Soaring BPA Levels Found in People Who Eat Canned Foods

November 23, 2011

Fox News

“This article is annoying. What is a single dude to do when he wants a can of soup? I guess I have to start making my own soup every week or growing my own black beans.  Yeah, that’s not going to happen.  Seriously, can’t they make a can without BPA?  Just another reason to cleanse and detox a couple times a year.” — Chris Davis KTRN

Eating canned food every day may raise the levels of the compound bisphenol A (BPA) in a person’s urine more than previously suspected, a new study suggests.

People who ate a serving of canned soup every day for five days had BPA levels of 20.8 micrograms per liter of urine, whereas people who instead ate fresh soup had levels of 1.1 micrograms per liter, according to the study. BPA is found in many canned foods — it is a byproduct of the chemicals used to prevent corrosion.

When the researchers looked at the rise in BPA levels seen in the average participant who ate canned soup compared with those who ate fresh soup, they found a 1,221 percent jump.

“To see an increase in this magnitude was quite surprising,” said study leader Karin Michels, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The levels of BPA seen in the study participants “are among the most extreme reported in a nonoccupational setting,” the researchers wrote in their study. In the general population, levels have been found to be around 1 to 2 micrograms per liter, Michels said.

The study noted that levels higher than 13 micrograms per liter were found in only the top 5 percent of participants in the National Health and Examination Survey, which is an ongoing study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are concerned about the influence of [hormone-disrupting] chemicals on health in general, and BPA is one of them,” Michels told MyHealthNewsDaily.

The study is published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Soup for Lunch
The study included 75 people, whose average age was 27. One group of participants ate 12 ounces of fresh soup every day at lunchtime, while the other ate the same amount of canned soup each day. Urine samples were collected from the participants on the fourth and fifth days of the study.

BPA was detected in 77 percent of people who ate the fresh soup, and all of the people who ate the canned soup, according to the study.

Only a few studies had previously looked at BPA levels from eating canned foods, and those relied on asking people how much of the food they usually eat comes from cans, Michels said. The new study was the first in which researchers randomized participants to eat a small serving of canned food or fresh food, and measured the resulting difference in their urine BPA levels, she said.

“We’ve known for a while that drinking beverages that have been stored in certain hard plastics can increase the amount of BPA in your body. This study suggests that canned foods may be an even greater concern, especially given their wide use,” said study researcher Jenny Carwile, a doctoral student at Harvard.

Click here for the full article.

You Know You’ve Eaten Crappy Food When You Feel Like Crap

November 22, 2011

KTRadioNetwork.Com

By Chris Davis

(KTRN Exclusive) I remember when I used to eat like a typical American – this is when I was practically obese and topping the scale at over 250 pounds. Hitting a fast food drive-thru was a regular occurrence. I didn’t know about organic food, detoxing, cleanses, super food, or the dangers of big pharma. I was oblivious to it all. Ordering five items from the Mexican place was no big deal. It was the norm. I’m not saying that today I never indulge – I ate a whole pint of ice cream last night and a huge plate of Chinese take-out like a loser. Was it organic? No. But was it fast food? Not even close.

I remember how I used to feel after eating a meal at a fast food joint – especially from their breakfast menu. Within minutes of eating TWO sandwiches, TWO hash browns with a diet soda, the stomach curdling would begin along with the gas, the bloating, and the immediate trip to the bathroom. I thought this was normal. It didn’t really occur to me that the reason I was feeling like crap was because I ate like crap. Once I adapted a diet of no meat and 80% organic food with absolutely no artificial colors and sweeteners, while also avoiding MSG, high fructose corn syrup, and fast food, I was amazed that I no longer ever felt sick after eating a meal. I remember realizing a few months into the process how I never felt like crap after a meal anymore. This was a huge moment for me. Even if I ate a big meal, I still didn’t feel like garbage. Sure, I was full, but I didn’t need to run to the nearest toilet since the food I was eating was healthy, organic, and natural.

Case in point: this past week I took a trip to Chicago to see one of my favorite musicians. On the way, I stayed overnight at a Casino in Indiana. Not only did the casino get my money, but they also made me feel sick. I was on vacation and indulging – this is what you do in life. You can’t be a fanatic – that’s no fun and will ultimately drive you crazy. I knew I shouldn’t have eaten the breakfast buffet, but hey, it was only $10.99 and I needed some food before I lost more money. And guess what happened? Within minutes of eating that food, I started to feel sick with an upset stomach, gas, bloating, and a general feeling of horribleness. It literally only took minutes for the effect of this crappy food to take its toll. Now imagine if my breakfast consisted of organic food with fruits, vegetables, and real organic juice – it would have invigorated me. If food can make you feel that crappy in minutes imagine what it can do for you if it’s healthy.

The saying you get what you pay for is 100% correct when dealing with food. What did I expect? The buffet was $10.99. I knew it was going to be crap. Did it taste good? Not really. I’m pretty sure the eggs in my omelet weren’t even real eggs. This is an important lesson the next time you drive thru a fast food joint. How can they possibly sell a double cheeseburger for $1? Two beef patties, two pieces of bread, two slices of cheese, pickles, onions, mustard and ketchup for $1? Really? One dollar? There has to be something wrong with the food if they are selling it this cheap. How can they make a profit from it? If you were to eat a real double cheeseburger, with grass fed beef, raw cheese, and all organic ingredients, that sucker should cost way more than $1. The price alone of a double cheeseburger for $1 should be an immediate red flag that something isn’t right with the food. After you eat it, listen to your body. How do you feel? Did it give you energy? (And no, you can’t count running to the toilet as having energy.) I bet you felt like garbage. And maybe you even felt bad about yourself for giving into temptation. It’s just not worth it. When you’re young, you can eat pretty much whatever you want and you’re good, but then it catches up with you. Suddenly, the same food you used to be able to eat now makes you sick. Plus, once you switch to a healthy diet, the effects of bad food are even more prominent. I know if I went to a fast food restaurant today I would be in serious trouble because my body is now conditioned to digest good food. It’s not used to dealing with fast food garbage. My digestive system would have to run in overtime to handle that mess. That’s why they body forces you to run to the bathroom – it wants it out of your system as fast as possible. It’s trying to tell you something. So the next time you feel like crap after you eat, think about when you just put into your body. I would bet all the money I lost at the casino that you didn’t just eat an apple.

Why Is It So Hard to Go to Mars?

November 22, 2011

Space.Com

By Mike Wall

“Doesn’t anyone find it a bit fishy that 19 straight Russian Mars missions have failed? 19! Could it have anything to do with the Face on Mars, or the ancient ruins discovered there? Think about it. If they discovered there was a past civilization on the red planet (where the sky is actually blue) would they tell us? I think not.” –KTRN

As NASA prepares to launch its huge new Curiosity rover toward Mars on Saturday (Nov. 26), the current travails of a robotic Russian probe stranded around Earth offer an uncomfortable truth: Getting to the Red Planet is tough.

Russia’s Phobos-Grunt probe, which launched Nov. 8 on a mission aimed at the Martian moon Phobos, remains stuck in low-Earth orbit, and the chances of salvaging the craft appear slim. If Phobos-Grunt can’t be saved, it will be the 19th straight Russian Mars mission that failed to achieve its mission goals in full.

But Russia isn’t alone in its Red Planet difficulties; other space agencies, including those of Japan, the United States and Europe, have felt the sting of Mars failure in the last dozen years or so.

Scientists and engineers working on Curiosity’s $2.5 billion mission, which is officially known as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), acknowledge that success is not guaranteed. But they say they’ve prepared as well as they can, and they’re confident things will go well.

“We’re expecting tremendous results,” MSL manager Pete Theisinger, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters in a Nov. 10 launch briefing.

Click here for the full report.

Mystery of Dead Sea Scroll Authors Possibly Solved

November 22, 2011

Live Science

By Owen Jarus

“There is still a lot we DON’T know.  Scientists are constantly discovering new evidence for just about everything.  So the next time you say that you absolutely know something is fact – pull back and say, ‘I think this is fact, but I could be proven wrong.’” –KTRN

The Dead Sea Scrolls may have been written, at least in part, by a sectarian group called the Essenes, according to nearly 200 textiles discovered in caves at Qumran, in the West Bank, where the religious texts had been stored.

Scholars are divided about who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the texts got to Qumran, and so the new finding could help clear up this long-standing mystery.

The research reveals that all the textiles were made of linen, rather than wool, which was the preferred textile used in ancient Israel. Also they lack decoration, some actually being bleached white, even though fabrics from the period often have vivid colours. Altogether, researchers say these finds suggest that the Essenes, an ancient Jewish sect, “penned” some of the scrolls.

Not everyone agrees with this interpretation. An archaeologist who has excavated at Qumran told LiveScience that the linen could have come from people fleeing the Roman army after the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and that they are in fact responsible for putting the scrolls into caves.

Iconic scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of nearly 900 texts, the first batch of which were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947. They date from before A.D. 70, and some may go back to as early as the third century B.C. The scrolls contain a wide variety of writings including early copies of the Hebrew Bible, along with hymns, calendars and psalms, among other works. [Gallery of Dead Sea Scrolls]

Nearly 200 textiles were found in the same caves, along with a few examples from Qumran, the archaeological site close to the caves where the scrolls were hidden.

Orit Shamir, curator of organic materials at the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Naama Sukenik, a graduate student at Bar-Ilan University, compared the white-linen textiles found in the11 caves to examples found elsewhere in ancient Israel, publishing their results in the most recent issue of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries.

A breakthrough in studying these remains was made in 2007 when a team of archaeologists was able to ascertain that colorful wool textiles found at a site to the south of Qumran, known as the Christmas Cave, were not related to the inhabitants of the site. This meant that Shamir and Sukenik were able to focus on the 200 textiles found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves and at Qumran itself, knowing that these are the only surviving textiles related to the scrolls.

They discovered that every single one of these textiles was made of linen, even though wool was the most popular fabric at the time in Israel. They also found that most of the textiles would have originally been used as clothing, later being cut apart and re-used for other purposes such as bandages and for packing the scrolls into jars. [Photos of Dead Sea textiles]

Some of the textiles were bleached white and most of them lacked decoration, even though decoration is commonly seen in textiles from other sites in ancient Israel.

According to the researchers the finds suggest that the residents of Qumran dressed simply.

“They wanted to be different than the Roman world,” Shamir told LiveScience in a telephone interview. “They were very humble, they didn’t want to wear colorful textiles, they wanted to use very simple textiles.”

The owners of the clothing likely were not poor, as only one of the textiles had a patch on it.”This is very, very, important,” Shamir said. “Patching is connected with [the] economic situation of the site.”

Shamir pointed out that textiles found at sites where people were under stress, such as at the Cave of Letters, which was used in a revolt against the Romans, were often patched. On the other hand “if the site is in a very good economic situation, if it is a very rich site, the textiles will not be patched,” she said. With Qumran, “I think [economically] they were in the middle, but I’m sure they were not poor.”

Robert Cargill, a professor at the University of Iowa, has written extensively about Qumran and has developed a virtual model of it. He said that archaeological evidence from the site, including coins and glassware, also suggests the inhabitants were not poor.

“Far from being poor monastics, I think there was wealth at Qumran, at least some form of wealth,” Cargill said, arguing that trade was important at the site. “I think they made their own pottery and sold some of it, I think they bred animals and sold them, I think they made honey and sold it.”

Click here for the full report.

Credit Suisse Warns of ‘Last Days’ For the Euro

November 22, 2011

The Wall Street Journal

By Javier E. David

The financial storm menacing the euro zone could prompt the 17 nations using the common currency to seek closer integration despite political opposition — or spell the “last days” for the common currency, Credit Suisse said Monday.

In a somber research note to clients, the bank said the debt fears of Europe’s smaller, more troubled economies are now radiating to its largest nations. As a result, Credit Suisse warned that markets may well have “entered the last days of the euro as we currently know it.”

Credit Suisse’s analysts cautioned that a nuclear scenario — a complete dissolution of monetary union — wasn’t immediate or even likely, despite the funding fears gripping both Italy and Spain.

However, the bank added that the current turmoil “does mean some extraordinary things will almost certainly need to happen — probably by mid-January — to prevent the progressive closure of all the euro-zone sovereign bond markets, potentially accompanied by escalating runs on even the strongest banks.”

Click here for the full report.

Regulating Capitalism is Superfluous and Counterproductive

November 22, 2011

The Dollar Vigilante

By Ed Bugos

People are rejecting the “political means” altogether. They just don’t know it yet. They’re still vested in their ill-informed fantasies of the state. Statist fundamentalists are reacting by saying things like, ‘the market will not dictate government policy!’ Libertarians too, especially those on the ‘old right’, continue to cling to the night watchman theory of the state, and refuse to see how the night watchman became a prison warden, and how it can be no other way.

This is, of course, in response to a response of Jeff Berwick’s appearance on the Max Keiser show where Jeff challenged Max on the necessity of having the government play referee. Soon after, Jason Hamlin chimed in on Max’s side with this article.

Subsequently, as the argument went viral, Jeff was then defended by Stefan Molyneux, one of the premier thought leaders on the philosophy of freedom, in his excellent couchside chat video, which you can see here.

Obviously this issue has hit a chord. While the debate of the 1900s was mostly left-statist versus right-statist, we are now boiling it down to minarchists (minimal anarchists) to anarchists (no state).
For me, reading Max Keiser’s initial response to Jeff’s article (“Does the Economy Need a Referee”) was irritating. How in the world could Max Keiser call Jeff a birdbrain when Max himself hails the teachings of Adam Smith as the father of all economics when so much has happened since Smith, and so much has been discovered about Smith to easily dispel such myths.

Two weeks ago we heard about 70 students marching out of a Harvard economics class to protest, “what they called a bias towards a destructive brand of free-market economics,” FT.com reported. They blame it for income inequalities, and were quoted saying “There is no justification for presenting Adam Smith’s economic theories as more fundamental or basic than, for example, Keynesian theory.”

You know what I thought? I thought there’s nothing I hate more than a bad defense for an argument I hold dear. How dare they, and Max Keiser, hold out Adam Smith as the best defense for a free market system. No wonder in some ways we are losing this battle. Smith is a good stick man because the fact is that he is easy to take down. There was a lot wrong with his work. Imagine putting Keynesian theory up against Mises or Rothbard. It’d be no contest. The fact that they don’t shows only that we are right. The establishment isn’t rejecting Mises and Rothbard because they know anything about them. It is simply ignoring them. It is doing this because it can’t refute them.

The irony is further amplified by the fact that the particular class they objected to was taught by a neo-Keynesian who is on record for recommending intervention after intervention (called stimulus) in recent years. What’s more, the university hosted a conference in 2009 called “The Free Market Mindset: History, Psychology, and Consequences” aimed at trying to figure out why, since “everyone knows the current crisis amounts to a failure of the market economy, the stupid rubes continue to believe in it.”

Click here for the full report.

The US is Now a Corporate Monarchy

November 22, 2011

The Big Picture

By Barry Ritholtz

I did an interview with a print reporter yesterday about what has been going on with lack of prosecutions, the banks, and Wall Street in general. We discussed the corrupt exchanges and HFT.

I dropped lots of F-Bombs, called out cowards and crooks and held nothing back.

Afterwards, she commented that I seemed angry.

I wrote back suggesting that I am a happy dude, and its not Anger — its closer to an ineffable sadness that comes once you realize you have lost something dear. I am old enough to have grown up when this nation was a Democracy, but that era has passed. We now live in a nation no longer run by the citizens — it is a Corporatocracy — and that makes me sadder than angry . . .

She suggests perhaps a better word is outraged.

I wonder: Why have the Europeans figured out they are getting screwed, and we haven’t? Why are they taking to the streets en masse, while we seem to be watching our own control over our own futures slip from our hands almost as if from afar?

Click here for the full article.

Ron Paul Wins Another Republican Straw Poll in North Carolina

November 22, 2011

Imassera News

By Derek Harris

“Ron Paul has a real shot at victory. He can win!” –KTRN

Last Saturday another Republican straw poll was held in North Carolina. This poll required participants to have a voter’s registration number. The intention was to give an opportunity to both the state’s Republicans and Independents to select their choice from the entire field of Republican Presidential candidates.

The poll was a grassroots movement in response to the “official” poll that was held by the North Carolina State GOP members in which a small, select group of wealthy Republicans voted for Newt Gingrich. The voting was done online and could not be affected by spamming, as voter registration numbers were required. After the votes were tallied, it was announced that Ron Paul was the runaway winner.

Paul received 52% of the votes, over 30% more than his closest challenger, the former Congressman Newt Gingrich did. Gingrich received 22.1% of the vote. Following Gingrich was Herman Cain with just 13.3%, Mitt Romney with 3.6% and Michelle Bachmann with only 2.8%.

Click here for the full report.

Flax Oil vs. Fish Oil

November 22, 2011

T Nation

By Robert Yang

“Omega 3s are super important to have in your diet. But should you get them from fish or flax oil? This article explains which is best.” –KTRN

Are you one of those granola types that won’t eat anything with a face? Or are you a flesh-eating machine that would wolf down just about any animal that doesn’t wear a flea collar?

Regardless of your position on meat versus plant-based diets, if the end goal is to look good naked, you likely take some type of essential fatty acid supplement.

Flax oil and fish oil are the most often consumed essential fatty acids – many will use the terms flaxseed oil and fish oil interchangeably – but the two oils aren’t the same. Not by a long shot.

While both oils are rich sources of omega-3′s, there are major differences that go beyond the fact that flaxseed oil is vegetarian-friendly while fish oil might cause your vegan neighbors to picket your lawn.

Let’s first cover a little EFA 101. The two primary essential fatty acids (EFA’s) are omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acid. They’re considered essential because the body can’t produce them independently. They must come from the foods we eat.

Twelve years ago I was studying the effects of fish oil when a trainer at my gym complained to me of excessively dry hands in the wintertime. His hands looked like they were covered in paper cuts, some so severe they were bleeding. When I asked him if he was taking any omega 3′s, he said he was taking three tablespoons of flaxseed oil everyday.

Referring to what I’d been reading at the time, I suggested that he replace the flaxseed oil with fish oil for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And the result? In just a matter of days, his hands completely healed – no cracks or bleeding.

So why couldn’t flax do the job?

Sure, flax is one of the richest plant sources of α-linolenic acid (ALA) at over 50% ALA. For this reason, flaxseed oil is often touted as one of the best forms of omega-3.

Click here for the full article.

McDonald’s Dumps McMuffin Egg Supplier

November 22, 2011

Natural News

By Ethan A. Huff

“If you are still eating fast food, what is your problem?” –KTRN

Fast-food giant McDonald’s is once again in the media limelight after it was recently revealed that its West Coast egg supplier has been engaged in “significant and serious violations,” according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). McDonald’s officially ended its relationship with Minnesota-based Sparboe Farms after an undercover investigation exposed severe animal abuse and filthy conditions at the company’s Vincent, Iowa, facility.

For years, Sparboe Farms, the fifth-largest factory egg producer in the US, had been the sole supplier of eggs for all McDonald’s restaurants west of the Mississippi River. But after undercover video captured by Mercy for Animals, a Chicago-based animal rights group, went viral, the fast-food chain officially dumped Sparboe as its supplier and issued a public statement about its decision that questioned “the management of Sparboe facilities.”

Captured video footage shows factory workers aggressively grabbing chickens by their necks and slamming them in and out of cages, for instance, which is a serious abuse violation. It also shows seemingly endless rows of chicken “battery cages,” where chickens are packed densely in stacked rows of inhumane cages. Chickens that live in such conditions often wallow in their own feces, and some get caught in cage wiring which results in their death.

Click here for the full report.

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