Michael's blog

Here's a cute little photo to keep in mind the next time you think about munching a cracker or making a sandwich.

Geneticist Ann Blechl and colleagues are the first to insert modified Fusarium chitinase and glucanase genes into wheat plants, which may lead to wheats that are more resistant to Fusarium head blight.

Photo by Jack Dykinga.

Source: USDA ARS

Now, doesn't that sound just yummy? Where do I get mine? Oh, yeah, just wait a couple of years, it'll be in our bread.

In all honesty, this is the most beautiful advertisement I've ever seen.

Perhaps because it touched my heart. For decades, I've railed against the over-labeling of children as having mental disorders. Against the drugging of children who don't behave quite the way the adults do–the 'problem' children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv49RFo1ckQ

More info: Visit CCHRI.org.

Here's an interesting study described by Dr. Harris (Archevore):

Among the interesting tidbits:

The more marathons run, the higher the likelihood of heart disease. The number of marathons run was an independent and significant predictor of the likelihood of myocardial damage.

~~~SNIP~~~

It's time for some Kuhnian iconoclasm. Let's take the hammer to some "normal science".

I think that atherosclerosis is not caused by lack of sustained high-level aerobic ("cardio") exercise.

Just like I don't think lack of "cardio" is the cause of the obesity epidemic.

I think premature atherosclerois is mostly caused by diet. Our susceptibility to a bad diet is contributed to by genetics.

I think that not only does sustained "cardio" not protect you from atherosclerosis, I think it is quite likely that through repetitive shear stress with endothelial damage and promotion of an inflammatory state, that it may promote atherosclerosis and/or direct cardiac muscle damage.

Further, I think that excessive "cardio" might precipitate the thromboembolic and acute inflammatory events like plaque rupture - acute heart attacks, even if it does not directly contribute to atherosclerosis, which I think it does.

Source: "Cardio" may cause heart disease - Part I

Big Fat Fiasco Videos

'Fat Head' producer Tom Naughton on how the misguided fear of saturated fat created a nation of obese diabetics.

Interesting presentation on how we got to where we are. Covers the bad science behind the lipid hypothesis (fat causes heart disease) and how public policy turned us into a nation of diabetics.

Watch them on YouTube (below) or order Big Fat Fiasco DVD online. Click here to continue reading, or leave a comment »

Teri and I had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant the other night, and she ordered a chicken salad with Ranch dressing, which we shared.

Teri used only a small amount of the Ranch dressing on the salad, but I noticed it had a detectable sweetness to it. Then I remembered that most Ranch dressings have added sugar as one of the ingredients.

It's funny, but now that we've switched from prepared mayonnaise and salad dressings to homemade, we can now taste the added sugar in products we once consumed on a regular basis–products that we'd never before perceived as having a sweet taste!

The moral of the story: read your ingredients lists, folks!

Too many prepared foods have added sugar and even though the caloric load of the sugar may be low in the individual servings, the cumulative effect can have a negative impact on your weight loss and health goals.

Another interesting point: You don't realize how we've grown accustomed to the added sugars in our daily diet, until you start to eliminate them.