That headline caught my eye! The report “Ready, Willing, and Unable to Serve”, was released earlier this month by the non-profit organization Mission: Readiness, Military Leaders for Kids, along with Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and asserts that “75 percent of young Americans are unable to serve their country because they have either failed to graduate high school, engaged in criminal activity, or are physically or mentally unfit.”

I decided to dig a little deeper, to find the report and read it  http://www.missionreadiness.org/PAEE0609.pdf  Here’s the part that is of most interest to me; “27 percent of young Americans are too overweight to join the military.6 “ The report goes on to say that, “Solving one problem is often not enough to allow someone to join. For example, some of the overweight individuals are also involved in crime or have other medical problems that would disqualify them even if they lose enough weight.” Fair enough. In the end, or maybe better said, in the beginning, education is key. That’s not a problem that’s going to be tackled overnight, probably not even in a generation. Obesity – that’s a problem that can be tackled in short order! Seriously. I’m living proof. If an individual is so motivated, fitness can be achieved in a relatively short period of time.

6. Jack Dilbeck, Research Analyst, United States Army Accessions Command, Fort Knox, KY. Personal Communication on May 14, 2009.
Asch, B.J., Buck, C., Klerman, J.A., Kleykamp, M., & Loughran, D.S. (2009). Military enlistment of Hispanic youth: Obstacles and opportunities. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Retrieved on May 27, 2009 from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_MG773.pdf RAND reports that each service has different weight standards. For example, the Air Force would not accept a six-foot tall male weighing over 205 pounds. The Marines would admit heavier individuals, but a six-foot tall male would have to slim down to 213 pounds in order to actually ship out.

The Qi Circulation Massager integrates acupuncture, reflex, key point stimuli and massage points on hands and feet. There are different ways of using the equipment, such as standing, sitting all areas of the body can be stimulated, ensuring that the whole body achieves the levels of co-ordination required to ensure the dynamic balance required. The Qi Massager uses vibration and massage to create a warming and stimulating effect from foot to head.”

BENEFITS

• Regulates the meridians.
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• Strengthens visceral function
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• Improves digestive and absorption function.
• Dispels toxins.
• Assists the stroke patient.
• Retards aging and increases longevity.
• Helps in chronic and acute inflammations.
• Tackles feelings of tiredness and stress, fatigue and aching muscles, cold feet and hands
• Ensures more energy and the potential to look better and feel better
• Promotes blood circulation and helps build immunity by increasing the activities of the white blood cells in the body.
• Enjoy accelerated metabolic function, helping build your overall wellness.
• Relax and strengthen your body after a hard day’s work and all the stress that goes with it..
• Promotes overall longevity, retarding the aging process.
• Helpful in managing many health conditions by strengthening your body system to cope better.
• Can’t be bothered with gym or workouts but still want to look good? Want to burn fat, increase energy, vitality and reduce aging process without the hard work? 15 minutes of use is equal to the benefits of 5 miles running exercise.

http://www.tiensproducts.org

On dit de moi que je suis GROSSE.
Qu’à la cantine qu’il faut que je laisse tomber les salades… “forcément” enceinte / je dois nourrir le gosse…
Tout le monde dévisage l’OBÈSE…Que la balance ne supporterait pas / qu’il ne faut surtout pas que je me pèse… Car mon poids se calculerait en TONNES.. Trop de gras dans mon corps / plus de place pour ma cervelle / que je suis forcément CONNE…

On se moque même de mon petit frère…

Mais…
ce qui me fait le plus de mal c’est lorsqu’ils disent que je suis bête…
alors que je perds…
déjà…
aussi….
un peu…
la vue…
à cause du Diabète.

Elie KHOURY.

One reason and the only reason I can think – its cheap!!!  High Fructose Corn Syrup aka HFCS simply put is a cheap form of sweetener.  You can read online about how its made and stuff.  You see HFCS in pretty much most food products sold at your local grocery store.  There are ongoing studies – independent researchers and “industry sponsored” researchers figuring out the good and bad stuff about it.  Some studies link HFCS to obesity, reproductive problems. Other studies say it is TOTALLY safe.  You figure out if you want to sign up to be a ’subject’ for a lab study while the research continues.  Washington Post reports that nearly half the tested samples of HFCS contained Mercury.  So next time you are feeding your kids the cereal or pouring that chocolate milk, you will likely notice HFCS on the ingredients list. Always read the fine print, ask questions.  Most corporations dont care about you or your kids.  Its all about profits and quarterly earnings.  Here are a few eye-opening links:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fructose-corn-syrup/AN01588

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831.html

I hate holidays, especially the ones that arrive as the year nears its end.  They are the absolute worse on the Honjii’s Horrible Holiday scale.  The day before Thanksgiving hordes of people collectively have a sudden realization that OH MY GOD tomorrow is a holiday, and feel the need to get into their cars, cause traffic jams, and descend upon every imaginable retail establishment where they stand, blocking aisles, looking vacantly off into space.  I know that it will be like this through the end of the year so I’m going to avoid stores even if it means I have to starve.

Hello people, these holidays come around every year, or did  you forget?  If you place so much importance on them that you have to shop and plan and stress; why then, year after year,  does it seem to come as a surprise on the day before Thanksgiving?  You all talk about it for weeks ahead, asking stupid questions like, “What are YOU doing for Turkey Day?” so you had to know it was coming.  Speaking of stupid holiday questions, one of my all time favorites is, “Are you ready for Christmas?”, to which I usually answer, hopefully, “NO, if I’m not ready will it not happen?”

Turkey Day?  The media has taken the one major secular holiday and turned it into a mass food fest, where largely obese Americans feel they deserve a guilt free pass to stuff themselves (more than they normally do) with a big dead bird and other strange dishes like candies mixed with vegetables.  This event often involves getting together with relatives people rarely see, and don’t much like, for a feast that often turns into arguments and petty squabbles while stuffing their pie holes as if preparing for an impending famine.  I suppose they can be thankful they only have to see each other once a year.

And, as if the stores and the traffic isn’t bad enough, even the gym is no longer sacred.  Right after Turkey Day and again after that whole New Year resolution thing about losing weight and getting in shape, the gym becomes uncomfortably crowded…for about a month or so, until the newbies figure out THIS IS GONNA TAKE SOME WORK… when it is blissfully turned back over to us die-hard gym rats.

When and why did the day after Thanksgiving come to be known as Black Friday, a day that retailers open their doors at insane o’clock in the wee hours of the morning for mobs of shoppers looking for good deals on stuff?  To me, the term Black Friday evokes a day of mourning or a remembrance of some past tragedy that happened on a Friday.  I hate to shop and only do it when absolutely necessary.  I cannot for the life of me imagine why anyone would get up at two AM to stand in line with a mob of people (some of whom are probably incubating the H1N1 flu) waiting for the doors to open so they can swoop in, like vultures, and be the first to pick over the LOW LOW LOW priced stuff to buy with money they probably don’t have.

This insanity will continue as we move toward the big one, Christmas.  The closer we get to the big day the more intense the frenzy becomes building to a crescendo on (when else) the day before, at which point I will want to hide in a cave until it’s over.

Did I mention that I hate holidays?  BAH HUMBUG!

I’m just saying.

Sometimes when I’m sad I like to cut myself…another slice of cheesecake

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope you, like me, have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, because even more than New Years day, I take stock of my life. So great!

A quick blog today, as I’m headed over my sister’s house shortly, for a day of family and food.

I’m experimenting with various formats for packaging interview content, so let me know what you think of this slide show of my interview with Terry Peterson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-1kLrTOKHY

I just posted a video clip where I talk about my experiences interviewing 50 athletes over 50 at http://athletes.50interviews.com/about/ I hope you like this.

I spent some time in the past couple days with someone afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.  Given the health of the many athletes I’ve spoken to over the past six months, it seems that 76 is too young to lose one’s ability to be connected with the happenings of the world.

This experience reminder me of something that Dr. John Ratey, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard, said in a lecture I went to. He claimed that there is a strong link between obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. The person I spent time with, indeed was obese most of her life. I believe that if you or I were to experience Alzheimer’s disease, we would take any medication, undergo any surgery, or travel anywhere to cure it. So, today, there is a medication you can take. It is called exercise!

This Thanksgiving, please take stock of the health you have, and take steps to protect it. Find an activity you love to do, and get moving.

Also, don’t forget about the photo contest where you can win $300 or an iPod. Go to http://50-k.net/contests

Weight increase-whether it is due to genes is under active study.People ,who despite eating heavily remain slim,whereas who eat less gain weight.Reasons are yet to be established.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Exercise seems to simultaneously make people hungrier, yet more readily satisfied by a meal — and differences in these responses from person to person may help explain why some exercisers shed pounds more easily than others, researchers say.

In a study of 58 overweight and obese adults who started an exercise regimen, researchers found that exercise tended to boost participants’ hunger before a meal, compared with their sedentary days.

On the other hand, they were also more easily satisfied by their morning meal than they had been before becoming active.

But while both effects were generally at work across the study group, there were subtler differences between participants who were more successful in their weight loss and those whose extra pounds stubbornly hung on.

In general, exercisers who did not meet their expected weight loss were both hungrier after fasting — that is, right before breakfast — and throughout the day, compared with their hunger ratings at the study’s start.

In contrast, those who were more successful in shedding pounds generally saw their pre-breakfast appetites increase after becoming active. But they were not hungrier throughout the day.

“The reason that some people are more successful (at weight loss) could be due to a lesser increase in appetite and the prevention of an increase in food intake,” lead researcher Dr. Neil King, an associate professor at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, told Reuters Health in an email.

But the bottom line for new exercisers, he said, is that they should not throw in the towel if they start feeling more hungry than normal — or fail to shed as many pounds as they’d been hoping.

Other research shows that exercise has health benefits — like improved cardiovascular fitness, and lower blood pressure and cholesterol — even if weight loss is modest.

For the current study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, King’s team had 58 overweight men and women go through a 12-week supervised exercise regimen designed to burn 500 calories per session.

At the beginning and end of the study, participants were given a breakfast of cereal and toast, and were asked to rate their hunger before the meal, immediately after and throughout the rest of the day.

After 12 weeks, 32 participants had lost the expected amount of weight based on the calories they burned during exercise; 26 had not. On average, both groups showed a revved up appetite before breakfast on week 12, but daily hunger was greater in those who had not lost a substantial amount of weight.

Both groups of exercisers, though, seemed to be more readily satisfied by their breakfast than they had been before becoming active.
Story:
It’s not clear why these two different appetite effects arise from exercise. But physical activity, while spurring hunger, may also boost the sensitivity of the body’s fullness-signaling system, according to King’s team.

“The key messages,” King said, “are exercise is good for you, don’t expect unrealistic weight loss and don’t give up exercising just because of lower-than-expected weight loss.”

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2009.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5AO2LC20091125?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100

3020976    โรคอ้วน    Obesity

คำนิยาม การวินิจฉัยโรค การจัดชั้น ระบาดวิทยา อันตรายจากโรคอ้วนทางอายุรกรรม ทางสูติ-นรีเวชวิทยาและทางศัลยกรรม การรักษา

(Definition, diagnosis, classification, epidemiology, medical, obstetrical, surgical hazards, treatment.)

(3020976 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Today is a day to give thanks.

Enjoy your day. Eat well.

The BBC reported on a recent survey by the British Heart Foundation which found that most parents in the UK vastly overestimate the amount of exercise their children are getting. While 72% of parents believe that their children are getting enough exercise, according to the survey, only one in ten children actually get the recommended amount of exercise per day.  As more children begin to suffer the ill effects of not exercising and because obesity in children is on the rise, there is added urgency to understand how weight impacts the lives of children.

A recent study by Clark, Slate, and Viglietti (2009), found that children who were severely overweight had significantly worse marks in all subjects than students who were not obese.  The same was seen with standardized test scores and was found even when controlling for economic status or student conduct. However, the results were only found among white students; weight was not significantly correlated with grades for students in other ethnic categories. The authors caution that much more research should be done as their sample was somewhat limited and that people should be careful of studies looking at weight categories because many children go through growth-spurts at different times. Furthermore, it is important to remember that their research only showed that weight and academic performance were correlated. It is impossible to say that obesity causes low grades when it could very well be the other way around or other factors may influence both grades and weight.

Regardless, the study is interesting because it highlights that the issue of obesity may be worrisome not just because of its ill effects on physical health. Children who are overweight might suffer from low self-esteem or become victims of bullying or social exclusion, all of which could impact their physical and mental health. There are still a number of questions that social psychologists could help answer: Why does obesity negatively correlate with academic success? Do teachers treat obese children differently than non-obese children? Or, are children who are suffering academically less likely to exercise and eat a proper diet?

Read more: David Clark, D., Slate, J. R., & Vigliett, G. C. (2009). Children’s Weight and Academic Performance in Elementary School: Cause for Concern?. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy. 9, 1, 185-204.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I hit a nice milestone this morning.  I am now under 170!  Woo-hoo!

And the VERY NEXT milestone will be VERY VERY COOL.  The next milestone (in 1.8 lbs) will be the point at which I have removed 50% – that’s FIFTY PERCENT of my starting weight.

I will quite literally be half the woman I was.

But this current milestone is pretty cool in its own right, because I remember being in the 160s in college.  Not  HAPPY about being in the 160s (It seemed too high and it was), but I looked and felt pretty good.  Especially compared with how I’ve looked and felt for the past 15 years… 

When I started this “BMI Chasing” project back in May of 2007 I would have been ecstatic just to get under 200 and stay there.  Or even 300 and stay there.  I don’t think I ever really believed I’d actually be at a weight range I recalled from college, or a stone’s throw from a “normal” BMI of 24.99  (which is exactly 10.1 lbs away from where I am now, and completely do-able).

When I hit that 50% mark I will paste my original BMI Chasing post in with it, just so I (and anyone else interested) can see how far I’ve come…

And baby, I sure have come a long long way!

This genetic predisposition (mutated or altered genes), along with external and personal factors such as inadequate dietary habits or physical inactivity, predispose patients to obesity and the complications that arise from it (diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and high blood pressure) which in turn increase cardiovascular risk.

OVERWEIGHT MEN MUST FACE THE TASK OF UNDERGOING A MASSIVE WEIGHT-LOSS PROGRAM…FOUR PACKS HAS REPEATEDLY PROMOTED A MINIMUM 30 DAY RAPID WEIGHT-LOSS, CALORIE-RESTRICTIVE DIET…UNDER 1,000 CALORIES PER DAY FOR 30 DAYS…VISCERAL (BELLY) FAT WILL BE LOST THEREBY ALLOWING FOR A HEALTHY MAINTENANCE DIET…

(From a Science Daily news release)   The presence of increased body fat, and therefore higher levels of inflammatory substances in the blood, hinders the loss and maintenance of body weight; as shown by a research project of the University of Navarra conducted by Estíbaliz Goyenechea Soto, a scientist at the School of Pharmacy.

The project, entitled “A nutrigenetic and nutrigenomic study in relation to the control of body weight and inflammation,” examines how the individual genetics of obese patients can help or hinder weight loss when dieting and even influence the subsequent long term maintenance of their weight loss.

Some overweight or obese people have mutated or altered genes that initially make it difficult to lose weight and later make it easier to regain lost body weight in a period of six months or a year. This problem occurs similarly in patients who have higher levels of inflammatory substances in their blood.

This genetic predisposition, along with external and personal factors such as inadequate dietary habits or physical inactivity, predispose patients to obesity and the complications that arise from it (diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and high blood pressure) which in turn increase cardiovascular risk.

The future: customized diets

The study, conducted by the Department of Food Sciences, Physiology and Toxicology has provided new data on the genetic and plasma biomarkers that predict the response of obese patients to specific diets. The goal is to develop customized therapeutic strategies in the near future based on the genetic characteristics of each person.

A bank of biomarkers (genes and proteins) capable of predicting a person’s response to weight loss would enable doctors to know, with a simple blood test, how each patient would react to different types of nutritional intervention.

The study involved 180 overweight or obese patients, who followed a hypo-caloric (low energy) diet for 8 weeks and were evaluated after six months and again a year after the end of the dietary intervention.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091124093539.htm

Low Fat Diet: Saturated With Lies

Beef.  Chicken. Eggs.  Butter.  Coconut oil.  Do these saturated-filled words sound like weapons of health destruction?  According to current nutritional guidelines, I’m supposed to limit these foods because they’ll either lead to obesity, cancer, heart disease, diabetes or some form of suffering for the rest of my life.  Many of you are nodding your heads in agreement right now.

It’s taken me a long time to realize that this is simply not true.

When I became a fast food drop out in my early 20’s, I turned to a low fat diet.  I trimmed fat any which way I could and didn’t feel guilty when I broke down and ate low fat junk food.

I learned that low-fat junk food is still junk food, and a low-fat diet is still an unhealthy diet.

Why Are Saturated Fats So Bad For You?

Men’s Health published an excellent article that explained how saturated fats became known to be so bad.  The credit goes to a physiologist named Ancel Keys, Ph.D., who published a highly influential paper titled “Atherosclerosis, a Problem in Newer Public Health.” Keys wrote that while the total death rate in the United States was declining, the number of deaths due to heart disease was steadily climbing. And to explain why, he presented a comparison of fat intake and heart disease mortality in six countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Italy, and Japan.

The Americans ate the most fat and had the greatest number of deaths from heart disease; the Japanese ate the least fat and had the fewest deaths from heart disease. The other countries fell neatly in between. The higher the fat intake, according to national diet surveys, the higher the rate of heart disease. And vice versa. Keys called this correlation a “remarkable relationship” and began to publicly hypothesize that consumption of fat causes heart disease. This became known as the diet-heart hypothesis.

At the time, plenty of scientists were skeptical of Keys’s assertions. One such critic was Jacob Yerushalmy, Ph.D., founder of the biostatistics graduate program at the University of California at Berkeley. In a 1957 paper, Yerushalmy pointed out that while data from the six countries Keys examined seemed to support the diet-heart hypothesis, statistics were actually available for 22 countries. And when all 22 were analyzed, the apparent link between fat consumption and heart disease disappeared. For example, the death rate from heart disease in Finland was 24 times that of Mexico, even though fat-consumption rates in the two nations were similar.

The other salient criticism of Keys’s study was that he had observed only a correlation between two phenomena, not a clear causative link.  This left open the possibility that something else — unmeasured or unimagined — was leading to heart disease. After all, Americans did eat more fat than the Japanese, but perhaps they also consumed more sugar and white bread, and watched more television.

The seven-countries study, published in 1970, is considered Ancel Keys’s landmark achievement. It seemed to lend further credence to the diet-heart hypothesis. In this study, Keys reported that in the seven countries he selected — the United States, Japan, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Finland, and the Netherlands — animal-fat intake was a strong predictor of heart attacks over a 5-year period. Just as important, he noted an association between TOTAL cholesterol and heart-disease mortality. This prompted him to conclude that the saturated fats in animal foods — and not other types of fat — raise cholesterol and ultimately lead to heart disease.[1]

What about Margarine and Hydrogenated Fats?

Margarine and hydrogenated fats were the result of a food shortage in World War II.  Butter became scarce and chemists experimented to find an alternative.  They found that liquid vegetable oils could be turned into solid fat through a process called hydrogenation.

During this process, hydrogen gas is bubbled into the oil, which is heated to a high temperature. Nickel is then added to speed up the reaction. These hydrogenated fats are what make up margarine and shortening. Synthetic dyes are added to turn the whitish-colored hydrogenated fats into margarine.  They were promoted as “low in cholesterol and saturated fats.”  This is true.  However, they are high in unnatural, harmful fats and cancer causing chemicals.[2]

Why Are Processed Fats So Bad?

If you are getting the wrong kinds of fats in your diet, beware. No doubt, your body needs a certain amount of fat every day, but it needs the “good” fats. If all you get is the processed kind, your body has no choice but to make use of them. Processed fats, especially the hydrogenated variety, confuse the body because their chemical structure is different than the naturally occurring fats normally recognized and utilized by the body.

Once the “bad” fats are absorbed, they are taken to the liver where they are stored or converted into energy. The chemistry of these fats is abnormal so the liver has hard time trying to figure out what to do with them. When a cell is damaged and needs fatty acids for repair or other purposes, these abnormal fats will be made available to the cell, especially if there is a lack of natural, essential fats. The cell will attempt to place the abnormal fat into its membrane, resulting in a weakened, malfunctioning cell.

While hydrogenated fats may not become rancid on the shelf, they induce all sorts of rancidity problems within the body. They waste antioxidants such as vitamin E and selenium, which function to prevent fats from becoming rancid.

When you eat too much GOOD saturated fat, the body converts it to monounsaturated fat—the main fat in olive oil, which lowers cholesterol.  Some saturated fats, such as coconut oil, raise the beneficial cholesterol carrier HDL, which is linked to a reduced risk of heart disease. Ironically, the fat around the heart muscle itself is saturated.

What about Cholesterol?

By itself, cholesterol can be a good thing.  Cholesterol is used to make all hormones and functions as an antioxidant – it naturally increases as we age.

Kevin Brown, author of The Liberation Diet, points out that the more cholesterol we eat, the less the body makes; the less we eat, the more the body makes.  High cholesterol is a sign of something else failing to work properly in the body, not a disease that needs to be treated.

Bottom Line

When you eat fats as part of your meal, they slow down absorption so that you can go longer without feeling hungry. In addition, they act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Dietary fats are also needed for the conversion of carotene to vitamin A, for mineral absorption, and for a host of other biological processes.

Humans have eaten animal products for most of their existence on earth and therefore, they have consumed saturated fats for most of that time. If saturated fats were of no value or were harmful to you, why would breast milk produce saturated fats like butyric, caproic, caprylic, capric, lauric, myristic, palmitic and stearic acids, which provide a naturally perfected source of nourishment to ensure the growth, development and survival of your infants?

However, There IS Still a Link Between Fat and Heart Disease!

Now, it is clear that there is some association between fat and heart disease. The problem lies in the fact that most studies make no effort to differentiate between saturated fat and trans fat.[3]

[1] Teicholz, Nina.  (2007 Dec 13).  What if bad fat isn’t so bad? http://www.menshealth.com.

[2] Extracted from “Eat Right or Die Young” by Dr. Cass Igram who is a physician, healer, and expert in nutritional therapy. He received his B.S. degree at the University of Northern Iowa in biology and chemistry. He received his degree at the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, Des Moines, Iowa. Dr Igram is a respected lecturer and educator. He specializes in teaching both doctors and the public about nutritional treatments.

[3] http://www.mercola.com

To start off I just want to say that there will be a newspaper this year! Today we got enough money to pay for the first issue and are half way to paying off the second issue.

I’m so excited for this four-day vacation, because I really needed. Aside from the fact that I will be doing homework and getting the grades updated in journalism, I can still relax most of the vacation and get ready for December (one of the busiest months of the year). I can’t wait for Thanksgiving tomorrow, because I get to see my whole family (who I haven’t seen since the homecoming game) and I get to eat like there is no tomorrow (even though I don’t eat that much).

It really isn’t a surprise that America is has the most obese people in the world, because we have holidays, like Thanksgiving, where one of the ways to celebrate it, is by eating. I wonder if there are obese people in America, whose favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, just because it gives them an excuse to eat. I think they should make the day before Thanksgiving (today) an eat healthy day, since people eat so badly the next day.

Song of the post: This will be (An Everlasting Love) by Natalie Cole

Current estimates are that close to nine million children under the age of twelve years of age are reported as being obese. Some associated concerns are that they are also at high risk for diabetes, at high risk for hypertension (high blood pressure), at high risk for heart disease, at high risk for sedentary syndrome (lack of any active exercise whatsoever), or any combination of these associative disorders.

In the film Killer At Large, Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat; there are many verifiable statistics that are in all facets alarming. Here are a few I looked into and wanted to share:

• 46% of all vegetables consumed per year are French fries and ketchup (FDA).
• Children view an estimated average of 51 hours of food advertisements per year on television.
  • 95% of these advertisements are for junk food (high calorie, low nutrition).
• On average, children view one food commercial every five minutes on Saturday morning television.
• Children under the age of eight years of age cannot differentiate between advertisements and actual shows.
• Preschoolers’ risk of Obesity increases approximately 6% per one hour of television viewed per day.

Commonly these advertisements utilize a little trick of marketing – using the language of healthfulness to sell products no nutritionist could conscionably claim as “healthy”. Words we generally associate with healthy foods such as “vitamins”, “all natural”, and “nutritious” are misused for the purposes of selling a product, not contributing to the positive health benefits of our children. Of all of these, I dislike “all natural” the most. Here is a list of a few other “all natural” substances:

• Lead
• Arsenic
• Neurotoxins, Hemotoxins, Cytotoxins
• Hemlock, Sumac
• Etc.

Children are being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and hypertension at unprecedented rates, which is a new trend in our society. As a parent, I have had to go through the problems of the “Nag Factor” – how desperately a child wants a product and their sustained insistence level.

I hope that we can all see the potential hazards of  letting our resistance wane in the face of constant nagging for junk foods that we know are not in our children’s best health interests. Of course allowing treats and what we can call “less than healthy” foods for our children or ourselves occasionally should not raise the risk of obesity beyond a dangerous level, but not if that is the standard, regular diet.

My Nurse First helps with the health and health care of people of all ages. No one is too young or too old to benefit from a trained and professional patient advocate to help increase and protect the quality of their life. Please visit us at www.mynursefirst.com/solutions for more information on how we can help you or someone you love.

Be well and question your doctors.

By KATHY MATHESON , Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA – A Pennsylvania university’s requirement that overweight undergraduates take a fitness course to receive their degrees has raised the hackles of students and the eyebrows of health and legal experts.

Officials at historically black Lincoln University said Friday that the school is simply concerned about high rates of obesity and diabetes, especially in the African-American community.  (full article here)

It’s almost Thanksgiving again.

Wasn’t it just the Fourth of July?

But the leaves are falling,

and it’s colder than fuck.

So it must be time again to stuff our birds and our fat ugly faces.

It’s almost time for the fattest nation on earth,

to eat themselves into a triptafan induced coma.

Thanksgiving.

It’s just another holiday.

Just another excuse to spend too much.

Another excuse to eat too much.

Another excuse to drink too much.

Another excuse to capitalize on a national tradition.

Another excuse for corporate America to exploit the masses.

By creating a massive obligation for everyone to be thankful – whether they are or not.

But what if you’re not thankful?

What if you’re not in the mood to celebrate?

What if you’re now so poor that you can’t afford a fucking turkey dinner with all the trimmings?

What if your Thanksgiving dinner will consist of a plate of Top Ramen formed into the shape of a fucking turkey?

And washed down with a glass of Thunderbird?

Are you supposed to be thankful for this?

Maybe so.

Maybe that’s what Thanksgiving is.

A day to show our gratitude,

our appreciation,

our thankfulness.

No matter what your present circumstances are.

But unfortunately, most people are not grateful.

They’re not thankful.

They feel entitled.

Who are these pompous assholes?

That create a dinner that becomes more of an ego statement than a culinary delight.

That’s not gratitude.

That’s decadence.

Look at my turkey dinner,

Look at my table,

Look at my decorations,

Look at me.

Fuck you!

Take that turkey and shove it up your fat ass,

I’m going to Denny’s!

Moving on.

Have you ever noticed that the word “Thanksgiving” doesn’t make any fucking sense.

Think about it.

Thanksgiving.

Just because these two words were put together,

doesn’t make it proper English (Public schools).

Somebody made this shit up.

Thanksgiving!

What the fuck does that mean?

Maybe it should have been “Thank You Day,”

or “Thanks a Lot Day.”

or “Giving Thanks Day.”

But who are we thanking anyway?

Am I supposed to thank you?

You didn’t do a fucking thing for me all year.

Fuck you!

Are we supposed to thank our government?

For what, trying to destroy the American Dream?

Fuck you Bush!

Maybe we’re supposed to thank God?

Or Mother Nature?

Or the Universe?

Maybe that’s it?

Maybe we’re supposed to show our gratitude for the things we all take for granted?

Like our planet,

like our lives, 

like the lives of others.

And we show our “thanks” by creating a feast and “giving” it to our friends and loved ones.

Now I get it. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

© 2009 OMW

Here is one of the healthiest salads you can make (providing you are not a vegetarian!):

Luxury iron-enriched protein packed  lamb’s liver salad with soft minted onions and chillies.

The lamb is from our local friend Robert and is simply delicious, having been gently reared by grazing on only the finest Wiltshire grass.

I gently fried, until soft and golden, some sliced onions in a little olive and then stirred in some mint jelly, chilli flakes, salt and black pepper. I then added some fresh mint at the end.

I quickly fried the slices of lamb’s liver in a little oil with some more chilli flakes, cracked black pepper, sea salt, and finally adding some chopped rosemary. It was drained and allowed to rest.

(A good hint  for cleaning sliced liver and kidneys is to soak them in milk over night in the fridge after first washing and drying the slices on a paper towel).

The salad was tossed cos lettuce, tomatoes, very thinly sliced fresh fennel, sweet red peppers, cucumber, fresh chilli pieces, celery, fresh basil, mint, lime juice and a little olive oil. Salt and crushed mixed peppers were added to taste.

Totally divine and all protein.

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