Family Meals Prevent Eating Disorders

Adolescent girls who frequently eat meals with their families are significantly less likely to use diet pills, laxatives or other extreme measures to control their weight in later years.

More than 2,500 adolescents completed two surveys, one in 1999 and one in 2004. The survey asked questions about their body mass index, eating behaviors, feelings of family connectedness, and how often they ate with their families.

Teen girls who ate five or more meals each week with their families in 1999 were less likely to report using extreme measures in 2004, regardless of any other factors.


Sources:

* Eurekalert January 7, 2008

Is Fat On Your Hips Better for Your Brain than Fat On Your Belly?

New research suggests that women with an hourglass figure may on average be brighter and have cleverer children.

A study found that women with large hips and small waists tend to be more intelligent than those with either “apple-shaped” or linear bodies. Such women may also tend to give birth to more intelligent children. One possible reason is the greater percentage of omega 3 fats found on the hips.

The study examined 16,000 women and girls, and found that women with a greater difference between the waist and hips scored significantly higher on cognitive tests, as did their children.

Fat around hips and thighs holds higher levels of omega 3 fats, which are essential for the growth of the brain during pregnancy. Fat around the waist may have higher levels of omega 6 fats acids, which are less well suited to brain growth. Waist fat is also more likely to be a contributory factor in diabetes and heart disease.


Sources:

* Times Online November 11, 2007

Which Foods Can Help You Digest Fat More Healthily?

A new research report indicates that consuming polyphenols, which are natural compounds in red wine, fruits, and vegetables, can help reduce the health risks associated with high-fat foods. They could work in the same way that certain additives help gasoline burn more cleanly.

In the study, six men and four women were fed three meals consisting of dark meat turkey cutlets. The first meal consisted of turkey meat and water, the second meal consisted of turkey meat with polyphenols added after cooking, plus a glass of red wine, and the third meal consisted of turkey meat with polyphenols added before cooking, again followed by a glass of wine.

Researchers took blood and urine samples to measure levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), which is a natural byproduct of fat digestion known to increase the risk for heart disease. MDA levels nearly quintupled after the turkey-and-water meal. However, MDA was nearly eliminated after subjects consumed the meals with polyphenols.


Sources:

* Science Daily January 6, 2008

Drug Industry Spends Nearly Twice as Much for Marketing as for Research

Drug companies spends almost twice as much on the marketing and promotion of drugs than they do for research and development.

An analysis showed that U.S. drug companies spent $57.5 billion on promotional activities in 2004, but only $31.5 for research.

The authors of the analysis say that their findings confirm “the public image of a marketing-driven industry and provides an important argument to petition in favor of transforming the workings of the industry in the direction of more research and less promotion.”

The authors also believe that their figure of $57.5 billion for marketing is most likely an underestimate, since it did not include tactics such as drug company ghostwriting of articles in medical journals, or the off-label promotion of drugs.


Sources:

* Eurekalert January 2, 2008

Most TV Drug Ads Minimize Information About Side Effects

A new University of Georgia study has determined that most prescription drug ads do not present a fair balance of information when it comes to the risk of side effects.

The average 60-second ad contains less than 8 seconds of side effect disclaimers, and the average 30-second ad has less than 4.4 seconds of disclaimers. Most 15-second ads have no disclaimers at all.

According to the study’s author, the problem is compounded by the fact that the information is often presented in a way that people aren’t likely to comprehend or even pay attention to. Almost all of the ads disclosed side effects solely in voice-over, with only 2.2 percent adding a disclosure in text form.


Sources:

* Eurekalert January 3, 2008

Scientific American Has Second Thoughts About Fluoride

Scientific American editors have written than “Some recent studies suggest that over-consumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland.”

After examining hundreds of studies, a National Research Council committee concluded that “fluoride can subtly alter endocrine function, especially in the thyroid.”

The presence of fluoride in foods, beverages, medicines, water, and dental products can result in over-consumption. A series of epidemiological studies have associated high fluoride exposures with lower IQ, as well as an increased risk of bone fracture.


Sources:

* Reuters January 2, 2008

Scientific Proof that Your Childhood Traumas are a MAJOR Factor in Your All Your Illnesses

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is an ongoing research project which is perhaps the largest scientific research study of its kind. Its purpose it to analyze the relationship between multiple categories of childhood trauma and health and behavioral outcomes later in life.

ACE is examining the effects of:

* Recurrent physical abuse
* Recurrent emotional abuse
* Contact sexual abuse
* An alcohol and/or drug abuser in the household
* An incarcerated household member
* Someone who is chronically depressed, mentally ill, institutionalized, or suicidal
* Mother is treated violently
* One or no parents
* Emotional or physical neglect

To learn more about the study, and to calculate your own ACE score, take a look at the link below.


Sources:

* The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study

Scientific Proof that Your Childhood Traumas are a MAJOR Factor in Your All Your Illnesses

For the first time, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) has come out in support of low-carbohydrate diets for people with diabetes.

Prior to the release of its 2008 recommendations, the ADA did not support low-carbohydrate diets.

The recommendations continue to support sustained, moderate weight loss and increased physical activity for people who are overweight and living with or at risk of developing diabetes.


Sources:

* Washington Post December 28, 2007

Myth: Pharmaceutical companies are looking after your health

QUACKBUSTING THE QUACKBUSTERS

Free e-book launched exploring anti-nutritional lobby groups

Have you ever wondered why there is so much opposition to nutritional approaches for today's major health issues? Is it really because the science is weak, or is it more to do with politics and money?

I was fascinated to read the free e-book, published this month on the internet, by Martin Walker entitled Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism - Ben Goldacre, Quackbusting and Corporate Science. It explores the associations Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre, and other 'quackbusters' have with an organised anti-nutritional medicine agenda and organisations funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Those familiar with Ben Goldacre's inability to expose the 'bad science' of drugs and antipathy towards nutritional medicine will not be surprised.

Martin Walker, author of Dirty Medicine and Brave New World of Zero Risk, looks at the quackbusting work of Ben Goldacre and others, placing them in the context of the global lobby groups that support the chemical, pharmaceutical, medical and processed food industries. It's an intriguing read. For the first time Walker's work focuses on this lobby's attacks on independent nutritionists, including myself, and traces the history of quackbuster campaigns against vitamin and food supplements.

Walker is giving away this publication as an e-book, in the hope that it will help people organise in defence of nutritional medicine.

Like all of Walker's work it is an erudite and detailed read that will certainly enlighten you to the darker side of those organising against non-pharmaceutically based medicine in general, and nutritional medicine in particular. The e-book can be downloaded for free from www.slingshotpublications.com and Walker hopes that many will place it on their web sites to be accessed and downloaded.

I hope you do take the time to read this and let others know about it because literally tens of thousands of people die every year from prescription drugs when better alternatives already exist and millions more suffer unnecessarily and die prematurely from ignorance, some scared off from trying effective, safe, nutritional approaches by individuals like Ben Goldacre and his fellow quackbusters.