Is Chocolate Truly Healthy? Is what some Aztecs considered the “food of the gods” capable of making you live long and well? The answer so far is “definitely maybe.” Like coffee, tea, and alcohol, chocolate is a food-drug which has been around for thousands of years. It can do much for you – both well […]
When the chickens come home to roost (4/12/12)
Nobody Here But Us Chickens Solely within hospitals, antibiotic-resistant infections hit 2 million Americans a year, according to an article today by Gardiner Harris in the New York Times. They kill about a hundred thousand. One of the more famous infections, MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, kills perhaps 20,000 every year. Where do all these […]
Are we fatter than we think? (4/10/12)
What is Obesity? A recent study in PL0S 1, an online journal of medicine, argues that Americans are far more obese than present standards of obesity, defined by body mass index, imply. In a study of 9000 patients in a New York private practice, at least 39% of those classified as overweight are thought to […]
Prozac chicken? (4/6/12)
Dining With Drugs The California Chicken Café, an LA eatery described by the 2011 Zagat Survey as a “healthy, fast-food alternative,” is a popular place to eat. The food is so “good” Zagat concludes “there must be Prozac in the chicken.” Actually, folks, there is prozac in the chicken – and a lot of other […]
Rediscovering social support (and how it aids health – 4/04/12)
Social Survival What keeps people living a long life? A system of living that gives the body the right information at the right times to properly regenerate itself. We know what many parts of that system are. Food is one. Nutritional variety – whether the fruits, vegetables, and olive oil based diet of Mediterranean countries, […]