We've all seen the flax seed oil in health food shops. it's usually in the cooler and in a dark bottle, because it's sought after ingredient, the lignans, lose potency with oxidation, and oxidation happens very fast with flax oil (not to mention all the other oils like rapeseed.. er.. canola!
My son and his friends are hard core gamers. For that reason I'm able to keep up with latest trends, and one device he has talked about over the years is a pair of 'glasses' that you wear to play computer games instead of watching a computer monitor.
There's an amazing statistic I read a few days ago. The average Western family brings SIX kilos of pesticide residue into their home from the supermarket every year.
But that's not all. Its patented OxyShield technology let's you use it to clean the house as well. It's faster and more powerful than bleach.. but what is it? Water!
A study conducted by Harvard Med School researchers has concluded that a 16-hour fast prior to long-distance travel can cause the brain's circadian clock to reset, beating jetlag:
Coca-Cola is phasing out a controversial additive that has been linked to damage to DNA and hyperactivity in children. Sodium benzoate, also known as E211, is used to stop fizzy drinks going mouldy.
Coca-Cola said it had begun withdrawing the additive from Diet Coke in January in response to consumer demand for more natural products.
By the end of the year no can or bottle will contain E211.
Ian: Of course a better answer by far is to just not drink the stuff, but I guess that's too much to ask!
I don't, as a rule, bring up subjects like this but I'm going to anyway, mainly because I do have this belief that there are people like me who read this blog; people who hold to the idea of making a difference.
Right on the heels of the polycarbonate bottle scare, now we're being told that we'll get smoker's wrinkles if we drink too often from the standard plastic water bottle. So if the hormones in polycarbonate don't grow moustache hair, then the wrinkles will get ya anyway!
GOOD CALORIES, BAD CALORIESIn this groundbreaking book, the result of seven years of research in every science connected with the impact of nutrition on health, award-winning science writer Gary Taubes shows us that almost everything we believe about the nature of a healthy diet is wrong.
For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates better, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet with more and more people acting on this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) and sugars–via their dramatic and longterm effects on insulin, the hormone that regulates fat accumulation–and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the number. There are good calories, and bad ones.
Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then –wrongly–were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine, in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction, which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.
With precise references to the most significant existing clinical studies, he convinces us that there is no compelling scientific evidence demonstrating that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. Based on the evidence that does exist, he leads us to conclude that the only healthy way to lose weight and remain lean is to eat fewer carbohydrates or to change the type of the carbohydrates we do eat, and, for some of us, perhaps to eat virtually none at all.
To read more or order this book, go here
Dr. Anthony Martin wrote a wonderful book called "Medical Crisis: Secrets Your Doctor Won't Share With You".
Sang Whang, in his great book "Reverse Ageing" talks about the Korean theory of alkalinizing the body to affect the sex of a baby. Since I read his book a number of supportive articles have passed through my computer monitor. Now it appears that a study in the New England Medical journal shows that alkalinizing will reduce the possibility of birth complications. It seems a high sugar (read: acidic~ Ian)level in the blood affects the safety of your birth. You don't have to be so acidic as to be diabetic for this to happen.
This graph represents outcomes from standard (non-alternative) cancer treatment. More and bigger graphic and information from Dr Ralph Moss on this vs. alternative cancer treatments here
Carnegie Mellon University researcher Christopher Weber found that food transport accounts for only 11 percent of food-associated greenhouse gas emissions, while production contributes a whopping 83 percent. Specifically, nitrous oxide and methane -- mainly byproducts of fertilizer use, manure management and animal digestion -- make up a far bigger piece of the emissions pie than emissions from transporting our food from faraway places, the study found.
I mentioned last week that we are no longer ordering polycarbonate bottles for our clients. Like so many products before them, polycarbonate bottles, baby bottles and food containers had found a unique place in our homes, kitchens and sports due to the apparently safe recycling capabilities. Only now do we find that they can leak Bisphenol-A, an estrogen-like substance when washed in ordinary detergent (as you do).
Here's an article about perchlorate in the drinking water of 11,000,000 Americans. One would think that there would be eleven million reasons for the government to do something about it especially when it's already known that its adverse health effects are especially pernicious in infants or developing fetuses; even at low levels, the chemical can block the thyroid gland's ability to absorb iodide from the bloodstream -- inhibiting normal brain development.
High-density industrial pig farms serve as home to a large percentage of the world's nearly 1 billion pigs, and with high concentrations of pigs comes high concentrations of their often toxic waste products, which can wreak havoc on the environment. However, one company has devised a novel way of disposing of the urine by rendering the urea into plastics for household items, such as pig urine cups, pig urine bowls and pig urine spoons. Once the process is perfected it could be cheaper and more environmentally advantageous than the regular fossil fuel-based plastics. Other manures can be used, as well, and the organic compounds that are extracted can be potentially used in a variety of ways, including as flavoring for cigarettes. A line of pig urine flavored cigarettes could be an alternative stop smoking product if the patches, pills or gum just aren't doing it for you.
Scientists cultured the imprint of a health care worker's gloved hand after examining a patient infected with Clostridium difficile, known as C. diff. The larger yellow colonies outlining the fingers are clusters of the potentially deadly bacteria responsible for at least 300,000 infections a year in U.S. hospitals. The patient had showered an hour before the specimen was collected, say researchers.
What if I suggested that you’re about to handle something with five times the bacteria of a toilet seat? I’m guessing you’d be looking around to find what I’m talking about. Er... it’s right in front of you…
Yep, your computer keyboard harbours five times more bugs than your average ‘throne’. So the next time you get a tummy bug, look no further. It’s so common that it has a name; ‘qwerty tummy’.
In fact one keyboard discovered during research was so dangerous that the microbiologist studying it ordered it immediately quarantined. It was one hundred and fifty time over accepted microbial limits and five times as filthy as a toilet seat.
How does it happen? What do you think happens to food that is dropped anywhere? It rots and becomes infested with bacteria. That’s exactly how keyboards get in such a disgusting state; eating as you browse.
Scientists swabbed 33 keyboards for food poisoning bugs (e.coli, coliforms, staphylococcus aureus and enterobacteria). They then compared their findings with lavatory seats and lavatory door handles.
They immediately condemned four keyboards as potential health hazards and one was "condemned".
Two secreted "warning levels" of staphylococcus aureus and two others had "worryingly elevated" levels of coliforms and enterobacteria, "putting users at high risk of becoming ill from contact".
Researchers said the findings were typical of offices all over Britain. They added that poor personal hygiene, such as dodging hand washing after going to the lavatory, may also contribute.
Think about it; rotting food, with a sprinkling of faecal matter, then you type a few words... and reach for a sandwich….
"Most people don't give much thought to the grime that builds up on their PC, but if you don't clean your computer, you might as well eat your lunch off a lavatory seat."
Scientists found that one in ten people never clean their keyboard, while 20 per cent never clean their mouse. The report said, "Most people don't give much thought to the grime that builds up on their PC, but if you don't clean your computer, you might as well eat your lunch off a lavatory seat."
Do you share your toothbrush? Of course not. Do you share your keyboard? Have you thought what it is you are sharing? Advice given includes turning the keyboard upside down and shaking it, but I’m very sceptical that this would clean it.
