David Murdock, the 85-year-old billionaire Chairman of Dole Foods, writes in A Recipe For Longevity: 33 Of The Healthiest Foods On Earth about his lifestyle choices on how to live a long and healthy life. His main focuses are getting an hour of exercise each day and eating almost exclusively fresh vegetables and fruits. He was recently on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show to discuss his practices. Click here to watch.
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Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) conducted a 16-week study to see if slightly modifying the diets of Latino teenagers would affect type 2 diabetes risk factors. The findings were reported in the April 2009 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
The research participants were Latino teenagers because previous research showed almost 40 percent of Mexican American children ages 12 to 19 were found to be overweight or at risk of developing diabetes.
“Latino children are more insulin resistant and thus more likely to develop obesity-related chronic diseases than their white counterparts,” the authors write. “To date, only a few studies have examined the effects of a high-fiber, low-sugar diet on metabolic health in overweight youth, and to our knowledge, none have tested the effects of this type of intervention in a mixed-sex group of Latino youth.”
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is celebrating a big improvement in its public perception. This year, only 47 percent of the US residents recently polled think the agency is doing a poor job. That’s a marked improvement for the agency, down from 58 percent of those polled expressing a “poor” rating a year ago. The public’s poor perception of FDA is based upon facts that show the agency is incapable of performing its mission and is not aligned with public health and safety interests. Unfortunately, the declining public disapproval ratings of the FDA have more to do with the amazingly short-term memory of the American public and media which is bombarded with government scandals and crises (real or imagined) on a daily basis.
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Life Extension Foundation offers some of the most innovative health supplement products. They often sponsor research studies to determine what supplements work and what dosages are required to be beneficial and safe. They are great at spreading the news about new research findings, and are often battling with the US government to keep the Feds from messing up the citizen’s ability to buy beneficial dietary supplements. However, one downside is that their products are not the cheapest on the block.
One of the least expensive sources we have found for Life Extension’s products is the BoomJ Store. BoomJ often has prices on single-quantity orders that beat the quantity 4+ member prices on Life Extension’s own web site. BoomJ is also a social networking site. Considering their target audience is the “over 35” crowd, we can see why they would be interested in offering competitive prices on dietary supplements.
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What is High Fructose Corn Syrup?
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a widely used sweetener in the United States. As corn prices plummeted in the 1970s, HFCS was developed to make use of the corn crop in other products. It’s used in an increasingly wide variety of products in the last three decades, from soft drinks to baked goods. It is often one of the largest ingredients in sweet products, frequently taking the first to third place on the food products ingredients labels mandated in the United States.
You might think that such a widely used product with a 30+ year track record would be safe. The HFCS manufacturers in the United States have been running a campaign to convince the public that’s the case. You can take a look at the web-based portion of this campaign at HFCSfacts.com: You’re in for a Sweet Surprise.
The reality is that HFCS has for years been suspected to be involved in the epidemic rise of obesity and diabetes in the United States. Numerous studies have found indications that the increasing use of HFCS may correlate with the increase in obesity and diabetes over a similar period of time. Unsurprisingly, HFCS manufacturers refute this, claiming that there is no credible scientific evidence to support such conclusions.
However, much more alarming news about HFCS has been announced this month. Recent studies of samples of HFCS and food products containing it in the United States conducted via two studies found that between 31% and 45% of the samples contained mercury. Mercury is toxic in even small quantities. For years, there have been suspicions that mercury used in vaccines may be related to the rise in autism in the United States. But this mercury contamination issue is much bigger and affects common foods widespread throughout the nation’s food supply. Products tested from big-name manufacturers such as Minute Maid, Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, Quaker, Hunt’s, Manwich, Smucker’s, Kraft, Nutri-Grain, and Yoplait had detectable levels of mercury.
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