What’s In Your Milk?
July 12, 2011
Daily Mail
By David Derbyshire
A glass of milk can contain a cocktail of up to 20 painkillers, antibiotics and growth hormones, scientists have shown.
Using a highly sensitive test, they found a host of chemicals used to treat illnesses in animals and people in samples of cow, goat and human breast milk.
The doses of drugs were far too small to have an effect on anyone drinking them, but the results highlight how man-made chemicals are now found throughout the food chain.
the highest quantities of medicines were found in cow’s milk.
Researchers believe some of the drugs and growth promoters were given to the cattle, or got into milk through cattle feed or contamination on the farm.
The Spanish-Moroccan team analysed 20 samples of cow’s milk bought in Spain and Morocco, along with samples of goat and breast milk.
Their breakdown, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, revealed that cow’s milk contained traces of anti-inflammatory drugs niflumic acid, mefenamic acid and ketoprofen – commonly used as painkillers in animals and people.
Click here to read the full report from DailyMail.co.uk.
Using Cash Could Lead To Healthier Eating Habits
July 12, 2011
Huffington Post
Using debit and credit cards have become second nature to most people who don’t want to run to the bank every time they’re out of cash, but new research shows that cash could help your eating habits.
Over a six-month spread researchers looked at the register receipts of a random sample of 1,000 loyal shoppers at a Northeastern supermarket chain and analyzed what they bought and how they paid for it, reports MSNBC.
The study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that shoppers were more likely to buy items considered “unhealthy” when they paid with credit or debit cards than if they paid with cash, and that weekend shoppers were more likely to stick to a list.
Researchers say they were surprised to find that debit cards had the same psychological effect as credit cards, since money is deducted from bank accounts immediately, but with any kind of plastic payment seems people are willing to spend more.
But to make sure that the spending patters weren’t more related to penny pinchers versus those who like to live large, the study also analyzed 125 students in a computer simulated shopping task.
Click here to read the full report from Huffington Post.
Tooth Decay Warning Label For Sippy Cups?
July 12, 2011
TIME Healthland
By Bonnie Rochman
Beware the perils of the sippy cup. In New York state, at least, cigarettes and alcohol may not be the only items to warrant warning labels. The legislature wants sippies — those handy-dandy drinking vessels that purport to prevent liquid from spilling out — to feature warnings about childhood tooth decay.
This is the second year that the N.Y. legislature has given the green light for a tooth-decay warning label; it was vetoed last year by former Gov. David Paterson. This time, it heads to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk for approval. A spokesman said Friday it’s still under review, so we’ll have to wait and see whether Cuomo will give it the same nod he gave to gay marriage and property-tax caps.
Click here to read the full report from TIME Healthland.
The Most And Least Obese States In The U.S.
July 12, 2011
Huffington Post
An annual report issued late last week took another close look at obesity rates across the United States. The report found one unfortunate trend: In all 50 states, the rates are rising.
Click here to see the complete list of the least to most obese American states.
Recession Cost Average American $7,300
July 12, 2011
Huffington Post
By Alexander Eichler
The recession that struck the U.S. in 2007 has cost consumers about $7,300 each in lost spending, according to a San Francisco Federal Reserve economist.
In a paper published Monday, Kevin Lansing, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, wrote that if personal consumption had continued on from December 2007 to the present day at the same rates that it occurred from 2000 to 2007, Americans would have each spent an extra $7,356 by now.
Taken over a period of 42 months, that’s about $175 in lost spending per month, Lansing writes.
However, it’s not necessarily true that personal consumption should have continued on at pre-2008 rates. That kind of spending was symptomatic of a bubble economy, Lansing notes in the paper, and “was bound to slow sooner or later.”
The climbing rates of consumption may not have been “economically desirable,” he writes, in part because Americans were saving so little and taking on so much debt. And much of that spending was made possible by “unsound lending practices,” which have since come under scrutiny.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Lansing said the pre-recession spending reflected an “artificial economy that was driven by debt.”
Click here for the full report from Huffington Post.
25 Reasons To Buy Gold And Dump Dollars
July 12, 2011
Business Insider
Major economic problems today, such as rising global commodity prices and the sovereign debt crisis, are not aberrations or inherent problems of capitalism, but are the inevitable consequences of a centrally planned system that, by design, produces never ending inflation, ever increasing centralization of financial power and increasingly extreme concentration of wealth.
Monetary systems that rely on debt-based fiat money can be accurately described as confidence games and the global cartel of central banks that exists today is similar to a criminal cartel, such as the drug cartel, except that the banking cartel has been legalized,can extort hundreds of billions from governments with impunity,and can conjure unlimited trillions out of thin air for its own benefit with no accountability. In stark contrast,hapless billions of people labor worldwide for single-digit hourly wages on an ever faster moving hamster wheel of inflation and debt.
Click here to read the full report from Business Insider.
Indiana Latest State To Drop Handwriting Requirement
July 12, 2011 by Brandy
Filed under Government
July 12, 2011
BBC News
Indiana is the latest US state which will not require its schoolchildren to learn joined-up, or cursive, writing.
But students will have to learn basic typing skills, which education officials say are more useful in the modern employment world.
The move is part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which aims to ensure consistency in US education and makes no mention of handwriting.
But critics say writing well is a vital skill for life and builds character.
US schoolchildren currently learn to write with joined-up writing from about the age of eight.
But under the core standards – which were released in June 2010 and have been adopted by nearly all US states – there is no requirement for them to do so.
Click here for the full report from BBC News.
New British Guidelines Say Even Babies Should Exercise
July 12, 2011
BBC News
By Dominic Hughes
For the first time government health experts are issuing advice to parents on exercise for children under five.
They say the amount of time babies and toddlers spend strapped in buggies or car seats should be cut down.
Instead, toddlers should be allowed to move around or be physically active for at least three hours a day.
The new guidance reflects growing concern over children who do not exercise enough, which can be linked to obesity and brain development.
Chief Medical Officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have come together to issue the new guidance.
It is the first time they have combined to issue UK-wide advice on exercise among the under-fives.
From birth
Their recommendations include encouraging babies to move about and be active from birth, for example on activity mats or swimming.
They say that all under-fives should spend as little time as possible being restrained or sitting still except when they are sleeping.
Click here for the full report from BBC News.
New Study Links High Sodium To Earlier Mortality
July 12, 2011
CNN Health
By Anne Harding
People who eat more sodium and less potassium may die sooner of heart or other problems than people who consume the opposite, a large, 15-year-study has found.
The study of more than 12,000 Americans provides more ammunition to health advocates who say that slashing salt intake will save lives. But not everyone is convinced, as some research is contradictory.
In the new study, men consumed an average of 4,323 milligrams of sodium a day, while women took in 2,918 milligrams.
The American Heart Association recommends people limit their sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams a day or less.
The group with the highest sodium-to-potassium ratio had a mortality risk about 50% higher during the study than the group with the lowest, according to the report by Elena V. Kuklina, M.D., and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Emory University, and the Harvard School of Public Health. The research was published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Click here for the full report from CNN.
House Set To Vote On Controversial Light Bulb Ban
July 12, 2011 by Brandy
Filed under Government
July 12, 2011
Associated Press
By Jim Abrams
Having to buy a squiggly fluorescent light bulb is an affront to personal freedom, some lawmakers are saying as the House decides whether to overturn a law setting new energy-efficiency standards for the bulbs.
House Republicans are pushing legislation that would overturn measures in a 2007 energy act requiring efficiency upgrades in the old-fashioned incandescent light bulb, little changed since it was invented by Thomas Edison in 1879.
Republicans say the new standards, signed into law by President George W. Bush, are a symbol of an overreaching federal government and people should have the right to buy the traditional, cheap and reliable incandescent bulbs. The Obama administration and environmentalists say new bulbs on the market will save American households billions of dollars in energy costs.
Click here to read the full report from Associated Press.
