McDonald's is axing "pink slime" from its burgers, after receiving heat from celebrity chef and food activist Jamie Oliver, CBS This Morning reported.
What is pink slime? It's the name Oliver has given to fatty beef trimmings soaked in ammonium hydroxide, which removes bacteria and makes the beef taste better.
"We're taking a product that would be sold in its cheaper form for dogs," Oliver said on his TV show, Food Revolution, where he demonstrated the practice. "After this process, we can give it to humans."
The technique is approved by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.
Last week, McDonald's announced it's no longer using the beef product, although the chain said in a statement that this decision "was not related to any particular event." Taco Bell and Burger King have also agreed to stop using the additive, according to the Huffington Post.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Working long hours doubles depression odds
Working long hours appears to substantially increase a person's risk of becoming depressed, regardless of how stressful the actual work is, a new study suggests.
The study, which followed 2,123 British civil servants for six years, found that workers who put in an average of at least 11 hours per day at the office had roughly two and a half times higher odds of developing depression than their colleagues who clocked out after seven or eight hours.
The link between long workdays and depression persisted even after the researchers took into account factors such as job strain, the level of support in the workplace, alcohol use, smoking, and chronic physical diseases.
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The study, which followed 2,123 British civil servants for six years, found that workers who put in an average of at least 11 hours per day at the office had roughly two and a half times higher odds of developing depression than their colleagues who clocked out after seven or eight hours.
The link between long workdays and depression persisted even after the researchers took into account factors such as job strain, the level of support in the workplace, alcohol use, smoking, and chronic physical diseases.
read more
Saturday, January 28, 2012
USDA's New Rules for School Lunches to Fight Obesity
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) unveiled new nutrition rules for school meals Wednesday in an effort to combat obesity in the U.S.
Students will have to be offered more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and the USDA for the first time is setting calorie limits on what kids eat in school cafeterias.
The new rules, the USDA said Wednesday, are "intended to respond to serious concerns about childhood obesity and the importance for children to consume nutritious school meals within their calorie needs."
First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack were expected to discuss the new rules at an elementary school in Alexandria, Va., with celebrity chef Rachael Ray.
A lunch for kindergarten through fifth grade students will contain no more than 650 calories on average. The limit goes up to 700 calories for sixth through eighth grades and 850 calories for ninth through 12th grades.
And schools that participate in the federal lunch and breakfast programs will no longer be able to serve whole milk and must start offering nonfat milk, according to the rules.
Flavored milk will only be allowed if it is nonfat.
Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2012/01/26/us-unveils-new-rules-for-school-lunches-in-obesity-fight/#ixzz1kfxJp059
Students will have to be offered more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and the USDA for the first time is setting calorie limits on what kids eat in school cafeterias.
The new rules, the USDA said Wednesday, are "intended to respond to serious concerns about childhood obesity and the importance for children to consume nutritious school meals within their calorie needs."
First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack were expected to discuss the new rules at an elementary school in Alexandria, Va., with celebrity chef Rachael Ray.
A lunch for kindergarten through fifth grade students will contain no more than 650 calories on average. The limit goes up to 700 calories for sixth through eighth grades and 850 calories for ninth through 12th grades.
And schools that participate in the federal lunch and breakfast programs will no longer be able to serve whole milk and must start offering nonfat milk, according to the rules.
Flavored milk will only be allowed if it is nonfat.
Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2012/01/26/us-unveils-new-rules-for-school-lunches-in-obesity-fight/#ixzz1kfxJp059
Friday, January 27, 2012
Why Home Births Are on the Rise
Nine years ago, my neighbor and I were pregnant at the same time. I was expecting my first child, she her fourth. One day, I returned home from work to find a blue bow on her lamppost. My husband and I grabbed a congratulatory bottle of wine and headed over. We rang the doorbell, and Angie answered, perky as ever.
“Um,” I stuttered, completely confused. “I thought you had your baby, but I guess I was wrong.”
“He’s upstairs,” she responded. “Want to come see him?”
Her home birth hadn’t fazed her one bit. A trained labor and delivery nurse, she’d delivered her son herself that morning; that afternoon, she drove to pick up her girls from school. Clearly not a typical case, but statistics released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that home birth is on the rise.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/27/why-home-births-are-on-the-rise/#ixzz1kfvMcl96
“Um,” I stuttered, completely confused. “I thought you had your baby, but I guess I was wrong.”
“He’s upstairs,” she responded. “Want to come see him?”
Her home birth hadn’t fazed her one bit. A trained labor and delivery nurse, she’d delivered her son herself that morning; that afternoon, she drove to pick up her girls from school. Clearly not a typical case, but statistics released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that home birth is on the rise.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/27/why-home-births-are-on-the-rise/#ixzz1kfvMcl96
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Man refuses surgery, drops 270 pounds
For years, Bryan worked the night shift at a Verizon call center in Charleston, South Carolina, 20 miles from his home in Moncks Corner.
He skipped breakfast, ate fast food for lunch and dinner, then picked up a pizza or some convenience store snacks on his way home. He often drank more than a gallon of soda a day. By the age of 37, he had a body mass index around 87. A BMI over 30 is considered obese.
"He was very aware that he had a problem," Martha said. "It was out of control."
June 20 was possibly the best thing that could have happened to Bryan, although it certainly didn't seem like it at the time. His "heart attack" was actually a pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot that had traveled to his lungs, blocking his oxygen flow. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "sudden death is the first symptom" in about a quarter of patients who have a pulmonary embolism.
For six days, Bryan lay in a hospital bed, covered in bruises caused by the blood thinners being pumped into his body. The blood thinners slowly cleared the blockage in his lungs, giving him plenty of time to think.
"At first, I felt like a victim, like somebody or something had done this to me," Bryan said in a YouTube video about his experience. "But then reality set in and the pain turned to anger. My condition was unacceptable."
Several doctors tried to broach the subject of weight-loss surgery while he was in the hospital, but Bryan refused. Both he and his mother had friends who had gone through the surgery and were suffering from complications.
If I can make it out of here alive, he thought, I'm not coming back.
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He skipped breakfast, ate fast food for lunch and dinner, then picked up a pizza or some convenience store snacks on his way home. He often drank more than a gallon of soda a day. By the age of 37, he had a body mass index around 87. A BMI over 30 is considered obese.
"He was very aware that he had a problem," Martha said. "It was out of control."
June 20 was possibly the best thing that could have happened to Bryan, although it certainly didn't seem like it at the time. His "heart attack" was actually a pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot that had traveled to his lungs, blocking his oxygen flow. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "sudden death is the first symptom" in about a quarter of patients who have a pulmonary embolism.
For six days, Bryan lay in a hospital bed, covered in bruises caused by the blood thinners being pumped into his body. The blood thinners slowly cleared the blockage in his lungs, giving him plenty of time to think.
"At first, I felt like a victim, like somebody or something had done this to me," Bryan said in a YouTube video about his experience. "But then reality set in and the pain turned to anger. My condition was unacceptable."
Several doctors tried to broach the subject of weight-loss surgery while he was in the hospital, but Bryan refused. Both he and his mother had friends who had gone through the surgery and were suffering from complications.
If I can make it out of here alive, he thought, I'm not coming back.
read more
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Narcissism especially bad for men's health, study says
he inflated sense of self-importance common to narcissism can be toxic to relationships, but a new study suggests the personality trait may also harm men's health.
Researchers from the Universities of Michigan and Virginia determined that men who scored high on two destructive narcissistic traits -- entitlement and exploitativeness -- had markedly higher levels than others of cortisol, a stress hormone that can lead to high blood pressure and heart problems. While men and women are equally narcissistic, study authors said, the cortisol stress response was not noted in female participants.
"We generally see narcissism as a personality trait that's bad for others but not narcissists. It's bad for people in relationships with them," said study co-author Sara Konrath, an assistant research professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. "This study was a way of getting under their skin to see if there are physical consequences."
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Researchers from the Universities of Michigan and Virginia determined that men who scored high on two destructive narcissistic traits -- entitlement and exploitativeness -- had markedly higher levels than others of cortisol, a stress hormone that can lead to high blood pressure and heart problems. While men and women are equally narcissistic, study authors said, the cortisol stress response was not noted in female participants.
"We generally see narcissism as a personality trait that's bad for others but not narcissists. It's bad for people in relationships with them," said study co-author Sara Konrath, an assistant research professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. "This study was a way of getting under their skin to see if there are physical consequences."
read more
Monday, January 23, 2012
Nutrition: No Obesity Link to Junk Food in Schools
In the fight against childhood obesity, communities all over the country are banning the sale of sweets and salty snacks in public schools. But a new study suggests that the strategy may be ineffective.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University tracked the body mass indexes of 19,450 students from fifth through eighth grade. In fifth grade, 59 percent of the children attended a school where candy, snacks or sugar-sweetened beverages were sold. By eighth grade, 86 percent did so.
The researchers compared children’s weight in schools where junk food was sold and in schools where it was banned. The scientists also evaluated eighth graders who moved into schools that sold junk food with those who did not, and children who never attended a school that sold snacks with those who did. And they compared children who always attended schools with snacks with those who moved out of such schools.
read more
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University tracked the body mass indexes of 19,450 students from fifth through eighth grade. In fifth grade, 59 percent of the children attended a school where candy, snacks or sugar-sweetened beverages were sold. By eighth grade, 86 percent did so.
The researchers compared children’s weight in schools where junk food was sold and in schools where it was banned. The scientists also evaluated eighth graders who moved into schools that sold junk food with those who did not, and children who never attended a school that sold snacks with those who did. And they compared children who always attended schools with snacks with those who moved out of such schools.
read more
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