Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Edible Mushrooms as Medicine


From GreenMedInfo.com

Mushrooms have been valued for their culinary and medicinal properties for thousands of years and the Egyptians reserved them by law for the pharaoh. In ancient times, mushrooms were not cultivated but grew wild, and always carried the risk that the wrong (i.e., poisonous) variety had been gathered intentionally or unintentionally, as the Roman Emperor Claudius found when his mushroom dinner became his last meal.

Ancient Asian civilizations believed that mushrooms, especially the shiitake and maitake varieties, support health generally and the immune system in particular. Today there is a wealth of scientific research attesting to the health benefits of mushrooms. Read the entire article.


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How to Stay Awake Naturally

From WebMd.com

With more and more of us getting less and less sleep, it’s tempting to reach for a Red Bull or an espresso when we feel sleepy at work. But consuming caffeine to combat sleepiness can lead to a vicious cycle.

The java jolt that helps you stay awake can take up to eight hours to wear off. Caffeine can also reduce your sleep time, alter the normal stages of sleep, and decrease the quality of your sleep.

How can you stay awake naturally? Try some of these 12 jitter-free tips to take the edge off sleepiness.


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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Healthy Benefits for Children in Outdoor Play


The great outdoors is closer than you think.  Your child is one in a million .. Make Them One of 10 Million!

All children should experience the simple pleasures and lasting benefits of spending time outside. Join National Wildlife Federation's mission to get 10 million kids outside for their health & happiness!

The great outdoors is great for kids! Kids today spend an average of 7 hours a day in front of screens and only 30 minutes outside playing. Studies show outdoor time helps children grow lean and strong, enhances imaginations and attention spans, decreases aggression, and boosts classroom performance. In addition, children who spend time in nature regularly are shown to become better stewards of the environment.

Fast Facts About Outdoor Time and Children (Source: nwf.org)

• Children are spending half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago. (Juster et al 2004); (Burdette & Whitaker 2005); (Kuo & Sullivan 2001)

• Today, kids 8-18 years old devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes using entertainment media in a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). (Kaiser Family Foundation)

• In a typical week, only 6% of children ages 9-13 play outside on their own. (Children & Nature Network, 2008)

• Children who play outside are more physically active, more creative in their play, less aggressive and show better concentration. (Burdette and Whitaker, 2005; Ginsburg et al., 2007)

• Sixty minutes of daily unstructured free play is essential to children’s physical and mental health. (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2008)

• The most direct route to caring for the environment as an adult is participating in “wild nature activities” before the age of 11. (Wells and Lekies, 2006)

Watch the video and take the pledge to be out there on your patio, in your backyard, neighborhood, and beyond!


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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Consumer Reports: Bugs and Drugs in Pork


Consumer Reports recently released a study in which they analyzed U.S. retail pork.  

They found trace levels of an adrenaline-like drug called ractopamine in about 20% of the pork samples.  The food borne bacteria, Yersina, was found in 66% of pork samples.

The National Pork Producers Council tried to address concerns about ractopamine by noting that the levels in meat of this muscle growth promoter, which is fed to pigs in the form of Paylean™ and turkeys in the form of Topmax™, were below the limit set by the UN Codex Commission this summer.

What they didn’t mention was that due to outstanding safety concerns, the Commission’s drug residue limit only passed by a single vote out of 143 ballots cast.

The Codex Commission based this drug residue limit in meat on the only human data available, a study of just six people that wasn’t designed to establish safety. At higher doses, the study subjects reported their hearts racing and pounding—so much so that one subject had to be withdrawn from the study. At a lower dose, though, no cardiac changes were noted. So that’s the dose the Codex Commission used to calculate the maximum allowable meat residue and acceptable human daily intake levels.

The discovery of Yersinia in pork is no surprise. Pigs are considered to be to be the main reservoir for Yersinia enterocolitica and pork products the main source of human infection. While most foodborne pathogens come from a variety of sources, 100 percent of the attributable Yersinia outbreaks reported in the United States from 1999 through 2008 were caused by pork. What was a surprise is the level of contamination of the U.S. pork supply—69 percent of samples tested positive—and the level of antibiotic resistance. Ninety percent of the Yersinia bacteria found contaminating the pork was resistant to one or more antibiotics.

In most cases, Yersinia food poisoning causes an acute “stomach flu” characterized by fever, abdominal pain, and often bloody diarrhea. Severe cases are frequently confused with appendicitis, leading to unnecessary emergency surgery.

Long-term complications of infection include chronic inflammation of the eyes, kidneys, heart, and joints. Within a year of a bout of Yersinia food poisoning, victims appear to have a 47-fold higher risk of coming down with autoimmune arthritis.

The bacteria may also play a role in triggering an autoimmune thyroid condition known as Graves’ disease. View View the video and read the entire article.



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