The Plain Truth's: Your Health Today ONLINE: 2012

Added Avocado Fat Cancels Harm From Damaging Fats

Sayer Ji, Contributor
Activist Post

There are good fats, and then there are not so good fats ... but it is a bit more complex than that.

Some good fats can do bad things (go rancid), and sometimes, a fat will sacrifice its goodness to keep another fat from doing harm.

Take for example, a recent study that looked at what happened when avocado was added to a heart-stopping American favorite, the hamburger meal.[i]

Researchers at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition took eleven healthy subjects, and on two different occasions, fed them either 250 gram hamburger patty alone (ca. 436 cal and 25 g fat) or together with 68 grams of avocado flesh (an additional 114 cal and 11 g of fat for a total of 550 cal and 36 g fat).

The researchers then measured the degree of vasoconstriction following hamburger ingestion 2 hours later in test subjects given a hamburger meal either with our without avocado. The hamburger meal resulted in significant vasoconstriction, whereas the avocado+hamburger meal saw no change at all.

Prescription-Drug-Induced Violence Medicine's Best Kept Secret?

Data Based Medicine Americas Ltd. announces free online tool to show possible links between prescription drugs and violence.

Activist Post

RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has added a Violence Zone to demonstrate and collect data on the links between prescription drugs and violent thoughts and behavior — from mild to suicidal or homicidal.

“Violence and other potentially criminal behavior caused by prescription drugs are medicine’s best kept secret,” says Dr. David Healy, a world-renowned psychiatrist who has written extensively about the lack of data in evidence-based medicine, including in his latest book, Pharmageddon.

Healy says this is a global issue, with medical, legal, ethical, and profound public policy dimensions. “Never before in the fields of medicine and law have there been so many events with so much concealed data and so little focused expertise.”

Can prescription drugs cause you to kill someone? “Absolutely”, says Healy.

Landmark Chinese study: Intestinal bacteria control obesity

The world of obesity science is about to be turned on its head. Scientists in Shanghai, China announced in a paper published Dec. 13 that they had isolated a bacterium from a 385-pound man’s intestines, and used it to plump up mice that are specially bred to resist obesity.
They found that the bacteria, a toxin-producing microbe called ”enterobacter cloacae,” made up 35 percent of all the microorganisms in the human volunteer’s digestive tract. But a diet formulated specifically to kill off those bacteria succeeded in reducing his levels to below what could be detected in a laboratory.

He lost 113 pounds in 23 weeks.

Seven reasons you might have tummy troubles

OUR stomachs are surely one of the most troublesome parts of our bodies - at any point anyone can be suffering from tummy ache, bloating, wind and cramps.

Whether you've been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which causes cramps, diarrhoea and constipation, or you just have an upset stomach from time to time, the number of people affected by gut problems is on the rise. In fact, 41% of Aussie children are now diagnosed with bowel troubles.

Dr Anton Emmanuel, consultant gastroenterologist at London's University College Hospital and medical director at gut health charity Core, blames "excess hygiene in childhood lowering gut immunity, stressful modern lifestyles, erratic eating patterns and our greater intake of processed food". Better diagnostic methods and awareness of gut issues also mean more people are seeing their doctors to be diagnosed.

Many people with tummy troubles are careful with what they eat, yet find symptoms remain. "I often see patients who are unwittingly making their tummy symptoms worse," says Dr Emmanuel.
Here, we talk to leading digestive experts about how we could be unintentionally upsetting our gut. You should, however, always consult your GP if you experience severe problems.

5 Types of Food That Fight Inflammation

Is chronic inflammation wrecking your health? Many medical experts believe that chronic inflammation is the underlying cause of most health problems, especially the incapacitating diseases of aging, and a major cause is the foods we eat. Modern diets high in saturated fats, sugars, and empty refined carbohydrates spur inflammation, but certain categories of food, which include those filled with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients, tamp down inflammation and fight disease.

Add these food categories to your diet to beat inflammation and put you on the path to a long, healthy life.

Read more: 5 Types of Food That Fight Inflammation
Important: At Risk For A Heart Attack? Find Out Now.

Frankenfoods, diet dictators and other folderol

What follows is the first part of a conversation with Karen De Coster, CPA.
Karen De Coster is an accounting/finance professional and a freelance writer, blogger, speaker and sometimes unpaid troublemaker. She writes about economics, financial markets, the medical establishment, the corporate state, food politics and, essentially, anything that encroaches upon the freedom of her fellow human beings.

Daily Dark Chocolate Prevents Heart Attacks

"Eat a bar of chocolate and call me in the morning." That's not exactly what patients expect to hear from their doctors, but in the future, chocolate may be prescribed to help prevent heart disease and diabetes in patients with metabolic syndrome.

Numerous studies have indicated that dark chocolate (chocolate that's at least 60 percent cocoa) is rich in heart-healthy flavonoids, but most of the studies were short-term. To see if chocolate could help prevent heart problems long-term, Australian researchers used a mathematical model to predict the health effects and cost effectiveness of eating dark chocolate daily in more than 2,000 people who were already at high risk of heart disease.

Read more: Study: Daily Dark Chocolate Prevents Heart Attacks
Important: At Risk For A Heart Attack? Find Out Now.