Andrew Lansley has a cheek criticising Jamie's hard work in improving School Meals

See this Guardian article. When Jamie began his campaigning work to improve school meals, a frequent substance that appeared on the children's lunch plates was a highly-salted, processed parody of food called Turkey Twizzlers: devoid of real nutrition and harming children's health by its high salt content, a major cause of obesity in children, it could have been doing children nothing but harm. - Jamie worked indefatigably to put an end to this national scandal and deserves unstinted praise, not criticism, for his success in improving school dinner provision and drawing attention to lack of cookery teaching, etc. - Shame on Andrew Lansley!

Obesity in IVF pregnancy doubles risk of miscarriage

See BBC News article. It is such a shame that overweight people are mostly unaware - because the health professionals do not tell them - that reducing their intake of salt and salty food will reduce their excess weight by reducing their excess fluid retention/water weight, caused by sensitivity to salt. It is even more important, during pregnancy, that women keep their salt/sodium intake low, because the natural hormone changes that occur during pregnancy make them even more vulnerable to salt during the period of pregnancy. It is salt reduction, rather than calorie reduction, that should be advocated. Salt reduction would reduce the risk of miscarriage, as well as the risk of high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, excessive weight gain and many other health problems associated with pregnancy, both IVF pregnancies and non-IVF pregnancies.
See Pregnancy Advice.

Are you sensitive to salt? - Red in the face after a salty meal? Overweight? Short of breath? Swollen feet? Tire easily? Sick of dieting?

You'll find some helpful information and advice on
my website.
Lose weight safely.
Sodium in foods.
Groups vulnerable to salt.
Obesity and the Salt Connection.

Gwyneth Paltrow and her Vitamin D Deficiency

See the Telegraph article, in which we read that the "problem was diagnosed in a bone scan after she suffered a leg fracture." (Vitamin D deficiency weakens bones.) She was advised to spend more time in the sun.

I myself was short of Vitamin D, and had weak bones and muscles, and badly fractured my right arm in 2007, but my skin is too delicate to spend much time in the sun, so early last year I started to take Vitamin D3 tablets, along with the calcium tablets I was already taking. The results have been really impressive: my muscle strength is very greatly increased and my balance has also improved. I am given to understand that because Vitamin D gets stored in fat in the body, the tablets are best taken with or after a meal containing fat.

It was Bill who stressed to me the importance of taking Vitamin D3, rather than D2, and that I needed to take a higher dose than I had been taking initially, and I am very grateful to him for that advice, as it has undoubtedly done me good.

Improperly administered artificial feeding shows widespread lack of understanding and knowledge of how to feed patients, UK watchdog, NCEPOD, reports

See BBC News article. "A national safety watchdog found problems in three quarters of the intravenous feeding it cases examined. " - You couldn't make it up, could you! - Three quarters! - There is especial concern regarding the welfare of premature babies not receiving adequate sustenance. (NCEPOD is the abbreviation for the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death.)

Bribery allegations in China against drug company, Johnson and Johnson.

Johnson & Johnson involved in bribery case in China
The US drug giant Johnson & Johnson has been exposed in the involvement of an alleged bribery case in China, according to local media reports.
Read article in the Global Times (China)

Survey reveals two-thirds of people in the UK want GM crops to be kept out of the food chain

Two-thirds of people in the UK want GM crops to be kept out of the food chain, survey reveals.
Read Friends of the Earth and GM Freeze press release at oneworld.net

Outrage at award of £190K damages to Rose Gibb, CEO of NHS hospital where 90 patients died during superbug outbreak in overcrowded, dirty wards.

See BBC News report. In my opinion, this woman should have received a prison sentence, rather than a huge payout.

Pressure from scientists and consumer groups for reduction in the use of bisphenol A (BPA)

See article in the Independent. "Andrew Watterson, professor of environmental health at the University of Stirling and a signatory to the letter, said: "It's worrying, considering the weight of the scientific evidence, that strong action to reduce human exposure is yet to be taken. Hundreds of academic studies have explicitly raised the risks of developmental harm to foetuses and young children from exposure to BPA and this should dictate a strong precautionary policy response from European regulators.""

NICE is calling for a a ban on Trans-Fats in foods, and further reductions in Salt Content

See BBC News report. As well as a ban on trans-fats and further reduction in added salt, NICE is also pressing for reductions in saturated fat content, but here I part company with NICE.

Many consumers would welcome a ban on trans fats; they have been added to food products to benefit commercial interests, not because of any consumer demand. (See article.) And many consumers would also welcome a ban on adding salt to food products, but there is strong resistance by the food industry to make substantial cuts in the salt levels of their products. This is because the high levels of salt in processed foods have engineered a very strong taste for salt in a large number of their customers. Neither trans fats nor salt were present in other than very small quantities in the diets of our ancestors, stone age men and women, and the nearer our diets approximate today to those of our ancestors, the healthier for us, since it was on their diet that our species evolved and for which it is best suited.

But saturated fats are a different matter entirely. The hunter-gatherers ate saturated fat and our bodies evolved on it. Modern research studies indicate that saturated fats are not causing heart disease. It is a great pity that the people advising us to eat less saturated fat are not reading the up-to-date research findings on this matter. We do not need to cut down on saturated fats; they are good for us. See Dr Briffa's blogpost about this.

Radio 4 had such an uplifting programme today about Sistema Scotland, aka The Big Noise

It is available to listen to online for the next seven days. Here is the webpage about it. It is well worth listening to.

"A music project in Scotland is aiming to improve life for the kids of Stirling.

The Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra under conductor Gustavo Dudamel stole the show at both the Proms and the Edinburgh Festival, offering real proof of the talent and virtuosity that has emerged from the El Sistema programme in Venezuela.
Can Scotland's version of El Sistema - dubbed The Big Noise - achieve as much in the deprived area of The Raploch near Stirling? Lesley Riddoch finds out.

In June 2008, Sistema Scotland, the brainchild of former bishop and current chair of Creative Scotland Richard Holloway, got underway in the Raploch. Its aim - to inspire and galvanise the education and motivation of children from all backgrounds through involvement in orchestral musicianship. Ability is irrelevant. Anyone can join."

This very worthwhile project seems to be in need of cash or sponsors.

Breast Cancer Survivors Need Vitamin D

Researchers state in an article published in the March 2010 issue of the journal Nutrition that Vitamin D should be recommended for breast cancer survivors because there is evidence that this vitamin can provide a myriad health benefits.
Read article at foodconsumer.org

Sodium: do you need to cut down?

Check it out. - See Sodium in Foods.

European Medicines Agency told to provide details on anti-obesity drugs

European ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros has called on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to grant access to clinical study reports and trial protocols for anti-obesity drugs. His demand follows a complaint from Danish healthcare researchers who wanted to conduct an independent analysis of the drugs. In 2007, the researchers, from a health and information centre, asked to see clinical study reports and corresponding trial protocols for two anti-obesity drugs. They explained that they wanted to conduct an independent analysis given that, in their view, biased reporting on drug trials was common.
Read article at theparliament.com

Concerns about the safety of a certain type of breast implant

There are concerns about the safety of a certain type of breast implant. See BBC News report. Women with breast enlargements are being advised to contact their surgeon.

Study finds clear association between obesity and vitamin D deficiency

Clear association between obesity and vitamin D deficiency
A study conducted at Uppsala University has demonstrated that obese people often suffer from serious vitamin D deficiency and poor calcium metabolism. The findings have been published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. According to the researchers, the problem is underappreciated by the health care establishment. "... the researchers hold it to be probable that obesity causes the vitamin deficiency and not vice versa."
Read article at physorg.com

High levels of Vitamin B6 and the amino acid methionine appear to cut the risk of lung cancer by half

BBC News reports. "People with plenty of a B-vitamin in their blood appear to be at a reduced risk of lung cancer, even if they smoke." "High levels of Vitamin B6 and the amino acid methionine cut the risk by half, a study of 400,000 people suggested."

Methionine is found in protein like meat, fish and nuts, and vitamin B6 is found in meat, nuts, vegetables and bananas. Obviously, giving up smoking (or never starting to smoke) is the best way to reduce risk of lung cancer, but these two featured nutrients are associated with lowered risk for both smokers and non-smokers.

Certain prescription drugs deplete the body of vitamin B6. I experienced this when I was a teenager, taking drugs to treat pulmonary TB. It became totally impossible for me to sleep. I could not sleep AT ALL. The drug called isoniazid had depleted my body of vitamin B6. No-one told me that my intractable insomnia was the consequence of severe lack of vitamin B6 (aka pyridoxine). The doctors probably did not know at that time, when the drugs were pretty new, that there was this side-effect. If I had been prescribed pyridoxine tablets to make up for the deficiency I would not have suffered those terrible years of insomnia, which brought in its train many other problems.

The Soil Association is concerned about "The big fat lie about doubling food production."

The Soil Association is rightly concerned about "The big fat lie about doubling food production." Unfortunately, when Big Business is involved in promulgating statistics, we invariably find, as in this case, that claims made are not facts, but propaganda. And when Monsanto is involved, as in this case, the propaganda is very dangerous. The spread of GM crops/food needs to be resisted. No good will come of GMOs.

Sodium foods increase fluid retention; potassium foods decrease fluid retention

So if you are overweight or obese you need to avoid salt/sodium and salty food, and eat plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables because these are naturally rich in potassium. You will then safely and easily lose excess water weight and you will have much more energy because of not having to carry that extra fluid around with you all the time.

Sodium and Potassium in foods

Non-organic produce that is highest in pesticides

If you're eating non-organic celery today, you may be ingesting 67 pesticides with it, according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group.
Read article and watch video at cnn.com

Drugs commonly used for heart failure and high blood pressure problems are linked to increased risk of cancer

BBC News reports that researchers have found a slightly increased risk of cancer associated with taking angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs). As usual, people are being advised not to stop taking the drugs, but to seek advice from their GP if they are concerned about this research finding.

There is a completely safe, drug-free way to reduce high blood pressure, reduce heart problems and lower your risk of stroke, diabetes and most cancers, and that is to cut down on salt and salty food. Cutting down on salt/sodium also reduces excess weight.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Ariel - Short Story by Margaret Wilde

Ariel

She swung in and out of the sun.

"Look, Daddy," her heart sang. "I'm almost flying!"

From far away the loved voice acknowledged her daring.

"I won't fall,"she called out to the world. "I know how to swing."

"Strewth! - Hey, Missus, these swings is for kids, not pensioners. Geroff!"

Margaret Wilde © 2010

Further attention drawn to health risks of GSK's diabetes drug, Avandia

See This is London article, where you will read that "David Graham, of the Food and Drug Administration, said patients taking the drug had a 27% greater chance of suffering a stroke, a 25% increased risk of heart failure and a 13% greater chance of dying."

Have you gained weight from taking birth control medication (contraceptives)?

And do you want to lose that extra weight? But you are finding it difficult? - You may be surprised to learn that the sex hormones in those contraceptive medications are steroids, and that some of them have some of the same side-effects on the body as the drugs we more usually think of as steroids.

Oestrogen is the sex hormone in contraceptives that is causing your weight gain. And that weight gain is because the oestrogen is causing some salt sensitivity. That means that when you eat salt you gain some weight because the salt is causing your body to retain water. - You know - water weight. - If you cut down on salt and salty food you will excrete some of that water your body is holding in your blood vessels, and so you will weigh less. You will also feel better and have more energy without all that excess fluid to carry round with you everywhere...(o:

Read more about how to lose weight by eating less salt. And read more about steroids, HRT and other prescription drugs that cause salt sensitivity and water weight gain. And read about salt in food.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

I listened to the Afternoon Play on Radio 4 today: "Last Days of Grace"

It was superb. If you go to this page you could yourself listen to it now or in the next 7 days. It has 2 characters, plus Christopher Martin-Jenkins as the Voice of Cricket. The 2 characters are W.G Grace, the famous cricketer from the early days of cricket, and a rather mysterious other man.

I have no interest in cricket or in cricketing history, but the play had me hooked from the first moment. The quality of the acting! - What actors of the calibre of Kenneth Cranham and Benedict Cumberbatch can put into a sentence! If you like a play that disturbs you somewhat into a feeling of unease, if you like a little shiver inching down your spine, I think Benedict Cumberbatch would do it for you, as he did for me.

We are so fortunate to have Radio 4 and its Afternoon Plays, and to have such fine actors as these to act in them.

Who benefits from diets and dieting?

Well, the dieting industry benefits, you will agree:
the manufacturers of diet foods and diet drinks,
the authors of diet books,
the women's magazines that publish the latest diets,
the newspapers that do similarly,
the slimming clubs.
I'm sure you can think of others to add to these I have listed.

Who doesn't benefit from diets and dieting? - Sadly, the people who do not benefit from dieting are overweight and obese people who want to get rid of excess weight, because in practice, dieting is far more likely to cause an increase in weight than it is to reduce obesity. - If you are obese and you have already tried to lose excess weight by dieting you will have experienced for yourself that what I say is true. - DIETS DO NOT WORK.

The safe, fast way to lose excess weight is to reduce the amount of added salt/sodium you eat. This means cutting down on salt, not cutting down on calories or cutting down on food.

See how to lose weight by eating less salt. And see salt/sodium in foods.

Calorie counting nonsense and calorie restriction advice are propaganda/misinformation. You do not have to believe propaganda. Recognise it and confront it for what it is. - If your personal experience proves that low calorie diets do not work and that they make you hungry, tired, cold and depressed then accept that proof. It is called empirical proof. - 'Empirical' means derived from experiment and observation rather than theory.

The theory about low calorie diets is based on arithmetic; it is not based on what happens to real people who try to reduce their obesity by testing out the theory: those real people who become cold and tired and hungry and feel weak and faint, and catch colds, etc. easily because the dieting has lowered their immunity to infection.

If you follow my suggestions of giving up the calorie game and instead eat real food and don't go hungry, and avoid salt and salty food (that means mainly avoiding ready meals, takeaways and processed food as these are usually high in salt and pretty low in nutrition) - if you follow these suggestions you will not feel cold or tired or hungry or depressed. - Instead you feel very much better. You will have more energy. You will have excreted some of the excess fluid that has been held in your body - held there by the added salt in your food - fluid retention weighing you down. Your health will benefit in a multitude of ways. You will enjoy your life so much more and you will not be sacrificing your life and health and happiness to the dieting industry and the food industry and all the other guys who profit from the usual dieting propaganda. - And you will lose weight...(o:

Low-calorie diet drinks (usually sickly sweet with dodgy sweeteners and other chemical additives that would be better staying in the lab than entering the human body) don't make fat people slim, and low-calorie diet meals (usually low-fat, salty junk) don't make fat people slim.

So why does the dieting industry sell us this false propaganda and non-nutritious diet meals and diet drinks which don't work? - Well I hope that it is obvious when you think about it: they don't actually want fat people to become slim and fit. - They need fat people to keep buying their products - cheaply produced out of low-cost ingredients, dearly bought at the cost of the health and happiness of the consumer. If diet products did what they promise to do, the dieting industry would go out of business.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Clear thinking about the corruption that links WHO and the pharmaceutical industry

Here's an outspoken, courageous page about the World Health Organisation and the H1N1 scam: http://keithconnectsthedots.com/2010/06/06/who-scandal-exposed-advisors-received-kickbacks-from-h1n1-vaccine-manufacturers.aspx

I warned against the vaccine on my aboutsalt blog last September: http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2009/09/think-before-you-vaccinate.html

The pharmaceutical companies cannot be trusted. Nor, clearly, can the World Health Organisation be trusted.

Good nutrition is the best physician and the safest medicine.

European Medicines Agency working with patient groups bankrolled by drug industry

EU drugs agency working with patient groups bankrolled by Big Pharma
European patients' groups, set up to represent the interests of the subjects of medical procedures in their dealings with healthcare systems, insurance firms and drug companies are in many cases bankrolled by pharmaceutical firms, according to a report. Complicating the situation, many such groups are working with and on the board of the European Medicines Agency - the very EU agency charged with evaluation of medicines in the bloc. A fresh report from transparency watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory accuses the EMA of mis-administrating conflict of interest guidelines allowing individuals and groups to say falsely that they are not sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.
Read article at euobserver.com

Millions wasted by NHS on expensive, useless MS drugs

See report in the Telegraph, where you will read that experts "called for a Government-backed scheme to provide the drugs to be scrapped and called for a public inquiry. In total at least £250 million could have been saved if a review had been carried out on the “costly failure” after its first two years, they warn."And also "The four drugs involved Avonex, Betaferon, Copaxone and Rebif, cost around £8,000 per patient per year."

These expensive drugs have been provided on the NHS for six years now, during which time they have performed less well than a placebo. - Why then, has it taken till now for anyone to seek to do anything about this? MS sufferers have enough to contend with, without being given false hope and useless drugs. And why can't the many legal eagles on the State payroll devise watertight contracts to ensure that the drug companies do not screw the NHS for costly drugs that prove to be worthless.

It is time we had some people in Government and in the Dept of Health with enough sense to resist the blandishments and lies of the pharmaceutical companies, and enough courage and integrity to listen to the people who are ill, rather than to the drug company executives who cosy up to the people in power, seeking to make money out of their expensive products, regardless of how useless or harmful those products are. During those six years of uselessness, why was no-one taking heed of their uselessness to patients? - No-one listening to the patients?

The health of millions of women in the UK is endangered by nutritionally deficient diets

Millions of British women have potentially dangerous diets ranging from teenage girls missing out on healthy food to pensioners not getting their vitamins it is claimed. Health experts pulled together the results of 110 separate scientific and medical research studies to paint a worrying picture of what the UK's female population eats. Not only are women in the prime of their lives not getting the right amount of nutrition, which in turn can affect the weight of newborn babies too, but the poor diet extends across all age groups.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: The studies cited in this report show that the nutrients deficient in British women’s diets include magnesium, zinc, potassium, iodine, iron, vitamin B2 and vitamin D. As if this were not bad enough, however, independent studies conducted in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and other countries have shown that the nutrient content of our food has fallen substantially over the past few decades as a result of our soils becoming depleted of minerals. In the Netherlands, for example, research shows that vegetables now contain so few essential minerals, such as selenium, that their levels can barely be recorded. To learn more, click here.

Investigation finds WHO swine flu experts WERE financially 'linked' with drug companies

Read BBC News report here. "A spokesman for WHO said the drug industry did not influence its decisions on swine flu." - Anyone believe that? - Anyone at all? - I certainly don't. - I suppose most people realise by now that the World Health Organisation is corrupted by the fact that some of its advisers are in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry. We therefore cannot trust what WHO tells us. What a terrible waste...

GeneWatch Director has resigned over Food Standards Agency 's pro-GM stand

FSA GM dialogue process a ‘PR exercise on behalf of the GM industry’
On 26th May, Dr Helen Wallace, the Director of GeneWatch UK, resigned her membership of the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) Steering Group for the GM dialogue, with immediate effect. In a public letter of resignation to John Curtice, the Chair of the Steering Group, she declared that it had become clear to her that the purpose of the FSA process was nothing more than a PR exercise on behalf of the GM industry. She also believes that the process would be a significant waste of £500,000 of taxpayers'money.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) Europe

I'm pleased that the General Teaching Council is to be scrapped.

The Telegraph reports that the General Teaching Council is to be scrapped, partly to save money and partly because it hasn't been much use.

If only the useless, partisan General Medical Council could be scrapped too!

Chemical cosh to be used less on dementia sufferers in Scotland

See Telegraph report. I've been urging for a curb on the use of anti-psychotics on elderly people for a long time. The declared intention to reduce their use now though seems less to be motivated by humanity than by a desire to cut costs!

The Luck of the Drawer - Short Story by Margaret Wilde

The Luck of the Drawer

She was placed into a drawer and the drawer was closed. She fell asleep and woke because of a nightmare in which she was placed into a drawer and the drawer closed.

Apart from the feeling of suffocation itself, she also was suffering from claustrophobia. - She explored with her hands. She did remember quite well the structure of a chest of drawers and had made one once for her doll, using empty matchboxes and tiny buttons for the handles. But she was sideways, the only way that she would fit the space. It was very difficult to push sideways towards the back of the chest. She succeeded in getting splinters into her fingertips, but not in opening the drawer.

She shouted for assistance but the sounds were muffled of course and were easy to ignore.

They freed her in the morning.

When they lifted her to put her to bed in the drawer again the next night she fought. She screamed and kicked and punched. Such were the energy and persistence she demonstrated that she won the ‘battle’. They put her to sleep on the sofa instead.

She had learned an invaluable lesson very early in life. Namely, that it is a great deal easier to avoid being shut up in a drawer than it is to escape from it later.

Margaret Wilde © 2010