Here's What's Up

The people's hero, David Graham, MD, a drug safety officer at the F.D.A., called for Avandia’s withdrawal. Dr. Graham estimated that its toxic effects on the heart had caused as many as 205,000 heart attacks, strokes and death from 1999 to 2006. For every month that Avandia is sold, he said, another 1,600 to 2,200 patients are likely to suffer from heart attacks and strokes, some of them fatal.Meanwhile, back at 'the ranch'- depending on whether you define this as the Oval Office which benefits from millions in Pharma Cartel money, the new 'faster track' fast-track drug approval for money scheme, thousands paid in lobbying efforts to senators and representatives to pass the recent drug bill originally brought to you by Teddy Kennedy, or the failure to pass a Medicare drug bill allowing price...

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Tuesday Link-o-rama

Get Rich Slowly: 16 Ways to Eat Healthy While Keeping it CheapI’m not sure how much I agree with tips 4 and 12, but guest writer Mehdi makes a bunch of good points. He does it concisely, too. Aces.The Wednesday Chef: Housecleaning, or Three RecipesLuisa cleans out her pantry, and nutritious deliciousness ensues.Smart Money: Buy Organic Foods without Breaking the BankMust … print and attach … to refrigerator … Oh no … too many … recycling guides … and Christmas pictures … I've ... become … my mother …Orangette: All So PrettyTHE CHEAP: Instead of blowing a wad on a foofy five-tier monstrosity, Orangette made her own wedding cakes.THE HEALTHY: Pickled carrots!THE GOOD: The pictures, the writing, and the sentiment are lovely as all get ou...

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Posted in: Links

A Pot Full of Sauciness

There are approximately 6,600,000,000 people currently occupying Earth.Of those, 6,599,999,999 have their own recipe for tomato sauce.(The lone un-saucer is my sister, who prefers Prego from a jar and wouldn’t eat an onion if it was holding a Howitzer [a gunion?] to her head, begging to be devoured.)Tomato sauce is a wonderful, aromatic fact of life – a healthy, delectable way of dressing up pasta while incorporating valuable vitamins and minerals into a diet. Though there are infinite adaptations using wine, seasonal vegetables, pork fat, olives, and much, much more, many sauces seem to be variations on the following:1. Tomatoes, onions, olive...

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Posted in: Dips and Sauces,Vegan,Vegetarian

The Circular Game: Decoding Your Supermarket Weekly

Tuesday evening’s rolled around, and it’s time for some spur-of-the-moment food shopping. You saunter through the sticky sliding glass doors of your local grocery store, pondering what to purchase with the $15.09 you’ve budgeted until Friday. Then you spot it, lying prostrate and unused in a misshapen stack by the shopping carts: the Supermarket Circular.Cackling like a maniac, you scuttle over to snatch the half-soaked, seven-page spreadsheet. You’re hunched over, madly scanning the deli section when it hits you: you have no blessed clue how to read this thing. Sure, there are pretty pictures, and yes, the numbers look tantalizingly low, but do you have to buy seven freakin’ jars of jelly to get the 7-for-$7 discount?The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind.Just kidding. The answer...

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Posted in: Buying Food,Frugality,Organization

Link With Me: Tuesday

Sometimes Tuesday feels like a pinko lefty commie liberal kind of day. In its honor, today's links are all New York Times, all the time:New York Times: Summer Express – 101 Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less“How to Cook Everything” guru Mark Bittman jacks it up to ludicrous speed. Quite a few suggestions hit the Cheap Healthy Good requirements (which are: inexpensive, good for you, and presumably way tasty).New York Times: Did McDonald’s Give into Temptation?Mickey D’s slides back on its effort to healthy-up the menu. One new Hugo, a 42 oz. soda selling in some markets for $0.89, contains 35 teaspoons of sugar. That comes out to about 12 tablespoons, which is 2/3rds of a cup. Gag.New York Times: Limiting Ads of Junk Food to ChildrenGOOD: The government’s restricting junk food commercials aimed...

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Posted in: Links

It's Drug Pushers and Junque Science Again...or Menstruation key to bone rebuilding

So with the mass marketing of Gardasil in timing with the push for a pill to stop your menstrual cycle, this report shows something close to normal human physiology.Gee, maybe there is a way back to truth in labeling, or, as it were, scientific research without pre-determined outcomes.My alarm went off with Gardasil, as readers of this BLOG well know. It also went off when the big ad campaign came out to get you to buy into how great life is without that part of being a woman that they want to deny you next.One pill, no period.Sounds easy, but did they forget to include in the ad all the problems you'll encounter because of the pill's nutrient depletions? Not!And of course they probably forgot to mention that as you age, you just might be forced into a category of those swallowing TIDE.Yes,...

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Doctor Wants More Money to do Basic Legal Care

Confused older patients die sooner according to an article today from Reuters.This doesn't surprise me because most patients are confused about drugs and how to use them for several reasons.One reason it seems to affect people with Medicare of Medicaid coverage is the bias against the poor in MSMed today. This is related to dictates of Big Insurance to doctors and others in the health industry, all relying on reimbursement.Secondly, US Codes do require that a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant specifically explain the risks and benefits of using a drug and how to properly use it. There's more than just giving the information in the communication process, or don't medics get that?And now why, with a risk of higher health care costs, do arrogant doctors deem they should neglect...

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Refried Beans: Easy Like Beanday Morning

Refried beans: their very name suggests cardiac arrest.“Beans. Those are healthy. Oh, wait - maybe not. It says here they’re fried. No, check that. They’re REFRIED. Does that mean they’ve been FRIED AGAIN? How is that POSSIBLE? GOD IN HEAVEN, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?”Relax. Despite their forbidding moniker, homemade refried beans are surprisingly low in fat, calories, and evil. In fact, their fiber content (about 7 grams per serving) will have your colon doing backflips. (Or buttflips. Or whatever it is that colons do when they’re happy.) Plus, I recently discovered that making them in your own kitchen is relatively simple and quick as hell.At...

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Posted in: 15 Minutes or Less,Sides,Vegan,Vegetarian

A New Approach Necessary, Not More New Drugs

"The so-called Sydney Declaration's central message is that governments need to dedicate more resources to HIV research if the world is to effectively combat the Aids pandemic.The document says this will help speed up the implementation of new drugs and technologies to prevent, diagnose and treat an infection which has already killed 25 million people."These are the last two paragraphs of the article linked in the headline above. I purposely highlighted a portion of the sentence in the first paragraph to call attention to something.That something is faulty thinking or the traditional approach to solving a problem. I think this is what has to change.It has to change because there is a nutritional approach that needs to be included in the fight against HIV/AIDS. These supplements are valuable...

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Censure Required Over More Mercury

While politicians in D.C. contemplate their handouts from vaccine manufacturers like Merck (profits rising), no one seems interested in censuring Bush.Perhaps he will come forward to volunteer himself, or perhaps his twin daughters, to take some mercury injections. This might be a viable experiment to gather data that might end the debacle once-and-for-all.The mercury issue is just another example of administration double-speak. It is, in this case, tantamount to experimentation without consent.But then this has been a long-existing US policy. Right mate?And just another way to build profit for Bush cronies under the false assumption that flu vaccine works.Using last year's flu to make this years vaccine is junque science of the highest order.Remember, the ones who get sick are the ones who...

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Cell Phone Safety

I have added several comments in parentheses. The cell phone companies do know of the hazards, the information can be found in their patent applications. RADIATING INFORMATIONRadiation of cellular telephones is not danger free, as the cellular companies claim at present.Therefore, the Doctors Chamber of Vienna has taken a responsible decision to make the public aware of the possibility of negative influences of cellular radiation, from a medical point of view.10 MEDICAL RULES RELATING TO CELLULAR TELEPHONES• In principle, telephone calls should be as few and as brief as possible. It is recommended that children and youth abstain from conducting cellular telephone calls!• The cellular telephone should not be held near the head while sending out the call!• Cellular telephones should not be used...

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Turkey Meatloaf? That's Turkey Mr. Aday to You

Growing up, Ma’s meatloaf was a once-in-a-while meal – a rare occurrence on par with Haley’s Comet or the Mets sweeping the Braves at Turner Field. And this is a good thing.Hard, dry, and made with more bread crumbs than beef, meatloaf wasn’t a dinner we looked forward to, like spaghetti or anything potato-based. And when Ma served it, our disgust was palpable. We made “yick” faces, diced it into microscopic bits, and hid the refuse under neighboring green beans, all in the futile hope she wouldn’t detect our duplicity and ground us for ten years.Traumatized, I haven’t voluntarily eaten meatloaf since the ‘80s. Then came Ina.Ina Garten, aka Barefoot...

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Posted in: Mains,Meat and Fish

More of What's Behind Gardasil

The Politics And PR Of Cervical CancerA four-article series by Center for Mediaand Democracy's Associate Director, Judith Siers-Poisson.7-19-7 A four-article series by Center for Media and Democracy's Associate Director, Judith Siers-Poisson. Part 1: Setting the Stage Part 2: Research, Develop, and Sell, Sell, Sell Part 3: Women in Government, Merck's Trojan Horse Part 4:Profit Knows No Borders, Selling Gardasil to the Rest of the WorldCourtesy:Jeff Re...

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Driven to Link: Thursday

Grad Money Matters: The Cure for “Hon, Let’s Eat Out Today” SyndromeIt’s cheap! It’s healthy! It’s mostly good. Building off yesterday’s post, GMM has some strategies for getting your tuchus out of the drive-thru and into the kitchen.One Money Dummy Getting Smarter: To Slay the BeastMoney Dummy echoes GMM’s sentiments, regaling readers with her own tale of Homicus Culinarius.Simple Dollar: “I’m Too Tired To Cook” - At-Home Dining Solutions For The Overworked Family Good lord! The home cooking posts just don’t sto...

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Posted in: Links

Please ignore headlines, they are written only to grab your attention

Intensive diet doesn't prevent breast cancer: studyThis story, and it's headline, is circulating in the media right now. Since most people don't take the time to read the entire story, they miss a key fact that counters the use of sensationalism in headline writing.Read the article and what you really find is this -"...healthy eating habits and frequent exercise can nonetheless dramatically reduce the chance of remission while providing additional health benefits.""Women who ate at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day and exercised six times a week cut their cancer recurrence in half."The not so good advice is relying on the USDA food pyramid. Better nutrition advice is available.Another point excluded is the warning that mammogram and other radiation exposure increases breast...

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Fear Itself

I have dinosaur hands.They’re not green or scaled, and they don’t have that weird, hooky claw. Instead, they’re microscopic, pretty close to inoperable, and noticeably out of proportion with the rest of my body. When coupled with my stunning lack of coordination, they make certain tasks a bit tricky, if not extremely frightening.Up until last year, the scariest of those challenges was operating a knife. I could never secure the right grip or put enough strength behind a chopping motion. Cleaving a piece of meat was an effort, and dicing vegetables took longer than Das Boot. On the rare occasions I cooked, I inevitably got tired and embedded a blade in my thumb.Abundant blood loss and intense fear of further self-mutilation drove me to seek food elsewhere: the college dining hall, the work...

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Posted in: About Cheap Healthy Good,Cooking

So You Think Mammography Isn't a Cause of Cancer?

We've been saying this for more than 10 years.Reading this article just might be enough to convince you that radiation does cause breast cancer, and that the side effects of mammography are heart disease and thyroid impairment.I hope so! Heart X-ray raises cancer risk By Maggie Fox, Health and Science EditorTue Jul 17, 5:15 PM ET A special type of X-ray used to diagnose heart disease may cause cancer in women and young adults and should be used with caution, U.S. doctors reported on Tuesday. The procedure, called a computed tomography (CT) coronary angiography, is meant to reduce complications because it can see inside the heart and its arteries without invading the body. But it gives a high dose of radiation, enough to...

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Too Much Spin, I'm Dizzy Already

That dizzy feeling comes from reading the health news, hoping for some juicy tidbit that needs some additional commentary. Too bad most people take it all as 'gospel', and too bad so much of it is purely 'old news' making the rounds again in different clothes.Probably more than enough to make the public gasp!Here is the no brainer on Chris Benoit - steroids and other drugs in his system. (Try Leaflady's Formula One for cellular energy and no crazy rage).Now with Gardasil, about 35 use-less drugs by vaccination at age 11. And today, whilst it is known that one of the side effects of this and other vaccines is arthritis, it is announced that arthritis costs the economy $1.2 + Billion a year. So, more vaccines leading to more arthritis, that must be the sought after end result.Profit by another...

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Links of Tuesday

New York Times: Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as CompromisedMother, should I trust the government?Wise Bread: Baby Carrots – The Frugal Idea That Isn’tBaby carrots are one of the biggest rackets in marketing history. Tremendous article by Wise Bread food guru Andrea Dickson dissects their nefarious do-badding.Baselle’s Financial Diary: How to … buy grocery produceFruit and vegetable shopping tips, straight from a former plant physiologist. I don’t know what that is, but it certainly sounds authoritative.Chowhound: Eating Like a Chowhound on $3 a DayOverview Week 1 MenuChowhound poster rworange went Self-Prepared Gourmet for a week, keeping his budget to $21 total. Pretty neat experiment, with quite a few cheap, healthy recipes included therein. The discussion (scroll down) is even bett...

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Posted in: Links

Babytime Pasta Salad, Hold the Mayo

Last weekend, the boyfriend and I had a Baby Party for some expecting friends of ours. Not to be confused with Baby Showers (the bane of my earthly existence), Baby Parties do not involve any of the following:Baby BingoThree hours of gift openingPrecious Moments figurinesAunt Dorothy asking if you’re married yetInstead, Baby Parties DO include:Copious barbecueRed wineGood lighting and musicMenfolkA vast array of delicious side dishesThe last part is what we’re dealing with here. Since there would be about 25 attendees, I needed to make an enormous side that would feed dozens, without using any mayonnaise (the other bane of my earthly existence)....

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Posted in: Pasta,Sides,Vegan,Vegetarian

At last, a report on our 2004 report

No credit to CHI, but finally MSM (mainstream media) reports on a vector in the rising tide of hospital infection -Doctor's and others: CELL PHONES."Cell Phones may carry more bacteria than toilet...

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Problem Pundits

B vitamins are used in the body individually or in combination with enzymes to help release energy from carbohydrates, fat, and protein. Vitamin B coenzymes are crucial to the metabolic pathways that generate the energy needed by every cell in the body. Because they are co-dependent in their metabolic activities, a deficiency of one B vitamin can affect optimal functioning of organ systems throughout the body.Folic acid (folate) is a member of the B-complex family. It is found in abundance in leafy green vegetables, but is often deficient in the standard American diet. Folic acid participates in a coenzyme reaction that synthesizes DNA needed for cell growth and new cell formation and helps convert vitamin B12 to one of its coenzyme forms. Yes, the B complex vitamins are probably the most...

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Mixed Messages

"We have to get our voice heard above the cacophony of the junk science that is being heard."This quote comes from the head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding.I don't know where she was 30 or so years ago when the cooperation between professionals in health care was common.The divide has certainly widened over the decades.Of course - as I see it - a piece of this problem belongs to hospital administrators, insurers, and Big Pharma.Administrators, and yes I once was one in several hospital settings, as a rule, cater to their own linear thinking and the bottom line. When budget cuts are the issue, only to keep the bottom line even, nurses are always near the top of the list.What the administrator fails to recognize is that the product of a hospital is nursing care.This of course leads to worsening...

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