Health Hodgepodge 2

Hi PNNers! Where does the time go? I’m always hanging onto  articles and thinking of stories to share with you, but I never seem to have enough hours in the day anymore. Sigh.

But I’ve been holding onto these articles, and they may interest all you health-conscious peeps. You may have seen them by now though—I’ve been planning to tell you about them for more than a month now. Better late than never, I guess. Here you go:

Want some Elmers with that crab cake?

This is just gross. According to this article,  nearly every country in the EU recently approved the use of meat glue, an enzyme that food processors use to hold imitation crab meat and other meats together.

Women with Ovarian Cancer Live Longer If They Eat Healthier

Ovarian cancer isn't linked to diet as frequently as other cancers are, but food choices do play a role. “In a study of 351 women with incident epithelial ovarian cancer, the researchers found that higher total fruit and vegetable consumption, higher vegetable consumption alone, and healthy grain consumption were associated with longer survival. High consumption of "less-healthy" meats was associated with shorter survival.”  I’ve also seen plenty of studies showing that milk and other dairy products can cause or aggravate ovarian cancer.

Plant-Based Diet Can Cut Breast Cancer Risk:

Gee, what a surprise: More researchers have “discovered”that diets high in vegetables, fruits and soy might cut your risk of developing breast cancer by 30 percent":  

Michigan Governor Endorses Great American Meatout!

And perhaps the coolest news of all, the governor of Michigan proclaimed March 20 to be Michigan Meatout Day. Of course, local meat producers complained, as did people who are so addicted to meat that mere suggestion of voluntarily giving it up for a day, horrified them. For you more sensible and compassionate folks, AOL recently posted some helpful tips on transitioning to a vegetarian diet.

I hope you all find these articles as interesting as I did. I’ll be “talking” to you again someday soon(ish)--especially if we ever get 30-hour days!

Pork Producers Braced That You'll Find Out About Antibiotics

Not long ago, I posted an article about the connection between factory farming and antibiotic resistance, which is a leading health threat, according to the World Health Organization. Then, just the other day, I stumbled across the following article on meatingplace.com, an industry site. Apparently, the pork and poultry (the nice euphemisms for dead pigs and birds) industries have been bracing for more people to find out that farmers dose animals with more antibiotics than Americans take.

I missed the CBS report. (I don’t even know if it aired--did anybody see it?  ) Judging from the last line of this article, though, I’m sure the pork producers told plenty of happy stories about how they’re protecting people by giving pigs antibiotics. Hell, they had their “whitewash” prepared before the story even aired.

Veggie dogs, anyone?

Meat industry bracing for CBS antibiotic piece

Barring another big news story, the CBS Evening News has now scheduled its two-part series on antibiotic use in livestock production to run Feb. 3-4, and based on some of the interviews conducted for the piece, the pork industry is expecting to take a hit.

The story, originally scheduled to air several days ago, was pushed back by Haiti earthquake coverage. (See CBS to air story on antibiotic use in livestock and poultry, Meatingplace, Jan. 21, 2010.)

"Feedback from pork producers suggest the segments will be highly critical of livestock and poultry production," National Pork Producers spokesman Dave Warner told Meatingplace. He said pork producers interviewed found CBS's questions highly accusatory.

CBS research also included an interview with Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), who has sponsored a bill that would control antibiotic use in livestock, as well as a trip to Denmark, where antibiotic use has been banned in livestock for certain uses. CBS anchor Katie Couric also visited Koch's Turkey Farm in Tamaqua, Pa., which raises its turkeys free-range and antibiotic-free.

For now, industry groups are waiting to see what the edited segments actually contain and preparing to deal with any possible fallout.

"Pork producers use antibiotics responsibly to keep their animals healthy, and keeping animals healthy means producing safe food for U.S. consumers," said Warner.

What's Wrong With Whole Foods' Discount Plan?

In case you haven’t heard, Whole Foods is going to give bigger discounts to non-smoking employees who have low cholesterol, normal blood pressure, and healthy weights. The plan is meant to reduce healthcare costs and give employees an incentive to make healthy choices, but some feel that it discriminates against fat people. (The full details are in my Care2 blog: http://www.care2.com/causes/health-policy/blog/whole-foods-new-health-incentive-causes-controversy/).

I don’t see it that way at all. I mean, maybe if they totally took away the discounts for heavier people, or fired them, there would be a reason for people to complain, but heavy-set employees will still get the same discount that the store already offered. And it’s not as if the voluntary new plan specifically singles out fat people. You can be lean and still have high cholesterol and high blood pressure, and smoking and girth are separate issues.

Frankly, I think some people are getting all bent out of shape about nothing. Genetics may play some role in health matters, but, on the whole, people need to stop playing the victim of their DNA and starting taking responsibility for their personal choices.

Why shouldn’t a Whole Foods’ worker who chooses not to smoke be eligible for a bigger discount than a Whole Foods worker who chooses to smoke? The goal, as I understand it, isn’t to shame people, but rather to cut  healthcare costs and encourage employees to make healthy choices. What’s so wrong with that?

Is it just me, or does anyone else think Whole Foods’ new discount plan is a good idea?

As If We Don't Have Enough Gross Foods Already...

Stop the world, I want to get off. If you haven't heard the "exciting" news yet, the USDA is planning to overturn its 20-some-year ban on haggis, the Scottish dish made with sheep offal, oatmeal, and suet. If you think this is good thing, I'm sorry, but you need to seek counseling. Seriously, we already have more than our share of  gross “foods”--we don't need more! 

Hot dogs, which are typically made from the stomachs, snouts, spleens, intestines, lips, and/or anuses of pigs, are staples in schools and at sporting events, and hamburgers, made from the flesh of dead, dismembered cows, are dished up at backyard cookouts and hospital cafeterias alike.

How people can stomach such fatty, cholesterol-laden foods is beyond me. Legs, breasts, thighs, wings, and ribs are body parts, not dinner options. “Foie gras,” the fancy French term for fatty duck liver, is a disease, not a delicacy. Gelatin, which is actually animal bones and animal skin, hooves, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage boiled together, should only sound appealing if you’re Hannibal Lecter.

Fortunately, as I've pointed out many times, wholesome and delicious innard-free vegan foods are widely available. See www.VegCooking.com for recipes and product suggestions. And if you are truly hungry for haggis, there is a vegan version. I've never made the recipe and don't really plan on it, so if you do, let me know how it is...especially if you've ever actually eaten sheep-based haggis.

Health Hodgepodge

I’ve been hanging onto several articles and things to share with everyone for a while, figuring they might interest the health-conscious folks on PNN. But it’s been one thing after another the past few weeks—a broken computer, a broken heater during a rare cold spell in Florida, a minor injury, lots of work, and  plenty of purchases, repairs, and things to make my new house a home. Now that I’m finally getting caught up, here’s a hodgepodge of health-related news that I thought was worth sharing:

E. coli Alert: A California company recalled more than 850,000 pounds of ground beef that was potentially contaminated with E. coli. A according to this news blurb, it was sold to restaurants and hotels in California between Feb. 19 and May 15, 2008, and between Jan 5. and Jan. 15, 2010. That’s quite a time span!  http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-01-18-california-company-ion-beef-recall_N.htm

Retail meat linked to urinary tract infections: New evidence suggests that eating chicken puts young women at risk for UTIs. This also pertains to E. coli bacteria, which, according to the article, can travel from the anus to the vagina and urethra during sex, which can lead to the infection. I hadn’t heard much about that before, but I have read about a 2006 Harvard study showing that people who frequently eat grilled skinless chicken have a 52 percent higher chance of developing bladder cancer than people who don’t. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100120144005.htm

Pork grown in lab shows promise: I’ve written about in-vitro meat before, but the topic is in the news again because Dutch scientists have been trying to grow pork in a Petri dish. This may make some people—especially vegans like me—a bit squeamish at first, but I figure that anyone who is willing to eat the dismembered body parts of sentient animals who were raised in feces-filled sheds and killed in blood-covered slaughterhouses, shouldn’t have a problem eating lab-grown meat. It’s actually an appetizing alternative that can benefit animals, the environment, and human health. (In-vitro meat wouldn’t contain hormones, antibiotics, and harmful bacteria, and no one would have to live downwind of an animal factory either.)  Of course, while  in-vitro meat won’t be available for several years,  mock meats and other vegetarian foods can be found in supermarkets today, so it makes more sense  just to go veg. If only more people would try to…http://www.star-telegram.com/238/story/1897846.html

High cholesterol puts 1 in 5 teens at risk for heart disease: Yikes! This news comes just in time for American Heart Month (February) and should open some eyes.  In case anyone doesn’t know, meat, eggs, and dairy products are the only dietary sources of cholesterol—and they’re all high in saturated fat too, which explains why most of the “at risk” kids are overweight or even obese. That’s another sensible reason to go vegan if you ask me.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012102481.html

Is the USDA trying to kill our kids?: Last but not least, please check out my blog about the USDA’s recent gaffe. A January 15 USDA blog inadvertently stated that the organization was making every effort to make sure that today's kids have a shorter lifespan than their parents. They’ve since corrected the error, but they've done little to fix the unhealthy school lunches that lead to childhood obesity and life-threatening diseases. The mistake would be funny if it weren’t so sad. There is a poll at the end of the blog, so please vote if you have a second. http://www.care2.com/causes/health-policy/blog/is-the-usda-trying-to-kill-our-kids/

Greetings From Sunny Florida!

PNN regulars may have noticed that I've been M.I.A. for a while.  After a few frantic months of negotiating on a house and signing every piece of paper in the world, I moved to Sarasota, where I'm enjoying 70 and 80 degree temperatures, beautiful palm trees, a shop with light, airy vegan donuts, and the biggest Whole Foods store I've ever seen in my life!

It's basically everything I had hoped for here!

Of course, getting here was a nightmare. Just before I left Norfolk, a huge Nor'Easter swept through and I lost power. That was about 2 days before my power and my phone and Internet were supposed to be shut down. It was so frustrating!

I had been planning to do a "goodbye" post before I left, but obviously I couldn't. I also lost a few e-mails and never got to tie up some loose ends either.         

But the worst part was that my dog Carly was scheduled to have a little growth removed on the day the storm really hit. The growth was benign, but because it was near her rear and it kept getting irritated when she rubbed against things or licked at it, I wanted to have it removed so we didn't have ay emergencies en route to Sarasota--or when we first got here. I knew she'd have enough stress without being taken to a strange vet in a strange place! 

She's fine now and she's really enjoying her new private backyard and all the space we have (we used to live in a one-bedroon apartment), but I was worried that we were going to have to postpone the move. It took us an hour to get a cab to the vet, which was 5 minutes away, and when we got there, they weren't sure if they would be able to do the surgery because they were short staffed and might lose power. But they did and she came through perfectly.

I have to share my story about the good samatarian I met at the vet clinic too. A nice woman saw how stressed out I was because I was practically in tears. She asked me if I was alright and I told her about the cab and the move and all that, and when I was in the back with Carly, this wonderful woman left her number with the receptionist and told her to call when Carly's surgery was done, so she could came back for us.

By then, the streets were getting flooded, but she had a big SUV and was just a kind soul who was willing to help us out. She wouldn't accept any money; she was a real bright spot in a dark, stressful day!

When Carly was cleared to travel and the movers were scheduled to come, I called Nationwide Van Lines to warn them that the weather was pretty bad and that I didn't have power. I was assured that the movers were used to everything and that they would have flashlights. They did not. And since they didn't come until it was almost dark, they had to move my stuff by the light of my cell phone, which died just after they left.

My power came back on the next day, about an hour before my parents came to Norfolk to pick us up for the first leg of our journey. Carly fared much better in the car than I'd expected and she settled in at my parents house in Baltimore, and a cheap hotel room in S. Carolina, like a little trouper.

But it was a long trip and were all glad to reach Sarasota on November 19th. I LOVE my new house. Here's a pic of the kitchen that my parents took before I moved in.

Carly really seems to like it here as well and she is breaking in the beds and the sofa nicely. I bought new high-def TVs too. Yay! I used to have an old-school tv and the color-tube broke a couple months before the move. My parents got me some nice furniture for the living room and guest room, so the house is really starting too come together.

Unfortunately, the movers didn't get here until December 3rd at 11:30pm, so I just now am begining to get settled in. That's partly why I have been M.I.A. for so long!

I still have lots more stuff to buy and do though, so I probably won't really be settled in until after Christmas. I'm hoping to write a health-related post or share some more vegan holiday recipes before then, but in case I don' get to it, I wish you all a happy holiday and I'll look forward to reading about what you've been up to--and to sharing more info on health matters--in the new year!

 

Sarasota, Here I Come!

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been on PNN as much as usual lately. That’s because I’m working on buying my first house—in Sarasota!  Boy, buying a house is sure time-consuming and stressful, not to mention expensive. There are about 8 million things I still need to do, and I’ve already spent a month or so house shopping and preparing for the move. I’ve basically stopped eating and sleeping, so I’m not the best person to give health advice right now, but I’m hanging in there and it should totally be worth it!

I’ve wanted to live in Florida for more than 20 years. I grew up in Baltimore and I have lived in Norfolk, Va., for the past 14 years. I’m soooo sick of long cold winters. I’ve been thinking about moving for quite a while, but change is hard and coming up with reasons to put it off is easy. For years, I said I was “saving up,”  but since you can never have enough money, it's hard to move beyond that point. But I guess the good buyer’s market, the first-time homeowner’s credit, increasing rent prices, and another impending winter helped kickstart me.

I always planned to move to the warmest part of Florida, like the Ft. Lauderdale-area, but after researching a few different cities, Sarasota turned out to be the most promising option, for now at least. I’ve only seen photos of my soon-to-be-house (I’m supposed to close on November 9th) but my parents flew down and looked at it for me and said it’s pretty nice for my price range.  

My dog, Carly, doesn’t travel well and we don’t like to be apart from one another, so I knew I wasn’t going anywhere until I was staying. But the house has a nice, private fenced-in yard for her, so I think when we finally get there and she sees her new yard (and the house that goes with it), she’ll forget about the ride down.

By coincidence, Sarasota is the best place to buy a house I the nation right now. I didn’t know this until my realtor sent me a link to a Today Show segment on real estate after I had made an offer on the house.

I’m excited because a good friend and former neighbor, who currently lives in Oregon, is planning to move to Tampa in December. It’s about an hour away from Sarasota, and another friend just happened to move to Venice, about 20 minutes away from Sarasota, six months ago or so.

Starting this February, my favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, will start spring training in Sarasota too. Spring training only last for about a month and a half, but it’s still a huge plus for the area!

Of course, since I am “Veganchick,” one of the things I’m most looking forward to exploring and telling you all about is all the vegan-friendly restaurants in the area! According to www.VegSarasota.com, there is an all-vegan Indian restaurant not far from where I’ll be living, and one place even sells vegan donuts! OK, so they don’t count as “health food” but occasional vegan treats never hurt anyone. Yum.

Anyway, if there are any Floridians reading this-- especially anyone in Sarasota--I’d love know any tips you may have. And everyone please keep your fingers and toes crossed that everything goes smoothly!  Once I’m a bit more settled, I’ll be on PNN more frequently and I look forward to writing and reading more blogs again!
   

Have The Blues? Eat Some Greens!

I recently came across this article about how a Mediterranean diet rich in veggies, fruits, and grains can help battle depression. There’s always a study showing something good about these foods and some may seem hard to believe, but I figure if healthy foods can help beat heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc., it’s not too hard to believe that they can battle depression too.

Eating veggies should cheer people up in the long run anyway since I doubt anyone will be happy if they have to go to the hospital because they’ve become sick from eating lots of meat and other unhealthy foods!  

Good health is definitely something to feel good about.

McD's Recruits McMoms For "Health" Promo

“The corporate giant sent a team of "McMoms" - handpicked Big Mac loving parents - to the E. 23 Street eatery to show skeptical New York mothers how their kids can eat at Mickey D's and still keep the calorie count down.”

Sad. This whole article is just sad.

I mean, sure; some McDonald’s options are lower in calories than others, but do we really want to hold them up as nutritious choices? Especially since few people actually adhere to that “in moderation” concept  they like to talk about.

I can’t remember the last time I ate fast food, but if I was travelling and needed a quick bite, I would probably choose a BK Veggie burger or maybe a cheeseless bean burrito from Taco Bell. 

Nothing from McDonald’s, that’s for sure. Not even water. In addition to this ploy, I don’t like the company’s indifference to animal suffering. It’s not like other fast-food chains care much either, but McDonald’s is especially bad. (See my Care2 blog about Andy Dick’s humorous, yet creepy, portrayal of Ronald McDonald to see what I mean.)

Anyway, perhaps the McMoms mean well, and I know what it’s like to be pressed for time, but is a public McD promo really the best option?

Can You Get Sick From What Someone Else Eats?

I often write about the health ills of eating meat, eggs, and dairy products--cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and so forth. But, as this NYT article shows, you don’t even have to eat animal products to get sick because of them. Pollution and waste runoff from factory farms can sicken anyone. 

According to the article, one cow produces as much waste as 18 people. In one Wisconsin town, more than 100 wells were polluted by agricultural runoff within a few months. Parasites and bacteria from animal waste seeped into the town's drinking water, and residents suffered from chronic diarrhea, stomach illnesses, and ear infections. One woman’s 5-year-old son required an operation because of the ear infections, which were most likely caused by bathing in water polluted with E. coli bacteria.

This can happen to anyone--it doesn’t matter if you’re a vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, fruitarian, or full-fledged meat-eater. That’s why it irritates me when people act as if their food choices don’t concern anyone else. That’s not quite true. Factory farms not only help foster diseases like swine flu, they also pollute our shared environment and sicken people living nearby.   

A Scripps Howard synopsis of a Senate Agricultural Committee report on farm pollution said this about animal waste: “[I]t’s untreated and unsanitary, bubbling with chemicals and diseased. … It goes onto the soil and into the water that many people will, ultimately, bathe in and wash their clothes with and drink. It is poisoning rivers and killing fish and making people sick. … Catastrophic cases of pollution, sickness, and death are occurring in areas where livestock operations are concentrated. … Every place where the animal factories have located, neighbors have complained of falling sick.”

A Duke University Medical Center study showed that people living downwind of pig farms are more likely to suffer from tension, depression, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, headaches, shallow breathing, coughing, sleep disturbances, and loss of appetite.

It's not entirely the farms' fault though. I mean, if billions of people insist on eating animal products, there have to be facilities to raise and kill billions of animals. No one wants factory farms and slaughterhouse in their community, yet plenty of people want the products they churn out. This comes with waste and pollution too.

It’s just another reason to consider going vegan, as far as I’m concerned. Meat, eggs, and dairy products just aren’t worth so much sickness and suffering.

Do Detox Patches Work?

I’ve been under a lot of stress lately; in addition to the usual chaos, I’m looking into moving to Florida and buying my first home!  I don’t have much time to try typical stress reduction activities like mediation and yoga, and I’ve slacked off a bit with my regular exercise routine and other healthy habits.

Out of curiosity, I tried some Avon Healthy Remedies detoxifying patches that my mom brought on her last visit. They contain green tea and wood vinegar and I wanted to see if they might remove some of the toxins (and maybe some of the stress) that had accumulated in my body.

We all store toxins in our body fat—whether we stressed or not. These poisonous substances are all around us; they’re in food, water, cleaning products, and even the air we breathe. People who eat meat and milk are exposed to high levels of cancer-causing toxins called dioxins.  The more toxins you build up, the worse your liver functions and, as a result, you can become sluggish and gain weight.

Anyway, you’re supposed to attach these Avon detox patches to your feet at night for three nights in a row. They supposedly pull out the toxins in your body. On the first night, the patches turn dark green, almost black (supposedly from the toxins, although it could just be a ploy to make it seem like the toxins are being sucked from your body). They get gradually lighter the next two nights.

I guess I felt better after the first night, but it could just have been because it was a Saturday and I got to sleep longer than usual. It could have also been a “placebo effect,” as discussed in this article about Kinoki detox foot patches.  It is a relief to see all those “toxins” in the patch—real or not. I felt sort of like, “whew, all those toxins are out of me now!

I haven’t come to any real conclusion on the Avon patches yet, although I am sort of skeptical. They’ve gotten good reviews though. I do think green tea has lots of “healing properties” though, so I haven’t totally wrote the patches off as a useless health “gimmick.”

If anybody is interested, a friend of mine, who runs HolisticVoice.com, wrote an article about easy and natural ways to reduce the amount of dangerous substances (like MSG, dioxins, and other toxins) in your body. She does suggest drinking green tea, as well as taking certain herbs, eating wholesome and organic vegetarian foods, and buying green cleaners instead of chemical-based ones.

Whether those detox patches work or not, this is good advice!

A Lip-Smacking Good Deal

Sorry for the re-post--I've been having trouble with my page. (Too much on it--had to thin it out!)

I rarely wear much make-up, but since my lips get dry easily, I do usually wear lip gloss or lip balm. Cruelty-free and cheap are my only criteria—and I just found a decent product that meets both requirements.

Drugstore.com sells e.l.f. (eyes. lips. face.) brand  therapeutic conditioning lip balm for $1.49! The product isn’t anything to write home about, but its fine enough, and for that price, I think it is worth writing about. (I think ANY cruelty-free company deserves a shout-out anyway.)

So far, the lip balm is the only e.l.f . product I’ve tried (in both blackberry and strawberry), but it looks like they make some good, inexpensive lotions and make-up too.  Some of the stuff gets mixed reviews but the product reviews on the site vary so much, I figure its best just to check everything out myself. Most products work differently  depending on your skin type, tone, etc., anyway.

If you’re looking for a product to make you (more) glamorous, this likely  isn’t it, but if you want an affordable, non-animal tested balm to keep your lips from drying out, this will fit the bill.