much more.
Oh, my aching back
“A federal advisory panel voted narrowly on Tuesday to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, two of the most popular prescription painkillers in the world, because of their effects on the liver.”
Acetaminophen is the culprit. Smaller dosages recommended for Tylenol, etc., too. The New York Times has the details.
In the eye of the beholder
On average, survey respondents said old age begins at 68. But few people over 65 agreed; they said old age begins at 75.
Respondents under 30 said 60 marks the beginning of old age.
How Old Do You Feel? It Depends on Your Age
Most adults over age 50 feel at least 10 years younger than their actual age, the survey found. One-third of those between 65 and 74 said they felt 10 to 19 years younger, and one-sixth of people 75 and older said they felt 20 years younger.