Seed Daily - Researcher provides further evidence that slow eating reduces food intake

Staff Writers, Seed Daily

Kingston RI (SPX) Nov 15, 2011

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Researcher_provides_further_evidence_that_slow_eating_reduces_food_intake_999.html

Two new studies by researchers at the University of Rhode Island are providing additional insights into the role that eating rate plays in the amount of food one consumes. The studies found that men eat significantly faster than women, heavier people eat faster than slimmer people, and refined grains are consumed faster than whole grains, among other findings.

Kathleen Melanson, URI associate professor of nutrition, along with graduate students Emily Ponte and Amanda Petty, presented their research at the annual meeting of The Obesity Society in Orlando this month.

In one laboratory study, which validated that self-reported eating rates reflect an individual's actual eating rate, Melanson and her lab team found that fast eaters consumed about 3.1 ounces of food per minute, medium-speed eaters consumed 2.5 ounces per minute, and slow eaters consumed 2 ounces per minute. This work is the first to validate self-reported eating rates that have been used in large population studies, which have shown relationships between eating rate and body weight.

The researchers also found what Melanson described as "very strong gender differences" in eating rates. At lunch, the men consumed about 80 calories per minute while the women consumed 52 calories per minute.

"The men who reported eating slowly ate at about the same rate as the women who reported eating quickly," said Melanson, director of the URI Energy Balance Laboratory.

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Joseph Mercola - Is Alarming Rise in Autism Linked to 1988 Event?

Posted By Dr. Mercola | November 15 2011 

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/15/vaccines-behind-autism-epidemic.aspx?e_cid=20111115_DNL_art_1By

In 1988, the first conjugate vaccine was approved for use in the U.S. 

It was intended to protect infants and young children against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib); a bacterial infection that can lead to pneumonia, infections of your blood, joints, bones, and pericardium.

Historically, it has also been a leading cause of bacterial meningitis.

Since that time, the vaccine has been approved in most developed countries, including Denmark and Israel where the vaccine was added to their national vaccine programs in 1993 and 1994, respectively.

Starting in the late 1980's, there was a marked increase in the reported prevalence of autism spectrum disorders among children in the U.S. 

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JIM SUHR - USDA: 'Locally grown' food a $4.8 billion business

Posted: Mon, Nov. 14, 2011

JIM SUHR

The Associated Press

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation/20111114_ap_usdalocallygrownfooda48billionbusiness.html

ST. LOUIS - Carolyn Anderson likes to chat up the growers at her local farmers market in Missouri, at times hanging out behind the beds of pickup trucks brimming with ears of corn.

For Anderson, 29, it's all about keeping it "local." And there's fresh evidence of just how big of a deal that word can mean for farmers' finances.

A new U.S. Department of Agriculture report says sales of "local foods," whether sold direct to consumers at farmers markets or through intermediaries such as grocers or restaurants, amounted to $4.8 billion in 2008. That's a number several times greater than earlier estimates, and the department predicts locally grown foods will generate $7 billion in sales this year.

While there's plenty of evidence local food sales have been growing, it has been hard to say by how much because governments, companies, consumers and food markets disagree on what qualifies as local. The USDA report included sales to intermediaries, such as local grocers and restaurants, as well as directly to consumers through farmers markets, roadside stands and the like.

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Neil Bowdler - Study links Parkinson's disease to industrial solvent

BBC News, 13 November 2011 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15639440

By Neil Bowdler Health reporter, BBC News

An international study has linked an industrial solvent to Parkinson's disease.

Researchers found a six-fold increase in the risk of developing Parkinson's in individuals exposed in the workplace to trichloroethylene (TCE).

Although many uses for TCE have been banned around the world, the chemical is still used as a degreasing agent.

The research was based on analysis of 99 pairs of twins selected from US data records.

Parkinson's can result in limb tremors, slowed movement and speech impairment, but the exact cause of the disease is still unknown, and there is no cure.

Research to date suggests a mix of genetic and environmental factors may be responsible. A link has previously been made with pesticide use.

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Times of India - Desk job can send you early to grave

Times of India| Nov 14, 2011

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Desk-job-can-send-you-early-to-grave/articleshow/10171967.cms

The study of more than 200,000 men and women in NSW has found that the longer people sit each day the greater their chances of going to an early grave.

Even when exercise was taken into account, it was often not enough to offset the effects of sitting for several hours.

Those who sat for more than 10 hours a day had a 48 per cent increased risk of death compared to more active people who sat for less than four hours a day.

Co-author of the study, Adrian Bauman, of the University of Sydney's school of public health, said people with physically active jobs such as gardeners, builders and childcare workers faced less of a problem than those chained to a desk.

"Your lowest risk of death is if you are physically active and don't sit," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Professor Bauman as saying.

"Your highest risk is if you don't do any physical activity and you sit a lot of the day.

"What's happening is when you sit, the meal you have just eaten is broken down into sugar and your blood sugar stays high.

"Sugar wants to be taken into muscles and the liver to be used but if you're sitting it's just circulating so your blood sugar stays high," Prof Bauman explained.

The findings will be presented at the annual meeting of the 45 and Up Study, the largest ongoing health research project in the southern hemisphere.

ScienceDaily - Study Suggests New Benefits of Eating Nuts for Patients With Metabolic Syndrome

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111111095222.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2011) — A recent scientific study has revealed the relationship between nut consumption and a high level of serotonin metabolites (an important neurotransmitter) in patients with metabolic syndrome, who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease.

The article, published in the Journal of Proteome Research,  is authored by Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, Sara Tulipani (first author), Rafael Llorach and Mar Garcia-Aloy, from the University of Barcelona's Department of Nutrition and Bromatology, Olga Jaúregui, from the Scientific and Technical Services (CCiTUB), and the experts Jordi Salas Salvadó, Patricia López-Uriarte and Mónica Bullo, from Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and the Spanish Biomedical Research Centre in Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn), which is part of the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid.

The study reports the first application of metabolomic techniques to analyse the effects of diet on metabolic syndrome patients. The disease, estimated by the World Health Organization to affect 20% of the adult population, is related to inflammation and oxidative stress and increases the risk of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In Catalonia, as in the United States, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome is close to 25% in adults. In Spain as a whole, in children with moderate obesity the prevalence is 17% (compared to 33% for the same population group in the UK).

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RT.com - ‘Occupy’ Movement in Bid to Save German Democracy

http://rt.com/news/occupy-corporate-movement-financial-185/

Russian TV, November 13, 2011

The pro-equality Occupy movement is rapidly gathering pace in Germany, with fresh protests starting in the capital Berlin and the country's financial heartland of Frankfurt.

Thousands are set to join the demonstrations on Saturday, seeking to draw attention to rampant corporate greed and the increasing poverty of the masses. The German Occupy movement has also made significant steps in legitimizing itself, having earned the support of two major political factions.

According to police, more than 10,000 people took to the streets of two major German cities, protesting against the banks' dominance.

In Berlin, demonstrators have formed a human chain surrounding parts of the government district to call for an end to excesses of financial speculation and urge the authorities to dismantle big banks, AP reports.

Frankfurt police said some 9,000 people were peacefully protesting in the city center near the European Central Bank's office block.

“We want more democracy and more transparency, and that the big banks and other big companies [stop] abusing the power of their money,” one of the “Occupy Frankfurt” campaigners, Thomas Leuten, told RT. “Only a mass of people will change this.”

RT spoke to one of the organizers of the event and a spokesperson for the pro-equality movement “Attac Germany”, Max Bank. He believes that if democracy is to survive in Germany, now is the time to make a stand.

“We have a worldwide problem in the financial sector, which is absolutely deregulated, and we need further regulation in order to make the sector compatible with democratic societies,” he told RT. “Otherwise, we will always see such measures as the enlargement of the EFSF that we saw a couple of weeks ago, [when] the German parliament pushed through within days.”

Max Bank referred to the events of 2008 and 2009, when many banks were bailed out without any conditions at the time of the global financial crunch.

“We need clear conditions for those banks [which] were bailed out,” he said. “That hasn’t happened in Germany, and that’s what we criticize, in order to make a clear sign that democratic societies can no longer tolerate … banks that can suppress our societies.”

Andrew Bacevich - Big Change Whether We Like It or Not Only Washington Is Clueless

Posted on November 13, 2011, Printed on November 13, 2011
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175467/ 

By Andrew Bacevich

In every aspect of human existence, change is a constant.  Yet change that actually matters occurs only rarely.  Even then, except in retrospect, genuinely transformative change is difficult to identify.  By attributing cosmic significance to every novelty and declaring every unexpected event a revolution, self-assigned interpreters of the contemporary scene -- politicians and pundits above all -- exacerbate the problem of distinguishing between the trivial and the non-trivial.  

Did 9/11 “change everything”?  For a brief period after September 2001, the answer to that question seemed self-evident: of course it did, with massive and irrevocable implications.  A mere decade later, the verdict appears less clear.  Today, the vast majority of Americans live their lives as if the events of 9/11 had never occurred.  When it comes to leaving a mark on the American way of life, the likes of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg have long since eclipsed Osama bin Laden.  (Whether the legacies of Jobs and Zuckerberg will prove other than transitory also remains to be seen.)

Anyone claiming to divine the existence of genuinely Big Change Happening Now should, therefore, do so with a sense of modesty and circumspection, recognizing the possibility that unfolding events may reveal a different story.

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Ellen Brown - Time for an Economic Bill of Rights

By Ellen Brown
Web of Debt - 2011-11-09 http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/rights.php
Henry Ford said, “It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” We are beginning to understand, and Occupy Wall Street looks like the beginning of the revolution.   We are beginning to understand that our money is created, not by the government, but by banks.  Many authorities have confirmed this, including the Federal Reserve itself.  The only money the government creates today are coins, which compose less than one ten-thousandth of the money supply.  Federal Reserve Notes, or dollar bills, are issued by Federal Reserve Banks, all twelve of which are owned by the private banks in their district.  Most of our money comes into circulation as bank loans, and it comes with an interest charge attached.

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Richard Eskow - Will Obama and Capitol Dems Betray the Middle Class, Seniors and the Poor?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Super-Collusion-Will-Obam-by-Richard-RJ-Eskow-111112-212.html

November 12, 2011 By Richard (RJ) Eskow The President and Congressional Democrats are about to betray everything Democrats once stood for. It's a terrible mistake to ask the Americans who were wounded most by deficit-causing behavior to carry so much of the cost of fixing it. And to propose cuts to Medicare and Medicaid simply to preserve low tax rates for the wealthy is nothing less than a moral obscenity. Two new reports suggest that the President and Congressional Democrats are about to betray everything Democrats once stood for. Under pressure from Barack Obama, Democrats on the "Super Committee" have sketched out an appalling "compromise" proposal that would almost certainly doom both their 2012 electoral chances and his own. They'd have it coming. Their draft plan literally takes crutches away from poor people to protect tax breaks for the wealthy.

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