In the News

As third-year medical students, we received lectures from attending physicians in various subspecialties. The key teaching point of one ophthalmology attending who lectured seemed to be: don't eat garlic before examining patients, for you will offend them with your garlic breath.

No, really.

But summer doesn’t give us the right to eat poorly. It’s important to stay healthy all year round. Relaxing at the beach is a great way to spend the day, but make sure you bring some healthy treats to share.

The Centers for Disease Control is reporting that about 4% of restaurant-acquired foodborn illness is due to guacamole, pico de gallo, or salsa cruda. This is a shame, because theses foods can be very healthy choices for most people, most of the time.

The cross reaction between inhaled allergens and foods is one of the most common forms of food allergies in adults. Certain foods, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables, have similar chemical structures as "pollen" grains.

You can’t trust everything you read, especially if it is a nutrition label! In a disheartening study from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers found that many dietetic frozen food entrees had many more calories than their nutrition labels claimed; on average, the frozen foods, including items from Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, and South Beach, contained 8% more calories than their boxes suggested.

The images in the linked video demonstrate the catastrophe of dolphins being harpooned. There are no images of the twin catastrophe of public consumption of a meat notoriously high in methyl mercury.

Watching television while eating dinner, being influenced by the persuasive content of television advertising, and what rooms the television is located in the house are all contributing to our the new Generation O. O is for obesity. We have allowed this to happen and we are the cause of this rising danger to our children’s health and lifespan.

Halloween approaches. If you've already bought your Trick or Treat candy on sale, you're probably tempted to dip into the stash. Go ahead. Read our Top Ten Reasons Why Chocolate is Good for you and ease your guilt. And besides that big box store still has plenty of candy on sale.

Arsenic, the favorite poison of Victorian widows-to-be, has long been known to cause serious health problems and even death. But now, we have another reason to be alert for arsenic: in mice, very low doses of arsenic impair the immune system sufficiently such that what should be a sub lethal dose of H1N1 influenza virus increases death, and may contribute to transmisison of the virus, compared to the same dose of H1N1 in mice who have not been exposed ot arsenic, according to a new study by Kozul et al.

have never understood the point of coffee. It seemed like just a drug delivery system; coffee delivers caffeine the way that tobacco delivers nicotine. At $5 a go, it seemed to me that those who spent money on coffee every day could trade that habit in for a pretty nice vacation. But I've changed my mind; $5 spent on coffee may be one of the smartest investments that a person can make for their health.

While we would never recommend that pregnant women fast, there is evidence to suggest that fasting from sun-up to sundown may not be all that harmful to the growing fetus.

Clementine Lee, a 10 year-old girl from New York City, was fined for selling 50 cent cups of lemonade on the Upper West Side of Manhattan because her father did not have a Parks permit to sell the lemonade. Clementine was clearly upset and did not understand why selling lemonade could “hurt anyone.”

Sugared beverages are considered a primary cause of obesity in the United States.

G-8 leaders meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, have pledged to raise $20 billion over the next three years to support food and farm aide for the world's poorest countries. One of the ironic problems associated with food insecurity is that people affected are frequently overwieght, especially women. What is going on? It is likely that hungry people crave not only the calories in food, but are also driven to eat in order to obtain important micronutrients.

Making sure you get enough vitamin C could protect against the painful joint disease gout, work suggests. Gout commonly manifests as a painful, red, and swollen joint. When gout affects the first metatarsophalangeal joint, where the great toe meets the foot, it is called Podagra.

A study based in Northern Iran involving almost 50,000 participants found that those who drank hot tea (>65 degrees Celsius) instead of warm tea were 8 times more likely to develop esophageal cancer, according to Islami et al. They also determined that drinking the hot tea within 2 minutes after pouring compared to waiting at least 4 minutes was associated with a five-fold increase in the likelihood of developing esophageal cancer.

Sometimes it’s hard convincing kids to eat well. Some parents hide fruits and vegetables in kid’s meals, as described by Jessica Seinfeld or Missy Chase Lapine in their respective cookbooks.

In times of rising obesity rates and increased simple carbohydrate consumption through junk food, the general public and the food industry are looking for smarter alternatives. Nontraditional sweeteners and no-calorie sugar substitutes such as stevia, appear to be growing in number.

Put in the words “oregano oil” or the component carvacrol into PubMed, and you will find over 450 articles cited. Oregano oil is recognized for its anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic, and anti-fungal properties as well as its anti-allergen, anti- cancer, pro-physical and reproductive performance, and anti-inflammatory effects.

Take heart; your poor memory may be due to high blood sugar, not Alzheimer’s disease.