An E-Mail Miracle: Curried Sweet Potato Stew

About four or five years ago, I seriously embarked on a weight loss plan and signed up for eDiets. I did it mostly for the free body profile and never used the service, opting for Weight Watchers and self-tracking instead. (Which worked! Whee!)Since then, I’ve received an e-mail from the company every. Single. Week. Normally, this would annoy my face off, as I generally trash any corporate ads without “FREE METS SEASON TICKETS FOR YOU, KRIS” plastered across the top. In this case, it would have been an awful mistake, like the AOL/Time Warner merger or hot pants.Stunningly, eDiets' weekly missives are varied, educational, and even kinda fun. The...

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Posted in: Mains,Soups and Stocks,Vegetarian

"HOSPITAL BLUNDERS KILL 90,000 PATIENTS"

Whilst this news article was found in the UK press, it is not very much different here in the US. The difference most likely would be an increase in the numbers. Many US physicians and other health care professionals do read the BMJ.This a very real cause for concern regarding the state of the health care system.Over 90,000 patients die & almost 1 million are harmed each year in England because of hospital blunders. Errors in surgery, misdiagnoses and hospital-acquired infections are among the causes. 8.7 to 10% of hospital stays involve such mistakes & up to half were preventable. Prof. Trevor Sheldon, author of the study, published in British Medical Journal said that a stay in hospital "is as risky as a bungee jump." 15% of the blunders led to impairment or disability lasting over...

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Vaccine Injury Overlooked

I read an article this morning that came originally from Parenting Magazine that concerned me greatly. The story tells about a family when their 11 month old child was found to have Type 1 diabetes.Type 1 diabetes is usually considered to be an auto-immune disorder.No where in the article did I read a concern about the fact that vaccination, especially the Hepatitis vaccine, is known to cause diabetes.Just fair warning to parents and a reason to ask questions and expect answers from health care providers before blindly injecting your chi...

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CHG Favorites of the Week

Blog of the WeekUse Real ButterSuggested by my friend Michele, Use Real Butter is a food blog in the Smitten Kitchen vein, meaning the writing is nifty and the pictures … oh, the pictures. Look at the photos in this post. And this one. And why not this one, while you’re at it? If you don’t start salivating immediately, you might not be human.Organization of the WeekYour local house of worshipWhether you’re happily secular or a card-carrying member of the God Squad, churches, temples, and mosques must be acknowledged and lauded as prime combatants of hunger and poverty. Peruse the activities at your local shrine to see how you can pitch in.Quote...

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Posted in: Links

CT scans raise cancer risk, so what are you doing to protect your health?

I believe there will come a day when the average person will realize that radiation in any form is a clear and present danger for the development of cancer."Dr. Robert Smith, the American Cancer Society's director of screening, said the authors' estimate that 2 percent of future cancers may be due to CT scans "seems high." But since cancers take 10 to 20 years to develop, "the ability to even observe that kind of an increase is going to be very difficult," he said." Perhaps the above comment will make women especially heed our long time warning that in deed mammogram is a cause of cancer because the repeated exposure over a decade or more is the crucial factor to understand."Both doctors and patients need to be more aware of radiation risks and discuss them openly, Brenner and Hall said. "We...

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Touch of Class: 10 Thrifty, Healthy Ingredients to Improve the Quality of Your Meals

(Sorry for the delay today. Between Thanksgiving and yesterday’s massive Festival of Frugality, I’m a bit blog dizzy.)For the first 25 years of my existence, my food stood alone. Meat went unseasoned, starches sought no accompaniment, and vegetables … hermits, all of them. Only recently have I discovered the wonders of spices, sauces, and assorted flavorings. I had heard they made edibles better, but discounted it as a blasphemous rumor. Y’know, like gravity.In honor of these fine, zestful components, today’s article will expound on joy and wonder of my favorite ten. The following foods generally aren’t the main focus of a dish. Instead, they’re...

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Posted in: Buying Food,Cooking,Frugality

Festival of Frugality #102: The Mix Tape Edition

One of my favorite aspects of the Festival of Frugality is the variety of articles from such different, awesome sources. It reminds me muchly of the mix tapes I made in high school and college.Subsequently, this edition of the FoF is modeled after those cassettes of yore. Each post is paired with a tune that pertains to its subject matter, and when they're taken all together, the songs create a frugality-themed block of music you can listen to and enjoy for (about four) hours. (Warning: There is an inordinate amount of Weird Al on this list. If you fear goofy, light-hearted parody, this would be a good time to go to the bathroom.)So, without...

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Posted in: Links

Toxic Damage From Splenda

Splenda is a chlorinated hydrocarbon which is very different that sugar. It is sugar modified with chlorine. Chlorine is a carcinogen. Recent studies show that Splendashow that it is gentoxic and alters DNA.Comet assay tests groups of 4 mice to show sucralose genotoxicity instomach, colon, lung, Yu F Sasaki et al, Mutation Research 2002. from Mark GoldSplenda was first developed as a pesticide and its pre-approval research showed that it caused shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage) and enlarged liver and kidneys, and calcification in the kidneys.[Toxicologist Judith] Bellin reviewed studies on rats starved under experimental conditions, and concluded that their growth rate could be reduced by as much as a third without the thymus losing a significant amount of weight (less than...

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What's in a Name: Light Leftover Turkey Chili ... Stew ... Chili

Today’s recipe discussion will take place in the form of a one-act play.CharactersME: a tall, brunette Brooklynite whose kitchen skills are tapped after cooking two Thanksgiving dinners for 24 people.MY BRAIN: a floating, squishy mass of neurons and synapses that directs ME where to go and what to do (some of the time, successfully)SettingNovember, 2007. A blue kitchen with inadequate cabinet space. ME is leaning on the counter, ruminating. ME (out loud): Man. I’ve just arrived home from three incredibly loud days with my family. And despite shoveling comestibles into my seemingly never-ending stomach for 72 hours straight, I’m still hungry....

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Posted in: Chili,Mains,Meat and Fish

Use of Multiple Nutritional Supplements Found to Be Beneficial to Health

This is an important commentary based on the current CODEX effort to limit your access to supplements at any therapeutic level."Usage patterns, health, and nutritional status of long-term multiple dietary supplement users: a cross-sectional study," Block G, Jensen CD, et al, Nutr J, 2007; 6(1): 30. (Address: Gladys Block, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 207-B University Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, USA. E-mail: gblock@berkeley.edu ).Summary:In a cross-sectional study involving 278 long-term users of multiple dietary supplements, 176 users of a multivitamin/mineral supplement, and 602 non-users of supplements, the users of multiple dietary supplements were found to have better biomarkers of health, as...

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Microwave your way to poor health

COOKING, MICROWAVE OVEN COOKING - Broccoli, Vitamin C, Glucosinolates, Phenolic Compounds, Minerals, Vitamins, WaterReference: "Effects of microwave cooking conditions on bioactive compounds present in broccoli inflorescences," Lopez-Berenguer C, Carvajal M, et al, J Agric Food Chem, 2007; 55(24): 10001-7. (Address: Food Science and Technology Department and Plant Nutrition Department, CEBAS-CSIC, P.O. Box 164, Espinardo, Murcia, Spain. E-mail: cgviguera@cebas.csic.es ).Summary: In this study, researchers set out to determine the effects of various approaches to microwave cooking (with differences in time cooked, power used, and use of water) on various health-promoting compounds found in broccoli (namely, glucosinolates, phenolic compounds, minerals, and vitamin C). Results found that after...

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Posted in: health effects of microwave cooking,microwave cooking

WARNING: Tamiflu and Relenza Hazards Reported

Parents of children who have received the flu vaccines, including the nose spray type, are reporting that their children are experiencing convulsions and hallucinations.From: Reuters Published November 23, 2007 03:14 PM FDA staff urge psych warnings for two flu drugsBy Kim DixonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Food and Drug Administration staffers are recommending new warnings about psychiatric events observed in some patients taking Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Relenza, according to documents released on Friday.An FDA advisory panel will review the recommendations for the anti-viral influenza drugs at a meeting next week.The FDA held a similar meeting two years ago in response to reports of a dozen deaths of children in Japan who had been taking Tamiflu.ADVERTISEMENTExperts...

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A Yam-Packed Cornucopia of Thanks

Since tomorrow is National Digestion Day, I won't be posting again until Monday. But I did want to say, "Thanks, you guys!" to the lovely folks who’ve ushered traffic here for the last few months. You've been way kind, and I really appreciate it. (Check out their blogs!)(P.S. Apologies to the bloggers. The links should be correct now.)Apple Dabbler Being Frugal Clever DudeConsumerism CommentaryThe Digerati Life Festival of FrugalityFilam Words FIRE FinanceFood Porn WatchFree Money FinanceFrugal BabeFrugal for Life Frugal HacksFrugal Law Student Frugal UpstateGet Rich SlowlyA Good American WifeThe Happy RockLike Merchant ShipsMom AdviceMoney and...

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Posted in: Links

Finding Quality Kitchen Equipment on the Cheap

Last week, we talked about what cooking equipment is best for kick-starting a new kitchen and/or stocking an old one. Turns out? Though rice cookers and garlic presses tanked in my survey, they were sky-high on almost every commenter’s list. Oversight City, Population: Me.Today, we look at another, more complex apparatus issue: where to find everything at a somewhat-to-severely discounted price.This article took awhile, mostly because I wasn’t quite sure how to organize everything. Eventually, I settled on the following:FIRST STOP: Try this first, before anything else, whether you’re actively pursuing a Wusthof chef’s knife or casually looking for a Santa Claus spatula.IF YOU NEED IT NOW: Go here if you have a list of kitchen equipment in mind, and nothing but your specific ideas will do.IF...

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Posted in: Frugality,Organization