Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

COCA-COLA ADVERTISEMENTS

These historical advertisements should warn us to be a tad skeptical about contemporary ads (of whatever sort...)

And not this from the "Cola Industry!"

 

SO IS COCONUT OIL GOOD FOR YOU OR BAD FOR YOU?

KC Craichy of Living Fuel has responded to a recent pronouncement that coconut oil is not good for you.  His piece is titled "Why the American Heart Association is Wrong on Coconut Oil."  

 The American Heart Association recently issued an advisory that warns against the consumption of coconut oil and other saturated fats, claiming they raise LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels and increase the chance of heart disease. But there is conflicting information regarding the subject of saturated fats and heart disease, including many studies that show no correlation. Additionally, coconut oil has a long list of health benefits related to thyroid function, heart health, brain function, immunity and weight loss that were not mentioned in the report.

The AHA advisory was authored by Frank Sacks, M.D. He said the tipping point that led to the advisory was a well-publicized 2014 study that concluded the amount of dietary and saturated fat had no bearing on the risk of heart disease. The AHA decided it needed to counter that report and reviewed studies dating to the 1950s related to saturated fat and heart disease to issue the advisory.

SUGAR HIDING IN UNSUSPECTED FOODS

 

Lorrie Johnson from CBN News reports:

Do foods like skim milk and balsamic vinegar seem healthy? The amount of sugar in these foods may surprise you.

CAN GMOs FEED THE WORLD?

Since I have a lot to learn about the pros and cons of GMO foods, I found the following article from Hallelujah Acres of interest.  In fact I found it quite alarming. 

Today, October 16, 2013 is World Food Day! And this year’s theme is “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition“.

With all the promise of sustainable food and nutrition over the years regarding genetically modified foods (GMO foods), one would think that the World Food Day website would be all for GMO foods.

But there’s hardly a mention of GMOs.

Why not? Are GMO foods not all they’re cracked up to be?

As consumers — and especially if you’re on the Hallelujah Diet — we’ve all heard the negative horror stories of GMO foods and how they cause giant cancer tumors in rats, etc. Meanwhile, many others have come against such research claiming it to be inaccurate.

Giant tumors in rats aside, let’s pretend for a moment that GMO foods don’t cause any health effects.

Let’s just get the point: Are GMO foods good for the world, simply from a food security standpoint?

In other words, can they really solve the world’s hunger?

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD IS A BAD THING, RIGHT?

That's what I thought, but this article has caused me to be much less sure.   

NEW TREND - RESTAURANTS THAT CATER TO PATRONS WITH FOOD SENSITIVITIES

From a Wall Street Journal article, "Allergy-Free Dining"

When someone orders from the gluten-free menu at the Melting Pot, a chain of 140 fondue restaurants, a complex safety system kicks in behind the scenes.

The server enters a "gluten-free" notice on the electronic order ticket. That alerts the chef to stop, sanitize his work station and change his gloves and apron. He prepares the plate from a separate set of food items, strategically arranged so those containing gluten—a protein found in wheat, rye and barley—can't contaminate those without. The server delivers the order on a separate tray, and the manager comes by to see if the diner has any questions.

"Educate, separate, sanitize—I pound that into our employees," says Maria Miller-Rodriguez, who trains new Melting Pot staffers in the Phoenix area in allergy awareness.

A growing number of restaurants are catering to patrons with food sensitivities. An estimated 15 million Americans—including 1 in every 13 children—have at least one food allergy, according to the Food Allergy Initiative. Another three million have celiac disease, an autoimmune reaction to gluten, and millions more avoid gluten for other health reasons. Both food allergies and gluten issues are mysteriously on the rise. Some restaurants estimate that 20% of their tables have a person with a special dietary need.   [more . . .]

GENETIC MODIFIED FOOD - "GOLDEN RICE" WITH BETA CAROTENE

Matt Ridley writes in this weekend's Wall Street Journal:  (my emphases)

[...]  Another person who spotted the importance of micronutrients a long time ago is a Swiss geneticist, Ingo Potrykus. Realizing that insufficient calories was not the only form of malnutrition, he concluded that vitamin A deficiency, for those living on a monotonous diet of rice, was the most tractable of the big problems facing the world. He and Peter Beyer designed a new variety of rice plant that could be given away free to help the poorest people in the world.

Vitamin A deficiency affects the immune system, leading to illness and frequently to blindness. It probably causes more deaths than malaria, HIV or tuberculosis, killing as many people every single day as the Fukushima tsunami. It can be solved by eating green vegetables and meat, but for many poor Asians, who can afford only rice, that remains an impossible dream. To deal with the problem, "biofortification" with genetically modified food plants is 1/10th as costly as dietary supplements.

"Golden rice"—with two extra genes to make beta-carotene, the raw material for vitamin A—was a technical triumph, identical to ordinary rice except in color. Painstaking negotiations led to companies waiving their patent rights so the plant could be grown and regrown free by anybody.

Yet today, 14 years later, it still has not been licensed to growers anywhere in the world. The reason is regulatory red tape deliberately imposed to appease the opponents of genetic modification, which Adrian Dubock, head of the golden rice project, describes as "a witch-hunt for suspected theoretical environmental problems...[because] many activist NGOs thought that genetically engineered crops should be opposed as part of their anti-globalization agenda."

It is surprising to find that an effective solution to the problem consistently rated by experts as the poor world's highest priority has been stubbornly opposed by so many pressure groups supposedly acting on behalf of the poor.

Me:  For what I think are good reasons, I've always been scared of genetically modified foods.  This article, however, makes me wonder if there might be exceptions.  I don't know. 

Update 5/22/12 - Here's a current negative assessment from Mother Earth News - "The Threats from Genetically Modified Foods"

USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT EGGS - ESPECIALLY GROCERY STORE EGGS

Click here.

PUBERTY AT THE AGE OF 8

Click here for an interesting article followed by Dr. Mercola's comments, followed by reader responses (over 65 so far).