Stop TV Snacking Now By Switching The Channel To…

Snacking while watching TV could make you eat more… especially if the show is really entertaining. According to Consumer Reports “On Health” newsletter, in a recent study, 45 adults were asked to eat potato chips for five minutes with the television OFF, and then again while watching a late-night talk show.




All told, participants ate 44 PERCENT MORE chips while watching “Late Show With David Letterman” than they did when the screen was blank.



Experts think that the more distracted, engrossed or entertained you are while eating...the less attention you pay to a food’s flavor and the less satisfied (satiated) you feel.



Bottom line: Shut off the TV when eating or snacking...or...if you must eat/snack while watching TV...switch the channel to C-Span!!!



Are Cherries Better Than Aspirin And Other Anti-Inflammatory Drugs?



First, let’s be clear about this: Although I like to share my thoughts and feelings about a variety of topics with you (in addition to all the factual research and articles on important healthcare issues) I do NOT endorse ANY political party to you - your politics are your business - and despite having strong feelings about the subject - I’m certainly not a political science expert. That being said… you should know about this…



U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has introduced a bill that would curb restrictions imposed by the FDA and FTC regarding health claims for dietary supplements.


Why would he do that? Aren’t these restrictions good for the consumer to make sure they don’t get “duped” by snake oil salesmen making false claims?


Maybe. But, maybe not. Check this out and decide for yourself:



The Cherry Grower’s Story…



Back in 1999 a peer-reviewed report came out in the Journal of Natural Products, published by the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.



According to LewRockwell.com, the study concluded that “tart cherries may relieve pain better than aspirin and many other anti-inflammatory drugs.” It turns out that consumption of about 20 cherries reduces inflammation in a similar manner as aspirin or Cox-2 inhibiting drugs without the lethal side effects of gastric bleeding or vitamin depletion associated with these drugs.



The molecules in cherries, called anthocyanins, work to reduce inflammation at ten times less dosage than aspirin. [Journal Natural Products 1999 Feb; 62(2): 294–6] Pills that provide concentrated anthocyanins would make it even easier to consumers to achieve these health benefits.




When cherry growers began to cite this scientific study, the FDA followed by sending a warning letter to 29 companies that market cherries threatening regulatory action if they did not remove the scientific information regarding the anti-inflammatory properties of cherries from their websites. The FDA declared cherries to be "drugs" once health claims for a disease were associated with the product.



Bob Underwood, who sells capsules containing concentrated cherry paste, was quoted in an Associated Press story in 2006 as saying: "We have the government telling people to eat more fruits and vegetables, and we have the U.S. Department of Agriculture funding some of these fruit studies, and now we have another arm of the federal government that says you can't use the research."



According to LewRockwell.com, “The Health Freedom Protection Act would stop the FDA from censoring truthful claims about the curative, mitigative, or preventive effects of dietary supplements,” says Scott Tips of the National Health Federation, a Monrovia, California-based organization that is leading the charge behind this legislation.”

Sad to see that legislation is needed to stop the censorship of truthful claims… isn’t it?



United States DEAD LAST In Healthcare?



On May 15th, 2007, the Commonwealth Fund issued a report entitled, “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care.”

The Results Were Not Good…

In fact, here’s what the first sentence of the report had to say: “Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries.”



I haven’t seen Michael Moore’s movie, “Sicko,” but I know his reputation and I’ve heard the movie is about as one-sided and biased as a movie can be.

Obviously, there are problems with the US healthcare system, and I would like to see them fixed, as I’m sure you would, too. But all-in-all, considering the obesity epidemic that pervades our country (Michael Moore is a fine example), and the HUGE drain that puts on our system, we do a pretty darn good job (and we don’t have to pay draconian taxes to support a government subsidized program).

Now here is something that you will probably find interesting…. even puzzling... According to the report, “the area where the U.S. health care system performs best is preventive care, an area that has been monitored closely for over a decade by managed care plans.”

It’s always been abundantly clear that…

An Ounce Of Prevention Is

Worth A Pound Of Cure

For example, the May 9th edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) had an article entitled: “Cardiologists Get Wake-up Call on Stents.”

According to the article, “Patients with stable coronary artery disease treated with stents and optimal medical therapy fare no better than those who receive optimal medical therapy alone, according to new findings from a large clinical trial.”

For many cardiologists, the results serve as a wake-up call that they need to reevaluate how frequently they offer stenting (which has slight risks associated with the intervention itself, as well as stent-associated thrombotic events) as a first option for relief of stable angina. The data comes from the Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and Aggressive Drug Evaluation (COURAGE) Trial, reported in March at the annual conference of the American College of Cardiology.

What So Many Knew All Along…



It seems like research is simply confirming what many thought to be true all along. Prevention is far superior to invasive “crisis” procedures after years and years of neglect.

It is abundantly clear you cannot abuse or neglect your body and health and have the wonders of modern medicine save you.



More on Moore’s “Sicko”



Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee addresses that very issue of prevention in reference to Moor’s movie. The former Arkansas governor told reporters in a conference call recently that he hasn't seen and probably won't see Moore's "Sicko," which calls for an overhaul of America's health care system.



"Frankly, Michael Moore is an example of why the health care system costs so much in this country. He clearly is one of the reasons that we have a very expensive system (Moore is clinically obese). I know that from my own personal experience," said Huckabee, who lost more than 110 pounds and became an avid runner after he was diagnosed with diabetes.



"I know how much more my health care cost when I didn't take care of myself than when I do take care of myself, not only in terms of doctor visits but regular diseases, illnesses, chronic things that come up, monthly prescription bills," Huckabee said. "All of those things have gone dramatically down since I've taken care of myself and worked to live a healthier lifestyle."



Politics aside, all I can say to Huckabee’s comments is… “Amen, Brother!”