SE Features
HD 'We used to drink champagne and eat trash - now it's all green juices'
BY Caroline Leaper
WC 1223 words
PD 18 November 2018
SN Sunday Telegraph Magazine 'Stella'
SC STELLA
ED 1; National
PG 64,65,67
LA English
CY Sunday Telegraph Magazine 'Stella' © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

Rosemary Ferguson was a hard-partying supermodel in the 1990s. Now the fashion world's favourite clean-living nutritionist (and mum to an up-and-coming model), she tells Caroline Leaper how life has come full circle

AT ROSEMARY FERGUSON'S Harley Street clinic, there are few signs that she used to be a supermodel. Her office is all wipe-clean surfaces and medical-centre green - only a bottle of posh Bamford hand cream on the desk suggests you've come to the right place.

TD 

In the 1990s, Rosemary and best friends Kate Moss, Kirsty Hume and Emma Balfour defined an era of waifish grunge in British modelling. She was scouted in a McDonald's on London's Oxford Street at 15, then travelled the world, drank champagne and posed for everyone from Chanel to Vogue.

Almost three decades on, and now all in their 40s, she and her contemporaries have completely rebranded. Lorraine Pascale is a successful television chef; Kirsty owns a skincare brand. Kate still models, of course, but she also runs her own talent agency.

After qualifying as a naturopath and nutritionist in 2009 (play anagrams with the letters after her name: Dip Nat Nut CNM, mBANT), Rosemary made a turnaround of evangelical proportions to become a healthyliving authority, advising others on what to put into their bodies. 'The irony of the career change is not lost on me,' she laughs.

Patients come to her clinic complaining of bloating, fatigue and poor bowel movements, which can all be affected by diet. Glamorous, right? Yet in the nine years since she started, Rosemary is credited with making gut health part of the trendy wellness conversation. Her friends have become clients, too.

'My main aim is to show people that what you eat can make you feel full, sleep better and have really high energy levels,' she says. 'And if you need to lose some weight, you can do that. But it's not about extreme diets or cutting out food groups unnecessarily. I look at what works for you, and we make a personal plan for your lifestyle.'

Clients can have cooking classes - at their home or hers - and let Rosemary rummage through their cupboards to assemble an ideal dry-store, fresh-produce and freezer system. She runs a YouTube channel where she shares her advice and her first recipe book, Juice, was released in 2015, with another now on the cards.

Perhaps the most popular series with Rosemary's 35,000 Instagram followers is her 5 Day Plan, which gives anyone a chance to wipe the slate clean and 'feel fresher by Friday'. She promotes the recipes with colourful foodie photos and details of their supersonic nutritional values. 'It's an anti-inflammatory diet,' she explains, 'for anyone who thinks they are too busy to cook and wants to change the way they feel in a week.' A solution many of us will be looking for once the effects of party season kick in.

Rosemary admits that when studying biomedicine, she assumed she'd leave the fashion fold for good. How wrong she was.

'I thought there would be no overlap and I was saying goodbye to one career and moving to something entirely different,' she says. 'But it's ended up connected. I talk to agencies and models about nutrition; I did the catering at the Preen show last season. When I go backstage, I can't believe everyone is eating healthy sandwiches and drinking green juices. We would have champagne from the first show to the last, eating absolute trash. The rules about model health and BMIs have changed massively since my day, it's totally different.' Rosemary is particularly pleased that the industry has evolved as her eldest daughter, Elfie, 19, is giving modelling a go. In fact, she was the Kate Moss Agency's first signing.

'Kate is obviously a very old friend of mine and someone who has had every experience, so I know they will take really good care of Elfie,' she says. 'They are very patient, they understand that she has an academic career she wants to follow. She's having a great time, but Elfie is going to university. It's great you can do both now.' Rosemary planned to model for one year after photographer Corinne Day approached her in 1990, thinking she was 'a handsome boy' because of her athletic build. 'I did a few jobs and hated it, so stopped. Then, aged 17, I really wanted a car, so went to [agent] Carole White at Premier. I just wanted a Renault 5.'

She modelled for another 13 years. 'I was travelling with my girls, living together in New York - I grew up fast, though. You learn that you're doing a job and you need to take responsibility.' On one salutary occasion, she was sick at an airport on the way to a job in Paris and decided not to go. 'I thought, "This is insane, I'm going home." But there was a lot of money riding on it, so I got in trouble.'

Rosemary's daughters were bridesmaids at Kate's 2011 wedding to Jamie Hince: Elfie (her daughter with former partner Barry Reigate) was 11 at the time and grew up with Lila Moss (who made her modelling debut for Marc Jacobs), Iris Law (daughter of Sadie Frost and Jude Law) and the next-generation Primrose Hill set. Rosemary has been married to the controversial contemporary artist Jake Chapman since 2004, and their daughters Bliss, now 12, and Blythe, 11, were decked in pre-Raphaelite flower-girl attire at the wedding. 'All our kids know each other, it's one big, weird psychedelic family,' she laughs. 'My best friends then are my best friends now, almost 30 years later.'

These days, most of the original Primrose Hill set live in the Cotswolds and commute to London for events or, in Rosemary's case, client appointments. 'Jake and I moved there full-time eight years ago,' she says. 'Before that we were living for the weekends, wanting to escape to a cottage that we rented there. Now we rent a flat in Soho and come to London for two nights each week.'

She enjoys the contrast of lifestyles, as well as the clash of tastes she has with her husband. 'I'm much more traditional. Jake would live in a glass box, so our house is somewhere in the middle,' she laughs. 'We have a glass box in the middle of two very traditional buildings.'

Despite their drastically different careers, Rosemary says the couple always talk about work. 'He loves hearing about the science of nutrition, it fascinates him,' she says. 'We discuss his work a lot, too. I listen to his ideas. I sit there thinking, "We are in such different fields, but what you do is amazing."'

They are both impossibly cool and accomplished within their chosen fields, but do the kids care? 'Absolutely not,' she laughs. 'When their friends come for dinner, they panic: "Please, Mum, no mung-bean stew." So I do pesto pasta. It's brown-rice pasta and kale pesto, but they can sell it to their friends without too many screwed-up faces.'


IN 

ialtmed : Alternative Health Practitioners | i951 : Health Care/Life Sciences | iphhp : Healthcare Provision

NS 

gcele : Celebrities | gfas : Fashion | gnutr : Nutrition | gcat : Political/General News | gfod : Food/Drink | ghea : Health | glife : Living/Lifestyle

RE 

uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

PUB 

Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

AN 

Document STELLA0020181118eebi00007


CLM The Right Chemistry
SE Weekend Life
HD Bowel-Purge ideas are still sticking with us; The spectre of 'autointoxication'has been a boon to the sellers of laxatives
BY JOE SCHWARCZ
CR The Gazette
WC 956 words
PD 17 November 2018
SN Montreal Gazette
SC MTLG
ED Early
PG B5
LA English
CY Copyright © 2018 Montreal Gazette

LP 

"People are being sickened by the uneliminated filth that forms a sticky coating on the walls and in the folds of the intestines and releases poisons of putrefaction into the bloodstream." You would think that bit of info comes from one of the numerous books or blog posts that currently promote a plethora of schemes to "detox" the body with various colonic cleanses. But no, that warning dates back to the first decades of the last century, an era haunted by the prospect of intestinal "autointoxication" caused by constipation. No one played a larger role in promoting the idea that all disease begins in the bowel than John Harvey Kellogg of cereal fame.

TD 

A trained physician, Kellogg latched onto the work of Russian zoologist Ilya Mechnikov who had proposed that toxic bacteria in the gut play a role in aging and that their effects could be countered by "good" lactic acid-producing bacteria. The reason that Bulgarian peasants had impressive longevity, (never actually documented) was due to their consumption of yogurt! Kellogg concluded that cleansing the colon of toxic bacteria and replacement with "protective" germs was the key to health. He even designed an enema machine to purge the bowel prior to introducing yogurt both orally and rectally. While it is dubious that his treatments had a therapeutic effect, Kellogg was a pioneer in recognizing the importance of the microbiome, a huge area of research today. Kellogg's cereals were also designed with health in mind, their high fibre content acting like "little brooms" to sweep out the nasty immobilized feces that gave rise to toxins.

The spectre of autointoxication was a boon to the sellers of laxatives. "What would be more repulsive than to have one's intestines filled with rotting, foul-smelling, undigested food matter?" asked one advertiser. Products containing castor oil, Epsom salts and calomel flooded the market along with enema devices, acidophilus supplements, rectal dilators and internally applied electrical colon stimulators.

Into this quagmire stepped phenolphthalein, destined to become the most famous laxative of them all. Yes, the same phenolphthalein that you likely used as an acid-base indicator in your high school chemistry class, colourless in an acid solution and bright pink in base.

Phenolphthalein is a synthetic compound first made in 1871 by Nobel Prize-winning German chemist Adolf von Baeyer at a time when stimulated by William Henry Perkin's accidental discovery of mauve, chemists were hot on the trail of synthetic dyes. It didn't work out as a dye, but turned out to be very useful as an acid-base indicator. And then in 1900 came another serendipitous discovery. Hungarian white wines were in short supply due to a poor grape harvest, and some cheaper imported wines were apparently being sold as authentically Hungarian. The government had the idea of somehow marking real Hungarian wine with some chemical that would not alter its colour or taste, but would allow for a test to be carried out for its presence.

Phenolphthalein was proposed as a suitable additive. An authentic white wine would then turn pink when a base was added, while an impostor would not. Obviously, the safety of adding phenolphthalein would have to be explored, and chemist Zoltan Vamossy of the Pharmacology Institute of the University of Budapest was asked to look into the chemical's toxicological profile before any plan to add it to wine was put into practice. After animal tests indicated the compound was harmless, Vamossy and a colleague did something that was quite acceptable at the time but would be out of the question today. They became their own guinea pigs and took small doses of phenolphthalein to test for its effects on humans.

Those effects became quickly evident. Both men experienced diarrhea and as Vamossy later recounted, "I had discovered a laxative of great merit." He went on to organize clinical trials with pediatricians reporting they "preferred phenolphthalein to the troublesome castor oil because it was mild in action and pleasant to take." That's was all the German pharmaceutical industry needed to start spewing out products with names like Purgatin, Purgolade and Laxine.

Enter Max Kiss, a Hungarian-born New York pharmacist who had followed the trials and tribulations of phenolphthalein in his homeland and had the idea of making the product more palatable.

After trying different formulations, he hit upon blending the laxative with chocolate. In 1906 the "excellent laxative," Ex-Lax was born! "A treat instead of torture" boasted an ad. The product became wildly popular, although there were concerns that Ex-Lax would be mistaken for candy by children, with disastrous results. There were also stories about mischievous students offering "chocolates" to their teachers hoping for an early end to class.

Although by the 1940s, the notion that the majority of people were "dragging through life with foul breath, dulled minds and sluggish muscles due to chronic constipation" faded, phenolphthalein laxatives remained popular until they were yanked in 1997 due to some questionable animal studies purporting the compound was carcinogenic. Ex-Lax still exists today, but phenolphthalein has been replaced by sennosides derived from the senna plant. Unfortunately, the idea that much of human misery is caused by putrid intestinal guck that needs to be purged is still touted by some "alternative" practitioners. Too bad there is no solution for mental constipation. joe.schwarcz@mcgill.ca Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill University's Office for Science & Society (mcgill.ca/oss). He hosts The Dr. Joe Show on CJAD Radio 800 AM every Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m.


NS 

glife : Living/Lifestyle | ncolu : Columns | gcat : Political/General News | ncat : Content Types

RE 

hung : Hungary | cana : Canada | devgcoz : Emerging Market Countries | eecz : European Union Countries | eeurz : Central/Eastern Europe | eurz : Europe | namz : North America

IPD 

Column | people,being,sickened,uneliminated,filth,forms

PUB 

Montreal Gazette

AN 

Document MTLG000020181117eebh00017


SE Features
HD WHY I'LL NEVER TAKE THE TEST TO DISCOVER IF I'LL GET DEMENTIA
BY BY DR MAX PEMBERTON
WC 1373 words
PD 17 November 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
PG 41
LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

Would you want to know in advance that something bad was going to happen to you even if there was nothing you could do to stop it? Is it always better to be forewarned of the worst?

These are questions I've often pondered, especially as a young doctor in A&E, where I saw so many people who'd been busy going about their everyday lives when tragedy struck.

TD 

I remember in particular a golfer who'd argued with his wife that morning, then suffered a massive stroke on the course that left him paralysed — unable even to tell her he loved her. What would he have done differently if he'd known beforehand?

Undoubtedly, advance knowledge of adversity would help us make different life choices and influence how we behave with loved ones.

But if medicine has taught me anything, it is that there are circumstances when it makes sense not to know what fate has in store for us. Far from informing the way we conduct our lives, it can overshadow everything — robbing us of the present as we sit waiting for the worst to happen.

That would certainly be the predicament faced by people who agree to a new diagnostic test for dementia. British scientists announced this week that they had developed a simple neck scan which could predict dementia a decade before symptoms begin.

The scan, which takes just five minutes, measures the intensity of the pulse in the blood vessels in the neck. The greater the intensity, the higher the risk of cognitive decline within ten years.

I wonder who on earth would want to take such a test when there is as yet no cure for dementia. What kind of life would it be, living with that prognosis blighting your every moment?

While working in dementia services, I've come across many patients who have had to deal with just such a dilemma.

Dementia is an umbrella term to describe problems with cognition, understanding and memory. The most common form is Alzheimer's disease, but a rarer type is Huntington's disease, a degenerative neurological disorder caused by an inherited faulty gene.

A person who has a parent with the disease has a 50 per cent risk of developing it, too. Symptoms tend to appear in middle age and include progressive problems with movement, thinking and memory. Within a few years, people have lost their independence, and within ten years they're dead.

A blood test is available to identify the genetic abnormality responsible and it is offered to anyone with a family history of Huntington's once they reach 18. In fact, less than 20 per cent choose to have the test — a very low take-up rate which rather puzzled me at first. Surely you'd want to know if you were a carrier so you could prepare for what was to come?

However, their logic was summed up by one young man I counselled. He'd seen family members with Huntington's and was under no illusions about what might happen, yet he preferred not to have it confirmed.

'Every mistake I made, every time I dropped something or couldn't remember someone's name, it would set me off,' he told me. 'At the moment, if I lose my keys, my girlfriend says I'm scatter-brained and we laugh.

'But if I knew I carried the gene for Huntington's, such a simple thing would take on a whole new meaning, and we'd always be asking ourselves if it was starting.'

I've come to agree with him — and with the poet Thomas Gray who wrote: 'Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.'

DrMax@dailymail.co.uk

 

***

 

 

 

OWNING TOO MUCH 'STUFF' JUST ISN'T GOOD FOR  YOU

The rising death toll as a result of the Californian wild fires is undoubtedly a tragedy. Scores have lost their lives, a town has been razed and thousands of people have lost everything they owned.

While I do not underestimate the horror experienced by the victims, or the undoubted trauma of losing one's home, I am reminded of a patient I once saw who had survived a house fire in which everything they owned was destroyed.

Several months later, we were talking over what had happened, and I sympathised over the loss of all her possessions and having to start again.

She looked at me and shook her head.

'Actually, it's been very liberating,' she said. 'What I've come to realise is how very few of those things I really needed. All my family got out of the house. That's all that really matters in life.'

She was right, of course, and studies show that being free of 'stuff' is good for our mental health, which is the thinking behind the recent trend for 'decluttering'.

Too often, accumulating possessions — clothes, art work, gadgets — becomes the focus of our lives, so much so that 'stuff' starts to own us.

I decided long ago to embrace 'living lightly', with just the basics in my home. The most valuable objects I own are my laptop and a smartphone.

I can recommend it.

 

HOW LOVE CAN BEAT ADDICTION

Love makes the world go round and, according to a new study, it makes us healthier, too.

The findings, published in the Annals of Behavioural Medicine, found that falling in love is associated with improvements in a range of conditions, from high blood pressure to allergies.

The researchers identified the key areas of the brain involved in romance and found that, when they are triggered, there is an increase in the output of the 'feel-good' brain chemical dopamine. Dopamine has a host of beneficial effects on the immune system and the heart.

Interestingly, it is also a factor in addiction, and I've observed several patients with serious addiction problems who have, almost miraculously, improved their behaviour after starting a relationship. I've always assumed that this was because of the psychological support a partner can offer, and I've no doubt that is a factor.

But this study makes me wonder if the surge in dopamine an addict experiences when in love cancels out their craving for the dopamine 'hit' provided by having a drink, smoking a cigarette or taking a drug.

***

A new study finds that being overweight is closely associated with being depressed. No surprise there. But in my experience, it's often the other way round: people who are depressed or have other psychological problems often turn to food to comfort themselves. Eating to excess is an unhelpful coping strategy for dealing with emotions such as loneliness, low self-esteem or stress.

In tackling the obesity crisis, we need to remember it's as much of a psychological issue as it is physical.

***

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a fascinating condition with both physical and psychological components. It can also make life a misery for sufferers.

I've been monitoring the growing body of evidence that shows probiotics — health-giving live micro-organisms — can help, but only if you consume the right ones.

Only two brands have been found to deliver live, viable bacteria into the gut — Symprove and VSL#3.

I often advise my patients with IBS to try one of these, and many report greatly improved symptoms.

Dr Max prescribes...

***

THE biggest ever international study of gender differences in the human brain has found that men tend to be less good with feelings and more interested in understanding how things work, while women are better at emotional empathy and more engaged by people.

Cue outrage from the usual suspects who believe that it's heresy — 'sexist' — to distinguish between the sexes in this way. This is nonsense. Of course, men and women are different — and so are their brains.

I was at a conference last year where this issue was discussed, and an eminent professor said that he was reluctant to raise it outside of a scientific environment because of the opprobrium, particularly online, it would attract. I find this a truly chilling development.

 

 

© Daily Mail


NS 

gdeme : Dementia | gcat : Political/General News | ghea : Health | gmed : Medical Conditions | gment : Mental Disorders

RE 

uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

PUB 

Associated Newspapers Limited

AN 

Document DAIM000020181116eebh0008d


SE Weekend Post
HD 'Fermentation and civilizationare inseparable'; Learn how to unleash flavours and transform your cooking with fermentation, Noma-style Laura Brehaut
BY Laura Brehaut
CR National Post
WC 3268 words
PD 17 November 2018
SN National Post
SC FINP
ED All_but_Toronto
PG WP2
LA English
CY © 2018 National Post . All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Coffee, tea, sourdough, cheese, soy sauce, miso, beer and wine: Through history, fermented foods have been intrinsic to the human experience. So much so that we typically don't give their origins much thought. But the fermented products that punctuate our days are cultural cornerstones. Cultivating practical knowledge of the processes that underpin them can enrich your life and completely transform your cooking.

TD 

The antithesis of the many fastmoving aspects of our lives, fermentation is slow. If you're patient enough to wait for the microbes to carry out their work, you'll be rewarded with foods that have a depth of flavour you simply can't achieve any other way. "It's an incredible analogue experience in a very digitalized world. And I think that's one of the reasons why food is having such a moment, because people are yearning for things they can actually feel in a different way," says René Redzepi, chef and co-owner of Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark. "Cooking has that - touching things, touching ingredients - and I think fermentation is definitely a step further... Nobody today would start downloading anything that takes seven days, right. But there's nothing you can do, (you just have to) wait."

In The Noma Guide to Fermentation (Artisan Books, 2018), Redzepi and Torontonian co-author David Zilber, director of the restaurant's fermentation lab, offer an indispensable glimpse into how the four-time world's best restaurant approaches fermented foods, all adapted for the home kitchen. "The book is written to be doable," says Zilber, adding that food writer Martha Holmberg tested all of the recipes in her studio apartment. "We had to find ways that people could do this in their homes. There's a photo of my lab in the introduction where you can see how crazy (it) actually looks. There are walls of equipment and of course there's nothing in the book that requires any of that equipment."

If you're new to fermentation, the following recipes may seem daunting at first glance. However, once you've made your first ferment, you'll understand firsthand how intuitive the methods are and how applicable they are to limitless raw ingredients. And if safety is a concern, rest assured that people have been fermenting since ancient times. The authors offer a clear and thorough overview of the processes, including the principals behind encouraging desirable microbes and blocking unwanted ones, and best practices for maintaining a clean fermentation space.

"Once you realize that you're not just following a recipe - you're in this uneasy pact with a whole unseen world of living organisms - it really helps you to check your hubris and enlargen your view of what it means to be a human being in the world. You start learning about the microbiome. You start learning about where these microbes come from and how they coevolved," says Zilber. "There's a quote from (Italian-American poet John Ciardi). He says, 'Fermentation and civilization are inseparable.'And they absolutely are."

The lacto-ferments, kombuchas, vinegars, koji, misos, shoyus, garums, and black fruits and vegetables in the book represent the basis of every one of Noma's dishes.

Redzepi describes fermentation as "the DNA of who we are today" - it isn't used for one particular flavour but rather to enhance everything.

He likens having an array of ferments at your disposal to wearing the best gear when playing sports: "It just helps you be better." In the guide, Redzepi and Zilber underscore the immense value in not only making your own ferments but also learning how to apply them in innovative ways.

"That's how Noma cooks. That's how Noma does what it does; it layers all these flavours," says Zilber.

"Everyone calls it 'The Noma Guide to Fermentation'but its actual title is 'Foundations of Flavour'because that's what these things are: building blocks upon which you craft a symphony."

Weekend Post Excerpted from The Noma Guide to Fermentation by René Redzepi and David Zilber (Artisan Books).

Copyright © 2018. Photographs by Evan Sung. Illustrations by Paula Troxler. Used with permission from the publisher.

You'll need a digital kitchen scale to make these recipes. The authors use the metric system, "because it allows for much greater precision and accuracy than imperial measurements." And weight rather than volume for ease: "Stick your empty bowl on a scale, tare it and add the ingredient until you've reached the desired weight. No need to move ingredients between measuring cups and a work bowl."

LACTO CEP MUSHROOMS

The true prize of this recipe is the fermented juice that leaches out of the ceps (a.k.a. porcinis). It's like a Swiss Army knife for us in the Noma kitchen - we use it to season everything from fennel tea to monkfish liver. It has a balance and funk that really electrify anything it touches.

1 kg cleaned cep (porcini) mushrooms (see note), frozen for at least 24 hours

20 g non-iodized salt Equipment Notes: Vacuum sealers make lactofermentation supremely easy and consistent. On the other hand, you'll do fine with a tried-and-true glass jar or ceramic crock.

You'll need weights of some sort in order to submerge the mushrooms in the liquid that leaches out of them. Small ceramic or glass fermentation weights are great, but will be hard to find for smaller vessels. Ziptop bags filled with water will fit any container and work just as well.

1. If fermenting in a vacuum bag: Place the frozen mushrooms and salt in the vacuum bag and toss to mix the contents thoroughly. Arrange the mushrooms in a single layer, then seal the bag on maximum suction. Be sure to seal the bag as close to the opening as possible, leaving headroom that will allow you to cut open the bag to vent any gas that accumulates and then reseal it.

2. If fermenting in a jar or crock: Mix the salt and mushrooms together in a bowl, then transfer them to the fermentation vessel, making sure to scrape all the salt from the bowl into the container, and press the mixture down with a weight. (A heavy-duty zip-top bag filled with water will do the trick.) Cover the jar or crock with a lid, but don't seal it so tightly that gas can't escape.

3. Ferment the mushrooms in a warm place until they have released much of their liquid, yellowed slightly and soured nicely. This should take 5 to 6 days at 28°C (82°F), or a few days longer at room temperature, but you should start taste-testing after the first few days.

If you're fermenting in a vacuum-sealed bag, you may also need to "burp" the bag if it balloons. (This should be less of a problem with mushrooms than other products.) Cut a corner open, release the gas, taste the mushrooms and reseal the bag.

4. Once the mushrooms have reached your desired level of sourness and earthiness, carefully remove them from the bag or fermentation vessel. Strain the juice through a fine-mesh sieve. The mushrooms and their juice can be stored in separate containers in the refrigerator for a few days without a noticeable change in flavour.

To prevent further fermentation, you can also freeze the mushrooms individually on a tray, transfer them to vacuumsealed bags or zip-top freezer bags with the air removed and store in the freezer.

5. The reserved juice can be clarified to produce a clear liquid that is potent with flavour. To clarify the juice, transfer it to a freezer-safe container with a lid and freeze.

Once the juice is frozen solid, transfer the brick to a colander lined with cheesecloth and set it over a container to catch the liquid as it thaws. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to thaw completely. Don't be tempted to wring out the cheesecloth once it's finished draining, as you'll end up forcing the mushroom particles through. Refreeze the clarified juice until needed.

Note: In order to maximize the amount of juice we can harvest, we rupture the structure of the mushrooms'cells by freezing them before fermentation. That means prefrozen ceps are fair game for this recipe, as are fresh foraged ones. Oyster mushrooms, chanterelles, and bluefoots all ferment well and have their own distinct characteristics, if you can't find ceps. While less interesting, button mushrooms and creminis will work, too. Makes: 1 kilogram lacto mushrooms and juice

SUGGESTED USES

Candied Cep Mignardises At Noma, we turn fermented mushrooms into dessert by soaking whole fermented ceps in their weight's worth of birch (or maple) syrup, then leaving them to infuse for 2 days in the fridge. Once they've become salty-sweetsour, we dry them slowly in a dehydrator at 40°C (104°F) until they have the chewy texture of toffee. Dip them in tempered chocolate and they become sublime mignardises. Cep-Bacon Vinaigrette The juice from lacto-fermented ceps is a multipurpose seasoning tool we use often at Noma - there's a bright funkiness to it that electrifies certain ingredients.

To get a sense for its powers, make this simple warm vinaigrette: Whisk together equal parts lacto-fermented cep juice and freshly rendered bacon fat. Spoon over grilled oyster mushrooms, slow-roasted cauliflower or gooseneck barnacles. Cep-Oil Companion A perfect foil for lacto-fermented cep juice is cep oil. To make cep oil, heat 500 grams grapeseed oil and 250 grams fresh ceps in a saucepan over medium-low heat until the mushrooms begin to bubble. After about 10 minutes, cut the heat, cover and allow the oil to cool to room temperature.

Move the pot to the refrigerator and allow to infuse overnight. The following day, strain the oil and discard the solids. Whisk together equal parts cep oil and lactofermented cep juice, then stir in finely minced shallots or slivered garlic scapes and you've got a sharp, savoury dressing for raw scallops or lightly poached shrimp.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH VINEGAR

This vinegar is by far the most adaptable of all the fermentation recipes we employ at Noma. It has a nice acidic kick but doesn't sport an overt sharpness - the butternut squash's almost creamy sweetness makes you think the acidity level is lower than it is. It can practically be used as a sauce as is.

4 kg butternut squash

Unpasteurized butternut squash vinegar, or another unpasteurized mild vinegar such as apple cider vinegar the top of your fermentation vessel. We recommend that you wear sterile gloves when working with your hands, and that all your equipment be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized.

1. Wash the squash, cut them in half, seed them and cut them into manageable pieces, leaving the skin on. Wearing gloves, put the squash through the juicer. Strain the juice through a fine-mesh sieve. Weigh it and pour it into the fermentation vessel.

2. Backslop (see note) the juice with 23.4 per cent of its weight in unpasteurized vinegar.

Calculate 20 per cent of the total weight of the juice and vinegar and add that much 80-proof spirit. 3. Place the air stone in the liquid so it rests on the bottom of the vessel and run the hose out the top to the air pump. Cover the vessel with cheesecloth or a breathable kitchen towel and secure with a rubber band. Tape over the gap left by the hose and turn on the pump. 4. Ferment the butternut squash vinegar for 10 to 14 days, tasting frequently during the home stretch. If the juice foams during the first few days, turn off the air pump for a bit or stir the foam back into the juice. When you can no longer taste the alcohol and the vinegar is enjoyably acidic, strain it through cheesecloth.

Store in capped bottles in the refrigerator to keep the flavours as fresh as possible, though the vinegar is perfectly shelf stable as long as it's not exposed to air. The bright orange colour will fade over time.

Note: Backslopping preps microbial environments for fermentation by giving them a boost of beneficial microbes by adding a dose from a previous batch of that same ferment.

Makes: About 2 litres

SUGGESTED USES

Slow-Cooked Carrots Find some nice carrots - not the monstrous horse carrots you might use for stock. Peel and slice them however you like - into thin strips or on a bias - or leave them whole. Melt a big knob of butter in a pan over low heat and slowly caramelize the carrots in a single layer - as in, really slowly, with the butter gently foaming and bubbling. Turn the carrots every 6 or 7 minutes for anywhere between 30 and 50 minutes (depending on what your idea of low heat is).

If you've done it correctly, the carrots should take on a caramelized colour and texture reminiscent of golden raisins. When they're almost there, turn the heat up a tiny bit and add a touch of salt and one spoonful of squash vinegar for every two or three carrots.

You want just enough liquid to coat the carrots lightly, giving them a kick of acidity and another dimension of flavour. This technique works great for other vegetables, too - parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, pumpkin or anything that takes well to slow cooking. Quick Pickles You can try this with any crunchy fruit or vegetable you'd enjoy eating raw, but let's use a cucumber as an example. Slice the cucumber into thin (3-mm /1/8-inch) coins and season the slices lightly with salt, letting them marinate in a bowl for about 10 minutes before covering with butternut squash vinegar.

Stir everything around to ensure even coverage, adding a bit of red pepper flakes for heat, if you like. Do this about an hour before dinner and they'll be perfectly pickled by the time you're sitting down to eat.

One other thing we love to pickle with butternut squash vinegar is chanterelle mushrooms.

In a skillet, lightly sauté cleaned mushrooms in as little oil as possible, making sure they're cooked but not mushy. Let them cool down on a plate, then transfer to a glass jar. Cover with twice their volume in vinegar (they'll soak up a fair bit of it) and seal the jar tightly. They'll be delicious by the next day, but the pickles will last several months in the refrigerator. If you take the canning process a step further and process the jars using the boiling water bath method, the pickles will last even longer - 6 months to a year in a cool dark place. They're a perfect condiment alongside roast chicken or fish and make a great gift. Sautéed Shrimp The next time you're sautéing peeled shrimp, add a splash of equal parts butternut squash vinegar and a 1:1 ratio of Worcestershire and fish sauce, just as the shrimp begin to turn opaque. The liquid will deglaze the pan and coat the shrimp as they caramelize - delicious stuff.

APPLE KOMBUCHA

Juicing your own apples will allow you to use local varieties and create a blend to your liking, but feel free to use a good-quality storebought unfiltered apple cider; farmstands often sell fresh-pressed cider in season.

Because the juice is naturally sweet, you won't need to add sugar to this recipe.

2 kg unfiltered apple juice

200 g unpasteurized kombucha (or the liquid that comes with a packaged SCOBY)

1 SCOBY (see note) Equipment Notes: You'll need a glass or plastic container of at least 2.5-litre capacity.

Don't use metal containers - they can react negatively with the acid in the kombucha; plus, you won't be able to see what's going on inside.

You'll also need a breathable kitchen towel to cover the vessel, and larger rubber bands to secure it. The SCOBY is best handled while wearing nitrile or latex gloves.

1. Pour the apple juice into the fermentation vessel. Backslop (see note) by stirring in the 200 grams unpasteurized kombucha. Wearing gloves, carefully place the SCOBY into the liquid. Cover the top of the fermentation vessel with cheesecloth or a breathable kitchen towel and secure it with a rubber band. Label the kombucha and set it in a warm place.

2. Leave the kombucha to ferment, tracking its progress each day. Make sure the top of the SCOBY doesn't dry out; use a ladle to moisten it with some of the liquid, if necessary. Once you're happy with the flavour of your kombucha - probably between 7 and 10 days from the start - transfer the SCOBY to a container for storage and strain the kombucha. Consume immediately or refrigerate, freeze, or bottle it. Note: As the microbes perform their work, they form a visible raft called a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast; a.k.a. kombucha "mother").

You can purchase SCOBYs online or at natural foods and home-brew shops. Note: Backslopping preps microbial environments for fermentation by giving them a boost of beneficial microbes by adding a dose from a previous batch of that same ferment. Makes: 2 litres

SUGGESTED USES Apple Kombucha Herb Tonic Blending apple kombucha with fresh herbs infuses the liquid with ethereal aromatic qualities. In Copenhagen, we're fortunate to be able to take a walk around the neighbourhood and find young Douglas fir branches to make a brisk apple-pine tonic. (Whir 25 grams fresh fir needles with 500 grams apple kombucha in a blender, strain and serve.) But you can also find plenty of suitable dance partners for apple kombucha at your local market.

Use a stand blender to whir half a bunch of basil or 10 grams picked rosemary needles with 500 grams apple kombucha. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve for an invigorating pick-me-up. Apple-Vegetable Smoothie Blending cooked vegetables with fruit kombuchas is an absolutely delicious way to get a little fibre (and also a great way to sneak more vegetables into your kids' diets).

Good matches for apple kombucha include spinach, sorrel, cabbage or baked beets.

Because the vegetables are so full of fibre, they will thicken up in a blender nicely. Aim for a 4:1 ratio of kombucha to vegetable, and blend for at least a minute before passing it through a fine-mesh sieve and serving.


ART 

Evan Sung / ; / DAY 1; / DAY 1; / DAY 7; / DAY 7; / DAY 1; / DAY 14; / DAY 1; / DAY 7; / SLOW-COOKED CARROTS; / CHANTERELLE MUSHROOMS; Evan Sung / [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I001.jpg]; / DAY 1 [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I002.jpg]; / DAY 1 [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I003.jpg]; / DAY 7 [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I004.jpg]; / DAY 7 [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I005.jpg]; / DAY 1 [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I006.jpg]; / DAY 14 [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I007.jpg]; / DAY 1 [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I008.jpg]; / DAY 7 [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I009.jpg]; / SLOW-COOKED CARROTS [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I010.jpg]; / CHANTERELLE MUSHROOMS [NTNP_20181117_All_but_Toronto_WP2_01_I011.jpg];

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SE Opinion
HD How to Read 'Body' Language; The left adopts an odd dysphemism for human beings.
BY By Matthew Hennessey
WC 493 words
PD 15 November 2018
ET 05:07 PM
SN The Wall Street Journal Online
SC WSJO
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

One of the most vexing recent developments in the world of words is the tendency to refer to human beings as "bodies." The reason for this idiomatic evolution isn't entirely clear, but context provides a clue. It is a favorite construction of the woke left. The bodies are piled high on social-justice Twitter.

The people-as-bodies business may descend from the popular feminist slogan "My body, my choice!" Or it might have been cooked up in intersectional academia. Wherever it came from, it has seeped out and is infecting the body politic.

TD 

"In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage," Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in "Between the World and Me." Social conservatives are also accused of seeking to regulate women's bodies. "Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?" Sen. Kamala Harris asked Brett Kavanaugh at his September confirmation hearing. Judge Kavanaugh fumbled his response, perhaps confused by the definite article, implying that there is but one male body.

In 2014 Oxford University Press published "Trans Bodies, Trans Selves," a 672-page "resource." A 2015 headline in the Advocate thundered against the Transportation Security Administration's "history of declaring trans bodies to be terrorist bodies." In 2016, the Whitney Museum offered "Queer Bodies," a tour of its photographic collection "exploring gender, sexuality, and LGBTQ perspectives."

A New York Times article on nutrition among immigrants began: "Bodies that migrate across borders undergo tremendous change." It sounds more like the introduction to a disquisition on Newtonian physics than it does an analysis of migration's effect on gut health.

Words have meaning, and meanings can shift over time. But when bodies—sorry, people—suddenly start using a common word to mean something other than its broadly understood definition, questions are in order. He who prattles on about black bodies, female bodies or LGBTQ bodies is begging to be asked: "What is the nature of your grievance, and how might I atone for it?"

The country has done a lot of soul searching over the years about what to call members of minority groups. Those communities frequently floated their own preferences, and the larger culture generally went along. The consensus was evolving toward a vocabulary that emphasized the humanity and unique heritage of all Americans, not their skin color or other physical characteristics.

Now, it seems, that's out the window. We are no longer people doing our best to get along in the world. We're bodies locked in a never-ending struggle for power over other bodies—trying to break and dominate each other in an endless cycle of emotional repression, physical exploitation and social humiliation.

Who wants to live that way? No body I know.

Mr. Hennessey is the Journal's deputy editorial features editor.


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SE Food and Drink
HD  Whole Foods reveals the new food trends that will be popular in 2019
BY Chelsea Ritschel
WC 998 words
PD 15 November 2018
ET 08:53 AM
SN Independent Online
SC INDOP
LA English
CY © 2018. Independent Digital News and Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LP 

You can expect to see ice cream made from avocado in 2019

In the world of food, trends are often short-lived - with poke and acai bowls seeminglyalready on their way out.

TD 

Fortunately, new trends are always there to replace their passé counterparts.

Read more

Avocados are over. Here's what everyone's going to be eating instead

In the coming year, people can expect to indulge on hemp and faux meat, according to supermarket Whole Foods, which has just released its predictions for 2019 food trends[https://media.wholefoodsmarket.com/news/whole-foods-market-unveils-top-10-food-trends-for-2019].

While the predictions are not concrete, they have been compiled by a team of global buyers and experts with more than 100 combined years in “product sourcing, studying consumer preferences and participating in food and wellness industry exhibits” - and they represent a growing awareness of the types of foods we are putting into our bodies and the environment.

These are the 10 upcoming trends of 2019.

Pacific Rim flavours

According to the organic-focused supermarket, 2019 will be inspired by flavours from “Asia, Oceania and the western coasts of North and South America.”

As people become more willing to try new foods and flavours, Whole Foods predicts ingredients such as cuttlefish and shrimp paste will be popping up more frequently.

Exotic fruits will be found in cocktails and smoothies (Stock)

Fruit will also be revitalised - with apples and bananas replaced with “vibrant tropical fruits” such as guava, passion fruit and dragon fruit, in smoothies and in cocktails.

The supermarket also suspects jackfruit, a popular vegan meat alternative that resembles pulled pork, will become more mainstream.

Probiotics

While not exactly a food, the supermarket predicts that “shelf-stable” probiotics will be huge in 2019.

Currently, most probiotics require refrigeration to remain effective - but that won’t be the case for long as strains “such as Bacillus coagulans GBI-30 and Bacillus coagulans MTCC 5856” make their way into granola, oatmeal, soups, nut butters and nutrition bars.

People should also expect to find the unlikely additive in household products, according to the supermarket, with beauty brands and cleaning products utilising the stable versions of both pre-and-probiotics.

Healthy fats

Long considered the downfall of diets, fats are officially “in” again - in part due to the rising popularity of keto and paleo diets.

Healthy fats are in again (Stock)

The supermarket predicts foods such as popcorn made with grass-fed ghee will be flying off shelves - as well as other fat-filled snacks such as “chicken chips and thin, cripsed beef jerky.”

Hemp and CBD​

This trend has already taken hold but Whole Foods expects it will grow even more popular come 2019 - with brands looking to explore the potential benefits of hemp plants.

The popularity of hemp products is expected to grow (Stock)

Apart from CBD, which is still prohibited in food, body care, and dietary supplements despite its widespread use, “hemp plant stem cells” and “non-cannabis derived sources” like phytocannabinoids are expected to become more mainstream.

Faux meat

Plant-based foods aren’t a new phenomenon considering how prevalent veganism is in 2018 - however, Whole Foods suspects brands will continue replicating the taste of meat with non-meat foods.

The key ingredient, according to the store’s predictions, will be mushrooms - especially ones like king trumpet, which can stand-in as a replacement for meat in foods such as jerky, “pork” rinds, and “bacon.”

Packaging that won’t harm the environment

Plastic straws and plastic packaging will be replaced (Stock)

With plastic straws officially the enemy of the people - rightfully so - other brands have been considering how their products affect the environment and making changes.

In addition to “flexible product pouches,” the supermarket expects people will see an emphasis on reusing and “BYOVB” - bring your own vegetable bag.

Single-use products will also become multi-use as brands look at packaging alternatives such as beeswax, waxed canvas or silicone.

“Some movements start as trends, then become necessities,” the store said in the press release. “This is one of them.”

“Trailblazing” frozen treats

Forget vanilla or chocolate - as the newest ice cream flavours will be much more unique, and hopefully delicious.

In addition to bases like “avocado, hummus, tahini and coconut water,” the supermarket predicts the rise in ice creams “with savory swirls of artisanal cheese” will only increase as more people catch on.

Frozen Foods: Dispelling the myths

The flavours and new techniques have been inspired by global influences such as Thai rolled ice cream and Turkish stretchy ice cream.

And booze-filled popsicles will continue to be a popular warm-weather treat.

Sea greens

Seaweed has been replaced by kelp and algae as the popular oceanic snack - so don’t expect to snack on dried seaweed as often.

Oceanic snacks will be huge in 2019 (Stock)

Rather, Whole Foods predicts “puffed snacks made from water lily seeds,” plant-based tuna alternatives, crispy salmon skins, and kelp jerkies will all be having their moment on the shelves.

Fancy snacks

Snacks in general will receive an upgrade to fancier versions - with charcuterie or cheese boards for one set to become the norm.

Childhood snacks of the past will also return as new-and-improved versions as Whole Foods predicts variations such as portable snack packages of cheese and crackers and gluten-free puffed rice treats.

Empowering purchases

Ongoing from the past year’s emphasis on transparency, consumers will continue to have high expectations from the brands and businesses they choose to support.

In addition to the environment, shoppers will consider animal welfare and inclusion as they purchase - meaning a brand must prove they are about much more than the products they make.

Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent Minds

“Contributing towards social movements via purchasing goods and services with missions you believe in can make for big changes that extend far beyond the world of retail,” Whole Foods said in the press release.


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HD People are logging how many insects they eat on a huge food tracking app, and users are experimenting with a grasshopper taco recipe
BY ihamilton@businessinsider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton)
WC 497 words
PD 14 November 2018
ET 02:23 AM
SN Business Insider
SC BIZINS
LA English
CY Copyright 2018. Insider Inc

LP 

* Food-tracking app Lifesum has added a function to let users log when they eat insects.

* Lifesum collaborated with North America's biggest insect farm, Entomo Farms, to build the function.

TD 

* Its in-house chef created a grasshopper taco recipe for the occasion.

Lifesum helps its 30 million users track their diets by recording their meals and giving them nutritional information. Now it's welcoming insectivores by letting users track how many bugs they're eating.

The app integrated the new function on October 22, and since then more than 900 of its users have tracked consumption of crickets, mealworms, and various other creepy crawlies.

Lifesum partnered up with Entomo farms, a company based in Ontario and North America's largest insect farm for consumption.

Henrik Torstensson, CEO of Lifesum, told Business Insider that his company first approached Entomo about the collaboration after getting interested in entomophagy, as the consumption of insects is sometimes known.

Read more: London's first insect farm owners are trying get people to eat worms and crickets to save the world[http://uk.businessinsider.com/londons-first-insect-farm-owners-are-trying-get-people-to-eat-worms-2018-8?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

To encourage users to get creative, Lifesum had its in-house chef create a grasshopper taco recipe. Torstensson has sampled the tacos himself.

"It was really, really good," he said. "The crunchiness was a little bit surprising compared to a normal beef taco."

Lifesum will probably integrate more insect recipes in the future, Torstensson added.

According to Lifesum's user data, its grasshopper taco recipe has been tracked 533 times so far, with 85% of loggings coming from millennial women.

Lifesum has previously integrated lifestyle trends into its app, including "plogging,"[http://uk.businessinsider.com/plogging-is-the-new-eco-friendly-fitness-trend-thats-going-global-2018-4?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest] a practice which originated in Sweden (where Lifesum was founded) which involves jogging and picking up litter.

With 30 million members in total, Lifesum's 900 bug-eaters overall is relatively small fry. However, the function has only been live for a few weeks, and Torstensson thinks more people in Western culture are trying bugs.

He says that insects are a cost-effective source of protein, that there's evidence they are good for our gut bacteria, and that they're more eco-friendly to farm[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marlon-doll/five-reasons-to-eat-crick_b_13939920.html] than traditional livestock.

"This is still at the early adopter phase... but it kind of ties into being good food at a good price and also has the environmental aspect," he said.

NOW WATCH: Here's the reason most new console video games cost $60[https://www.businessinsider.com/why-video-games-always-cost-60-dollars-2018-10?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

See Also:

* UK and EU negotiators have agreed on a Brexit deal[https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-european-union-thresa-may-brexit-negotiators-have-agreed-a-deal-2018-11?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

* Chick-fil-A now offers delivery nationwide, and it's giving away 200,000 free chicken sandwiches to celebrate[https://www.businessinsider.com/chick-fil-a-delivery-free-chicken-sandwiches-2018-11?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

* Amazon has announced its locations for HQ2, but a walk through Seattle made me think any city should be wary of hosting the tech giant[https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-hq-photo-tour-seattle-make-any-city-wary-of-amazon-hq2-2017-12?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

SEE ALSO: 11 bugs that you can eat and what they taste like[http://uk.businessinsider.com/bugs-you-can-eat-2018-10/?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest#scorpions-can-be-less-scary-when-cooked-3]


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SE Lifestyle
HD Man loses weight after month-long diet of McDonald's - but experts aren't convinced
BY Chelsea Ritschel
WC 760 words
PD 13 November 2018
ET 10:00 AM
SN Independent Online
SC INDOP
LA English
CY © 2018. Independent Digital News and Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LP 

He wanted to disprove the results of the documentary Super Size Me

A man ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days and managed to lose weight to prove a point about calorie intake and weight loss - butexperts do not recommend trying a similar "diet."

TD 

Ryan Williams, 29, a postman from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, decided to undertake the fast food diet to disprove the 2004 documentary

Super Size Me

- which sees Morgan Spurlock eat nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days and gain 24lbs.

According to Williams, Spurlock’s documentary presented a skewed version of the challenge - so the postman-turned-bodybuilder decided to film himself following the same diet to prove that it is possible to get in shape while eating McDonald’s only.

Read more

McDonald's brings back the McRib - but not everywhere is getting it

Just like Spurlock, Williams ate McDonald’s every single day, eating everything on the menu at least once.

However, Williams also spent an hour at the gym each morning - which Spurlock did not when he set out on the challenge.

The postman documented his journey on his YouTube channel "Ry," where his 1,200 followers watch him eat quirky things, and found that after the month was over, he was 16lbs lighter.

Of the food challenge, Williams said: “I’ve wanted to do this for a few years, but I never found the right time.

“But recently I saw an advert for 50 years of Big Mac and it made me think that there’s quite a lot of negative feeling towards McDonald’s, with regards to it being unhealthy.”

After his fast food diet, Williams was in better shape (Ryan Williams / SWNS.com)

According to Williams, he also wanted to put the record straight - because Spurlock ate “5,000 calories a day and didn’t do any exercise.”

“I didn’t feel like it was a surprise he became so unhealthy,” Williams said.

For his own challenge, Williams stressed the importance of balancing caloric intake with staying in shape.

“It’s obvious that calories are quite important, but the average Joe doesn’t always know how to balance the recommended calorie intake with staying in shape," he said - and although he does not suggest it is a "healthy way of living," he wanted "to show that it’s purely a calorie game, as opposed to the types of food you eat."

Williams began the month eating 2,500 calories per day - the recommended calorie intake for a male adult - but dropped down to 2,300 by the end of the second week.

He lost weight and body fat by eating McDonald's (Ryan Williams / SWNS.com)

In the final two weeks of the challenge, he dropped his calories slightly further, depending on how his weight and body fat index were performing.

And according to Williams, despite being told he looked tired, his energy levels “sustained throughout the month.”

By the end of the challenge, Williams was down to 182lbs and had gone from 10.85 per cent body fat to 7.59 per cent.

“It just goes to show that fast food is not necessarily the devil,” he said.

Williams ate the fast food chain everyday for 30 days (

Gloucestershirelive

/ SWNS.com)

However, Kara Landau[http://travellingdietitian.com/travelling-dietitian-kara-landau/], Australian accredited practising dietician and founder at Uplift Food, told

The Independent

that just because someone can “lose weight does not mean that a diet is a ‘healthy’ option.”

McDonald's pays two men $50,000 after prank image goes viral

“When we think about what is actually on offer at a fast food chain like this, there is often a deficit in particular nutrients, such as prebiotic fibres, resistant starches, antioxidants, probiotics, omega 3s and more," she said. “Having a fish burger once a month, or a salad made up predominantly of iceberg lettuce will not achieve the nutrient density that our bodies crave and require for overall health and wellness.”

According to Landau, while his exercise levels and non-sedentary career would have supported his weight loss, it would be more telling to look at his blood results and long-term health, when compared to the same amount of exercise along with a healthier diet.

Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent Minds

“I would not be recommending people use this as a basis for a healthy diet, but rather a reminder that physical activity and calorie control are both valuable elements for weight loss,” Landau said.


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SE Science Desk; SECTD
HD With Migration, Digestive Changes
BY By STEPH YIN
WC 1052 words
PD 13 November 2018
SN The New York Times
SC NYTF
ED Late Edition - Final
PG 3
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Bodies that migrate across borders undergo tremendous change. Immediately, feet alight on alien terrain, ears channel novel sounds and noses breathe in unfamiliar scents. More gradually, daily routines fall into new rhythms, cultural norms hybridize and dreams evolve.

Another transformation occurs deep within the body, two recent studies from the Netherlands and United States find, as the trillions of microbes that live in the human digestive system shift in composition.

TD 

While many factors may influence how this change occurs, the studies suggest that scientists should consider individuals' migration status and ethnic origin as they aim for clinical interventions based on the gut microbiome.

Researchers are trying to understand what governs gut microbial composition, in part because of increasing evidence that the trillions of microorganisms teeming in our guts influence health in myriad ways. Most chronic diseases have been tied to deviations in gut microbiome, though the specifics of cause and effect still need to be parsed out.

[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]

The first study, published in Nature Medicine in August, compared the gut microbiomes of adults from Amsterdam's six largest ethnic groups. A team led by Mélanie Deschasaux, an epidemiologist at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, assessed stool samples from 2,084 individuals who were ethnically Dutch, Ghanaian, Moroccan, Turkish, African Surinamese or South Asian Surinamese. Most of the non-Dutch participants had immigrated to the Netherlands as adults.

Between ethnic groups, the researchers discovered significant differences in overall gut microbe composition. Of the various factors studied, ethnicity was the strongest determinant of gut microbial makeup.

Across the Atlantic, Pajau Vangay and Dan Knights, of the University of Minnesota, worked with two local communities to study how migration alters the human gut microbiome. They published their results in Cell last week.

One community, the Hmong, began arriving in Minnesota in the 1970s as refugees from the CIA-backed Secret War and Vietnam War, which ravaged their communities in Laos. The second group, the Karen, arrived in Minnesota in larger numbers in the past decade, fleeing human rights abuses in Myanmar.

Stool samples and other data from more than 500 women revealed that immigrants from these groups began losing their native microbes almost immediately after resettling. They picked up American microbes, but ''not enough to compensate for the loss of native strains, so they end up losing a substantial amount of diversity overall,'' Dr. Knights said. Furthermore, losses were greater in obese individuals and children of immigrants.

Dr. Vangay, a second-generation Hmong immigrant, partnered with Kathie Culhane-Pera, a family doctor, to involve Hmong and Karen community researchers. Together with the academics, the community researchers developed the study's design, recruitment methods and strategies for sharing results.

Separately, advisory boards of Hmong and Karen health professionals and community leaders gave input, resulting in a project conducted largely by and for the communities it studied, said Houa Vue-Her, a Hmong advisory board member.

The study would not have worked otherwise, she added. Some Hmong with traditional spiritual beliefs might resist giving samples for laboratory testing, for instance, out of fear that it would interfere with reincarnation. Lingering trauma from the wars and the federal government's secrecy might prevent many others from trusting outsiders.

The most obvious culprit behind the loss of native gut microbes is diet. Along with native gut flora, immigrants lost enzymes linked to digesting tamarind, palm, coconuts and other plants commonly eaten in Southeast Asia, the study found. The longer immigrants lived in Minnesota, the more their gut microbiomes shifted to one reflective of a typical American diet high in sugars, fats and protein.

But diet alone could not explain all of the changes, Dr. Knights said. Other factors might include antibiotic medications, different birthing practices and other lifestyle changes.

Dr. Deschasaux noted that her study and Dr. Vangay's reach somewhat contrasting findings. While she found that immigrants maintained ethnic-specific microbiome profiles, even after decades in Amsterdam, Dr. Vangay found that the gut microbiomes of Hmong and Karen immigrants steadily assimilated to their new locale.

The divergence might relate to differences in typical Dutch and American diets -- with perhaps less sugar, fat and meat and more raw vegetables in Dutch diets -- and possibly lower rates of acculturation by the Dutch immigrants compared with Hmong and Karen refugees, Dr. Deschasaux speculated.

Yet both studies have implications for health disparities. Obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome all have been linked to the gut microbiome, and the ethnic groups Dr. Deschasaux studied in Amsterdam experience varying degrees of these conditions. Compared to the ethnic Dutch, for instance, Dutch Moroccans in her study had a higher prevalence of obesity, and South-Asian Surinamese had a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Similarly, research has shown that living in the United States increases the risk of obesity among immigrants, and Southeast Asian refugees are particularly vulnerable.

''It was actually a challenge finding participants who fell in the normal range of body mass index for the study,'' said Mary Xiong, a second-generation Hmong American and a community researcher in the Minnesota project. ''That opened my eyes about how much of a concern this is.''

That urgency in part motivated Dr. Vangay and her collaborators to relay their results back to community members.

''Many of these communities are not even aware that the gut microbiome exists,'' Dr. Vangay said.

In many ways, she added, ''our best recommendation to community members was to hold onto their roots.'' For instance, the researchers partnered with Yia Vang, co-founder of Union Kitchen, a Minnesota-based Hmong pop-up restaurant, to hold cooking workshops for the Hmong community. One of the dishes that participants made was zaub qaub, or fermented mustard greens.

In addition to being packed with probiotics, zaub qaub ''is one of the most iconic Hmong dishes,'' as kimchi is to Koreans, Mr. Vang said. ''When I eat it, I'm partaking in the history of our people. The flavor I'm eating is the same flavor my great-great-grandmother ate on the hills of Laos.''


ART 

Hmong immigrants, shown in Wisconsin, are among those who lose native digestive microbes. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIK DAILY/LA CROSSE TRIBUNE, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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Document NYTF000020181113eebd0003e


SE Beauty
HD How magnesium can improve your skin - from anti-ageing to adult acne
BY By Dominique Temple, Beauty Editor
WC 833 words
PD 13 November 2018
ET 12:16 AM
SN The Telegraph Online
SC TELUK
LA English
CY The Telegraph Online © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

The list is never ending of supplements, elements and ingredients that are now proven to be good for you and your skin. Whilst many you can disregard and carry on as normal without, magnesium is one that you should actually take note of as its benefits are ever growing and surprisingly effective for both your gut health[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/body/looking-gut-could-transform-health/] and skin woes such as acne[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/skin/have-come-closer-curing-adult-acne/] and ageing.

At a glance | What is magnesium?[https://cf-particle-html.eip.telegraph.co.uk/7518a4c7-c8ef-45e8-89be-19d7719acd32.html] What is magnesium?

TD 

"Magnesium is an element that helps to regulate the hundreds of diverse bio-chemical reactions in the body," says nutritionist and naturopath, Kara-Mia Vernon[http://www.embracinghealth.co.uk/] . Magnesium is an essential mineral found in human tissues and especially in bone. A few of the main health benefits of magnesium include its power to act as a catalyst to speed up the absorption of calcium in the body, eases stiff muscles, lowers cortisol production, thereby potentially helping to reduce acne and also helps stabilise any hormonal imbalances in the body. Magnesium supplementation has also been proven to reduce stress and improve your sleep pattern.

"Magnesium is essential for energy production in cells and is considered to be the fourth most important mineral in the body," says Vernon. It's required for the synthesis of DNA replication and the all-important antioxidant and smart-ager Glutathione. Although green leafy vegetables and nuts and seeds are purported to be a good source of magnesium,"this essential element is only found in these foods if it's available in the soil in the first place," advises Vernon.

Today's mass-farming issues we face in the UK means farmers are more interested in size, growth rate, and pest resistance and care less about the nutritional value of their crop. Which is why we now have an issue where by certain fruits and vegetables don't hold the same nutritional value as they did ten years ago. "Less magnesium in our food means less absorption in your body," says Vernon. "It's estimated that up to 70% of Britons have inadequate levels, with over 50% of teenage girls being grossly deficient," she adds. Meaning some may need to turn to fortified skincare to help see the benefits on your skin.

What your spots say about you beauty face[https://cf-particle-html.eip.telegraph.co.uk/98d2fbd1-98a1-47bb-9284-8c9c14f1c195.html] How can magnesium help my skin?

"Magnesium deficiency also results in lower levels of fatty acids on the skin," advises Vernon. This reduces elasticity and moisture and creates the perfect condition for dryness and lack of tone. And more wrinkles. “Glutathione levels often peak as we hit our twenties so it’s important to consider replacing our levels from an early age," says skin expert Bianca Estelle[https://www.bea-skincare.com/] . "Although it occurs naturally in the body and can be found in leafy greens, our fast-paced lives have us exposed to high toxin levels that the human body hasn’t previously had to cope with that inhibits absorption," says Estelle. To prevent strains on the liver (where most glutathione is found) and to aid the detoxification process at the same time as reaping countless health benefits, glutathione supplementation will benefit everyone and all skin types. Poor DNA replication means that we age faster, and we all know that means wrinkles.

Magnesium is also known as an important chemical in immune function and plays a role in reducing acne and breakouts, skin allergies and also collagen function," adds Dr David Jack[http://drdavidjack.com/] . Magnesium is taken both orally and is available in some topical skincare. "If you chose supplement form, it's important not to overtake magnesium as it can have a laxative effect. Magnesium can also be given through IV, however, given the effects it can have on the heart rate, this should be done with cardiac monitoring, not in wellness drips," says Jack. Most supplement forms will do just the job but you may want to consider what form your body best absorbs.

Best Magnesium-infused products

Sweet Dreams £45[https://integrativebeauty.co.uk/collections/supplements/products/sweet-dreams]

Containing optimum doses of zinc, magnesium, vitamin B6 and vitamin C, this complete formula delivers these essential molecules to the system in a simple, effective form.

Glossier Super Glow Serum, £24[https://www.glossier.com/products/super-glow?locale=en-GBgclid=EAIaIQobChMI2qHMrPaW2wIVlsqyCh13qwyaEAYYASABEgIEF_D_BwE]

For an all round glow, vitamin C brightens and magnesium energizes your skin for days when you didn’t get enough sleep or skin looks sallow.

Westlab Magnesium Flakes, £8.99[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Westlab-WW-MG602-Magnesium-Flakes/dp/B012T6QZB0?tag=telegraphaffiliate-21ascsubtag=customid-21]

Simply add a few to your bath to soothe muscle pain and stop cramps

Better You Magnesium Oil, £12.20[http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=6179awinaffid=73846clickref=customidp=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.planetorganic.com%2Fmagnesium-original-oil-100ml-100ml%2F10603%2F]

Formulated primarily for topical use, essential magnesium is absorbed directly into the skin tissue, entering the cells immediately. Magnesium Oil efficiently replaces magnesium lost through modern diet and pressured lifestyles.

Atlantic Kelp And Magnesium Energising Hand Wash, £16[http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=6748awinaffid=73846clickref=customidp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.renskincare.com%2Fuk%2Fatlantic-kelp-and-magnesium-energising-hand-wash.html%3Fgclid%3DEAIaIQobChMIwci7uIiX2wIVxJEbCh2HSwt2EAQYASABEgKPI_D_BwE]

Infused with magnesium to help replenish skin with essential minerals, while moisturizing and soothing.

Glutathione Skin Patches, £110 for 30 patches[https://vitamin-injections-london.myshopify.com/products/glutathione-skin-patches-30-patches]

Wear daily for a boost of energy and to protect against ageing.

Please speak to a doctor before taking a magnesium supplement.


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Document TELUK00020181113eebd000jk


SE Good Healthealth
HD WHY DOES USING A MOBILE PHONE NOW GIVE ME HEADACHES? ASK THE GP
BY BY DR MARTIN SCURR
WC 973 words
PD 13 November 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
PG 44
LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

Increasingly, I feel dizzy and develop a headache when using my mobile phone for any length of time, yet when I talk on a landline I am absolutely fine. My doctor said it might be a new illness called electrohypersensitivity. Do you know anything about this? He said there seems to be increasing numbers of people with it.

Jay Winter, South-West London.

TD 

This is a very interesting question. It is true that more and more people do believe that their health is suffering due to a hypersensitivity to electric or magnetic fields, including those caused by fluorescent lights, mobile or cordless phones, Wi-Fi, and power lines.

One UK study of 20,000 people found 4 per cent thought they were affected.

Yet I must make plain that electromagnetic hypersensitivity is not a recognised medical diagnosis, nor is there yet any scientific explanation for the  symptoms that some individuals attribute to it.

These vary widely, but typically the skin  is affected, with redness, tingling, and  burning sensations. Other symptoms include headache, fatigue, disturbed sleep, stress, palpitations, dizziness, nausea and gastroenterological symptoms.

In a sense it's not a 'new' illness, as the potential health risks caused by radiation — whether from high-voltage powerlines, video display units, TVs, mobile phones, microwave ovens and other technologies — have been under discussion for some 30 years.

But after receiving your letter I studied the proceedings of the international workshop on electromagnetic field (EMF) hypersensitivity that was held in October 2004, and published by the World Health Organisation in 2006 which was the first significant review of this subject.

The conference renamed sensitivity to EMF as electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). The conference acknowledged that this is a real and occasionally disabling problem for some people.

Subsequently it's been recognised that the EMF levels which appear to cause symptoms in some are well below the currently recommended maximum exposure levels.

There have been a number of studies that have attempted to demonstrate a causal link between EMF exposure and the symptoms described above, but these experiments have consistently failed and many therefore believe that the reactions are psychosomatic: in other words, driven by brain mechanisms. This doesn't mean I think your symptoms are not real — far from it.

For this reason, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a form of talking therapy has been studied as one way to control or reduce symptoms. Evaluation of this has been limited, although it's potentially useful in easing the patient's distress.

My advice is to minimise your use of a mobile to see if this makes a difference.

You might also want to minimise other wireless technologies in your house, for instance, making sure that your phone charger is away from your bedroom.

The reassurance is that there is research under way, with a great deal yet to learn about this mysterious condition.

I've been diagnosed with a bowel condition, diverticulosis. Is there any treatment or cure, other than diet? The feeling of always needing to go to the toilet is causing a lot of discomfort.

J. Tyra,

Woodford Green, E. London.

A diverticulum is a pouch-like structure formed on the wall of the colon — 'diverticulosis' is where there are multiple diverticulae, anything from a scattered few to even hundreds of these bubble-like pouches.

Twenty per cent of people aged 40 will have a few diverticulae, and 60 per cent of those aged 60 will be affected, yet most people have no idea they have them as they remain symptom-free throughout life.

Problems occur, when, for example, the walls of one or more of the diverticulae become infected — this is then referred to as diverticulitis. This may be caused by increased pressure in the colon as a result of faecal debris becoming trapped.

The symptoms commonly include pain in the left lower abdomen, fever, and upset bowel function — either constipation or diarrhoea.

About 10 per cent of those with diverticulosis may develop urinary tract infections (UTIs) because of the proximity of the bladder to infected diverticulae — the large bowel nestles against the wall of the bladder and with the two surfaces in direct contact, one inflamed surface will stick to the other and transmit inflammation, even infection.

Such infections will normally settle with antibiotics, but at times an abscess may form in a pouch which may lead to peritonitis, an infection of the peritoneal cavity — the peritoneum is the membrane that lines the entire abdomen.

Blood may appear in the stools if an artery in the wall of a diverticulum is eroded —normally as a result of age. This occurs in between 5 and 10 per cent of patients.

Once the diagnosis has been made there is no treatment that will get rid of these pouches.

Most doctors urge their patients to increase the fibre in the diet which softens stools and may help prevent the development of yet more diverticulae. Other measures such as antispasmodics and probiotic supplements may minimise symptoms and, hopefully, prevent complications.

Your symptom of constantly needing to empty the bowel is called tenesmus. This has a number of causes which include diverticulosis (as inflammation in the bowel wall can prompt muscle contractions) but also irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease (such as ulcerative colitis), colon infections and cancer.

I hope you've been fully investigated, with a sigmoidoscopy (when a viewing instrument is used to inspect the rectum and lowest part of the colon), or full colonoscopy (a visual inspection of the entire colon).

The possibility of two common conditions coexisting must be considered as tenesmus is not a regular feature of diverticulosis, and diverticulosis is most commonly symptom-free. So I would discuss your continued discomfort with your GP.

© Daily Mail


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PUB 

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Document DAIM000020181112eebd0000s


SE Food and drink
HD Can keeping a food diary help you eat better? Five Telegraph writers get expert advice on their weekly diet
BY By Telegraph Writers
WC 3838 words
PD 12 November 2018
ET 11:07 AM
SN The Telegraph Online
SC TELUK
LA English
CY The Telegraph Online © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

Mindless snacking, ever-larger portions and pints of coffee are just a few of the things that seem like they are conspiring to make us consume more than we realise. If you suspect you could be eating better – and feeling better – a food diary is a good place to start.

Being aware of what you eat, and when, can help you understand the why: are you really hungry? Perhaps you scoffed that entire chocolate-orange stollen because you’re stressed, time-pressed or bored?

TD 

Five Telegraph writers (aged between 25 and 56, with very different diet and exercise habits) kept detailed food diaries over a week (edited down to four days here for reasons of space), noting down everything they ate and drank. Perhaps you’ll recognise some of your own foibles – Pret for lunch every day? Gin as a coping mechanism? – in their accounts.

These were given to nutrition experts Dr Rangan Chatterjee (GP, host of the Feel Better, Live More podcast and author of The Stress Solution[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stress-Solution-Steps-Relationships-Purpose/dp/0241317940] ), and Dr Hazel Wallace (author of The Food Medic: Recipes and Fitness for a Healthier, Happier You[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Medic-Recipes-Fitness-Healthier/dp/1473650534] ), who analysed them carefully and came up with easy diet and lifestyle tweaks for each.

The yo-yo dieter

Lucy Dunn, 50

Although I’m as active as I ever was, I’ve put on half a stone that I want to shift, so I’ve been weighing myself a lot recently. I have a long-ingrained binge-fast approach to eating – my diet is either really good or really bad, often in the same sitting. This has been exacerbated by the fact that I moved companies in the summer. Starting a new job is exhausting, and good habits have flown out of the window. I am getting back on track with my running now, but I realise the food bit needs work. I am good at the beginning of the week, but the minute exhaustion sets in, the junk food comes out. Friday has become a binge-fest of carbs and gin as I try to counteract my tiredness.

Wednesday

* 9am: Skyr blueberry yogurt

* 1pm: beetroot and feta wrap

*  4pm: raspberry jelly, wasabi peas, three biscuits, Diet Coke, crisps

*  7.30pm: cherry tomatoes and coriander fried in coconut oil with two slices of white bread

Thursday

* Five-mile run

* 1pm: Leon meatless meatballs

* 7.30pm: Pret a Manger tuna baguette

*  9pm: Kettle chips

Friday

* Yoga (one hour)

* 9am: porridge

*  1pm: Pret mac n cheese

* 2pm: Kit Kat

* 7.30pm: small glass red wine, crisps and two large gins

*  8pm: Waitrose coconut sticky rice stir fry with white crab

*  10pm: bar of chocolate

Saturday

* Four-mile run

* 10am: three Dr Karg crackers with peanut butter

* 11am: pack of oven-baked crisps

* 2pm: homemade vegetable soup, Parmesan sprinkles

*  7pm: large gin and tonic, crisps and a cheese straw

*  9pm: Kit Kat

Dr Rangan Chatterjee says: 
Lucy weighs herself a lot, which is a red flag. It means she is looking for quick fix rather than thinking about the long game. This fits with Lucy’s yo-yo approach; it’s either really good or really bad.

I think stress is a key driver here. Many people use carbs to relieve stress and that’s clearly happening for her on a Friday and in the evenings.

I see a lot of women who are stressed out and jumping from diet to diet. When you’re chronically stressed, your body thinks it’s under attack and so it will hold on to weight. Health needs a holistic approach. Often, sleep and stress get neglected. Once people address their stress levels – 10 minutes of meditation, an evening bath, switching off tech – they can start making better food choices to start losing weight.

Dr Hazel Wallace says:
 In order to reduce the amount of stress Lucy is under, particularly when it comes to her dietary habits, I’d encourage her to batch-cook lunches and dinners on her days off so she can have nourishing meals throughout the week. One-pot meals such as veggie chillis, dahls, curries, and soups are great options to cook in bulk and portion out throughout the week. To keep things interesting, she could serve them with different grains or starches each day (brown rice and sweet potato, and a portion of leafy greens).

I’m concerned that she’s not getting enough calories or nutrients to support her activity and overall health. Women in their 50s have lower oestrogen levels, so weight-bearing exercise and a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D is really important to help support bone health and prevent osteoporosis.

She regularly eats Skyr yogurt and cheese, which is a good source of calcium, but she should consider a vitamin D supplement during the winter and spring seasons.

The intermittent faster

Andrew Baker, 56

I’m in pretty good health, and while I’m no sort of athlete I’m not overweight. But I find that my weight creeps up inexorably unless I pay attention to my diet.

Currently I stick to what I think is officially termed “intermittent fasting” but in my case basically means skipping supper. The idea is to restrict my food intake to eight hours out of every 24. Not hard during the week, when I snack all day at my desk and we rarely eat out in the evenings. At weekends I skip breakfast and enjoy family lunches and dinners. I have lost about 3kg which seems not to be reappearing.

I tend to avoid bread, which makes me sleepy; and I’ve been contentedly teetotal for many years, which cuts out a lot of “empty” calories. My treat is good, dark chocolate.

Thursday

*  10am: small bowl comprising banana, mango, non-dairy coconut “yogurt”, granola Fresh fruit: mango, pineapple, melon, apple, blueberries 1 can Diet Coke

*  11am: 2 squares dark chocolate

* Lunch: Pret macaroni cheese; Pret cereal bar; 1 packet Pret cheese crisps; Pret ginger beer

* 3pm: 1 portion mango with lime juice

* 5.30pm: 2 squares 85 per cent chocolate with blueberry and quinoa Evening: 1 can Diet Coke; 1 cup valerian tea

Friday

* 10am: same breakfast 1 can Diet Coke

* 11.30am: 4 squares 70 per cent chocolate with black cherry.

* 1.30pm: skinless chicken and brown rice from Leon with shredded raw cabbage and peas. 1 packet crisps. 1 portion mango with lime juice.

*  5.30pm: 2 squares 70 per cent chocolate with black cherry

* Evening: Roast chicken, new potatoes, broccoli and sweet corn; strawberries and raspberries with creme fraiche. 1 Diet Coke; 1 cup valerian tea.

Saturday

* No breakfast

*  1pm: sausage roll, grilled broccoli with chili and garlic; chocolate sorbet.

*  1 can Diet Coke

* 9pm: Pizza Express cheese, tomato and pepperoni pizza. 1 scoop vanilla ice cream.

*  1 can Diet Coke, 1 cup valerian tea.

Sunday

* 10am: mango, pineapple and melon; honey and ginger yogurt

*  1pm: quiche Lorraine, pork pie, tomato salad, potato salad. Strawberries with one scoop ice cream; 1 can Diet Coke

*  5pm: small packet roasted cashews; 1 Snickers bar, toffee and peanut bar

* Evening: 1 can Diet Coke, 1 cup valerian tea

Dr Rangan Chatterjee says: Andrew has some good habits: he walks every evening and intermittent fasting has lots of great science behind it. But one thing that does strike me is he has a lot of Diet Coke. There is worrying research about the detrimental effect artificial sweeteners might be having on our gut microbiome. Most types of Diet Coke contain caffeine too, so if you have a can before bed you won’t access the deep levels of sleep that you need.

Dark chocolate also contains caffeine, but it is also rich in polyphenols; a compound found in plant foods and is incredible for gut health.

That Andrew feels really sleepy quickly after having a high-carb food like bread makes me wonder what his blood sugar is like. He might have a level of insulin resistance, which is what’s going on in the body in people who ultimately develop Type 2 diabetes. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to go for an NHS health check.

A lot of his lunches are from places like Pret and Leon. While I’d love people to have home cooked meals three times a day, it’s just not practical. Leon is doing a fantastic job of providing healthy food for people on the go. However, he’s also having a packet of crisps most days. They should be an occasional treat.

Dr Hazel Wallace says: 
Andrew goes for a 45-minute walk every evening with his dog which is really great to see – he should consider fitting in some muscle strengthening exercises on two days of the week. This type of activity further supports health, in particular bone health and regulation of blood-sugar levels.

I would recommend swapping some snacks for one larger meal to ensure he’s getting in enough nutrients. His diet is also quite low in healthy fats that are important for heart health. One way of boosting his intake would be having one portion of oily fish per week, or snacking on nuts and seeds.

The stressed mother of three

Lucy Denyer, 37

I like to think of myself as being fairly educated about food and nutrition, and that I have a pretty healthy diet. But with three small children, a busy job and a multitude of extra-curricular activities, sometimes the healthy choice goes out of the window in favour of a quick chocolate fix for energy, or a plate of cheese and biscuits in lieu of dinner because I can’t be bothered to cook.

I’d love to find out how to make small easy tweaks to boost my energy levels and keep my occasional IBS – usually linked to stress or tiredness – from flaring up so regularly. I am getting back on track with running, but the food bit needs work.

I am good at the beginning of the week, but the minute exhaustion sets in, the junk food comes out.

Thursday

* 8am: hot water with cider vinegar; muesli with oat milk

* Mid morning: oatcakes and a flat white

* 2-3pm: ashtanga yoga

*  3.30pm: 2 roast chicken thighs with hummus, parsley salad and avocado and lettuce salad

* 5pm: 2 cups tea with semi-skimmed milk; 1 square dark chocolate with nuts

*  7pm: small glass of prosecco and handful of ready salted crisps

* 8pm: toasted cinnamon and raisin bagel with butter

Friday

* 8am: hot water with cider vinegar

* 9.30am: full-fat latte and a banana

* 12.45: roasted squash, lentil, ricotta and mushroom salad with basil oil dressing

*  3pm: tea with skimmed milk and 3 squares dark chocolate with pistachio nuts. 2 pretzels.

* 5pm: 4 squares dark chocolate with nuts

* 8.30pm: curry out with friends (small portions of roti, rice, okra fries, chicken curry, saag paneer); 1 650ml Kingfisher beer and 1 tequila cocktail 1 cup herbal tea before bed

* Cycled to and from work (c. 5 miles each way)

Saturday

* 8am: hot water with cider vinegar; Greek yoghurt with handful of muesli and a handful of blueberries

*  11.30am: almond latte; peanut butter sandwich on sourdough bread

* 2pm: 1 chicken fajita with sour cream, guacamole, salsa, cheese and lettuce, plus a handful tortilla chips. 1 toffee fudge yoghurt and

*  1 square milk chocolate

* 6pm: tea with semi-skimmed milk; apple

* 8pm: 1 panfried salmon fillet with brown rice, avocado, sour cream, tahini sauce, radiccio

* 1 glass red wine and 3 Ferrero Rocher chocolates

* 10pm: 1 cup herbal tea

* Bike ride with the kids, around six miles.

Sunday

* 8am: hot water with cider vinegar; porridge with oat milk, handful of bleuberries, tsp coconut and almond butter, mixed seeds

*  11am: latte

* 1pm: roast chicken thigh with handful of roast potatoes, roast carrots and roast onion, and small portion of steamed green beans and peas. Home-made rice pudding. 1 Ferrero Rocher chocolate; 1 glass red wine

* 3pm: tea with semi-skimmed milk; 2 squares of dark chocolate with nuts

* 8pm: bowl of vegetable soup; ½ a chicken sandwich ½ a cheese sandwich on wholegrain bread. Small glass red wine. Small bowl leftover rice pudding, 2 Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

* 10pm: cup of herbal tea

Dr Rangan Chatterjee says: I’m impressed by Lucy’s diary: she is pretty proactive about her health. Lucy is a classic case for me of when the diet is good enough: focusing on five or 10 percent improvement with her diet is unlikely to yield a 5 or 10 percent improvement in her health. Instead she needs to focus elsewhere.

IBS is a disorder of the gut-brain access, which means stress is a major part of it. When you’re tired or run down it flares up; that in itself can be draining. My tip is to recognise she’s got three young kids and works long hours and be kind to herself. Look to lock in moments of calm through the day; ten minutes at lunchtime when she goes for a walk.

Focusing on one of the other pillars of good health, which for her I would suggest is stress, would give her rewards more quickly. She’ll sleep better, have more energy and feel calmer.

Dr Hazel Wallace says: 
Lucy has a really balanced diet rich in healthy fats, protein, and carbohydrates. To further support her gut bacteria she could try including some fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi or kefir.

Lucy also has Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which she said is triggered during times of stress. Although food does not cause IBS, it can trigger symptoms of IBS. Dietary triggers vary from person to person, so a food diary can be helpful to see if symptoms coincide with eating any foods in particular. The main culprits tend to be alcohol, fizzy drinks, caffeine, spicy or fried food, and in a small amount of cases, dairy. She may want to consider reducing her caffeine intake to see if it improves her gut symptoms. As stress is a trigger, it’s great that she practices yoga to combat this.

The vegetarian millennial

Tom Ough, 25

Rumours that my diet is “weird” are completely false.

Here’s my rationale: I liked eating meat, but was horrified to learn about the cruelty and environmental damage of the meat trade, so vegan meat substitutes, which are so good today as to often be indistinguishable from the real thing, make complete sense to me.

Sometimes I may be hungry, in a rush, low on cash, etc, and in any of those cases a nutritionally complete meal-replacement smoothie fits the situation.

Anyway, you’re all gonna be eating this stuff in 20 years, and you’re going to love it.

Saturday

*  11am: bag of crisps, leftover laab (spiced veggie pork with veg served in lettuce)

*  3pm: box of vegetable curry from street food stall

* 5pm-1am (party): three bottles of IPA; one pint of beer; two strong G&Ts; three flutes champagne; five slices of pizza; canapés by the fistful, including crisps and Quorn cocktail sausages; slice of birthday cake

*  2am: three quarters of a pack of smoked cheese

Sunday

* 9am: quarter of a pack of smoked cheese

* 3pm: vegan chicken strips with HP sauce

*  4pm: football match (cycled there)

* 5pm: pint of orange juice at the pub (then cycled home)

*  6pm: two spoonfuls of peanut butter

* 8pm: courgetti with tomato sauce, including mushrooms, olives and Linda McCartney meatballs. Some brownie and chocolate. A fruit tea.

Monday

* 8am: tea with gold-top milk, coffee

*  Cycle to work: 25 minutes

*  30 mins weightlifting

* 10.50am: coffee with soy milk

* 12.23: smoothie including one scoop of Huel (a nutritionally complete meal replacement whose main ingredients are pea and rice protein, oats, flaxseed, sunflower seeds, and coconut) with 30g desiccated coconut and a scoop of protein powder.

* 14.30: banana blossom fish and chips.

* Plenty of water throughout day

* 17.20: tea with soy milk

*  19.30: stir fry, lots of veg, vegan steak

Tuesday

* 40 mins weightlifting

* 10am: coffee

* 1pm: two cans of Fanta Zero

*  4pm: tea

* 19.30 pizza with fake meat on it. A protein shake with Huel and powdered peanut butter

Dr Rangan Chatterjee says: There’s a lot of room to improve here. For a vegetarian, Tom’s diet seems to be lacking in vegetables. It’s typical of the issues that I see these days: lots of people are going veggie or vegan, but they go unhealthy veggie or vegan, and eat a lot of highly processed food. I encourage people to eat a rainbow; different coloured vegetables have different health properties.

The party on Saturday seems to have thrown a few things off course. I get that he’s in his 20s, but I wonder if he could drink slightly less. Drinking regularly means his sleep quality won’t be good, which changes the hormones in his body. I think he is getting away with it right now because he is so active and young. But in five years or so he’ll find that he just can’t.

Dr Hazel Wallace says: 
It’s really important that Tom gets enough calories and nutrients during the day to fuel his training and recovery.

I would recommend increasing the amount of carbohydrates in his diet, particularly around his workouts. On the days where he is on the go and does not have time for a full meal, he could add a banana and some peanut butter to his protein shake.

His diet is quite heavy in meat alternatives and processed foods – he could swap some of the meat substitutes in favour of protein from pulses, legumes, and grains.

Well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets can be incredibly nutritious and healthy because they tend to be lower in saturated fat, higher in fibre, and contain greater amounts of fruit and vegetables.

I’d suggest Tom take a vitamin B12 supplement to prevent deficiency and incorporate some plant sources of omega 3, such as flaxseeds, chia seeds or walnuts.

The frazzled dad

Jonny Cooper, 33

Mornings are a melee in my household. There are nappies to be changed, showers to be had, fights over CBeebies to be aired (“Pleeeease let me watch one more Postman Pat,” I whine, as my other half tells me it’s time to go to work).

I find it easiest to either skip breakfast or inhale whatever happens to be in the bread bin. And really, that sums up my approach to food at the moment.

My partner and I are mired in the trench warfare of early childcare: every time we think it’s safe to pop our heads over the parapet and enjoy a well-constructed meal, a volley of baby vomit or a grenade in the form of a toddler tantrum lands.

I look forward to my lunch at work as the one meal of the day that isn’t interrupted by enemy fire. I probably drink a bit too much, too. But then, show me a parent who doesn’t.

Thursday

*  7am: Slice of brown toast, butter and Marmite, black coffee

*  1pm: bowl of vegetarian chilli from tortilla: rice, beans, peppers, salsa, guacamole, cheese, sour cream

* 4pm: flat white

* 7pm: bowl of homemade vegetable dal, two slices of bread and butter

Friday

* 7am: black coffee, hot cross bun

*  1.30pm: falafel wrap with salad

*  3pm: flat white

* 7pm: two fish fingers, chips, peas

*  8-10pm: four squares of Galaxy Caramel, three gin and tonics (at least doubles; home measures)

Saturday

*  8am: two scrambled eggs and one slice of brown toast, black coffee

*  1pm: beans on toast with grated cheese and two slices of brown toast

*  3pm: Two handfuls of grapes and a banana

*  5pm: four Maryland biscuits, black coffee

* 7pm: pasta with bacon, peas, mint and crème fraîche

* 8-10pm: one handful of Maltesers, half a bottle of red wine

Sunday

* 8am: black coffee; three pancakes with lemon and sugar

* 9am: half tin of beans, two slices of brown toast, bowl of Greek yogurt (three tablespoons) with honey (one teaspoon)

* 11am: Salt and Shake crisps, handful of Maltesers

*  1pm: chicken pesto pasta, slice of white bread and hummous

*  7pm: homemade chicken curry and vegetable dal, rice, chapati, half a bottle of red wine

Dr Rangan Chatterjee says: Jonny’s mornings are crazy: stress really impacts our food choices and in that chaos it’s hard for him to make good choices. Maybe if he could do a ten-minute morning routine, where he sat in silence with his coffee, or plugged in a meditation app and grounded himself, it would be a great way of getting his body and mind in a good place for the rest of the day.

It’s clear that he’s using caffeine to keep himself going. The half-life of coffee is about six hours, so if you have one at lunchtime a quarter of that will still be in your blood at midnight. It will almost certainly be affecting his sleep and he’s going to be waking up tired and more prone to stress.

It’s the same with alcohol. By Friday night, Jonny is free-pouring G&Ts. There’s no way he’s going to sleep well. I don’t want to be a killjoy, but I think he is trying to soothe the stress in his life with alcohol and coffee. A midweek yoga class either on his way home or online after the kids are in bed would break that stress cycle that sends him hurtling towards the weekend.

Dr Hazel Wallace says: 
Overall, Jonny has a pretty balanced diet: it’s great to see he has a good home-cooked dinner every night, which is often a vegetable dal or pasta dish. He could consider making twice as much for dinner and bringing some for lunch the next day. To get some additional vegetables into his diet, he could add a portion of cooked greens or salad, and chop up some vegetables to have with hummus as a mid-afternoon snack.

Breakfast seems to be a grab-and-go situation – to combat this, he could prepare his breakfast the night before. This might be overnight oats, or Greek yogurt with fruit and granola, or a protein shake with a banana.

Have you ever kept a food diary? Did you change your eating habits as a result? We want to hear from you in the comments section below.

To join the conversation simply log in[https://secure.telegraph.co.uk/secure/login/?redirectTo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ffood-and-drink%2Ffeatures%2Fcan-food-diary-help-us-eat-better-five-telegraph-writers-get%2F] to your Telegraph account or register for free here[https://secure.telegraph.co.uk/secure/register?redirectTo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ffood-and-drink%2Ffeatures%2Fcan-food-diary-help-us-eat-better-five-telegraph-writers-get%2FICID=food-and-drink_commenting_generic_story_banner] .

For more tips and tricks on how to lead a healthier lifestyle, visit the Instagram and Twitter accounts of Dr Randan ( @drchatterjee[https://www.instagram.com/drchatterjee/] ; @drchatterjeeuk[https://twitter.com/drchatterjeeuk] ) and Dr Hazel ( @thefoodmedic[https://www.instagram.com/thefoodmedic/] ; @thefoodmedic[https://twitter.com/Thefoodmedic] )

BOOK CREDIT

The Food Medic For Life by Dr Hazel Wallace is available now from Boots[https://www.boots.com/search/THE+FOOD+MEDIC] (Yellow Kite, £20)


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SE News
HD BUCKING THE ESTABLISHMENT | Can microbes cause Alzheimer’s disease?
BY By Stacey Burling, STAFF WRITER
WC 2002 words
PD 11 November 2018
SN The Philadelphia Inquirer
SC PHLI
PG A1
LA English
CY © Copyright 2018, Philadelphia Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

A small group of scientists, including some in Philadelphia, have been bucking the research establishment for years by arguing that microbes might trigger the deadly form of dementia in older people.

The scientists contend that their ideas deserve more respect — and money — now that years of attempts to attack Alzheimer’s disease by focusing research and medications on its hallmark signs in the brain — clumps of amyloid called plaques and misshapen tangles of tau — have so far failed to produce a good treatment.

TD 

“It does not appear that therapeutics based on tau and amyloid are going to work,” said Brian Balin, a neuropathologist who directs the Center for Chronic Disorders of Aging at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and has been studying the role of the Chlamydia pneumoniae bacteria in Alzheimer’s since 1998. “Is this really the problem? It’s more of an end result, many of us think.”

Balin organized the first scientific meeting on the pathogen hypothesis theory of Alzheimer’s in Philadelphia in October 2014. There were eight speakers. The follow-up meeting, which posited that Alzheimer’s is a “chronic inflammatory disorder,” was held this October in Switzerland and drew 24 speakers.

Balin was also among more than 30 scientists who signed an editorial in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2016 calling for more research into the connection between infection and Alzheimer’s. It is not clear, they said, whether plaques and tangles are causes or consequences of disease. There was evidence that the process may start with various viruses and bacteria. Some microbes, they said, may remain latent in the body for years.

Asked if the group’s ideas are getting more respect, Balin replied with a laugh: “I don’t know if it’s better accepted. We don’t have people railing against it.”

New work is indeed bolstering the idea that microbes could play a role in starting the cascade of brain changes that lead to cognitive decline. A recent Mount Sinai and Arizona State University study, for example, found that the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease contained more of two types of herpes viruses — HHV-6 and HHV-7 — than the brains of people without dementia. Harvard University researchers have found evidence, in lab studies and mice, that amyloid clumps are part of the body’s innate, or most primitive, immune system.

In earlier studies, Balin found chlamydia disproportionately in brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Other studies implicate the herpes virus that causes cold sores. (Sexually transmitted forms of chlamydia and herpes are not suspects.) Judith Miklossy, director of the Prevention Alzheimer International Foundation and International Alzheimer Research Center in Switzerland, says the pathology in brains of people with late-stage syphilis is virtually indistinguishable from that in Alzheimer’s. She has also found Borellia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease, in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and was able to induce Alzheimer’s pathology with it in cell culture. Infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is known to increase the risk for dementia, even when it’s suppressed by medications.

Is there alink? A big maybe

Other experts caution that the science is not yet strong enough to prove germs are the cause or, more likely, one of the causes of dementia. And because several of the germs found more frequently in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s are ubiquitous, scientists suspect that if they are involved, they are likely part of a complex interplay of genes, age, inflammation, environmental exposures, head trauma, and metabolic factors.

“It is clear that there are more and more data being accumulated that point to a connection of some kind between viral sequences and Alzheimer’s in the brain,” said Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging. He added, however, that a correlation between the presence of microbes in the brain and Alzheimer’s pathology does not prove one causes the other.

Eliezer Masliah, director of the NIA’s division of neuroscience, said the agency is funding research into potential treatments from “multiple directions.” It has targeted funding for how the body’s microbiome affects the nervous system and why people with HIV are at higher risk for dementia. Hodes said the NIA will consider whether to make research on germs and Alzheimer’s ahigher priority during the next round of funding.

Private funders intrigued by the infectious-disease hypothesis have already stepped in. In 2017, Leslie Norins, a doctor who became a medical publisher, offered a $1 million prize to anyone who can identify an Alzheimer’s germ. He’s also supporting the Infectious Diseases Society of America with two $50,000 grants to study infection and Alzheimer’s. The Cure Alzheimer’s Fund is supporting the work of Rudolph Tanzi and Robert Moir, neuroscientists at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital, who are studying amyloid’s immune properties and how microbes in the gut may affect the brain. “We want that revolutionary mind-set,” said Meg Smith, the fund’s senior vice president for research management.

James Truchard, cofounder and chairman of National Instruments, created the Oskar Fischer Project — Fischer was a Jewish academic in Prague who described Alzheimer’s disease in the same year as Alois Alzheimer, but who died in a concentration camp — to support research he finds promising.

Truchard’s goal is to “cross boundaries.” Much of the “tens of millions” he’s given to researchers was for studies on how metabolism affects dementia, but he also gave $759,000 to Garth Ehrlich at Drexel University to catalog and analyze pathogens found in brains.

John Trojanowski, codirector of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, thinks it is too early to count amyloid and tau out as drug targets. There’s a “whole convergence of evidence arguing that these are important in Alzheimer’s disease,” he said.

Early trials of anti-beta-amyloid medications came before imaging techniques allowed researchers to measure Alzheimer’s tau and beta-amyloid pathology in living people. Scientists later learned that up to a quarter of trial participants did not actually have beta-amyloid deposition. Current approaches are better targeted and are aimed at people who are in earlier stages of the disease, when there is less brain damage. Fewer drugs that target tau, which correlates better with the degree of dementia than amyloid, have been tested.

Studies are also revealing that dementia is a messier, more complicated phenomenon than previously thought. Elderly people with cognitive decline that looks clinically like Alzheimer’s often have a combination of vascular damage in the brain plus “mis-folded” proteins associated with more than one type of dementia, Trojanowski said.

Work at Penn has shown that the form of tau found in Alzheimer’s and errant proteins found in other forms of dementia can themselves spread from cell to cell, an infectionlike process that may also present targets for medications. (Trojanowski emphasized that Alzheimer’s itself is not infectious.) All this means that combating dementia may require more than one medication. “What we need is combination therapy,” he said.

Harvard’s Tanzi and Moir have found that beta amyloid is produced as a response to infection and can protect against it. Plaques can actually entrap microbes. The researchers say that infection proponents and those most interested in amyloid and tau don’t have to be in warring camps.

“Infection is the prequel to the amyloid hypothesis, not a replacement,” said Tanzi, who is also known for identifying three genes involved in early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Can one strategy be enough?

Tanzi and Moir think plaques may form in response to multiple brain invaders, including particles of air pollution. If too many plaques form and the brain fails to dispose of them properly, that sets a path that leads to the buildup of tangles, triggers inflammation, and causes cells to die, they said. Moir suspects that gut toxins and possibly immune-system dysfunction could also set off the plaques.

The pair think that the neuroinflammation, the most damaging part of the disease, takes on a life of its own once the process gets started. That may explain why attacking amyloid hasn’t been enough. “It’s like thinking you can put out a forest fire by putting out the match,” Tanzi said.

They are investigating the brain microbiome now to see if any particular microbes, or balance of microbes, is associated with dementia. “Everybody has their favorite,” Tanzi said. “We’re agnostic.”

Moir said so far herpes simplex 1 and human herpesvirus 6 stand out as suspected “bad players.” They’ve already found more than 200 bacteria that can make it past the blood-brain barrier in older people — that barrier weakens with age — and haven’t even started on viruses yet. The brains of younger people, Moir said, contained more bacteria associated with low inflammation.

Balin’s work on Alzheimer’s and infection started with finding C. pneumoniae in 90 percent of brains with Alzheimer’s pathology and only 5 percent of brains without it. He thinks the bacteria, which can “act like a virus” in cells, is a good suspect because it enters the body through the nose and, from there, can access the parts of the brain where Alzheimer’s typically starts. The loss of sense of smell is one of the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. For his most recent work, Balin exposed mice to chlamydia and they developed clumps of amyloid beta, a plaque building block. His team has not yet found tau tangles or cognitive changes.

Ehrlich’s interest in Alzheimer’s stems from a conference he attended six years ago about the systemic effects of bacteria involved in periodontal disease, including their presence in the brain.

He had long studied how bacteria can form colonies called biofilms, causing chronic inflammation in places like the middle ear while avoiding detection. He helped develop special DNAbased tests that could find the bugs and had identified one culprit in artificial joint loosening as a periodontal organism, Treponema denticola, that, like syphilis and Lyme disease bacteria, is a spirochete. Spirochetes, he said, are partial to skin, joints and the central nervous system and can form biofilms.

He suspects that multiple germs could trigger brain inflammation. He has not yet published results of his brain testing. He’ll start with bacteria, then move to fungi. Viruses, which are harder to test for, will come later.

W. Sue T. Griffin, who studies the molecular biology of Alzheimer’s at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, has been studying for years how various stressors — epilepsy, HIV, aging, traumatic brain injury — can set off a series of immune responses in the brain that lead to the production of extra beta amyloid.

She still questions how many microbes can actually make it into the brain, but is intrigued by the pathogen theory. “If the germs are there,” she said, “I know exactly what’s going to happen. Those immune responses will set off a self-repeating cycle of more and more plaques and nerve cell stress and loss.”

Tampering with immune response could be risky. Tanzi is developing a therapy that would lower production of beta amyloid but not eliminate it. “It’s a balancing act,” he said.

Researchers said it may be important to figure out how to strengthen the blood-brain barrier. Perhaps people with genes known to increase the risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s, like APOE4, will someday get more aggressive treatment for germs now considered relatively benign. There’s some evidence that antiviral medications can reduce risk, another avenue that needs more evidence.

For now, though, researchers said the best approach is to engage in behaviors that might reduce inflammation and keep your immune system healthy. You guessed it: Eat healthy, including lots of fiber. Avoid type 2 diabetes. Exercise. sburling@phillynews.com

215-854-4944 @StaceyABurling


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SE Insight
HD Food packaging is on the menu
BY Sylvain Charlebois the Conversation
WC 854 words
PD 11 November 2018
SN The Toronto Star
SC TOR
ED ONT
PG A13
LA English
CY Copyright (c) 2018 The Toronto Star

LP 

Within a year, single-use plastics and excess packaging have become Public Enemy No. 1.

A recent Greenpeace-led audit looked at the companies behind the waste lining Canadian waterways. Much of the plastic trash cleaned up from Canadian shorelines this fall was traceable to five companies: Nestlé, Tim Hortons, PepsiCo, the Coca-Cola Company and McDonald's. All these companies are part of the food industry, which is hardly surprising.

TD 

With consumers looking for convenience and portable food solutions, this problem will not go away anytime soon. In fact, it could get worse if nothing is done.

The number of meals in Canada consumed outside the home is only increasing. Canadian households spend roughly 35 per cent of their food budget outside a grocery store, and that percentage is increasing every year.

The number of people walking around with plastic containers and bags, wrappers and cups will likely increase, and the food service, retail and processing sectors are all fully aware of this environmental conundrum.

What is brutally unclear for companies is how to deal with it. But making the issue of plastic use a political one is creating some movement, everywhere around the world.

In the food industry, conversations about green supply chains focus on compostable and even edible solutions. Plenty of technologies exist.

On the compostable front, we have come a long way in just a few years. In 2010, PepsiCo Canada came out with the first compostable chip bag for SunChips. This new package was meant to completely break down into compost in a hot, active compost pile in approximately 14 weeks. Some tests concluded that it did not.

But what really attracted the attention of consumers to this novelty was how noisy the bag was. An influential social media campaign led to the bag's downfall. The company pulled it from the market less than a year after its introduction.

Since then, pressure from cities has helped boost the presence of compostable packaging. With cities increasingly accepting food packaging in organics bins, retailers shouldn't shy away from promoting these green solutions. They might even adopt new green packaging schemes for some of their private-labelled products.

Edible packaging is also gaining currency around the world. Imagine one day walking into a grocery store, and everything you see on store shelves can be eaten. Research has come a long way, but it has not been easy. The first generation of edible packaging was made of starch, which often failed to keep food fresh.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been working on a new generation of edible packaging that may get the attention of food industry pundits. Casein-based food packaging, made from milk proteins, isn't just edible, it's also more efficient than other types of packaging as it keeps oxygen away from the food for an extended period, keeping it fresher for longer. The casein-based edible fabric can be infused with vitamins and probiotics. This technology from the USDA should be ready in 2019.

Another organic matter getting attention is seaweed. We have wrapped sushi with seaweed for centuries, so it is only natural to extend the practice beyond Japanese delicacies. Costs and availability are still unclear.

While these may be promising technologies, no business model has yet been developed and we still don't know how edible packaging will affect retail prices. This is certainly of great concern to retailers and restaurants.

Other issues have come up as well when considering edible packaging. Taste and food safety are obvious ones.

The idea that we can reducing plastic waste by eating more packaging is intriguing, but not every consumer would think of such a concept as appetizing. A case has to be made for consumers to eat their garbage away.

Logistics are certainly an issue with edible packaging. Throughout the supply chain, temperatures tend to vary greatly, which makes it challenging for any edible packaging to preserve the integrity of products that may travel thousands of kilometres around the world.

Startups looking at this issue are rampant. According to Transparency Market Research, a global research firm, demand for edible packaging could increase on average by 6.9 per cent yearly until 2024 and could become a market worth almost $2 billion (U.S.) worldwide. As consumers, we will be given an opportunity to save the planet from plastic waste as we eat our food.

In the meantime, Greenpeace can continue to blame companies for the rubbish we find in oceans and waterways, but it's actually all of us who are responsible for this mess.

If we want more compostable or edible packages, we may be asked to pay more for our food, to pay for a "planet premium," once these new technologies come around. Regardless, it may be worth it.

Sylvain Charlebois is a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie

University.


ART 

Nestlé, Tim Hortons, PepsiCo, the Coca-Cola Company and McDonald's are the top five contributors to food packaging waste, according to a Greenpeace audit. Marcus OleniukToronto Star

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CLM FEATURE
SE Magazine Desk; SECTMM
HD Why Nothing Works
BY By GARY GREENBERG
WC 6009 words
PD 11 November 2018
SN The New York Times
SC NYTF
ED Late Edition - Final
PG 50
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

The Chain of Office of the Dutch city of Leiden is a broad and colorful ceremonial necklace that, draped around the shoulders of Mayor Henri Lenferink, lends a magisterial air to official proceedings in this ancient university town. But whatever gravitas it provided Lenferink as he welcomed a group of researchers to his city, he was quick to undercut it. ''I am just a humble historian,'' he told the 300 members of the Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies who had gathered in Leiden's ornate municipal concert hall, ''so I don't know anything about your topic.'' He was being a little disingenuous.

TD 

He knew enough about the topic that these psychologists and neuroscientists and physicians and anthropologists and philosophers had come to his city to talk about -- the placebo effect, the phenomenon whereby suffering people get better from treatments that have no discernible reason to work -- to call it ''fake medicine,'' and to add that it probably works because ''people like to be cheated.'' He took a beat. ''But in the end, I believe that honesty will prevail.''

Lenferink might not have been so glib had he attended the previous day's meeting on the other side of town, at which two dozen of the leading lights of placebo science spent a preconference day agonizing over their reputation -- as purveyors of sham medicine who prey on the desperate and, if they are lucky, fool people into feeling better -- and strategizing about how to improve it. It's an urgent subject for them, and only in part because, like all apostate professionals, they crave mainstream acceptance. More important, they are motivated by a conviction that the placebo is a powerful medical treatment that is ignored by doctors only at their patients' expense.

And after a quarter-century of hard work, they have abundant evidence to prove it. Give people a sugar pill, they have shown, and those patients -- especially if they have one of the chronic, stress-related conditions that register the strongest placebo effects and if the treatment is delivered by someone in whom they have confidence -- will improve. Tell someone a normal milkshake is a diet beverage, and his gut will respond as if the drink were low fat. Take athletes to the top of the Alps, put them on exercise machines and hook them to an oxygen tank, and they will perform better than when they are breathing room air -- even if room air is all that's in the tank. Wake a patient from surgery and tell him you've done an arthroscopic repair, and his knee gets better even if all you did was knock him out and put a couple of incisions in his skin. Give a drug a fancy name, and it works better than if you don't.

You don't even have to deceive the patients. You can hand a patient with irritable bowel syndrome a sugar pill, identify it as such and tell her that sugar pills are known to be effective when used as placebos, and she will get better, especially if you take the time to deliver that message with warmth and close attention. Depression, back pain, chemotherapy-related malaise, migraine, post-traumatic stress disorder: The list of conditions that respond to placebos -- as well as they do to drugs, with some patients -- is long and growing.

But as ubiquitous as the phenomenon is, and as plentiful the studies that demonstrate it, the placebo effect has yet to become part of the doctor's standard armamentarium -- and not only because it has a reputation as ''fake medicine'' doled out by the unscrupulous to the credulous. It also has, so far, resisted a full understanding, its mechanisms shrouded in mystery. Without a clear knowledge of how it works, doctors can't know when to deploy it, or how.

Not that the researchers are without explanations. But most of these have traditionally been psychological in nature, focusing on mechanisms like expectancy -- the set of beliefs that a person brings into treatment -- and the kind of conditioning that Ivan Pavlov first described more than a century ago. These theories, which posit that the mind acts upon the body to bring about physical responses, tend to strike doctors and researchers steeped in the scientific tradition as insufficiently scientific to lend credibility to the placebo effect. ''What makes our research believable to doctors?'' asks Ted Kaptchuk, head of Harvard Medical School's Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter. ''It's the molecules. They love that stuff.'' As of now, there are no molecules for conditioning or expectancy -- or, indeed, for Kaptchuk's own pet theory, which holds that the placebo effect is a result of the complex conscious and nonconscious processes embedded in the practitioner-patient relationship -- and without them, placebo researchers are hard-pressed to gain purchase in mainstream medicine.

But as many of the talks at the conference indicated, this might be about to change. Aided by functional magnetic resonance imaging (f.M.R.I.) and other precise surveillance techniques, Kaptchuk and his colleagues have begun to elucidate an ensemble of biochemical processes that may finally account for how placebos work and why they are more effective for some people, and some disorders, than others. The molecules, in other words, appear to be emerging. And their emergence may reveal fundamental flaws in the way we understand the body's healing mechanisms, and the way we evaluate whether more standard medical interventions in those processes work, or don't. Long a useful foil for medical science, the placebo effect might soon represent a more fundamental challenge to it.

In a way, the placebo effect owes its poor reputation to the same man who cast aspersions on going to bed late and sleeping in. Benjamin Franklin was, in 1784, the ambassador of the fledgling United States to King Louis XVI's court. Also in Paris at the time was a Viennese physician named Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer fled Vienna a few years earlier when the local medical establishment determined that his claim to have cured a young woman's blindness by putting her into a trance was false, and that, even worse, there was something unseemly about his relationship with her. By the time he arrived in Paris and hung out his shingle, Mesmer had acquired what he lacked in Vienna: a theory to account for his ability to use trance states to heal people. There was, he claimed, a force pervading the universe called animal magnetism that could cause illness when perturbed. Conveniently enough for Mesmer, the magnetism could be perceived and de-perturbed only by him and people he had trained.

Mesmer's method was strange, even in a day when doctors routinely prescribed bloodletting and poison to cure the common cold. A group of people complaining of maladies like fatigue, numbness, paralysis and chronic pain would gather in his office, take seats around an oak cask filled with water and grab on to metal rods immersed in the water. Mesmer would alternately chant, play a glass harmonium and wave his hands at the afflicted patients, who would twitch and cry out and sometimes even lose consciousness, whereupon they would be carried to a recovery room. Enough people reported good results that patients were continually lined up at Mesmer's door waiting for the next session.

It was the kind of success likely to arouse envy among doctors, but more was at stake than professional turf. Mesmer's claim that a force existed that could only be perceived and manipulated by the elect few was a direct challenge to an idea central to the Enlightenment: that the truth could be determined by anyone with senses informed by skepticism, that Scripture could be supplanted by facts and priests by a democracy of people who possessed them. So, when the complaints about Mesmer came to Louis, it was to the scientists that the king -- at pains to show himself an enlightened man -- turned. He appointed, among others, Lavoisier the chemist, Bailly the astronomer and Guillotin the physician to investigate Mesmer's claims, and he installed Franklin at the head of their commission.

To the Franklin commission, the question wasn't whether Mesmer was a fraud and his patients were dupes. Everyone could be acting in good faith, but belief alone did not prove that the magnetism was at work. To settle this question, they designed a series of trials that ruled out possible causes of the observed effects other than animal magnetism. The most likely confounding variable, they thought, was some faculty of mind that made people behave as they did under Mesmer's ministrations. To rule this out, the panel settled upon a simple method: a blindfold. Over a period of a few months, they ran a series of experiments that tested whether people experienced the effects of animal magnetism even when they couldn't see.

One of Mesmer's disciples, Charles d'Eslon, conducted the tests. The panel instructed him to wave his hands at a part of a patient's body, and then asked the patient where the effect was felt. They took him to a copse to magnetize a tree -- Mesmer claimed that a patient could be treated by touching one -- and then asked the patient to find it. They told patients d'Eslon was in the room when he was not, and vice versa, or that he was doing something that he was not. In trial after trial, the patients responded as if the doctor were doing what they thought he was doing, not what he was actually doing.

It was possibly the first-ever blinded experiment, and it soundly proved what scientists today call the null hypothesis: There was no causal connection between the behavior of the doctor and the response of the patients, which meant, as Franklin's panel put it in their report, that ''this agent, this fluid, has no existence.'' That didn't imply that people were pretending to twitch or cry out, or lying when they said they felt better; only that their behavior wasn't a result of this nonexistent force. Rather, the panel wrote, ''the imagination singly produces all the effects attributed to the magnetism.''

When the panel gave d'Eslon a preview of its findings, he took it with equanimity. Given the results of the treatment (as opposed to the experiment), he opined, the imagination, ''directed to the relief of suffering humanity, would be a most valuable means in the hands of the medical profession'' -- a subject to which these august scientists might wish to apply their methods. But events intervened. Franklin was called back to America in 1785; Louis XVI had bigger trouble on his hands and, along with Lavoisier and Bailly, eventually met with the short, sharp shock of the device named for Guillotin.

The panel's report was soon translated into English by William Godwin, the father of Mary Shelley. The story spread fast -- not because of the healing potential that d'Eslon had suggested, but because of the implications for science as a whole. The panel had demonstrated that by putting imagination out of play, science could find the truth about our suffering bodies, in the same way it had found the truth about heavenly bodies. Hiving off subjectivity from the rest of medical practice, the Franklin commission had laid the conceptual foundation for the brilliant discoveries of modern medicine, the antibiotics and vaccines and other drugs that can be dispensed by whoever happens to possess the prescription pad, and to whoever happens to have the disease. Without meaning to, they had created an epistemology for the healing arts -- and, in the process, inadvertently conjured the placebo effect, and established it as that to which doctors must remain blind.

It wouldn't be the last time science would turn its focus to the placebo effect only to quarantine it. At a 1955 meeting of the American Medical Association, the Harvard surgeon Henry Beecher pointed out to his colleagues that while they might have thought that placebos were fake medicine -- even the name, which means ''I shall please'' in Latin, carries more than a hint of contempt -- they couldn't deny that the results were real. Beecher had been looking at the subject systematically, and he determined that placebos could relieve anxiety and postoperative pain, change the blood chemistry of patients in a way similar to drugs and even cause side effects. In general, he told them, more than one-third of patients would get better when given a treatment that was, pharmacologically speaking, inert.

If the placebo was as powerful as Beecher said, and if doctors wanted to know whether their drugs actually worked, it was not sufficient simply to give patients the drugs and see whether they did better than patients who didn't interact with the doctor at all. Instead, researchers needed to assume that the placebo effect was part of every drug effect, and that drugs could be said to work only to the extent that they worked better than placebos. An accurate measure of drug efficacy would require comparing the response of patients taking it with that of patients taking placebos; the drug effect could then be calculated by subtracting the placebo response from the overall response, much as a deli-counter worker subtracts the weight of the container to determine how much lobster salad you're getting.

In the last half of the 1950s, this calculus gave rise to a new way to evaluate drugs: the double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, in which neither patient nor clinician knew who was getting the active drug and who the placebo. In 1962, when the Food and Drug Administration began to require pharmaceutical companies to prove their new drugs were effective before they came to market, they increasingly turned to the new method; today, virtually every prospective new drug has to outperform placebos on two independent studies in order to gain F.D.A. approval.

Like Franklin's commission, the F.D.A. had determined that the only way to sort out the real from the fake in medicine was to isolate the imagination. It also echoed the royal panel by taking note of the placebo effect only long enough to dismiss it, giving it a strange dual nature: It's included in clinical trials because it is recognized as an important part of every treatment, but it is treated as if it were not important in itself. As a result, although virtually every clinical trial is a study of the placebo effect, it remains underexplored -- an outcome that reflects the fact that there is no money in sugar pills and thus no industry interest in the topic as anything other than a hurdle it needs to overcome.

When Ted Kaptchuk was asked to give the opening keynote address at the conference in Leiden, he contemplated committing the gravest heresy imaginable: kicking off the inaugural gathering of the Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies by declaring that there was no such thing as the placebo effect. When he broached this provocation in conversation with me not long before the conference, it became clear that his point harked directly back to Franklin: that the topic he and his colleagues studied was created by the scientific establishment, and only in order to exclude it -- which means that they are always playing on hostile terrain. Science is ''designed to get rid of the husks and find the kernels,'' he told me. Much can be lost in the threshing -- in particular, Kaptchuk sometimes worries, the rituals embedded in the doctor-patient encounter that he thinks are fundamental to the placebo effect, and that he believes embody an aspect of medicine that has disappeared as scientists and doctors pursue the course laid by Franklin's commission. ''Medical care is a moral act,'' he says, in which a suffering person puts his or her fate in the hands of a trusted healer.

''I don't love science,'' Kaptchuk told me. ''I want to know what heals people.'' Science may not be the only way to understand illness and healing, but it is the established way. ''That's where the power is,'' Kaptchuk says. That instinct is why he left his position as director of a pain clinic in 1990 to join Harvard -- and it's why he was delighted when, in 2010, he was contacted by Kathryn Hall, a molecular biologist. Here was someone with an interest in his topic who was also an expert in molecules, and who might serve as an emissary to help usher the placebo into the medical establishment.

Hall's own journey into placebo studies began 15 years before her meeting with Kaptchuk, when she developed a bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Wearing a wrist brace didn't help, and neither did over-the-counter drugs or the codeine her doctor prescribed. When a friend suggested she visit an acupuncturist, Hall balked at the idea of such an unscientific approach. But faced with the alternative, surgery, she decided to make an appointment. ''I was there for maybe 10 minutes,'' she recalls, ''when she stuck a needle here'' -- Hall points to a spot on her forearm -- ''and this awful pain just shot through my arm.'' But then the pain receded and her symptoms disappeared, as if they had been carried away on the tide. She received a few more treatments, during which the acupuncturist taught her how to manipulate a spot near her elbow if the pain recurred. Hall needed the fix from time to time, but the problem mostly just went away.

''I couldn't believe it,'' she told me. ''Two years of gross drugs, and then just one treatment.'' All these years later, she's still wonder-struck. ''What was that?'' she asks. ''Rub the spot, and the pain just goes away?''

Hall was working for a drug company at the time, but she soon left to get a master's degree in visual arts, after which she started a documentary-production company. She was telling her carpal-tunnel story to a friend one day and recounted how the acupuncturist had climbed up on the table with her. (''I was like, 'Oh, my God, what is this woman doing?' '' she told me. ''It was very dramatic.'') She'd never been able to understand how the treatment worked, and this memory led her to wonder out loud if maybe the drama itself had something to do with the outcome.

Her friend suggested she might find some answers in Ted Kaptchuk's work. She picked up his book about Chinese medicine, ''The Web that Has No Weaver,'' in which he mentioned the possibility that placebo effects figure strongly in acupuncture, and then she read a study he had conducted that put that question to the test.

Kaptchuk had divided people with irritable bowel syndrome into three groups. In one, acupuncturists went through all the motions of treatment, but used a device that only appeared to insert a needle. Subjects in a second group also got sham acupuncture, but delivered with more elaborate doctor-patient interaction than the first group received. A third group was given no treatment at all. At the end of the trial, both treatment groups improved more than the no-treatment group, and the ''high interaction'' group did best of all.

Kaptchuk, who before joining Harvard had been an acupuncturist in private practice, wasn't particularly disturbed by the finding that his own profession worked even when needles were not actually inserted; he'd never thought that placebo treatments were fake medicine. He was more interested in how the strength of the treatment varied with the quality and quantity of interaction between the healer and the patient -- the drama, in other words. Hall reached out to him shortly after she read the paper.

The findings of the I.B.S. study were in keeping with a hypothesis Kaptchuk had formed over the years: that the placebo effect is a biological response to an act of caring; that somehow the encounter itself calls forth healing and that the more intense and focused it is, the more healing it evokes. He elaborated on this idea in a comparative study of conventional medicine, acupuncture and Navajo ''chantway rituals,'' in which healers lead storytelling ceremonies for the sick. He argued that all three approaches unfold in a space set aside for the purpose and proceed as if according to a script, with prescribed roles for every participant. Each modality, in other words, is its own kind of ritual, and Kaptchuk suggested that the ritual itself is part of what makes the procedure effective, as if the combined experiences of the healer and the patient, reinforced by the special-but-familiar surroundings, evoke a healing response that operates independently of the treatment's specifics. ''Rituals trigger specific neurobiological pathways that specifically modulate bodily sensations, symptoms and emotions,'' he wrote. ''It seems that if the mind can be persuaded, the body can sometimes act accordingly.'' He ended that paper with a call for further scientific study of the nexus between ritual and healing.

When Hall contacted him, she seemed like a perfect addition to the team he was assembling to do just that. He even had an idea of exactly how she could help. In the course of conducting the study, Kaptchuk had taken DNA samples from subjects in hopes of finding some molecular pattern among the responses. This was an investigation tailor-made to Hall's expertise, and she agreed to take it on. Of course, the genome is vast, and it was hard to know where to begin -- until, she says, she and Kaptchuk attended a talk in which a colleague presented evidence that an enzyme called COMT affected people's response to pain and painkillers. Levels of that enzyme, Hall already knew, were also correlated with Parkinson's disease, depression and schizophrenia, and in clinical trials people with those conditions had shown a strong placebo response. When they heard that COMT was also correlated with pain response -- another area with significant placebo effects -- Hall recalls, ''Ted and I looked at each other and were like: 'That's it! That's it!' ''

It is not possible to assay levels of COMT directly in a living brain, but there is a snippet of the genome called rs4680 that governs the production of the enzyme, and that varies from one person to another: One variant predicts low levels of COMT, while another predicts high levels. When Hall analyzed the I.B.S. patients' DNA, she found a distinct trend. Those with the high-COMT variant had the weakest placebo responses, and those with the opposite variant had the strongest. These effects were compounded by the amount of interaction each patient got: For instance, low-COMT, high-interaction patients fared best of all, but the low-COMT subjects who were placed in the no-treatment group did worse than the other genotypes in that group. They were, in other words, more sensitive to the impact of the relationship with the healer.

The discovery of this genetic correlation to placebo response set Hall off on a continuing effort to identify the biochemical ensemble she calls the placebome -- the term reflecting her belief that it will one day take its place among the other important ''-omes'' of medical science, from the genome to the microbiome. The rs4680 gene snippet is one of a group that governs the production of COMT, and COMT is one of a number of enzymes that determine levels of catecholamines, a group of brain chemicals that includes dopamine and epinephrine. (Low COMT tends to mean higher levels of dopamine, and vice versa.) Hall points out that the catecholamines are associated with stress, as well as with reward and good feeling, which bolsters the possibility that the placebome plays an important role in illness and health, especially in the chronic, stress-related conditions that are most susceptible to placebo effects.

Her findings take their place among other results from neuroscientists that strengthen the placebo's claim to a place at the medical table, in particular studies using f.M.R.I. machines that have found consistent patterns of brain activation in placebo responders. ''For years, we thought of the placebo effect as the work of imagination,'' Hall says. ''Now through imaging you can literally see the brain lighting up when you give someone a sugar pill.''

One group with a particularly keen interest in those brain images, as Hall well knows, is her former employers in the pharmaceutical industry. The placebo effect has been plaguing their business for more than a half-century -- since the placebo-controlled study became the clinical-trial gold standard, requiring a new drug to demonstrate a significant therapeutic benefit over placebo to gain F.D.A. approval.

That's a bar that is becoming ever more difficult to surmount, because the placebo effect seems to be becoming stronger as time goes on. A 2015 study published in the journal Pain analyzed 84 clinical trials of pain medication conducted between 1990 and 2013 and found that in some cases the efficacy of placebo had grown sharply, narrowing the gap with the drugs' effect from 27 percent on average to just 9 percent. The only studies in which this increase was detected were conducted in the United States, which has spawned a variety of theories to explain the phenomenon: that patients in the United States, one of only two countries where medications are allowed to be marketed directly to consumers, have been conditioned to expect greater benefit from drugs; or that the larger and longer-duration trials more common in America have led to their often being farmed out to contract organizations whose nurses' only job is to conduct the trial, perhaps fostering a more placebo-triggering therapeutic interaction.

Whatever the reason, a result is that drugs that pass the first couple of stages of the F.D.A. approval process founder more and more frequently in the larger late-stage trials; more than 90 percent of pain medications now fail at this stage. The industry would be delighted if it were able to identify placebo responders -- say, by their genome -- and exclude them from clinical trials.

That may seem like putting a thumb on the scale for drugs, but under the logic of the drug-approval regime, to eliminate placebo effects is not to cheat; it merely reduces the noise in order for the drug's signal to be heard more clearly. That simple logic, however, may not hold up as Hall continues her research into the genetic basis of the placebo. Indeed, that research may have deeper implications for clinical drug trials, and for the drugs themselves, than pharma companies might expect.

Since 2013, Hall has been involved with the Women's Health Study, which has tracked the cardiovascular health of nearly 40,000 women over more than 20 years. The subjects were randomly divided into four groups, following standard clinical-trial protocol, and received a daily dose of either vitamin E, aspirin, vitamin E with aspirin or a placebo. A subset also had their DNA sampled -- which, Hall realized, offered her a vastly larger genetic database to plumb for markers correlated to placebo response. Analyzing the data amassed during the first 10 years of the study, Hall found that the women with the low-COMT gene variant had significantly higher rates of heart disease than women with the high-COMT variant, and that the risk was reduced for those low-COMT women who received the active treatments but not in those given placebos. Among high-COMT people, the results were the inverse: Women taking placebos had the lowest rates of disease; people in the treatment arms had an increased risk.

These findings in some ways seem to confound the results of the I.B.S. study, in which it was the low-COMT patients who benefited most from the placebo. But, Hall argues, what's important isn't the direction of the effect, but rather that there is an effect, one that varies depending on genotype -- and that the same gene variant also seems to determine the relative effectiveness of the drug. This outcome contradicts the logic underlying clinical trials. It suggests that placebo and drug do not involve separate processes, one psychological and the other physical, that add up to the overall effectiveness of the treatment; rather, they may both operate on the same biochemical pathway -- the one governed in part by the COMT gene.

Hall has begun to think that the placebome will wind up essentially being a chemical pathway along which healing signals travel -- and not only to the mind, as an experience of feeling better, but also to the body. This pathway may be where the brain translates the act of caring into physical healing, turning on the biological processes that relieve pain, reduce inflammation and promote health, especially in chronic and stress-related illnesses -- like irritable bowel syndrome and some heart diseases. If the brain employs this same pathway in response to drugs and placebos, then of course it is possible that they might work together, like convoys of drafting trucks, to traverse the territory. But it is also possible that they will encroach on one another, that there will be traffic jams in the pathway.

What if, Hall wonders, a treatment fails to work not because the drug and the individual are biochemically incompatible, but rather because in some people the drug interferes with the placebo response, which if properly used might reduce disease? Or conversely, what if the placebo response is, in people with a different variant, working against drug treatments, which would mean that a change in the psychosocial context could make the drug more effective? Everyone may respond to the clinical setting, but there is no reason to think that the response is always positive. According to Hall's new way of thinking, the placebo effect is not just some constant to be subtracted from the drug effect but an intrinsic part of a complex interaction among genes, drugs and mind. And if she's right, then one of the cornerstones of modern medicine -- the placebo-controlled clinical trial -- is deeply flawed.

When Kathryn Hall told Ted Kaptchuk what she was finding as she explored the relationship of COMT to the placebo response, he was galvanized. ''Get this molecule on the map!'' he urged her. It's not hard to understand his excitement. More than two centuries after d'Eslon suggested that scientists turn their attention directly to the placebo effect, she did exactly that and came up with a finding that might have persuaded even Ben Franklin.

But Kaptchuk also has a deeper unease about Hall's discovery. The placebo effect can't be totally reduced to its molecules, he feels certain -- and while research like Hall's will surely enhance its credibility, he also sees a risk in playing his game on scientific turf. ''Once you start measuring the placebo effect in a quantitative way,'' he says, ''you're transforming it to be something other than what it is. You suck out what was previously there and turn it into science.'' Reduced to its molecules, he fears, the placebo effect may become ''yet another thing on the conveyor belt of routinized care.''

''We're dancing with the devil here,'' Kaptchuk once told me, by way of demonstrating that he was aware of the risks he's taking in using science to investigate a phenomenon it defined only to exclude. Kaptchuk, an observant Jew who is a student of both the Torah and the Talmud, later modified his comment. It's more like Jacob wrestling with the angel, he said -- a battle that Jacob won, but only at the expense of a hip injury that left him lame for the rest of his life.

Indeed, Kaptchuk seems wounded when he complains about the pervasiveness of research that uses healthy volunteers in academic settings, as if the response to mild pain inflicted on an undergraduate participating in an on-campus experiment is somehow comparable to the despair often suffered by people with chronic, intractable pain. He becomes annoyed when he talks about how quickly some of his colleagues want to move from these studies to clinical recommendations. And he can even be disparaging of his own work, wondering, for instance, whether the study in which placebos were openly given to irritable bowel syndrome patients succeeded only because it convinced the subjects that the sugar was really a drug. But it's the prospect of what will become of his findings, and of the placebo, as they make their way into clinical practice, that really seems to torment him.

Kaptchuk may wish ''to help reconfigure biomedicine by rejecting the idea that healing is only the application of mechanical tools.'' He may believe that healing is a moral act in which ''caring in the context of hope qualitatively changes clinical outcomes.'' He may be convinced that the relationship kindled by the encounter between a suffering person and a healer is a central, and almost entirely overlooked, component of medical treatment. And he may have dedicated the last 20 years of his life to persuading the medical establishment to listen to him. But he may also come to regret the outcome.

After all, if Hall is right that clinician warmth is especially effective with a certain genotype, then, as she wrote in the paper presenting her findings from the I.B.S./sham-acupuncture study, it is also true that a different group will ''derive minimum benefit'' from ''empathic attentions.'' Should medical rituals be doled out according to genotype, with warmth and caring withheld in order to clear the way for the drugs? And if she is correct that a certain ensemble of neurochemical events underlies the placebo effect, then what is to stop a drug company from manufacturing a drug -- a real drug, that is -- that activates the same process pharmacologically? Welcomed back into the medical fold, the placebo effect may raise enough mischief to make Kaptchuk rue its return, and bewilder patients when they discover that their doctor's bedside manner is tailored to their genes.

For the most part, most days, Kaptchuk manages to keep his qualms to himself, to carry on as if he were fully confident that scientific inquiry can restore the moral dimension to medicine. But the precariousness of his endeavors is never far from his mind. ''Will this work destroy the stuff that actually has to do with wisdom, preciousness, imagination, the things that are actually critical to who we are as human beings?'' he asks. His answer: ''I don't know, but I have to believe there is an infinite reserve of wisdom and imagination that will resist being reduced to simple materialistic explanations.''

The ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in mind at the same time seems to come naturally to Kaptchuk, but he may overestimate its prevalence in the rest of us. Even if his optimism is well placed, however, there's nothing like being sick to make a person toss that kind of intelligence aside in favor of the certainties offered by modern medicine. Indeed, it's exactly that yearning that sickness seems to awaken and that our healers, imbued with the power of science, purport to provide, no imagination required. Armed with our confidence in them, we're pleased to give ourselves over to their ministrations, and pleased to believe that it's the molecules, and the molecules alone, that are healing us. People do like to be cheated, after all.


RF 

Gary Greenberg is the author, most recently, of ''The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry.'' He is a contributing editor for Harper's Magazine. This is his first article for the magazine.

ART 

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Document NYTF000020181111eebb0007x


SE News
HD THE STRESSED MOTHER OF THREE
WC 738 words
PD 11 November 2018
SN The Sunday Telegraph
SC STEL
ED 1; National
PG 3
LA English
CY The Sunday Telegraph © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

LUCY DENYER, 37

I like to think I have a pretty healthy diet. But with three small children, a busy job and a multitude of other activities, often the healthy choice goes out of the window in favour of a quick fix. I'd love to find out how to make easy tweaks to boost my energy levels and keep my IBS from flaring up so regularly.

TD 

THURSDAY:

8am: hot water with cider vinegar; muesli with oat milk

Mid-morning: oatcakes and a flat white

2pm-3pm: ashtanga yoga

3.30pm: two roast chicken thighs with hummus, parsley salad, avocado and lettuce salad

5pm: two cups of tea with semi-skimmed milk; one square of dark chocolate with nuts

7pm: small glass of prosecco and handful of ready salted crisps

8pm: cinnamon and raisin bagel with butter

FRIDAY:

8am: hot water with cider vinegar

9.30am: full-fat latte and a banana

12.45pm: roasted squash, lentil, ricotta and mushroom salad with basil oil dressing

3pm: tea with skimmed milk, three squares of dark chocolate with pistachios. Two pretzels.

5pm: four squares of dark chocolate with nuts

8.30pm: curry, while out with friends (small portions of roti, rice, okra fries, chicken curry, saag paneer); 650ml Kingfisher beer and a tequila cocktail

10pm: cup of herbal tea

Cycled to and from work (five miles each way)

SATURDAY

8am: hot water with cider vinegar; Greek yogurt with handful of muesli and a handful of blueberries

11.30am: almond latte; peanut butter sandwich on sourdough bread

2pm: chicken fajita with sour cream, guacamole, salsa, cheese and lettuce, plus a handful tortilla chips. Toffee fudge yogurt and a square of milk chocolate

6pm: tea with semiskimmed milk; apple

8pm: pan-fried salmon fillet with brown rice, avocado, sour cream, tahini sauce, radicchio; a glass of red wine; three Ferrero Rocher chocolates

10pm: cup of herbal tea

Bike ride with the kids, around six miles sunday

8am: hot water with cider vinegar; porridge with oat milk, handful of blueberries, one teaspoon of coconut and almond butter, seeds

11am: latte

1pm: roast chicken thigh with handful of roast potatoes, roast carrots and roast onion, small portion of steamed green beans and peas; home-made rice pudding; one Ferrero Rocher; glass of red wine

3pm: tea (semi-skimmed milk); two squares of dark chocolate with nuts

8pm: bowl of vegetable soup; half a chicken sandwich, half a cheese sandwich on wholegrain bread; a small glass of red wine, small bowl of leftover rice pudding, two Ferrero Rochers.

10pm: cup of herbal tea rc says: I'm impressed by Lucy's diary: she is pretty proactive about her health. Lucy is a classic case for me of when the diet is good enough: focusing on five or 10 per cent improvement with her diet is unlikely to yield a five or 10 per cent improvement in her health. Instead, she needs to focus elsewhere.

IBS is a disorder of the gut-brain access, which means stress is a major part of it. When you're tired or run down, it flares up; that in itself can be draining. My tip is to recognise she's got three young kids and works long hours and be kind to herself. Look to lock in moments of calm through the day; 10 minutes at lunchtime when she goes for a walk.

Focusing on one of the other pillars of good health, which for her I would suggest is stress, would give her rewards more quickly. She'll sleep better, have more energy and feel calmer.

hw says: Lucy has a really balanced diet rich in healthy fats, protein, and carbohydrates. To further support her gut bacteria, she could try including fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi or kefir.

Lucy also has irritable bowel syndrome, which she said is triggered during times of stress. Although food does not cause IBS, it can trigger symptoms of IBS. Dietary triggers vary from person to person, so a food diary can be helpful to see if symptoms coincide with eating particular foods. The main culprits tend to be alcohol, fizzy drinks, caffeine, spicy or fried food, and in a small amount of cases, dairy.

She may want to consider reducing her caffeine intake to see if it improves her gut symptoms. As stress is a trigger, it's great that she practices yoga to combat this.


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SE Health
HD Omega 3 and vitamin D fail to protect against heart attacks or cancer in major trial which show supplements a 'waste of time'
BY Alex Matthews-King
WC 802 words
PD 10 November 2018
ET 01:18 PM
SN Independent Online
SC INDOP
LA English
CY © 2018. Independent Digital News and Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LP 

Experts warn biggest effect might be giving users 'very expensive urine'

The biggest trial to date of vitamin D and omega 3 fish oil supplements taken by millions to stave off ill health has concluded they do nothing to reduce heart attacks, strokesor cancer.

TD 

Those over 50who were otherwise healthy and taking one or both supplements experienced the same number of heart disease related events and invasive cancers as those who weretaking a placebo each day, Harvard University researchers found.

Health experts said they hoped the findings wouldcounteract the claims of some of the most widely used supplements and stop the public thinking the pills can be a quick fix to mitigate the impact of poor diet and unhealthy lifestyles.

“By and large the marketing of supplements is done very cleverly, but it’s not backed up by evidence,” Naveed Sattar, a professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, told

The Independent.

“Most people buying supplements are giving themselves very expensive urine. They’re wasting their time and getting false reassurance of protection from these supplements, when what they need is help to look at improving their lifestyles in ways which are enjoyable and sustainable.”

Read more

Now that we know probiotics are useless, stop hoarding supplements

However, a second trial,also published in the

New England Journal of Medicine

, suggests there may yet be a use for fish oils, but only when concentrated to a level more closely found in pharmaceutical drugs and given to patients most at risk of heart disease.

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that helps lock calcium in bones and is particularly important in childhood and pregnancy.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/fish-oil-supplement-pregnancy-child-muscle-bone-development-bmj-a8522686.html]

Itcan be obtained through dietor the body can also produce it from sunlight, though this is often lacking in modern, office-bound life, and vitamin D deficiency is widespread in parts of the northern hemisphere with less sunlight.

Read more

Now that we know probiotics are useless, stop hoarding supplements

This deficiency has been associated with higher levels of cancer and heart disease, but vitamin D levels are also lowest in people who smoke, are more obese and have other factors that increase their risk.

The picture is similarly unclear for omega-3 fish oils – the world’s most popular supplement, which hasbeen touted as helping to boost brain power, protect from heart diseaseand reduce deaths from all causes.

The Harvard trial, known as Vital, sought to settle the questionof whatbenefits the public might gain from these supplements, and found nothing in their favour.

In the trial, 26,000 healthy over-50s took either double their minimum daily requirement of vitamin D, 1g of fish oil equivalent to the dose recommended by the American Heart Association for people with a risk of heart disease,or both.

After five years there were more than 805 heart attacks, strokes or other cardiovascular events, and 1,617 cancers diagnosed, but these were split virtually in half between the groups.

“In the absence of additional compelling data, it is prudent to conclude that the strategy of dietary supplementation with either n-3 fatty acids or vitamin D as protection against cardiovascular events or cancer, suffers from deteriorating Vitalsigns,” an independent editorial published alongside the study concludes.

Professor Sattar’s conclusion was similar.

Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent Minds

Don’t waste your time on vitamin D,” he said. “There are thousands of people still popping it, but this is the biggest trial in the world to date, so forget vitamin D, draw a line under it.”

However he said that a second large trial, the REDUCE-IT study, involving universities across the US has suggested there could still be uses for omega-3, just not in the dose youbuy on the high street.

It looked at a concentrated dose of a particular fish oil, called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in a much more concentrated form, equivalent to four to eight times the dose in the Vitaltrial.

The study also focused on patients who already had heart disease, or a high risk of developing it because of conditions like diabetes, as well as high cholesterol not controlled by their statin medication.

After following more than 8,000 high risk adults for five years the trial found serious cardiovascular events were reduced as much as 25 per cent and deaths fell 20 per cent.

“It doesn’t show any benefit in relatively healthy people, so you would think fish oils were done too,” Professor Sattar said.“But the size of this benefit is substantial – for this specific dose in this specific group of people.

“It’s one trial but it really bucks the trend.”


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SE Health
HD The Ecosystem in Immigrants’ Guts Is Shaped by the Place They Call Home
BY By Steph Yin
WC 1064 words
PD 8 November 2018
ET 10:42 AM
SN NYTimes.com Feed
SC NYTFEED
LA English
CY Copyright 2018. The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

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Bodies that migrate across borders undergo tremendous change. Immediately, feet alight on alien terrain, ears channel novel sounds and noses breathe in unfamiliar scents. More gradually, daily routines fall into new rhythms, cultural norms hybridize and dreams evolve.

Another transformation occurs deep within the body, two recent studies from the Netherlands and United States find, as the trillions of microbes that live in the human digestive system shift in composition.

TD 

While many factors may influence how this change occurs, the studies suggest that scientists should consider individuals’ migration status and ethnic origin as they aim for clinical interventions based on the gut microbiome.

Researchers are trying to understand what governs gut microbial composition, in part because of increasing evidence that the trillions of microorganisms teeming in our guts influence health in myriad ways[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/well/live/unlocking-the-secrets-of-the-microbiome.html]. Most chronic diseases have been tied to deviations in gut microbiome, though the specifics of cause and effect still need to be parsed out.

[Like the Science Times page on Facebook.| Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]

The first study, published in Nature Medicine in August, compared the gut microbiomes[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-018-0160-1] of adults from Amsterdam’s six largest ethnic groups. A team led by Mélanie Deschasaux, an epidemiologist at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, assessed stool samples from 2,084 individuals who were ethnically Dutch, Ghanaian, Moroccan, Turkish, African Surinamese or South Asian Surinamese. Most of the non-Dutch participants had immigrated to the Netherlands as adults.

Between ethnic groups, the researchers discovered significant differences in overall gut microbe composition. Of the various factors studied, ethnicity was the strongest determinant of gut microbial makeup.

Across the Atlantic, Pajau Vangay and Dan Knights, of the University of Minnesota, worked with two local communities to study how migration alters the human gut microbiome[https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(18)31382-5.pdf]. They published their results in Cell last week.

One community, the Hmong, began arriving in Minnesota in the 1970s as refugees from the CIA-backed Secret War and Vietnam War, which ravaged their communities in Laos. The second group, the Karen, arrived in Minnesota in larger numbers in the past decade, fleeing human rights abuses in Myanmar.

Stool samples and other data from more than 500 women revealed that immigrants from these groups began losing their native microbes almost immediately after resettling. They picked up American microbes, but “not enough to compensate for the loss of native strains, so they end up losing a substantial amount of diversity overall,” Dr. Knights said. Furthermore, losses were greater in obese individuals and children of immigrants.

Dr. Vangay, a second-generation Hmong immigrant[https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-06-21/scientist-pajau-vangay-used-make-pretty-code-now-she-studies-guts], partnered with Kathie Culhane-Pera, a family doctor, to involve Hmong and Karen community researchers[https://www.westsidechs.org/solahmo/]. Together with the academics, the community researchers developed the study’s design, recruitment methods and strategies for sharing results.

Separately, advisory boards of Hmong and Karen health professionals and community leaders gave input, resulting in a project conducted largely by and for the communities it studied, said Houa Vue-Her, a Hmong advisory board member.

The study would not have worked otherwise, she added. Some Hmong with traditional spiritual beliefs might resist giving samples for laboratory testing, for instance, out of fear that it would interfere with reincarnation. Lingering trauma from the wars and the federal government’s secrecy might prevent many others from trusting outsiders.

The most obvious culprit behind the loss of native gut microbes is diet. Along with native gut flora, immigrants lost enzymes linked to digesting tamarind, palm, coconuts and other plants commonly eaten in Southeast Asia, the study found. The longer immigrants lived in Minnesota, the more their gut microbiomes shifted to one reflective of a typical American diet high in sugars, fats and protein.

But diet alone could not explain all of the changes, Dr. Knights said. Other factors might include antibiotic medications, different birthing practices and other lifestyle changes.

Dr. Deschasaux noted that her study and Dr. Vangay’s reach somewhat contrasting findings. While she found that immigrants maintained ethnic-specific microbiome profiles, even after decades in Amsterdam, Dr. Vangay found that the gut microbiomes of Hmong and Karen immigrants steadily assimilated to their new locale.

The divergence might relate to differences in typical Dutch and American diets — with perhaps less sugar, fat and meat and more raw vegetables in Dutch diets — and possibly lower rates of acculturation by the Dutch immigrants compared with Hmong and Karen refugees, Dr. Deschasaux speculated.

Yet both studies have implications for health disparities. Obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome all have been linked to the gut microbiome, and the ethnic groups Dr. Deschasaux studied in Amsterdam experience varying degrees of these conditions. Compared to the ethnic Dutch, for instance, Dutch Moroccans in her study had a higher prevalence of obesity, and South-Asian Surinamese had a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Similarly, research has shown that living in the United States increases the risk of obesity[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15598917] among immigrants, and Southeast Asian refugees are particularly vulnerable[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11033989].

“It was actually a challenge finding participants who fell in the normal range of body mass index for the study,” said Mary Xiong, a second-generation Hmong American and a community researcher in the Minnesota project. “That opened my eyes about how much of a concern this is.”

That urgency in part motivated Dr. Vangay and her collaborators to relay their results back to community members.

“Many of these communities are not even aware that the gut microbiome exists,” Dr. Vangay said.

In many ways, she added, “our best recommendation to community members was to hold onto their roots.” For instance, the researchers partnered with Yia Vang, co-founder of Union Kitchen[https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/11/27/564106989/in-minnesota-an-ambassador-for-hmong-culture-and-culinary-traditions], a Minnesota-based Hmong pop-up restaurant, to hold cooking workshops for the Hmong community. One of the dishes that participants made was zaub qaub, or fermented mustard greens.

In addition to being packed with probiotics, zaub qaub “is one of the most iconic Hmong dishes,” as kimchi is to Koreans, Mr. Vang said. “When I eat it, I’m partaking in the history of our people. The flavor I’m eating is the same flavor my great-great-grandmother ate on the hills of Laos.”


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After resettling in the United States, members of ethnic groups from Myanmar began losing the ability to digest certain types of plants, including this jungle fern. | Pajau Vangay

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Microbiology | Immigration and Emigration | Digestive Tract | Hmong Tribe | Obesity | Diet and Nutrition | Refugees and Displaced Persons | News | Vangay, Pajau | Knights, Dan | Cell (Journal) | Nature Medicine (Journal) | Karen (ethnic group) | Minnesota | Amsterdam (Netherlands) | Laos | Myanmar | Netherlands

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SE Obituaries
HD Ruth Gates: Marine biologist who worked on breeding a 'super coral'
BY Christie Wilcox
WC 1435 words
PD 8 November 2018
ET 02:57 AM
SN Independent Online
SC INDOP
LA English
CY © 2018. Independent Digital News and Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LP 

In her career, scientist and conservationist Ruth Gates witnessed the death of up to half of the world's coral. Sheadvocated'accelerating natural selection' of the organism– cultivating the toughestto ultimately replenish reefs battered by pollution and climate change

Ruth Gates[https://www.smh.com.au/national/ruth-gates-renaissance-woman-coral-reefs-20181107-p50egp.html] was the British coral reef biologist and marine conservationist[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/conservation] best remembered for advocating the breeding of a “super coral[https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/coral-oasis-reefs-climate-change-global-warming-pacific-caribbean-fishing-a8404901.html]” that could resist the effects of global warming[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/GlobalWarming] and replenish rapidly deteriorating reefs worldwide.

TD 

Gates, who died of cancer aged 56, was director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, at theUniversity of Hawaii at Manoa. She is survived by her wifeRobin Burton-Gates.

Read more

Paul Allen: Billionaire who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates

Gates grew up in Kent [https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/kent]and said she first became transfixed by coral reefs through the colour TV films of sea explorer Jacques Cousteau. “Even though Cousteau was coming through the television, he unveiled the oceans in a way that nobody else had been able to,” she told the

New Yorker

in 2016.

By 11, she said she knew she wanted to be a marine biologist. She went on to obtain a doctorate in marine biology, publish dozens of scientific papers and, in 2015, become the first woman elected president of the International Society for Reef Studies. She also appeared in last year’s Emmy-winning Netflix [https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/netflix]documentary

Chasing Coral

and became a frequent commentator in the media on reef conservation as well as the effects of climate change.

“Corals seem to be the most complicated organisms on the planet, so if I can understand them, I can understand everything else,” she explained earlier this year in a video for the University of Hawaii Foundation, a fundraising organisation for the UH system.

Like all coral biologists, Gates studied a vanishing organism. Over the course of her career, she witnessed the death of roughly one third to one half of the world’s reefs as the species was battered by pollution, acidifying oceans and rising temperatures, according to scientific estimates.

Corals are tiny, anemone-like animals that often live in huge colonies made from thousands of genetically identical individuals or polyps. Like their kin, coral polyps have tentacles armed with stinging cells that can capture microscopic bits of food from the water.

Most corals have a symbiotic relationship with tiny algae that live inside their tissues. And like plants, these algae are able to use the energy from sunlight to build sugars that they share with their animal hosts. It was this intimate relationship between such different species that perplexed and fascinated Gates, so she decided to study corals specifically to try to understand the symbiosis at the molecular level.

Gates arrived in Jamaica for graduate fieldwork in 1985, just in time to witness this symbiotic relationship break down. In 1987, the Caribbean had one of the first major coral bleaching events, where the normally colourful animals suddenly lose their algal partners, and their white calcium carbonate skeletons become visible through their relatively clear tissues. Gates’ early work on the animals helped biologists understand that such bleaching was a severe version of a normal temperature-driven process.

She held academic positions at the University of California at Los Angeles before moving in 2003 to the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (Himb), where she became director in 2015. In Hawaii, having a living coral reef right in her backyard meant immediate access for research experimentation.

The boldest of her endeavours involved “super corals”– ones that have been specifically selected and bred for their abilities to withstand the warmer, more acidic waters predicted to occur in the future because of climate change. It’s an idea that stemmed from Gates’ early work on coral bleaching, and her observations that no matter how bad a bleaching event was, some individual corals always survived.

In 2013, she won a $10,000 (£7,618)essay competition sponsored by a foundation run by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to develop innovative ideas to mitigate rapidly acidifying oceans.

Buoyed by the win, she later submitted a detailed plan with Madeleine van Oppen of the Australian Institute of Marine Science that in 2015 garnered them a $4mgrant from the foundation.

“Knowing that time is short to save corals and humanity, Ruth saw opportunity in breeding corals that have not only survived prior hardships, but thrived under tough conditions,” said Brian Taylor, dean of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, which oversees the Hawaii Institute. “Her lab is determining what traits make some corals better survivors than others, and reinforcing those traits through selective breeding.”

Gates referred to it as “accelerating natural selection“. The rates of change in the environment have essentially outpaced the capacity of the corals themselves to adapt,” she said in the 2018 UH Foundation video.

She identified the toughest coral by choosing ones that survived hotter waters in the lab and was working on breeding those to create corals that are even more resilient. It’s much like the process by which farmers bred hardier crops. Ultimately, she said, these “super corals” could be used to replenish reefs after mass die-offs, like the ones experienced in recent years by the Great Barrier Reef[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/great-barrier-reef] off northeastern Australia[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Australia].

The project is in its fourth year and had led to several scientific publications but, according to Himb colleagues, it was just getting off the ground. In addition to the selection and breeding of resilient corals, members of the project are continuing to study how resilience is passed from generation to generation and investigating the possibility of inoculating corals with more heat-tolerant strains of algae and other symbiotic organisms (a sort of “coral probiotics”). The projects are now in the hands of her students and colleagues.

Gates’ vision drew criticism from some in the scientific community.

“I find it implausible that we’re going to succeed in doing in a couple of years what evolution hasn’t succeeded at over the past few hundred million years,” Ken Caldeira, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University, told the New Yorker in 2016. “There’s this idea that there should be some easy techno-fix, if only we could be creative enough to find it. I guess I just don’t think that’s true.”

Others thought super corals distracted from more important goals, such as cutting carbon emissions. “Let’s put our energy and resources into something that we know will make a difference,” the late Paul Jokiel, an Himb colleague, told

Newsweek

in 2016.

Gates was driven but did not consider her plan the only viable option, friends told publications. “I don’t really care about the ‘me’ in this,” she told the

New Yorker

. “I care about what happens to corals. If I can do something that will help preserve them and perpetuate them into the future, I’m going to do everything I can.”

Ruth Deborah Gates was born in Akrotiri, Cyprus, on March 28, 1962. She grew up mostly in Kentwhere she attended a boarding school while her parents travelled for her father’s work in military intelligence. Her mother trained as a physical therapist.

At the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, near the North Sea, she received a bachelor’s degree in 1984 and received a doctorate in 1990, both in marine biology.

Read more

Arthur Mitchell: Trailblazer of ballet who ran circles around racism

Tara Fares: Iraqi social media star who rattled a chauvinist society

Judith Kazantzis: Poet who railed against injustice at home and abroad

In September, she married her companion of four years. In addition to her wife, survivors include a brother.

Gates often noted the resistance she encountered as a young woman aspiring to a career in science, and she became a staunch advocate for her students regardless of sex. When elected president of the International Society for Reef Studies, one of her first actions was to diversify its staff. She was known in the community for her disarming charisma, a soothing English accent tempered by fierce grit through her training as a martial artist. She had attained a black belt in karate.

“I have watched some reefs disintegrate before my eyes,” she told the

Times Higher Education Supplement

in 2016. “I just can’t bear the idea that future generations may not experience a coral reef. The mission is to start solving the problem, not just study it.”

Ruth Gates, biologist, born 28 March 1962, died 25 October 2018

© Washington Post


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SE LocalLiving
HD Feel better going gluten-free? Fructans may actually be the issue.
BY Carrie Dennett
WC 932 words
PD 8 November 2018
SN The Washington Post
SC WP
ED FINAL
PG H15
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

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Americans love to designate dietary devils. MSG. Fat. Carbs. Gluten. The latest food to be nominated for devilhood is fructans. And the focus on them came about, in part, because of our obsession with gluten.

Here's how: We know that many people who follow a gluten-free diet don't need to for medical reasons, such as having celiac disease. Yet some insist they aren't going gluten-free because it's trendy - they're going gluten-free because it makes them feel better. Many researchers believe these people who think they can't tolerate gluten are actually sensitive to fructans.

TD 

Fructans are a type of carbohydrate composed of chains of fructose, the simple sugar found in honey and fruit. Americans encounter fructans most commonly in wheat and onions, but they are also found in rye, oats, barley, artichokes, asparagus, leeks, garlic and lettuce.

Humans have limited ability to digest fructans in the small intestine. That means they're still intact when they reach the large intestine (colon), where gut bacteria break them down. In some people, this fermentation creates excessive gas and bloating, and sometimes diarrhea. Avoiding these symptoms means limiting daily intake of fructans, although the answer to "how much is too much" varies from person to person.

Just as we don't all need to avoid gluten, we don't all need to avoid fructans. Still, some people try to do just that, reasoning that if some people react badly to fructans, perhaps everyone should avoid them. And then there are those who confuse fructose, a different carbohydrate, with fructans. (Fear of fructose also has prompted people to not only eschew corn syrup, but to also shun fruit, despite the fact that it's a whole, nutrient-rich food.)

For most people, fructans have benefits for gut health and general health. Three major types of fructans - inulin, oligofructose and fructo-oligosaccharides - are prebiotics, food components that nourish the beneficial bacteria in our gut microbiota. Researchers are also finding that fructans may have antioxidant benefits, and contribute to healthy blood-sugar levels and immune system function. No wonder inulin is added to so many foods as a "functional fiber."

When you consider that wheat is a major source of gluten (a protein that helps make dough elastic), and also contributes about 70 percent of the fructans in the American diet, it's easy to understand why someone who feels better after eliminating wheat might conclude that they've identified a gluten intolerance. However, avoiding wheat and other gluten sources when fructans are the culprit is an incomplete solution, because symptoms will probably occur when other fructan-rich foods are eaten.

One difficulty with diagnosing food sensitivities is that the food components that provoke them don't exist in isolation. They are part of a complex matrix with numerous other food components that could potentially cause an adverse reaction in some individuals. For most people, wheat is a nutritious food. But for the minority who react to wheat, any one or more of the grain's many components - not just fructans and gluten, for example, but non-gluten proteins - could be the culprit. A second difficulty is that, unlike with celiac disease and wheat allergies, there is no scientifically valid way to test for most food sensitivities.

People with celiac disease need to avoid gluten, which is also found in rye and barley, and people with wheat allergies need to avoid wheat, but people with what is termed as non-celiac gluten/wheat sensitivity are in a dietary gray area. A group of researchers from Norway randomly assigned 59 people, who did not have celiac disease but were avoiding gluten because they thought they had a gluten sensitivity, to eat baked muesli bars containing gluten, fructans or neither - the placebo bar - for seven days. The study was double-blind, so neither the participants nor the researchers knew which bars were which during the active portion of the study. The results, published in February in the journal Gastroenterology, showed fructans were actually more likely to produce symptoms than gluten: Thirteen participants experienced the worst symptoms after eating the bars with gluten, while 24 reported feeling worse after eating the fructan-rich bars. Interestingly, 22 said the placebo bars bothered them most.

So how can someone find out whether they're fructan intolerant? Breath testing is one possible option, but its reliability is uncertain. Some people have luck with eliminating all dietary fructans for a few weeks, then, if symptoms go away, adding back non-wheat sources of fructans. If symptoms return, it's likely the fructans, not wheat.

This is where seeking the guidance of a dietitian who is experienced with food intolerances is helpful, especially because fructans are one of many types of dietary carbohydrates that may cause symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Like fructans, fructose, lactose and sugar alcohols such as sorbitol and xylitol, are highly fermentable in the large intestine, leading to gas, painful bloating and diarrhea, constipation or both. These carbs are collectively known under the acronym FODMAPs - fermentable oligo-, di- and monosaccharides and polyols (fructans fall into the oligosaccharide camp).

Rather than avoiding a whole class of food, it's better to determine exactly which food components - and their hidden sources - you need to eliminate to stay symptom-free. The ultimate goal is to enjoy as varied a diet as possible.

localliving@washpost.com

Dennett is a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Nutrition by Carrie.


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CLM Feature
SE Magazine
HD What if the Placebo Effect Isn’t a Trick?
BY By Gary Greenberg
WC 6008 words
PD 7 November 2018
ET 03:00 AM
SN NYTimes.com Feed
SC NYTFEED
LA English
CY Copyright 2018. The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

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The Chain of Office of the Dutch city of Leiden is a broad and colorful ceremonial necklace that, draped around the shoulders of Mayor Henri Lenferink, lends a magisterial air to official proceedings in this ancient university town. But whatever gravitas it provided Lenferink as he welcomed a group of researchers to his city, he was quick to undercut it. “I am just a humble historian,” he told the 300 members of the Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies who had gathered in Leiden’s ornate municipal concert hall, “so I don’t know anything about your topic.” He was being a little disingenuous.

TD 

He knew enough about the topic that these psychologists and neuroscientists and physicians and anthropologists and philosophers had come to his city to talk about — the placebo effect, the phenomenon whereby suffering people get better from treatments that have no discernible reason to work — to call it “fake medicine,” and to add that it probably works because “people like to be cheated.” He took a beat. “But in the end, I believe that honesty will prevail.”

Lenferink might not have been so glib had he attended the previous day’s meeting on the other side of town, at which two dozen of the leading lights of placebo science spent a preconference day agonizing over their reputation — as purveyors of sham medicine who prey on the desperate and, if they are lucky, fool people into feeling better — and strategizing about how to improve it. It’s an urgent subject for them, and only in part because, like all apostate professionals, they crave mainstream acceptance. More important, they are motivated by a conviction that the placebo is a powerful medical treatment that is ignored by doctors only at their patients’ expense.

And after a quarter-century of hard work, they have abundant evidence to prove it. Give people a sugar pill, they have shown, and those patients — especially if they have one of the chronic, stress-related conditions that register the strongest placebo effects and if the treatment is delivered by someone in whom they have confidence — will improve. Tell someone a normal milkshake is a diet beverage, and his gut will respond as if the drink were low fat. Take athletes to the top of the Alps, put them on exercise machines and hook them to an oxygen tank, and they will perform better than when they are breathing room air — even if room air is all that’s in the tank. Wake a patient from surgery and tell him you’ve done an arthroscopic repair, and his knee gets better even if all you did was knock him out and put a couple of incisions in his skin. Give a drug a fancy name, and it works better than if you don’t.

You don’t even have to deceive the patients. You can hand a patient with irritable bowel syndrome a sugar pill, identify it as such and tell her that sugar pills are known to be effective when used as placebos, and she will get better, especially if you take the time to deliver that message with warmth and close attention. Depression, back pain, chemotherapy-related malaise, migraine, post-traumatic stress disorder: The list of conditions that respond to placebos — as well as they do to drugs, with some patients — is long and growing.

But as ubiquitous as the phenomenon is, and as plentiful the studies that demonstrate it, the placebo effect has yet to become part of the doctor’s standard armamentarium — and not only because it has a reputation as “fake medicine” doled out by the unscrupulous to the credulous. It also has, so far, resisted a full understanding, its mechanisms shrouded in mystery. Without a clear knowledge of how it works, doctors can’t know when to deploy it, or how.

Not that the researchers are without explanations. But most of these have traditionally been psychological in nature, focusing on mechanisms like expectancy — the set of beliefs that a person brings into treatment — and the kind of conditioning that Ivan Pavlov first described more than a century ago. These theories, which posit that the mind acts upon the body to bring about physical responses, tend to strike doctors and researchers steeped in the scientific tradition as insufficiently scientific to lend credibility to the placebo effect. “What makes our research believable to doctors?” asks Ted Kaptchuk, head of Harvard Medical School’s Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter. “It’s the molecules. They love that stuff.” As of now, there are no molecules for conditioning or expectancy — or, indeed, for Kaptchuk’s own pet theory, which holds that the placebo effect is a result of the complex conscious and nonconscious processes embedded in the practitioner-patient relationship — and without them, placebo researchers are hard-pressed to gain purchase in mainstream medicine.

But as many of the talks at the conference indicated, this might be about to change. Aided by functional magnetic resonance imaging (f.M.R.I.) and other precise surveillance techniques, Kaptchuk and his colleagues have begun to elucidate an ensemble of biochemical processes that may finally account for how placebos work and why they are more effective for some people, and some disorders, than others. The molecules, in other words, appear to be emerging. And their emergence may reveal fundamental flaws in the way we understand the body’s healing mechanisms, and the way we evaluate whether more standard medical interventions in those processes work, or don’t. Long a useful foil for medical science, the placebo effect might soon represent a more fundamental challenge to it.

In a way, the placebo effect owes its poor reputation to the same man who cast aspersions on going to bed late and sleeping in. Benjamin Franklin was, in 1784, the ambassador of the fledgling United States to King Louis XVI’s court. Also in Paris at the time was a Viennese physician named Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer fled Vienna a few years earlier when the local medical establishment determined that his claim to have cured a young woman’s blindness by putting her into a trance was false, and that, even worse, there was something unseemly about his relationship with her. By the time he arrived in Paris and hung out his shingle, Mesmer had acquired what he lacked in Vienna: a theory to account for his ability to use trance states to heal people. There was, he claimed, a force pervading the universe called animal magnetism that could cause illness when perturbed. Conveniently enough for Mesmer, the magnetism could be perceived and de-perturbed only by him and people he had trained.

Mesmer’s method was strange, even in a day when doctors routinely prescribed bloodletting and poison to cure the common cold. A group of people complaining of maladies like fatigue, numbness, paralysis and chronic pain would gather in his office, take seats around an oak cask filled with water and grab on to metal rods immersed in the water. Mesmer would alternately chant, play a glass harmonium and wave his hands at the afflicted patients, who would twitch and cry out and sometimes even lose consciousness, whereupon they would be carried to a recovery room. Enough people reported good results that patients were continually lined up at Mesmer’s door waiting for the next session.

It was the kind of success likely to arouse envy among doctors, but more was at stake than professional turf. Mesmer’s claim that a force existed that could only be perceived and manipulated by the elect few was a direct challenge to an idea central to the Enlightenment: that the truth could be determined by anyone with senses informed by skepticism, that Scripture could be supplanted by facts and priests by a democracy of people who possessed them. So, when the complaints about Mesmer came to Louis, it was to the scientists that the king — at pains to show himself an enlightened man — turned. He appointed, among others, Lavoisier the chemist, Bailly the astronomer and Guillotin the physician to investigate Mesmer’s claims, and he installed Franklin at the head of their commission.

To the Franklin commission, the question wasn’t whether Mesmer was a fraud and his patients were dupes. Everyone could be acting in good faith, but belief alone did not prove that the magnetism was at work. To settle this question, they designed a series of trials that ruled out possible causes of the observed effects other than animal magnetism. The most likely confounding variable, they thought, was some faculty of mind that made people behave as they did under Mesmer’s ministrations. To rule this out, the panel settled upon a simple method: a blindfold. Over a period of a few months, they ran a series of experiments that tested whether people experienced the effects of animal magnetism even when they couldn’t see.

One of Mesmer’s disciples, Charles d’Eslon, conducted the tests. The panel instructed him to wave his hands at a part of a patient’s body, and then asked the patient where the effect was felt. They took him to a copse to magnetize a tree — Mesmer claimed that a patient could be treated by touching one — and then asked the patient to find it. They told patients d’Eslon was in the room when he was not, and vice versa, or that he was doing something that he was not. In trial after trial, the patients responded as if the doctor were doing what they thought he was doing, not what he was actually doing.

It was possibly the first-ever blinded experiment, and it soundly proved what scientists today call the null hypothesis: There was no causal connection between the behavior of the doctor and the response of the patients, which meant, as Franklin’s panel put it in their report, that “this agent, this fluid, has no existence.” That didn’t imply that people were pretending to twitch or cry out, or lying when they said they felt better; only that their behavior wasn’t a result of this nonexistent force. Rather, the panel wrote, “the imagination singly produces all the effects attributed to the magnetism.”

When the panel gave d’Eslon a preview of its findings, he took it with equanimity. Given the results of the treatment (as opposed to the experiment), he opined, the imagination, “directed to the relief of suffering humanity, would be a most valuable means in the hands of the medical profession” — a subject to which these august scientists might wish to apply their methods. But events intervened. Franklin was called back to America in 1785; Louis XVI had bigger trouble on his hands and, along with Lavoisier and Bailly, eventually met with the short, sharp shock of the device named for Guillotin.

The panel’s report was soon translated into English by William Godwin, the father of Mary Shelley. The story spread fast — not because of the healing potential that d’Eslon had suggested, but because of the implications for science as a whole. The panel had demonstrated that by putting imagination out of play, science could find the truth about our suffering bodies, in the same way it had found the truth about heavenly bodies. Hiving off subjectivity from the rest of medical practice, the Franklin commission had laid the conceptual foundation for the brilliant discoveries of modern medicine, the antibiotics and vaccines and other drugs that can be dispensed by whoever happens to possess the prescription pad, and to whoever happens to have the disease. Without meaning to, they had created an epistemology for the healing arts — and, in the process, inadvertently conjured the placebo effect, and established it as that to which doctors must remain blind.

It wouldn’t be the last time science would turn its focus to the placebo effect only to quarantine it. At a 1955 meeting of the American Medical Association, the Harvard surgeon Henry Beecher pointed out to his colleagues that while they might have thought that placebos were fake medicine — even the name, which means “I shall please” in Latin, carries more than a hint of contempt — they couldn’t deny that the results were real. Beecher had been looking at the subject systematically, and he determined that placebos could relieve anxiety and postoperative pain, change the blood chemistry of patients in a way similar to drugs and even cause side effects. In general, he told them, more than one-third of patients would get better when given a treatment that was, pharmacologically speaking, inert.

If the placebo was as powerful as Beecher said, and if doctors wanted to know whether their drugs actually worked, it was not sufficient simply to give patients the drugs and see whether they did better than patients who didn’t interact with the doctor at all. Instead, researchers needed to assume that the placebo effect was part of every drug effect, and that drugs could be said to work only to the extent that they worked better than placebos. An accurate measure of drug efficacy would require comparing the response of patients taking it with that of patients taking placebos; the drug effect could then be calculated by subtracting the placebo response from the overall response, much as a deli-counter worker subtracts the weight of the container to determine how much lobster salad you’re getting.

In the last half of the 1950s, this calculus gave rise to a new way to evaluate drugs: the double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, in which neither patient nor clinician knew who was getting the active drug and who the placebo. In 1962, when the Food and Drug Administration began to require pharmaceutical companies to prove their new drugs were effective before they came to market, they increasingly turned to the new method; today, virtually every prospective new drug has to outperform placebos on two independent studies in order to gain F.D.A. approval.

Like Franklin’s commission, the F.D.A. had determined that the only way to sort out the real from the fake in medicine was to isolate the imagination. It also echoed the royal panel by taking note of the placebo effect only long enough to dismiss it, giving it a strange dual nature: It’s included in clinical trials because it is recognized as an important part of every treatment, but it is treated as if it were not important in itself. As a result, although virtually every clinical trial is a study of the placebo effect, it remains underexplored — an outcome that reflects the fact that there is no money in sugar pills and thus no industry interest in the topic as anything other than a hurdle it needs to overcome.

When Ted Kaptchuk was asked to give the opening keynote address at the conference in Leiden, he contemplated committing the gravest heresy imaginable: kicking off the inaugural gathering of the Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies by declaring that there was no such thing as the placebo effect. When he broached this provocation in conversation with me not long before the conference, it became clear that his point harked directly back to Franklin: that the topic he and his colleagues studied was created by the scientific establishment, and only in order to exclude it — which means that they are always playing on hostile terrain. Science is “designed to get rid of the husks and find the kernels,” he told me. Much can be lost in the threshing — in particular, Kaptchuk sometimes worries, the rituals embedded in the doctor-patient encounter that he thinks are fundamental to the placebo effect, and that he believes embody an aspect of medicine that has disappeared as scientists and doctors pursue the course laid by Franklin’s commission. “Medical care is a moral act,” he says, in which a suffering person puts his or her fate in the hands of a trusted healer.

“I don’t love science,” Kaptchuk told me. “I want to know what heals people.” Science may not be the only way to understand illness and healing, but it is the established way. “That’s where the power is,” Kaptchuk says. That instinct is why he left his position as director of a pain clinic in 1990 to join Harvard — and it’s why he was delighted when, in 2010, he was contacted by Kathryn Hall, a molecular biologist. Here was someone with an interest in his topic who was also an expert in molecules, and who might serve as an emissary to help usher the placebo into the medical establishment.

Hall’s own journey into placebo studies began 15 years before her meeting with Kaptchuk, when she developed a bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Wearing a wrist brace didn’t help, and neither did over-the-counter drugs or the codeine her doctor prescribed. When a friend suggested she visit an acupuncturist, Hall balked at the idea of such an unscientific approach. But faced with the alternative, surgery, she decided to make an appointment. “I was there for maybe 10 minutes,” she recalls, “when she stuck a needle here” — Hall points to a spot on her forearm — “and this awful pain just shot through my arm.” But then the pain receded and her symptoms disappeared, as if they had been carried away on the tide. She received a few more treatments, during which the acupuncturist taught her how to manipulate a spot near her elbow if the pain recurred. Hall needed the fix from time to time, but the problem mostly just went away.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she told me. “Two years of gross drugs, and then just one treatment.” All these years later, she’s still wonder-struck. “What was that?” she asks. “Rub the spot, and the pain just goes away?”

Hall was working for a drug company at the time, but she soon left to get a master’s degree in visual arts, after which she started a documentary-production company. She was telling her carpal-tunnel story to a friend one day and recounted how the acupuncturist had climbed up on the table with her. (“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, what is this woman doing?’ ” she told me. “It was very dramatic.”) She’d never been able to understand how the treatment worked, and this memory led her to wonder out loud if maybe the drama itself had something to do with the outcome.

Her friend suggested she might find some answers in Ted Kaptchuk’s work. She picked up his book about Chinese medicine, “The Web that Has No Weaver,” in which he mentioned the possibility that placebo effects figure strongly in acupuncture, and then she read a study he had conducted that put that question to the test.

Kaptchuk had divided people with irritable bowel syndrome into three groups. In one, acupuncturists went through all the motions of treatment, but used a device that only appeared to insert a needle. Subjects in a second group also got sham acupuncture, but delivered with more elaborate doctor-patient interaction than the first group received. A third group was given no treatment at all. At the end of the trial, both treatment groups improved more than the no-treatment group, and the “high interaction” group did best of all.

Kaptchuk, who before joining Harvard had been an acupuncturist in private practice, wasn’t particularly disturbed by the finding that his own profession worked even when needles were not actually inserted; he’d never thought that placebo treatments were fake medicine. He was more interested in how the strength of the treatment varied with the quality and quantity of interaction between the healer and the patient — the drama, in other words. Hall reached out to him shortly after she read the paper.

The findings of the I.B.S. study were in keeping with a hypothesis Kaptchuk had formed over the years: that the placebo effect is a biological response to an act of caring; that somehow the encounter itself calls forth healing and that the more intense and focused it is, the more healing it evokes. He elaborated on this idea in a comparative study of conventional medicine, acupuncture and Navajo “chantway rituals,” in which healers lead storytelling ceremonies for the sick. He argued that all three approaches unfold in a space set aside for the purpose and proceed as if according to a script, with prescribed roles for every participant. Each modality, in other words, is its own kind of ritual, and Kaptchuk suggested that the ritual itself is part of what makes the procedure effective, as if the combined experiences of the healer and the patient, reinforced by the special-but-familiar surroundings, evoke a healing response that operates independently of the treatment’s specifics. “Rituals trigger specific neurobiological pathways that specifically modulate bodily sensations, symptoms and emotions,” he wrote. “It seems that if the mind can be persuaded, the body can sometimes act accordingly.” He ended that paper with a call for further scientific study of the nexus between ritual and healing.

When Hall contacted him, she seemed like a perfect addition to the team he was assembling to do just that. He even had an idea of exactly how she could help. In the course of conducting the study, Kaptchuk had taken DNA samples from subjects in hopes of finding some molecular pattern among the responses. This was an investigation tailor-made to Hall’s expertise, and she agreed to take it on. Of course, the genome is vast, and it was hard to know where to begin — until, she says, she and Kaptchuk attended a talk in which a colleague presented evidence that an enzyme called COMT affected people’s response to pain and painkillers. Levels of that enzyme, Hall already knew, were also correlated with Parkinson’s disease, depression and schizophrenia, and in clinical trials people with those conditions had shown a strong placebo response. When they heard that COMT was also correlated with pain response — another area with significant placebo effects — Hall recalls, “Ted and I looked at each other and were like: ‘That’s it! That’s it!’ ”

It is not possible to assay levels of COMT directly in a living brain, but there is a snippet of the genome called rs4680 that governs the production of the enzyme, and that varies from one person to another: One variant predicts low levels of COMT, while another predicts high levels. When Hall analyzed the I.B.S. patients’ DNA, she found a distinct trend. Those with the high-COMT variant had the weakest placebo responses, and those with the opposite variant had the strongest. These effects were compounded by the amount of interaction each patient got: For instance, low-COMT, high-interaction patients fared best of all, but the low-COMT subjects who were placed in the no-treatment group did worse than the other genotypes in that group. They were, in other words, more sensitive to the impact of the relationship with the healer.

The discovery of this genetic correlation to placebo response set Hall off on a continuing effort to identify the biochemical ensemble she calls the placebome — the term reflecting her belief that it will one day take its place among the other important “-omes” of medical science, from the genome to the microbiome. The rs4680 gene snippet is one of a group that governs the production of COMT, and COMT is one of a number of enzymes that determine levels of catecholamines, a group of brain chemicals that includes dopamine and epinephrine. (Low COMT tends to mean higher levels of dopamine, and vice versa.) Hall points out that the catecholamines are associated with stress, as well as with reward and good feeling, which bolsters the possibility that the placebome plays an important role in illness and health, especially in the chronic, stress-related conditions that are most susceptible to placebo effects.

Her findings take their place among other results from neuroscientists that strengthen the placebo’s claim to a place at the medical table, in particular studies using f.M.R.I. machines that have found consistent patterns of brain activation in placebo responders. “For years, we thought of the placebo effect as the work of imagination,” Hall says. “Now through imaging you can literally see the brain lighting up when you give someone a sugar pill.”

One group with a particularly keen interest in those brain images, as Hall well knows, is her former employers in the pharmaceutical industry. The placebo effect has been plaguing their business for more than a half-century — since the placebo-controlled study became the clinical-trial gold standard, requiring a new drug to demonstrate a significant therapeutic benefit over placebo to gain F.D.A. approval.

That’s a bar that is becoming ever more difficult to surmount, because the placebo effect seems to be becoming stronger as time goes on. A 2015 study published in the journal Pain analyzed 84 clinical trials of pain medication conducted between 1990 and 2013 and found that in some cases the efficacy of placebo had grown sharply, narrowing the gap with the drugs’ effect from 27 percent on average to just 9 percent. The only studies in which this increase was detected were conducted in the United States, which has spawned a variety of theories to explain the phenomenon: that patients in the United States, one of only two countries where medications are allowed to be marketed directly to consumers, have been conditioned to expect greater benefit from drugs; or that the larger and longer-duration trials more common in America have led to their often being farmed out to contract organizations whose nurses’ only job is to conduct the trial, perhaps fostering a more placebo-triggering therapeutic interaction.

Whatever the reason, a result is that drugs that pass the first couple of stages of the F.D.A. approval process founder more and more frequently in the larger late-stage trials; more than 90 percent of pain medications now fail at this stage. The industry would be delighted if it were able to identify placebo responders — say, by their genome — and exclude them from clinical trials.

That may seem like putting a thumb on the scale for drugs, but under the logic of the drug-approval regime, to eliminate placebo effects is not to cheat; it merely reduces the noise in order for the drug’s signal to be heard more clearly. That simple logic, however, may not hold up as Hall continues her research into the genetic basis of the placebo. Indeed, that research may have deeper implications for clinical drug trials, and for the drugs themselves, than pharma companies might expect.

Since 2013, Hall has been involved with the Women’s Health Study, which has tracked the cardiovascular health of nearly 40,000 women over more than 20 years. The subjects were randomly divided into four groups, following standard clinical-trial protocol, and received a daily dose of either vitamin E, aspirin, vitamin E with aspirin or a placebo. A subset also had their DNA sampled — which, Hall realized, offered her a vastly larger genetic database to plumb for markers correlated to placebo response. Analyzing the data amassed during the first 10 years of the study, Hall found that the women with the low-COMT gene variant had significantly higher rates of heart disease than women with the high-COMT variant, and that the risk was reduced for those low-COMT women who received the active treatments but not in those given placebos. Among high-COMT people, the results were the inverse: Women taking placebos had the lowest rates of disease; people in the treatment arms had an increased risk.

These findings in some ways seem to confound the results of the I.B.S. study, in which it was the low-COMT patients who benefited most from the placebo. But, Hall argues, what’s important isn’t the direction of the effect, but rather that there is an effect, one that varies depending on genotype — and that the same gene variant also seems to determine the relative effectiveness of the drug. This outcome contradicts the logic underlying clinical trials. It suggests that placebo and drug do not involve separate processes, one psychological and the other physical, that add up to the overall effectiveness of the treatment; rather, they may both operate on the same biochemical pathway — the one governed in part by the COMT gene.

Hall has begun to think that the placebome will wind up essentially being a chemical pathway along which healing signals travel — and not only to the mind, as an experience of feeling better, but also to the body. This pathway may be where the brain translates the act of caring into physical healing, turning on the biological processes that relieve pain, reduce inflammation and promote health, especially in chronic and stress-related illnesses — like irritable bowel syndrome and some heart diseases. If the brain employs this same pathway in response to drugs and placebos, then of course it is possible that they might work together, like convoys of drafting trucks, to traverse the territory. But it is also possible that they will encroach on one another, that there will be traffic jams in the pathway.

What if, Hall wonders, a treatment fails to work not because the drug and the individual are biochemically incompatible, but rather because in some people the drug interferes with the placebo response, which if properly used might reduce disease? Or conversely, what if the placebo response is, in people with a different variant, working against drug treatments, which would mean that a change in the psychosocial context could make the drug more effective? Everyone may respond to the clinical setting, but there is no reason to think that the response is always positive. According to Hall’s new way of thinking, the placebo effect is not just some constant to be subtracted from the drug effect but an intrinsic part of a complex interaction among genes, drugs and mind. And if she’s right, then one of the cornerstones of modern medicine — the placebo-controlled clinical trial — is deeply flawed.

When Kathryn Hall told Ted Kaptchuk what she was finding as she explored the relationship of COMT to the placebo response, he was galvanized. “Get this molecule on the map!” he urged her. It’s not hard to understand his excitement. More than two centuries after d’Eslon suggested that scientists turn their attention directly to the placebo effect, she did exactly that and came up with a finding that might have persuaded even Ben Franklin.

But Kaptchuk also has a deeper unease about Hall’s discovery. The placebo effect can’t be totally reduced to its molecules, he feels certain — and while research like Hall’s will surely enhance its credibility, he also sees a risk in playing his game on scientific turf. “Once you start measuring the placebo effect in a quantitative way,” he says, “you’re transforming it to be something other than what it is. You suck out what was previously there and turn it into science.” Reduced to its molecules, he fears, the placebo effect may become “yet another thing on the conveyor belt of routinized care.”

“We’re dancing with the devil here,” Kaptchuk once told me, by way of demonstrating that he was aware of the risks he’s taking in using science to investigate a phenomenon it defined only to exclude. Kaptchuk, an observant Jew who is a student of both the Torah and the Talmud, later modified his comment. It’s more like Jacob wrestling with the angel, he said — a battle that Jacob won, but only at the expense of a hip injury that left him lame for the rest of his life.

Indeed, Kaptchuk seems wounded when he complains about the pervasiveness of research that uses healthy volunteers in academic settings, as if the response to mild pain inflicted on an undergraduate participating in an on-campus experiment is somehow comparable to the despair often suffered by people with chronic, intractable pain. He becomes annoyed when he talks about how quickly some of his colleagues want to move from these studies to clinical recommendations. And he can even be disparaging of his own work, wondering, for instance, whether the study in which placebos were openly given to irritable bowel syndrome patients succeeded only because it convinced the subjects that the sugar was really a drug. But it’s the prospect of what will become of his findings, and of the placebo, as they make their way into clinical practice, that really seems to torment him.

Kaptchuk may wish “to help reconfigure biomedicine by rejecting the idea that healing is only the application of mechanical tools.” He may believe that healing is a moral act in which “caring in the context of hope qualitatively changes clinical outcomes.” He may be convinced that the relationship kindled by the encounter between a suffering person and a healer is a central, and almost entirely overlooked, component of medical treatment. And he may have dedicated the last 20 years of his life to persuading the medical establishment to listen to him. But he may also come to regret the outcome.

After all, if Hall is right that clinician warmth is especially effective with a certain genotype, then, as she wrote in the paper presenting her findings from the I.B.S./sham-acupuncture study, it is also true that a different group will “derive minimum benefit” from “empathic attentions.” Should medical rituals be doled out according to genotype, with warmth and caring withheld in order to clear the way for the drugs? And if she is correct that a certain ensemble of neurochemical events underlies the placebo effect, then what is to stop a drug company from manufacturing a drug — a real drug, that is — that activates the same process pharmacologically? Welcomed back into the medical fold, the placebo effect may raise enough mischief to make Kaptchuk rue its return, and bewilder patients when they discover that their doctor’s bedside manner is tailored to their genes.

For the most part, most days, Kaptchuk manages to keep his qualms to himself, to carry on as if he were fully confident that scientific inquiry can restore the moral dimension to medicine. But the precariousness of his endeavors is never far from his mind. “Will this work destroy the stuff that actually has to do with wisdom, preciousness, imagination, the things that are actually critical to who we are as human beings?” he asks. His answer: “I don’t know, but I have to believe there is an infinite reserve of wisdom and imagination that will resist being reduced to simple materialistic explanations.”

The ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in mind at the same time seems to come naturally to Kaptchuk, but he may overestimate its prevalence in the rest of us. Even if his optimism is well placed, however, there’s nothing like being sick to make a person toss that kind of intelligence aside in favor of the certainties offered by modern medicine. Indeed, it’s exactly that yearning that sickness seems to awaken and that our healers, imbued with the power of science, purport to provide, no imagination required. Armed with our confidence in them, we’re pleased to give ourselves over to their ministrations, and pleased to believe that it’s the molecules, and the molecules alone, that are healing us. People do like to be cheated, after all.

Gary Greenberg is the author, most recently, of “The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry.” He is a contributing editor for Harper’s Magazine. This is his first article for the magazine.


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Photo illustration by Paul Sahre | Photo illustration by Paul Sahre

IN 

i257 : Pharmaceuticals | ichinese : Traditional Chinese Medicine | iphddd : Drug Discovery/Development | i951 : Health Care/Life Sciences | ialtmed : Alternative Health Practitioners | iphhp : Healthcare Provision

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ccat : Corporate/Industrial News | ncolu : Columns | ncat : Content Types

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neth : Netherlands | usa : United States | benluxz : Benelux Countries | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | namz : North America | weurz : Western Europe

IPD 

Placebos | Clinical Trials | Acupuncture | Drugs (Pharmaceuticals) | News | Ted Kaptchuk

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The New York Times Company

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Document NYTFEED020181107eeb7004k1


SE Beauty
HD How looking after your gut could transform your health
BY By Dominique Temple
WC 1266 words
PD 5 November 2018
ET 11:47 PM
SN The Telegraph Online
SC TELUK
LA English
CY The Telegraph Online © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

Gut health is something we are hearing about more and more, with many beauty and nutrition brands developing products and diets, both aiming to tackle colon health. We all look after our skin without even thinking about it, applying the best beauty products money can buy, amping up our regimes with the latest innovations to help us age smart but what about our bodies. Do you ever think about what you are putting into your system? How little rest you give it?

I know I don't. Well I didn't, until now.

TD 

I have long suffered with digestive problems- no matter how well I ate or how much I exercised, I still felt bloated and deflated. I decided to do something about it and visited the highly regarded Viva Mayr Clinic on Harley Street to find out what my body was doing wrong.

The Mayr clinic is an institution that dedicates its ethos to intestinal cleansing - offering a revolutionary natural cure that combines medical detox, personalised diets and holistic healing treatments to deliver a health transformation. Whilst I didn't have time to visit their idyllic Austrian retreat, I visited their Day Clinic in London to find out more about the importance of gut health.

What does your gut do?

"The gut, prepares food for digestion and absorbs what you have eaten," says Dr Christine Stossier of Viva Mayr. Therefore its health and ability to do this successfully is super important for overall health. As well as helping us to absorb food, it also eliminates any indigestible ingredients that your body can't absorb. Effectively, it's part of your immune system."

Your gut affects every organ in your body, so if it's not working properly it could be that your other organs are not working to their full ability or worse, they are having to over-work. Think about it. If you use a moisturiser and it brings you out in a rash you stop using it, right? But if a food type makes you bloated or have a tummy ache, you don't swear to never eat it again. But you should. We all should listen to our bodies more. "The skin is the mirror for your inside condition," adds Dr Stossier.

Consider when you eat your food

Your body's ability to absorb food changes throughout the day. Its capacity to absorb, digest and eliminate is generally better during the first part of the day and less so in the afternoon or evening. Avoiding hard-to-digest foods such as raw vegetables and heavy protein will save you from a tummy ache. Try to not eat anything raw after 4pm and make breakfast your biggest, most hearty meal and supper something small and easy to digest.

Digestion starts in the mouth so you should also consider how much you chew your food. When chewing, your mouth produces saliva which has enzymes in it that encourages the chemical break down of foods - leading to better absorption. "For good digestion, it's imperative to stop what you're doing and eat," says Dr Christine. "So many of us eat whilst we are trying to send emails or even worse, when we are walking. Your body cannot compute what is happening when you ask it to do too many things, so you lose the nutritional value of your meal. Would you go to the cinema to watch a movie and sit on your phone? No. By stopping to eat and concentrating on your food, your body will absorb the nutrients more readily and also break them down as they should be."

What your spots say about you beauty face[https://cf-particle-html.eip.telegraph.co.uk/98d2fbd1-98a1-47bb-9284-8c9c14f1c195.html] Let's talk about gluten

Gluten has been the topic of conversation in the world of nutrition, slimming and fitness for some time, and it is proven to have a significant effect on your gut health. But what effect does it have on our bodies?

"Gluten is the common name given to a group of proteins present in all forms of wheat and related grain species like barley, rye and others," advises Pure Package Nutritionist, Aleksandra Vicentijevic. "It is a critical component in wheat-based doughs giving them a soft elasticity (i.e squidgy bread). It contains a type of carbohydrate (oligosaccharide) that can be easily fermented by the intestinal bacteria and, in some people, this can cause bloating, cramping, diarrhoea, weight loss, fat malabsorption, iron deficiency or even osteoporosis depending on the severity.

Avoiding gluten means more than giving up traditional breads, cereals and pasta. Gluten is also present in many other products including beer, sauces, soy sauce, vitamin supplements, some medications, and even toothpaste and cosmetics. This makes following a gluten-free diet extremely challenging – so why do we, the non-gluten intolerant public, continue to pile up our shopping baskets with gluten-free products? "One of the main problems is that we are not eating the type of wheat that our parents or grandparents ate back in the day. We are trying to make food quicker, cheaper and with greater shelf life. As a result, this surge of ‘new’ wheat varieties are part of the reason why an increasing number of people are developing gut disorders, inflammation and intolerance to gluten," says Vicentijevic. If you think you may be intolerant to gluten, see your GP for a diagnosis.

Seven tips for a healthier gut

1: Chew well = 40-50 times. All we swallow should be liquefied.

2: Stop eating when you feel full. This is your body telling you it doesn't need more food.

3: No snacks between meals. Use the gap to drink water or tea.

4: No raw food (salads, fruits, smoothies) after 4 pm. Your body will struggle to digest it and leave you bloated.

5: Have a small and simple dinner made up of hot protein and vegetables.

6. Try an abdominal massage - it increases blood flow in your stomach allowing oxygen to flow to your organs.

7. Increase your intake of fibre. Fibre will help stimulate digestion and help dispose bad bacteria.

Boost your gut health

Symprove Food Supplement £79 for a 4 week supply[http://shop.symprove.com/s.nl?sc=18category=1876gclid=EAIaIQobChMIm6X8m6yl2QIVTDPTCh33Sw1sEAYYASABEgKHpPD_BwE]

Symprove is a water-based multi-strain supplement that contains 4 unique strains of live activated bacteria. These include: L rhamnosus, E. faecium, L. acidophilus, and L. plantarum. Normally a healthy gut would already contain all four of these, along with many other types of bacteria. Diet and lifestyle can cause these to become unbalanced or non-existent. A shot of this in the morning will restore your gut with the bacteria it needs.

The Beauty Chef Cleanse Inner Beauty Powder, £40[http://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=INH%2FSVPJb1Ymid=24448u1=customidmurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.net-a-porter.com%2Fgb%2Fen%2Fproduct%2F801215%2Fthe_beauty_chef%2Fcleanse-inner-beauty-powder--150g%3Fcm_mmc%3DLinkshareUK-_-INH%2FSVPJb1Y-_-Custom-_-LinkBuilder%26siteID%3DINH_SVPJb1Y-9LwbPq0UJyE6xqVYh60d6g%26Telegraph%3DTelegraph]

Designed to help your body eliminate toxins, balance gut health and promote skin radiance, The Beauty Chef's 'Cleanse Inner Beauty Powder' is filled with 45 certified organic fruits, vegetables, seeds, roots, algae, grasses, plant fiber, purifying herbs and digestive enzymes. Mix with water in the morning and let it do the work so you don't have to.

The Nue Co Prebiotic and Probiotic capsules £65 at Net-a-porter[http://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=INH%2FSVPJb1Ymid=24448u1=customidmurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.net-a-porter.com%2Fgb%2Fen%2Fproduct%2F1036885%2Fthe_nue_co_%2Fprebiotic---probiotic-capsules--100g%3Fcm_mmc%3DLinkshareUK-_-INH%2FSVPJb1Y-_-Custom-_-LinkBuilder%26siteID%3DINH_SVPJb1Y-YHksZLCqDHd4pXKQgnG26Q%26Telegraph%3DTelegraph]

These supplements are boosted with Prebiotic Inulin to aid digestion and even out blood sugar levels, as well as feed friendly bacteria in your gut.

Pure Package Healthy Food Cleanse [https://www.purepackage.com/our-packages/]

Pure package was one of the first healthy food delivery services and remains a leader in healthy food that actually tastes nice. This is a great way to start cleansing if you want to ease yourself into a happy-gut life.

Visit www.vivamayr.com[https://www.vivamayr.com/en/london/]


IN 

i951 : Health Care/Life Sciences

NS 

gfas : Fashion | gnutr : Nutrition | gcat : Political/General News | gfod : Food/Drink | ghea : Health | glife : Living/Lifestyle

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PUB 

Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

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Document TELUK00020181106eeb6000e1


SE Good Healthealth
HD GIVE YOUR GUT A BOOST WITH GOOD BACTERIA
BY BY JO WATERS
WC 409 words
PD 6 November 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
PG 33
LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

SYMPROVE

From £79 for a four-week supply, symprove.com

TD 

THIS water-based, non-dairy probiotic contains four strains of live bacteria, L. rhamnosus, E.  faecium, L. acidophilus, and L. plantarum which are all found naturally in the gut.

EXPERT VERDICT: 'These "friendly" bacteria help to maintain gut health by keeping "bad" bacteria in check. There is good evidence that this product is effective for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), particularly for pain and flatulence, if taken daily for 12 weeks, but as with all probiotics, there's not enough evidence that taking them helps those who don't have IBS.' 8/10

BIMUNO TRAVELAID

£8.99 for 30 pastilles, bimuno.com

THESE contain a prebiotic called galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS). This is fermented in the colon by 'good' bifidobacteria, stimulating their growth. The manufacturer claims this can happen within seven days. Bifidobacteria inhibit the growth of 'bad' bacteria such as salmonella to prevent traveller's diarrhoea. Take three pastilles daily, before and during travel.

EXPERT VERDICT: 'There is good evidence that GOS increases levels of bifidobacteria, which can prevent the bugs that can cause traveller's diarrhoea. Boosting good bifido bacteria can make it less likely the "bad" bacteria will take hold.' 7/10

Yakult Yoghurt Drink

£2.95 for seven 65ml bottles, most supermarkets

THE fermented daily milk drink contains lactobacillus casei Shirota, a strain of lactic acid bacteria, which the manufacturer has patented. It's scientifically proven to reach the gut alive.

EXPERT VERDICT: 'Yakult has more than 80 years of research behind it. One study showed it helps stimulate production of antibodies that fight infection — but its evidence base for areas such as IBS and constipation is not so good.' 6/10

BIO-KULT ADVANCED

£17.40 for 60 capsules, bio-kult.com

THESE contain 14 strains of bacteria including four sorts of bifidobacterium and seven types of lactobacillus. A randomised controlled trial of 360 IBS patients with diarrhoea, published in the BMC Gastroenterology Journal this year, found Bio-Kult reduced abdominal pain and anxiety, compared with a placebo.

EXPERT VERDICT: 'The IBS trial was well-designed and found people with diarrhoea as their main symptom had less abdominal pain with Bio-Kult. The bacteria have been picked as studies showed they can survive stomach acids. It has good evidence for IBS, but lacks it in other areas.' 8/10

JO WATERS

© Daily Mail


NS 

ghea : Health | gcat : Political/General News

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uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

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Associated Newspapers Limited

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Document DAIM000020181105eeb60000o


SE Guardian Masterclasses
HD New year, new you: Make 2019 your best year yet
WC 1112 words
PD 5 November 2018
ET 04:06 AM
SN The Guardian
SC GRDN
LA English
CY © Copyright 2018. The Guardian. All rights reserved.

LP 

Join our ultimate day of talks on transforming your body and mind in the new year, learning how to shake up your eating habits and exercise, set goals and make decisions, and boost your motivation and happinessDate: Saturday 12 January 2019 Times: Full-day course, 10am-4pm

* Book now[https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-year-new-you-make-2019-your-best-year-yet-tickets-51958921533]

TD 

Whether you choose to make New Year resolutions or not, every January feels like a new beginning, ripe with possibility and opportunity. Once the grogginess of New Year’s Eve has faded and the Christmas spirit has waned, how do you seize the momentum of the coming year and take positive steps towards the life you want to lead? And how do you keep promises you have made yourself once the dark winter has passed?

This inspirational one-day workshop will give you the opportunity to take time out, consider what you want to achieve in the coming year, and assess which areas of your life deserve more attention.

You will learn how to set better, more achievable goals; make better choices for your mind as well as your body; and learn the necessary tools for developing your own action plan and taking practical steps towards achieving a more successful life. You deserve to make 2019 your best year yet, so book your place now.

Course content

* Relationship coach Susan Quilliam helps you take stock of your relationship landscape, looking at your emotionally intimate relationships, whether they are good for you, and what you may need to change. You will create a personal template of what you need in a partner or close friend, and learn how you naturally build rapport and intimacy.

* Fascinated by the culture of the workplace after taking the helm of companies including Google, YouTube and Twitter, Bruce Daisley offers a revolutionary re-envisioning of how to enjoy your job. In this workshop, he offers a new template, providing clear, achievable goals that will improve the way you work.

* Wellness pioneers and sisters Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips lead an interactive workshop exploring the importance of self-care - and how you can take it beyond bubble baths on Sundays and incorporate it into your daily routine. They offer suggestions for easy rituals for every day, drawing on teachings from yoga, meditation, body scanning and more.

* Alana and Lisa Macfarlane - aka The Mac Twins - DJs and co-founders of The Gut Stuff, present an informal and friendly session in gut health. Our day-to-day lives are dictated by our digestive health, and what we eat can have huge repercussions. The Mac Twins will take you through The Gut Stuff, covering everything from what the science is saying, how you can make simple changes to improve your gut health, and what’s in store for the future.

* Rather than succumbing to shaming diet culture, Hollie Grant will encourage you to reject fiction and instead embrace your body and mind. In this positive and inclusive session, she will present the science around dieting and why diets don’t work, what she has learned about bodies after training thousands of people, how to develop a positive relationship with exercise, and how to recognise fad diets.

Tutor profiles

Susan Quilliam is a relationship coach, agony aunt, writer, teacher and commentator. Her columns in Fabulous and Woman magazines reach millions of readers every week, and her 22 books are published in 33 countries and 24 languages. Her latest book is How to Choose a Partner, written in conjunction with global training organisation The School of Life, and she also rewrote the iconic book The Joy of Sex. Susan also facilitates courses on relationship skills and has coaching practices in London and Cambridge. See her website here[http://www.susanquilliam.com/].

Bruce Daisley is European vice president for Twitter and host of the UK’s number one business podcast, Eat Sleep Work Repeat. He has been one of the Evening Standard’s 1,000 Most Influential Londoners for four years, and is one of Debrett’s 500 Most Influential People in Britain. Campaign magazine asserted that Bruce is “one of the most talented people in media”, and he has tens of thousands of Twitter followers and regularly writes for publications such as Campaign, Huffington Post and Management Today.

Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips are key figures in 2018’s viral self-care movement as the Sunday Times bestselling authors of Self-Care for the Real World and Rituals for Every Day. Nadia is one of the UK’s top yoga teachers at TriYoga London, and Katia, hailed as a “health-food pioneer” by Red magazine, is a private chef and owner of the Nectar Café. Celebrity fans of their books include Kate Moss, Jools Oliver, Sienna Miller, Reese Witherspoon and more.

The Mac Twins - Alana and Lisa Macfarlane - co-founded The Gut Stuff[https://thegutstuff.com/] last year, with entrepreneur India Wardrop, after volunteering for TwinsUK research at King’s College London, and discovering that despite having 100% of the same DNA, their guts have only 40% of the same microbiota. The Gut Stuff has since become an accessible and fun scientific resource.

Hollie Grant is an award-winning pilates instructor and personal trainer, owner of the London studios PilatesPT, creator of The Model Method training programme, and author of The Model Method. She hosts the popular podcast, The Strong Women, and promotes a positive, weight-inclusive, non-aesthetic-driven approach to exercose. As a former chef, Hollie is against dieting and believes that a strong, functional and flexible body is the key to lifelong wellness.

Details

* Book now[https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-year-new-you-make-2019-your-best-year-yet-tickets-51958921533]

Date: Saturday 12 January 2019

Times: Full-day course, 10am-4pm

Location: The Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU

Price: £99 plus £5.11 booking fee

Event capacity: 100

Complimentary lunch and refreshments included.

You may also be interested in…

* Get healthy and live your best life with Dr Rangan Chatterjee[https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2018/oct/25/get-healthy-and-live-your-best-life-with-dr-rangan-chatterjee-health-wellness-course]

* Life doesn’t stop at 50: How to enjoy a fulfilling third act[https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2017/may/03/life-doesnt-stop-at-50-70-how-to-enjoy-fulfilling-third-act-50-work-retirement-planning-coaching-course]

Sign up to our newsletter[https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2015/jan/19/sign-up-to-the-guardian-masterclasses-newsletter] and you’ll be among the first to find out about our latest courses and special offers. You can also follow us on Twitter[https://twitter.com/guardianclasses], and read our latest articles and interviews on our blog[https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/guardian-masterclass-blog].

Information on Guardian Masterclasses

To contact us, click here[https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/about-masterclasses]. Terms and conditions can be found here[https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/terms-and-conditions?intcmp=239].

All Guardian Masterclasses are fully accessible - but please contact us if you have any queries or concerns.

Returns policy

Once a purchase is complete we will not be able to refund you where you do not attend or if you cancel your event booking. Please see our terms and conditions[https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/terms-and-conditions] for more information on our refund policy.


RE 

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Guardian Newspapers Limited

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CLM Joanne Richard
SE Life
HD Daylight savings reset; You'll be getting less sunshine, so beat the blahs with mini-vacations
BY Joanne Richard
CR Winnipeg Sun
WC 972 words
PD 4 November 2018
SN The Winnipeg Sun
SC WPGSUN
ED Final
PG A33
LA English
CY Copyright © 2018 The Winnipeg Sun

LP 

The time has changed and so do moods. Setting the clocks back last night may have given us an extra hour of sleep this morning but it won't offset the loss of an hour of afternoon light in the days to come.

Light is a powerful antidepressant and mood booster, and so is getting away, even if it's a for microbreak. Travel has been scientifically proven to make people happier, promote endorphin-releasing activity, and reduce stress and the risk heart disease, according to a Cornell University study.

TD 

But according to a new expedia.ca study, more than half of us are vacation deprived, up from last year. According to Mary Zajac, of expedia.ca, on average, Canadian workers get 17 vacation days and don't use them up! It's estimated that more than 40 million vacation days will go unused in 2018! Feeling vacation deprived is on the rise globally at 58%, and at home, but the good news is that 55% of Canadians are boosting their mental health with a few micro-breaks throughout the year. Zajak reports that millennials lead the way in integrating short weekend trips into their schedules at 58%.

While eight days has been deemed the ideal length of time for positive holiday health benefits, according to a Finland study, some time away is better than no time away. "The survey revealed that Canadians felt better about themselves, held more confidence, and also believed they were better able to solve problems following a vacation," says Beverly Beuermann-King, a Canadian worklife balance expert at worksmartlivesmart.com.

"Micro-breaks or mini vacations can be very powerful in allowing us to reset. They can restore our energy, increase our productivity and provide an overall better outlook on life," she says.

Fit in a break before you break down with tips from Beuemann-King:

Keep your travel time short. Ideally less than four hours and book hotels close to the attractions, if any, that you are wanting to visit. If you know when you want to go away, book it and work out the details later.

Don't wait for the perfect time to book your vacation. If the timing looks good or an opportunity arises, jump in with both feet and say yes. Spontaneity leads to excitement and can enhance the benefits of a mini vacation.

Stay focused while on your mini vacation. Don't try to book too many activities into a short span. Pick one or two and thoroughly enjoy them and avoid feeling rushed.

Disconnect as much as you can from work on your mini break. This is not the time to waste precious time checking email messages or on your smartphone, unless it's urgent. Meanwhile, Zajak offers up these mini-break ideas:

Staycations provide a mini mood booster. Pick a luxurious or centrally-located hotel in your own city and play "tourist" for a day. It can be so fun and a great way to get that vacation vibe without traveling too far. Try a new trendy restaurant, hit up the spa, or go see a show. n Vegas is great spot for a micro-break when travelling from Canada. There are always flight and hotel deals available, lots of packages, and the options for entertainment are endless.

Hit the beach. If you're looking for a beach, consider a quick trip to an area of Florida.

Looking for a city escape? A weekend in New York, Chicago, or Boston makes for a perfect micro-break. These cities always have something new to offer, even if you've visited before.

You got an extra hour's sleep but still feeling down? Feed your happiness.

"This time of year brings about darker days and longer nights which can be really tough on our mood," says registered dietitian Abby Langer, of abbylangernutrition.com. "The lack of sunlight can also disrupt our serotonin levels, making it more likely for us to feel depressed."

These foods will boost moods and positivity, according to Langer: n Carbohydrates from lentils and other legumes, boost serotonin levels, which in turn can help boost mood. n Probiotics can help keep our gut healthy, which can affect our mood and well-being. n Omega 3 fatty acids, from foods such as flax, nuts, and fish, may help with feelings of depression. n Look for purple fruits and vegetables. Anthocyanin, compounds which can play a key role in protecting our bodies and help with regulating our mood, so eat up blackcurrants, blackberries, blueberries, as well as eggplant (in the skin), red cabbage, cranberries and cherries. n Oysters and pumpkin seeds contain zinc, which may help reduce anxiety. n Magnesium from leafy greens, nuts, and legumes may also help with anxiety. n Legumes, whole grains, eggs, seafood, and meat contain B vitamins, and are linked to helping to fight depression. n Dark chocolate (70% or higher) has high levels of antioxidants, and also sparks feelings of pleasure and happiness. n Seafood and Brazil nuts for their selenium. A low intake of selenium may be associated with mood disorders. n POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice is an excellent source of potassium and supports strong muscle function, growth and development.

These foods are a downer, says Langer. Ingest are your own risk! n Fast food are overloaded with saturated fat. n Candy and chocolate can cause blood sugar instability, leading to low mood. n Alcohol is a depressant. n Coffee can depress serotonin. n Trans fats cause inflammation, which in turn can affect mood. n Highly-processed foods offer no positive nutrients. n Pop has a lot of added sugar and may exacerbate or cause inflammation.


ART 

Getty Images / (See hardcopy for photo);

NS 

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SE A-Section
HD Moving to U.S. trashes gut biomes, study says
BY Ben Guarino
WC 883 words
PD 3 November 2018
SN The Washington Post
SC WP
ED FINAL
PG A03
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

LP 

An empire of germs dwells inside you, trillions strong. About a half-pound of bacteria plus their genes make up our microbiome. Though each microbe is small, a healthy and diverse microbiome is mighty. Its influence, studies suggest, spans the human condition - from mood swings to weight gain.

The microbiome begins as a departing gift from mothers at birth, but many factors alter its composition. Growing evidence shows location has a profound impact on the diversity of microbes, and some places are much worse than others. A study published this week in the journal Cell follows multi-generation immigrants from Southeast Asia to the United States. As they moved, their microbes responded. Once in the United States, the immigrants' gut diversity dropped to resemble the less varied microbiomes in European Americans. At the same time, obesity rates spiked.

TD 

"We found that moving to a new country changes your microbiome," said Dan Knights, a computational microbiologist at the University of Minnesota and an author of the paper. "You pick up the microbiome of the new country and possibly some of the new disease risks that are more common in that country."

In the United States, immigrants in the study ate foods richer in sugars, fats and protein. Microbiomes changed within months of moving. "People began to lose their native microbes almost immediately after arriving in the U.S.," Knights said. "The loss of diversity was quite pronounced: Just coming to the U.S.A., just living in the U.S.A., was associated with a loss of about 15 percent of microbiome diversity."

Obesity rates among many study immigrants increased sixfold. Those who became obese also lost an additional 10 percent of their diversity. "And the children of immigrants," Knights said, "had yet again another 5 to 10 percent loss."

As microbial diversity decreases, the risk of diseases such as obesity and diabetes increases. "It's been known from previous studies that people in developing nations tend to have more gut microbiome diversity and lower risk of metabolic diseases," Knights said. "It was also known that moving from a developing nation to the U.S. increases your risk of those diseases." But no one had tested whether the microbiome changed after immigration, too.

"The association made between changes in dietary factors, toward a more 'westernized' nutritional diet, and the loss of bacterial diversity" was "particularly striking," said Eran Elinav, who studies the human microbiome at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

But changes in diet were slower than changes in microbiome, suggesting factors beyond American food were at play. "We found that diet alone wasn't enough to explain the rapid westernization of the microbiome," Knights said - differences in drinking water and antibiotics possibly contributed as well.

The new study supports hypotheses that western lifestyle influences the microbiome. Industrialization is correlated with a drop-off: Indigenous South American people, for instance, have about twice as many species in their guts compared with a person in the United States.

"We have known from some small, not well controlled studies that the microbiome does change - and we have known for many years that adopting a western lifestyle is associated with an increase in disease," said microbial ecosystem expert Jack Gilbert, director of the University of Chicago's Microbiome Center, who is not involved with the current study. "This brings those two concepts together."

Knights and his colleagues examined microbiomes in stool samples from over 500 women. Two ethnic groups from Asia, the Hmong and Karen people, represent a large portion of immigrants in Minnesota. (Men were not included because substantially more women from these communities moved to the state.)

Some Hmong and Karen women in this study lived and remained in Thailand. Others were first- and second-generation U.S. immigrants. To get a before-and-after snapshot, researchers also took microbiome samples from 19 Karen women before their departure and after their arrival. The scientists compared these microbiomes to those of 36 European Americans born in the United States.

The dominant species in the gut changed from strains of bacteria called Prevotella to a group of bacteria called Bacteroides. Prevotella bacteria produce enzymes that digest fibrous foods more common in Asia than the United States. In Thailand, the women ate more palm, coconut, a fruit called tamarind and the bulbous part of a plant named konjac.

"We know from studies in animals that having the wrong set of microbes can cause obesity," Knights said. In pioneering work at Washington University in St. Louis, scientists took germs from obese women and transplanted the microbes into healthy mice. Those mice grew heavier, even when they ate the same food as their lean rodent equivalents.

The authors of the current work, though, do not have evidence the microbial changes directly increased obesity risk in immigrant women. It is possible that a western lifestyle leads to obesity while the microbiome independently adjusts. Or a sequence of events could occur: a new diet and lifestyle leads to different microbes, and those microbes, as the mouse studies suggest, have a direct effect on obesity. For the time being, no "formal proof" exists to link microbiome alterations to human disease, Elinav said.

ben.guarino@washpost.com


CT 

http://www.washingtonpost.com[http://www.washingtonpost.com]

RF 

WP20181103americanmicrobes

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uvmnst : University of Minnesota

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SE NEWS
HD U.S. diet harms immigrants’ gut bacteria // U study of Southeast Asians could explain rising rates of obesity, related diseases.
BY JEREMY OLSON; STAFF WRITER
CR STAR TRIBUNE (Mpls.-St. Paul)
WC 932 words
PD 2 November 2018
SN Star-Tribune
SC MSP
ED METRO
PG 1A
LA English
CY Copyright 2018. The Star Tribune Company. All rights reserved.

LP 

Immigrants coming to the United States from Southeast Asia experience a rapid “Westernizing” of the bacteria in their guts that could explain their rising rates of obesity and related diseases. University of Minnesota researchers discovered the pattern by analyzing the digestive bacteria of 514 Hmong and Karen women — some still living in Southeast Asia, some who recently arrived in the Twin Cities, and some who were U.S.-born children of immigrants — and comparing them with the bacteria of 36 white Minnesota women. Six to nine months after arriving in the U.S., the immigrant women had a drop in the number and diversity of their gut bacteria — which are essential for digestion, and for immune system health — according to the study, which was published in Cell, an influential scientific journal.

TD 

“Immigrants begin losing their native microbes almost immediately after arriving in the U.S., and then acquire alien microbes that are more common in European-American people,” said Dan Knights, a lead author of the study and a quantitative biologist at the U. The change was more significant among immigrants who were obese, and among immigrants’ U.S.-born children. The dominant species of bacteria in their guts changed from Prevotella to Bacteroides, which are more common in Americans. The diversity of their bacteria declined as well, which is significant because other studies have linked a lack of diversity to a greater risk of obesity, Knights said. The microbiome of the gut is a new frontier in medicine, with recent studies making remarkable findings about its diversity and influence on the rest of the body. The study required unique and substantial cooperation from Twin Cities immigrant and refugee communities, which provided all of the U.S. volunteers. While the researchers had to overcome language barriers and other hurdles — such as immigrants’ comfort level with providing stool samples for bacteria analysis — they found the community hungry for answers to the obesity problem. “[The study] came at a time when diabetes and obesity rates were just at an extreme high,” said Houa Vue-Her, who served as a community adviser to the study. She also has tackled Hmong health issues through her work at the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, which is supporting Hmong farmers in their efforts to introduce native vegetables into schools. “We have been seeing [obesity] pick up and, in our community, we just want to know more about what’s causing it,” she added. The study included testing of a handful of Karen women who were in refugee camps in Thailand, and then testing them again in Minnesota. Most obesity surveys only ask people if they are Asian, so there is little data to prove a rising problem among Hmong Americans. The Minnesota Student Survey, conducted by the state Department of Health, only started asking students in 2016 if they were Hmong. Results showed that 35 percent of Hmong high school juniors in Minnesota were overweight or obese, compared with 24 percent of white juniors. There is little doubt of an obesity problem, though, because southeast Asian immigrants often switch from diets heavy in vegetables and rice to higher-fat American diets. They also adopt more sedentary lifestyles, research has shown. Dr. Tseganesh Selameab said she literally sees the change among her patients at the HealthPartners Center for International Health, where she often does initial health screenings of arriving refugees, and then monitors their health every year after that. “As people come here, very few are overweight, let alone obese,” she said. “The longer they’re here, the more obese they become. So conversations I have with them at 10 years, 20 years, are much more similar to conversations I’m having with Americans about diabetes and hypertension.” Given these realities, Knights said he expected that his study would find a change in the gut bacteria of arriving immigrants. But he was surprised by the rapid pace of change, and that the children had less diverse microbiomes than their immigrant parents. “It was striking to see this loss of diversity actually happening in people who were changing countries or migrating from a developing nation to the U.S.,” he said. Dietary change doesn’t appear to be the only explanation, because immigrants didn’t entirely abandon their native foods. The researchers tracked their eating habits and found they continued to consume more rice and vegetables than the Americans in the comparison group. And yet their changes in gut bacteria were substantial anyway. The U’s finding shows how little, even now, is fully understood about the gut microbiome, Selameab said. Stress, air quality and other factors are probably playing a role. The study doesn’t prove that changes in gut bacteria cause obesity in immigrants — only that there is a relationship between them, Knights said. More research is needed to substantiate if one strain of bacteria common in Southeast Asia is protective against obesity, or whether one strain in Americans helps cause it. “You could imagine actually isolating and growing some microbes from immigrants that are typically present in healthy individuals in their group,” Knights said. “Those microbes could potentially be used as therapeutics — sort of as medical grade probiotics. “Before we get to that, we have to find out whether the change in microbes is actually causing obesity in this group, rather than just responding to obesity.” Jeremy Olson • 612-673-7744


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HD These are the filthiest places on an airplane, according to a new report
BY bpascus@businessinsider.com (Brian Pascus)
WC 700 words
PD 1 November 2018
ET 09:19 AM
SN Business Insider
SC BIZINS
LA English
CY Copyright 2018. Insider Inc

LP 

* A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation[https://www.businessinsider.com/category/cbc?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest] (CBC) consumer watchdog series has published a new study that names the five dirtiest surfaces on an airplane.[https://www.businessinsider.com/category/airplane?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

* According an analysis[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/flights-filthy-surfaces-airplane-marketplace-1.4873586] conducted by "Marketplace," a CBC consumer watchdog news series, headrests and seat-pockets are among the dirtiest surfaces one can touch on an airplane.

TD 

* Other extremely dirty surfaces include seat belts, washroom handles, and tray tables.

* One reason for all of the germs on airplane surfaces is that flight attendants may be too rushed to clean them in-between flights.

* Air Canada and Porter Airlines pushed back on the findings in separate statements to Business Insider.

A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) consumer watchdog series has published a new study that names the five dirtiest surfaces on an airplane.

According to analysis done[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/flights-filthy-surfaces-airplane-marketplace-1.4873586] by "Marketplace," a CBC consumer watchdog news series, headrests and seat-pockets are among the dirtiest surfaces one can touch on an airplane. The episode broadcasting these findings was aired[https://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2015-2016/filthy-flights-what-are-the-dirtiest-airplane-surfaces] by "Marketplace" on October 26.

CBC reports[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/flights-filthy-surfaces-airplane-marketplace-1.4873586] the investigators took 18 flights between Ottawa and Montreal using three separate airlines—Air Canada, WestJet, and Porter—and then collected more than 100 samples from a variety of surfaces.

From there, Keith Warriner, a microbiologist at the University of Guelph, studied and analyzed the samples, testing them for bacteria, in addition to yeast, mold, and E.coli.

CBC reports Warriner found that yeast and mold were detected on a majority of the 18 flights.

Read more: A broken water main at JFK International Airport wrecked havoc on bathrooms at one of its most important terminals[https://www.businessinsider.com/jfk-airport-water-main-break-shutdown-bathrooms-at-jetblue-terminal-5-2018-10?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

Per the "Marketplace" report, the five dirtiest surfaces of airplanes are seat belts, tray tables, washroom handles, seat pockets, and headrests. The study issued the following conclusions:

Seat belts had mold and yeast found on one-third of collected samples.

Tray tables carried both high levels of mold and other bacteria.

Washroom handles carried bacteria as well as a high aerobic count, which is bacteria that the Food and Drug Administration[https://www.fda.gov/food/foodscienceresearch/laboratorymethods/ucm063346.htm] (FDA) says indicates the level of microorganism in a product.

Seat pockets are extremely dirty, with a high aerobic count, mold, coliforms, and E.coli found on various samples.

Headrests are the dirtiest surface on airplanes, carrying hemolytic bacteria, E.coli, and the highest aerobic count.

One reason for all of the germs on airplane surfaces is that flight attendants may be too rushed to clean them in-between flights. CBC reports "Marketplace" spoke to multiple flight attendants and customer service representatives who acknowledged their responsibility in cleaning these planes but contended there "simply wasn't enough time to properly disinfect an entire aircraft."

Business Insider reached out to Air Canada, Porter, and WestJet for comment. WestJet did not respond.

Air Canada had no comment on the story, but did attach in their response to Business Insider an environmental microbiology scientific study that, in-part, concluded, "In summary, the airplane cabin microbiome has immense airplane to airplane variability. The vast majority of airplane-associated microbes are human commensals or non-pathogenic...there is no more risk from 4 to 5 hours spent in an airplane cabin than 4–5 hours spent in an office, all other exposures being the same."

In their response to Business Insider, Porter said they regularly groom their aircraft to correspond with Canadian Public Health Agency and World Health Organization guidelines, adding that, "Past Public Health audits of Porter have shown no findings. Studies have also shown the microbial environment on airplanes is no different than in offices buildings, homes and classrooms."

NOW WATCH: The science behind the viral videos of mounting tires with a controlled explosion[https://www.businessinsider.com/science-behind-mounting-tires-controlled-explosion-setting-tire-bead-fire-lighter-fluid-2018-9?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

See Also:

* General Motors is offering buyouts to cut its North American salaried workforce[https://www.businessinsider.com/r-gm-offering-buyouts-to-cut-north-american-salaried-staff-2018-10?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

* Faraday Future is almost out of money and forcing some workers to take unpaid leave: Report[https://www.businessinsider.com/faraday-future-running-out-of-money-report-2018-10?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

* Uber just launched a subscription service for $14.99 a month that allows users to avoid surge pricing[https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-launches-ride-pass-subscription-service-2018-10?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

SEE ALSO: A broken water main at JFK International Airport wreaked havoc on bathrooms at one of its most important terminals[https://www.businessinsider.com/jfk-airport-water-main-break-shutdown-bathrooms-at-jetblue-terminal-5-2018-10?utm_source=dowjones&utm_medium=ingest]

FOLLOW US: on Facebook for more car and transportation content![https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsider.Cars/]


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SE News; Teasers
HD Having appendix removed could protect against Parkinson's
BY Sarah Knapton
WC 528 words
PD 1 November 2018
SN The Daily Telegraph
SC DT
ED 1; National
PG 17
LA English
CY The Daily Telegraph © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

PARKINSON'S disease may begin in the appendix, scientists believe, after finding that those who have had the vestigial organ removed are less likely to develop the condition.

Around 145,000 people in Britain are living with Parkinson's but the study suggests the number could be higher if fewer people had appendectomies.

TD 

Researchers looked at more than 1.6million patient records, and found that people who had their appendix removed were 19 per cent less likely to develop the condition, and those who did get Parkinson's were diagnosed, on average, 3.6 years later.

The appendix is a tube-like sac at the end of the large intestine. The NHS carries out around 70,000 appendectomies each year and one in 14 people suffer appendicitis in their lifetime.

Researchers believe the organ acts as a reservoir for a protein, called alpha-synuclein, which is found in the brains of people with Parkinson's and is linked to the death of neurons.

"Despite having a reputation as largely unnecessary, the appendix actually plays a major part in our immune systems, in regulating the makeup of our gut bacteria and now, as shown by our work, in Parkinson's disease," said Dr Viviane Labrie, of the Van Andel Research Institute, the study's senior author. "Our results point to the appendix as a site of origin for Parkinson's and provide a path forward for devising new treatment strategies that leverage the gastrointestinal tract's role in the development of the disease."

Parkinson's is a degenerative condition caused by a loss of nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine, a chemical that plays a vital role in movement in the body.

Without it people experience involuntary shaking, slow movement, stiff muscles and balance problems.

The reduced risk for Parkinson's was only apparent when the appendix was removed early in life, years before diagnosis, suggesting that the organ may be involved in disease initiation. Appendectomies after the disease process started, however, was found to have no effect on its progression.

Removal of the appendix had no benefit in people whose disease was linked to genetic mutations passed down through their families, which accounts for about 10 per cent of cases.

Claire Bale, the head of research at Parkinson's UK, said: "The finding that removing the appendix early in life can reduce risk of Parkinson's suggests that it may play a contributing role in the loss of brain cells. This builds on previous research indicating that, for some, Parkinson's starts in the gut.

"In most cases, the causes of Parkinson's are a mystery. But understanding how the condition starts and progresses is the first step to stopping it. If we can couple this understanding with tests that detect the earliest changes and treatments that can stop it progressing, we will have a real pathway to preventing Parkinson's."

The research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

19pc Fall in likelihood of developing Parkinson's disease when a person had their appendix removed, in study of 1.6 million patients


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SE Featuresemail
HD SPICE UP YOUR LIFE BY BREWING VINEGAR
BY BY MANDY FRANCIS
WC 948 words
PD 1 November 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
PG 48
LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

Something strange has been brewing on my kitchen counter for the past couple of months. The fermenting liquid inside the hexagonal pot has permeated the house with an odd, solvent-like smell.

And — even more sinister — over the past few weeks, something that looks like a jellyfish has started to grow in there.

TD 

But this is no mad scientist's experiment. Rather, I'm having a go at making my own apple cider vinegar.

This cloudy liquid is very different from the clear vinegars on supermarket shelves. Yet, despite its off-putting appearance, it is set to become the new food trend.

A fermented food, with all its gut-friendly bacteria and enzymes left intact, live apple cider vinegar is prized for its health-boosting and appetite-suppressing properties.

Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow and Elizabeth Hurley are just a few of the celebrities boasting of sipping a few teaspoonfuls every morning or sprinkling it on their salads.

'Apple cider vinegar was a popular health tonic in the early Eighties, but then it fell out of fashion,' says nutritionist Rick Hay, who specialises in weight management and anti-ageing.

'However, the current interest in fermented foods has brought it back in vogue. Enthusiasts are swallowing a teaspoonful several times a day as a weight-loss aid. It's believed to steady blood sugar levels, which, in turn, can help control food cravings.

'Others believe regular doses can help lower cholesterol levels, combat acid reflux and even improve skin condition.'

Now, I'm making my own. Jonathan Brown, the founder of Cult Vinegar, who sent me this kit, says both the smell and the 'jellyfish' are highly desirable.

'The translucent, pancake-shaped thing you see growing in the liquid is what we call "the mother",' he explains.

'It's a colony of beneficial live bacteria, minerals and vitamins. And the faint, solvent-like smell occurs as the cider ferments and transforms into acetic acid — vinegar.'

So, should you be rushing out to get your hands on some? Well, yes — and no.

'When it comes to gut-friendly probiotics, apple cider vinegar does contain some, however, compared to other foods, it's considered a poor source,' says dietitian and gut health specialist Dr Megan Rossi, of the British Dietetic Association.

'Foods such as yoghurt, kefir [a fermented milk drink] and kombucha [a fermented tea] are much better sources of gut-boosting bacteria.

'As for protective antioxidants and other nutrients, you're much better off eating a colourful fruit salad or vegetable dish.

'But there is some credible scientific evidence that all types of vinegar can lower blood sugar levels when consumed with a meal.' When it comes to swallowing neat apple cider vinegar, however, Dr Rossi is not a fan.

'Taking vinegar on an empty stomach can make some people feel nauseous and can trigger heartburn. There's also some evidence that drinking large amounts of neat vinegar may cause dental erosion.

'There's no proof that apple cider vinegar lowers cholesterol levels, either.

'It's also thought that drinking neat vinegar can adversely interact with some prescription medications, so it's always best to ingest your vinegar with food or dilute it with water or juice.'

As long as you don't mind a two to three-month wait, then you can make apple cider vinegar (or, indeed, any type) with a kit like mine or in a clean glass or ceramic container.

I simply poured the starter liquid that came with my kit into the vinegar vase, added two bottles of strong, good-quality, organic apple cider and left it to ferment.

The process works using red or white wine, or even champagne. With wine, the higher the original alcohol content, the more acidic the final product.

By the time you're done, the alcohol content should be down to 0.5 to 2 per cent.

If using your own container, just pour in a large wine glass full of shop-bought, raw apple cider vinegar that contains 'the mother' (or acetic acid bacteria, which can be bought from wine-making shops), then top it up with one litre of cider.

Put on a loose-fitting lid, or secure a clean cloth over it with a rubber band (the vinegar needs to breathe in order to ferment), then leave it at room temperature, away from sun.

'You can tell when the vinegar is ready by its acidic, vinegary smell and taste,' says Jonathan. 'But if you want to be absolutely sure that your brew is moving in the right direction, use some litmus paper or a digital pH metre (both available from amazon.co.uk).

'Anything below pH 3 is well on its way to deliciousness, and the flavour will only develop and improve with time.'

When you're happy with the flavour, decant most of the vinegar into clean containers, passing it through a muslin cloth if you don't want the bits, and keep it in the fridge.

If you leave a quarter, you can top it up with more cider or wine to start the process again.

The taste of the final result depends on the quality of your ingredients, but all the artisan vinegars I've tried — including my own — have a more complex flavour and softer edge than supermarket vinegars.

Champagne vinegar, for example, has a light, almost floral, flavour, and the Port version is delicious, too. I've given bottles to friends and family who were all impressed.

I'm even enthusiastic about eating more vinegar-dressed salads. So perhaps home-made vinegar is a weight-loss tool after all!

© Daily Mail


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SE Metro
HD Renowned coral scientist and conservation advocate
BY Christie Wilcox
WC 1373 words
PD 1 November 2018
SN The Washington Post
SC WP
ED FINAL
PG B07
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

LP 

Ruth Gates, a preeminent coral-reef biologist and marine conservationist best remembered for advocating the breeding of a "super coral" that could resist the effects of global warming and replenish rapidly deteriorating reefs worldwide, died Oct. 25 at a hospital in Kailua, Hawaii. She was 56.

The Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, which she directed and is part of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, announced the death. The cause was complications related to treatment for brain cancer, said her wife, Robin Burton-Gates.

TD 

Dr. Gates grew up in England and said she first became transfixed by coral reefs through the color TV films of sea explorer Jacques Cousteau. "Even though Cousteau was coming through the television, he unveiled the oceans in a way that nobody else had been able to," she told the New Yorker in 2016.

By 11, she said she knew she wanted to be a marine biologist. She went on to obtain a doctorate in marine biology, publish dozens of scientific papers and, in 2015, become the first woman elected president of the International Society for Reef Studies. She also appeared in the Emmy-winning Netflix documentary "Chasing Coral" (2017) and became a frequent commentator in the media on reef conservation as well as the effects of climate change.

"Corals seem to be the most complicated organisms on the planet, so if I can understand them, I can understand everything else," she explained earlier this year in a video for the University of Hawaii Foundation, a fundraising organization for the UH system.

Like all coral biologists, Dr. Gates studied a vanishing organism. Over the course of her career, she witnessed the death of roughly one-third to one-half of the world's reefs as the species was battered by pollution, acidifying oceans and rising temperatures, according to scientific estimates.

Corals are tiny, anemone-like animals that often live in huge colonies made from thousands of genetically identical individuals or polyps. Like their kin, coral polyps have tentacles armed with stinging cells that can capture microscopic bits of food from the water.

Most corals have a symbiotic relationship with tiny algae that live inside their tissues. And like plants, these algae are able to use the energy from sunlight to build sugars that they share with their animal hosts. It was this intimate relationship between such different species that perplexed and fascinated Dr. Gates, so she decided to study corals specifically to try to understand the symbiosis at the molecular level.

Dr. Gates arrived in Jamaica for graduate fieldwork in 1985, just in time to witness this symbiotic relationship break down. In 1987, the Caribbean had one of the first major coral bleaching events, where the normally colorful animals suddenly lose their algal partners, and their white calcium carbonate skeletons become visible through their relatively clear tissues. Dr. Gates's early work on the animals helped biologists understand that such bleaching was a severe version of a normal temperature-driven process.

She held academic positions at the University of California at Los Angeles before moving in 2003 to the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), where she became director in 2015. In Hawaii, having a living coral reef right in her backyard meant immediate access for research experimentation.

The boldest of her endeavors involved "super corals," ones that have been specifically selected and bred for their abilities to withstand the warmer, more acidic waters predicted to occur in the future because of climate change. It's an idea that stemmed from Dr. Gates's early work on coral bleaching, and her observations that no matter how bad a bleaching event was, some individual corals always survived.

In 2013, she won a $10,000 essay competition sponsored by a foundation run by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to develop innovative ideas to mitigate rapidly acidifying oceans.

Buoyed by the win, she later submitted a detailed plan with Madeleine van Oppen of the Australian Institute of Marine Science that in 2015 garnered them a $4 million grant from the foundation.

"Knowing that time is short to save corals and humanity, Ruth saw opportunity in breeding corals that have not only survived prior hardships, but thrived under tough conditions," said Brian Taylor, dean of the University of Hawaii at Manoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, which oversees HIMB. "Her lab is determining what traits make some corals better survivors than others, and reinforcing those traits through selective breeding."

Dr. Gates referred to it as "accelerating natural selection." "The rates of change in the environment have essentially outpaced the capacity of the corals themselves to adapt," she said in the 2018 UH Foundation video.

She identified the toughest coral by choosing ones that survived hotter waters in the lab and was working on breeding those to create corals that are even more resilient. It's much like the process by which farmers bred hardier crops. Ultimately, she said, these "super corals" could be used to replenish reefs after mass die-offs, like the ones experienced in recent years by the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia.

The project is in its fourth year and had led to several scientific publications but, according to HIMB colleagues, it was just getting off the ground. In addition to the selection and breeding of resilient corals, members of the project are continuing to study how resilience is passed from generation to generation and investigating the possibility of inoculating corals with more heat-tolerant strains of algae and other symbiotic organisms (a sort of "coral probiotics"). The projects are now in the hands of her students and colleagues.

Dr. Gates's vision drew criticism from some in the scientific community.

"I find it implausible that we're going to succeed in doing in a couple of years what evolution hasn't succeeded at over the past few hundred million years," Ken Caldeira, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University, told the New Yorker in 2016. "There's this idea that there should be some easy techno-fix, if only we could be creative enough to find it. I guess I just don't think that's true."

Others thought super corals distracted from more important goals, such as cutting carbon emissions. "Let's put our energy and resources into something that we know will make a difference," the late Paul Jokiel, an HIMB colleague, told Newsweek in 2016.

Dr. Gates was driven but did not consider her plan the only viable option, friends told publications. "I don't really care about the 'me' in this," she told the New Yorker. "I care about what happens to corals. If I can do something that will help preserve them and perpetuate them into the future, I'm going to do everything I can."

Ruth Deborah Gates was born in Akrotiri, Cyprus, on March 28, 1962. She grew up mostly in Kent, England, where she attended a boarding school while her parents traveled for her father's work in military intelligence. Her mother trained as a physical therapist.

At the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, near the North Sea, she received a bachelor's degree in 1984 and received a doctorate in 1990, both in marine biology.

In September, she married her companion of four years. In addition to her wife, of Kaneohe, Hawaii, survivors include a brother.

Dr. Gates often noted the resistance she encountered as a young woman aspiring to a career in science, and she became a staunch advocate for her students regardless of sex. When elected president of the International Society for Reef Studies, one of her first actions was to diversify its staff. She was known in the community for her disarming charisma, a soothing British accent tempered by fierce grit through her training as a martial artist. She had attained a black belt in karate.

"I have watched some reefs disintegrate before my eyes," she told the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2016. "I just can't bear the idea that future generations may not experience a coral reef. The mission is to start solving the problem, not just study it."

newsobits@washpost.com


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CLM Asia and Australia Edition
SE Briefing
HD Yemen, Pakistan, Indonesia: Your Thursday Briefing
BY By Alisha Haridasani Gupta
WC 1421 words
PD 31 October 2018
ET 01:09 PM
SN NYTimes.com Feed
SC NYTFEED
LA English
CY Copyright 2018. The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/briefing/global-morning-briefing-newsletter-signup.html].)

Good morning. New pressures on Saudi Arabia, a rare ruling in Pakistan, a helpful human chain in Britain. Here’s what you need to know:

TD 

• Calls for a cease-fire in Yemen.

The U.S. and Britain abruptly increased diplomatic pressure on Saudi Arabia, calling for an end to the yearslong conflict[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-yemen-cease-fire.html] between Saudi-led forces and Houthi insurgents in Yemen.

The war has created the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster, claiming at least 10,000 lives and pushing millions to the brink of starvation. Read our recent reporting[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/26/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-war-yemen.html] from inside the devastation.

Global criticism of the situation has risen as the Saudis have come under intense scrutiny over the killing of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month.

Turkish officials, frustrated by an unproductive visit by a Saudi official this week, abandoned their stream of leaks to media and went on the record[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/europe/jamal-khashoggi.html] for the first time to say that Mr. Khashoggi had been strangled almost immediately after entering the Saudi consulate and then dismembered.

_____

• Pakistan delivers ‘a landmark verdict.’

The country’s Supreme Court acquitted a Christian woman[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/asia/pakistan-blasphemy-asia-bibi.html], Asia Bibi, who spent the last eight years on death row for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Her release reignited protests across the country.

Laws condemning any insults to Islam were introduced in the 1980s by the country’s former military dictator Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46040515] and have since been criticized internationally for being misused to persecute religious minorities.

Mere allegations of blasphemy can spark mass riots and violence. After Ms. Bibi was convicted in 2010, two senior officials who spoke out for her or in favor of changing the blasphemy laws were shot and killed[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/world/asia/05pakistan.html].

_____

• U.S. pursues controversial weapons.

The Pentagon, worried about the threat posed by North Korea, is pursuing at least three new foreign-made versions of cluster munitions[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/magazine/cluster-munitions-army.html] — bombs or rockets that spray smaller weapons over a targeted area. Above, old versions on display in Laos.

The weapons have been condemned by international arms control groups and banned in 102 countries[https://www.unog.ch/80256EE600585943/(httpPages)/67DC5063EB530E02C12574F8002E9E49?OpenDocument] for the indiscriminate harm they can bring to civilians. The new versions, at least theoretically, limit the damage.

The Trump administration cleared the way for the Pentagon by canceling a policy[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/us/cluster-munitions-pentagon-south-korea.html] last year that limited the weapons’ use.

_____

• ‘Care to lend a hand?’

That was the plea from a beloved bookstore in southern England facing the daunting task of transporting thousands of books after a rent increase forced it to relocate.

The answer: Hundreds of people showed up to help. They formed a human chain[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/europe/october-books-human-chain.html], passing the books along to the new site, about 150 meters away.

One of the store’s few paid employees offered an understated appreciation: “We’ve got a lot of good will in our community.”

_____

_____

Business

• Thousands of women at Google plan to walk out today to protest how the company has treated men accused of sexual harassment, after a Times article[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/technology/google-sexual-harassment-andy-rubin.html] about a former accused executive who received a $90 million exit package. Another executive identified in that investigation resigned[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/technology/alphabet-executive-sexual-harassment-resigns.html] this week.

• SoftBank is hiring a former top adviser to Rupert Murdoch, Gary Ginsberg[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/business/dealbook/softbank-gary-ginsberg.html], to help the company overcome criticism of its ties to Saudi Arabia and its lobbying efforts in the U.S.

Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, announced a $15 billion profit in its latest quarter[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/technology/samsung-earnings.html], a new high reached largely thanks to its chip making. But the future looks wobbly, as chip supplies grow and smartphone demand plateaus.

Facebook plans to reduce its dependence on the News Feed[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/technology/facebook-earnings-growth.html] stream of content and focus more on messaging and video.

• U.S. stocks were up for the day[https://mobile.nytimes.com/business/markets], but are well off this year’s peaks. (While tech drove the rise, it’s playing less of a role in the rout[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/business/stock-market-tech.html].) Here’s a snapshot of global markets[http://markets.on.nytimes.com/research/markets/worldmarkets/worldmarkets.asp].

In the News

• Indonesian investigators have determined the general location of the flight data recorders from Lion Air Flight 610, which could reveal why the plane crashed into the Java Sea. But strong currents were hampering divers trying to bring up the “black boxes.” Above, families of victims. [The New York Times[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/asia/lion-air-flight-610-black-boxes-indonesia.html]]

• In Pittsburgh, funerals, burials and other rituals of grief unfolded as the suspect in the killing of 11 Jews at worship last weekend was indicted on 44 counts, including hate crimes. [The New York Times[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/us/pittsburgh-funerals-synagogue-shooting.html]]

• Thailand, which generally has harsh penalties for drug trafficking, aims to become the first Asian country to legalize medical marijuana. [The South China Morning Post[https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2171080/thailand-sets-sights-becoming-first-asian-country-legalise]]

• A breakthrough on paralysis: Several men who lost the use of their legs after severe spinal cord injuries have been able to walk again, though imperfectly, with an implant that applied bursts of electrical stimulation, according a new report in the journal Nature. [The New York Times[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/health/spine-surgery-paralysis.html]]

• A Mandarin duck, a striking bird native to China and Japan with a multicolored head and a hot pink beak, mysteriously ended up swimming in a lake in Central Park in New York City. [The New York Times[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/nyregion/mandarin-duck-central-park-pond.html]]

• The U.S. midterm elections: It’s a record year for diversity, with 410 candidates who are women or people of color, or identify as L.G.B.T. Here’s a visual breakdown. [The New York Times[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/31/us/politics/midterm-election-candidates-diversity.html]]

• A new study in the journal Nature warns that if humans continue to use land at current rates, the planet’s wilderness could disappear within decades.[The New York Times[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/australia/australia-wilderness-environment-gone.html]]

• In Opinion: A philanthropist, Hansjörg Wyss, explains why he is pledging $1 billion over the next decade for land and ocean conservation. [The New York Times[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/opinion/earth-biodiversity-conservation-billion-dollars.html]]

Smarter Living

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

• Recipe of the day: A (relatively) speedy white Bolognese sauce[https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11111-rigatoni-with-white-bolognese] offers rich flavor, without tomatoes.

• How to open aging wine without anxiety[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/dining/drinks/aging-wine-storage.html].

• There are potential harms as well as benefits to using probiotics[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/upshot/the-problem-with-probiotics.html].

Noteworthy

• Picture perfect: Dolls are becoming powerful Instagram influencers[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/style/instagram-dolls.html], living out meticulously curated lives of Sunday brunches, poolside lounging and weekends at Coachella.

• Tiny love stories: Our latest edition of reader romances told in 100 words or fewer[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/style/tiny-love-stories-modern-dog-parade.html] offer tales of the gym, dog parades and the profound impact of a stranger’s kind words.

• Jennifer Lopez, the multi-hyphenate performer, producer, artist and branding maven, has come to realize her value to the entertainment industry — and is acting on it. “I want what I deserve,” she told The Times[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/movies/jennifer-lopez-second-act.html].

Back Story

The American movie industry established its first ratings system[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/11/01/76938499.pdf] on this day 50 years ago. The series of letter grades replaced what was informally known as the Hays Code, a set of strict “decency” standards.

William Hays was the president of the film industry’s trade organization when the code was written in 1930 to ban profanity, any suggestion of sex and depictions of explicit violence, among other things.

The rules went mostly unenforced until 1934. Facing boycotts by church groups and the threat of federal censorship[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/02/what-the-hays-code-did-for-women], Hays appointed an enforcer who could prevent the release of films unless producers complied with the code.

Over the years, objections were raised over everything from the length of Betty Boop’s skirts[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/business/media/lancome-mascara-ads-feature-betty-boop.html], above, to the sound of Humphrey Bogart’s stomach growling[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/03/books/no-sex-please-we-re-hollywood.html]. Shakespeare wasn’t safe either: A 1944 version of “Henry V” changed a reference[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/07/15/94856881.pdf] from “Norman bastards” to “dastards.”

Some perceived code violations nearly altered movie history[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/04/21/92945286.pdf]: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” Clark Gable’s famous line from “Gone With the Wind,” was almost rewritten because of the word “damn.”

In the 1960s, as social standards changed, filmmakers began to successfully ignore the rules. The new ratings system allowed the industry to shield itself as films became increasingly bold.

Jillian Rayfield wrote today’s Back Story.

_____

Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. Sign up here[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/briefing/global-morning-briefing-newsletter-signup.html] to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning. You can also receive an Evening Briefing[https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/evening-briefing] on U.S. weeknights.

And our Australia bureau chief offers a weekly letter[https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/australia-letter] adding analysis and conversations with readers.

Browse our full range of Times newsletters here[https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters].

What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes.com[mailto:asiabriefing@nytimes.com?subject=Briefing%20Feedback%20(Asia)].


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SE News
HD Stomach acid medication is linked to obesity in children
WC 154 words
PD 31 October 2018
SN The Daily Telegraph
SC DT
ED 1; Scotland
PG 10
LA English
CY The Daily Telegraph © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

Young children who are prescribed antibiotics or drugs to curb excess stomach acid are more likely to become obese, a study has warned.

Researchers say that the drugs, particularly if taken for lengthy periods, may alter gut microbes associated with weight gain. The composition of gut bacteria - known as the microbiome - has been linked to various aspects of human health, including obesity. And certain drugs, such as antibiotics and acid suppressants, can alter the type and volume of bacteria in the gut.

TD 

Researchers in the United States looked at the medicines prescribed in the first two years of their lives to 333,353 youngsters whose medical records were included in the US military health system database between 2006 and 2013.

A prescription for antibiotics was associated with a 26per cent heightened risk of obesity, according to the findings published online by the journal Gut.


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HD TAKING ANTIBIOTICS BEFORE AGE 2 'RAISES THE RISK OF OBESITY '
BY BY VICTORIA ALLEN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
WC 537 words
PD 31 October 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
PG 7
LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

BABIES and toddlers given antibiotics are much more likely to become obese, a major study suggests.

A review of more than 300,000 children found that those prescribed antibiotics during their first two years of life had a 26 per cent higher risk of obesity.

TD 

The longer that children had been taking the drugs and the more classes of antibiotics they had taken, the greater the risk.

Girls given four or more types of the drugs were 50 per cent more likely to become obese.

Almost three-quarters of all the children studied had been given antibiotics before their second birthday. But of the 47,000 who went on to become obese, nearly 90 per cent had been prescribed either antibiotics or antacids.

Researchers say that these powerful drugs can kill off important bacteria in the gut which help to regulate body weight.

Dr Cade Nylund from the University of the Health Sciences in Maryland, senior author of the study, said: 'There are too many unnecessary antibiotics being prescribed to infants who may not need them, for things like common colds.

'We have to be careful about medications which might risk obesity because people who are obese in childhood typically increase their weight in adulthood, putting them in danger of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems.'

Antibiotics have long been linked to obesity and farmers give them to cattle with the express purpose of bulking them up.

The study examined antibiotic and antacid prescriptions for 333,353 children in their first two years and followed their medical records up to the age of eight.

The average risk factor for obesity rose by 26 per cent for antibiotic prescriptions, but by only 1 or 2 per cent with antacids. This is thought to be because antibiotics kill off gut bacteria more quickly.

The survey showed there was a particular risk for boys and for children born by caesarean section, who are believed to miss out on important gut bacteria transferred through the birth canal.

Researchers say there is 'mounting evidence of unanticipated consequences' for the particular antibiotics and the antacids they studied, namely proton pump inhibitors (PPI) and histamine 2 receptor antagonists (H2RA).

However, British experts remain sceptical about the study, which is published in the journal Gut.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard of the Royal College of GPs said it was 'extremely interesting' but did not categorically prove that antibiotics caused obesity.

'It is very important that more research is conducted in this area,' she said.

There had been a 'significant reduction' in the use of antibiotics in recent years due to increasing human resistance and the fact that they did not help with viral illnesses, the professor added.

Dr Max Davie of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said the US research did not take into account other causes of child obesity such as their home environment or mother's weight.

He added: 'That said, childhood obesity levels in the UK are at crisis point with one in three children overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school.'

v.allen@dailymail.co.uk

© Daily Mail


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SE Food
HD Don't just diet. Change your environment.
BY Tamar Haspel
WC 1552 words
PD 31 October 2018
SN The Washington Post
SC WP
ED FINAL
PG E01
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

LP 

This is the fourth installment in my three-part series on obesity, since after the first three it felt wrong to have an obesity series without actually talking about weight loss. So many of us want to be thinner. How can we get there?

Whatever the issue, this column is supposed to take a good hard look at the actual evidence, but our collective inability to lose weight suggests that we won't find much on strategies that work. We'll find, instead, that study after study after study concludes that all diets are equally effective - which is to say, ineffective.

TD 

Not that we need peer review to tell us that. Just think about it for a second. Pretty much every obesity expert in the whole wide world points to a food environment loaded with convenient, calorie-dense, diabolically delicious food as the culprit (or at least one of the culprits). Yet a prescription for what to eat doesn't really help when you come face to face with the temptation of what you're not supposed to eat every time you turn around.

Guess what? There's a body of research about that, too. People actually study whether we eat more when there's food around. And you'll be shocked - shocked - to find out that we do. "The eating behavior of those with higher relative weights is susceptible to the presence of palatable foods in the environment," concludes one.

One of my favorite demonstrations of the power of simple proximity was done back in 2006, and it involved 40 office secretaries, each with a candy jar. (Okay, it's a study by Brian Wansink, much of whose research has been discredited. This study, though, still stands, and I cite it because it's an illustration of a phenomenon supported by a large body of other work.) When the jar was transparent, and within arm's reach, the secretaries ate an average of just under eight candies a day. When the jar was opaque and six feet away, consumption dropped to about three. That's a 60 percent reduction, just by rejiggering the jar.

Most of us, most of the time, don't overeat because we're hungry. We overeat because we're tempted. Yet we try to lose weight by manipulating our diet rather than our environment.

Anybody who pays even a modicum of attention to food already knows, more or less, what we're supposed to eat: more whole foods with their nutrients intact and a lot less junk (and we know it when we see it). And diet after diet after diet gives us a different combinations of those whole foods, as though this combination is going to do the trick. Enough with the combinations! The problem isn't the knowing; the problem is the doing. When there's a plate of cheese danishes at the morning meeting, knowing you're not supposed to eat them doesn't really help.

At a societal level, we have to walk back the food environment that got us into this mess. But if you don't want to wait for government, industry and societal norms to change, walk back your own personal food environment.

To outwit the danish, don't sign on for yet another diet that tells you not to eat it. We know, we know! Sign on, instead, for a strategy that keeps you from crossing paths with the danish.

Like charity, environmental manipulation begins at home. After two decades of writing about nutrition, and fighting my own weight for my entire life, the single best suggestion I have is to clear your house of every single food that calls to you. Seriously. Every one. If I had to wage a daily battle against a house full of ice cream, chips and baked goods, I would undoubtedly lose. So those things just don't cross my threshold (except for the occasional festivity). I know I'm no match for 24/7 temptation. But, while I can't silence the call of Cherry Garcia all day and all night, I can silence it for the seven seconds it takes me to walk past the ice cream aisle at the grocery store.

This will give you a clue that one of the reasons I'm enthusiastic about the change-your-environment strategy is that it works for me. In a way, that makes me no different from that guy who cornered you at a party to tell you how keto is different from every other diet, and the only way to lose weight. But think about the last time you tried a diet. Chances are, you lost weight and then you didn't. And then you might have regained. What changed? If you got lured back in to the status quo of ubiquitous cheese danishes and Cherry Garcia, maybe it's time to give the environmental strategy a shot.

Not that it's always so easy. Many of us share a home with other people. People who are, perhaps, not as susceptible to the call of fridge, and don't need the house to be stripped of snacks before they can eat reasonably well. My husband, Kevin, is one such person, and I am fortunate in that he is on board with my food strategy, and never complains about the fact that there's nothing but ingredients in our house. Come snacktime, you just can't do much damage with an onion, a cauliflower and frozen shrimp.

Still, we do sometimes find ourselves with a rogue box of cookies (who can say no to a Girl Scout?), and I am not above asking Kevin to hide them someplace and dole them out two at a time, after dinner. Some creative solutions and family compromises may be required to make your home a no-temptation zone, but it's worth doing because it's the part of your food environment you have the most control over.

Other areas are trickier. Work, for example. You can't wave your magic wand and get the danishes out of the meetings, the cookies out of the break room, the Snickers out of the vending machines. But you might find a few other folks who would like to see that happen. Many employers are actively looking for ways to encourage on-the-job wellness, and there might be some room to maneuver. You can, at the very least, make a suggestion. If a couple more people make the same suggestion, at-work food policies might begin to change.

Next, recognize the power of habit. We often overeat, again and again, at the same time of day or in the same circumstances. And, because external cues can make us start thinking about food - us and Pavlov's dogs - changing the cues can help change the behavior. Charles Duhigg's book, "The Power of Habit," is an excellent explanation of this tendency, and he's got a good synopsis of the basics online, but the essence is straightforward. Break up any routine that culminates in eating stuff you're trying to avoid. Don't walk through the kitchen. Don't drive by the bakery. If you reach for a snack as soon as you get home from work, have a plan to do something else that appeals to you, even if it's just a round of a video game or an episode of the thing you're binge-watching. If it involves physical activity, even better. I know my food day goes better when I don't eat first thing in the morning, and that's what the crossword puzzle is for.

Still, you can't live in a cave, and no amount of careful planning will keep you out of temptation's way. When that happens, take a cue from the kids that succeeded in that famous delayed-gratification experiment. You know the one: Kids were left in a room with a marshmallow and told they could have two if they waited 15 minutes without eating the first one. The kids that managed to wait ended up coping better with school, stress and food in later life. What did those kids do to wait out the 15 minutes? They distracted themselves. They invented games or they sang songs. The did something - anything - to stop thinking about how much they wanted to eat the marshmallow. If you can't go with physical separation, mental separation is the next best thing.

This is just the tip of the environmental-manipulation iceberg, but you get the point. Weight loss isn't about a magic combination of food. There's just no magic to be had. And when you read about how weight is about carbohydrate metabolism, or your microbiome, or insulin resistance, it's hard to believe that the answer is as simple as getting the food out of the room. But four decades of getting crazy delicious food in the room - in every room - has gotten us here. So diet like it's 1979.

food@washpost.com

Haspel writes about food and science and farms oysters on Cape Cod. On Twitter: @TamarHaspel. She will join Wednesday's Free Range chat at noon: live.washingtonpost.com.


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HD Doctors Test Bacterial Smear After Cesarean Sections To Bolster Babies' Microbiomes
BY Rob Stein
WC 1264 words
PD 30 October 2018
SN NPR: Morning Edition
SC MGED
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions page at www.npr.org[http://www.npr.org] for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

LP 

STEVE INSKEEP: Some new parents have started giving their newborns what's being called a bacterial baptism. The idea is to try to help their babies develop healthy microbiomes, the collection of friendly bacteria that inhabit everyone's bodies. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein brings us this exclusive story about the birth of one of the first babies helping scientists test this procedure.

(SOUNDBITE OF HOSPITAL MACHINE BEEPING)

TD 

ROB STEIN: It's early in the morning at the Inova Women's Hospital in Falls Church, Va. Danielle Vukadinovich is waiting to give birth to a baby girl.

DANIELLE VUKADINOVICH: Hi. Danielle. Nice to meet you.

STEIN: Nice to meet you, too.

Danielle is having a caesarean section.

How you doing?

D. VUKADINOVICH: I feel good (laughter).

STEIN: Yeah?

D. VUKADINOVICH: Yeah. Excited, nervous, (laughter), but good.

STEIN: Danielle has agreed to try something that might sound a little, well, yucky - let a doctor wipe bacteria from Danielle's birth canal all over her baby's body as soon as she's born.

D. VUKADINOVICH: (Laughter). Yes. So I will tell you I haven't told many people about this (laughter) yet. And I understand why people would be like, oh, my gosh, that's so weird. But I'm OK with it. I don't think it's yucky. It's normal. It's, like, real - it's natural, really.

STEIN: Some people call it a bacterial baptism. Shira Levy is the microbiome research manager at the hospital.

SHIRA LEVY: It's a little bit like that baby's first dunk. That's their first religious experience. This is their first microbiome experience. You know, they get the water, and that changes their spirituality. In this case, they get the bacteria, and that changes their microbiome. (Laughter).

STEIN: The microbiome is the millions of friendly microbes that live in our bodies. Danielle's a nurse. She knows C-sections have skyrocketed. She also knows lots of diseases, like asthma, allergies, obesity, have spiked, maybe partly because babies aren't getting their mom's microbes during their birth.

D. VUKADINOVICH: When a baby is born through the vaginal canal and they get that first introduction of bacteria, it starts their immune system. The C-section's a very sterile procedure. You know, they're not getting that first kick in their immune system. And it just made sense that it's a possibility that, you know, this spike in C-sections is linked to possible health issues with our kids.

STEIN: Danielle heard about other moms trying bacterial baptisms on their own. So she thought, I am a nurse. My husband teaches high school biology.

D. VUKADINOVICH: I even told my mom, maybe I can do this (laughter) myself. Nobody has to know. My husband would help me out. But it's - you know, again, I try not to take unnecessary risks.

STEIN: Danielle knows it could be dangerous. Babies could catch nasty infections by mistake. So she was thrilled when she found out she could be part of a study, the first study the Food and Drug Administration is allowing to test whether this is safe and helps babies.

D. VUKADINOVICH: I mean, who knows what's going to happen with the results? But if it does show something positive, I just think that would be great for kids and parents.

STEIN: Dr. Suchi Hourigan is with us. She's leading the study. Half the babies will get their mom's microbes. Half will get a placebo. All the moms will be carefully screened to make sure the microbes are safe.

SUCHI HOURIGAN: This could be huge. Just to be able to reduce one risk factor for obesity, especially when there are such high C-sections in the USA, would be huge.

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE #1: So can't wait to meet your little one.

STEIN: Just then nurse pops in and ushers us out so they can remove the gauze pad that's been inside Danielle collecting the friendly bacteria doctor will use to swab her baby. The doctors and nurses call it vaginal seeding.

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE #1: Yeah. Very excited. I did the first seeding.

D. VUKADINOVICH: You did?

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE #1: It's really cool.

STEIN: And now it's time for the C-section. As they wheel Danielle into the operating room, I follow along with Dr. Hourigan.

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE #1: Don't touch anything blue 'cause it's sterile.

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE #2: Are we ready to start?

STEIN: Everyone quickly takes their places, and the surgeon gets to work. Dr. Hourigan explains what's happening.

HOURIGAN: An incision is being made into Mom, and they are getting ready to take out the baby. They can see the head, and the head is now coming out of the C-section incision. Baby's head is out.

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE #3: Time, 8:38.

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE #4: Hello, little girl.

STEIN: It happens just that quick. The nurses rush the baby over to a table to clear her breathing.

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE #1: Oh, my goodness. You're beautiful. Rub you a little more.

STEIN: Once she's nice and pink, Dr. Varsha Deopujari gets to work with the gauze swab for the study.

HOURIGAN: Varsha is wiping the swab over baby's mouth, cheeks and face. She is going to turn the swab over to get more exposure to bacteria. And then she is now wiping the baby's hands and arms.

STEIN: She swabs down her chest, over her abdomen and up the other arm.

HOURIGAN: And then finally, baby's back is being wiped now. And the swabbing is now over.

STEIN: They hand the baby back to the nurse.

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE #1: She did beautifully with that.

STEIN: Dr. Hourigan and her team quickly head out of the operating room.

HOURIGAN: That went perfectly. Baby came out and was crying. We waited till baby was stable, and the swabbing went just as planned. Beautiful baby girl.

STEIN: The next morning, I stop by to check in on Danielle, her husband, Nick, and their new daughter. Hi. How you doing?

D. VUKADINOVICH: I'm good. Feeling good today.

STEIN: What a sweetie.

D. VUKADINOVICH: Yeah. She is. She's sweet.

STEIN: Danielle and Nick are still trying to decide on a name, and they don't actually know if their new daughter got Danielle's microbes or a sterile solution, but they have their fingers crossed she was swabbed with the microbes.

D. VUKADINOVICH: I really hope that she was and that, you know, she won't have any health issues. I think if there's a decreased chance of her having health issues, that would be awesome.

STEIN: Her husband, Nick, agrees.

NICK VUKADINOVICH: We're not terribly religious so we won't baptize with water, holy water. But we like the idea of a bacterial baptism instead of a holy baptism 'cause now she's been initiated with the bacteria, friendly bacteria, and that should protect her down the road.

D. VUKADINOVICH: I like that. It's nice.

STEIN: Dr. Hourigan will do this with 50 babies to make sure it's safe and then hopefully expand the study to 800 newborns who will be followed for three years to see if bacterial baptisms really do help them live better lives. And if you're wondering, Danielle and her husband, Nick, finally settled on a name, Evelyn Marie (ph).

Rob Stein, NPR News, Falls Church, Va.


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SE Food
HD To lose weight, don't just avoid temptation. Remove it.
BY By Tamar Haspel
WC 1504 words
PD 30 October 2018
SN Washington Post.com
SC WPCOM
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

This is the fourth installment in my three-part series on obesity, since after the first three it felt wrong to have an obesity series without actually talking about weight loss. So many of us want to be thinner. How can we get there?

Whatever the issue, this column is supposed to take a good hard look at the actual evidence, but our collective inability to lose weight suggests that we won't find much on strategies that work. We'll find, instead, that study after study after study concludes that all diets are equally effective — which is to say, ineffective.

TD 

Not that we need peer review to tell us that. Just think about it for a second. Pretty much every obesity expert in the whole wide world points to a food environment loaded with convenient, calorie-dense, diabolically delicious food as the culprit (or at least one of the culprits). Yet a prescription for what to eat doesn't really help when you come face to face with the temptation of what you're not supposed to eat every time you turn around.

And guess what? There's a body of research about that, too. People actually study whether humans eat more when there's food around. And you'll be shocked, shocked to find out that they do. "The eating behavior of those with higher relative weights is susceptible to the presence of palatable foods in the environment," concludes one.

In an experiment done at Google, one beverage station was set up with snacks right next to it, and a second with snacks farther away. When the snacks were right there, people who got a drink were much more likely to take a snack. Men's snacking odds doubled, and women's went up by a third.

Most of us, most of the time, don't overeat because we're hungry. We overeat because we're tempted. Yet we continue to try to lose weight by manipulating our diet rather than our environment.

Anybody who pays even a modicum of attention to food already knows, more or less, what we're supposed to eat: more whole foods with their nutrients intact and a lot less junk (and we know it when we see it). And diet after diet after diet gives us a different combinations of those whole foods, as though this combination is going to do the trick. Enough with the combinations! The problem isn't the knowing; the problem is the doing. When there's a plate of cheese danishes at the morning meeting, knowing you're not supposed to eat them doesn't really help.

At a societal level, we have to walk back the food environment that got us into this mess. But if you don't want to wait for government, industry and societal norms to change, you can walk back your own personal food environment.

To outwit the danish, don't sign on for yet another diet that tells you not to eat it. We know, we know! Sign on, instead, for a strategy that keeps you from crossing paths with the danish.

Like charity, environmental manipulation begins at home. After two decades of writing about nutrition, and fighting my own weight for my entire life, the single best suggestion I have is to clear your house of every single food that calls to you. Seriously. Every one. If I had to wage a daily battle against a house full of ice cream, chips and baked goods, I would undoubtedly lose. So those things just don't cross my threshold (except for the occasional festivity). I know I'm no match for 24/7 temptation. But, while I can't silence the call of the Cherry Garcia all day and all night, I can silence it for the seven seconds it takes me to walk past the ice cream aisle at the grocery store.

This will give you a clue that one of the reasons I'm enthusiastic about the change-your-environment strategy is that it works for me. In a way, that makes me no different from that guy who cornered you at a party to tell you how keto is different from every other diet, and really it's the only way to lose weight. But think about the last time you tried a diet. Chances are, you lost weight and then you didn't. And then you might have regained. What changed? If you gradually got lured back in to the status quo of ubiquitous cheese danishes and Cherry Garcia, maybe it's time to give the environmental strategy a shot.

Not that it's always so easy. Many of us share a home with other people. People who are, perhaps, not as susceptible to the call of fridge, and don't need the house to be stripped of snacks before they can eat reasonably well. My husband, Kevin, is one such person, and I am fortunate in that he is on board with my food strategy, and never complains about the fact that there's nothing but ingredients in our house. Come snacktime, you just can't do much damage with an onion, a cauliflower and some frozen shrimp.

Still, we do sometimes find ourselves with a rogue box of cookies (who can say no to a Girl Scout?), and I am not above asking Kevin to hide them someplace and dole them out two at a time, after dinner. Some creative solutions and family compromises may be required to make your home a no-temptation zone, but it's worth doing because it's the part of your food environment you have the most control over.

Other areas are trickier. Work, for example. You can't wave your magic wand and get the danishes out of the meetings, the cookies out of the break room, the Snickers out of the vending machines. But you might find a few other folks who'd like to see that happen. Many employers are actively looking for ways to encourage on-the-job wellness, and there might some room to maneuver. You can, at the very least, make a suggestion. If a couple more people make the same suggestion, at-work food policies might begin to change.

Next, recognize the power of habit. We often overeat, again and again, at the same time of day or in the same circumstances. And, because external cues can make us start thinking about food — us and Pavlov's dogs — changing the cues can help change the behavior. Charles Duhigg's book, "The Power of Habit," is an excellent explanation of this tendency, and he's got a good synopsis of the basics online, but the essence is straightforward. Break up any routine that culminates in eating stuff you're trying to avoid. Don't walk through the kitchen. Don't drive by the bakery. If you reach for a snack as soon as you get home from work, have a plan to do something else that appeals to you, even if it's a just round of a video game or an episode of the thing you're binge-watching. If it involves physical activity, even better. I know my food day goes better when I don't eat first thing in the morning, and that's what the crossword puzzle is for.

Still, you can't live in a cave, and no amount of careful planning will keep you out of temptation's way. When that happens, take a cue from the kids that succeeded in that famous delayed-gratification experiment. You know the one: Kids were left in a room with a marshmallow and told they could have two if they waited 15 minutes without eating the first one. The kids that managed to wait ended up coping better with school, stress and food in later life. What did those kids do to wait out the 15 minutes? They distracted themselves. They invented games or they sang songs. The did something — anything — to stop thinking about how much they wanted to eat the marshmallow. If you can't go with physical separation, mental separation is the next best thing.

This is just the tip of the environmental-manipulation iceberg, but you get the point. Weight loss isn't about a magic combination of food. There's just no magic to be had. And when you read about how weight is about carbohydrate metabolism, or your microbiome, or insulin resistance, it's hard to believe that the answer is as simple as getting the food out of the room. But four decades of getting crazy delicious food in the room — in every room — has gotten us here. So diet like it's 1979.

Clarification: A previous version of this article referenced a study by Brian Wansink, much of whose work has been discredited. This version has been corrected.

food@washpost.com


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CLM The New York Post
SE Personal Finance
HD Happy Halloween! How the food industry tricks you into buying candy, chocolate and soda; Marion Nestle talks about her book, ‘Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat’
BY Hailey Eber
WC 1585 words
PD 29 October 2018
ET 07:50 AM
SN MarketWatch
SC MRKWC
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 MarketWatch, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Marion Nestle talks about her book, ‘Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat’

Marion Nestle talks about her book, ‘Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat’

TD 

If you’re buying avocados because they’re a superfood, nibbling on dark chocolate because of its antioxidant properties and sipping a soda now and then because you can just work it off at the gym, you’ve been had.

In her new book, “Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat[https://www.amazon.com/Unsavory-Truth-Food-Companies-Science/dp/1541697111/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540587026&sr=1-1&keywords=Unsavory+Truth%3A+How+Food+Companies+Skew+the+Science+of+What+We+Eat&tag=nypost-20],” Marion Nestle, an NYU professor in nutrition, food studies and public health, delivers unsettling news. A vast amount of nutritional research is funded and influenced by the food industry, who use “science” as a marketing tool, making unhealthy foods seem OK and turning wholesome foods into incredible cure-alls — often against the interest of public health and defying common sense.

“Whenever I see a study suggesting that a single food (such as pork, oats, pears), eating pattern (having breakfast) or product (beef, diet sodas, chocolate) improves health, I look to see who paid for it,” Nestle writes. “If an industry-funded study claims miraculous benefits from the sponsor’s products, think: ‘Advertising.’ ”

Coca-Cola funded a major study on childhood obesity

One of the most noteworthy research funders is Coca-Cola (KO, US), which invested more than $6 million in a report called the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment. It tracked 6,000 children, starting in 2010, looking at their physical activity, sleep, TV habits and diet. Researchers did not look for a correlation between soda and obesity, so they didn’t discover one. Instead they found the most important correlations of obesity were lack of sleep, low physical activity and frequent TV watching. “Coca-Cola could not have asked for a better outcome,” Nestle writes.

The beverage company also funded a group called the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN), which offered supposedly expert advice on the obesity epidemic, while emphasizing the importance of physical activity over avoiding sugary drinks. In 2015, The New York Times reported that Coca-Cola had given millions to the GEBN and those associated with it. At the time, Nestle called GEBN a “front group for Coca-Cola” with “a very clear” agenda: “Get these researchers to confuse the science and deflect attention from dietary intake.”

In the wake of the scandal, Coca-Cola adopted a policy of somewhat radical transparency, revealing startling figures. It reported that from 2010 to 2017, it spent $140 million funding research and on partnerships. Some of the partnerships were especially disturbing. The advocacy group Ninjas for Health found that from 2010 to 2015, Coca-Cola contributed $2.9 million to the American Academy of Pediatrics and $3.5 million to the American Academy of Family Physicians. These are organizations “that might otherwise be expected to advise avoidance of sugary drinks,” Nestle writes. She says those specific ties have seemingly been severed but “Coca-Cola still funds an extraordinary number of minority groups [and] pediatric groups. It’s just astonishing.”

An adviser to Hillary Clinton was a consultant for Coke

The mysterious depth of Coca-Cola’s conflicts of interest came to light during the 2016 election. It turned out that one of the advisers on Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Capricia Marshall, was billing $7,000 a month to consult for Coca-Cola, Nestle reveals in her book. If Clinton had been elected, Marshall — and potentially her conflicts of interest — “would have [likely] had a role in the White House,” Nestle told The Post. (Marshall told The Post that her paid work with Coca-Cola ceased in early 2016 and she wouldn’t have taken a job in the White House due to family reasons.)

Coca-Cola is hardly the only sugary product that connived to appear less unhealthy than it is. In 2009, if you browsed the grocery-store shelves, you might have seen a box of Fruit Loops emblazoned with a check-mark logo from the “Smart Choices Program.” Smart Choices was a food-industry initiative that sought to collaborate with the American Society for Nutrition to supposedly help consumers make wholesome decisions.

“You’re rushing around, you’re trying to think about healthy eating for your kids and you have a choice between a doughnut and a cereal,” Eileen T. Kennedy, president of the Smart Choices board and then the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, told The New York Times in 2009.

Also see:Here’s why Trump’s fast-food fix never worried Corey Lewandowski

A ‘Smart Choices’ nutrition campaign was funded by food manufacturers

Of course, this propaganda wasn’t about helping mom feed junior a wholesome breakfast. Smart Choices was created and funded by food manufacturers including cereal makers Kellogg’s and General Mills “to make highly processed foods appear as healthful as unprocessed foods, which they are not,” Nestle said at the time. Facing investigations from the FDA and the USDA, the program suspended operations in 2009.

Perhaps most shocking, Nestle says, is the flood of research funding that pumps up the health benefits of wholesome foods, such as fruits and nuts.

Industry-funded research has claimed a number of dubious health benefits: Concord grapes may boost one’s driving abilities; soy snacks and avocados can potentially improve cognition; almonds may reduce body fat; mangos have the potential to improve one’s microbiome and tolerance to high-fat diets. POM Wonderful marketed its pomegranate juice as a miracle elixir saying it had clinical studies showing that the drink and supplements helped reduce the risk of prostate cancer, “treated” heart disease and erectile dysfunction and could even help one “cheat death.”

In September 2010, the Federal Trade Commission said that POM’s research did not adequately support its marketing claims and it had to discontinue its ads. POM responded by suing the FTC, saying its actions “detrimentally impacted [its] freedom of speech.” It also eventually took out a full-page ad in The New York Times reading, “FTC v. POM: You be the judge.”

“POM . . . deserves credit for chutzpah,” Nestle writes.

One study looked at chocolate milk and football players’ concussions

Another audacious culprit was the parent company of a chocolate-milk drink known as Fifth Quarter Fresh. In 2014, it funded a University of Maryland professor’s research looking into how the chocolate milk might potentially protect high-school football players from concussions. The study was poorly designed and administered, but it delivered seemingly astonishing findings. In 2015, the university issued a press release saying that the “new, high-protein chocolate milk helped high-school football players improve their cognition and motor functions over the course of a season, even after experiencing concussions.” The media poked holes in the dubious report, which had never been peer-reviewed, published in a journal or even fully written.

“It was just jaw-dropping that anybody could do something like [that] and expect to get away with it,” Nestle says.

Is dark chocolate really an antioxidant?

Even so, some industry-funded findings have seeped into our consciousness. Dark chocolate being an antioxidant is now considered common knowledge, but that’s partly thanks to Mars Inc., which has been working to give chocolate a healthy glow for decades.

In 1982, it established a chocolate research center in Brazil looking at cocoa flavanols and their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and heart-healthy properties. Too bad flavanols are present in chocolate in such small amounts that you’d have to eat more than a quarter-pound of chocolate a day, canceling out any good effects. But Mars didn’t let that fact get in the way.

The company started selling cocoa supplement pills with a higher concentration of flavanols, continuing its research while putting out the message that “cocoa flavanols lower blood pressure and increase blood-vessel function” and that its chocolate supplements help “firefighters, or anyone, maintain who they are for years to come.” Even though the assertions were related to chocolate supplements, not candy bars, Nestle says they helped create an aura of health around all cocoa products. (As for the supplements themselves, Nestle says, “it’s hard to imagine that flavanol supplements could make much difference, but they are unlikely to hurt.”)

Unlike the pharmaceutical industry, the food industry lacks clear guidelines and rules of disclosure when it comes to research. While some researchers think it’s possible to accept industry funding and remain impartial, Nestle is doubtful.

What consumers can do

So what are consumers meant to do? Nestle says we should first and foremost “be skeptical.” Look out for words like “miracle” or “breakthrough” — good science is rarely so exciting and tends to proceed incrementally. Be wary of any hype surrounding a singular ingredient or way of eating. Good nutrition is actually pretty simple.

“Eat a wide variety of relatively unprocessed foods in reasonable amounts,” Nestle writes in her final chapter. “The basic principles of eating ‘healthfully’ have remained remarkably constant over the years.”

This story originally appeared in The New York Post.[https://nypost.com/2018/10/27/how-the-food-industry-fooled-us-into-eating-junk/]

More from MarketWatch Beware of landlords offering freebies and discounts to get you to sign

And the most unpopular company in 2017 was…

CVS joins the backlash against airbrushing


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SE Food and Drink
HD From 30 vegetables a week to faecal transplants: Keeping your gut microbiome happy is the key to healthy eating
BY Julia Platt Leonard
WC 1065 words
PD 29 October 2018
ET 05:12 AM
SN Independent Online
SC INDOP
LA English
CY © 2018. Independent Digital News and Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LP 

‘There isn’t one size fits alland some of these ideas that we’ve been led into by industry or government are patently nonsense,’ Tim Spector, author of ‘The Diet Myth’, tells Julia Platt Leonard

Your body has 100 trillion of them and they’re busy pumping out chemicals, checking out what you had for dinner, “talking” to each other and, importantly, communicating with your brain. They are microbes and together make up your microbiome, which is as unique to you as your fingerprint.

TD 

They’re also Tim Spector’s passion. Spector is a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, heads up the largest microbiome project in the UK, and is lead investigator of the British Gut Project[http://britishgut.org/]. He’s also the author of

The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat

.

In a publishing world where books on health, diet and food are here today and binned tomorrow, it might seem surprising that Spector’s is still selling strong, three years since it was first published. In fact, he says it’s selling better now than it did last year. But it’s not surprising, when you read it and see that his conclusions have been borne out – whether it’s that fats aren’t the bad guy (but sugar is) or that our obsession with hygiene isn’t doing us any favours.

Read more

What the microbes in your gut can tell you about your general health

“I think a lot of the things I put in there were slightly speculative for the time,” he says. “People said, ‘Oh well, this is a trend, it’s going to puff out. No one’s going to be drinking kefir five years from now.’ And it turns out everyone now knows about kefir.”

Spector says that when he first started researching the book, he took a fairly traditional, “compartmental” approach to diet. But when he dug further he discovered that what we eat and how we react to those foods is far more complex. Our desire to view food based on a set of black and white rules governing carbs, protein, fat and calories misses the point. “There isn’t one size fits all,and some of these ideas that we’ve been sort of led into by industry or government that if everybody just walked half an hour a day, they would all be slim, is patently nonsense.”

Spector says it’s clearly more complex than calories in and calories out. Much of it has to do with those microbes and our microbiome which he likens to discovering a new organ in our body. “Maybe we’ve got this whole new science and if you like, part of our bodies, every time we talk about nutrition and health and how everything interacts with that.”

What we do know, Spector says, is that we’ve lost much of the microbial diversity that we once had, citing people like the Hadza in Tanzania and Amazonian tribes. Unlike people living in the west, “they have these super healthy microbiomes and they don’t get obese, they don’t get many other chronic diseases and don’t get allergies”. Spector thinks that’s down in part to the west’s love affair with antibiotics, processed foodand sterile living environments – none of which are gut friendly.

Another clue is as basic as the foods we eat – or just as importantly – don’t eat. Spector sites findings from a recent paper released by the British Gut Project. “It has shown that the number one factor to determine having a healthy microbiome was the number of different plants you ate in a week.” The more diverse the food we eat, the more diverse our gut microbes. “It didn’t matter if you were vegan, didn’t matter if you were vegetarian, didn’t matter if you were gluten free or lactose free or whatever your food religion,” he adds.

If we ate over 30 different plants – including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds –each week we’d all have a healthier gut, he says. While that sounds simple, Spector says that on average we’re now only eating around five different plants per week.

But there is cause for hope. Spector says that soon we could be testing every gene in every microbe in our bodies starting when we’re infants. “In five years, you could see everybody for £10having their microbiome tested like you would have a cholesterol test at your GP.”

Read more

NHS should prescribe shake and soup diet to tackle obesity, study says

Weight Watchers rebrands as WW in bid to distance itself from dieting

High-gluten diet during pregnancy ‘increases child’s diabetes risk’

We could also see routine faecal transplants from a healthy donor (freeze-dried and nicknamed “crapsules”) to treat bacterial infections like

Clostridium difficile

as well as severe bowel conditions. You could even store your own, in case you need it in the future, something already happening in some parts of the world. “Routinely in the US, people are having their healthy poo stored before they have chemo and immunotherapy and getting it given back to them to improve their chance of survival,” Spector says.

While we might have been squeamish about this in the past, Spector thinks we’re becoming more comfortable with these kinds of ideas. For now, if you’re curious about your own microbiome, you can take part in the British Gut Project. You contribute to the project and in turn your sample is analysed. They’ll let you know the major groups of bacteria in your body and the proportions of them. Your results also are fed into the study’s work to map the British gut.

And Spector says we can all make a difference by eating a Mediterranean-style diet (favoured by the Spanish who were just predicted to have the longest lifespan by 2040), and upping our consumption of fermented foods,plants,fibreand polyphenol-rich foodslike nuts and berries.

A diet, in short, to feed those 100 trillion microbes that we might not have even known we had.

‘ The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diet-Myth-Real-Science-Behind/dp/1780229003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8qid=1540482415sr=8-1keywords=the+diet+myth]’ by Tim Spector is published byWeidenfeld and Nicolson


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SE L
HD THE RICH-LIST'S REHAB SQUAD (ON CALL FOR £150,000 A WEEK!)
WC 2399 words
PD 29 October 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
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LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

When billionaires have breakdowns they don't go to any old clinic — they dial up the elite team who are ...

BY JANE FRYER

TD 

just for a moment, let's pretend you are fabulously, grotesquely rich — an ultra-high net worth individual — one of the 0.03 per cent with a personal fortune of £25 million and over.

You have dozens of staff and phalanxes of security guards and hangers on (if not so many actual friends). You have your hair blow-dried every day, a manicure and massage every other day.

You have never boiled an egg, ironed a shirt or been on public transport. Instead you have your own chauffeur, limousine and private jet to zip between your slew of luxury homes.

But, sadly, money can't buy everything. So, along with a quarter of the UK population, you also suffer from mental health issues — anxiety, depression, eating disorders and addiction problems with alcohol, drugs, sex, or perhaps shopping — all exacerbated by your vast, isolating fortune.

For an impressively long time you hide your problems. But one day your housekeeper finds you curled up in a ball on the floor in one of your marble and gold-plated bathrooms and there's no escaping the fact that you need help urgently. So do you check into the Priory or the Nightingale Clinic in London for 28 days? Or The Meadows in Arizona? Or perhaps a cleansing month at the The Kusnacht Practice, on the shores of Lake Zurich?

Don't be daft — you're one of the world's super rich! You're not used to even mixing with normal people, let alone doing group therapy with them. You can't be seen hanging out in a treatment centre with hoi polloi such as Ant McPartlin and Katie Price, popping out for a photo shoot every so often to prove to your fans you're sharpening up your act.

You need utter discretion because your brand, company or (possibly royal) family name could all be at stake.

So you call Addcounsel — the A-Team for the superlatively rich with mental health problems. They will ensure that, by the end of the day, you're safely ensconced in your very own multi-million pound 'home from home', tucked down a discreet road in London's Belgravia, decked out with crystal chandeliers, £80 candles, flat screens in the bathrooms and carpets so deep your feet actually disappear into them.

Addcounsel is Britain's first bespoke mental health provider for ultra-rich people. Its Premium Bespoke package includes, well, pretty much everything you could think of — private islands, live-in carers, Michelin-star level food.

For starters, you'll have a top-to-toe health check — CT scan, blood tests, ultrasounds, liver check, along with functional medical tests which assess nutrition, deficiencies and gut health. All treatment is overseen by your private GP who liaises with psychiatrists, psychologists and the best alcohol, drug and sex addiction counsellors in the world.

Some of the staff actually live with you, 24 hours a day. So two nurses on a five-day rotating shift will be with you every waking moment, supervising your detox. A recovery manager — companion, confidante, opera buddy, tennis partner, Monopoly opponent, whatever you fancy — is also there to keep you on the straight and narrow.

And not just during your month (or six-month) stay. Afterwards, they'll move home with you. Stay for Christmas, if necessary. Come on holiday. Fly round the world to business meetings if you're feeling wobbly.

Even better, there's a private chef, nutritionist, mindfulness coach, yoga guru and a holistic therapist specialising in massage, beauty and aromatherapy. Oh yes, and a weekly bill of between £45,000 and £150,000. A full treatment programme can easily top £1 million, particularly if you choose to continue your recovery (with medical team in tow) in the company's castle or island.

'We have a vast "menu of services" and nothing is off limits — so long as it's good for you,' says CEO Paul Flynn, 45.

It all came about because, as Paul puts it: 'The super rich weren't getting the service they wanted or desperately needed — bespoke wrap-around care that focuses as much on the long-term recovery as the treatment.'

Addcounsel is co-owned and was co-founded by Paul (a former recruitment executive, who sold his company for 'a lot') and Michael Ishmail, 47, clinical director. The third wheel, Jonathan Edgeley, 42, is the relationship director, who deals with the money.

All three are sharply dressed and sport very white teeth and ostentatious watches. 'You have to look the part,' explains Jonathan. All have enjoyed the cushion of wealth and experienced the desperation of addiction.

Paul has been clean for 12 years, but, previously drank and snorted 'a lot' of the £30,000 he earned a week on three-day benders. 'I regularly got through 10 grams of cocaine on my own in a weekend,' he says.

Michael, who grew up in the family pubs and wine bar business, had no 'off switch' — a couple of drinks and he'd 'get the flavour — for anything!' Jonathan is also in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction.

They based their operations, or 'urban recovery' as they call it, in London because it's the third richest wealth pool in the world. According to a report published this month, Britain is now home to more than 2.4 million dollar millionaires, more than any other European country.

'Treatment shouldn't feel like a punishment,' says Michael. 'These people are used to nice things. They're used to butlers and beauticians and deep luxury, so that's what we give them, along with the world's best medical practitioners.' But only after the money is safely in the bank.

'Nothing starts without the money,' says Paul. 'And we won't deal with insurers, because they only cover the first 28 days. This is for very rich people only.'

We're all familiar with the sad stories of troubled banking heir Matthew Mellon, who died of a heart attack earlier this year after taking hallucinogenic drugs; the desperate plight of Tetrapak billionaire Hans Rausing and his late wife Eva; even sordid tales of billionaire shopping addicts splurging millions in Harrods on tasteless bling in an afternoon.

But it's still hard to comprehend what the rarefied 1 per cent could possibly have to worry about.

According to Addcounsel GP Dr Amarjit Raindi, being filthy rich can be just as bad for your mental health as living in poverty, but for different reasons.

The super wealthy tend to have few friends and those they do have are often more like paid staff — there for the trappings. Many live in a bubble, terrified of kidnap, neurotic about cyber attacks and everyone constantly trying to rip them off, and unable to form strong relationships or trust others.

Some inherit or marry into wealth, which can cause issues with lack of purpose and self-worth and a feeling of inadequacy.

Others are CEOs with incredibly powerful, often isolating, jobs. Others are entrepreneurs, self-made billionaires.

All are used to everyone obeying them, but having few people to spend normal time with and often — particularly in the case of entrepreneurs — once the money's been made, the sense of purpose disappears.

Dr Thomas Dannhauser, a 'neuro feedback practitioner' who helps to train patients' brains to say 'no', tells of one recent patient who was an entrepreneur in his early 50s.

For years he worked like a madman until, in 2012, he made it big and is now unimaginably rich.

So today, instead of money worries, he has 100 security staff and has to split his time between London, Ibiza and the U.S. for tax reasons. 'He became depressed and anxious and turned to drink,' adds Michael. 'All that money didn't stop him having five-day blackouts.'

Too often, the family is the problem, particularly with inherited wealth. 'The loneliness often stems from childhood,' says Natasha Presley, the clinical operations manager. 'Many are brought up by nannies and sent to boarding school and feel abandoned.'

While Paul and Michael are the initial point of contact for the patient, Jonathan deals with the person, institution, or often family member who is paying Addcounsel's enormous bill. 'The family has two roles — to love and pay,' says Paul. 'They're not always able to do the love bit, but they can usually pay.'

The minute the money's been transferred, the team is assembled from an army of 57 professionals and treatment can begin, usually the same day.

The first week, a detox, is the worst. The shock of being hauled out of your glossy life, suddenly not being able to order people around, not being in control, doesn't always bring the best out in patients.

Not least because, for many, it's the first time anyone has said no to them for a very, very long time.

'We have people so used to running everything — CEOs, entrepreneurs — so we have to be very clear from the start: we are in charge. Some of our patients can be quite dramatic and entitled,' adds Michael. 'Sometimes I have to remind people that I'm not the hired help. I can't be bought. None of our staff can be bought.'

All staff are meticulously recruited to the highest standards. 'Confidentiality is everything,' says Paul. 'Each patient is given a number and we never use their name in any correspondence.'

They must also be flexible, compassionate and unfazed by extreme wealth. And just to make sure, they take precautions. 'We had a client with a ridiculous collection of classic cars, hundreds of them. So we put a recovery manager in with no interest in cars at all,' he adds.

'They have to have the right personality,' says Natasha Presley. 'Confident, resourceful, with a sense of humour and absolutely not the matronly sort'.

They also need stamina. Five days with no break is a long time to spend with anyone, let alone a high-maintenance recovering addict. At least there are plenty of distractions, not least endless therapists turning up.

David Behrens, a mindfulness coach who spent 27 years living as a monk in India, comes twice a week to teach the patients how to better manage their minds for a successful recovery. 'In addiction we lose a sense of who we are,' he says. 'So we need to navigate the new discovery of self.'

One member of staff is a golf pro who will help you hone your swing while you recover. Wilderness experts can take you on nature walks round Hyde Park, equine therapists will teach you calm using retired racehorses.

Nadeem Leigh does music therapy — so if you're a frustrated pop star, he'll come round with his guitar to jam with you. He'll even help you write your own songs.

'If someone says they've always wanted to be a DJ, we'll get someone round in 24 hours to set up the decks,' says Paul.

But even with all that on tap, after a month or two in London, most patients start get itchy feet. So the Premium Bespoke service provides an option to relocate — along with your entire medical team — somewhere else.

Currently on offer are a stately home in the north of England where you can go for bracing walks in the hills. Or perhaps head to Tagomago, Europe's second largest private island, just off the coast of Ibiza, ideal if you fancy a bit of spirituality and tranquillity.

For the more historically and culturally minded, there's a castle. 'It's big, but we contain it responsibly,' says Paul. 'We don't want you to throw yourself off the turrets! And the recovery manager will always be there.'

Specific clients bring their own problems. Some need to be 'vanished' from the public eye to what staff call a 'breakout space', possibly the castle or private island from day one, because they are just too recognisable, too famous, to risk being seen.

Others present such security risks that they bring vast security teams who then have to work with Addcounsel's own security force (all former police officers).

In the two years since they launched, Addcounsel have treated 12 patients, most presenting with mental health issues with a history of substance abuse. Which doesn't seem like many, but given the astronomical cost, is plenty.

They claim to have a 90 per cent success rate (thanks largely to the aftercare) and generally have three or four patients — mostly men, mostly over 35 years old on their books at any one time.

If the nursing job sounds tough, think of the poor recovery managers, who move in for at least a fortnight at a time.

John Felgate, formerly a City broker and drug and alcohol addict and 20 years sober, spent last Christmas with one of his rich charges at their stately home in the north of England.

'It can be very full-on. We do everything together. Talk, weep, play,' he says.

But he insists no one has ever been violent and he finds something to love in everyone. 'I've never struggled to like any of them — you can't have anything but sympathy for these people.'

Wherever his patient goes, John goes too. His job is to protect the patient from: themselves, their security staff (often part of the problem) and, most of all, their family, who are necessarily involved in the treatment plan.

When the patient finally goes home, the recovery manager goes ahead to sweep the house for drugs, booze, anything that might cause a problem.

Some keep drugs everywhere — in drawers, shirt pockets, trousers, cupboards. 'In one house there were drugs everywhere. It took two or three weeks to clear it all out,' says Michael.

Eventually — it might take six months, it might be a year — the recovery manager's involvement will taper off and the patient will be discharged and left to resume their life, hopefully happier, healthier and nicer.

And, of course, a good £1 million or so lighter of pocket. But then who cares if you're a billionaire?

© Daily Mail


RE 

uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

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Associated Newspapers Limited

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Document DAIM000020181028eeat00008


SE Travel Desk; SECTTR
HD We'll Be Landing in, Oh, About 18 Hours
BY By ELAINE GLUSAC
WC 1129 words
PD 28 October 2018
SN The New York Times
SC NYTF
ED Late Edition - Final
PG 6
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Last Thursday, the world's longest nonstop flight -- a 9,534-mile, 18-and-a-half-hour journey from Singapore to Newark on Singapore Airlines' new Airbus A350-900 Ultra Long Range aircraft -- touched down, raising the bar for super-long-haul travel, which most industry experts define as any flight over 8,000 miles one way.

New, lighter and more fuel efficient, dual-engine aircraft -- including the Airbus models and Boeing's Dreamliner -- make flying for nearly a day economically viable as the number of ultra-long-haul flights increases.

TD 

Singapore's new route, which takes 18 hours and 45 minutes in the opposite direction, isn't the only rear-numbing new itinerary. In March, Qantas Airways launched a London-to-Perth route. It is the third longest flight at about 9,000 miles, according to the aviation industry consultancy OAG, after Qatar Airways's Doha-Auckland route. In September, Cathay Pacific Airways began flying 8,153 miles, its longest route, between its base in Hong Kong and Washington, D.C. In late November, Air New Zealand plans to add service between Auckland and Chicago, its longest flight at a distance of about 8,200 miles.

As flight times grow, carriers are experimenting with everything from healthy menus to onboard gyms to make almost 20 hours in the air more bearable. Business classes are the beneficiaries of most of the new investment. Some airplanes, like Singapore Airlines' new craft, contain only business (a recent round-trip fare was $5,000) and what are called premium economy seats ($1,498 round-trip in December), which are more spacious than standard coach. But across the industry, even regular economy passengers will find extra perks.

Healthier and better-timed food

Business-class fliers on Singapore Airlines from Newark can still get dishes by its partner chef, Alfred Portale, of Gotham Bar and Grill, but with its new Newark-Singapore route, the airline is introducing meal options created by the spa Canyon Ranch. Available in both classes of service, the dishes might include prawn ceviche (170 calories), seared organic chicken and zucchini noodles (370 calories) and lemon angel food cake (140 calories).

Working with researchers from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Center, Qantas offers lemon and ginger kombucha, wake-up shots of probiotic-infused juice and sleep-inducing tea in its top two classes. In addition, meals are delayed upon take off to align closer to meal times at the destination to help travelers adjust to time-zone changes.

And then there's food on demand. Rather than requiring passengers to climb over sleeping neighbors to reach the galley for a Coke mid-flight (not necessarily bad, from a movement perspective), Air New Zealand will allow passengers on its newest super long-haul flight to order snacks via the touch-screen entertainment system.

Relaxation, hydration, yoga and sleep strategies

Well-being exercises on some of the new long-haul flights go beyond the extend-and-flex directions of older exercise programs. In some cases, they are beginning before passengers even get on the plane.

When it launched its Perth-London route earlier this year, Qantas created a new transit lounge at the Perth airport for business class travelers featuring stretching and breathing classes offered every 15 minutes, bathrooms with light therapy in the shower suites designed to help travelers adjust to time changes, and a hydration station with fruit-infused water and herbal tea. An open-air terrace is open to fliers in all classes of travel.

Earlier this year, Cathay Pacific joined with the international yoga studio Pure Yoga to launch a new in-flight wellness program called Travel Well with Yoga. Six videos feature yoga and meditation exercises to improve circulation, mobility and relaxation.

Singapore Airlines' partnership with Canyon Ranch extends to guided stretching exercises demonstrated by the spa's exercise physiologists in videos on the seat back entertainment systems. The onboard e-library also includes suggested sleep strategies, and fliers who download the airline's app may receive push notifications with the advice.

Gyms, bars and nurseries

As far back as 2005, according to reporting in the Guardian, Richard Branson touted the advent of casinos, gyms and beauty salons on aircraft, which never fully materialized. More recently, the Middle Eastern carriers, including Etihad Airways, which sells an apartment-like suite, and Emirates, which offers showers, have offered deluxe amenities in their highest service classes.

Now Qantas aims to reimagine how aircraft cabins are designed to include, possibly, bars, children's nurseries and exercise areas. Its new exploratory program called Project Sunrise has challenged aircraft makers to design planes that could fly more than 20 hours between Sydney and London or New York by 2022. The airline is exploring how it can convert space not suited to seats into bars, stretching zones and work and study areas.

In part the efforts are motivated by Australia's remote locale relative to other major airports. ''We're not a hub carrier, we're an end-of-line carrier,'' said Phil Capps, the head of customer experience at Qantas. ''We have to take the customer more seriously than other carriers might in global hubs.''

Sleeping and sitting (more comfortably) in coach

The most exciting onboard amenities that have been proposed, such as gyms, tend to be restricted to business and first-class fliers, and most analysts think such offerings, if they can't be monetized, won't fly. But Qantas is also considering repurposing part of its cargo holds on long-haul aircraft, and converting them to economy sleeping bunks and areas for passengers to walk around and stretch their legs.

When Air New Zealand begins its service between Chicago and Auckland with the Dreamliner 787-9 V2, the 15- and 16-hour flights, depending on the direction of travel, will include two coach classes. In Premium Economy, 33 seats will offer 41- to 42-inch seat pitch, leg and foot rests. In the 215-seat economy cabin, the Economy Skycouch combines three seats sold together with leg rests that extend 90-degrees up to create a five-foot, one-inch couch for a more comfortable place to sleep.

The growth of long-haul routes has even revived dreams of supersonic travel 15 years after the Concorde was canceled. In Denver, a company called Boom is building a supersonic 55-seat plane that it aims to begin testing next year that would eventually fly from New York to London in 3 hours and 15 minutes, rather than 7 hours.


ART 

From top: Singapore Airlines new craft can stay airborne longer; Qantas's new lounge in Perth; lighter meal for long Singapore flights. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY SINGAPORE AIRLINES; QANTAS)

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airnz : Air New Zealand Ltd | cathp : Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd | qatair : Qatar Airways Company Q.C.S.C | sia : Singapore Airlines Limited | tmasek : Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd

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iairtr : Air Transport | itsp : Transportation/Logistics | i75 : Airlines | i7501 : Passenger Airlines

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gtour : Travel | gcat : Political/General News | glife : Living/Lifestyle

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singp : Singapore | waustr : Western Australia | usnj : New Jersey | apacz : Asia Pacific | asiaz : Asia | ausnz : Australia/Oceania | austr : Australia | namz : North America | seasiaz : Southeast Asia | usa : United States | use : Northeast U.S.

IPD 

Travel Desk

PUB 

The New York Times Company

AN 

Document NYTF000020181028eeas0005t


SE LIVING & ARTS
HD Buyer's Edge Where can I find it?
BY Sabine Morrow (include
CR For the AJC, Staff
WC 542 words
PD 28 October 2018
SN The Atlanta Journal - Constitution
SC ATJC
ED Main
PG E11
LA English
CY Copyright (c) 2018 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, All Rights Reserved

LP 

I need your help in finding canned squash. I have used this product for several years when I lived in New York and New Hampshire. I now live in Georgia and can't find it.Please help. It really doesn't matter what brand and I really can't remember what I usually used. It makes great yeast rolls for the holidays! Thank you. -- Nina Gillcash, email

Nina, trust me, you will be able to find canned squash in Georgia. Since I'm not sure what you bought up North, I'm going to steer you to a canned squash that you can easily use for your holiday yeast rolls. You can find Farmer's Market organic butternut squash in 15-ounce cans for $2.79 at Sprouts Farmers Market, 1845 Piedmont Ave., Atlanta, 404-751-0605.

TD 

I love your article and make it one of my first reads when I open the Sunday paper. I am a retired professor who has number of hardback text and reference books that are 20-plus years old. Is there someplace where I can donate these books?They probably would not be needed in current classrooms but perhaps some use can be made of the binders. Thank you for your attention to this matter. -- Jacqueline Michael, Villa Rica

Thanks so much for reading, Jacqueline. There are several organizations that accept textbooks. Locally, you can take your books to the Douglas County Public Library, 6810 Selman Drive, Douglasville, 770-920-7125. The library has a green dropoff bin in the rear parking lot where you can place books any time. The dropoff point belongs to Better World Books. This organization gathers all types of books and sells them online, raising funds for various nonprofit literacy organizations. Books not sold are donated to a non-profit partner or get recycled. To find one of the many other local drop-off points, go to betterworldbooks.com/go/donate. I keep reading that apple cider vinegar is good for gut health, and I'd like to try the flavored sipping vinegars by Vermont Village. Are they available locally? -- Bob Carter, email

Bob, yes, you can find several flavors of Vermont Village sipping and drinking vinegars at most Walmart stores, including the location at 2525 N. Decatur Road, Decatur, 404-464-4480.Vermont Village raw, organic apple cider sipping vinegars come in 8-ounce glass bottles for $2.98 each, and flavors include blueberries-and-honey, ginger-and-honey and cranberries-and-honey. Vermont Village also offers drinking organic apple cider vinegar in lemon-mint and lime-ginger flavors. The 14-ounce bottles sell for$1.98, and each bottle is considered one serving since the drinking vinegars are more diluted than the sipping versions.

Having trouble finding a particular item?We'll try to help you locate it.Because of the volume of mail, we cannot track down every request. Write to us at Buyer's Edge Find It, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 223 Perimeter Center Parkway N.E.,Atlanta, GA 30346; email sabinem.

your name, the city you live in and a daytime phone number).


CT 

For Reprints in the Original Format: http://www.ajc.com/info/content/services/info/reprint2.html[http://www.ajc.com/info/content/services/info/reprint2.html]

CO 

chazsp : Sprouts Farmers Market Inc.

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i64 : Retail/Wholesale | i641 : Food Retailing | i6411 : Supermarkets/Grocery Stores | i654 : Specialty Retailing | iretail : Retail

NS 

nlet : Letters | ncat : Content Types | nfact : Factiva Filters | nfce : C&E Exclusion Filter | niwe : IWE Filter | nrgn : Routine General News

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usga : Georgia (US) | atlnt : Atlanta | usa : United States | namz : North America | uss : Southern U.S.

PUB 

Cox Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

AN 

Document ATJC000020181028eeas00012


SE A-Section
HD 'I could not grasp how I had fallen so far, so fast, and so hard'
BY Lori Teresa Yearwood
WC 6292 words
PD 28 October 2018
SN The Washington Post
SC WP
ED FINAL
PG A01
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

LP 

After nearly two years of homelessness, I could no longer bear sleeping, let alone bathing, in the shelter where I had spent too many nights. Its shower stalls were often littered with used toilet tissue and tampons. Drug paraphernalia - needles and syringes - were sometimes strewn across the bathroom floors. On the night that I found human feces smeared across the stall where I was attempting to clean myself, I walked out of the shelter and started sleeping on a bench in a park near downtown Salt Lake City.

My bathing spot: a rushing river that ran through Memory Grove Park. On a September morning in 2016, I took off my clothes and entered the freezing water.

TD 

As I dried off with a T-shirt and got dressed, I remembered how, not so long ago, I had bathed in privacy and peace, in a porcelain claw-foot tub in my own farmhouse.

Exhausted and hungry, I began walking toward a nearby church that offered free coffee and sack lunches when a police officer commanded me to stop.

"Someone saw you bathing naked and called the police," he said.

I stood in front of him, my hair sopping wet.

"You have done this more than once," he said.

Passersby stared at the spectacle of the police officer arresting me, a garbage bag with my belongings at my feet. I felt deep shame, but I did not respond. Except for perfunctory answers to mandatory questions - such as name, age and Social Security number - I mostly stopped talking when I became homeless. What I had to say no longer seemed to matter.

It had not always been this way. I grew up with loving parents who worked hard so that I could attend the best schools. I graduated from college with honors and went on to a successful career as a full-time journalist who had been published in Oprah Winfrey's magazine. Later, I became a business owner and, for nearly a decade, lived on a mountainside ranch where my horses roamed freely.

Then, suddenly, my life spiraled away from me, and I lost everything. For the first time, I became surrounded by crime and abuse and insanity. The trauma I suffered before the homelessness, followed by the trauma of homelessness itself - which included physical, psychological and sexual abuse - left me numb and defenseless.

By the time the police officer found me after I had bathed in the river, I had been held hostage, beaten and repeatedly threatened with rape by a transient man. I had also, on numerous occasions, been locked up in hospital psychiatric wards and the county jail.

At 52, I could not grasp how I had fallen so far, so fast, and so hard.

If you had passed me on the streets of Salt Lake City during the two years I was homeless, you would have seen someone who appeared to fit a dehumanizing stereotype: a woman who huddled in the corners of public buildings to keep warm and wandered around silent and with eyes averted, mostly detached from the world around her. Today, 23 months since I emerged from homelessness and began restoring my life, I am uniquely able and eager to tell the story of how I got there and how I managed to get out. It's a story about a devastating collapse that often occurs before homelessness, and the particular brutality of life as a homeless woman. And it's a story that comes with a warning.

As someone who had a stable, prosperous life before the plates shifted, I am here to tell you that denying it could ever happen to you may not save you. It did not save me.

That fall morning at the river, the police officer handcuffed me and drove me to the county jail, where I spent the next six months in a cell on charges of public lewdness. Aside from thanking the guards and inmates when they put my meals through the slot in my door, I remained in my silence.

I had yet to experience failure

I was a 34-year-old reporter at the Miami Herald in 2000 when my father died of cancer. Emboldened by my inheritance, I quit the paper and co-founded a nonprofit children's writing organization. After a couple of years, I decided to move to Oregon to pursue a dream of working as a freelance journalist and living on a ranch with horses.

Looking back, I wish I hadn't abandoned a stable job with benefits to move to a place where I knew almost no one. But I had yet to experience failure.

For as long as I can remember, I have had the gift of being able to understand and comfort horses. I bought my first horse, Vashka - a beautiful white Arabian with a long, flowing mane and pale eyelashes - while still in Florida. After I settled on a ranch I purchased in southern Oregon in 2004, Vashka and I would race through trails and streams and surrounding mountains. I later bought him a friend, a beautiful black filly I named Raya.

After Vashka almost died in 2006 from eating the high-sugar grasses on my property, I founded a company that made treats for sugar-sensitive horses. By that time, a promising book project I had been working on had fallen apart, and I decided to devote everything I had to the company, spending long hours each day baking and shipping treats and managing the website.

In the years before the housing market crashed, it wasn't difficult to find banks that would allow me to refinance, and so I took advantage of the easy credit to keep it going, until, finally, I was living off credit cards.

In 2008, the bank foreclosed on my house. I rented a tiny carpentry shed on my mother's property next door, where I worked and lived for five years.

By the spring of 2013, I had built enough of a customer base to contract with a professional bakery in Eugene, Ore., and I moved with my animal family - which by then also included three cats and two dogs - to a sheep farm, where I rented a little cottage.

On May 9, just two weeks after I moved in, I was lying in bed about 11 p.m. when I heard a snapping sound that seemed to be coming from the wall behind me. I got out of bed to peer into the adjacent kitchen. Flames were jutting out of the wall. I ran to the sink and began filling pots with water to throw at the fire. Then I grabbed my pets, one by one, and tossed them out the front door.

I ran next door to my landlord's house and banged on her door. She ran back with me and dashed into the smoke-filled house. A few minutes later, I found her seemingly paralyzed with shock in the burning kitchen and pulled her out before the fire consumed the house.

I lost everything, save for my animals and the clothes I was wearing. Fortunately, my mother said I could move back onto her property. Her ranch was too far from the bakery for me to continue contracting with it, so I went back to baking the horse treats myself. By that point, I had not had a day off work in seven years.

About six months later, my mother found out she had late-stage cancer. Looking back, I remember her complaining of not feeling well, but as a devout Christian Scientist, she believed prayer could overcome any physical travail. In her final days that December, I sat by her bed and held her hand as her mouth contorted in a soundless scream.

I didn't have much time to grieve. There was a reverse mortgage on her property, and I needed to leave. One of my most loyal customers invited me to rent a room in her house on a 100-acre ranch. I moved in with my animals on Christmas Day 2013.

Still, my life kept unraveling.

Luna, my beloved beagle, received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Emotionally and physically spent, I put my struggling company up for sale and attempted to resurrect my career in journalism. No one made any offers, and my writing website and job applications were ignored.

Unable to pay my rent, my housemate understandably asked me to move out, and I turned over to her ownership of my horses, my horse trailer and all my horse accessories.

I had taken care of Vashka for 16 years and I had raised Raya since she was six months old.

"Thank you," I said as I stroked their manes one last time.

On that same day in July, I buried Luna. Then I drove away.

I was estranged from my half-siblings and had no extended family to turn to. My friends told me they had done all they could to help me and were facing their own pressures. I couch-surfed at friends of friends' homes before someone suggested I travel to Utah to stay at a spiritual retreat. Eventually, I had to leave there, too. By the time I wound up at a hotel in Salt Lake City, the only thing left of my belongings was a beautiful soft, tan leather satchel with brass clasps that had belonged to my mother, and a few bags of clothes.

On Nov. 18, 2014, 18 months after the fire that essentially destroyed my livelihood, I was unable to foot the hotel bill and the manager called the police. An officer then called for a taxi to take me to the city's shelter and I stuffed what little I still possessed into my satchel and walked out to the curb.

Far from the comfort I had known

The taxi driver stopped at the entrance to the Road Home, a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City. As I climbed out of the car, clothes and hangers spilled out of my bag and onto the street.

"You sure got some good taste!" a woman yelled as I picked up my things.

The curbs and sidewalks around the shelter's entrance were crowded with knots of people, sitting or splayed on the ground. The acrid smell of urine wafted through the air.

Inside, a shelter employee told me that all the beds were taken for the night. I would have to sleep on a cot in the hall, beneath a strip of fluorescent lights.

"Keep an eye on your things," he warned as he ushered me into a world so far from the comfort I had always known.

In that other life, I had thought homeless shelters were places of refuge. The Road Home, though, turned out to be an intensified replication of the chaos on the streets - the same desperation, the same violence - concentrated in a single building.

The women in that shelter were so afraid of having their belongings stolen by other residents that they lay in their beds with their shoes on and their backpacks rolled beneath their heads. Every few hours, security guards patrolled the rooms.

Sleep was rare. The fluorescent lighting was merely dimmed at night in an attempt to cut down on theft and violence.

Many nights, when the beds were full, I, along with dozens of other women, curled up on the tiled floors in the laundry and family rooms on thin rubber mats, inches apart from one another. Angry residents slammed bathroom and dormitory doors throughout the night. (Shelter management later told The Post that steps have since been taken to improve conditions.)

Sleep deprivation, I was to learn, plagues people living in homelessness, compounding the effects of trauma and mental illness and thwarting our ability to put our lives back together.

As though that weren't enough, I also was negotiating my way through my new surroundings without the ability to see more than a few feet in front of me. Terribly nearsighted, I had not been able to afford eyeglasses since I left Oregon six months earlier. Everything merged into an almost indistinguishable blur of color and I stumbled on uneven ground, sometimes even over cracks in the sidewalk. Once, I fell into a heap in the street because I could not see the curb.

I closed my eyes and prayed

In the traumatic months after my mother died, I had begun convincing myself that the tsunami of destruction that was engulfing my life was God's will for me. Now, I latched on to this coping mechanism, dissociating from my body and creating an elaborate world inside my mind in which things made sense. If I continued to learn the lessons God put before me, even the extreme lessons of homelessness, He would lead me out, I told myself. In the face of unbearable uncertainty, surrender seemed to be the only tactical move I had left.

This kind of broken passivity was often mirrored around me. Once, as I was waiting in line for coffee, I witnessed a man walk up to another man and kick him in the groin for no apparent reason. The man who was assaulted crumpled over but did not otherwise react, and his assailant sauntered away as though nothing had happened.

I closed my eyes and prayed. I prayed in parks. I prayed at the library. I prayed in churches.

I was always on the lookout for the ways in which God might be showing me love even in my difficult circumstances. I thanked the shelter employees who sometimes handed me an extra blanket and the volunteers in the food lines who gave me an extra muffin or glass of juice.

Just a few weeks after I arrived at the shelter, I was standing in line at the outreach center across the street when a man walked up to me, bowed in a gentlemanly way, and offered me a pair of gloves. It was December and snowing, and I didn't have a winter coat, let alone a pair of gloves.

No one had ever hurt me before

The man, who appeared to be in his 50s, was lean and very muscular and wore a red bandanna on his head. He introduced himself as John and told me that God wanted him to extend kindness to me. (I am still too fearful to report him to police, so will refer to him in this story by his first name only.)

That day, John took me to breakfast at a nearby Denny's. I remember how hungry I was for good food, how I relished the hot eggs and sausage. He wanted to move to Seattle, he told me, but he had fallen on hard times and was temporarily in Salt Lake City, working nearby and living in the men's homeless shelter. I nodded and offered a few words in response, thanking him for the meal.

In the beginning, John stood outside the doors of the women's shelter, waiting for me to emerge every morning. Then he would walk me to the library, where homeless people went to stay warm after the shelter ushered us out every day at 8.

He lent me his duffel bag after the clasp on my satchel broke, but it was too small to hold all my belongings so he offered to keep my other things in his storage unit a few blocks away from the shelter.

On a spring day in 2015, I went into the dimly lit rented unit - about the size of a very small bedroom - to retrieve my belongings. John quickly pulled down the metal door and locked me inside with him.

I told him I wanted to leave, but he stretched out his arms and blocked me. When I tried to shove him away, he grabbed me so tightly that he left black and blue marks on my arms. Then he told me not to move and rubbed himself against me.

I was overwhelmed by fear and confusion. No one had ever hurt me before. I remember John screaming vile things. I remember him overwhelming me physically to keep me from escaping. I remember him making up a bed of old plastic saying it was for us to share. I don't remember much else.

Finally, John told me I could go and rolled open the door. I asked a man on the street what day it was. Friday, he said. Two days had passed.

Any vestiges of mental health I possessed had been stripped away. I stopped talking after that, retreating into my mind to a God whom I saw as the source of everything, including all my trials - even John.

I had relied throughout life on my faith on the existence of a higher power that gives meaning to life, partly influenced by my parents' beliefs. This reliance grew more fervent after the fire, when to cope with my trauma I began turning obsessively to "A Course in Miracles" published by the Foundation for Inner Peace, an enduringly popular self-help book that emphasizes forgiveness as a means to spiritual transformation.

I made sense of John's constant surveillance and abuse by believing that this God wanted me to endure lessons in forgiveness involving John. If I succeeded, I thought, God would somehow intercede on my behalf and lift me out of homelessness.

A few months later on a rainy summer day, I was lying on the ground in the park in back of the Salt Lake City library, praying, when John suddenly appeared.

"Follow me," he beckoned. Every instinct I had argued against doing so, but I believed God wanted me to push past my fears to trust Him completely, and so I mechanically obeyed.

John led me to an apartment that he had secured through stints as an itinerant construction worker and, once inside, screamed at me to take off my clothes. I stripped down to my underwear and he pushed me into a chair and cut off my bra and underwear with scissors. Then he told me to hug him. When I hesitated, he pushed his fingers into my lower lip until I bled.

"Now I am going to cut your hair off," he said, as he wielded an electric razor over me.

I was sitting on the edge of his bed, naked and with half of my hair missing, my lips black and blue, when the doorbell rang. John yelled at the man to come in, and the two of them chatted casually, as though I did not exist.

"Looks like you are going to be at this for a while," the man said before leaving.

That night, John whipped me with a rope, kicked me with his steel-toe work boots and made me stand for hours on end in front of him. I prayed harder than I had ever prayed until he finally said I could go. I reached for my clothes.

"No, you must go naked," he told me.

So I did. A man in a truck in the parking lot handed me a long sweatshirt. I put it on and walked to the homeless shelter, many miles away. People looked at me - a badly bruised woman wearing nothing but a sweatshirt in the middle of the night - and then they looked away. I talked to God on my way back. I told Him that I was tired and that I needed His help.

When I arrived at the shelter, a woman behind the front counter handed me a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and shoes. She did not ask what had happened to me.

"I'm sorry," I prayed to God the next morning, tears streaming down my face, "I can't go on like this."

As John continued to stalk and dominate me, I waited for God to give me a sign that I had earned my deliverance. Convinced for the moment that He had heard my prayers, I mustered the strength to tell John on a January afternoon in 2016 that I was never going to spend time with him again.

John appeared to accept it. Then he ordered me to take off my shoes. I robotically obeyed, believing it was what God wanted, and John followed me as I walked, intermittently shoving me into bushes as I made my way to a church about a mile away.

Confused and distraught

After that, John vanished from my life. I thought at the time that my prayers had been fulfilled, but I later learned that he was most likely working construction in a nearby town. He had not disappeared for good, and my trials were not over.

One afternoon in the spring, I was sitting cross-legged in front of a fireplace in the library when a homeless man came up behind me and cupped his hands around my breasts. Another time, as I was standing in front of a fountain outside the library, one of the men from the storage unit where John had held me hostage hugged me and wouldn't let go for many seconds after I tried to pull away. Then, as I was praying in a park near the Road Home, still another stranger walked up to me, stooped down as if he was going to talk to me, and grabbed one of my breasts.

None of this had happened when John was around, and I later learned why: Being homeless is like living in a very small town, and people run into one another constantly. It's typical for a man to "claim" a woman, and for the other men to see that and stay away. With John gone, the homeless men thought it was open season on me.

"If one more person touches me, I am going to die," a woman in the Road Home yelled from one of the bunk beds in the middle of the night.

I listened with sympathy, my words by now gone. But for the first time, I felt a kinship with the other homeless women who talked about encounters with abuse like mine.

Later I would learn that women account for about 40 percent of the homeless population and are the fastest-growing segment of it. A survey of nearly 300 homeless women conducted by medical researchers over several years and published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2014 found that just under a third of the women reported that they had recently experienced physical violence, and the same proportion said they had recently experienced sexual violence. When asked whether they had recently been the victims of "emotional violence," such as aggressive threats, about two-thirds of them said yes. The same study also found that homeless women are more apt to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, sometimes caused by abuse suffered before their homelessness, but also often as a result of their experiences on the streets, making it even more difficult for them to fend off abuse and get out of homelessness.

Although I didn't talk to anyone about it, I was becoming increasingly confused and distraught. I thought I had done everything God wanted me to do. Yet He still had not released me from my nightmare. I convinced myself that there must be another test I needed to pass. Only in retrospect would I see that the creation of this intricate and irrational spiritual construct was my attempt to establish some sense of control in an insanely chaotic environment - an environment in which I felt like a worthless object.

All my life, I had been incredibly shy and self-conscious about my body. Even my mother had told me as an adult that it would "be okay to show your body a little more."

Now I would show God that I would trust Him completely, I thought.

On April 3, 2016, according to my psychiatric records, I undressed and laid naked on a grassy embankment by the side of a street.

I stayed in my silence

I was arrested and charged with public lewdness seven times in six months for either undressing in a park or in a church bathroom or, as happened on that day in the summer of 2016, to bathe in the river. Sometimes I was committed to a psychiatric ward. Other times, I was sent to jail.

Once, according to my psychiatric records, I was simply labeled as having shown "bizarre behavior." But other times I received diagnoses such as bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. Each came with medication I was forced to take, but the pills seemed to have little effect on my state of mind. I was terrified; I had never received a diagnosis of or taken medication for a serious mental illness before.

I stayed in my silence, but I wish I had talked to the doctors - told them about the fire and my mom and my horses, and John. I wish someone had helped me feel safe enough to talk about my traumas.

People have three main reactions when they suffer trauma, I would later learn: fight, flight or freeze. I froze.

This posed a significant problem: Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder can't be diagnosed on symptoms alone. A PTSD diagnosis requires the identification of an actual traumatic event.

Running back into the burning house to save my landlord would have been enough to give me PTSD, said Michael Mithoefer, a South Carolina psychiatrist I interviewed who has treated people with the disorder since the mid-1990s.

"The average person who finally gets diagnosed as having PTSD has had an average of six prior misdiagnoses," Mithoefer said.

If my PTSD had been diagnosed properly, perhaps events would have unfolded very differently. Instead, my condition worsened as I was traumatized again on the streets. At times, doctors asked whether I was inebriated. But my tests always came back negative; I am not a drinker or a drug abuser.

On Sept. 2, 2016, I began what turned into a six-month stay at the county jail to await a hearing on lewdness charges.

Even there, John's obsession with me continued: He sent me cards and letters doused with his cologne.

"You are not alone," he wrote. I pushed his cards back under my cell door.

When I walked out of my jail cell and into the courtroom the following March, I saw John sitting in the back. He had been tracking my court proceedings, a defense attorney would tell me, and he variously told that attorney that he was my "boyfriend" and "husband." The attorney offered to help me file a restraining order, but I was too afraid.

Later that day, John was waiting for me in the lobby.

"Give me a hug," he demanded.

I did. He followed me down the street and onto a public train, and he asked me to get coffee with him. "No," I said, and a look of resignation came over him and he got off the train. Many stops later, I walked back to the only place I knew to sleep: the park bench.

I needed to do something different

Two months later, in mid-May of last year, I was lying on that bench, swaddled in every piece of clothing and the one blanket I had. I could hear the clattering of a squirrel, and the sound of the rushing river, full of just-melted snow. I was so cold that I was shaking.

In my suffering, I came to a mind-stopping, heartbreaking realization: All that I thought I had to do to persuade God to release me from this horrific existence was not working. It was never going to work.

In one achingly empty moment, I allowed myself to have absolutely no idea why God would allow me to be homeless. And in the next breath, I let go of the elaborate mental construct I'd used. I stood up and looked around. I knew I needed to do something different. I just didn't know what.

I still didn't have glasses. I had no identification - it had been stolen. I did not have a penny to my name.

But I did have a memory of my previous life. It was of my father telling me that when you don't know what to do, just take a step in the direction you want to go. Then take another.

Slowly, methodically, I freed myself from the many layers of clothes: socks over socks, nylon stretch pants beneath jeans, sweaters and sweatshirts on top of T-shirts, and wool scarves wrapped around my midriff like bandages.

Down to a pair of cargo pants and a sweatshirt, I slung my garbage bag and backpack over my shoulders, and made my way through the blur of wilderness to the stream where I washed my face and brushed my teeth, and then to the park exit.

"I have obviously misunderstood You," I told God. "Help me understand what to do next."

The next morning, the idea came to me to walk to the homeless outreach center across the street from the Road Home. I hadn't been there in months and didn't want to go back. But the thought was persistent and I followed it to the doughnut line outside the center.

There, two men who volunteered for the Salt Lake City Mission, which brought the food, approached me and prayed with me.

One of them introduced me to a pastor at the Mission, a church and outreach center for the homeless. I told the pastor that I was once a professional reporter. He hired me on the spot to write for a publication called the Street News, a newspaper about people living in homelessness. As payment for my first story, the Mission bought me contact lenses.

I started to feel safe and began talking a little bit more each day. The words came out in hushed, careful tones. I had always had a confident, animated voice.

Another pastor at the church, the Rev. Shawn Clay, would later tell me: "You looked like a lost, scared kitten who was afraid to trust people. And yet there was a strength about you. I noticed that right away, too. It was like an inner reserve."

Within a week of my epiphany on the park bench, Pastor Shawn drove me to Journey of Hope, a nonprofit organization that helps harmed women start new lives, to meet its founder, Shannon Miller Cox.

Miller Cox sat across from me in her office. At first I barely spoke, but as soon as she started talking about trauma, I began sharing my story with her.

Later, in that same meeting, Miller Cox pulled up one of my old newspaper articles on her computer and said: "You're amazing. I can tell from your prior successes that once you get safe, you are going to be fine."

She told me that my empathy for women who had endured trauma and the fact that I did not suffer from addiction made me a perfect candidate to oversee a sober-living house that she and a friend were opening in suburban Salt Lake City.

In exchange for rent, I would help the house run smoothly, talk to women about their daily struggles, hold house meetings and ensure everyone stayed sober.

I remember my first shower there, which recalled for me the porcelain claw-foot tub in my farmhouse. I remember how grateful I felt to wash myself with hot water and sage-mint-scented soap. I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing me. I didn't have to worry about being arrested.

Over the next few weeks, Miller Cox did what no one else had ever done with me: She continued to ask me about my life. Finally, I began to trust her, and I told her about John. I told her how I couldn't believe I had stayed in such an abusive situation for so long. She talked about how trauma affects the brain's ability to function, substituting primitive, survival-oriented thinking for rational, higher-level decision-making. And without a safe home to provide stability, it can be all but impossible to begin healing, she said. Yet I had been blaming myself for not reacting normally.

"One hundred percent of the homeless women who come to me have been sexually assaulted," Miller Cox, a rape survivor and former police officer, told me later. "It's just a given."

I stayed in the sober living house for four months before it closed because of a lack of funding. During that time, I went to a private gathering at a woman's house. There, a college professor heard my story and invited me to live in her Airbnb for six weeks - free of charge. A few weeks later, I landed my first steady job out of homelessness, as a cashier at a grocery store, and the professor offered me a room to rent in her house. I moved in just before Christmas.

Since then, I've continued to regain my footing. In July, I was hired as a part-time program assistant. Then in September I got a second part-time job as a grant writer, allowing me to stop working at the grocery store. I've also started a nonprofit group to help prevent other women from becoming homeless. All the while, I've been writing for various publications to reestablish myself as a writer. Last month, I put down a deposit for my own apartment.

As my life moved forward, Miller Cox went to court with me to talk to a judge about my arrests.

Miller Cox told her that my case was not one of willful wrongdoing. Rather, she pointed out, I had undergone a tremendous amount of trauma, and my actions reflected that. But now I was safe and I was healing.

Six of the seven lewdness arrests were dismissed as part of a plea agreement, which required me to attend a weekly self-inquiry group, among other things. I have done so well in meeting or surpassing the court's criteria, including hiring my own therapist, that on July 20, a judge agreed to dismiss the last Class B misdemeanor six months early.

It took a full year to feel the grief and loss that I couldn't feel during my homelessness. For many months, I awoke in the middle of the night crying about my animals, particularly the horses. I have checked on them and know they're well, and I can still feel and see and smell them, as though they were standing next to me. I still sometime have panic attacks from John's abuse.

Mostly though, I experience a calming, present-moment groundedness.

Never before have I so profoundly appreciated such simple things as going to lunch with a friend or doing laundry in a washing machine. Or the softness of a real bed, next to a picture window that I can keep open without fear of violence. I have begun to sing along with the radio again, and dare to dream.

I now know there is a breaking point

Yet I am no longer the person I was before I lived in homelessness.

Back then, I believed that God or people would always be around to catch me when I fell. Although I still believe in God, my definition of that Being has changed from that of a wish-granter to something ineffable, a kind of undercurrent of support that no longer robs me of the agency I need to direct my life.

A drive to succeed, I have also learned, is not a strength when it means pushing myself beyond all reason. I now know there is a breaking point. Especially during stressful times, I must care for myself.

These days, that looks like this: I do not repress my emotions, but express myself freely to people who are supportive. I take long walks with friends. Once a week, I talk to a therapist. All of this helps me stay anchored in my body, something that is very difficult to do as a homeless person because it's too painful to feel your body when you can't house it or feed it or feel safe in it.

It's a weird feeling to live out people's worst nightmares, and to emerge from the circumstances that so many never leave. When I go to the free health clinic to get my monthly probiotics, I always see a familiar face, someone I know who is still living on the streets. We acknowledge each other with a nod, perhaps a few words. They sometimes express amazement at how much better I look, and yet I never lose sight of how thin the line is between us.

But for the grace of God.

"Shannon, why do you think I am doing so well?" I recently asked Miller Cox. "I mean, why did you think I started talking and writing and working again?"

She paused.

You were more fortunate than many homeless people. You had been successful before and you were able to tap into that well of strengths, she said. But why now, I persisted, when for nearly two years I couldn't access those strengths?

She looked at me intently, as though I should have known already.

"That's simple," she told me. "You have a home."

local@washpost.com

Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.


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SE EVENING EDGE
HD MAKE YOUR OWN CHEESE: Make great cheese, no cow needed
BY C.W.Cameron
CR For the AJC, Staff
WC 924 words
PD 25 October 2018
SN The Atlanta Journal - Constitution
SC ATJC
ED Main
PG E4
LA English
CY Copyright (c) 2018 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, All Rights Reserved

LP 

There's no question Atlanta loves cheese. More than 2,500 people attended The Cheese Fest at Old Fourth Ward Park in late September. They enjoyed an abundance of cheese with more than 75 vendors serving up everything from tiny cubes to big wedges of cheese from the folks at Murray's. For us cheese connoisseurs, it was nirvana. Nibble, chat, move on to the next cheese maker. What a way to spend an evening.

As a person who is big into do-it-yourself (I took a class at Parish many years ago just so I could learn how to make my own Worcestershire sauce, and yes, I still make it by the half gallon), I've long been interested in making my own cheese. Not that I would ever be able to produce something to rival what they create at Blackberry Farm or Sweet Grass Dairy, but just so I could understand the process and maybe make something simple but delicious.

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So in keeping with my do-it-yourself bent, I took a cheese-making class with Mary Rigdon of Decimal Place Farm. Rigdon makes a wide range of goat cheeses served at every fine dining place in town and sold to us mortals at Freedom Farmers Market. In the class, we made feta. I followed up by going to Beer & Wine Craft in Sandy Springs and purchasing vegetable rennet and bacterial starter cultures, and I made a number of batches of feta at home. Rennet helps make a cheese firm, and the cultures are necessary when you want to make something like feta or chèvre or even just cream cheese.

I've also long been curious about vegan "cheese." Atlanta is the home of Pure Abundance, a cultured and aged cashew cheese. Melanie Wade of Cultured South took over production of Pure Abundance in June 2017, and I talked with her about how that's been going.

Wade began working in the world of fermented and cultured food when she created Golda Kombucha in 2013.When she opened her kombucha taproom and fermentation marketplace this year she was ready to take on cheese.

"It seems like a simple process," she said, "but it's not. Vegan cheese is based on nuts, and nuts can be different. Some can be drier, some can be richer. That's fine if you're just making cheese at home, but we need to make a product that consistently meets our quality standards."

Another piece of the puzzle was rejuvelac, the probiotic-rich nonalcoholic fermented liquid that's used to culture nuts and seeds to so they can give the cheese a tangy flavor.Wade and her cheese makers were having trouble with the rejuvelac formula they inherited.

She said, "It wasn't buttery and creamy. It was making a sour cheese. It dawned on me, there we were in a kombucha factory.

We have hundreds of gallons of probiotic liquid all around us. We could use what we are excellent at making and incorporate it into the cheese. Now we use kombucha as the culturing agent. It produces a tanginess that's really close to cheddar cheese."

Now Wade and her cheese maker, Sarah Adams, make a double batch each week of the two varieties of Pure Abundance, Pan and Luna, and supply it to Whole Foods, Sevananda, Ancient Awakenings and their kombucha customers at local farmers markets.

If you really want to delve into the world of vegan cheese, you'll want to get a copy of "Vegan Cheese" by Jules Aron ($24.95,Countryman Press). The author walks you through making spreadable cheeses like the Boursin-style cheese we share the recipe for, but also firm cheeses that require something such as agar, tapioca or carrageenan to give them a firm consistency. That may sound daunting, but these are all ingredients you can get at your local health food store or at a market like Whole Foods. There are recipes for cheeses made from cauliflower, zucchini, sunflower seeds and Brazil nuts. It will open your eyes to a whole world of possibilities.

And finally, I recommend my "old" standby, "But I Could Never Go Vegan! 125 Recipes That Prove You Can Live Without Cheese, It's Not All Rabbit Food, and Your Friends Will Still Come Over for Dinner" by Kristy Turner ($24.95, The Experiment). It was the chapter titled "I Could Never Give Up Cheese" that sold me on the book. Its recipes for Tofu Chèvre (shared here), Pecan Parmesan and Sunflower Cheddar convinced me that yes, I could make "cheese" at home and yes, it would be delicious.

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CHEESE-MAKING CLASS For those interested in learning more about making vegan cheese, Melanie Wade and Cultured South will offer a class on making cashew-based cheese.Check the website and social for date and details. Cultured South, 1038 White St.SW.,Atlanta. culturedsouth.com

Share and save these recipes at AJC.com/food

ALSO INSIDE

" More ways to make some cheese. E5


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CHEESE-MAKING CLASS For those interested in learning more about making vegan cheese, Melanie Wade and Cultured South will offer a class on making cashew-based cheese.Check the website and social for date and details. Cultured South, 1038 White St.SW.,Atlanta. culturedsouth.com Share and save these recipes at AJC.com/food ALSO INSIDE " More ways to make some cheese. E5

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SE News; Domestic
HD ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES for October 24, 2018, MSNBC
BY Chris Hayes, Jonathan Dienst, Nick Rasmussen, Maya Wiley
WC 10092 words
PD 24 October 2018
SN MSNBC: All in with Chris Hayes
SC CHAYES
LA English
CY Content and programming copyright 2018 MSNBC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.

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CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: As I said, we will listen to the President at his coming rallies and learn if he has the interests of the country at heart or rather some other interests. And that`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us. "ALL IN" with Chris Hayes starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST: Tonight on ALL IN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of these packages contain a pipe bomb type device.

HAYES: Multiple bombs sent to multiple Democrats and CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was clearly is an act of terror.

HAYES: Tonight, what we know about who sent the explosive devices to Barack Obama, Eric Holder, George Soros, and Hillary Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: It is a troubling time isn`t it?

HAYES: And why Democrats are rejecting the President`s response based on past rhetoric.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Knock the crap out of them. I called the fake news the enemy of the people and they are.

HAYES: Plus, the under-covered story of right-wing violence in America.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The Republicans just don`t do this kind of thing.

HAYES: And 13 days from Election Day, the new biggest Republican deception to date.

TRUMP: Republicans will always protect Americans with pre-existing conditions.

HAYES: When ALL IN starts right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Good evening from New York, I`m Chris Hayes. At this hour in the wake of a series of pipe bombs being sent to targets of his personal invective and as the hunt for a likely domestic terrorist targeting Democratic politicians is underway, Donald Trump is holding a raucous campaign rally in Wisconsin where the crowd was chanting "lock her up" before he hit the stage. It was much like the event Trump held six days ago in Montana where he exuberantly praised GOP Representative Greg Gianforte for a physical, criminal assault on a journalist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Any guy that you do a body slam, he`s my guy. He is my guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Last year Trump tweeted out a video of himself body slamming and punching a man with a CNN logo in place of his head. Today, CNN`s New York newsroom was evacuated after the discovery of a package containing a pipe bomb. The bomb was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, an MSNBC and NBC News Contributor who Trump harshly attacked this summer. Those attacks were amplified and echoed over and over on Trump T.V. Federal investigators have identified five packages containing pipe bombs that appear to be substantially similar.

In addition to Brennan, the recipients included regular Trump targets, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as liberal donor George Soros who we covered yesterday and who Trump and his allies have been attacking with increasing frequency. A bomb was also sent to former Attorney General Eric Holder who has been a staple of Trump T.V.s efforts to characterize the left as wanting "mob rule." That package was sent to the wrong address. It was discovered at the district office instead of former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz whose name and address the bomber put on all of the packages as a return address.

There was also a sixth package which appears to be related to others that was addressed to another Trump target, frequent guest this show, Representative Maxine Waters of California. At this point, federal officials have not definitively linked that package to the other five. Thankfully, I should stress here, none of the bombs went off and no one was hurt. Also, an important cautionary note here, we do not know who sent these bombs.

In 2016-2017, there are roughly two thousand fake bomb threats made against Jewish institutions, the culprit turned out not to be neo-Nazis but rather an Israeli-American teen. It was a reminder we should not jump to conclusions. But here`s what we do know. The list of targets are people and institutions that are atop the enemies list of the President, his allies, and supporters. Today, Trump condemned political violence and called for unity, even as national Republicans released yet another attack ad demonizing Soros and other Democrats.

In a joint statement, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said the President`s call for unity and condemnation of violent was meaningless "President Trump`s words ring hollow until he reverses his statements that condone acts of violence. Time and time again the President has condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and his actions expressing support for the congressman who body-slammed a reporter, the neo-Nazis who killed the young woman in Charlottesville, his supporters at rallies who get violent with protesters, dictators around the world who murder their own citizens, and referring to the Free Press as the enemy of the people.

Joining me now for the latest on the investigation WNBC Chief Investigative Reporter Jonathan Dienst, also an NBC News Contributing Correspondent. First,. do we know if all the bombs have been located, the most pressing question?

JONATHAN DIENST, NBC NEWS CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT: As of now, we don`t know the answer to that question. What we do know is the five you mentioned plus the sixth with Congresswoman Waters, and then the question is, is there a seventh. The law enforcement officials we spoken to say there is concern a 7th package is out there addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and that it is being looked at and that they think the address was wrong on that package and it`s being sent back perhaps to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz office in Florida.

The search is underway for that potential package. There`s information from the Postal Service that it`s out there. They`re running trying to find it to see if that package is in fact linked to all the others and that is ongoing at this hour.

HAYES: OK. In the case of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, we do know though it is definitive that it was -- it was mailed to Eric Holder and it was an incorrect address and got returned to sender and the return dress was Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

DIENST: That`s right. All the packages had Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the sender, the suspect using her name, her office address as the return sender.

HAYES: A very strange detail and I don`t actually know if we have the illustration of it but you can tell it to me. There was a lot of people notice some kind of sticker affixed to at least one of the bombs, I don`t know if all of them.

DIENST: Right.

HAYES: You can see it right there.

DIENST: And it appeared at first, that looks like an Isis flag, an Isis terrorist symbol attached to that under closer examination. And when you spoke to law enforcement officials who confirm it, it contains the phrase, "get er done" which is made famous perhaps from the Cable Guy show --

HAYES: It says -- it says -- just to be clear, it says "get er done" in sort of faux Arabic script meant to essentially look like an Isis flag.

DIENST: Right. It`s almost like I`m making a mockery of the ISIS flag. It also contains images of women sort of --

HAYES: Silhouetted women you see on mud flaps.

DIENST: That you`d say so. That`s sort of what`s on that. Which also raises the question of are these devices in fact real. They certainly contain all the components necessary for bomb. And we heard the police commissioners say explosive device and other law enforcement. But as they look and this really will be up to the FBI, bomb techs, and the lab as they go through it on with the NYPD bomb squad, they`re going to examine to see if they were actually operational. Again, none of them as you said exploded and they contained all of the ingredients, but was it set up right.

HAYES: That`s key though. Right, so there`s a question of we`re these fakes of our prank. What we do know is that there were the components necessary to make an explosive in there. This wasn`t just a fake, right?

DIENST: That is correct.

HAYES: We don`t know if they were actually active, however.

DIENST: Were they operational, right. Were they operational, that remains to be seen.

HAYES: And the one other thing is, were these delivered through the regular mail?

DIENST: Everything we are hearing for the most part, except for maybe CNN where there`s some talk out of CNN that it was couriered over, but everything I`ve heard from law enforcement is that all the other packages they believe were sent through the mail. And you`re saying well, how can that be? It doesn`t have a postage marking from going through the postal system. These are odd shaped packages and it`s explained to the law enforcement officials from the post office, if you have an odd-shaped package, it doesn`t go through the machine, it doesn`t necessarily -- not everyone gets hand stamped. It just goes and gets delivered or returned.

I think we saw images on one of them where there is sort of like this vague marking where we`re trying to make out what it says but that`s a simple explanation of the complicated postal process --

HAYES: That was very -- that was very helpful, actually. I feel like I learned a lot from that Jonathan. Thank you very much, Jonathan Dienst. With me now for more of the investigation, MSNBC National Security and Intelligence Correspondent Nick Rasmussen, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. I guess the first question, Nick, is based on what we do know, what is the investigation and what are folks now zeroing in on to try to find the person that did this?

NICK RASMUSSEN, MSNBC NATIONAL SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Chris, and thanks for having me on. It`s important to remember that the FBI working with other federal law enforcement and with local law enforcement entities has extraordinary investigative capacity and capability. And of course, all of that right now is focused on identifying perpetrator or perpetrators. And of course, what they have right now are the devices.

And as Jonathan was reporting, there`ll be a tremendous amount of focus on learning whatever is possible, whatever can be learned from the design, the technical components, the possible lineage of where the materials might have been acquired. All of which might provide clues that start to give you something to follow in terms of identifying the perpetrator. And I think the one thing we all can be confident about with the FBI is that they can overwhelm a case like this with mass and force.

They have -- you know, I would expect by this evening there are literally hundreds of FBI Special Agents, if not thousands of special agents working the problem and starting to follow up various threads. So I have pretty high confidence that the -- that the technical forensic capability of the bureau will lead us in the direction of having answers as to the perpetrator. Now, that`s only the start of the -- of the equation of course, and there`ll be a lot to learn about that perpetrator`s mindset, his or her motives whether he`s linked to other individuals or other groups. All of those questions remain to be answered as well.

HAYES: You know, in the past, there`s two sort of very notable cases of attacks via the mail that I thought of Unabomber being one of them, and the other being the anthrax attacks 2001. In both those cases, it was hard to find the perpetrator. It`s -- it is a form of attack that people have gotten away with at least for a certain period of time, if we got better at tracing these things.

RASMUSSEN: I believe so. And of course, you`re right. You know, some of the other domestic terrorism attacks in recent years have involved individuals with a firearm, and of course, it`s much easier if someone`s willing to you know, show themselves with a firearm in it in an attack setting to figure out who the perpetrator is. But again, I would argue that the FBI`s technical capabilities and the technical ability, the forensic ability of the bureau has advanced pretty significantly in recent years.

And again, it may take time. I don`t want to overstate or understate how difficult the problem may be, but I`m pretty confident that if the -- if the grains of sand are there to be looked at, they will find -- they would use those grains of sand to find clues that will allow them to work upstream until they find this individual.

HAYES: Final and broader question here, I want to be clear that you know, politics is politics. It revolves around conflict. Politicians criticize each other all the time. They attack their political opponents and foes all the time. They do it sometimes quite strenuously. That said, as someone who worked in counterterrorism, who worked in the White House under Barack Obama and served through the President Trump before resigning, what effect do you think the President`s rhetoric has on the country and on the job, the folks in counterterrorism are trying to do?

RASMUSSEN: Wow, tough question, you know, but the one thing I think that unites individuals who would carry out an international terrorist attack and those who would carry out a domestic terror attack such as the one this seems to be, the one thing that unites them is some sense that the target of their attack is subhuman or we`ve heard the word demonized a lot but. It really is if your target is dehumanized and it doesn`t feel like violence against that target is somehow illegitimate or wrong, that`s what sets the frame or sets the stage for these kinds of attacks. And of course language like enemy of the people, language like mob, I would argue contributes to that to that setting. I don`t want to overstate it. I don`t want to you know necessarily draw a causal link between any one statement, any one remark, and what may motivate an individual, and we`re going to learn a lot about what motivated this individual, but it certainly contributes to an environment that lowers the barrier that might -- that might otherwise inhibit someone from taking action like this.

HAYES: All right, Nick Rasmussen, thank you very much for sharing all that.

RASMUSSEN: Thanks for having me on.

HAYES: Over on Trump T.V. the hosts have been relentlessly pushing the idea the viewers should vote Republican or face the "liberal mob." Last night is a network we`re pressing that narrative. My next guests appear to get quite a response when he made this point.

PHILIPPE REINES, FORMER ADVISOR OF HILLARY CLINTON: In the last ten days, Donald Trump used the name George Soros for the first time in his presidency and the guy had a pipe bomb in his mailbox last night and we`re talking about whether or not -- whether or not Sarah Sanders gets her Cornish hen.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: Whoever put a pipe bomb in George Soros`--

REINES: Why do you think -- why do you think they did? You think it was coincidence?

CARLSON: Because Trump criticized George Soros, one of the richest people in the world?

REINES: Because Donald Trump -- Donald Trump --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Joining me now, the man you saw in the clip, one of them, the one who wasn`t laughing, former Hillary Clinton Advisor Philippe Reines. The laughter there seems less funny today.

REINES: Much less funny. You know, if you and I had been talking on Monday morning, we could be having this exact same conversation. Is Donald Trump responsible for unleashing the hate and the hateful vicious violent environment that we`re living in, and I would have said then, yes. The only difference between now and Monday morning is that we`ve seen that someone has acted on it.

And I know I`m supposed to say that we don`t know who it is, we don`t know why they did it, but look --

HAYES: Well, we don`t.

REINES: We don`t. We don`t. And you know, you have people like Nick Rasmussen who are more thoughtful and you know, hold back than I do. But this isn`t John Hinckley who had some crazy fetish with Jodie Foster or the Unabomber who had some very complicated 15 yearlong hatred of industrialized America. This is someone who has weaponized Trump`s Twitter feed and made it into a hit list. And even if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, we just saw him at this rally. Even if he tones it down tonight which I doubt he will, he`ll resume tomorrow.

But what we`ve seen to date is someone who whips up the crowd. He is addicted to their response and they are response -- they are addicted to his vitriol. And while he might think that he`s just putting on good T.V., all you need is one person who doesn`t realize that, and one person who thinks it`s OK to do this. Someone tried to murder Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, two sitting members of Congress, two former cabinet officials, and a news network. This is not a coincidence. And now you`re reporting Joe Biden.

HAYES: Well, let me ask you this. I mean, I should note that before the president appeared at the rally tonight, they were already chanting locker her up, which has become obviously a kind of incantation at these events. But it seems important to me to sort of maintain the distinction between speech and violence, right?

So people say things in the context of American democratic exchange and debate, they can say that they`re, you know, they`re their political opponents represent a dire threat to the country. You can say about Exxon and fossil fuel companies that they`re literally bankrupting the future of the planet because of climate change, right? That`s distinct from whether an individual takes it upon themselves to act in a violent fashion and attributing cause is -- I just want to be careful about making that attribution.

REINES: Absolutely. And look, I hope I`m wrong. I hope a few days or a week from now this turns out to be some absolute wacko, I don`t know. But there`s a difference between -- let`s look at what happened or what the right loves to invoke which is the Steve Scalise shooting.

HAYES: Yes. You`ve never heard a single solitary Democrat saying well, Scalise voted this way, he deserves it. You just never heard one. Today, and you were showing the clip, we have Rush Limbaugh, you have Laura Loomer, Candace Owens, Ann Coulter, these people are literally saying that this is a hoax. This is a different level of vitriol and nonsense that we`ve seen. And the problem with Trump is that even if you want to give him the benefit of doubt, he has a -- there`s a second aspect to this. He has a unique opportunity and a unique responsibility to do something about this.

My voice is not equal to Donald Trump. Your voice is not equal to Donald Trump. He can say this has to stop. These are not conspiracy theories. The -- I have disagreements with John Brennan but this cannot happen. He won`t say that. The best we can hope for is that he shuts his mouth tonight and doesn`t call Maxine Waters low I.Q. or all his various other attacks.

HAYES: Well, I should know that some of them -- people you mentioned we`re not saying that the people who received the bombs deserved it but rather it was a plant and a hoax in a false flag. And one of the things is striking is the President is never more than one stone`s throw away from the most insane, fevered, and vile conspiracy theories because of what he consumes. It seems only a matter of time until that someone gets that before him.

REINES: Well, I think we need to be honest here. His -- you know I`ve been able to vote since every President, George H.W. Bush. I don`t know if you`re that much older or younger than I am. I didn`t vote for either Bush. I didn`t support the Iraq war, but I never for a moment doubted that every president before now woke up and wanted to do the right thing for the entire country. Half the country might have disagreed with them, but they wanted to.

What you have now is you have a man who wakes up and he only cares about 30 percent of America. And that 30 percent of America doesn`t want to see him try to do right by the other 70 percent and they have rationalized this entire ends has justifies the means and there is no option. They want this path of hatred and that`s the path we`re stuck on. And to compare someone sending pipe bombs to someone taking Sarah Sanders supper away is absolutely insane.

HAYES: All right, Philippe Reines, thanks for being with me.

REINES: Thank you, Chris.

HAYES: Next, while we don`t know yet who is responsible for what happened today, there is -- this is established -- there`s been a rise of right-wing violence in America with multiple cases. Just today, a far-right groups facing charges of inciting riots and assault. Those details in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIMBAUGH: Republicans just don`t do this kind of thing. Even though every event like mass shootings, remember every mass shooting there is, the Democrats in the media try to make everybody think right off the bat that some tea partier did it or some talk radio fan did it or some Fox News viewer did it. It turns out it`s never ever the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Well, not really. In the wake of a series of pipe bombings being sent to prominent Democrats, there are those on the right who want to deny any link between right-wing ideology and violence, but the evidence often suggests otherwise. Today the FBI charged four members of a white nationalist group, a violent white nationalist group The Rise Above Movement with inciting riots. The leader of the group was arrested after fleeing to Central America.

A month ago, four members of the same group were arrested in connection to the violent Charlottesville rallies last year and allegedly "assaulted an African-American man, two females and a minister wearing a clerical collar. The NYPD has now arrested half a dozen people for a street brawl after the leader of the hate group Proud Boys spoke at the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York and a bunch of his members beats people on the street outside. In April, a jury convicted three Kansas militia members who plotted a bomb an apartment complex of Somali refugees on the day after Trump`s election.

There is no ideological group in America that has a monopoly on violence. The gunman who fired on a Republican baseball practice last year had consistently espoused anti-Republican views but extremist right-wing violence is far more common, it is just a fact in this country, the domestic terror from other parts of the ideological spectrum.

Let`s bring in Jon Lovett, former Obama Speechwriter, Host of the podcast Love It Or Leave It and Pod Save America which is now a hit show on HBO, and Vanita Gupta President of Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and former Head of the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department.

It`s hard to talk about this because we do not know who did this. It`s like we know what this context of the speech is. We know who the victims were with you know, it`s a very obvious category of people. We do not know the assailant. What we do know is that there is right-wing political violence in this country that sort of grinds on beneath the headlines day in and day out.

JON LOVETT, FORMER OBAMA SPEECHWRITER: Yes. It`s also -- we have such a strange relationship to large cultural forces that create the conditions for violent people, broken people to commit acts that draw the national attention. And the fact that we don`t know in any one case what`s responsible, we find out that this is a crazy person. Will that make Donald Trump`s rhetoric less reprehensible, of course it won`t.

HAYES: Right.

LOVETT: Of course it won`t. You know, we have two things that we have to accept at once. One, that there is a problem on both sides but primarily on the right that is about stoking violence, stoking anger that contributed to death of people like Heather Heyer, that contributes to a toxic culture that goes all the way down from Breitbart, down to the to the nether regions of the right, and all the way back up to the present. It`s a huge problem. And the fact that mainstream Republicans have capitulated to it is a moral calamity that we deal with every day.

Second, we also have to deal with the fact that as a culture, we are creating -- there`s a -- there`s a deeper phenomenon in which an individual pulling a reason for whatever broken mental problem that person is dealing with, whatever narcissistic, evil, violent idiocy, they pull up that reason and then we take that reason and we make it sacrosanct.

HAYES: Right.

LOVETT: When what we`re really doing, again and again, is telling people that if you want to do something violent, you can have the national --

(CROSSTALK)

VANITA GUPTA, PRESIDENT AND CEO, LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS: Yes, look, I just think that we are in a time where the President has been using rhetoric that has been incredibly divisive, has demonized every single one of the targets that received those threats today. He`s been doing it since he was electioneering in 2016. And when I was at the Justice Department, we saw a spike in hate crimes and the FBI was recording it in part because this kind of rhetoric no matter who actually committed it today, you`ve got to acknowledge that the President has emboldened these forces of hate in division and that is why we`re now bearing the fruits of this rhetoric today. And that`s incredibly dangerous for a place to be.

HAYES: He also does something that I think no one else in public life really does which is that he praises violence.

GUPTA: Yes, well --

HAYES: At the rallies he praised violence. It knock the hell out of them. If you attack someone, I will pay your legal bills. Five days ago as President of the United States, to great hooting and hollering and whooping of everyone, praised a member of Congress for violently assaulting a reporter. Like no one else in public life does that.

GUPTA: There`s -- this is the thing. As we are at a point right now where we are so beyond the pale. I mean, you would -- a president should be setting the standard for some kind of aspirations that we set as ourselves as a country. He actively promotes this kind of stuff, the lock her up chants are ongoing today. And the reality is he may you know, condemn it in his -- in his words for like five seconds, but he immediately returns to it.

One would have hoped in this instance that as President of the United States, when people freaking out about these bomb threats, that he actually would have spoken to the country in any kind of real way to like assuage anxieties. And instead, what does he do he goes straight to a political rally where all of this stuff is just getting laid out and exacerbated over and over again.

HAYES: And he also spoke, we should say, spoke earlier at the White House in very like sort of teleprompter speech. But --

LOVETT: Fascinating, fascinating. He reads it like a hostage.

HAYES: Yes, absolutely.

LOVETT: When Donald Trump wants to cut somebody down, when he wants to make a point, nobody`s better at doing it.

HAYES: He savors it. It`s so true.

LOVETT: When it comes -- when it comes to criticizing Vladimir Putin or criticizing the Saudis, the edges disappear, right? He doesn`t -- he loses the ability to make a point.

HAYES: Such a good point. And you saw today -- and you see -- you know, we`ve got reporting from Woodward later that when he came out with his sort of take-backsides of the Charlottesville statement where he did all of the basic parts of American civic --

LOVETT: Held the today`s newspaper and read the statement.

HAYES: Yes. That he was -- after someone was murdered that he said was the worst speech that anyone made him do.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, there is --

HAYES: He hates doing it.

GUPTA: It just -- it doesn`t feel authentic.

HAYES: No.

GUPTA: And the reality is when he say that for five seconds but his actions before and then his actions later just belie it all.

HAYES: And he just said tonight and I should say this, he just said tonight there was a point and I`m just reading a report from a reporter who was there that the people started booing on the Democrats. He said -- and he said something like, you see, oh I`m being nice. You see how nice I`m being? See how nice I`m being?

GUPTA: I mean --

HAYES: We`re going to keep it that way the whole night. Like everyone understands what`s going on.

GUPTA: But Chris, can I just say -- these folks Eric Holder, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, they have families. Their -- people are freaking out. It has much larger reverberations across the country. And I think we have gotten to this place where this was all considered so legitimate and normalized but there is nothing normal about the kind of rhetoric that is coming out of the White House and out of our politics today. It is the basing, it is -- it is dangerous. And we`ve kind of like sometimes lose perspective because we`ve been hearing it for so much week after week after week and yet like what happened today --

HAYES: Feels like a wakeup call about that.

GUPTA: Yes, it`s terrifying.

LOVETT: But I still -- my fear today as I was watching this unfold, and even the way it is immediately put in a partisan lens for good reason --

HAYES: Right.

LOVETT: -- for good reason because we live in a time which Donald Trump is saying violent rhetoric all the time, I think we might look back on this moment and still feel as though we were naive, till feel as though we were silly. I mean, look at what it took for one random person to draw the national attention. Nobody got hurt today. We`re really lucky that nobody got hurt today but there is -- I think sometimes because we have lived through so much peace inside of the United States that Donald Trump may be a wake-up call. But we are still not confronting just how close we are to something far worse. It is right there.

HAYES: I were -- I genuinely worry about that. I think you know, the guy who shows up with a gun outside a pizzeria in Washington D.C. because he`s been told literally believes, I mean, literally believes, actually believes that there are child slaves inside this building because of what he`s been reading. He`s been pumped full of brain poison and he has a gun and goes there. Like there are millions of Americans, our fellow citizens consuming brain poison every day. That brain poison goes into I should say, the bloodstream of the President of the United States. It is not fought -- like it literally the worst conspiracy theories, Alex Jones the President said was a great guy had a great --

GUPTA: Rush Limbaugh today.

HAYES: I mean, that is also what`s so upsetting to me is that the man who is charged -- tasked with leading the country, he gets the worst kind of information in the world.

LOVETT: Oh yes, well look, there`s another story today and it would seem unrelated that the President is speaking on unsecured lines but his staff doesn`t care because he doesn`t know anything. Why, because where`s he getting his information from? He`s getting it from the dumbest worst sources in America.

HAYES: Right. They don`t care --

LOVETT: They don`t care. They don`t care because he doesn`t know anything because he`s just a low information voters in the White House. But on top of that, it`s not just that there`s this right-wing swamp, it`s that the intimacy of Facebook, the intimacy of Twitter, and the ability of everyone to touch everyone else makes everyone feel so close to the news and so connected to the politics of this moment that every person out there who has the fantasy that they could do this understands that they are connected to Donald Trump in a personal way because we`re all connected to each other now in a personal way.

GUPTA: But let`s not lose the focus of what`s about to happen on November 6th, which is voters have a choice. we have been hearing this, and it`s getting worse and worse, and it just feels like there is no bottom. But voters in America have a choice to vote for the kind of people that they want to see in office who actually bring us to our higher ideals as opposed to kind of bringing us down with every tweet and every piece of rhetoric.

And that is what`s at stake. I mean, all of the policies that are at stake, but we`ve also got -- we`re at a moment in this country where it`s almost like frankly unrecognizable, the kind of political rhetoric and cross demonization that`s happening right now and it is becoming, as I said, completely legitimized.

This election is America`s chance to actually speak up for the kind of politics and politicians that they want.

HAYES: And I will say that when you go and you pay attention, a lot of these local races, statewide races, local races, in a lot of cases despite ads about George Soros, what you`re seeing, and the caravan and all this nonsense, a lot of these debates look like good normal democracy at work, like people fight about things like should people have health care or not, should we cut Medicaid or not, they don`t sound like Donald Trump. They don`t sound like the purveyors of brain poison. They sound like people engaged in normal American democracy.

LOVETT: And yet, Kevin McCarthy is running ads with George Soros.

HAYES: Kevin McCarthy, today on a radio show did not rule out the possibility of the caravans being organized by George Soros.

LOVETT: And so -- you know, I take Paul Ryan at his word, I take Republicans at their word when they denounce political violence, but they won`t do the harder thing, which is denounce the kind of rhetoric that leads, indirectly, to political violence. They will not do it because it`s hard. Not only that, they benefited from it every single day.

Paul Ryan`s super PAC running some of the most racist ads all across the country, the laundering of Donald Trump`s rhetoric, racial hatred, violent, animus, violent provocations, right, gets laundered into the building blocks of the Republican message every single day.

So, rejecting these people is rejecting political violence, it`s a fact.

HAYES: John Lovett and Vanita Gupta, thank you both for making some time tonight. I really do appreciate it.

LOVETT: Thank you.

GUPTA: Thank you.

HAYES: Coming up, there are just 13 days left until election day, as Vanita was talking about. The president is adding a new lie to his arsenal, and maybe his most dangerous, high stakes lie yet. I`ll explain right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: 13 days until the midterm elections, Republicans are closing with a familiar scare tactic with ads warning of, quote, the left, unhinged mob, and with several thousand Central Americans very slowly heading towards the U.S./Mexico border.

But as election day nears, it`s become clear the scare tactics may not be enough. And with the number one issue for voters being health care, Republicans are turned to health care message that is at odds with the truth. Take for instance one of the most preposterous claims ever from Donald Trump, which is saying something, who wrote on Twitter today Republicans will totally protect people with preexisting conditions, Democrats will not. Vote Republican.

Never mind, of course, Republicans spent much of 2017 trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act or the fact that Trump hosted an event in the Rose Garden last year to celebrate a House vote that would gut health care for millions of Americans. The White House right now is backing a federal lawsuit in Texas that would shred Obamacare, including its rules protecting preexisting conditions.

For more on the Republican turn on health care, I`m joined by Maya Wiley, MSNBC legal analyst, senior vice president for social justice at The New School; and Josh Barro, MSNBC contributor and business analyst for New York magazine.

Someone made this joke that said it would be like in 2004 if Republicans ran on being the party that was against the Iraq War. Like, it`s literally the defining political fight we`ve had over the last few years, it is a remarkable thing to try to pull off.

JOSH BARRO, NEW YORK MAGAZINE AND MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: It`s like 2010 when Republicans ran and won as the party that would protect Medicare. I mean, they`ve run that specific playbook before, although at that time, at least, Democrats had really passed the Affordable Care Act that really had cut Medicare spending.

But this time I mean, you know, I don`t know that this line is connecting. You see in the polling there`s like an immense Democratic advantage on health care generally and specifically on this question of protecting preexisting conditions. So, you know, the president, he said, you know, insurance for everyone and much cheaper and much better and it`s going to be great, but the president is unpopular, not quite as unpopular as he was, but just because the president`s out there saying it I don`t think means people are buying it.

MAYA WILEY, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: Well, especially when the president had his Attorney General Jeff Sessions file a brief in June that said kill this thing.

HAYES: Actively right now. It`s not just -- this vote that happened in the past, like right now in court.

WILEY: I mean, and let`s be clear what the brief said. It said because the Supreme Court found the penalty, right, that said if you don`t sign up you might have to pay $90 a year, unconstitutional, but left the rest of the act in place, what the charge from the Trump administration is, well, that means that you can no longer require insurance companies to guarantee that they will issue insurance to someone who wants it.

HAYES: Yeah.

WILEY: Or that you can -- that you can protect consumers from wildly different costs for the insurance, meaning if I say need cancer treatment, they could say, OK, sure, we`ll give you cancer treatment if you pay an extra several thousand dollars in premiums, which is the same thing as saying no, forget it.

HAYES: And the brief basically says you have to scrap the whole thing, basically.

WILEY: There`s also the fact that part of the deep rot here, and Phillip Klein who is a conservative writer on health care who I really enjoy, because he`s honest, the deep rot here is once you commit to community rating, which is that you`ve got to charge everyone the same and you can`t say well, you have diabetes and you have cancer, and I`m charging you $20,000 a month, a lot of stuff flows from that. Like, you don`t get one without the other.

BARRO: Yeah, I think when you press a Republican candidates on this, and you know well the lawsuit will undo this, they`ll say things like well, we`ll come back and we`ll do a thing that just does the preexisting condition thing and protects it. And it`s a combination of dishonesty and I think also that a lot of these elected officials, especially on the Republican side really don`t understand health care policy at all.

And it sort of makes intuitive sense. Like, you have a rule and say, well, they can`t charge more if they have cancer. The problem is if you impose that rule by itself and say you have to charge everyone the same price then no one...

HAYES: The whole market just blows up.

BARRO: Because you`ll set some price and all the really sick people buy your insurance and then you go bankrupt as the insurance company and so you have to impose all these other rules, layer them on top of each other, and when you`ve done it you`ve basically rebuilt Obamacare. And that`s the thing people like Phillip Klein understand, but a lot of these Republican elected officials don`t understand that you have to take this as part of a package deal and if you want the preexisting condition protections, you have to take a lot of other big government stuff the Republicans hate.

WILEY: And this is why the trade industry itself has said this is a bad idea.

HAYES: The health insurance companies.

WILEY: I mean, the health insurance companies.

But the other thing about this is that when you add to the fact that you have about -- on estimate up to 129,000 Americans, not including the elderly, that have a preexisting condition, it`s outrageous.

HAYES: million.

WILEY: Million.

But the other thing is that remember that the Republicans actually did propose a preexisting condition bill.

HAYES: Yes.

WILEY: That sounded like they were actually offering something. It had people like Lisa Murkowski and others. The problem with it was because it just said OK preexisting condition, but did not include these other protections that...

HAYES: Exactly.

WILEY: The Affordable Care Act have that we`re talking about, essentially meant it was a meaningless preexisting condition bill. And so all you could assume that you will get under a new plan from the Republicans would be a meaningless bill.

HAYES: Well, and they`re also not going to do it. I mean, that`s the thing. The thing here is like this is just -- this is literally a get me through the next 13 days lie. Like, you know what I mean?

And in a weird way, I actually think they would be looking at a loss of 60 seats if they had succeeded in actually repealing the ACA. I think it`s much easier for them to lie about a vote they cast that ultimately was inert than it is to defend an actual law that`s going to hurt people.

BARRO: Yeah. And I think, you know, part of -- we`re seeing a political problem with the Affordable Care Act here, which is it`s extremely complicated. And the changes you might make to it are extremely complicated and voters can`t look at that and tell whether the complicated change that is being proposed is workable or not.

I mean, one thing Republicans talk about doing that they conceivably could do, I`m not sure that they would, is a rule that basically says, well, if you have health insurance then your insurer has to keep selling it to you even if you have a preexisting condition, and it has to be portable. And if you leave your job, you have to take it with you. And you could build something around that.

The problem is, why do people lose their health insurance? Very often it`s because they lost their job. They don`t have 600, 800, if it`s a family well over a thousand dollars a month lying around to pay those premiums. And so in the real world people have breaks in coverage and that portability system won`t work.

But it sort of sounds, when you describe it, like a thing that conceivably could work and Republicans talk about it.

HAYES: but it sort of doesn`t. I mean, my point here, so to get back to the political point, right, what`s fascinating to me is after all these years, it took a while, the thing that people predicted about expansions of essentially social insurance has now taken hold. It took a long time. But basically the idea was when you expand social insurance, people come to like it and depend on it. They don`t want you to take it away. And that was the fear of the Republicans, and it was the hope of Democrats. And it took a really long time for a bill that was unpopular as heck for a while, we have finally here in 2018 arrived at that point.

WILEY: Well, and one of the reasons it was unpopular as heck had nothing to do with the bill itself. I mean, although I agree with Josh that it was very complicated for people to understand. But people actually if you described what they would get and didn`t call it Obamacare, they said I want that. If you called it Obamacare, they`d say I don`t want that.

HAYES: And now Obama`s gone...

WILEY: So, now that they`ve got it, they`ve got the thing that is the actual thing...

HAYES: It`s amazing how potent it is to me. Literally in 2020 Donald Trump`s going to look into a camera and say only I will protect Obamacare. In fact, I am Barack Obama and that`s why.

Maya Wiley and Josh Barro, thanks for joining us.

BARRO: Thank you.

HAYES: Still to come, after having control of the government for two years, the Republican Party still does not have a closing message with less than two weeks to the mid-term. Their desperate, last ditch tactics coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: One year ago, the election everyone had their eyes on was the Virginia gubernatorial election. Remember that? Democrat Ralph Northam running against Republican Ed Gillespie. And as election day approached, Gillespie did something very familiar for Republicans, particularly in the era of Donald Trump, he went all in on a strategy of racism and xenophobia and fear mongering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: MS-13 appears to be surging again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A dangerous street gang MS-13 are responsible for the recent murder in Bedford County.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE; Those crimes have been increasing around our region.

UNIDENTIIFED FEMALE: MS-13 is a menace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ralph Northam wants to take down Virginia`s civil war monuments.

RALPH NORTHAM, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA: I will do everything I can to remove the statues at the state level, remove the statues at the state level.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ralph Northam will take our statues own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: He`ll take our statues.

Confederate statues and MS-13, that was Ed Gillespie`s big strategy to close the gap between himself and Ralph Northam as he was down going into the head stretch. And for a time it seemed to work. Polls showed a deadlocked race mere weeks before election day, and then Gillespie lost, badly, by nine points, much worse than Donald Trump did in that state, wasn`t even close.

Ralph Northam`s victory is worth remembering now, though we`re approaching yet another election with the national GOP playing the exact same hand.

Ed Gillespie didn`t have a closing message then and the Republicans don`t have a closing message now. They have a closing tactic, a transparently desperate one. But when you hear now the Democrats somehow don`t have a message, that protecting access to health care and the basics of democracy are not a message, remember that millions upon millions of voters understand exactly what is going on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW GILLUM, DEMOCRATIC FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: We`re really seeing a collapsing of our political discourse. My opponent as soon as he won the Republican nomination for governor went on Fox News and said, to float voters here in the state of Florida not to monkey the state up by electing me. It was followed up that same week by Neo-Nazis making calls into the state of Florida to attack my character, jungle music in the background, and the calls of monkeys being heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Republicans seem to be acting on the premise that talking about race is a winning issue for them, but Democrats have been increasingly challenging that assumption during these midterms, The New York Times noting today, quote, "many Democratic candidates across the country, after years of tiptoeing around issues of race out of fear of alienating white voters, are slowly adopting the language of anti-racist activists."

Here to talk about the role of race in this election, Astead Herndon, who is a national politics reporter for at The New York Times who wrote that piece I just quoted, Sabrina Siddiqui, political reporter at The Guardian and Jalani Cobb, a staff writer at the New Yorker.

Astead, I thought your piece was really, really sharp, because it was precisely about the fact that I think there`s been this sense, particularly in the Trump era, this sort of weaponized white identity politics and that Democrats are kind of on the defensive, like we don`t want to talk about this. We don`t want to talk about that. But you went out and you did reporting and you`re finding like people -- Democratic candidates are talking about these issues from the other direction.

ASTEAD HERNDON, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah, exactly. You see this not as just the one side of the Republicans have Democrats, but you have Democrats actively on the front foot saying I want to embrace issues of racial justice. I want to embrace issues of social justice. And that`s in swing districts, that`s in tough senate races, that`s even in Democratic primaries.

You`re having people across the spectrum for more comfortable to be vocal on those issues.

HAYES: I mean, Lucy McBath who you profile on the piece, I mean, this is a woman whose son was murdered at a gas station by a white man. She became an activist about guns for it. She`s running in that same Georgia sixth. And she`s running Georgia six, right. She`s running like what was -- when everyone did that special election Jon Ossoff, like the most milquetoast district -- the most, like, oh, it`s educated, white suburbanite. And here is Lucy McBath like grieving mother gun activist going right at those issues.

JALANI COBB, NEW YORKER: I mean, look, when we see like across the country, we saw even with the Antonio Delgado situation, which is him being maligned as a rapper, we saw the comments that Andrew Gillum just pointed to, we see what`s happening in Georgia where it seems as is it`s 1956 all over again. It is impossible for the Democratic Party to say that they want to keep the base, which is overwhelmingly African-American women, committed to the party and to continue along the lines of saying we have to try to appeal to the kind of fabled white working class voter that was never really Trump`s base of support anyway.

HAYES: Yeah, what I also find -- Sabrina, I want to play this clip from Andrew Gillum tonight, because I found the way that he has handled his race fascinating. I mean, Florida is nothing if not a swing state. In fact, the president`s approval rating there is higher than it is in a lot of other places. It`s a contested state-wide race. He would be the first black governor of Florida. It`s the first time a Democrat would win in 20 years.

Listen to how he talks about Ron DeSantis and his sort of rhetorical connection to racism and racists in the debate. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GILLUM: First of all, he`s got Neo-Nazis helping him out in this state. He has spoken at racist conferences. He`s accepted a contribution, and would not return it, from someone who referred to the former president of the United States as a Muslim N-I-G-G-E-R. When asked to return that money he said no. He`s using that money to now fund negative ads.

Now, I`m not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist, I`m simply saying the racists believe he`s a racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: That`s a pretty good line.

SABRINA SIDDIQUI, THE GUARDIAN: It is. And I think the fact of the fatter is, that the president is pretty much operating off the same playbook he did in 2016 where it`s central to his strategy to inflame racial divisions and stoke fear around immigrants and people of color, and it`s striking that`s a closing argument for Republicans after for nearly two years they have controlled both chambers of congress and the White House, so the lack of an agenda to run on is something that the party and the president own.

So, I think Democrats are, in turn, recognizing that there is some sense of fatigue among voters around a closing argument or even just a campaign strategy that`s not rooted in substance, but rather in perpetuating unsubstantiated claims that are intended to drive voters to the polls out of fear.

And I also think that it`s worth pointing out that Democrats have an opportunity in these midterms to engage and turn out core constituencies who helped propel them to victory, which includes voters of color, it includes women, it includes Millennials, and those who have a different view on the politics of fear and on the racial dynamics that you are seeing at play in these mid-terms.

HAYES: One key ingredient here I think is the diversity of the candidates Democrats are fielding. And for a long time, there`s been a big representational gap between who votes for the Democratic Party who their candidates are. You know, outside of districts that are majority black or overwhelming Latino is mostly white candidates, particularly at the state- wide level. There`s much more diversity now you`re seeing. And to me, this is a key part of the Democrats embracing what they`re going to be in this era.

COBB: Or being pushed to embrace it. Let`s be very clear, none of these are candidates that the Democratic Party was kind of thinking they were going to field.

HAYES: They did not line up behind Andrew Gillum, I`ll tell you that.

COBB: And clearly, too, in Georgia. Stacey Abrams faced a very stiff primary challenge, even though she had the status that she had as a former minority leader in the legislature.

So I mean, I think that this is key.

The other thing that I will say about the rhetoric that`s important to remember here is that they are dealing with issues of turnout. They are speaking very specifically. They want to be inspirational and they want to be motivational. And they`re trying to -- both Gillum and Abrams are running these campaigns that are built on bringing their own electorate to the polls. So they really have to speak directly to the people who they`re hoping to get to come out.

It`s very different from kind of saying we know what the numbers are, we just are kind of going to give the same sort of milquetoast thing that we always give.

HERNDON: Yeah, I think that people want -- the candidates right now are thinking about authenticity. And just like across the country with folks like Abrams, with folks like Andrew Gillum, you have even in tougher House districts, places that voted for President Trump by overwhelming margins, candidates like Lauren Underwood in suburban Illinois, or like Antonio Delgado in upstate New York who decide that rather than play for that middle of the road voter, I`m going to be myself. I`m going to embrace all parts of myself, and they think voters will actually come to that from a better place than if they try to play up something that felt inauthentic.

COBB: One thing really quick, also there`s another point here, which is that the different calculations for Kemp or for DeSantis or for very many instances the GOP under Trump, the belief is that you can actually cater to the ultra-right and you won`t alienate the people who are moderately right.

And there`s an exact opposite logic that`s being played for Abrams and Gillum, which is that you will appeal to whites who want to think of themselves as not racist, and so they`re trying to actually say you are...

HAYES: If you are authentic.

COBB: If you are authentic, right.

HAYES: Yeah, Sabrina, that`s an interesting way of thinking about it, right. Like the key is sort of like leaning into the authenticity, being who you are, which is unavoidable, particularly if you`re an African- American candidate in the south in America.

SIDDIQUI: Absolutely. And I think it goes back to your point about how you have one of the most diverse fields when you look at the Democratic candidates who are running across the country, a record number of people of color, a record number of Muslims, a record number of women. And I think that the Democratic base wants to see elected officials who are more reflective of the diversity across this country.

And so it`s certainly a stark contrast to what you`re seeing on the Republican side where it very much is overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male candidates on the ballot.

HAYES: All right. Astead Herndon, Sabrina Siddiqui, Jalani Cobb, thank you all for your time.

That is ALL IN for this evening. "THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW" starts right now.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END


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CLM Commentary
SE City
HD Sweet success a long time coming for bioneutra; It took a decade without income before organic sweetener could be used in Canada
BY David Staples
CR Edmonton Journal
WC 893 words
PD 24 October 2018
SN Edmonton Journal
SC EDJR
ED Early
PG A4
LA English
CY Copyright © 2018 Edmonton Journal

LP 

You might think it's a slam dunk success to be Edmonton's fastest growing company, as well as the 55th fastest growing company in all of Canada, according to Canadian Business Magazine.

In the last five years, BioNeutra's revenues have grown 1,378 per cent.

TD 

The company is also about to open a new Edmonton factory to produce its main product, the organic sweetener VitaFiber, a low-calorie, prebiotic fibre derived from starch from peas, tapioca and root vegetables.

In essence, we've got near miraculous growth here and an amazing-sounding product.

But when I end my interview with BioNeutra president and CEO Jianhua Zhu by congratulating him on his success, Zhu said, "If you think it's a success, maybe. But I don't think it's a success. We still have a long way to go. We need to push harder for the market and we have a lot of work to do to confirm the health benefit."

I can see Zhu's point. Nothing is certain for him or for his company, and the progress already made is the result of a lifetime of struggle, one that speaks to how an individual can rise up even in the face of the worst kind of oppression.

Zhu was born in 1960 into a prosperous family in the city of Ghaungzhou in southeast China, his grandfather a successful businessmen in herbal remedies and his father a physician. But when Zhou was a boy, the Marxist dictatorship of Mao Zedong brought in the Cultural Revolution, the violent oppression of the country's educated and business classes. The communists confiscated Zhu's family property and sent his parents to a forced labour camp in the countryside. Educating the children of the former elite was also discouraged.

"It was a very difficult time for my family," said Zhu, who was sent to live with relatives.

Zhu found a way to academic success through diligent hard work and the sympathy of some teachers. When the ban on university education for children from the business class was lifted, Zhu got into university. He earned a doctorate in chemical engineering, then worked as a professor in China and Japan before coming to the University of Alberta in 1998.

From his research work in China, Zhu held the non-China rights for the organic sweetener that goes by the name of Isomaltooligosaccharide (IMO), or as BioNeutra markets it, VitaFiber.

Zhu decided it would be best to start his own company to see if he could sell IMO in North America.

The product had originally been developed in China and Japan in the 1930s when food scientists set out to find the chemical compound in starchy plants that aided in the production of good gut bacteria and sound digestion in humans. Zhu's research developed and patented a better process to get a purer grade of IMO.

"The idea is to use natural processes and natural resources to make a healthy nutritional ingredient," he says.

"Right now you have a lot of artificial sweeteners. Very, very sweet. But with three properties in this one product, this (VitaFiber) is very special. It is a low-calorie sweetener, prebiotic and dietary fibre function."

To create his business, Zhu had to draw on loans from friends and colleagues and Alberta government grants. It took from 2003 to 2012 and $13 million to get the necessary approvals from Health Canada and other national food regulators to use VitaFiber in foods. Proving its positive health impacts in the lab is still ongoing, Zhu said.

"Financially, it was very hard to run," Zhu said of BioNeutra. "In the first 10 years approximately, we had no income ... We can't promise anything to investors. That is very, very hard."

BioNeutra has 15,000 tonnes of VitaFiber per year produced in plants in Indonesia and China, with the Edmonton plant to produce 5,000 tonnes per year when it opens in November.

BioNeutra chairman Bill Smith, Edmonton's former mayor, said the next plan is to expand to the United States, the product's main market, with mostly middle-class consumers worried about weight gain and their health buying it.

VitaFiber is now used in 200 products, from a sweetener for power bars to syrup for pancakes.

Zhu has it in his coffee every morning. "It tastes like honey, a very good taste," he said.

I tried it myself after making hot chocolate with milk, cocoa and VitaFiber.

The result? The drink is as tasty as mixing in sugar or using Chipits, and all the more tasty knowing it isn't making me so fat and might even make me feel healthier. So I'll stick to calling this enterprise a success. twitter.com/DavidStaplesYEG


ART 

David Bloom / BioNeutra president and CEO Jianhua Zhu, who has a doctorate in chemical engineering, refined a process for extracting a natural sweetener from starchy plants. VitaFiber is now used in 200 products.; David Bloom / BioNeutra president and CEO Jianhua Zhu, who has a doctorate in chemical engineering, refined a process for extracting a natural sweetener from starchy plants. VitaFiber is now used in 200 products. [EDJN_20181024_Early_A4_01_I001.jpg];

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SE Health & Families
HD How to eat carbs and lose weight
BY Rachel Hosie
WC 1255 words
PD 24 October 2018
ET 04:32 AM
SN Independent Online
SC INDOP
LA English
CY © 2018. Independent Digital News and Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LP 

Because carbs are life

When trying to lose weight, many people cut out carbs. But this is a huge misconception, according to a top nutritionist.

TD 

Thanks to the rise of the Atkins diet decades ago and the Keto (high-fat low-carb) diet more recently, not to mention slogans like “No carbs before Marbs” gaining popularity through reality TV shows, many of us fear carbs.

But the science behind carbohydrates is actually very complex, and demonising an entire food group is not wise, Rhiannon Lambert[http://rhitrition.com/], author of

Re-Nourish, A Simple Way To Eat Well

, explained to

The Independent

.

Read more

Five nutrition lies ruining your health

Refined and complex carbs are very different, and it’s important to distinguish between the two.

“Our brains can only process glucose for fuel efficiently and lots of studies conducted at respected universities and research centres have shown resistant starch (found in carbs) help you eat less, burn more calories, feel more energised and less stressed, and lower cholesterol,” Lambert says.

Of course, there are carbs and there are carbs - choose oatcakes over a pastry and you’ll be kept fuller longer and won’t have such a spike and drop in energy levels.

It

is

possible to eat carbs and lose weight, you just need to know the low-down.

1. Eat the right carbs

A post shared by RHIANNON LAMBERT BSc MSc ANutr (@rhitrition)[https://www.instagram.com/p/BXlHmRFhyLt/] on

Aug 9, 2017 at 9:36am PDT

Let’s take potatoes as an example - Lambert calls them “a nutrition powerhouse”, full of fibre, filling and with a low energy density.

“On the other hand, potato chips, deep fried in oil, with salt and pepper and maybe even a dipping sauce... now you've got a highly fattening food that is easy to over-consume,” Lambert explains.

Instead of chips, she recommends roasting potato wedges with olive oil and rosemary for a healthy alternative.

2.Low-carb does not mean ketogenic

If you haven't tried to make a chocolate porridge yet, what are you waiting for! With a dollop of nut butter and some frozen figs, it'll be your new fav thing! #RhiannonLambert #Rhitrition #ReNourish[https://www.instagram.com/p/BYAY3x-h9z9/]

A post shared by RHIANNON LAMBERT BSc MSc ANutr (@rhitrition) on

Aug 19, 2017 at 11:47pm PDT

On a keto diet, you’d usually eat under 50 grams of carbs a day (which is a tiny amount), with a very high fat intake.

“Ketosis (switching from burning carbs to body fat) can be a highly beneficial metabolic state, especially for people with certain diseases like diabetes, metabolic syndrome, epilepsy or obesity but this really is not the only way to do a ‘low-carb’ diet,” Lambert says.

Low-carb can be anything up to 100-150 grams of carbs per day, she explains, which can include several pieces of fruit a day and even small amounts of whole, starchy foods like potatoes.

3.Not

all

carbs are unhealthy sugar

A post shared by RHIANNON LAMBERT BSc MSc ANutr (@rhitrition)[https://www.instagram.com/p/BYsIw_IB7VR/] on

Sep 5, 2017 at 11:32pm PDT

There are many different types of sugar, including glucose, fructose and galactose.

But although starches like grains and potatoes get broken down into glucose in the digestive tract, raising blood sugar levels, the sugar in a potato is not the same as that of a chocolate bar.

“Whereas table sugar contains half glucose, half fructose, starch is only glucose,” Lambert explains. “It is the fructose portion of sugar that is the bit to be concerned about, starch (glucose) does not have the same effect inside the body. A balanced diet with portion control and complex carbohydrates can work well for weight loss.”

4.You can gain weightby eating a low-carb diet

A post shared by RHIANNON LAMBERT BSc MSc ANutr (@rhitrition)[https://www.instagram.com/p/BXzdwnMhlC0/] on

Aug 14, 2017 at 11:19pm PDT

When following a low-carb diet, many people turn to foods that are high in fat and calories - even the good fat in too large a portion can cause a problem with weight gain, Lambert points out.

“Portion sizes are crucial no matter what diet you follow,” she says. “Many low-carb foods can be fattening, especially for people who are prone to binge eating and have a history of fad diets.”

So yes, indulgent foods like cheese, nuts and cream can’t be mindlessly snaffled just because you’re on a low-carb diet - you could end up gaining weight as a result.

5. Energy and fibre matter

A post shared by RHIANNON LAMBERT BSc MSc ANutr (@rhitrition)[https://www.instagram.com/p/BXkD6N4himN/] on

Aug 8, 2017 at 11:45pm PDT

Lambert is an advocate of focussingon nutrients rather than numbers, it’s worth being aware that per gram, fat contains more calories than carbs and protein. Fat is 9 kcal per gram, carbs and protein are 4 kcal per gram, and alcohol is 7 kcal per gram.

Read more

How I lost half a stone in ten days on a high-fat diet

Carbs also contain fibre which our bodies can’t digest - “Fibre actually gets to the bacteria in the intestine, which has the enzymes to digest it and can turn it into beneficial compounds, like the fatty acid butyrate,” Lambert says.

In other words, fibre is essential for a healthy gut, which has been linked to maintaining a healthy weight. Some studies have even shown that fibre, especially soluble fibre (like those found in oats), can lead to weight loss and improved cholesterol.

“Aim for a mix of vegetables and wholegrains in your diet to boost fibre consumption and drink plenty of water,” Lambert advises.

6.Carbs make you happy

Loving my fish at the moment! Salmon on a bed of avocado, tenderstem broccoli and spaghetti is so simple yet so tasty! I won't win any recipe awards for this one but it just goes to show that no even a lot of though is needed to make a delicious and nutritious meal, you just need to have the ingredients in the first place readily available! #RhiannonLambert #ReNourish #Rhitrition[https://www.instagram.com/p/BX55iVEBdfq/]

A post shared by RHIANNON LAMBERT BSc MSc ANutr (@rhitrition) on

Aug 17, 2017 at 11:17am PDT

Anyone who’s tried Atkins will probably agree that a life without carbs can make you tetchy, have mood swings and struggle to concentrate. It’s not fun. This is because carbs play an important role in creating serotonin, your happy hormone.

“One of the amino acids (building blocks of protein) tryptophan plays a key role in this,” Labert says. “It cannot cross the brain’s blood barrier and needs carbs to help it cross over.

“Tryptophan converts to serotonin and serotonin to melatonin, which is involved in our sleep cycle. Therefore, carbs make you happy and help you sleep, both of which are important factors for weight loss.”

7. Cutting carbs is unsustainable

A post shared by RHIANNON LAMBERT BSc MSc ANutr (@rhitrition)[https://www.instagram.com/p/BYqmmtzhuA4/] on

Sep 5, 2017 at 9:15am PDT

Although some people experience initial weight loss from a no-carb diet, most can’t maintain it. “Fad diets don’t work,” Lambert says, adding that we should all be aiming for a clean, balanced diet.

“If you want to lose weight, look at portion control, a diet that is tailored to your needs, and up your exercise so that you’re burning off more calories that you eat. It’s that simple.”

Click here for Just Eat discount codes[https://www.independent.co.uk/vouchercodes/justeat]


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RE 

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PUB 

Independent Digital News and Media Ltd.

AN 

Document INDOP00020181024eeao0020f


CLM Garden Notes
SE Homes
HD Remove peonies'wilted growth to stop blight
BY Helen Chesnut
CR Times Colonist
WC 937 words
PD 24 October 2018
SN Victoria Times Colonist
SC VTC
ED Final
PG C5
LA English
CY Copyright © 2018 Victoria Times Colonist

LP 

Dear Helen: Peonies in the garden of my new home are dying back. When should the fading top growth be removed? In the summer, I noticed a few young shoots on one of the plants had wilted. Not knowing what to do, I removed the entire stem bearing the wilted tip. What would have caused the problem and what is the proper way to address it?

W.L.

TD 

You did precisely the right thing. As soon as wilted growth is observed in a peony, remove it, along with the entire stem carrying the damaged end.

The issue is botrytis blight, the most common and troublesome disease of peonies. It shows up as wilting of young stems, flower buds turning black and drying, and/or brown areas on leaves.

Left on the plant, affected areas develop grey spores that spread the disease. Do not compost the removed parts.

In the fall, when peony stems have almost finished dying down, cut them off at or slightly beneath ground level. Take care not to damage plump, pink growth buds that lie close to the soil surface. As a precaution, do not compost the removed top growth.

Clean the root area thoroughly, dust with bone meal and cover with a shallow layer of leaf mould, topsoil or compost. Dear Helen: Is October the right time to move hostas?

D.W.

Autumn and spring are the preferred times for moving or for dividing and replanting hostas. Personally, I feel most comfortable with using the earliest parts of both seasons for dividing or moving perennials.

Early in the fall gives the best chance for rooting before freezing weather. Early spring allows plants and divisions a chance to establish roots before hot weather, which stresses newly made plantings.

At this time in October, it's hard to know how soon wintery weather will strike. If there is some reason for urgency, move the plants now.

If you are feeling uncertain, there's no harm in waiting until March or early April.

Dear Helen: I have just begun growing dahlias. My question: My plants grew 120 to 150 centimetres tall, while a serious dahlia grower I met has potted plants only 60 cm tall. How can I keep mine to a more manageable height?

L.D.

First, plants confined in pots will grow significantly smaller than they would in the open garden.

And dahlias come in a wide range of flower styles and sizes as well as plant heights, which range from low-growing bedding and container dahlias at 30 to 45 cm to tall specimens around 150 to 180 cm high.

A third point to consider is that plant height can be manipulated somewhat. For a shorter, bushier, more flower-filled plant, pinch out the centre growing tip when a plant has grown about 50 cm high.

For the opposite effect of fewer, larger "display" blooms, remove side flower buds on growing stems and leave the centre bud to grow.

This treatment, called disbudding, will result in a taller plant and larger flowers.

Garden Events

View Royal meeting. The View Royal Garden Club will meet this evening at 7:30 in Wheeley Hall, 500 Admirals Rd. Cim MacDonald, photographer, author, artist and teacher, will present "Developing an artist's eye when taking garden photographs." The evening will also include a judged mini show of exhibits from members'gardens and a sale of plants and garden items. Drop-in fee $5.

Chrysanthemum meeting.The Victoria Chrysanthemum Society will meet on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2 p.m. at 1647 Chandler Ave. The society is the best source locally of hands-on information on growing the many different forms of "show" or florists' chrysanthemum.

HCP workshops. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is offering the following workshops. To register call 250-479-6162. hcp.ca.

Hypertufa: Saturday, Nov. 3, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Create a 30 x 35 cm hypertufa trough in the classic rock-garden style. Materials included in cost of $65 for HCP members, others $70.

Wild Food & Nutrition: Sunday, Nov. 4, 1 to 4 p.m. Explore the vitaminand mineral-rich world of local plants and learn how wild plants increase the diversity of gut bacteria. The afternoon will include a short walk around the HCP gardens. Members $35, others $40.

Harvest festival. The HCP is hosting a harvest festival, a family event, on Saturday, Oct. 27, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pre-register at 250-479-6162.


ART 

Helen Chesnut / Hostas can continue putting on a fine ornamental display over many years, but if plants need to be moved, early autumn and early spring are the preferred times.; Helen Chesnut / Dahlias are available in a wide range of heights, from dwarf container and bedding plants to a stately 180 centimetres. Their flower styles are widely varied, too, and include trim, globe-shaped flowers, shaggy blooms with quill-like petals, and the lovely "collarette" style, like this 'Ferncliff Showoff.'; Helen Chesnut / Hostas can continue putting on a fine ornamental display over many years, but if plants need to be moved, early autumn and early spring are the preferred times. [VITC_20181024_Final_C5_01_I001.jpg]; Helen Chesnut / Dahlias are available in a wide range of heights, from dwarf container and bedding plants to a stately 180 centimetres. Their flower styles are widely varied, too, and include trim, globe-shaped flowers, shaggy blooms with quill-like petals, and the lovely "collarette" style, like this 'Ferncliff Showoff.' [VITC_20181024_Final_C5_01_I002.jpg];

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SE MONEY
HD Wisconsin is home to one of the world's coldest workplaces
BY Rick Barrett Milwaukee; WISCONSIN
WC 452 words
PD 23 October 2018
SN USA Today
SC USAT
PG B.3
VOL ISSN:07347456
LA English
CY © 2018 USA Today. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

MILWAUKEE - In one of the coldest workplaces on earth, in New Berlin, Wisconsin, employees wear heated boots with a 2-inch-thick sole.

Inside their work area - two freezers totaling 12,000 square feet - it's nearly 70 below zero, colder than most winter days in Siberia. Dressed in multiple layers, hoodies, masks, hats and gloves, they can stay in the freezers for only about two hours before taking a 20-minute break to warm up.

TD 

It's that cold inside the "super freezers" at Chr Hansen, a food ingredient company based in Copenhagen, Denmark, with its North American headquarters in West Allis, Wisconsin.

The freezers store bacteria cultures used to make cheeses, yogurts and other dairy products, as well as wine and meat products. The floor is heated to prevent permafrost, in the soil, that could damage the building.

Workers wear suits that would protect them down to nearly 80 below. The suits are double-lined clothing with a reflective surface inside to trap body heat. The suits have a "tilt alarm" that sounds if a worker falls inside a freezer, initiating a quick rescue response.

"It's almost like working at the North Pole," said Mike Graham, project engineer at Chr Hansen, which is in the process of adding 19,000 more square feet of super freezer space.

When finished, it will be one of the largest such freezers in the world, according to the company.

Chr Hansen has one of the world's largest commercial collections of bacteria, nearly 30,000 strains.

Half of the world's cheeses and yogurts contain a Chr Hansen ingredient, according to the company, which has production facilities on five continents.

Cultures are stored at minus-67 degrees until they're shipped, frozen, to food companies that thaw them and put them to work making products.

The company also makes probiotic bacteria strains for health care companies around the world.

"We develop and produce cultures, enzymes, probiotics and natural colors for a rich variety of foods, confectionery, beverages, dietary supplements and even animal feed and plant protection," the company says.

More than 1billion people a day consume products containing the company's natural ingredients, the Chr Hansen website says.

The company has more than 3,000 employees in about 30 countries, including 300 in New Berlin and the Milwaukee area. It was founded by a Danish pharmacist in 1874 and has been in the Milwaukee area since the late 1920s.

"We've been pretty fortunate in the people we've been able to recruit and retain," Graham said.

CREDIT: Rick Barrett Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, USA TODAY NETWORK - WISCONSIN


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HD Don't give decongestants to children for colds, experts say
WC 687 words
PD 23 October 2018
ET 01:01 PM
SN Reuters News
SC LBA
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

(Reuters Health) - For children under age 12, decongestants might ease the common cold symptoms of a blocked or running nose, but these medications may not be safe for this age group, according to a research review.

For adults, there's little evidence that decongestants help with congestion, one of the most bothersome cold symptoms. For kids, there is no clear evidence they work at all, but plenty of research showing mild or potentially dangerous side effects, the study team writes in The BMJ.

TD 

"The common cold is very common and affects everyone all over the world," said lead author Dr. Mieke van Driel of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

The common cold is caused by a virus and tends to run its course in 7 to 10 days, the authors write. Typically, children have about six to eight colds per year, and adults have two to four.

To see what symptoms patients find most bothersome, van Driel and colleagues asked 10 customers seeking over-the-counter treatments at a community pharmacy in Belgium what concerned them the most.

"Evidence about health is only relevant if it addresses things that matter to patients," van Driel said by email. "We wanted to make sure our evidence summary was useful to them and asked them to guide us."

The customers heavily emphasized nasal symptoms, so the research team decided to focus their research review on treatments for congestion, a runny nose and sneezing.

The researchers looked at studies assessing the effects of decongestants, antihistamines, analgesics, intranasal corticosteroids, herbal remedies, vitamins and minerals such as zinc, as well as saline nasal rinses, vapor rub and inhaled steam.

Overall, they found little evidence to support the idea that any over-the-counter cold treatments help nasal symptoms significantly, and the drugs tend to have side effects such as insomnia, drowsiness, headache, and stomachache.

They also found few trials in children under age 12. One study found low evidence that saline irrigations or drops could be safe for young children. A few small studies reported contradictory results for the effectiveness of decongestants and antihistamines in kids.

In one review, which covered four randomized controlled trials with a total of 1,466 adult participants, sedating antihistamines helped with runny nose and sneezing symptoms but not nasal congestion. With non-sedating antihistamines, however, none of the symptoms seemed to improve.

Antibiotics and intranasal corticosteroids were not shown to improve symptoms either.

When it comes to more "natural" remedies, the researchers found that clinical trials investigating Echinacea, vitamin C, zinc lozenges, and heated humidified steam did not even address nasal symptoms. One review concluded that saline irrigations were not likely to be effective. Zinc was shown to reduce the overall duration but not the severity of cold symptoms.

"Vitamin C is usually perceived as an effective, harmless and inexpensive therapeutic alternative," said Angela Ortigoza of Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago, Chile, who wasn't involved in the current study.

Although vitamin C does help the immune system, taking it to prevent a common cold usually won't work, they said.

"It might be difficult to make patients desist from such deep-rooted preconceived ideas, even considering the certainty of this evidence, so variability in decision-making is to be expected," she said.

The study team didn't find any studies of probiotics, garlic, Chinese medicinal herbs, vapor rub, eucalyptus oil, honey, ginseng or increased fluid intake for nasal cold symptoms.

There are 17 ongoing trials investigating common cold treatments, including 12 for adults, four for kids and one for all ages. Five trials will report on nasal symptoms, including one for kids, van Driel noted.

"There are some trials in the pipeline studying herbal remedies, but we think it is unlikely that these products will be effective enough to make a real difference in well-being and illness," van Driel said. "The search for a 'magic bullet for the common cold' may need to take another approach."

SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2Cqasf3[https://bit.ly/2Cqasf3] BMJ, online October 10, 2018.


RF 

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SE Business
HD Takeda signs $50m Crohn's deal with French biotech Enterome
BY Jonathan Saltzman
WC 305 words
PD 23 October 2018
SN The Boston Globe
SC BSTNGB
LA English
CY © 2018 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

A Japanese drug maker with a big presence in Cambridge and a French biotech startup whose tiny US office is located there have signed a licensing deal worth at least $50 million to the startup.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. plans to make an upfront payment of $50 million to Enterome SA, a Paris-based biotech whose lead drug candidate would treat Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disorder.

TD 

Under the deal, Enterome is also eligible to receive up to $640 million more if the two compnaies meet certain goals for developing the drug, getting it approved by regulators, and selling it to patients.

Tokyo-based Takeda has one of the largest Massachusetts work forces of any foreign drug maker, with more than 2,150 employees, most of them in Cambridge, according to Julia Ellwanger, a company spokeswoman.

Takeda's work force in the state is expected to grow significantly if its recent $62 billion deal to buy Shire wins final approvals. Shire is based in Ireland, but most of its operations are in Massachusetts, where it has about 3,000 employees, primarily in Lexington and Cambridge.

Takeda also said in September that it plans to close its US headquarters in suburban Chicago and move those operations the Boston area. The headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., had nearly 1,000 employees.

Enterome was established in 2012 in France to treat diseases associated with the human microbiome, the trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that live inside and on our bodies. It has three employees in Cambridge, according to an Enterome spokeswoman.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com

Credit: By Jonathan Saltzman Globe Staff

Caption:

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., which has a major presence in Massachusetts, is based in Japan.

Bloomberg


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SE Pulse
HD Health & Fitness - Look good, feel great, live longer; Cover Story Doze pros How much would you pay for a solid night of shut-eye? Some people are shelling out thousands for help from sleep coaches Give 'em a rest
BY LAUREN STEUSSY
WC 1290 words
PD 23 October 2018
SN New York Post
SC NYPO
ED All Editions
PG 33
LA English
CY (c) 2018 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

LP 

BRIAN Ellis was losing sleep: A death in the family, a lost job and marriage troubles meant he was down to just two hours of shut-eye a night - if that.

So, the Buffalo-based 39-year-old hired a guru, sleep coach Soda Kuczkowski, who offered him a slew of holistic solutions, such as magnesium spray, blue-light-shielding glasses and regular yoga and meditation classes. Over the past 10 months, he has spent about $4,000 in his quest for restfulness and says he's getting five or so hours of sleep nightly.

TD 

"It's worth it," says the now- gainfully employed consultant. "Without any of these strategies . . . I don't know where I'd be."

For years, new parents desperate to get their babies to conk out at night sought out sleep coaches. But lately, it's the adults who need tucking in - and there are a growing number of experts, most without formal medical training, willing to advise them.

"Sleep is the new hustle," says Kuczkowski, who runs a 2,000-square-foot "sleep center" upstate in Buffalo, and charges her clients - "financial professionals, lawyers, doctors" - up to $1,100 for a four- to six-week program, not including the accessories for sale in her store. If the solution falls outside her holistic scope - she's certified as an integrative adult sleep coach - she will refer clients to a medical professional.

"When you sleep better, you're more creative, you're more productive, you're more successful," she says.

Sleep coach Christine Hansen caters to high-end clients. The Luxembourg-based Hansen charges up to $10,000 for a daylong session, including life coaching and dietary tests to determine whether sleep problems may be linked to food issues.

"I have clients who feel like they haven't slept in a year," says Hansen. "You can't understand [unless] you're in that position."

Hansen got into the sleep business after spending about a decade working as a high-school teacher. She got certified as a baby sleep coach, but "the more I told [adults] what I did, the more they wanted advice as well," she says. She launched her business and wrote a book, "Sleep Like a Boss," about two years ago.

Some remain wary of sleep coaches, for which there is no widely accepted standard for licensing. Janet Kennedy, a clinical psychologist with a practice in the Midtown, urges caution when turning to nonmedical professionals for sleep problems, since they could be linked to "serious underlying mental health or medical issues," such as depression or sleep apnea, she says.

But Hansen says that many people turn to sleep coaches after exhausting the usual methods, such as prescription sleep medications.

Her client, Jessica - an educator from Tennessee who declined to give her last name for professional reasons - says she tried giving up caffeine and sugar, establishing a nighttime routine and hiring a therapist plus a specialist to help her manage her anxiety, but she was still only sleeping about five hours a night.

"I tried so many other methods for managing my insomnia, and they weren't working," says Jessica, who paid Hansen $5,000 for three months of consulting. "[Christine] was the last stop at the end of a long hallway."

Many sleep coaches consider habits such as diet when they're looking for a bedtime culprit. Hansen, who emphasizes nutrition, often has new clients cut out sugar, gluten, lactose and alcohol in the belief that they can trigger inflammation, stress out the body and impact sleep.

"Pretty much all of them also end up losing weight, too," Hansen says of her diet- restricted clients. "Sleep is just the first thing to fall back into place."

Early research has shown that gut health may be related to a better night's sleep - a recent study published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, for instance, found a possible link between the use of prebiotics and quality of sleep.

"I think we have to do more research on [nutrition and sleep], but there is good evidence around what you eat [having] influence on how you sleep," says Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a Columbia University nutritional medicine researcher. She's led studies that have linked diets low in saturated fat and sugar to better sleep. Dairy, however, has actually been shown to help people sleep, unless they're lactose intolerant, St-Onge says.

While Hansen emphasizes dietary issues, sleep coach Ronee Welch focuses more on lifestyle: Welch, the owner of Sleeptastic Solutions, is certified in insomnia-specific cognitive behavioral therapy, meaning she aims to change the bad habits of her clients, such as looking at their phones before bed and having an inconsistent sleep schedule.

April Gabriel-Ferretti, a Pennsylvania-based psychotherapist, says turning to Welch was a game-changer. Her inability to fall asleep at night had her struggling not to yawn during therapy with patients.

As part of their weekly 30-minute sessions, the pair practiced relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises and making to-do lists. Gabriel-Ferretti, who shelled out $400 over the course of eight weeks, is now sleeping nearly eight hours a night.

She says that having a sleep coach monitor her bedtime and hold her accountable was the key to her success.

"Sometimes you need someone else saying, 'This really needs to be a priority,' " Gabriel-Ferretti says.

Experts share quick tips to help set you up to catch some primo z's.

* Chill out

A cold room - between 60 and 67 degrees - is best for sleep, says Dr. Alex Dimitriu, a psychiatrist and sleep doctor based in California. When your body temperature drops, he says, it signals that it's time to slow down. Use blankets, rather than heat, to get warm once you're in bed.

* Time your supplements

Melatonin can be a helpful sleep aid, but it depends on how you use it, Dimitriu says. If you have a hard time falling asleep, try taking it about three hours before your bedtime. If you have trouble staying asleep, take it right before you go to bed. One to two milligrams is usually all you need, he says. "Five milligrams is obscene. Nobody needs to be on that."

* Block blue light

Blue light, which emanates from your phone, computer and other devices, promotes wakefulness, says sleep coach Soda Kuczkowski, owner of wellness center Start With Sleep in Buffalo, NY. You should steer clear of using such devices - or watching TV - for at least 30 minutes before bed. If you are exposed to blue light at night, she recommends wearing blue-light-blocking glasses ($20 on StartWithSleep.com).

* Tune Fido out

If you have pets, take their collars off and hide their toys at night. The sound of a jingling collar or rattling toy could be enough to mess with your peaceful sleep, says the founder of the Association of Professional Sleep Consultants, Mar De Carlo.

* Quiet the mind

"Insomniacs think about sleep 10 times more a day than non-insomniacs," Dimitriu says. "I tell my patients it's like a Chinese finger trap - the more you stress in bed, the less you're going to sleep." He says meditating during the day is a good way to practice calming your mind. Start by down-loading a free mindfulness app, such as Headspace.

-Lauren Steussy

lsteussy@nypost.com


ART 

-Sleep coach Ronee Welch (near left) leads client April Gabriel-Ferretti through a calming meditation session to encourage quality sleep.

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SE BUSINESS
HD As yogurt options multiply, General Mills, rivals strive to innovate; Sales flatlined, industry looks to replicate Greek yogurt success with new products
BY Kristen Leigh Painter Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
CR Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
WC 1177 words
PD 23 October 2018
SN Waterloo Region Record
SC TKWR
ED First
PG C8
LA English
CY Copyright (c) 2018 Kitchener-Waterloo Record.

LP 

The dairy aisle is teeming with yogurt options as food companies prospect for the next gold mine in what has become the grocery store's Wild West.

There's yogurt made from soy, cashews, coconuts and peas. Others are made from goat's milk, sheep's milk or cow's milk that can either be full-fat, low-fat or ultrafiltered. There's Greek, Icelandic, French, Australian and German-style yogurt, and varieties range from low in sugar to high in decadence, too.

TD 

This abundance comes as U.S. yogurt sales have stalled after years of booming growth that was driven by the rapid rise of Greek yogurt - a thicker, protein-rich alternative to traditional yogurt that now accounts for close to half of all yogurt sales.

Golden Valley, Minnesota-based General Mills, which largely missed the Greek cash cow by underestimating its staying power, over the past year has slowed a hemorrhage in sales of its yogurt. Innovations are helping the company's Yoplait brand. But the path forward remains challenging as mounting competition and consumer preferences continue to evolve.

Danone, Chobani and General Mills collectively control 75 per cent of the nation's yogurt market. They all acknowledge sales have recently flatlined but disagree on the cause and solution. General Mills said consumers aren't clamouring for Greek like they used to, and that they want something else. Chobani blames General Mills for giving up on Greek yogurt, which it said has had a dampening effect on overall yogurt sales. And Danone believes it's due to a lack of innovation by its competitors.

On one point they all agree: Bold new ideas are needed to jump-start sales again. Retail sales of yogurt hit US$8.8 billion in 2017 with the potential to reach $9.8 billion by 2022, market research firm Packaged Facts predicts.

General Mills sees this moment as a chance to regain its leadership position. Chief Executive Jeff Harmening doesn't like chasing others. The company, he said, does best when it comes up with its own ideas.

"The reason we are able to outperform our peers right now is because we have some really good innovation," Harmening said.

That outperformance refers to General Mills' successful first year of its French-style yogurt, Oui by Yoplait, which comes in glass pots that are distinctive from other yogurt packaging. The company experienced slight gains in yogurt market share during the most recent two fiscal quarters - the first gains in three years.

Last year, General Mills lost its No. 2 market position in yogurt to Chobani following several years of lacklustre performance. At its worst, the company was tallying quarterly sales losses in yogurt of more than 20 per cent. By the end of this summer, General Mills had made significant improvement in the category, posting a quarterly loss of only a half per cent.

Harmening attributes yogurt's sales stagnation to recent double-digit declines in the Greek variety. He believes yogurt has a strong future because it's a food that tends to follow health trends.

"As Greek becomes less a part of the category, we think that bodes well for our position," Harmening said.

But executives at Chobani - the company that elevated Greek yogurt from niche to its current mass-market status - dismiss this notion.

"Greek yogurt does not have a problem," said Peter McGuinness, Chobani's chief marketing and commercial officer. "I would call Greek 'dynamic,' not dead."

There are more than 1,400 brand-flavor-variety combinations of yogurt sold in U.S. stores today, a dramatic increase that is confusing consumers, McGuinness said. The increase has slowed the industry's ability to move its product through store shelves.

Market researchers and pundits are looking for "the next Greek yogurt," but McGuinness said that's unnecessary. "There are areas within Greek that need to be exploited and expanded on," he said, like yogurts for men, better options for children and improved portable, drinkable or lower-sugar options.

"This (decline) is self-inflicted, so it's fixable," McGuinness said, who suggests companies remove redundant products and stop offering such deep discounts on yogurt. "There's nothing inherently flawed with yogurt as a category. It's nutritious and always has been."

Both General Mills and Chobani rolled out high-protein, low-sugar products nationwide this summer. General Mills' YQ is a traditional yogurt, while Chobani's Hint Of line is the Greek counterpart. YQ is in about 30 to 35 per cent of the U.S. retail market, said Harmening, with plans to at least double that distribution. McGuinness said its Hint Of product is "far outperforming YQ," but didn't offer specifics.

All the companies are watching one area particularly closely: plant-based yogurts. More Americans are ascribing to vegan - or semi-vegan - diets and are looking for alternatives to dairy.

Danone North America, which sells more yogurt in the U.S. than any other company, is putting resources into innovating in this space.

Dairy-free alternatives "will continue to command more shelf space in the yogurt aisle as dietary preferences evolve," Mariano Lozano, chief executive of Danone North America, said in an email.

Plant-based products now comprise just 2 per cent of yogurt sales. But, Lozano notes, it is growing at a rate of 55 per cent per year.

Last week, 301 Inc., the venture-capital arm of General Mills, led a $40 million investment round in Kite Hill, a food company that makes plant-based dairy alternatives, including yogurt, citing this "incredible untapped potential in the market."

Chobani also is looking into plant-based yogurts, though McGuinness said, "I don't think it's any replacement remotely for dairy, but suffice to say we are looking at it. We see the trend. It's small right now, but it's real."

Lozano agrees its unlikely dairy will be dethroned, though "what we're seeing with plant-based yogurt is not very different from what we saw in the early days of the first Greek yogurt offerings."

Danone, best known for its Dannon and Oikos brands, last year bought White Wave Foods, a leader in both organic dairy and dairy-free alternatives. Now, Lozano said, the company is most focused on expanding innovation within probiotic dairy foods, premium yogurts, low-sugar and organic options.

Consumers will likely see more new products hit yogurt shelves as these major players, and smaller entrepreneurial brands, look to unlock a new major consumer segment.

"The yogurt offering in stores is growing, and we believe evolving consumer choice is fuelling the need to continue to innovate," Lozano said. "People are always looking for variety in their food choices, and innovation helps to keep them in the yogurt aisle."


ART 

Food companies see yogurt in all its varieties as the next gold mine in what has become the grocery store's Wild West. 


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SE Health & Families
HD Probiotics: How good are the supplements for your health?
BY Olivia Petter
WC 706 words
PD 23 October 2018
ET 04:54 AM
SN Independent Online
SC INDOP
LA English
CY © 2018. Independent Print Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

They’re said to benefit gut health and overall wellbeing

Probiotics were once the wunderkind of the supplement world, said to improve gut health, treat skin conditions and assuageirritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms.

TD 

Now, experts are urging us to reconsider the myths we've been

sold by dewy-skinned influencers and glossy ad campaigns, pointing out the potentially harmful effects of consuming live bacteria.

In a recent article published in the journal

JAMA Internal Medicine

, associate professor at Harvard Medical School Pieter Cohen argues that probiotics might cause infections among those with poor-functioning immune systems.

Read more

Meat-free burgers ‘concealing’ high levels of salt

He also points out that many of the touted benefits are not sufficiently supported by scientific studies, casting doubt over their validity.

Read on for everything you need to know about probiotics.

What are probiotics?

Found naturally in foods such as yoghurt, cheese, kimchi and sauerkraut, probiotics are defined by the World Health Organisation[http://www.who.int/foodsafety/fs_management/en/probiotic_guidelines.pdf] as “live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host”.

They are most commonly taken in capsule form as food supplements and are thought to restore the natural balance of bacteria in the gut after periods of illness, when taking a course of antibiotics might’ve irritated the stomach and intestines.

There are different types of bacteria which are classified as probiotics, these include lactobacillus, bifidobacterium and saccharomyces boulardii.

What are the benefits?

Given that probioticshave been scientifically shown to improve gut health, they may help people with gastrointestinal disorders, such as IBSand constipation.

The NHS[https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/probiotics/] claims that probiotics may also help reduce bloating and flatulence in IBS sufferers.

Some studies[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0088733/] have claimed that probiotics can help combat episodes of diarrhoea, although there is insufficient evidence to support this claim.

Dietician Nichola Ludlam-Raine[https://nicsnutrition.com] tells

The Independent that

probiotics may also help ward off illnesses during winter by supporting the immune system.However, the European Food Safety Authority[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/oct/19/efsa-rules-probiotic-health-claims-unproven] has ruled that probiotic yoghurts cannot use this claim in their marketing due to a lack of evidence.

“Ultimately, they're thought to help restore the natural balance of bacteria in your gut,” adds Harley Street nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert.[http://rhitrition.com/]

Probiotics may be helpful for some especially following an illness or treatment but there's little evidence to support them for the multitude of supposed benefits including treating eczema and stress,” she tells

The Independent,

pointing out that different types of probiotics may have different benefits.

“Importantly, there's likely to be a significant difference between pharmaceutical-grade probiotics that show promise in clinical trials and that found in drinks, yoghurts and supplements in shops,” Lambert adds.

Other benefits of probiotics, as listed by the NHS, include alleviating symptoms of lactose intolerance, treating pouchitis and reducing the likelihood of premature babies developing a potentially fatal condition known as necrotising enterocolitis.

Who should take them?

While the benefits have been contested, there’s little evidence to prove unpleasant side effects for people with healthy immune systems, making them safe to take for most people.

Nichola Ludlam-Raine suggests that people trial a probiotic drink or tablet if they are ever taking antibiotics, as they kill both the good and bad bacteria in our guts.

“Although they must be taken at separate times of the day,” she notes.

What are the potential risks?

Because probiotics are classified as a food as opposed to a medicine, they don’t undergo the same regulatory processes, meaning you can never be 100 per cent sure that the supplement you’re taking contains sufficient amounts of bacteria in order to have an effect.

Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent Minds

The NHS also states that some probiotic products may not even contain the bacteria stated on the food label.

What are the unsupported claims?

Probiotics have been linked to treating a number of health conditions, but the NHS states that many of these are unfounded.

Illnesses said to be treatable via probiotics include Crohn’s disease, eczema, vulvovaginal candidiasis and pneumonia, but the studies making these claims have been said[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/upshot/the-problem-with-probiotics.html] to either be too small or too low in quality to warrant their validity.


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Independent Digital News and Media Ltd.

AN 

Document INDOP00020181023eean001jl


SE Financial Post
HD Zero tariffs are simple
BY William Watson
CR Financial Post
WC 848 words
PD 23 October 2018
SN National Post
SC FINP
ED All_but_Toronto
PG FP9
LA English
CY © 2018 National Post . All Rights Reserved.

LP 

I'm not a big fan of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Davos Man, the stylized pilgrim to its annual gathering in the Swiss Alps, is at least an internationalist. But he's also usually an internationalist planner, favouring whatever probiotic planetary brain pabulum is currently trendiest. With national planners there's the possibility of escape. But where do you go to get away from international planners? Mars isn't yet an option.

On the other hand, the WEF's annual Competitiveness Report does publish an interesting annual compendium of data aiming to provide insights into different countries'competitiveness, a goal downplayed by many national governments, especially progressive ones like ours.

TD 

The media focus inevitably is on the horse race. The U.S. ranks number one this year. We are 12th, just behind Finland, just ahead of Taiwan. But the ranking is a weighted average of a large number of variables, with both the weights and the variables chosen essentially arbitrarily. What's more interesting is some of the individual variables themselves.

For instance, we don't do very well in product market competitiveness, ranking only 20th overall. Eight variables make up this category. Our best performance is on "efficiency of the border clearance process," where we rank 18th. Our worst is in the "complexity of tariffs," where we're 96th. Ninety-sixth! The report's fine print tells us this score is based on data from the UN's International Trade Centre (ITC), which is funny since the ITC report on Canada (at Table 4.2) says the data is from the WEF. Whatever.

The complexity variable is based on four criteria: "tariff dispersion, the prevalence of tariff peaks, the prevalence of specific tariffs, and the number of distinct tariffs." Tariff dispersion means the variety of tariff rates. Some countries, believe it or not, have only one or two. We have lots. Just have a look at the customs tariff manual, which is 1,549 pdf pages. But set aside a day or two for scrolling. (An especially poignant entry: "Chocolate ice cream mix or ice milk mix... Over access commitment... 265 per cent" - that shows the power of the dairy lobby.) Having lots of different tariff rates is the result of a very visible hand at work.

Tariff peaks are tariffs exceeding three times the national average rate (which in our case is 2.67 per cent). We are 85th in the world on that score with 7.7 per cent of our tariffs being three times average or greater (fewer peaks are better). Specific duties are tariffs written in dollar terms per unit, rather than percentages. They're obviously very picky. Our compulsive pickiness puts us 95th in the world (again, less pickiness is better).

We like to think of ourselves, even the progressives among us, as free traders. An op-ed column in The Wall Street Journal this week by U.S. progressive Ed Gerwin - they occasionally let such people in - points to how "progressive governments in countries like Canada and New Zealand show that it's possible to reconcile protrade policies with progressive values." But if our policies are really so pro-trade, why are we ranked so low in the world for the complexity of our tariff structure? StatCan issued a backgrounder last week on our import duties. Its main message was that they have declined in the last 30 years. They were $5.6 billion in 2017, which obviously isn't not peanuts, but it's just one per cent of the value of our trade, which is down from almost four per cent in 1988, our last year without free trade with the U.S.

Forty per cent of the value of the duties we collect is on our trade with China. But our average duty on Chinese imports is way down, too, from 12.6 per cent in 1988 to 3.3 per cent now. Are we using these tariffs to protect the crucial cutting-edge industries of the future? No. Over 60 per cent of duties raised on Chinese imports were on clothing, furniture, footwear and textiles.

You've got to be careful using tariff revenue as a measure of protection. The highest tariffs kill trade dead and therefore don't collect any duties. But, even so, our tariffs are very low in historical terms. In fact, an average tax on those imports we do buy of just a penny on the dollar hardly seems worth the effort, even if there are still a few holdout industries where tariffs remain high.

If we're interested in gaming the Davos competitiveness index - a thought I'm guessing has occurred to many political operatives in Ottawa - radically simplifying our tariffs by going to zero across the board would help. More importantly, it would call Trump's freetrade bluff, give our consumers the fruits of real competition and force our producers to up their game, too.


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Document FINP000020181023eean0002a


SE Good Healthealth
HD THINK YOU'RE ALLERGIC TO PENICILLIN? THINK AGAIN
WC 1272 words
PD 23 October 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
PG 51
LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

Millions may have been wrongly diagnosed in childhood — leaving them at the mercy of superbugs

BY THEA JOURDAN

TD 

Nearly 100 years after its discovery changed the medical landscape, penicillin is still one of the most powerful drugs in a doctor's armoury.

However, about one in ten people is allergic to this original infection-fighting wonder drug. Or so they think.

Penicillin allergy is the most common drug allergy in the UK, but the vast majority — around nine in ten — of those affected aren't actually allergic.

Not only do they not have an allergy to it, but recent research suggests being mislabelled as allergic could be dangerous. For people with penicillin allergy are more likely to get antibiotic-resistant infections such as C.difficile or MRSA, which can be life-threatening. This is because doctors are forced to use other antibiotics, which tend to be broad spectrum, targeting more types of bacteria than penicillin does.

'Unnecessary use of broad-spectrum antibiotics leads to the development of drug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA and other typically hospital-acquired infections such as C.difficile,' says Dr Pamela Ewan, a consultant allergist at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

This increases antibiotic resistance in the general population, but also in the patients themselves — if you wipe out the non-resistant strains of bacteria in a person's body with broad-spectrum antibiotics, then the MRSA can multiply without competition.

A study recently published in the BMJ found that the risk of MRSA in people with 'penicillin allergy' on their medical notes increased by 69 per cent and the risk of C.difficile by 26 per cent.

Patients also stay longer in hospital and are less likely to have their infection treated successfully because the drugs used instead of penicillin are not as effective, says Dr Ewan.

'The evidence is mounting that it can have a knock-on effect on your long-term health,' adds Neil Powell, a consultant antimicrobial pharmacist at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust.

'Penicillin is still the best first-line treatment for dangerous infections such as bacterial pneumonia, some sexually transmitted diseases and wound infections, but you won't be given it for fear of a severe allergic reaction. Alternative antibiotics, such as fluoroquinolones, can be less effective and are more toxic to muscles and the central nervous system than penicillin, causing side-effects such as joint problems, tendon rupture and nerve pain.'

And, indeed, earlier this month, the European Medicines Agency — which oversees drug regulation across the EU — ruled that quinolones and fluoroquinolones should be used only when 'there are no alternatives'.

So, why do people mistakenly believe they have an allergy in the first place? Often, it's down to penicillin having been wrongly prescribed for viral infections in childhood, suggests Mr Powell.

'In the past, children would get viral infections and many were given penicillin, even though it wouldn't have made any difference because penicillin only works against bacterial infections.

'When the child developed a viral  rash on day two or three, the penicillin was often blamed. We erred on the side of caution by noting this as a penicillin allergy, but now we realise that was doing patients more harm than good.'

The common side-effects of penicillin can also lead both patients and doctors to the wrong conclusions. 'These include diarrhoea and feeling queasy, which can be confused with a systemic anaphylaxis [a severe allergic reaction causing a rapid drop in blood pressure, swelling and sometimes diarrhoea and vomiting],' says Jacqueline Sneddon, an antimicrobial pharmacist and spokeswoman for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Better recording of notes would help. 'At the moment, we don't have enough options to describe reactions to drugs, so sensitivities can be wrongly input as allergies,' says Mr Powell (see box, above).

Now, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is advising doctors, nurses and pharmacists to double-check that a patient's medical notes are accurate, to ensure they receive the best treatment.

Ms Sneddon says: 'Questions they need to ask include: "When did the reaction happen? What exactly happened? How long after taking penicillin did the reaction occur?" ' Timing of the last reaction is important, as a proportion of people with sensitivity to penicillin no longer react after ten years.

Mr Powell suggests patients could be proactive 'and ask what is the best antibiotic for their treatment. If it's penicillin, ask if they can check you really have an allergy and discuss the risks'.

He adds: 'It is possible to establish the facts, which can drastically improve treatment options for patients currently getting second-best alternatives. Just asking a few questions can de-label around 20 to 40 per cent of patients who believe they have a penicillin allergy.

'It may also be possible to be referred to an allergist for a skin test [where a drop of liquid containing penicillin is put onto the skin before pricking the area beneath], or a penicillin challenge test [where the patient is given one dose of a penicillin].'

But this can be prohibitively expensive and there aren't enough immunologists, says Mr Powell. He believes efforts should be focused on older people, or those with conditions such as diabetes, who are most vulnerable to infections.

It's thanks to these two tests that Josie Eddy, 63, a former bank worker from Truro, Cornwall, can have penicillin, after more than 40 years of thinking (wrongly) she was allergic to it.

At 19, she was treated with it for  a urinary tract and chest infection. She says: 'My GP gave me penicillin but, after a few days, I broke out in a rash with 10p-sized hives all over my body.

'I went shopping in Truro and collapsed. I woke up in hospital. I just took for granted that I was allergic and so did the doctors who put it in my notes. I didn't have penicillin for 40 years after that.'

However, her health took a turn for the worse. Josie, who is married to Malcolm, 67, a retired telecoms manager, developed bile duct disease in 2014 — where the tubes that carry bile from the liver become blocked. She is now on the waiting list for a transplant.

In the meantime, she needs daily treatment with antibiotics — importantly, penicillin. Penicillin is also one of the key drugs used after the surgery to stop infection.

The tests showed she didn't have an allergy to the drug. 'For all those years, I probably had a sensitivity to it,' she says. It causes her some side-effects, such as a rash and nausea, 'but they're not life-threatening and I'm just grateful penicillin is an option'.

Josie is spreading the word about checking for penicillin allergy among other members of PSC Support, a charity for people with bile duct disease. 'My advice to anyone with a "penicillin allergy" is to find out if you really are allergic, as you never know what's around the corner.'

A sensitivity to penicillin is different from an allergy.

While sensitivity is usually characterised by diarrhoea, thrush or headache, an allergy involves the immune system over-reacting.

This causes classic symptoms 'including an itchy rash, swelling of the lips and tongue and difficulty breathing', explains antimicrobial pharmacist Neil Powell. An allergic reaction occurs within an hour — and often much sooner.

An upset stomach with nausea or diarrhoea after a day or two of taking antibiotics is unlikely to be an allergic reaction, but may result from the drug disrupting the gut bacteria.

© Daily Mail


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Document DAIM000020181022eean0000y


SE Good Healthealth
HD GUT BACTERIA HELPS TRANSPLANT SUCCESS
BY BY DAILY MAIL REPORTER
WC 120 words
PD 23 October 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
PG 40
LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

The key to successful organ transplants might lie in the gut.

Researchers at the University of Maryland in the U.S. found that transplanting the faeces of a pregnant animal into the bowels of mice made their bodies more tolerant of a subsequent heart transplant.

TD 

The immune system — influenced by the gut bacteria — is suppressed during pregnancy to prevent the body rejecting the foetus. The scientists theorised it could prevent the body from attacking unfamiliar transplanted tissue in the same way.

In all the mice that had this treatment, the  heart transplant survived, whereas in control groups, the survival rate was as low as one in five.

© Daily Mail


NS 

gorga : Organ/Tissue Transplants | ghea : Health | gcat : Political/General News | gtrea : Medical Treatments/Procedures

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uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

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Document DAIM000020181022eean0000m


SE News; Domestic
HD Actress Selma Blair reveals that she has multiple sclerosis
BY BIANNA GOLODRYGA, DR. TARA NARULA, NORAH O`DONNELL, GAYLE KING
WC 1837 words
PD 22 October 2018
SN CBS News: CBS This Morning
SC CBST
LA English
CY Content and programming Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.

LP 

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Actress Selma Blair`s revelation that she has multiple sclerosis is being met by an outpouring of support. Forty-six-year-old star disclosed her diagnosis in an emotional Instagram post. It was liked by nearly ninety thousand people. She writes, "I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken GPS." The post is bringing new attention to multiple sclerosis. And Doctor Tara Narula is here with the symptoms and treatments. Tara, it`s so important that we hear from people like Selma coming out. And-- and, I guess, the first question people want to know is, what are the symptoms we should be looking for?

TD 

DR. TARA NARULA (CBS News Medical Contributor): Right. So the symptoms can be very varied, and it can be hard to diagnose at first because they can include things like double vision or loss of vision, numbness or tingling in your arms or legs, muscle spasticity, loss of bowel or bladder functions. So, fatigue. So sometimes people can go for years before they`re actually diagnosed.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Why is the early diagnosis so important?

DR. TARA NARULA: So it`s important because the-- the treatments that we have, there`s no cure, can be shown to reduce the severity of symptoms, the frequency of relapse and potentially the progression.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Mm-Hm.

GAYLE KING: She said she`s probably been living with it for fifteen years. Back to your point, Bianna, I think probably to her for speaking out about something so personal and so private--

DR. TARA NARULA: Mm-Hm.

GAYLE KING: --because it shows about living with chronic illness, you say, is-- is really something that we should talk about.

DR. TARA NARULA: It is. You know, when I was in medical school I read a book by Richard Cohen, who`s the husband of Meredith Vieira. He is a journalist. And he really exposed what it`s like to live with chronic illness, particularly neurologic illness, where you lose it strips you of everything that you`ve known. And it`s a situation where you never know when it`s going to strike again. And so what I think it does is shine a light on how it is to live with chronic illness, which I think a lot of us don`t understand. But also how-- how amazing people are who do live with chronic illness. They are the true survivors, in my mind. They do it with grace and with hope and with a lot of courage.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Mm-Hm.

GAYLE KING: What can we do, then? I mean, Norah, before you got here, I was talking about a friend. You-- you tell it.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Yeah. I mean-- I mean, I`ve been on the national board of- - from multiple sclerosis national chapter-- multiple sclerosis for almost fifteen years now. And I have a friend, too, who`s about Selma Blair`s age, who changed her diet--

DR. TARA NARULA: Mm-Hm.

NORAH O`DONNELL: --and that made a difference. Is there research behind that?

DR. TARA NARULA: There is. In fact, we did a piece here on CBS, I think about a year ago, about researchers that are looking at how the microbiome- -how we change the microbiome by our diet--can affect and MS. So certainly, there are so much we have to learn about this disorder. And what we can do to help--

NORAH O`DONNELL: And it affects--

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: It does--

NORAH O`DONNELL: --more women than men?

TONY DOKOUPIL: Right.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Yeah.

DR. TARA NARULA: It does. It does. And they don`t know why it could be hormonal. There are a lot of factors that play into it. We know that geography where you live in the world plays into the risk of MS, Vitamin D, so there are a lot of different things that may induce it, tobacco. But we think it`s underlying a combination of genetics and some sort of maybe environmental trigger.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Of course, thinking of Ann Romney, too--

GAYLE KING: Yeah.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: --who has been battling MS for many years.

DR. TARA NARULA: That`s right.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: A horseback riding has actually helped her. So a lot of people seek different types of therapies--

DR. TARA NARULA: That`s right.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: --as a-- as a way to cope with it.

DR. TARA NARULA: We`re learning more and more and hopefully, you know, with more research we`ll get a handle on it. But certainly, it`s a very difficult disease to live with. It really--

GAYLE KING: And is it mostly women in their forties? All the stories I`m hearing for the most part seemed to be in their forties. Is there something about the age?

DR. TARA NARULA: So twenties to fifties is--

GAYLE KING: Uh-Huh.

DR. TARA NARULA: --typically when people are diagnosed, so it tends to be on the younger side. But, as I said, you know, the symptoms can kind of come and go. So you may have your first symptom in your twenties and it`s not really diagnosed as MS, and then the next one in your thirties.

GAYLE KING: Hmm.

DR. TARA NARULA: And so by the time you actually get diagnosed, you may have a lot of lesions that show up on the MRI--

GAYLE KING: But nothing we can do to prevent it?

DR. TARA NARULA: Nothing that we know of.

JOHN DICKERSON: And you talked about the grace to-- to have this and Selma Blair`s Instagram post is an extraordinary piece of writing an--

GAYLE KING: Yeay.

JOHN DICKERSON: --incredible example of grace and humor and--

DR. TARA NARULA: That`s right. Bravo to her--

JOHN DICKERSON: Yeah.

DR. TARA NARULA: --and everyone else who speaks out about it.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Helping-- helping a lot of women out there right now.

DR. TARA NARULA: Yes.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Thank you, Doctor Tara.

DR. TARA NARULA: Thanks.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Thank you.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Ahead, we`ll tell you about a new treatment that could extend the life of women with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

Plus, the morning`s other headlines, including how a California charter boat saved more than a dozen people whose fishing vessel caught fire.

But first, it`s seven forty-five, time to check your local weather.

(LOCAL WEATHER BREAK)

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

JOHN DICKERSON: Welcome back to CBS THIS MORNING. Here`s a look at some of this morning`s headlines.

Bloomberg reports President Trump`s promise to unveil a new tax cut plan just before the midterm elections caught Republican leaders off guard.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (Elko, Nevada; Saturday): A major tax cut. We are going to be putting in and are studying very deeply right now, round the clock a major tax cut for middle-income people. Not for business at all, for middle-income people.

JOHN DICKERSON: The President made the comment after a rally in Nevada on Saturday. The reason members of Congress were caught off guard is because they are out of session until after next month`s election. The White House did not respond to our request for clarification.

NORAH O`DONNELL: That means it won`t happen.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Yes.

JOHN DICKERSON: Yeah. They`ve got to actually be in session to pass a bill.

(Cross-talking)

GAYLE KING: They don`t come back until after--

NORAH O`DONNELL: Just a lot of--

GAYLE KING: --November 13th or something. Yeah.

JOHN DICKERSON: Yeah.

GAYLE KING: The San Diego Union Tribune reports fifteen people were rescued from the water after a Mexican fishing boat caught fire. The three people are still missing. The crew of an American charter fishing boat saw the Mexican boat on fire Saturday night off the coast of Baja, California. They pulled victims from the water and then alerted the Coast Guard. Two seriously injured people were transported to a hospital.

NORAH O`DONNELL: The Washington Post reports the European budget airline, Ryanair, is being criticized for failing to remove a passenger who was yelling racial insults at an elderly black woman. Cell phone video captured a man going on a tirade against woman last week on board a flight from Barcelona to London. Ryanair says it has seen the footage and reported the incident to police.

GAYLE KING: Yeah. That was very--

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Terrible.

GAYLE KING: --painful to watch, too, by the way.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Yes.

GAYLE KING: She`s just sitting there all alone and while he`s going on this tirade against her. It was very tough.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: I think one of the passengers behind him was trying to stop him, as well.

GAYLE KING: Yes.

JOHN DICKERSON: And yet he was trying to stop him and yet he kept going on.

GAYLE KING: Yeah.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Yeah.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Yeah.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Well, the Los Angeles Times reports the billionaire Elon Musk announced that the first tunnel for a proposed underground transportation network in L.A. County will open December 10th. He tweeted last night, "the first tunnel is almost done." Musk`s Boring Company claims to be able to move cars and people in pods through tunnels at speeds of up to one hundred and thirty miles an hour.

JOHN DICKERSON: And USA Today reports the NFL`s most accurate player missed his first extra point in a seven-year career. You saw this at the top of the show. Yesterday, Ravens kicker Justin Tucker looked stunned when he missed--

GAYLE KING: Yeah.

JOHN DICKERSON: --what would have been his two hundred and twenty-third consecutive regular season extra point. In the end, the Saints won 24-23. Internet had fun with Tucker`s shocked reaction, one meme said Tucker looked like that statue, somebody put googly eyes on.

GAYLE KING: He`s still trying to figure it out because he said when he-- when he touched the ball with his foot, it connected the way he wanted it to. But--

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Just didn`t happen.

GAYLE KING: --next time, Justin.

Teachers in Arizona don`t make much money, so it`s hard for them to pay the rent. Ahead, we`ll talk about that in our series, School Matters.

We`ll be right back.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

END


RF 

Content and programming Copyright MMXVIII CBS Broadcasting Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.

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Show | Selma Blair | Instagram | Richard Cohen | Meredith Vieira | Microbiome | Ann Romney | Multiple Sclerosis

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SE Society
HD Allergies: the scourge of modern life?
BY Vybarr Cregan-Reid
WC 1878 words
PD 22 October 2018
ET 09:03 AM
SN The Guardian
SC GRDN
LA English
CY © Copyright 2018. The Guardian. All rights reserved.

LP 

Our ancestors didn’t suffer from hay fever and food allergies were extremely rare even a few decades ago. What is causing the steep rise in their incidence now?

To anyone from Generation X or older, it often feels like food allergies are far more common today than in their youth. While they remember them being rare or nonexistent in their school days, their own children will have classmates with allergies or they may have one themselves.

TD 

According to the Food Standards Agency[https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/food-allergen-labelling-technical-guidance.pdf], estimates suggest that about 5-8% of children and 1-2% of adults are affected by food allergies in the UK. The recent headlines about fatal allergic reactions, such as that of two Pret a Manger[https://www.theguardian.com/business/pret-a-manger] customers, heighten the impression that food allergies are more commonplace.

So is the impression that they are increasing correct and what is causing it? And what has gone so wrong with our bodies that we might be killed by something as seemingly harmless as a sesame seed?

Since 1906, when the word “ allergy” was first used[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17136331], the number of those affected has been climbing. Asthma has probably always been a problem but if ancient records of it are anything to go by, it was also exceptionally rare.

Hay fever was first documented in the 19th century. Physician John Bostock was one of the first to collate data and when he scoured the country to find hay fever sufferers, his total haul of cases was laughably small to a modern audience: 28.

Morell Mackenzie, a British physician in the 1880s, noted that[https://archive.org/details/b20406757/page/n7] since “summer sneezing goes hand-in-hand with culture, we may, perhaps, infer that the higher we rise in the intellectual scale, the more is the tendency developed”. From their outset, allergies were linked with those more distanced from rural upbringings.

Between the 1950s and the 1980s, as the 2007 studies Time Trends in Allergic Disorders in the UK[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2111268/] and 50 Years of Asthma[https://thorax.bmj.com/content/62/1/85] explain, the numbers who struggled with hay fever, eczema and asthma “increased substantially”. Conversely, the air (according to Defra[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/681445/Emissions_of_air_pollutants_statistical_release_FINALv4.pdf] ) has been getting less, not more, polluted. Even with fewer allergens around, our symptoms seem to be spreading wider.

The crucial things are contact with green space and avoidance of antibiotics – and a varied diet…

Prof Graham Rook

Before the 1990s, peanut allergy was so rare that barely any data on it was collected. In a 2015 article in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Paul J Turner noted that[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24118190] even though admissions to hospital for anaphylaxis increased between 1992 and 2012 by 615%, the incidence of fatal anaphylaxis did not. Turner and his colleagues believed that “increasing awareness of the diagnosis, shifting patterns of behaviour in patients and healthcare providers” might be contributing factors. Even though peanut allergy is much more common, its associated fatalities have not increased.

Prof Katie Allen[https://www.mcri.edu.au/users/professor-katie-allen] of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, who is 10 years into HealthNuts[https://www.mcri.edu.au/research/projects/healthnuts], a study tracking food allergy in 5,300 Australian children, explains that she was “astounded” by its first results. When the trial began, they were expecting to find about one in 20 of their one-year-old subjects testing positive for nut allergy, but they found double that. Allen explains: “The food allergy epidemic has happened after the asthma/hay fever epidemic. We call it the second epidemic of allergic disease.”

Genetic studies are well on their way to unravelling the relationship between our DNA and allergies. Large case studies of, for example, 50,000 eczema sufferers[https://www.nature.com/articles/ng.3424], or 60,000 of those with hay fever[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0157-1], are beginning to show that it could be as few as 20 to 40 of our 20,000 genes that form the genetic architecture of allergy.

Dr Manuel Ferreira, a specialist in the genetics of asthma at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute[https://www.qimrberghofer.edu.au/] in Brisbane, Australia, explains that in a new (about to be published) study, he and his team have discovered that the “genetic risk factors for food allergy overlap significantly with those for other allergic diseases, such as asthma and hay fever”.

Genes play a role, then, but the fact that we will have been carrying similar DNA for thousands of years without being so allergic suggests environment is a key factor. Dr Paul Gray, staff specialist in paediatric immunology and allergy at Sydney children’s hospital explains: “The net genetics of the population changes little over time, so epidemics are driven by non-genetic changes.”

While the symptoms of different conditions are varied in type and seriousness, what binds these irritants together is that they are all overreactions of the body’s immune system when exposed to a usually harmless trigger. Gray explains that allergy is “an accident of immune recognition leading to the mounting of an aggressive response against something foreign but innocuous, with deleterious consequences for the host.”.

As to why there are more food allergies today, nobody knows the precise reason, but experts now believe there are three contributing factors.

The first is the delayed introduction of allergens. For years, throughout the world, allergy specialists had been advising that infants avoid the consumption of potentially allergenic foodstuffs. Not only was this incorrect but it may have played a role in driving the food allergy epidemic that we are seeing today.

Prof Gideon Lack of King’s College London, lead investigator on Learning Early About Peanut Allergy[http://www.leapstudy.co.uk/] (the LEAP study) found that[http://www.leapstudy.co.uk/sites/leapstudy.com/files/ITN%20LEAP%20Study%20Results%20Press%20Release.pdf] “of the children who avoided peanuts, 17% developed peanut allergy by the age of five years. Remarkably, only 3% of the children who were randomised to eating the peanut snack developed allergy by age five.” The children involved in the trial already had severe eczema and/or an egg allergy (both strong predictors for nut allergy).

The introduction of potential allergens at the same time as an infant transfers to solids seems like a good idea. It’s a brave thing though, as a parent, to risk exposure. Dr Gray explains: “Most parents are beginning to realise that early introduction of foods is vital but many don’t feel brave enough to do this at home and the in-hospital resources don’t exist to do introduction in hospital. This needs to be fixed.”

The second contributory factor in food allergy (and allergy more generally) involves the human microbiome and the microorganisms that are our “old friends”. The body learns about its environment after it is born by coming into contact with an array of substances, everything from the bacteria we are smothered in as we travel down the birth canal to the breast milk we are fed on. After that, proximity to animals and natural environments makes it more likely that we will be exposed to a wide variety of bacterial life, in the air, on the ground and in our diet. All of these help populate our bodies, but particularly our gut, with microbiota. This is such an important part of being human that microbiota outnumber us within our own bodies: humans are made up of something between 27tn and 37tn cells; but we carry about 100tn of these organisms within us. We are astonishingly complex ecosystems. The “old friends” or hygiene hypothesis postulates that modern life has compromised our microbiome: our immune systems may now incorrectly categorise harmless substances as a threat.

The complexity of our microbiomes has led some to distrust the conclusions drawn from the “old friends” hypothesis. A recent systematic review ( Hygiene Hypothesis in Asthma Development: Is Hygiene to Blame?[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29224909] ) called for “caution”, considering the hypotheses too general to explain the complex nature of a disease such as asthma and the ways that it presents in different parts of the world.

Nonetheless, imbalances in gut ecology have been strongly linked with allergies.

As adults, the ecology in our gut is well developed, but we can still help influence it. Prof Graham Rook[http://grahamrook.net/], an immunologist at University College London’s Centre for Clinical Microbiology, explains that the “crucial thing is contact with green space and the natural environment, and avoidance of antibiotics, and of things that limit that transmission of maternal microbiota to the infant. And we need a varied diet with many different fruits and vegetables, because these things maintain the biodiversity of the microbiota.”

Probiotics stimulate the growth of microbiota. The fact that people who suffer severe allergies have substantially less diverse (and less dense) flora in their gut suggests that the future of allergy therapy could be in probiotic interventions. But you can’t just go to the supermarket and grab a probiotic drink off the shelf and expect it to be efficacious. A mass-produced probiotic is about as successful as mass-produced false teeth. Scientists are working on personalised probiotic therapies[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2883099/] but they are many years[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26424567] from being a safe and effective treatment.

Astonishing pieces of research such as Hunt for the Origin of Allergy[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cea.12527] and Innate Immunity and Asthma Risk[https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1508749?viewType=PrintviewClass=Printsort=newestpage=-15] have compared genetically homogenous groups that have strikingly different lifestyles – respectively, the urbanised Finnish and rural Russian populations of Karelia, and children on traditional Amish and more industrialised Hutterite farms in the US – and how they show huge disparities in the prevalence of allergy. This science shows that it’s the distance from, and lack of exposure to, natural environments that is driving the allergy epidemic in modern life.

The final, third driver of food allergy, also connected to urban life, is associated with the curious fact that there is an approximate geographical spread of food allergy. Scientists have begun to notice that the prevalence of food allergy has a tendency to align with the geographical availability of sunlight. In a number of papers and studies[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23453797], Prof Carlos Camargo in the US and Prof Katie Allen and her colleagues in Australia have explored how a lack of exposure to sunlight[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=17559916] – and a consequent vitamin D deficiency – can make infants three times more likely to have an egg allergy[https://www.mcri.edu.au/news/investigating-allergies-food-allergy-capital] and a staggering 11 times more likely to have a peanut allergy.

Urban life makes it harder for us to be regularly exposed to natural environments. We also spend more time indoors, which makes vitamin D deficiency more common throughout the population, but particularly in children. In the UK, parents are advised to[https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/safety-in-the-sun/] “cover exposed parts of your child’s skin with sunscreen, even on cloudy or overcast days”.

As we gather together in ever greater numbers, it is the green spaces and natural environments between us that get squeezed out, taking with them countless opportunities for our immune systems to learn about the world around us and for us to have essential access to sunlight. And although there are many factors involved, levels of urbanisation look to be one of the strongest predictors for the prevalence of allergy in a population, both historically and in the future.

• Primate Change: How the World We Made Is Remaking Us by Vybarr Cregan-Reid[https://twitter.com/vybarr?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor] is published by Octopus (£16.99). To order a copy for £14.61 go to guardianbookshop.com[https://guardianbookshop.com/primate-change.html?utm_source=editoriallinkutm_medium=merchutm_campaign=article] or call 0330 333 684. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99

A mass-produced probiotic drink is about as successful as mass-produced false teeth


NS 

gfall : Food Allergies | gall : Allergies | ghea : Health | gcat : Political/General News | gmed : Medical Conditions

RE 

austr : Australia | uk : United Kingdom | apacz : Asia Pacific | ausnz : Australia/Oceania | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

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Guardian Newspapers Limited

AN 

Document GRDN000020181023eeam002v8


SE Society
HD Bowel cancer on the rise among young people in Europe
BY Nicola Davis
WC 710 words
PD 22 October 2018
ET 05:00 PM
SN The Guardian
SC GRDN
PG 6
LA English
CY © Copyright 2018. The Guardian. All rights reserved.

LP 

Rate among people aged 20-39 rose 7.4% a year between 2008 and 2016, researchers say

Bowel cancer is on the increase among young people in Europe, researchers have discovered, with expanding waistlines thought to play a role in the rise.

TD 

The condition is most common in the elderly, but some research suggests it is more aggressive in young people. According to recent figures,[https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/bowel-cancer#heading-One] it is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with about 16,000 deaths a year. More than half of bowel cancer cases are thought to be preventable.

Now researchers say that across Europe the rate of new cases of colon cancer among people aged 20-39 has risen by 7.4% each year between 2008 and 2016, with incidence of rectal cancer also increasing.

The findings mirror a trend already seen in other parts of the world including the US, Australia and China.

“We were wondering if this trend was also seen in the European population,” said Fanny Vuik of the Erasmus medical centre in Rotterdam, who presented the findings at the UEG Week gastroenterology meeting in Vienna.

The research included data from national cancer registries of 20 European countries, including the UK, Norway, Slovenia and Germany.

In 65% of countries, colorectal cancer incidence rose in young people, while in 30% it remained steady and in 5% it declined.

“We did see a decrease in incidence for the older population and that is because most of the European countries have a [colorectal cancer] screening programme,” said Vuik. “So we detect cancer at an earlier stage and also we have new therapies.”

The researchers say they do not recommend screening be extended to younger individuals, not least because although rates have risen, the absolute risk remains low: for young people between the age of 20 and 39, the incidence increased from 2.2 to 4.9 per 100,000 persons between 1990 and 2016.

The team said there could be many factors behind the rise. “Now what we have to do is to get more insight in this population group – why are these young adults at risk for [developing] colorectal cancer?” said Dr Manon Spaander, also of the Erasmus medical centre, who led the research. “Is it obesity, is it diabetes, is it the microbiome, is it inactivity, is it processed meat? We don’t know yet.”

But Prof Scott Montgomery of Örebro University hospital in Sweden and University College London, who was not involved in the work, said the most likely factor was rising obesity.

“The clear suspect has to be [being] overweight and obesity and diet,” he said, adding that his own research has shown that boys who are overweight or obese aged 16-20 have [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/25/obese-teenage-boys-higher-risk-bowel-cancer-study] about double the risk of bowel cancer[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/25/obese-teenage-boys-higher-risk-bowel-cancer-study] when they reach their 50s. “The thing about cancer is it has a long natural history: you have many years of exposure that increases your risk, so many years of unhealthy diet and inflammation associated with obesity will just build that cancer risk as people age.”

Montgomery said the situation is hard to resolve, particularly given the obesogenic environment[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/22/the-truth-about-obesogens-can-dust-and-chemicals-make-you-fat] many people are surrounded by.

“It is quite hard to avoid some of the exposures that lead to obesity if they are all around you,” he said, noting that more people in Britain are overweight than of a “normal” weight.

Montgomery said there is no single intervention to tackle the obesity crisis, and that exercise, diet and attitudes all need to be considered.

But while he stressed that losing weight at any age was helpful, he said being heavy when young is a key problem. “Obesity casts a long shadow,” he said.

Katie Patrick from Cancer Research UK said the findings reflect the situation in Britain: “Over the last two decades, the number of people between 25 and 49 who are diagnosed with bowel cancer has increased in the UK. But bowel cancer in younger people is still uncommon, and reducing the risk of bowel cancer is important at any age. There are lots of ways to do this, including keeping a healthy weight, not smoking, and eating plenty of foods high in fibre.”


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gcancr : Cancer | gobes : Obesity | gcrese : Medical Research | gcat : Political/General News | gcom : Society/Community | ghea : Health | gmed : Medical Conditions | gsci : Sciences/Humanities | gsoc : Social Issues

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eurz : Europe | uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | weurz : Western Europe

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Guardian Newspapers Limited

AN 

Document GRDN000020181022eeam0035y


HD UPDATE 2-Danone bets on healthy eating business to boost growth
WC 610 words
PD 22 October 2018
ET 12:11 PM
SN Reuters News
SC LBA
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

* Expanding in field of healthy eating trends

* To triple size of plant-based business to 5 bln euros by 2025

TD 

* Specialised Nutrition back to strong growth in China H2 2019

* Sticks with 2020, 2030 goals (Adds CFO, CEO comments, forecasts, details)

By Dominique Vidalon

PARIS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Danone is banking on its expansion into the lucrative healthy eating business to produce sales growth that will beat the French food company's rivals over the coming decade.

The world's biggest yoghurt maker told an Investor Seminar in London on Monday that it was relying on its fast-growing food categories such as probiotics, organic food and water to deliver "superior sustainable profitable growth" by 2030.

The maker of Evian water and Activia yoghurt also said it was on track to deliver 1 billion euros in cost savings by 2020 and stuck to its 2020 targets of higher sales growth and profit margins.

As more consumers opt for healthier diets they are prepared to pay a premium for trying to pursue a more socially responsible lifestyle. Danone - along with rivals such as Nestle - has been seeking to rebuild consumers' trust in big food companies.

Last year, for example, Danone bought U.S. organic food producer WhiteWave in a $12.5 billion deal, to boost growth and bring the company closer to current healthier eating trends.

Francisco Camacho, executive vice president for Danone's 'Essential Dairy and Plant Based' business told the investor meeting he expected to triple the size of the plant-based business to 5 billion euros ($5.75 billion) by 2025 from 1.7 billion euros in 2018.

Danone has been stepping up efforts to attract young consumers with products featuring probiotics, protein and plant-based ingredients, all fast-growing product categories.

For example, the company has introduced Activia shots in the United States and has been looking to launch the product in other markets.

SLOWING CHINA

Strong growth in China has helped Danone to outperform rivals' growth in recent quarters.

But last week, Danone reported a 1.5 percent fall in third-quarter sales at its specialised nutrition arm, as sales in China dropped 20 percent due to a lower birth rate and tougher year-ago comparables. It has said the slowdown in China would last for several quarters.

Bridgette Heller, executive vice president for Danone's 'Specialized Nutrition' division, said on Monday at the investor meeting she expected the specialised nutrition business would return to "strong positive" sales growth in China in the second half of next year.

Heller also expected the Chinese infant formula market to grow by low-to-mid-single digits in coming years, and that Danone would outperform the market.

While there were fewer births in China, Danone would continue to benefit from demand for its ultra-premium infant formula products such as Aptamil Platinum and for its medical nutrition products.

"China will be volatile over the next quarters but it will continue to big a big value creator for Danone," CEO Emmanuel Faber said at the meeting.

For 2020, the Danone group continue to target an operating margin above 16 percent and like-for-like sales growth of 4-5 percent. This compares with sales growth of 2.5 percent and an operating margin of 14.36 percent achieved in 2017.

Danone pushed back its target for Return On Invested Capital (ROIC) of 12 percent to 2022 from 2020 due to currency evolution and new accounting rules.

($1 = 0.8694 euros) (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon Editing by Ingrid Melander/Sudip Kar-Gupta/Jane Merriman)


RF 

Released: 2018-10-22T19:11:59.000Z

CO 

bsngd : Danone SA

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i41 : Food/Beverages | icnp : Consumer Goods | ifood : Food Products

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c22 : New Products/Services | ccat : Corporate/Industrial News | ncat : Content Types | nfact : Factiva Filters | nfcpin : C&E Industry News Filter

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chinaz : Greater China | china : China | apacz : Asia Pacific | asiaz : Asia | bric : BRICS Countries | devgcoz : Emerging Market Countries | dvpcoz : Developing Economies | easiaz : Eastern Asia

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SERVICE:RNP | SERVICE:E | SERVICE:PCU | SERVICE:ABN | SERVICE:BNX | SERVICE:PSC | SERVICE:UCDPTEST | SERVICE:PCO | SERVICE:D | SERVICE:RBN | LANG:en | OEC | AGPRO | AGRI | BACT | BEV | CMPNY | COM | DAIR | FDK | FOBE | FOD | FODPR | FODPR1 | FOODIN | FOTB | NCYC | RES | RESF | TOPCMB | TOPNWS

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Business | Economy | Entertainment and Lifestyle | Asia | Europe | US | Central / Eastern Europe | Western Europe | East Asia | Americas | United States | Switzerland | Media type Pictures | Euro Zone | North America | Emerging Market Countries | China (PRC) | Asia / Pacific | France | DANONE-FORECASTS/ (UPDATE 2, PIX) | Danone SA | DANONE | FORECASTS | (UPDATE 2, PIX)

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Document LBA0000020181022eeam01u1t


SE The Upshot
HD The Problem With Probiotics
BY By Aaron E. Carroll
WC 1033 words
PD 22 October 2018
ET 03:00 AM
SN NYTimes.com Feed
SC NYTFEED
LA English
CY Copyright 2018. The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Even before the microbiome craze[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/upshot/exciting-microbe-research-temper-that-giddy-feeling-in-your-gut.html] — the hope that the bacteria in your gut holds the key to good health — people were ingesting cultures of living micro-organisms to treat a host of conditions. These probiotics have become so popular that they’re being marketed in foods, capsules and even beauty products[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/style/gut-health-skin.html].

Probiotics have the potential to improve health, including by displacing potentially harmful bugs. The trouble is that the proven benefits involve a very small number of conditions, and probiotics are regulated less tightly than drugs. They don’t need to be proved effective to be marketed, and the quality control can be lax.

TD 

In a recent article in JAMA Internal Medicine[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2702973], Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, urges us to consider the harms as well as the benefits. Among immune-compromised individuals, for instance, probiotics can lead to infections.

Consumers can’t always count on what they’re getting. From 2016 to 2017, the Food and Drug Administration inspected[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2702973] more than 650 facilities that produce dietary supplements, and determined that more than 50 percent of them had violations. These included issues with the purity, strength and even the identity of the promised product.

Probiotic supplements have also been found to be contaminated[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3023597/] with organisms that are not supposed to be there. In 2014, such a supplement’s contamination arguably caused the death of an infant[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4584706/].

Given all of this, what are the benefits? The most obvious use of probiotics would be in the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, given that they are focused on gut health. There have been many studies in this domain, so many that early this year the journal Nutrition published a systematic review of systematic reviews[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899900717301351?via=ihub] on the subject.

The takeaway: Certain strains were found useful in preventing diarrhea[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27688016] among children being prescribed antibiotics. A 2013 review[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23728658] showed that after antibiotic use, probiotics help prevent Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea. A review focused on acute infectious diarrhea[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD003048.pub3/abstract] found a benefit, again for certain strains of bacteria at controlled doses. There’s also evidence that they may help prevent necrotizing enterocolitis[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD005496.pub4/full] (a serious gastrointestinal condition) and death in preterm infants.

Those somewhat promising results — for very specific uses of very specific strains of bacteria in very specific instances — are just about all the “positive” results you can find.

Many wondered whether probiotics could be therapeutic in other gastrointestinal disorders. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Probiotics didn’t show a significant benefit for chronic diarrhea[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21069693]. Three reviews[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17054217] looked at how probiotics might improve Crohn’s disease[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18646162], and none could find sufficient evidence to recommend[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19821389] their use. Four more reviews looked at ulcerative colitis, and similarly declared[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22161412] that we don’t[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17943867] have the data[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29127772] to show that they work[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26593456]. The same was true for the treatment of liver disease.

Undaunted, researchers looked into whether probiotics might be beneficial in a host of disorders, even when the connection to gut health and the microbiome was tenuous. Reviews show that there is insufficient evidence to recommend their use to treat or prevent eczema[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006135.pub2/full], preterm labor[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD005941.pub2/full], gestational diabetes[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD009951.pub2/full], bacterial vaginosis[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006289.pub2/full], allergic diseases[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006475.pub2/full] or urinary tract infections[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010723.pub2/full].

Reviews looking at the treatment or prevention of vulvovaginal candidiasis in women[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010496.pub2/full], pneumonia in patients hooked up to respirators[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD009066.pub2/full], and colds in otherwise healthy people[https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006895.pub3/full] show some positive results. But the authors note that the studies are almost all of low quality, small in size, and often funded by companies with significant conflicts of interest.

Individual studies are similarly disappointing for probiotics. One examining obesity[https://www.clinicalkey.com/#!/content/playContent/1-s2.0-S0271531715001037] found limited effects. Another showed they don’t prevent cavities[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26965080] in teeth. They don’t help prevent infant colic[https://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g2107], either.

None of this has prevented probiotics from becoming more popular. In 2012, almost four million Americans[https://nccih.nih.gov/research/statistics/NHIS/2012/natural-products/biotics] used them. In 2014, the global market for probiotics was more than $32 billion.

It’s not clear why. Even in specific diarrhea-focused areas, the case for them isn’t as strong as many think. As with nutrition research[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/upshot/surprising-honey-study-shows-woes-of-nutrition-research.html], much of this has to do with study design and how proof of efficacy doesn’t translate into real-world applications[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/upshot/what-if-a-study-showed-opioids-werent-usually-needed.html].

“Sometimes small studies suggest strains work, but when a larger more well-done study is performed, they no longer seem to,” Dr. Cohen said.

When research is done on probiotics, it usually involves a specific organism, defined by genus, species and even strain[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899900717301351?via%3Dihub]. When used in studies, they are pure and carefully dosed. But when we buy probiotics off the shelf, especially when they are in food products, we often have no idea what we’re getting.

Yet that’s how probiotics are often offered. They can be distributed in the United States as food, supplements or drugs[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2702973]. The regulations for each are very different. Most people looking for probiotics don’t see the distinctions. Ideally, the ways in which we use and consume probiotics would conform to the data and evidence that back them up. That rarely happens.

Further, there’s still a lot we don’t know. A recent study published in Cell[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867418311085?via%3Dihub] compared how the microbiome of the gut reconstituted itself after antibiotic treatment with and without probiotic administration. The researchers found that probiotics (which might have improved diarrhea symptoms) led to a significant delay in microbiome reconstitution, if it occurred at all. And — again — this study was with purified strains of bacteria, which is not what you’re getting in probiotic-containing food.

Of course, people with no immune deficiencies should feel free to eat yogurt and sauerkraut, which can absolutely be part of a healthy diet. Eat them because they’re delicious, and most likely better for you than many other foods, not because of any health claims.

“It’s important that consumers understand that all those nicely labeled containers on store shelves are not vetted by the F.D.A.,” Dr. Cohen said. “They’re not carefully watching over[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2706489] the probiotic space, leaving consumers to be the guinea pigs for these science experiments.”

For too long we’ve assumed that probiotics are doing some good and little harm. That might be true for some, but it’s not assured in the current environment.


IN 

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Probiotics | Dietary Supplements and Herbal Remedies | Diet and Nutrition | Preventive Medicine | Research | Digestive Tract | News

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The New York Times Company

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Document NYTFEED020181022eeam001uq


SE VARIETY
HD GET FIT // Gut check // A Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist studies how “the bugs inside us” affect our overall health.
BY CONNIE NELSON; STAFF WRITER
CR STAR TRIBUNE (Mpls.-St. Paul)
WC 830 words
PD 21 October 2018
SN Star-Tribune
SC MSP
ED METRO
PG 12E
LA English
CY Copyright 2018. The Star Tribune Company. All rights reserved.

LP 

Dr. Joseph Murray takes the adage “You are what you to eat” to a whole new level — a lower level. As a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Murray studies “anything that ails you from your mouth to the other end.”

In addition to being an expert in Celiac disease and swallowing disorders, he has a “keen interest in what we feed ourselves and the bugs inside us.”

TD 

We talked to Murray about the increasing interest in the gut, good bugs vs. bad bugs, food vs. supplements, the possible dangers of elimination diets and how “brugs” may be the next frontier in treating autoimmune diseases.

Q: How do you think of the gut?

A: One analogy is the big brain/little brain, with our mind being the big brain and the gut our little brain. But I think of us as a gut — with a few well-developed appendages.

Q: Sounds like a gastroenterologist talking. What’s in this gut?

A: We are essentially a bag of bugs. We have bugs on us and in us, and we have evolved with those bugs. They help mature and develop our immune systems. They also prevent bad bugs from taking root.

Q: So these bugs are important. How do we take care of them?

A: When we feed ourselves, we feed the bugs inside us. Our bugs are what we feed them. We need to think about how we tend to them, how we grow and train them. A lot of people think a plant-based diet may be good for us.

Q: What do you think?

A: Here’s the single most important piece of nutritional advice I can give: Eat less.

Q: That’s it?

A: Eat less. Probably eat more plants. Eat less saturated fats and more things with healthy fiber, like oatmeal. And don’t go overboard on any one thing.

Q: Why do you think interest in the gut has skyrocketed?

A: When people experience things that make them feel not well, they look at what they can control, things they can do themselves. For the last 10 years or so, people have been turning to diets to help themselves improve how they feel, how they perform.

Q: Can diets help?

A: Yes, but I’m very worried about fads because they’re not based on science. We don’t want people to drastically shift their diets on ideas that are unproven. Take grain-free diets. There are studies that show eating healthy whole grains seems to be associated with good cardiovascular health.

Q: Are you concerned about elimination diets?

A: When people go on a restrictive diet, they avoid something like gluten. And then they feel a little better for a while. But then that wears off, so they avoid dairy, too. Soon, they’re on such a restrictive diet that it’s nutritionally deficient and unsustainable.

If you make a dietary change and the benefit isn’t durable, don’t stick with it. And certainly don’t double down on it.

Get medical advice. Talk to your doctor about what it is you’re trying to address.

Q: Fermented foods are hugely popular. If I eat sauerkraut and drink kombucha, will I be healthy?

A: We don’t know. We do know that fermented foods have evolved over centuries, and that they may reduce the risk from other types of bad bugs.

Q: What about supplements?

A: If there’s evidence that a certain food or group of foods is good for you, then eat that food. Don’t try to distill it down into a pill form.

Q: Why is food better than a pill?

A: When we eat a food with probiotics in it, that food helps reduce the amount of acid in our stomachs. If you take a supplement, the acid in our stomachs can kill some of the good bugs.

And, often, what a food contains is so much more complicated. Take yogurt, for example. When you eat yogurt, you get more than probiotics. It has milk in it (which protects the probiotics from the stomach acids), magnesium, calcium and whatever it is in the milk that the probiotic bugs have been working on. When you take lactobacillus, that’s all you get.

Q: Where is gut science headed?

A: We’re studying how we can manipulate the bacteria in our guts — by adding to them, feeding them — to tame our autoimmune system to help us overcome or treat diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. We have powerful drugs to treat that, but what if we could use the bacteria instead?

This isn’t realized yet, but we’re trying to see if “brugs” (a bug that acts like a drug) can change how our immune system works.

Connie Nelson • 612-673-7087 • @StribCNelson


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Document MSP0000020181023eeal0001g


SE Arts
HD Tiny contemporary monuments to transient phenomena
BY Mark Jenkins
WC 1063 words
PD 21 October 2018
SN The Washington Post
SC WP
ED FINAL
PG E06
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

LP 

The most monumental thing about "Micro-Monuments II: Underground" is the way the sculptures are arranged in a semicircle at IA&A at Hillyer. The neat alignment is an homage to Pommelte, a ringed neolithic site known as "the German Stonehenge." And yet, the individual artworks address modern concerns, often ecological ones. The artists - eight from Germany and 16 representing the Washington Sculptors Group - have erected tiny memorials to ephemeral things such as probiotics, hurricanes and the trash deposits known as middens.

TD 

The pieces use wood, plastic, paper and found objects more often than metal or stone, although there are exceptions. Marilyn and Gil Ugiansky drive a steel wedge into iron to signify "schisms," and Jacqueline Maggi's "Starry Night," which conjures its subject with ebony wood studded with glimmering zircons, is on a marble pedestal. Both Janet Wittenberg and Diane Szczepaniak make evocative use of green glass, the former in an "Ocean Floor" diorama, the latter in partly overlapping sheets that embody "Green Quietude."

Other themes are less picturesque. Ursula Achternkamp draws diagrams on chipboard to illustrate how tree trunks are cut into boards, and Judith Goodman places two model chickens inside a battered metal canister as an anti-memorial to the "Factory Farm." Toy soldiers wade through a resin swamp atop a birthday cake in Esther Eunjin Lee's sugary war monument.

The layout emphasizes the sculptures' fronts, but a few pieces must be seen from the rear, as well. Marc Fromm's two-faced woman is veiled on one side and wearing a cross necklace on the other, exemplifying the show's approach to monumentalism: commemorating a world and its inhabitants that are diverse and mutable, not set in stone.

Also at IA&A, the collage-paintings of Andrea Limauro's "Mare Nostrum" draw on historical styles, but the subject of the show is as contemporary as the orange life jacket and silver emergency blanket it incorporates. The Italy-bred local artist charts the progress of one symbolic migrant across the Mediterranean, the Roman Empire's mare nostrum ("our sea").

The show includes a split-screen video piece and sculpted hands that seem to emerge from the floor as though from beneath the waves. These are surrounded by paintings whose look emulates ancient maps, mosaics and frescoes but that are punctuated by small photos of ships or a guerrilla in a jungle. Limauro has researched child soldiers in Sierra Leone, so he knows the background of the story he tells. With "Mare Nostrum," he places it in a context as a wide as the sea.

Angry white men and a few uniformed monkeys rampage through "Scrutinearsighted," RICHard SMOLinski's vehement burlesque of the international political phenomena that mainstream journalists politely label "populism." The Toronto artist has papered the walls of IA&A's smallest gallery with cartoon-paintings, rendered in smeary black and white on torn-edged, loosely aligned panels. SMOLinski's style suggests German-American satirist George Grosz, while his teeming, hellish compositions recall Hieronymus Bosch. There's no apparent escape from the fury, although maybe one of the artwork's broken borders leads to a Brexit.

Micro-Monuments II: Underground; Andrea Limauro: Mare Nostrum; RICHard SMOLinski: Scrutinearsighted Through Oct. 28 at IA&A at Hillyer, 9 Hillyer Ct. NW.

Deborah Addison Coburn

Among the people pictured in "One Family," Deborah Addison Coburn's show at Studio Gallery, are Iranians, Indians, Polish Jews, Japanese Hawaiians, Chinese Canadians and a clan whose heritage includes Africa, Europe and pre-Columbian North America. They're all part of the American bloodline - although "blood tapestry" might be a more accurate term.

Working from vintage family photos, Coburn renders her and other people's ancestors in large, realist charcoal drawings. She supplements the primary images with tints, embroidery and, most often, fabric. The cloth evokes domestic life, adds specific ethnic details and represents the portability of inherited culture. Land and dwellings must be left behind; kimonos and tablecloths can travel.

Several pictures depict families of other Studio Gallery artists, some of whom added their own touches. Thus, Coburn's depiction of Freda Lee McCann's forebears includes McCann's Chinese calligraphy. Such contributions are poignantly personal but don't detract from the portraits' universality. In the title drawing, Coburn combines members of unrelated households to express a threatened ideal: e pluribus unum.

Deborah Addison Coburn: One Family Through Oct. 27 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R St. NW.

Dimensions

Some of the collages in Latela Art Gallery's "Dimensions" don't merely aspire to being paintings; they actually are. Using an expansive definition of "collage," the show includes Anne Hanger's large floral rendered with acrylic mixed with sand, as well as Maryam Rassapour's drawings embellished with pools of glistening pigment. Annie Broderick's fabric assemblage contrasts nubby and draped textures but is defined by the gold spray paint covering it all.

Other pieces employ more usual collage materials. Deming Harriman's sun- and moon-headed 3-D figures, framed by elaborate borders, are mostly paper and cardboard. Jessica Dame begins with black-and-white glamour-girl shots, replacing the heads with photos of flowers and slashing the compositions with Day-Glo pink bars. Violeta Barcenas arrays leaf-shaped paper cutouts on a painted-red backdrop, and Alyxander Goastier juxtaposes newspaper clippings and supermarket receipts with overlapping painted circles in bright hues. One of the most important dimensions in this show is color.

Dimensions: A Collage Exhibition Through Oct. 27 at Latela Art Gallery, 716 Monroe St. NE.

Gabe Brown

Nature-inspired but essentially abstract, Gabe Brown's paintings combine geometric and organic forms, muted backdrops and vibrant foregrounds. Adah Rose Gallery's "Along the Enchanted Way" pairs the Upstate New York artist's pictures with ceramics by Akemi Maegawa, a Bethesdan whose work has been reviewed here recently.

Brown paints and then scrapes away some of the pigment to get a worn look, suggesting weathered buildings and eroded stone. Over these settings, she layers sprays of teardrop shapes, which might be leaves or water, and hard-edge polygons in bright, artificial colors. The effect is fundamentally harmonious. The elements of Brown's pictorial universe are disparate, yet not antagonistic.

Gabe Brown & Akemi Maegawa: Along the Enchanted Way Through Oct. 28 at Adah Rose Gallery, 3766 Howard Ave., Kensington.

style@washpost.com


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SE news
HD Donald Trump bashes Democrats during Nevada rally, predicts GOP success in midterms
BY David Jackson
WC 651 words
PD 20 October 2018
SN USA Today Online
SC USATONL
PG n/a
LA English
CY Copyright © 2018 USA Today Online. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.

LP 

President Donald Trump capped a three-day western campaign swing Saturday as he began it: Bashing Democrats as "socialists," while downplaying talk of tensions with Saudi Arabia over the murder of a dissident journalist.

During an airport rally in Elko, Nevada, an increasingly confident Trump predicted that Republicans would surprise people in their battle to maintain control of the House and Senate.

TD 

"I like where we stand in the election," Trump said as he echoed arguments he also made in Montana and Arizona over the last two days. "We're gonna win all over. "

Democrats are equally confident of winning Congress in the Nov. 6 election, saying voters know that Trump plans would gut health care and cut taxes and regulations in order to benefit the wealthy.

During a competing Saturday rally in Las Vegas, former Vice President Joe Biden said Trump has weakened United States security by alienating long-time global alliances.

American values “are being shredded by a president who’s all about himself; it’s all about Donald," Biden said while campaigning for Nevada Democratic Senate candidate Jacky Rosen.

More: Want a Democratic 'blue wave?' Hope for clear skies.

Trump appeared in Elko on behalf of Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, an embattled Republican incumbent facing a tough re-election fight against Rosen.

Maintaining his strident attacks of late, Trump denounced Democrats as "an angry, ruthless, unhinged mob. " He accused them of backing "radical socialism" on the economy, supporting "open borders" on immigration, and launching unfair attacks during the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

More: Trump ups immigration rhetoric ahead of western swing

"All the Democrats want is power," Trump said while predicting success in states like Arizona, Montana, Florida, Missouri, and Nevada.

Just before the rally, Trump took to Twitter to offer to work with Democrats on the immigration issue, even as he continued to attack them. He singled out top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

"If the Democrats would stop being obstructionists and come together, we could write up and agree to new immigration laws in less than one hour," Trump tweeted. "Look at the needless pain and suffering that they are causing. Look at the horrors taking place on the Border. Chuck & Nancy, call me!"

Schumer and Pelosi have said Trump is the one blocking a deal on immigration because he wants it as a political issue.

One issue Trump did not mention during the rally: The Friday announcement by Saudi Arabia authorities that they had arrested 18 people in connection with the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. They said the journalist, a frequent critic of Saudi leadership, died after a fistfight inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Speaking with reporters after the rally, Trump said he will speak soon with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Asked if he believes the prince didn’t know about the murder, Trump said: “It’s possible. ”

“I’m not satisfied until we find the answer,” he said.

As for sanctioning arms sales, Trump said “that would hurt us far more” than it would Saudi Arabia. Trump spoke before boarding Air Force One and the flight back to Washington, D. C.

Critics accused Trump of helping the Saudi leadership cover up its complicity in the murder Khashoggi, a U. S. resident who wrote for The Washington Post.

Fred Ryan, CEO and publisher of the Post, said Saudi Arabia has repeatedly lied about Khashoggi's disappearance, and now is offering a cover-up rather than an explanation.

"President Trump, Congress and leaders of the civilized world should demand to see verifiable evidence," Ryan said. "The Saudis cannot be allowed to fabricate a face-saving solution to an atrocity that appears to have been directed by the highest levels of their government. ”


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SE News; Domestic
HD Facebook`s new war room will fight election meddling
BY JOHN DICKERSON, NORAH O`DONNELL, GAYLE KING
WC 2069 words
PD 18 October 2018
SN CBS News: CBS This Morning
SC CBST
LA English
CY Content and programming Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.

LP 

(8:30 AM, EDT)

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Welcome back to CBS THIS MORNING.

TD 

Right now it`s time to show you some of this morning`s headlines from around the globe. Britain`s Telegraph reports on a study that looks at whether sunlight really is the best disinfectant. Researchers found letting light through your window will help you stay healthy. Yay. The findings published in the journal Microbiome showed that in dark rooms twelve percent of bacteria on average were alive and able to produce, but only 6.8 percent of bacteria exposed to daylight were able to replicate.

NORAH O`DONNELL: I always thought that was just a metaphor.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Yeah.

(Cross talking)

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: I know. There`s science behind it.

JOHN DICKERSON: Yes, the vampires are angry.

GAYLE KING: People says that it solved the mystery over Prince Harry`s black ring. Harry was spotted wearing the large band during day three of his tour of Australia with his wife Meghan Markle. Norah called this right. She said, and People says too, it`s the Oura Ring. It`s a sleep and activity tracker that connects to a smartphone app. I didn`t know such a thing existed. (INDISTINCT).

NORAH O`DONNELL: I know.

And The New York Times reports Caroll Spinney is retiring from the Sesame Workshop after almost five decades. He played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.

(Excerpt from Sesame Street, PBS)

NORAH O`DONNELL: Spinney was one of the original puppeteers when the children`s TV show first aired in 1969.

(Excerpt from Sesame Street)

NORAH O`DONNELL: I love the Grouch. He-- he said, quote, "I will always be Big Bird and even Oscar once in a while." He will be missed.

JOHN DICKERSON: Facebook is unveiling a new so-called war room to help deal with urgent threats in the upcoming midterms and prevent election interference. The social media giant says the war room will streamline decision making if threats emerge. Facebook disabled more than a billion fake accounts between October, 2017 and March, 2018. It also doubled the number of people working on safety and security and partner with third party fact-checkers to limit the spread of misinformation. Facebook`s head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher joins us. Good morning.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER (Facebook Head of Cybersecurity Policy): Good morning.

JOHN DICKERSON: So, are the midterms going to be protected?

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: The thing that I`m most confident about is that we`ve done everything we can to make sure that that`s true. It`s always a challenge because there are always going to be people when you have a public debate leading up to an election that are going to try to target them.

JOHN DICKERSON: We have lots of different kinds of information, some of it is obviously made up, it`s fake heads put on different bodies, that kind of thing. That seems to be-- to be something you can figure out, put a lot of bodies on it. But what about the grayer stuff, things that are differences of opinion that then get jacked up into the conversation through some of these methods which seem to be a lot harder because if you take it off, somebody`s going to say, wait a minute, that`s my point of view?

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: One of our key approaches is, you can focus on the content, that is what`s being said, but you can also focus on the behaviors. What we found is that there are certain tactics that bad actors use again and again. For instance, using fake accounts, using what we called fake engagement, that is trying to make posts look for popular than they really are, and trying to conceal their identity. And so when we take action and take people down like we did last week and we`ve done over the last eight months, ten months, we`re acting based on their behavior often. And that is really valuable when you get into this gray area, right, because now you`re not reading content, you`re not thinking whether something is true or not, they`re engaging in these techniques to manipulate people and to confuse people.

NORAH O`DONNELL: I was--

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: And I think we can all agree we don`t want that.

NORAH O`DONNELL: I was stunned to read that Facebook has taken down more than a billion fake accounts, and that`s through March of this year. Have you said how many additional accounts you`ve taken through-- down from March, 2018 to October, 2018?

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: We haven`t released that yet, we have a periodic transparency report and it hasn`t come out yet with that update.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Hundreds of millions--

GAYLE KING: Do you want to release it-- do you want to release it today, Nathaniel? We`re listening.

NORAH O`DONNELL: But here`s what-- I mean, there`s about seven billion people in the world, right? And you`re talking about a year span there were 1.2 billion fake accounts. Who`s creating these fake accounts? Are they foreign governments?

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: So that report actually covered about six months, in fact.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Yeah.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: And the key is that these are fake accounts that are created often in automated fashion.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Mm-Hm.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: And so they might be spammers, they might be people trying to perpetrate fraud. Some of them might be nation states. And we have automated systems that will detect and remove millions of fake accounts every day. And something like ninety-eight percent of the ones we remove we do that automatically (INDISTINCT).

NORAH O`DONNELL: The reason I ask-- can I just-- sorry to follow-up, and I just-- because these fake accounts, and some of them then are real accounts, for instance, in Myanmar, I mean, this was the front page of the New York Times, which reported that military personnel in Myanmar used Facebook as a tool for ethnic cleansing. This is not just spreading fake news, they used it to incite violence to get people to kill hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Myanmar.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: What happened in Myanmar was horrible. And we have been really focused both in the United States, internationally, and in countries like Myanmar, and anyone who`s trying to use the platform to facilitate misinformation or to drive violence. What we need and what everyone wants I think is authentic public debate on a platform where you know who you`re talking to, you know what they`re trying to say and you`re able to build connections. That`s what Facebook really enables and that`s the positive that it brings. Obviously, when you have a community like this, any new form of media, there are going to be people who try to misuse it and try to manipulate it. And so that`s why we have our teams, that`s why we have the effort like the war room. And all the teams and investments we`ve made over the last several years to make sure that we help encourage all the positive and we minimize the threats like that.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: So-- so let me ask you about this war room.

GAYLE KING: Yeah.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Who are the people there detecting bad actors and why should we trust them to do that?

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: What we`ve done is we`ve brought together about twenty of the teams across Facebook that are the core of our efforts to detect bad actors. So we have our threat intelligence team that run our manual investigations, we have our data science teams that are looking at the big picture and trying to see patterns. And also we work with our outside partners, whether you`re talking about people from government, state elections officials, other companies who might see things, see threats and provide information to us.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: You`ve got a billion pages. Do you have enough people to detect all of that? How many people are going to be in this actual war room?

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: You could never fit all the people who work on security at Facebook in one room, promise.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Right, right.

GAYLE KING: That`s right.

JOHN DICKERSON: It`s a virtual war room.

GAYLE KING: That`s right.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: That`s right.

GAYLE KING: But, Nathaniel, you know, you`ve got four major public funds that hold shares in Facebook that are calling for the removal of Mark Zuckerberg as chairman, and I`m wondering what you think about that. I dare you to say, yes, Gayle, I actually think that`s a very good idea. But I do want to know what do the people at Facebook think about the leadership that`s in place right now?

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: I mean, in my world, so my team and the teams that I work with who really are very focused on the election that`s coming up--

GAYLE KING: Mm-Hm.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: --this is something that Mark has been pretty vocal about. He`s emphasized how important it is, how serious it is, and so we`re all pulling together on this. And one of the things that`s great is we`re starting to see results.

GAYLE KING: Mm-Hm.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: We`ve had about a dozen major takedowns where we`ve identified and removed information operations from the platforms over the last year. We have the war room set up now. And to sort of compliment the people in the war room, we also have automated systems that are doing automated analysis to help us deal with just the scale of Facebook. All of those things pulling together we`re starting to see some results.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: But you think--

GAYLE KING: But you didn`t answer the question about Mark-- Mark`s leadership.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: I think particularly in the area where I work, Mark has had incredible leadership.

GAYLE KING: Yeah.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: This is where I work.

GAYLE KING: Yeah.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: So this is where we would fit together.

GAYLE KING: What was your a-ha moment, though, we call it at the Oprah magazine, because for a long time they said Facebook really didn`t take this seriously. What was the a-ha moment where you guys finally said, okay, we got to do something here?

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: I mean, we`ve said pretty clearly that particularly leading up to the 2016 elections we weren`t focused broadly enough on the types of threats people might used, we were too focused on traditional cybersecurity threats. That election and what happened after that was a real wakeup call for us. And since then we`ve really been laser focused on all the different ways someone could try to misuse the platform and all the resources we could bring to bear to tackle that challenge.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Well, thank you so much for being here. I hope you`ll continue to update us on everything--

GAYLE KING: Yes.

NORAH O`DONNELL: --that Facebook is doing.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Yeah.

NORAH O`DONNELL: That`s important.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Thank you.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER: Thank you.

NORAH O`DONNELL: Thank you--

GAYLE KING: Very important.

NORAH O`DONNELL: --Nathaniel Gleicher.

GAYLE KING: Good to see you.

The co-creators behind the hit Netflix documentary, Making a Murderer, are about to release an update to their award-winning series. So first here on CBS THIS MORNING, Laura Ricciardale-- Ricciardi, sorry, Ricciardi-- Ricciardi, and Moira Demos are here in the Toyota Greenroom to share some of the evidence viewers may not have seen.

But first, a check of your local weather.

(LOCAL WEATHER BREAK)

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

END


RF 

Content and programming Copyright MMXVIII CBS Broadcasting Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.

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Show | NATHANIEL GLEICHER | Facebook | Fake Accounts | New York Times | Myanmar | Mark Zuckerberg | Cybersecurity

PUB 

CQ-Roll Call, Inc.

AN 

Document CBST000020181019eeai000m9


SE Health
HD UK waiting times for ovarian cancer diagnosis failing women compared to other countries, charity warns
BY Jennifer Cockerell
WC 631 words
PD 18 October 2018
ET 09:16 AM
SN Independent Online
SC INDOP
LA English
CY © 2018. Independent Print Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Only 30 per cent of women receive diagnosis within one month compared to 43 per cent globally

Women in the UK are being failed when it comes to diagnosing ovarian cancer[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/ovarian-cancer] in comparison with other countries, a charity has warned.

TD 

Target Ovarian Cancer[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/target-ovarian-cancer] said UK women were waiting longer than average for a diagnosis – 30 per cent were diagnosed within a month compared with 43 per cent globally – while two-thirds (66 per cent) were diagnosed once the cancer[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Cancer] had already spread.

The figures come from the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition's Every Woman Study – the largest ever global review of the experiences of more than 1,500 women with ovarian cancer from 44 countries.

Read more

'Game changing' ovarian cancer drug gets first NHS fund approval

Worldwide ovarian cancer incidence is rising and is expected to increase by 55 per cent by 2035.

It is expected to go up by 15 per cent in the UK, from around 7,300 cases a year currently to around 10,500 a year by 2035.

Previous research by Target Ovarian Cancer found nearly half (46 per cent) of women with the disease were initially referred for tests for something other than ovarian cancer, meaning they risked delays while waiting for test results and further referrals if tests for other conditions came back negative.

The charity said raising awareness among GPs[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/GPS] and women would ensure earlier diagnosis of ovarian cancer and it wanted to see the Government fund a campaign to increase knowledge of its symptoms.

When a woman is diagnosed at the earliest stage, her chance of surviving ovarian cancer for five years or more doubles.

It also suggested that as with breast cancer[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/BreastCancer], measures are brought in to speed up diagnostic testing so more women get an early diagnosis.

Annwen Jones, Target Ovarian Cancer chief executive and co-chairwoman of the Every Woman Study, said: "Today's Every Woman Study shows how the UK trails the rest of the world in diagnosing ovarian cancer early.

"Theresa May has made a personal commitment to see more cancers diagnosed sooner and this report shows how much more needs to be done to make that goal a reality.

"These measures could save lives and women simply cannot wait any longer."

Sue Rizzello, 53, from Berkshire[https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Berkshire], was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012.

She said: "I had never heard of ovarian cancer or the symptoms before I was diagnosed.

"I experienced fatigue and bloating, but passed it off to over-working and putting on some weight.

"The GP said the bloating definitely wasn't fluid, but when the symptoms continued I kept going back and luckily a locum GP sent me for a CA125 blood test.

"I was diagnosed with stage IIIc advanced ovarian cancer.”

Read more

Terminal breast cancer patients 'abandoned' in nurse shortage

Rising breast cancer survival rates set to reverse, charity warns

Obesity to become biggest preventable cause of cancer in UK women

My stomach pain proved to be ovarian cancer, and I didn't like the odd

Women buying probiotic yoghurt for bloating could have ovarian cancer

She added: "We need to act now so that more women know the symptoms of this disease and especially so that the system is set up to give more of us a fighting chance at an all-important early diagnosis."

Common symptoms of ovarian cancer include persistent bloating, feeling full quickly and/or loss of appetite, pelvic or abdominal pain, and urinary symptoms such as needing to wee more urgently or more often than usual.

Other less common signs include changes in bowel habit such as diarrhoea or constipation, extreme fatigue and unexplained weight loss.

Press Association


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Document INDOP00020181018eeai0040l


SE Lifestyle,Health
HD 8 Tips on how to de-bloat for your office Christmas party
BY By Steve Myall
WC 1943 words
PD 18 October 2018
ET 05:50 AM
SN Mirror.co.uk
SC MIRUK
LA English
CY © 2018 Mirror Group Ltd

LP 

Cut out sugar, snack healthily, don't glug fizzy drinks and remember that stress can make you fat so chill out says Dr Michelle Braude

Forget doing hundreds of crunches to get that perfect holiday season tummy, the key to a flat stomach is in the kitchen.

TD 

Endless stomach exercises are not the way to get a flat, toned tummy for that tight black dress - what you consume is far more important - it’s all about what goes into your mouth – NOT how many crunches or sit-ups you do.

Dr Michelle Braude[https://twitter.com/thefoodeffectdr]is a nutritionist who specialises in helping people looking to lose weight, improve their diet and optimise their overall health and well-being.

Her Food Effect system is a diet which relies on eating the right foods in the right quantities, rather than depriving yourself of specific food groups which is unhealthy and unsustainable.

This regime teaches you how to eat nutrionally-healthy meals that offer variety and taste - these ensure The Food Effect can become part of your lifestyle, which makes it easier in the long-term to keep weight off and keep your body healthy.

Here she gives her tips on getting your body prepared for the Christmas party season.

A sudden increase of kale in the diet can create gas, which bloats the stomach.

Kale is a great food and super-healthy, but introduce it slowly into your diet.

Similarly, while foods rich in plant-based protein, such as chickpeas and legumes are healthy in the long-term, if your body’s not used to them they can also cause gas and bloating.

Spinach, cucumber and tomato are excellent alternatives that cause less gas if you want to start a healthy eating kick.

Bloated stomach? Causes and remedies to get rid of the pain[http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/bloated-stomach-5-common-causes-1196763]

Cutting carbs out completely slows down metabolism[https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/how-boost-your-metabolism--12317167]so your body holds on to fat, and when you start eating them again you can end up piling on weight.

Eating healthy carbohydrates like brown rice, sweet potato, quinoa and whole grain bread can actively flatten the tummy, keep blood sugar stable, insulin levels balanced, and help reduce cortisol levels, which is associated with belly fat[https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/how-rid-belly-fat-expert-7417508].

Swap refined, processed carbs (like potato and white bread) and sugars for fruit and unprocessed whole-grain carbohydrates.

Foods that are high in refined carbohydrates and sugars cause a spike in blood sugar levels, followed by a CRASH shortly after.

This causes our bodies to go into “fight or flight” mode and cortisol levels to soar!

Fruits, such as apples and berries, and high-fibre whole-grain breads, cereals, pulses, oats and quinoa are your best flat-belly food friends here.

As well as preventing the body from storing fat, whole-grain, fibre-rich foods also fight against obesity, cancer, high blood pressure[http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/ten-ways-banish-high-blood-9621402]and heart disease and are good for the digestive system – keeping you regular (which also helps keep your tummy flat)!

Lean protein (e.g. Broccoli, Pineapple, Apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, fennel, green tea, Kiwi fruit, nuts, eggs, fish, pulses, cottage cheese, chicken and turkey breast) A diet high in protein, veggies and good complex carbs provides a powerful combination that helps stabilise your blood sugar levels, prevent hunger and cravings and regulate cortisol levels.

Lean protein also helps build muscle, burn fat, strengthen the immune system and keeps you feeling full! The more muscle we have, the more energy we burn at rest.

This means less of the food we eat getting stored as fat and more being burned as fuel – score!.

Broccoli (and other dark green veg)

High in chromium, which helps control blood sugar levels and also prevent sugar cravings – a real belly fat buster!

Pineapple

Pineapple contains an enzyme called bromelain and has been shown to boost metabolism and burn fat.

Bromelain is a super-enzyme and pineapple is one the richest sources.

The enzyme boosts metabolism, helps absorb nutrients and makes you more efficient at burning fat.

Aim to eat a quarter of a pineapple a day in the lead up to your special event. Eat it fresh, in a fruit salad with Greek yogurt or add it to your smoothies or juices.

The enzyme is also available in supplement form, but the best way to absorb it is through food.

Bromelain is also an anti-inflammatory, helps joint disease and has been found to help prevent cancer.

Apple Cider Vinegar and Lemon Juice

These are both known to boost your metabolism, aid digestion and prevent bloating and are the perfect way to start the day.

Start your morning with a mug of warm water and lemon juice or AC Vinegar.

Add one tablespoon of lemon juice (the juice of half a lemon), or Apple Cider Vinegar into a mug of warm water (add good quality honey/ agave syrup to sweeten) and drink this first thing in the morning.

This will hydrate you, cleanse your digestive system and is the perfect way to both de-bloat your body, and set it up for its daily food intake ahead.

Both are also great for drizzling onto salads!

Apple cider vinegar is a wonder food. It has loads of healing properties.

Put one tablespoon of apple cider into a mug of warm water.

It will hydrate you and cleanse your digestive system.

It's the perfect way to de-bloat your body. It can also kill bad stomach and intestine bacteria and promotes good gut bacteria.

It's much more effective than a probiotic

Fennel/ Green Tea

Green tea has an antioxidant in it called EGCG, which helps boost your metabolism and gets your body to utilise fat.

Fennel tea is a natural diuretic that helps get rid of excess stored water and bloating, promoting a flatter tum.

It’s a very healthy way of preventing bloating and you can notice results in just a few days.

For best results, drink 2-3 cups of either Fennel or Green tea a day, and you should see noticeable “de-bloating” results in 2-3 days.

Kiwi

This fruit is one of the richest sources of Vitamin C. Research has shown that those who have high levels of Vitamin C burn 30% more fat when they exercise.

Not a fan? Try oranges, grapefruit or even red peppers instead!

Nuts and/or Nut Butter

Almonds and other nuts/ nut butter (for example peanut butter) are your superheroes when it comes to building muscle, keeping you satisfied, reducing cravings and burning fat.

They’ve also been shown to prevent against obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, muscle loss, aging, wrinkles and cancer.

You may feel like litres of water will bloat your belly but actually drinking plenty can create a flatter stomach by avoiding unnecessary eating.

Often when we think we’re hungry, we’re actually just thirsty. Make sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day, as well as 1-2 glasses BEFORE every meal or snack you have.

Water aids weight loss by keeping your cells functioning at their fat-burning best, and also helps your kidneys flush out excess toxins and chemicals, which may be slowing down your metabolism.

If you have difficulty drinking enough plain water (around two litres a day), herbal teas, green tea (hot or iced) or lemon in hot water are all just as good.

Fizzy drinks (even “Diet” ones), on the other hand, are a sure-fire way to promote bloating and a rounded belly. Swallowing extra air can promote a swollen rounded belly due to the fizz and excess gas, so stay away.

When we eat too fast we don’t give our brains enough time to realise we’re full and usually end up eating way more than we need in the process.

Focus on the food you’re eating and don’t just wolf it down.

Avoid eating dinner in front of the TV, lunch in front of your computer or doing anything else distracting while eating.

Take time out to enjoy your meal and actually pay attention to what you’re having.

Chewing your food properly will aid efficient digestion, stop you from overeating and reduce any uncomfortable bloating you may experience from eating too quickly (which causes you to swallow excess air).

It will also ensure your brain actually registers when you’ve eaten enough food – before it’s too late! Try putting down your cutlery after each mouthful and only going in for the next when you have completely swallowed the last.

Scientists have found a direct link between fat around the stomach area and increased levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.

Anxiety causes the body to produce extra cortisol, which is a hormone that encourages the body to store fat (especially in the abdominal region).

While we can’t always avoid getting stressed, following a healthy meal plan and incorporating the right foods can help regulate your cortisol levels.

For most of us, mid-afternoon is a weak spot when it comes to eating.

People either find themselves suddenly really hungry so they reach for the most satisfying thing that they can find – which is usually found in the vending machine, if at work, or a bar of chocolate, bag of crisps or those biscuits lying around at home.

These foods cause your insulin and blood sugar levels to spike and then crash shortly after, leaving you feeling tired, lethargic, and even hungrier for more sugary junk food.

Towards the other extreme are those that either find themselves too busy, or just try not to eat anything mid-afternoon, in an attempt to “hold out until dinner”.

The problem with this is that when you’re ravenous, anything and everything looks and tastes delicious and it takes a lot more food to feel satisfied.

Having such a large gap between lunch and dinner causes your metabolism to slow down and your blood sugar levels to drop – causing your body to actually HOLD ONTO FAT.

Eating small, healthy snacks between meals will help keep your blood sugar stable and your metabolism going strong.

Always carry healthy snacks with you if you know you’re going to be out and about for a while or working long hours and there’s a risk of this happening.

Snacks should be 200 calories or less and a combination of fibre, healthy fats and protein for optimum satisfaction and blood sugar stability – such as a portion of nuts, seeds and dried fruit, an apple and a tablespoon of peanut butter or whole-grain crackers with hummus.

Eating a large amount of refined sugar just contributes to ‘empty’ calories and raised insulin levels.

As insulin increases fat storage, consuming large amounts of sugar (usually through processed, packaged foods and drinks) makes it harder to lose belly fat.

The best thing to do is to carefully read all labels of food you consume and, if you want to look your best, stick to natural, wholesome foods while avoiding packaged, processed foods as much as possible.

This means eating foods that are close to, if not the same as, their natural state – i.e. fresh fruit, vegetables, whole-grains, nuts, eggs, dairy and fish. The shorter the list of ingredients on the package of food, the better it is.

By incorporating (even a few of) these easy tips into your everyday routine, you’re guaranteed to notice results for your Xmas party, and, most importantly, get a flat tum that last for Christmas, New Year and beyond.

Dr. Michelle Braude is founder of The Food Effect, www.thefoodeffect.co.uk[http://www.thefoodeffect.co.uk/]

How to boost your health


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SE Lifestyle,Health
HD The surprising new cause found for bloating - and the natural remedy which could relieve symptoms
BY By mirror
WC 528 words
PD 18 October 2018
ET 05:37 AM
SN Mirror.co.uk
SC MIRUK
LA English
CY © 2018 Mirror Group Ltd

LP 

Nutritionist Nick Zanetti discusses a possible new cause for IBS-type symptoms and a common probiotic which may be used to relieve the condition

Irritable bowel syndrome[http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/how-banish-misery-irritable-bowel-7689088](IBS) is a common condition of the digestive system and the main symptoms are: stomach pain, constipation, diarrhoea and bloating[http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/bloated-stomach-5-common-causes-1196763].

TD 

This condition is sometimes mild but in other cases is very severe and that can cause a lot of distress on the patient.

How common is this problem? We can find this information from the the NHS website: between 15% to 20% of the people in the UK will experience IBS at one point of their life; this means between 9 to 11 million people in the country.

IBS usually first develops when a person is between 20 and 30 years of age, and women have twice the chances of suffering from IBS than men do.

It is still unclear what exactly causes IBS, but some evidence suggests that possible triggers of IBS are:

In this article though I want to discuss a different and still obscure possible cause for IBS-like symptoms - a little known parasite.

Parasites have been linked to IBS like symptoms for quite some time now[https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1756-3305-3-96].

For this article I am looking at a parasite called Blastocystis hominis and its possible role in IBS.

Blastocystis is a human parasite which is usually not treated because considered to be harmless but a very interesting 2009 Turkish study[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19820833]may have started to shed some lights on this subject in more depth.

It seems to suggest a reason why Blastocystis causes symptoms in some people BUT not in others.

The real reason you could be feeling tired all the time - and it's not because of your age[http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/real-reason-you-could-feeling-9746039]

In some people, the immune system apparently attacks Blastocystis and the parasite IN RESPONSE to this attack, produces some enzymes called serine proteases which block our own antibodies and protect the parasites from destruction.

Unfortunately it seems that high levels of these enzymes produced by the parasite, can cause abdominal contraptions and widespread pain in a very similar way to the pain caused by IBS.

So what are the possible natural remedies to support you in your IBS struggle?

Let me remind you that natural doesn't necessarily mean safe and natural remedies might interfere with your medications. You MUST speak with your GP before making any change to your diet or taking supplements.

Probiotics, also called friendly bacteria, have been researched for many years and there is some evidence of being of potential help for IBS patients. One of the most researched[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2886445/]probiotic in this field being Bifidobacterium infantis.

When it specifically comes to fighting Blastocystis, there are some indications, coming from a 2010 study[https://go.redirectingat.com?id=76202X1526515xs=1url=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Farticle%2F10.1007%2Fs00436-010-2095-4sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2Flifestyle%2Fhealth%2Fsurprising-new-cause-found-bloating-9810508], that a common and inexpensive probiotic called Saccharomices Boulardii could be helpful.

A better understanding of your personal situation can be done only through a proper consultation that can help to evaluate your personal case and understand what are the possible triggers behind your IBS. This can be useful in creating the right program to support your health goals.


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SE Beauty
HD Is menopause ruining your skin? Here are the solutions
BY By Dominique Temple, Beauty Editor
WC 1242 words
PD 18 October 2018
ET 12:28 AM
SN The Telegraph Online
SC TELUK
LA English
CY The Telegraph Online © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

Hormone induced skin problems are often associated with women in their teens to late twenties who experience breakouts and irritation, usually due to taking some form of contraceptive. What is less discussed is the effects of menopause on your skin before, during and after. As today is world menopause day, here is everything you need to know and how it can impact your skin.

Menopause is a normal condition that all women experience as they age. The term 'menopause' describes any of the changes a woman goes through either just before or after she stops menstruating, marking the end of her reproductive period.

TD 

A woman is born with a finite number of eggs, which are stored in the ovaries. The ovaries also make the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, which control menstruation and ovulation. Menopause happens when the ovaries no longer release an egg every month and menstruation stops. It can bring with it some noticeable changes to your skin,body and hair. As hormone levels plummet, your skin can become dry, slack, and thin.

Here's our guide to ensure you're always one step ahead of hormonal skin.

Peri-menopause

Menopause is considered a normal part of ageing when it happens after the age of 40. But some women can go through menopause early before 40 - like Angelina Jolie - where their production of oestrogen slows down, which is also known as peri-menopause. “I see women in their mid to late forties around the time of peri-menopause (menopause transition) with skin problems; a consequence of hormonal change," says Dr. Justine Hextall, a dermatologist at The Harley Medical Group. As hormone levels start to change in the body symptoms such as acne on the lower face and jawline are common, as is thinning hair.

“As we head toward menopause we have relatively higher levels of testosterone and specifically the active form of Dyhidrotestosterone (DHT). This attaches to the hair receptors stimulating again more hair to enter the resting and falling (telogen) stage as opposed to growth (anagen) phase. It also makes the hair follicles themselves smaller, as a consequence hair in finer and there is hair loss," says Hextall. Hormonal changes can result in heavier periods which is linked to thinning hair and irritated skin. If your period is heavy, your iron levels will be lower which means the iron you do absorb will not be enough for hair or skin health. Taking a supplement will increase your body's ability to use iron in more areas other than just diet.

Menopause

When a woman is in menopause, there is a significant loss of collagen and a low count of hylauronic acid ( a very important humectant); resulting in dull, lack-lustre skin," says Hextall. The ceramides that act as cement in the skin barrier also reduce with time and skin becomes drier and often more irritated. Using products that are infused with youth-restoring ceramides is an easy way to age smart.

Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Capsules, £39[http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=2082awinaffid=73846clickref=customidp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lookfantastic.com%2Felizabeth-arden-ceramide-capsules-advanced-30-capsules%2F11382387.html]

These innovative anti-ageing capsules directly deliver a concentrated dosage of bio-engineered, skin-identical ceramides, helping to repair and strengthen the lipid barrier as well as support natural collagen renewal, resulting in a re-texturising and plumping effect to radically minimise the appearance of fine lines.

Like all hormone-induced woes, your skin can behave and react in ways you wouldn't assume. Once robust skin, can rapidly become sensitive, dry and unreactive to your go-to tricks and potions. “A common issue we see in women during menopause is the development of eczema and inflammatory skin condition, rosacea," says Hextall. These are a-typical of the side effects that come with a hormonal change but may require you to adapt your regimen.

Clinique Redness Solutions Daily Relief Cream, £40[http://track.webgains.com/click.html?wgcampaignid=56573wgprogramid=347clickref=customidwgtarget=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.feelunique.com%2Fp%2Fclinique-redness-solutions-daily-relief-cream-50ml]

Don't know where to start? First step. Find a good SPF that your skin agrees with, to protect against UV damage. The iron oxide will protect against pigmentation, a common problem in darker skin tones and will also minimise any redness or further irritation. Use it everyday to not only protect against sun damage but as a barrier to other irritants such as pollution.

"To combat menopausal dryness I often recommend changing to a cream cleanser," advises Hextall. Gentle ranges such as La Roche Posay are active enough without being too potent and cream cleansers are more friendly on your complexion. Look for ingredients that are preservative-free as this is also a common allergen and can cause further irritation/redness.

Post-menopause

After menopause, the key is to protect your skin from further dryness, skin-sagging and pigmentation. In the quest to preserve collagen and elastin, there are key things to avoid and important positive lifestyle factors to pursue. "The biggest culprits are sunlight, smoking, pollution and stress," says Dr. Julia Sevi, Medical Practitioner at Aesthetic Health."These will accelerate the decline of collagen and elastin and hence, increase the appearance of sagging skin." Avoid cigarette smoke and regularly apply factor 50 SPF even in winter, with the addition of a hat in summer, to minimise further damage.

Vitamin C should be your fail-safe ingredient. As an anti-oxidant, it acts as a tyrosinase inhibitor, preventing enzymes in your body from creating too much melanin (your own skin pigment) aka pigmentation. If skin is sensitive, look for a lower percentage such as 10% until your skin gets used to it. This can be built up to 20% if you feel your skin can take it, as sometimes higher concentrations can cause irritation. With reduced oestrogen levels, your body loses its natural anti-oxidant protection of skin. Post -menopausal, anti-oxidant treatments are increasingly important and help reset and restore your skin.

Bea Skin Vitamin C 20% and Hylauronic Serum, £49[https://www.bea-skincare.com/products/step-3-vitamin-c-20-percent-hyaluronic-acid-serum]

If your skin feels particularly dry, opt for probiotic-infused formulas. Probiotic will help to ease any itch and irritation whilst also protecting your skin's barrier from further infection and imbalance.

Hormone-friendly skincare fixes

Look to skincare products that balance your skin and less about treating lines or other skin woes. Look for gentle cleansers and moisturisers that reduce redness and inflammation. Try a glycolic-acid toner to remove any dead skin cells and to stop pores clogging up.

Galinee Foaming Facial Cleanser, £13.90[https://www.gallinee.com/product/foaming-facial-cleanser/]

This cleanser is a gentle soap, with an innovative biotic complex, containing lactic acid to help smooth the skin and prebiotics to nourish your skin’s protective ecosystem - the microbiome. Perfect for post-menopause, dry skin.

Visiscal Hair and Nail Supplement, £29.99[http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=2082awinaffid=73846clickref=customidp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lookfantastic.com%2Fviviscal-maximum-strength-supplements-30-tablets%2F11173311.html%3Faffil%3Dthggpsad%26switchcurrency%3Dgbp%26shippingcountry%3Dgb%26gclid%3Deaiaiqobchmil5et3sx42qivds0zch0_vw4eeayyasabegjre_d_bwe%26gclsrc%3Daw.ds%26dclid%3Dcpcxnt_f-nkcfcmtuqodpyil8w]

These pills contain iron, biotin, zinc and a marine protein. All of which protect hair and can reduce hair loss. People also notice that their skin and nails improve on this supplement.

SkinCeuticals Resveratrol, £114 [https://www.effortlessskin.com/p-3533-resveratrol-b-e-30ml.aspx?slndg=56faa4c22706gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvd6khcj42QIVAjwbCh2VJAIQEAYYBCABEgKsM_D_BwE]

Anti-oxidant treatments are super beneficial to re-set your skin's needs. The Resveratrol B E is a powerful overnight concentrate designed to repair and support skin’s natural free radical defences.

Dermaquest’s SheerZinc SPF 30, £46[https://dermaquestinc.co.uk/product/sheerzinc-spf-30/]

This SPF with protects your elastin protein from UV damage and any skin proteins from being damaged.

La Roche Posay’s Dermo-cleanser, £12[http://track.webgains.com/click.html?wgcampaignid=56573wgprogramid=347clickref=customidwgtarget=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.feelunique.com%2Fp%2Fla-roche-posay-effaclar-h-hydrating-cleansing-cream-200ml%3Fgclid%3Deaiaiqobchmi9krpzsv42qivirobch0dpwgkeaqyaiabegiyipd_bwe%26gclsrc%3Daw.ds]

This hydrating cleansing cream will gently cleanse, purify and soothe your skin to restore comfort.

The Ordinary 10% Glycolic Toner, £6.80[http://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=INH%2FSVPJb1Ymid=35269u1=customidmurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cultbeauty.co.uk%2Fthe-ordinary-glycolic-acid-7-toning-solution.html]

This is an excellent introductory glycolic product if you haven't used the ingredient before.


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SE Science
HD How keeping the windows clean and curtains open could stop you getting ill
BY By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
WC 401 words
PD 17 October 2018
ET 06:00 PM
SN The Telegraph Online
SC TELUK
LA English
CY The Telegraph Online © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

It is a simple strategy for staying healthy, but a new study has found that allowing sunlight to stream in through windows could kill bacteria that live in dust.

Researchers at the University of Oregon [https://www.uoregon.edu/] found that in dark rooms 12 per cent of bacteria on average were alive and able to reproduce.

TD 

In comparison only 6.8 per cent of bacteria exposed to daylight and 6.1 per cent of bacteria exposed to UV light were able to replicate.

Lead author Dr Ashkaan Fahimipour said: “Humans spend most of their time indoors, where exposure to dust particles that carry a variety of bacteria, including pathogens that can make us sick, is unavoidable.

“Therefore, it is important to understand how features of the buildings we occupy influence dust ecosystems and how this could affect our health.”

The researchers made eleven identical climate-controlled miniature rooms that mimicked real buildings and seeded them with dust collected in residential homes.

The authors applied one of three glazing treatments to the windows of the rooms, so that they transmitted visible, ultraviolet or no light.

After 90 days, the authors collected dust from each environment and analysed the composition, abundance, and viability of the bacteria present.

Dust kept in the dark contained organisms closely related to species associated with respiratory diseases, which were largely absent in dust exposed to daylight.

The authors also found that a smaller proportion of human skin-derived bacteria and a larger proportion of outdoor air-derived bacteria lived in dust exposed to light that in than in dust not exposed to light.

They believe it may suggest that daylight causes the microbiome of indoor dust to more strongly resemble bacterial communities found outdoors.

Dr Fahimipour said: “Our study supports a century-old folk wisdom, that daylight has the potential to kill microbes on dust particles, but we need more research to understand the underlying causes of shifts in the dust microbiome following light exposure.

“We hope that with further understanding, we could design access to daylight in buildings such as schools, offices, hospitals and homes in ways that reduce the risk of dust-borne infections.”

The researchers warn that homes and offices may contain architectural and geographical features that produce lower or higher dosages of light which would produce different results.


CO 

unorgn : University of Oregon

NS 

gsci : Sciences/Humanities | gcat : Political/General News

RE 

uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

PUB 

Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

AN 

Document TELUK00020181018eeai00001


HD BRIEF-Valbiotis Confirms Interest In Study Of Intestinal Microbiota
WC 90 words
PD 17 October 2018
ET 10:23 AM
SN Reuters News
SC LBA
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Oct 17 (Reuters) - VALBIOTIS SAS:

* VALBIOTIS CONFIRMS ITS INTEREST IN THE STUDY OF THE INTESTINAL MICROBIOTA, A PROMISING FIELD IN THE PREVENTION OF METABOLIC DISEASES

TD 

* VALBIOTIS COMPILES A BASE OF HUMAN DATA IN FIELD OF METABOLIC DISEASES, WITH HIGH VALUE POTENTIAL

* VALBIOTIS FOCUSES ON FRENCH POPULATION'S UNDERSTANDING OF INTESTINAL MICROBIOTA THROUGH AN UNPRECEDENTED OPINÉA SURVEY

* VALBIOTIS DEVELOPS LEADING EXPERTISE IN THIS FIELD OF RESEARCH Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Gdynia Newsroom)


RF 

Released: 2018-10-17T17:23:11.000Z

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IPD 

Business | Health | Europe | Western Europe | Euro Zone | France | BRIEF-Valbiotis Confirms Interest In Study Of Intestinal Microbi | BRIEF | Valbiotis Confirms Interest In Study Of Intestinal Microbi

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SE Shopping
HD Raw green tripe: Why should you give it to your dog?
BY lcairns@metroland.com
WC 367 words
PD 16 October 2018
SN The Hamilton Spectator
SC HMSP
LA English
CY Copyright (c) 2018 The Hamilton Spectator.

LP 

When it's feeding time for your pet, tripe might not currently be a delicacy you offer, but Dog-Gone Raw in Hamilton explains why it should be.

Dog-Gone Raw has been providing convenient and healthy raw foods for dogs since 2011. The locally owned business carries frozen raw food lines from local suppliers with no fillers, no preservatives and no additives - including tripe.

TD 

What is tripe?

Tripe is the stomach of grazing cows or sheep. It contains enzymes, beneficial bacteria and amino acids that help boost your dog's digestive and immune systems.

Are there different kinds?

Yes, the tripe you see in the grocery store is white and has been bleached and boiled for human consumption. That's not the tripe you want to feed your dog. Green tripe is highly nutritious and high in protein, which helps to build muscle. It also contains calcium, phosphorus and omega fatty acids.

My dog has a sensitive stomach. It is okay to feed him tripe?

Yes, green tripe is a digestive aid and contains healthy probiotics. Feed it to your dog a few days a week for healthy digestion.

It smells bad to me. Do dogs like the taste?

While it's true that it does smell a bit stinky, dogs love it! They think it's a real treat. It's also highly enjoyed by cats and offers them the same nutritional benefits.

In addition to tripe and other natural proteins, you can find special natural treats for your dog at Dog-Gone Raw, including chicken feet and rabbit ears, as well as natural supplements.

Visit Dog-Gone Raw at 3149 Homestead Drive in the Mount Hope area of Hamilton. Opening hours are Tuesday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information about raw dog food, call 905-570-9414 or send your questions via email to doggoneraw@yahoo.ca.

Find Dog-Gone Raw on Facebook.

Sidebar:

Visit Our Profile Page


ART 

Dog-Gone Raw 3149 Homestead Dr, Mt Hope, ON 905-570-9414

NS 

gcat : Political/General News

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Toronto Star Newspapers Limited

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Document HMSP000020181016eeag0008y


SE Good Healthealth
HD ROBOSURGERY CUTS BLOOD LOSS IN PROSTATE PATIENTS
BY BY DAILY MAIL REPORTER
WC 574 words
PD 16 October 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
PG 42
LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

Robotic surgery may be better than open surgery for an enlarged prostate.

When doctors at the National University of Athens compared outcomes from the two types of surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia in 41 patients — the first study to compare the two approaches — they found blood loss during surgery was reduced where a surgeon operated robotic arms from a console: 274ml compared to 539ml.

TD 

The Greece researchers suggested that robotic prostatectomy may be a superior technique in terms of complications.

* Stress is linked to lower fertility in women — but not men. Research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that women with stress scores of at least 25 (on a scale from zero to 40) were 13 per cent less likely to conceive than women with scores under ten. The same link was not seen in men.

BLOCKING A PROTEIN TO STOP TYPE 2 DIABETES

Type 2 diabetes could be prevented by blocking a protein in the cells that produce insulin.

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden used antibodies to limit the production of the protein, known as VDAC1.

High, constant levels of sugar in the blood raise the levels of VDAC1, which effectively causes insulin cells to die.

As a result, not enough insulin is produced and the blood sugar levels are uncontrolled.

In a study using cells donated from patients who'd had type 2 diabetes, the researchers blocked VDAC1 and production of insulin returned to normal.

HOW SWEETENERS AFFECT GUT HEALTH

Artificial sweeteners can interfere with our gut bacteria (or microbiome), suggest scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

They discovered that six sweeteners commonly used in diet drinks and low-sugar foods — aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, neotame, advantame and acesulfame potassium-k — affected bacteria normally found in the digestive tract.

A healthy gut microbiome has been associated with everything from improved nutrient absorption to immune system function. Consumption of artificial sweeteners has also been linked with weight gain, metabolic disorders and even cancer.

DNA TEST PREDICTS DANGER OF DISEASE

It is possible to accurately predict someone's height and, potentially, their risk of serious illnesses such as heart disease and cancer solely from their genes,  report researchers at Michigan State University in the U.S.

Using an algorithm, they were able to accurately predict height, bone density and even the level of education a person might achieve based on their genome.

Writing in the journal Genetics, they said they can now apply the method to predict health risks such as heart disease, diabetes and breast cancer, meaning doctors could intervene to prevent or delay illness.

GASTRIC OPS COULD  REDUCE CANCER RISK

WEIGHT-loss surgery may reduce the risk of some cancers.

An analysis published in the British Journal of Surgery compared 8,794 obese patients who had a gastric bypass or other type of weight-loss procedure with obese patients who didn't have surgery.

It found those who had surgery were 77 per cent less likely to develop hormone-related cancers, such as breast, endometrial and prostate. A gastric bypass was associated with the largest risk reduction — 84 per cent.

However, this operation was also linked with a two-fold increase in colorectal cancer.

Researchers at Imperial College London, who led the analysis, say more studies are needed to understand the reasons behind the results.

© Daily Mail


NS 

ghea : Health | gtrea : Medical Treatments/Procedures | gcat : Political/General News

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greece : Greece | balkz : Balkan States | devgcoz : Emerging Market Countries | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | medz : Mediterranean

PUB 

Associated Newspapers Limited

AN 

Document DAIM000020181015eeag0000p


SE Life & Arts
HD Evidence suggesting artificial sweeteners may be harmful should give us pause
BY By LESLIE BECK
WC 847 words
PD 15 October 2018
SN The Globe and Mail
SC GLOB
ED Ontario
PG A17
LA English
CY ©2018 The Globe and Mail Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Artificial sweeteners have been added to soft drinks and other diet foods since 1981 to help satisfy our sweet tooth – and/or control blood sugar – without sugar and its calories.

Yet evidence that consuming artificially sweetened products leads to weight loss or better blood sugar control is weak. In fact, recent studies have suggested that regular consumption of such sweeteners may actually contribute to weight gain and Type 2 diabetes.

TD 

Now, new research supports these findings.

The study, published last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests that regular consumption of an artificial sweetener called sucralose may impair blood-sugar control.

WHAT ARE ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS?

Sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, cyclamate and saccharin are zero-calorie sweeteners approved in Canada.

Cyclamate (brand names Sucaryl, Sugar Twin, Sweet'N Low) and saccharin are not allowed to be added to foods; they're sold only as tabletop sweeteners.

Acesulfame potassium, aspartame and sucralose are allowed to be added to all sorts of foods including yogurt, baked goods, pancake syrup, ketchup, chewing gum, fruit juice and soft drinks. Sucralose (Splenda) and aspartame (Equal) are also available as tabletop sweeteners. Health Canada considers these five artificial sweeteners safe when consumed in amounts up to the acceptable daily intake (ADI). The ADI is the maximum amount thought safe to consume each day over a lifetime.

For sucralose, the ADI is five milligrams for each kilogram of body weight a day, or 340 mg for a 150-pound (68 kg) person, the amount found in 28 packets of Splenda or 19 100-gram tubs of Yoplait's Source strawberry yogurt.

The latest findings, however, suggest that consuming even half of the ADI of sucralose isn't safe.

ABOUT THE STUDY The study, a randomized controlled trial, investigated the effect of daily sucralose consumption on insulin sensitivity in 66 healthy, normalweight adults who didn't regularly use artificial sweeteners.

Insulin sensitivity describes how sensitive the body is to the effects of insulin, the hormone that clears glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream. Someone who is insulin-sensitive will require a small amount of insulin to lower blood glucose.

Someone who has a low insulin sensitivity (also called insulin resistance) will need a larger amount of insulin to clear the same amount of glucose from the bloodstream. Insulin resistance is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.

The researchers assigned 33 participants to consume 45 per cent of the ADI of sucralose for 14 days. They were told to add, on average, three packets of sucralose to beverages at meals three times daily.

Blood samples were evaluated for insulin sensitivity over a three-hour period both before and after consuming the artificially sweetened drinks. The control group went through the same testing, but did not consume sucralose.

People in the sucralose group experienced a statistically significant 18-per-cent reduction in insulin sensitivity compared with a non-significant drop of 2.8 per cent in the control group.

This finding is provocative because it suggests that regular consumption of sucralose can lead to insulin resistance in healthy, normalweight people.

Sucralose may affect blood sugar control by activating sweet taste receptors in the gut, triggering the release of insulin. Artificial sweeteners are also thought to disrupt the balance of good gut bacteria in a direction that can lead to insulin resistance and weight gain.

MOUNTING EVIDENCE FOR POTENTIAL HARM This isn't the first study to challenge the assumption that artificial sweeteners are metabolically inert substances.

A study published in 2014 in the journal Nature found that mice fed water infused with sucralose, saccharin or aspartame developed glucose intolerance, a precursor to Type 2 diabetes.

Mice who drank water sweetened with real sugar didn't develop the condition.

The same researchers tested the effect of saccharin in seven lean, healthy people; four of the seven volunteers developed glucose intolerance.

A review of observational studies published last year in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that regular use of artificial sweeteners was tied to weight gain, increases in waist circumference, as well as a higher incidence of obesity, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular events.

WHAT TO DO The evidence that suggests regularly consuming artificial sweeteners may harm long-term health should give us pause.

If you're a daily user of artificial sweeteners, I recommend you take steps to eliminate them from your diet, or use them only occasionally.

Replace diet soft drinks with sparkling water or water flavoured with a splash of pure fruit juice.

If you're accustomed to sprinkling a packet of artificial sweetener into coffee or tea or over breakfast cereal, cut back gradually. Each week, incrementally reduce the amount of sweetener you use. Switch to plain yogurt and sweeten it with fruit or even a teaspoon of honey.

It's entirely possible to acclimate your taste buds and get used to – and prefer – a less sweet taste.

Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based private practice dietitian, is director of food and nutrition at Medcan.


NS 

gdias : Diabetes | gnutr : Nutrition | gcat : Political/General News | gfod : Food/Drink | ghea : Health | glife : Living/Lifestyle | gmed : Medical Conditions

RE 

cana : Canada | namz : North America

PUB 

The Globe and Mail Inc.

AN 

Document GLOB000020181015eeaf0000f


SE Lifestyle,Health
HD Six science-backed ways to boost your immune system as lurgy season arrives
BY By mirror
WC 868 words
PD 15 October 2018
ET 11:12 AM
SN Mirror.co.uk
SC MIRUK
LA English
CY © 2018 Mirror Group Ltd

LP 

When it comes to fine-tuning your body’s infection-fighting ­functions, quick hacks aren’t really the best approach

Are you dreading the upcoming lurgy season? Ditch those quick-fix solutions and take an expert-backed slow and steady approach instead.

TD 

Forget what you think you know about “boosting” your immune system because when it comes to your body’s infection-fighting ­functions, quick hacks aren’t really the best approach.

We’re far better off thinking in terms of “supporting” them with balanced healthy habits across the whole of our lifestyles.

“Basic hygiene is the first ­precaution to limit the chances of getting sick – washing hands and steering clear of anyone with a cold,” says ­immunologist Dr Jenna Macciochi[http://www.drjennamacciochi.com].

Here are six science-backed steps for helping to support your immune system…

Short-term stress is designed to enhance survival and can actually help activate immune processes – but, as Dr Macciochi explains, chronic stress is “generally harmful to the immune system”.

“Chronic stress exacerbates unruly inflammation and drives ageing of immune cells. It can also start to reduce the number of circulating immune cells,” says Macciochi.

“To stay healthy, one needs to minimise chronic stress, maximise the resting zone of low/no stress, and optimise the short-term stress response so that it’s mounted rapidly and robustly when needed and ­shutdown immediately after.”

■ How to do it: Nightmare day? Remind yourself a stress response is your body’s way of helping you through, then find a way to decompress – whether that’s a swim, natter with a friend or curling up with a mug of tea.

Female cyclist almost killed as tree surgeons let giant 30ft trunk plummet to ground[https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/female-cyclist-almost-killed-tree-13400100]

You can eat all the greens and power smoothies in the world but if your sleep is poor, you’re going to get run-down and suffer more colds.

“Sleep duration and quality are important predictors for susceptibility to colds and flu,” says Dr Macciochi.

When we sleep, profound changes to immune cell number, function and distribution take place. Our immune system relies on sleep to generate a robust number of healthy immune cells and weed out older and potentially dysfunctional ones.

■ How to do it: Stick to regular bedtimes and get a steady six to eight hours of shut-eye. Stress and anxiety are sleep’s worst enemy so manage these during the day. Have a chat with your GP if the problem is ongoing.

“A huge number of immune cells reside in the gut and are thought to make up almost 70% of the entire immune system,” says Rob Hobson, head of nutrition for ­ Healthspan[https://go.redirectingat.com?id=76202X1526515xs=1url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthspan.co.uksref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2Flifestyle%2Fhealth%2Fsix-science-backed-ways-boost-13420369].

“It therefore makes sense that our gut is inextricably linked to immunity.”

What’s more, a healthy gut means we’re better able to absorb the full nutritional benefits from the foods we consume.

■ How to do it: A balanced, varied diet is key with plenty of fibre, which Hobson says is “important in helping gut bacteria flourish”.

He adds: “Probiotics have been shown to be useful in supporting your microbiomes and as such your immune system.”

Yoghurt without added sugar, fermented foods such as sauerkraut, and high-quality probiotic supplements could all help boost those good bacteria.

Mrs Hinch's favourite £2.49 Minky cloths on sale for £5,000 on eBay after they sold out in under four minutes[https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/mrs-hinchs-favourite-150-minky-13394267]

Winter doesn’t have to mean full-on hibernation mode – keep up your exercise regime and your immune system will thank you.

“Moderate regular physical activity benefits the immune system by augmenting resistance to infections and reducing duration,” explains Dr Macciochi.

“Regular exercise is thought to act like a short-term stressor, keeping the immune system well-oiled and ready for action.”

■ How to do it: Set a realistic goal of exercising a few times a week. Can’t afford a gym? It’s easy to find a 20-minute YouTube workout to do at home. Job done.

It’s no coincidence that you end up with a never-ending cold after all those Christmas parties.

“Alcohol is a sleep-disturbing factor,” says Dr Macciochi. “While we may get a similar amount of sleep after drinking alcohol, the quality will be impacted as we don’t get into the really deep restorative sleep phases.

“Directly, it has long been noted that overdoing alcohol negatively impacts susceptibility to infection.”

■ How to do it: Master the art of pacing. Alternate alcoholic drinks with glasses of water and reduce your booze intake overall.

Children branded 'fussy eaters' may actually have genuine food intolerance, top scientist says[https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/children-branded-fussy-eaters-actually-13303345]

Most of our vitamin D comes from skin exposure from sunlight, but we can easily become deficient during the winter months.

In the long-term, a lack of vitamin D can make you more susceptible to infections – so try and top up.

■ How to do it: While oily fish, eggs and fortified cereals can help, Rob Hobson says, “It’s not possible to get enough vitamin D from diet alone,” and a daily supplement during winter is recommended. Hobson says opt for D3 – the most useable form.


NS 

gstres : Stress-related Conditions | ghea : Health | glife : Living/Lifestyle | gcat : Political/General News | gmed : Medical Conditions

RE 

uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

PUB 

Trinity Mirror Group PLC

AN 

Document MIRUK00020181015eeaf003h3


SE Go
HD The big, bold flavour of kimchee; This staple of Korean cuisine can transform simple dishes. Here, it revs up the seasoning of a stripped down stir-fry
BY Ellie Krieger Special to the Washington Post
WC 646 words
PD 15 October 2018
SN The Hamilton Spectator
SC HMSP
ED First
PG G8
LA English
CY Copyright (c) 2018 The Hamilton Spectator.

LP 

Jarred kimchee - available in the refrigerated sections of most large grocery stores - might be the ultimate healthful convenience food.

It instantly adds a kick of tangy, pungent, spicy flavour, as well as nutrition: as a fermented food, it's a source of gut-friendly probiotics - bacteria that are not only good for digestive health but help the immune system in general.

TD 

Flavourwise, this staple of Korean cuisine can be transforming when you layer it on a simple sandwich, use it as topping for a grain bowl or fold it into a taco. And, as showcased in this recipe, it immediately revs up the seasoning of a stir-fry so you can pare down the overall ingredient list and still get big, bold flavour.

After browning lean strips of pork (you could substitute chicken breast or beef sirloin), you stir-fry onion and broccolini until they are charred a bit and softened. (Broccolini is especially convenient here because there is no need to blanch it.)

Then garlic and ginger hit the pan before a slurry of broth, cornstarch and soy sauce is poured in to create a lovely, thickened sauce. The kimchee goes in toward the end - just to warm it through, gently - because cooking it too long would destroy the good bacteria in it. A dash of hot sauce and a sprinkle of fresh scallions provide a finishing punch.

Pork and Broccolini Stir-Fry with Kimchee

Makes 4 to 6 servings

1-1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

1 pound pork tenderloin (may substitute thinly cut chicken or beef sirloin)

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

3 tbsp canola oil

1 medium onion, thinly sliced into half moons

8 ounces broccolini (tough ends trimmed), large stalks halved lengthwise

2 cloves garlic, minced

One 2-inch piece peeled, grated or minced fresh ginger root (about 1 tbsp)

10 ounces store-bought kimchee, chopped (1 cup)

2 tsp gochujang or 1 tsp Sriracha, or more as needed

2 large scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced

Whisk together the broth, cornstarch and soy sauce in a liquid measuring cup, until the cornstarch has dissolved.

Cut the pork crosswise into medallions 1/4 inch thick, then cut each medallion in half. Sprinkle the pork with the salt.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet or wok over a medium-high heat. Add half the meat and cook for about two minutes, stirring once or twice until it has browned. Repeat with another tablespoon of oil and the remaining pork, transferring the meat to a plate once it has browned.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Then add the onion and broccolini; cook for three minutes, or until they have softened slightly and are charred in spots, then stir in the garlic and ginger; cook for 30 seconds more.

Give the broth mixture a quick stir to reincorporate, then add it to the pan. Increase the heat to high and cook for about two minutes, stirring to form a slightly thickened sauce. Stir in the pork with any accumulated juices, the kimchee and the gochujang or Sriracha; cook for two minutes, until just warmed through and the pork and broccolini are evenly coated. Taste, and add more gochujang or Sriracha, as needed.

Stir in the scallions. Serve hot, over rice.

Per serving (based on 6): 200 calories, 20 grams protein, 10 g carbohydrates, 9 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 50 milligrams cholesterol, 590 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fibre, 2 g sugar.


ART 

This dish comes together quickly, making it an ideal midweek dinner. Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post 


NS 

grcps : Recipes | gfod : Food/Drink | gcat : Political/General News | gnutr : Nutrition | ghea : Health | glife : Living/Lifestyle | ncat : Content Types | nfact : Factiva Filters | nfce : C&E Exclusion Filter | nrgn : Routine General News

RE 

cana : Canada | namz : North America

PUB 

Toronto Star Newspapers Limited

AN 

Document HMSP000020181015eeaf000bl


SE Life and style
HD Seven ways to build your physical stamina
BY Emily Reynolds
WC 501 words
PD 15 October 2018
ET 01:00 AM
SN The Guardian
SC GRDN
PG 6
LA English
CY © Copyright 2018. The Guardian. All rights reserved.

LP 

Exercise is one of the best ways to make yourself feel better, but you also need the energy levels to do it. Here are some simple steps to take

1. Make sure you exercise

TD 

It may seem counterintuitive, but exercising more when you are low on energy or stamina could actually help in the long term. A study in 2017[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28323305] found that regular exercise had a positive impact on fatigue, while another suggested[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11528286] prescribing it to older adults to improve their stamina.

2. Mix it up

If you are looking to improve your stamina in one area or sport, your instinct might be to focus solely on that. But research has found that a mixture of different activities could provide the greatest benefit – one study[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1076-7460.2001.00802.x], for example, suggested a mixture of strength and aerobic exercise. Circuit training has also been found[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19675480] to improve endurance.

3. Try to branch out

The obvious stamina-boosting exercises, such as running or weight-training, are all very well, but you may also benefit from trying less conventional exercises. Yoga, for example, may have a significant benefit [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5174168/] to endurance levels – yet another reason to branch out from the same boring daily run.

4. What you eat can help

It’s not all about exercise – small amounts of caffeine have been to shown[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5358037/] to improve the sprint performance of elite athletes. Ginseng[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1294848/] and ashwagandha root extract[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4687242/] also help improve stamina, while complex carbohydrates and proteins are often recommended by dietitians to those hoping to boost their endurance.

5. Avoid false food prophets

Not all foodstuffs are created equal, however, and some of those promising tantalising benefits to your stamina may not be all they are cracked up to be. There are claims, for example, that energy drinks may improve performance, but research suggests[http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/02/14/peds.2009-3592.short] they have very little therapeutic benefit. Probiotic supplements, which are often promised to boost stamina, were also found to have no discernible impact[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28677946].

6. Look after your mental health

Stamina is not just about physical strength – your mental attitude has something to do with it, too. In one study[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1953233], a stress management workshop that included the teaching of stamina-increasing techniques was found to have a positive effect on both the stamina and stress levels of participants, while preliminary research[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1750984X.2011.560955?src=recsys] has tentatively suggested that positive emotions in elite athletes are linked to peak performance. The study that investigated yoga’s impact on stamina backed this up – meditation helped participants improve levels of fatigue, as well as feelings of peace and focus.

7. Give yourself some recovery time

It’s all very well having a good diet and exercising more, but your body also needs a rest. In a study[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640410400021302] comparing post-exercise recovery methods, researchers suggest athletes should take at least 72 hours between competitive bouts of sport. While the average exerciser probably doesn’t need that much rest between gym sessions, it is important to give your body a break, too.


NS 

glife : Living/Lifestyle | gcat : Political/General News

RE 

uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

PUB 

Guardian Newspapers Limited

AN 

Document GRDN000020181015eeaf000s0


SE News,UK News
HD Woman claims she has drunk nothing but Pepsi since 1954 and wouldn't touch water even if dying
BY By mirror
WC 704 words
PD 13 October 2018
ET 03:38 PM
SN Mirror.co.uk
SC MIRUK
LA English
CY © 2018 Mirror Group Ltd

LP 

Great-gran Jackie Page downs four cans of fizzy pop a day and has consumed the equivalent of three million sugar cubes

A great-gran has declared she wouldn’t drink water even if she were dying... she’d stick to her favourite Pepsi like she has done for 64 years.

TD 

Jackie Page, 77, has had nothing else to drink but four cans of the fizzy pop a day since her first taste aged 13 in 1954.

And she insists she has always been slim, fit and healthy despite consuming the equivalent of three million sugar cubes.

“I don’t call it an addiction. It’s just something I like and I can’t help it if I don’t like anything else,” says the retired housekeeper and mum of four.

“Some people might think it’s weird and that nowadays you shouldn’t drink Pepsi. But I don’t care and I won’t settle for anything else. I wouldn’t drink water – no way. Not even if I was dying. And I won’t drink tea or coffee.”

Coca-Cola unveil limited edition Zero Sugar cinnamon flavour - and it will be in stores across the UK very soon[https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/shopping-deals/coca-cola-unveil-limited-edition-13360854]

Jackie reckons her love of the canned fizz – she won’t drink it from a bottle – hasn’t had any affect on her health over the years.

“I have always been really, really slim until about five years ago – but I think that’s because I am not as active as I was,” she says.

“Right up until I was 60 I was still doing line dancing and I was pretty fit, but I can’t get out to do that now. They say Pepsi is bad for your teeth – but I am a wartime baby and there’s not many of us without rotten teeth so I wouldn’t know.”

The craving that has led her to down more than 93,000 cans at a cost £65,800 began as a teenager. Up to then her mother had a nightmare getting her to drink anything.

“I didn’t like milk or water. My mum used to say ‘you have to drink something’. I know she used to give me lemonade or cherryade,” says Jackie, now a carer.

Ditch the Diet Coke! Artificial sweeteners in the popular drink are TOXIC to gut bacteria, study warns[https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/ditch-diet-coke-artificial-sweeteners-13340720]

“I wouldn’t drink to enjoy it. Until I tasted Pepsi, drinking was just something I put up with.”

She reveals the only interruption to her Pepsi passion came when she was in hospital giving birth to her four children in the Sixties – because it was banned from the maternity ward. “They wouldn’t let me have it in with me so I had to go without,” says Jackie.

“But I’ve been to hospital since for some major operations and I was allowed to have it there.

“Much to their disgust, the staff even allowed me to keep my Pepsi in the kitchen fridge because I wouldn’t drink anything else. My kids used to come up to visit me in hospital with supplies of it so that I stayed hydrated.”

Now even her 11 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren are under strict instructions not to drink her stash when they visit her at her home in Carshalton, Surrey.

Jackie – who once had a dog called Pepsi and admits to hating rival brand Coca-Cola – says: “I have a cold one as soon as I wake up each day straight from the fridge.

Iceland launch £5 pizza deal and it includes a free bottle of wine[https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/shopping-deals/iceland-launch-5-pizza-deal-13340677]

“It’s like when someone says they want to drink a lovely cup of tea first thing in the morning. I drink up a lovely can of Pepsi instead.

“I even have it when we’re eating out as I don’t like alcohol either. If the restaurant doesn’t have it I just pull a can from my bag. Sometimes they get a bit funny about it. But I just know what I like – and that’s Pepsi.”


IN 

i428 : Soft Drinks | i41 : Food/Beverages | ibevrge : Beverages/Drinks | icnp : Consumer Goods | inonal : Non-alcoholic Beverages/Drinks

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SE Spry Living
HD BowledOver; GRAB A SPOON AND DIG INTO THESE FRESH FINDS.
WC 155 words
PD 12 October 2018
SN The Philadelphia Inquirer
SC PHLI
PG F16
LA English
CY © Copyright 2018, Philadelphia Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Flavorful & Fast Swap sad desk lunches for Wildscape frozen meals, ready in about 5 minutes. The 320-calorie Gochujang Cauliflower bowl tops a protein-packed base of chickpeas and quinoa with tasty veggies.

Totes Oats Wake up with thinkThin Protein & Probiotics Hot Oatmeal . Each container has 1 billion CFUs (colony-forming units) of live probiotics and less than 200 calories. For fall, we like the Maple Pecan flavor with 10g protein and 4g fat.

TD 

Cool Combo No-sugar-added mix-ins spruce up Siggi’s Simple Sides 5.3-oz cups of whole milk yogurt. Try 200-calorie Vanilla Yogurt with Almonds and Dried Cherries, which has 15g protein and 11g sugar.

Souped Up Shake chilly weather with Pacific Foods Organic Chicken Noodle Soup, made with collagen-rich bone broth. There are just 100 calories and 1.5g fat per one-cup serving.


RE 

uspa : Pennsylvania | namz : North America | usa : United States | use : Northeast U.S.

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CLM EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS
SE TAMPA TRIBUNE
HD DRINK, EAT AND BE HEALTHY AT NEW NÉKTER JUICE BARS
BY ERIC VICIAN
CR TIMES CORRESPONDENT
WC 595 words
PD 12 October 2018
SN Tampa Bay Times
SC STPT
ED SOUTH SHORE & BRANDON
PG 7
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 Times Publishing Company. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Back in the 1990s when Scott Hileman was setting goalkeeper records for the University of Portland and later as a professional indoor player, nutritional supplements came mostly in the form of pills from the local vitamin shop.

If he wanted to drink something before or after a workout, the options were limited.

TD 

“For me, it was Red Bull and coffee,” said Hileman, who played for five professional indoor teams, mostly with the Baltimore Blast. “As a former professional athlete, I personally understand the power of healthy living and that starts with what we put in our bodies.”

As he traveled the country during the past eight years, he became aware of Nékter Juice Bar, a Southern California-based lifestyle restaurant brand that features nutritious juices, Superfood smoothies and acai bowls. His real estate background kicked in and the New Tampa resident saw an opportunity to bring something to his hometown that he never had while growing up in Arizona or attending college in Oregon.

Hileman decided to bring the concept to Hillsborough, opening five locations including one in Valrico at 3482 Lithia Pinecrest Road, just south of Bloomingdale Avenue in the Lithia Crossing Shopping Center. Nékter Juice Bar is slated for a soft opening in the former Starbucks location adjacent to Panera Bread on Oct. 17. A grand opening celebration is planned for Nov. 3 – where all guests can purchase 16-ounce fresh juices and smoothies for $1 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. The first 50 guests receive free Nékter swag.

“It gives people an opportunity to live a healthy lifestyle,” Hileman said. “I believe in it.”

Each of Nékter’s menu offerings starts upon a foundation of fresh, whole ingredients, and aims to optimize overall health and wellness with essential vitamins and nutrients to increase energy, boost immunity and metabolism, cleanse and detoxify. Customers can choose from a variety of freshly-made juices, Superfood smoothies and acai bowls that can also be customized based on individual diet or lifestyle preferences, such as vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, low fat, and low sugar.

Grab and go juices are available that include a 6-pack classic cleanse, where you drink juices/lemonades/milks for 1-5 days to reset or renew your body with herbs, probiotics and more. Nékter also offers a vegan ice cream it calls Skoop.

Hileman also is concurrently opening a Nékter location at 4001 W Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa, with plans for a location in Trinity (3236 Little Road) and at least two more in the bay area.

Visit facebook.com/Nekter-Juice-Bar-435687806947480/. The Valrico location is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. except on Sundays, when it’s 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

* * *

New boutique streams into Winthrop

The outdoor market along Main Street inside Winthrop Town Centre has its newest retro Airstream business as Robin Nest Studio has joined the throwback lineup. Situated in front of the Art Factory at Winthrop Arts, RNS is a boutique store featuring hand-crafted items perfect for weddings or special events and personalized items such as small pottery and luxury handbags.

According to its website, RNS wants to “make shopping fun and unique again” and offer the antithesis of big box or online purchasing experiences. Just like the shiny old-school RV that it operates out of, Robin Nest Studio wants shoppers to find something sparkly during their visits.

Get a sneak peek at RNS at robinneststudio.com/.


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SE Society
HD Use of caesarean sections growing at 'alarming' rate
BY Nicola Davis and Ciara Long
WC 1510 words
PD 11 October 2018
ET 05:30 PM
SN The Guardian
SC GRDN
PG 36
LA English
CY © Copyright 2018. The Guardian. All rights reserved.

LP 

In some countries more than half of births now involve the procedure, experts say

The use of caesarean sections to deliver babies has reached epidemic proportions, say experts, with the procedure growing in use at an “alarming” rate.

TD 

While caesarean sections can be a crucial intervention for the safety of the mother and child, for example if the baby is showing distress or if the mother is bleeding before birth, experts say the procedure would account for about 10-15% of births if only used when medically necessary.

But in a new series of studies and commentaries published in the Lancet[http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31928-7/fulltext], a team of researchers have revealed that in many countries caesarean sections are rising rapidly, accounting for more than 21% of births globally in 2015[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31928-7/fulltext], up from just over 12% at the turn of the millennium.

In the UK the figure stands at just over 26%, but in some countries more than half of births involve the procedure: in the Dominican Republic over 58% of babies are delivered this way, while in Egypt the figure is 63% when looking just at births in institutional settings.

Experts say more needs to done to raise awareness among women, their families and medical professionals of the potential risks of caesarean sections when not needed for medical reasons.

“For the mother, for her future pregnancy there is an increased risk of preterm birth, ruptured uterus and the placenta embedding in the wrong part of the uterus, which means she is at risk of postpartum haemorrhage and needing a hysterectomy,” said Jane Sandall, professor of social science and women’s health at King’s College London and a co-author of one of the studies[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31930-5/fulltext].

Some of the risks increase the more caesarean sections a woman has: according to one study referred to by the team, the need for a hysterectomy increased from one in 25,000 pregnancies in women who had not previously had a caesarean section to one in 20 for women who have had three or more.

The authors add there is also a risk of blood clots in the mother’s legs, problems from the anaesthetic, and infection among those opting for a caesarean section, while in the baby there is a greater risk of problems around the development of the immune system and autoimmune disorders. The procedure also affects the makeup of the baby’s gut microbiome, and increases their risk of obesity and asthma.

The authors note that the risks are generally small and depend on where in the world the operation is taking place. They also admit there has been little research into the psychological effects of opting to have a caesarean section compared with vaginal delivery.

While Sandall said there is not one rate or target to aim for, she said it is important to listen to why women elect to have the procedure.

“For many women it is about fear of birth, or something has happened to her in her previous care where she was treated in a way that she wasn’t happy with and she is using [a caesarean] as a way of getting control back,” she said.

Sandall said time constraints and staffing problems mean women do not always receive the support they need, but that medics should provide information and offer possible ways to mitigate fears around vaginal birth.

“It is our job to provide as accurate information as we can … it is not our job to tell women what to do,” she added.

The new research suggests the global rise in caesarean sections is down to more women giving birth in medical institutions such as hospitals, combined with increased use of the procedures there.

More specifically, the reports suggest factors that may play a role include women’s fear of labour pain, concerns about their future sex life and the idea that a caesarean is safer. For obstetricians, fear of being sued – which is more likely for vaginal deliveries – greater financial reward and even juggling work schedules might mean they are more likely to agree to a request for the procedure, or suggest it.

“In many settings, young obstetricians have become experts in [caesarean sections], but are losing confidence in undertaking vaginal-assisted deliveries and breech deliveries,” the experts warn.

While research is lacking on the best way to tackle overuse of caesarean sections, experts recommend[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31927-5/fulltext] improved support for women and audits of caesarean use, and stress the importance of midwives.

The team add that while globally the proportion of caesarean sections is excessive, use of the procedure varies from country to country, with greater use in wealthier regions. By contrast, 47 of the 169 countries studied by the researchers have levels of caesarean section use below what is considered medically necessary: in west and central Africa the figure is just over 4%, suggesting some women and babies are missing out on life-saving care.

Caesareans are also more common in some countries for wealthier women and in the private sector.

Mandy Forrester of the Royal College of Midwives said it was “crucial that women are aware of the potential complications of having a caesarean section in the short and long term. To ensure this happens we need to give midwives the time to sit and discuss a woman’s options for the birth of her baby. It is very important that women make their decisions based on the best available evidence.”

“In Brazil, there’s a belief that normal childbirth is something the poor do”

More than half of all births in Brazil are via caesarean section, according to the latest data from the Lancet. Although natural births are more common in public hospitals than in private clinics, about 55% of women in Brazil give birth via caesarean section.

“It’s quite worrying,” said Silvana Granada, one of the lead childbirth researchers at Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). According to Granada, as many as 70% of women first say they want a natural birth. But this “reverses” as they reach the end of their pregnancies, with the majority voicing preference for caesarean sections.

Granada said a nationwide study by Fiocruz in 2012 found that women often made this choice out of fear of pain or because they believed caesarean births were safer. Until very recently, medical labour practices in Brazil have done little to change this belief.

Up until a decade ago episiotomies – surgical cuts made at the opening of the vagina during childbirth – were used for every single natural birth. The procedure is much less common now.

Other practices known to increase pain are still common among births, however, such as use of the drug oxytocin, which can speed up labour but is also known to increase discomfort. The study also found that doctors still often bind women to their beds and forbid them from walking around, or leave them without food or drink during labour.

Another factor is the divide between public and private maternity units, where practices may differ substantially. Women of a lower social class were more likely to give birth in a public unit, and health insurance plans used for private maternity hospitals often only cover caesarean births. Granada said women who want a natural birth in a private clinic “are charged an extra cost, or have to pay the whole cost of the birth”.

César Eduardo Fernandes, president of the Brazilian Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Associations, said social and cultural factors also influence women’s choices when it comes to vaginal birth versus caesarean sections.

“In Brazil, there’s a belief that normal childbirth is something the poor do,” he said. “Those who have the economic capacity choose caesareans.”

In private clinics, which often assign each patient a doctor to accompany their entire pregnancy, the convenience of a one-hour caesarean birth compared to a long natural labour could also influence practices. Granada said the majority of caesarean sections in Brazil are scheduled in advance rather than when a woman goes into labour, and are normally set to take place during working hours during the week.

Legal risks for obstetricians are also a factor, according to Fernandes. “Obstetricians are the most sued doctors in our country, after plastic surgeons,” he said.

Brazil is taking steps to tackle its high caesarean rate. In July 2016, the federal government passed a resolution that advised caesarean sections should only be planned for high-risk pregnancies, and only after the 39th week. Data has yet to be collected to show the effect of this on caesarean rates in Brazil, but researchers and practitioners believe they are decreasing.

Fiocruz’s most recent studies, the results of which were collected in 2016 and are still being analysed, show an improvement from past childbirth practices. Granada said the number of caesarean births has reduced.

“It’s getting better,” she said. “But we still have a lot to improve to have more adequate deliveries, where the woman is the protagonist rather than the healthcare professional.”


NS 

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SE Family
HD Five things that always happen at family mealtimes in 2018
BY By Rosa Silverman
WC 805 words
PD 11 October 2018
ET 06:09 AM
SN The Telegraph Online
SC TELUK
LA English
CY The Telegraph Online © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

Think back to your childhood mealtimes and the chances are you’ll have memories, fond or otherwise, of everyone sitting around the table, eating the same food. Sure, there may have been bickering, complaints and the odd (ok, frequent) sharp word exchanged over the suet pudding. But the point was everyone had to swallow the same suet, or sprouts, or whatever else it was people ate before we were all knocking up a beef rendang or burrata at the end of the working day.

TD 

Today’s parents have no such luck when it comes to putting food on the table - or, as George W Bush once memorably phrased it, to putting "food on your family.” Instead of serving one meal to feed everyone, they must now produce a whole range, with as many as three in four parents having to cook multiple meals per evening due to an increase in the number of those with dietary requirements, new research from Co-op[https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/09/parents-having-cook-multiple-meals-per-evening-ofrise-dietary/amp/source=gmailust=1539336760917000usg=AFQjCNFMTY3TwaNfQJRbVMZ0EGkPl3axQQ] has found.

Which means an awful lot of variations on the theme of dinner being cooked in households across the country. It’s exhausting just thinking about it - but apparently needs must. Because at family mealtimes in 2018 at least one, possibly all, of these five things are increasingly likely to happen:

1. Cherry-picking

Much like Donald Tusk[https://nam-auth-dev-cdn.awspreprod.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/20/eu-killed-chequers-twisted-knife-theresa-may/], your initial negotiating position as a parent is that cherry-picking is a no-no. No, your daughter can’t have “a version of the lasagne that doesn’t contain meat or dairy” because she decided last Tuesday that she’s vegan on weekdays. You lack both the time and inclination to cook a supplementary vegan lasagne, whatever the heck that would even look like. She hears you out, then accusingly reminds you you’re killing the planet with your culinary intransigence and leaving her with no option but starvation. Ultimately, therefore, you sigh and throw in the (tea) towel. You promise to somehow extract the meat and dairy from hers before it gets anywhere near the oven. There goes another half hour of your evening, but at least the planet is saved.

2. Intolerance

This has long been a feature of family mealtimes, but in the past it was more often intolerance of one another’s opinions than of entire, quite important, food groups. Almost two thirds of Brits in the Co-op study agreed that food restrictions had impacted their eating habits within the last 12 months. By extension, they have no doubt also impacted the cooking habits of anyone who regularly caters for them. “Yes, it’s gluten-free,” you glare at anyone who raises questions about the fruit salad. “And yes, before anyone asks, every grape in it is organic and has been humanely harvested.”

3. Sobriety

On the part of the kids, anyway. You’re still knocking back the Malbec with the grim determination of someone who’s just had to cook three separate versions of the sodding spag bol. But your children, even once they’re old enough to partake, are primly sticking to the kale and spinach juice. A third of young people today abstain from alcohol[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/10/doubling-number-teetotal-millennials/], according to one of the largest studies of youth drinking, which was published this week. In other words, don’t worry: your children aren’t weird - they are pretty much normal for their sober generation. Meanwhile, midlife drinkers are racking up all sorts of health problems, which even a week of green smoothies is unlikely to solve.

4. Tardy protests

We don’t mean complaining the ham hock was no great shakes after polishing off two helpings. We mean protests about what you’ve put on the table after everyone’s already sat down: “Oh, but I can’t eat this. Remember, I’m fusilli-intolerant/completely pescatarian/allergic to aubergines, except in the circumstances of baba ghanoush…(delete as appropriate).” To which your natural response is: “Why are you only telling me this now, when you’ve been standing here watching me cook this for 45 minutes?” You privately vow never to invite this person back, even if they happen to be your child.

5. A lecture

Dietary requirements are a proselytising religion. It’s not enough for your children to have all gone full pegan[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/nutrition/diet/50-shades-vegetarianism-going-meat-free-got-complicated/] or whatever. (Yes, pegan is a thing; honestly, look it up). They are now disgusted that you have not also followed them to the land of enlightenment, moral righteousness and excellent gut health. They turn up their noses when you liberally scatter the lardons. They may even feign retching, depending on what stage of adolescence they have reached. Pay them no heed. They’ll have moved on to a strict, lardon-only diet by the start of next month.


NS 

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SE Food
HD Kombucha: can the fermented drink compete with beer at the bar?
BY Amy Fleming
WC 1563 words
PD 11 October 2018
ET 04:00 AM
SN The Guardian
SC GRDN
PG 6
LA English
CY © Copyright 2018. The Guardian. All rights reserved.

LP 

The health beverage has already made the leap from health store to cafes – and now it’s on offer in pubs as an alternative to booze

When I was a child, homebrew meant the beer my grandad produced under his stairs. Come Christmas, my father and uncles would congregate there, holding up cloudy beer mugs to the light and nodding appreciatively.

TD 

Increasingly, however, home brewers are knocking out kombucha instead – a traditional, non-alcoholic drink made with fermented tea.

Take Jonny Wilkinson, one of England’s best-loved rugby stars. Rugby types may be better known as prolific beer drinkers, but Wilkinson has been brewing his own kombucha for four years. He says introducing fermented items into his diet has brought “a lightness, less conflict in my gut and a more alert, flowing nature to everything”. In May, he launched his own brand, No1 Kombucha[https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-and-supplying/new-product-development/jonny-wilkinson-launches-no1-kombucha-drinks/567383.article], in Sainsbury’s with the intention of bringing the naturally fizzy soft drink to the masses.

He is not the only one on such a mission. The fast-food chain Leon now stocks Suffolk-brewed kombucha from LA Brewery[http://www.labrewery.co.uk/#main], while another British brand, Real Kombucha[https://realkombucha.co.uk/], will soon be rolled out in 320 Fuller’s pubs. In less than a year, Real Kombucha has reached “almost 50 Michelin-starred restaurants, almost 300 top hotels and 55 Laines pubs”, according to its founder, David Begg.

The drink’s leap from health stores to the mainstream via hipster cafes has been swift. LA Kombucha’s founder, Louise Avery, was partly responsible for the drink’s graduation in the UK from murky cult endeavour to cafe culture. She began by brewing it at home under the brand Lois & the Living Teas. “About five years ago, I started bringing up these cloudy milk bottles of kombucha to beautiful cafes around Islington and Hackney in London and they would strain it and serve it to customers.” It flew off the shelves, word spread and Yauatcha, a dim sum restaurant in Soho, came knocking.

Many of these cafe owners had come to London from abroad – Germany, Australia, Canada – and were already familiar with kombucha. Avery says British proprietors were more sceptical, “because there’d be bits floating in it, like yeast; people were a bit scared and disgusted. I had to explain it’s a live food and it will continue to grow.” In response, she took steps to make her product more palatable to mass-market consumers. “I figured out a way of mildly filtering it and adding a bit of carbonation to suspend the bacteria; I make sure it’s chilled and I give it a short shelf life to keep as much bacteria as I can without it being an explosive product with bits floating in it.”

It worked. When LA Kombucha launched in June, Avery sold 2,000 bottles. The next month, sales rose to 10,000; within six months, Leon had signed up and she had to build a second brewery.

Promising scientific findings into how our gut[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/29/magical-microbes-how-to-feed-your-gut] affects everything from mental health to autoimmune disease[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/29/magical-microbes-how-to-feed-your-gut] have boosted demand for so-called gut-healthy fermented products such as kefir (a yoghurt drink), kimchi (Korean-style fermented cabbage) and kombucha, which probably originated in China.

The brewing process for kombucha is relatively simple. Tea (either green, black or a mix of both), sugar and filtered water are sealed with a slimy-looking cellulose mat called a Scoby (this stands for “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast”). Scobys, which you can buy on eBay, are produced naturally by bacteria and contain the necessary micro-organisms to kick off kombucha fermentation. You float this biofilm on your mixture and let it brew for between seven and 30 days, depending on atmospheric conditions and personal taste. The tea itself ferments, while the yeasts turn the sugar into alcohol, which the bacteria converts into acetic acid, making carbon dioxide bubbles in the process. The longer it brews, the less sweet and more vinegary it becomes.

Kombucha’s twangy taste can be enhanced by adding fruits and spices, and most commercial offerings do this. LA Brewery’s ginger variety is satisfyingly fiery, like a traditional ginger beer with a dash of lemonade and the complex pungent, pickle taste you get with kombucha. No1’s passionfruit and goji is fruity and refreshing. Like LA Brewery and No1, Real Kombucha also comes in three choices, although none of these have added flavours – the differences come from the types of tea used. But all three producers carefully avoid making specific health claims, instead promoting the sensory experience of their drinks as something to be appreciated by connoisseurs.

Why not push the health angle? Because, says, Paul Humphreys, professor of applied microbiology at the University of Huddersfield, “all the data is either anecdotal or from animal studies. There are a couple of rat studies around cholesterol and hypertension that show potential.” The only human clinical case studies published, he says, tend to be one-off events with negative effects such as people getting acidosis – when there’s too much acid in the body – possibly from drinking too much kombucha.

Part of kombucha’s appeal is its live-bacteria element, but the jury is out on how beneficial the microbes in the drink are. Humphreys says there aren’t many “classic probiotic bacteria in it at all. Not the lactobacillus or bifidobacteria, which are the dairy probiotics. You get reports of people finding them in kombucha, but nowhere near what you’d find in some yoghurts or kefir.” That’s not to say that kombucha bacteria aren’t doing good – we just don’t know. And being a wild fermented drink, the yeast and bacteria profiles fluctuate.

Humphreys brews his own kombucha at home as an alternative to soft drinks and alcohol. A number of brands have sent their products to his lab for analysis but, he says: “I would never make any health claims based on what we’ve found. I wouldn’t even infer them. It’s such a complicated product.” He prefers his kombucha sour and believes the commercial versions leave in more sugar than you would find in the traditional drink. “It’s lost in the mists of time, but these fermentations were originally about making water safe to drink, so they were probably quite acidic.”

Being big on yeast, however, the drink does offer B vitamins, which could be beneficial if you’re deficient. It also contains some vitamin C. And there are polyphenols – plant micronutrients that are antioxidant-rich and feed the good bacteria in your gut. These come from the tea itself, but could be more beneficial in kombucha than in a regular cuppa.

Whether the microbiological benefits can be proven or not, there is the undeniable advantage that commercial kombuchas often contain less than one third (or less than half with No1) of the sugar of regular soft drinks, and no artificial sweeteners. And if they help heavy drinkers cut down on alcohol consumption, there’s another win. This is precisely what Begg is hoping, as Real Kombucha hits pubs and bars up and down the UK. “We approached it entirely as an alcohol replacement,” he says. “We are in the space of champagne, wine, craft beer.”

Rather than compare his products with soft drinks, Begg places them “somewhere between a fruity prosecco or a lighter dry cider”. Sommeliers have been enlisted to proffer food-pairing tips. The young leaves of “first flush” Darjeeling tea, used in his Royal Flush kombucha, produce notes of raspberry, rhubarb, blackcurrant and, he says, “a little bit of white peach, in the flavour profile”. It’s certainly interesting and strong enough to be sipped, occupying your senses as much any alcoholic beverage.

Another in the range is called Smokehouse because the black tea from the hills of southern China tastes a little smoky, but the apple and caramel flavours it produces mean people associate it with cider. The only things missing, says Begg, “are the legs or potency of alcohol, but Royal Flush does even have a slightly puckering astringency in the background”.

In the US – where sales of kombucha and other fermented drinks were up by 37% in 2017, while the rest of the soft drink market barely grew – it has also become a popular mixer for cocktails. Food website Bon Appetit published recipes for kombucha cocktails that, it said “ prove kombucha and booze are made for each other[https://www.bonappetit.com/story/three-kombucha-cocktails] ”. Food blog Chowhound offered: “ 13 kombucha cocktails to jazz up your bartending game[https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/189987/kombucha-cocktails-to-jazz-up-your-bartending-game/].” Not surprisingly, kombucha now sits in the fridges of some of the UK’s top mixologists.

Begg’s first encounter with kombucha was a friend’s home brew, and it immediately satisfied the craving for alcohol he had been experiencing. He had largely given up booze, but didn’t want sweet soft drinks or water when he went out socially. Avery agrees: “Alcohol plays on a number of receptors and kombucha has that, too. Umami, sour, sweetness; you have the fizziness and viscosity that sits on your tongue.” Whether pubgoers will order it instead of booze is yet to be seen, but, says Begg: “We’ve done it in restaurants – expanding well across the upper end as a wine replacement. Now, we’re saying the pub is the next bastion.”


IN 

i427 : Brewing | i41 : Food/Beverages | ialco : Alcoholic Beverages/Drinks | ibevrge : Beverages/Drinks | icnp : Consumer Goods

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SE Lifestyle,Health
HD Parents are warned to NOT give children decongestants when they have a cold
BY By mirror
WC 365 words
PD 11 October 2018
ET 02:26 AM
SN Mirror.co.uk
SC MIRUK
LA English
CY © 2018 Mirror Group Ltd

LP 

Children under six should never be given them, warn researchers in the British Medical Journal, and children aged six to 12 should only be given decongestants with caution

Parents have been advised not to give their children decongestants, following a new review.

TD 

Experts said that the evidence surrounding the effectiveness of the medicines is "limited".

They stressed that the common cold is usually self-limiting and symptoms should clear up in around a week.

Children have around six to eight colds per year and adults have two to four, they said.

In a new article, published in The British Medical Journal, experts from Australia and Belgium made a series of recommendations based on systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials.

Youngsters carry the highest burden for the common cold, but trials to test the effectiveness of treatments are lacking, they said.

The authors of the paper said that children under 12 should not be given decongestants.

They wrote: "A small number of trials report contradictory results for decongestants and antihistamines on nasal symptoms and safety in children.

"Some products that contain decongestant may improve nasal symptoms in children, but their safety, especially in young children, is unclear."

The authors added: "Do not prescribe decongestants to children under 12, as evidence of their effectiveness is limited and associated risks may exist."

Meanwhile, saline nasal irrigations or drops can be used safely, "but they may not give the desired relief".

Vapour rub may relieve congestion but can cause skin rashes, they added.

And other treatments, such as steam, humidified air, echinacea, or probiotics, are either "not effective or have not been studied in children", they added.

The authors also issued advice for adults, saying they could try nasal decongestants for three to seven days if a blocked or runny nose, or sneezing related to a cold is bothersome.

But they cautioned that there may be unintended effects such as drowsiness, insomnia, or headache.

Patients were also warned not to take decongestants for longer than advised as long term use can actually lead to chronic nasal congestion.

Top Stories from Mirror Online


NS 

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Document MIRUK00020181011eeab0015q


CLM SKIN DEEP
SE Style Desk; SECTD
HD How to Choose the Right Face Wash
BY By BEE SHAPIRO
WC 1291 words
PD 11 October 2018
SN The New York Times
SC NYTF
ED Late Edition - Final
PG 5
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Face cleansing used to be the most boring part of a skin-care regimen. Want bells and whistles? Better to look to the pricey moisturizer that comes in a faceted faux-crystal jar. Need targeted skin-care solutions? Look to potent serums and masks for results.

But with beauty customers more educated than ever, attention has turned toward the humble face cleanser. Korean and Japanese beauty have introduced double- and even triple-cleansing routines. Face wash formulas come in a Willy Wonka variety of forms: foams and balms and gels, mousses, milks and clays. Add concentrated and exotic ingredients, and many of today's cleansers have little in common with the old-school bar of soap.

TD 

To parse all the products and figure out the best solution for you, you'll need the dermis of an armadillo. Good thing we've done some of the work for you.

The Ideal Cleanser

Don't get distracted by slick marketing campaigns. According to Barbara Sturm, an aesthetic medical doctor in Germany who has a namesake skin-care line, the function of a daily cleanser should be straightforward. It's ''to remove dead skin cells, oil, dirt and other pollutants from the skin, unclog pores, prevent skin conditions such as acne, and prepare the skin for the next step in your skin-care regimen.''

In reality, though, it's a formulation challenge: A good cleanser must whisk away the bad stuff, yet magically leave your skin microbiome (that is, microorganisms that naturally live on your epidermis) relatively unscathed.

''Cleansing is really a delicate balance between hygiene and barrier damage,'' said Amy Gordinier-Regan, the founder of Skinfix. ''It truly is the foundation of good skin care. You can do more harm than good by using the wrong cleanser.''

What's the Deal With pH?

Perhaps you've seen it in product listings or on beauty blogs: It's all about the pH. But how does that affect washing your face?

The idea is that if the cleanser mimics the skin's naturally acidic pH (5.5), it will be more gentle on your skin's acid mantle (the protective, slightly acidic layer made up of natural oils, dead skin cells and sweat). The acid mantle is what maintains skin health and staves off bacterial infections, said Dendy Engelman, a dermatologist in Manhattan.

Unfortunately, many traditional cleanser options, like soap and sulfate-based formulas (think: those that lather up easily), can skew high on the pH scale (soap is generally between nine and 10) and strip down the acid mantle.

The problem is that ''the definition of 'clean' can be subjective,'' Dr. Engelman said. ''If, after washing, your skin feels tight, dry or inflamed, that means the cleanser or cleansing mechanism was too strong, because, in addition to cleansing, the surfactant has broken down a significant number of bonds in your skin that form your skin barrier.'' That ''squeaky clean'' sensation many of us strive for is, she said, an unhealthy state for our skin to be in.

Oil Vs. Water

Despite the huge number of cleansers on the market today, they basically break down into two categories: oil based and water based. ''Oil-based cleansers can do a wonderful job of maintaining the skin barrier,'' Ms. Gordinier-Regan said. Oils also help break down makeup.

But, she said, ''an oil-based cleanser will always leave behind some residue, so you want to make sure the oils in the cleanser are not clogging your pores.''

If your skin is oily or prone to breakouts, Dr. Sturm suggests looking for a water-based gel or foam cleanser. The foaming aspect need not rely on sulfates. There are gentler surfactants available (like decyl glucoside, which is often found in baby shampoos). But even if the product is gentle, she said, ''it is important to quickly apply moisturizer to avoid moisture loss through osmosis.''

You'll want to avoid wipes when possible, though. While better than nothing, they are not a substitute for properly washing your face.

Environmental issues aside (they are one-use items that create waste), wipes ''are not going to thoroughly cleanse,'' said Hina Choudhary from the SkinCeuticals global scientific communications and medical relations team. ''It's essentially the same concept as using a wet wipe when you can't find a sink to actually wash your hands. And a wipe will leave ingredients behind that may irritate the skin.''

What's With Triple Cleansing?

Double and triple cleansing are ideas that sprang from the Korean and Japanese beauty crazes of recent years. The traditional K-beauty scenario involves using an oil-based cleanser to break down makeup. And because some makeup, especially waterproof and long-wear formulas, is oil based, it breaks down best with oil.

Then, because the oil cleanser leaves a residue, which is now mixed with the dirt and makeup, you follow it with ''a traditional water-based foaming cleanser, which removes the oils and butters that the balms or oils leave on skin,'' said Tiffany Masterson, the founder of Drunk Elephant. Problems pop up when you start washing with two water-based cleansers, which can result in over-cleansing (see more below).

If you have dry skin and want some oil residue, Ms. Masterson offers this hack: Use a water-based cleanser to get the grime off, then use the oil cleanser.

Really, Should You Wash Just Once a Day?

If you subscribe to Ms. Masterson's theory on skin barrier maintenance, you should not be washing your face morning and night. ''If you have a good skin-care routine, you should cleanse at night to get the grime and makeup off,'' she said. ''Then add your serums and moisturizers, and while you're sleeping, you're nourishing your acid mantle. You don't want to wash that off in the morning.''

Many people who have sensitive skin may simply be overwashing. ''The industry is trying to sell as much as possible,'' Dr. Sturm said. Over-cleansing, she said, ''takes the skin's lipids away and destroys skin barrier function, which in turn allows bacteria to enter and cause breakouts, redness, irritation, neurodermatitis and decreased natural resistance to UVA and UVB rays.''

Everyone should wash once a day, she said, and twice only if your skin tolerates it well.

To Exfoliate or Not to Exfoliate

Over-cleansing and over-exfoliating go hand in hand. Be wary of cleansers loaded with acids, Ms. Masterson said. ''It's completely gimmicky to add all those acids, because cleansers are a rinse-off product, and you'd want your glycolic acid, for example, to have the chance to penetrate.''

Dr. Sturm takes an even more conservative approach, noting the abuse of exfoliators. You should be exfoliating only one or two times a week no matter the form, she said.

Yet with exfoliating acids (glycolic, lactic, salicylic and more) in so many formulations now, you can easily over-exfoliate without meaning to. Dr. Engelman advises reading the ingredients lists closely.

''If you look at K-beauty or French beauty regimens, you'll notice that exfoliating is only one step, if any,'' she said. ''The belief is that if you give your skin everything it needs to perform optimally, you won't have to help it exfoliate itself. The truth is our skin naturally exfoliates itself through programmed cell turnover.''

The Cleanser Hit List

Klorane Floral Water Eye Makeup Remover ($10)

Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm ($64)

Dr. Barbara Sturm Cleanser ($70)

Avène XeraCalm A.D Lipid-Replenishing Cleansing Oil ($31)

SkinCeuticals Gentle Cleanser ($34)

Drunk Elephant Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser ($34)

Skinfix Foaming Clay Cleanser ($22)


ART 

DRAWINGS (DRAWINGS BY GREG BETZA)

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SE Health and Fitness
HD Food for thought: is mental health linked to your gut?
BY By Alice Barraclough
WC 1054 words
PD 10 October 2018
ET 04:49 AM
SN The Telegraph Online
SC TELUK
LA English
CY The Telegraph Online © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

Phrases like ‘gut feeling’ may be more than just a figure of speech. With rates of anxiety and depression soaring, and one in four people in the UK affected by mental illness, could the key to better mental health be found in our gut?

Madeleine Karlsson seems to think so. The nutrition and health coach, who is also a Pilates teacher and founder of Nutrition for Naughty People[https://www.nutritionfornaughtypeople.com/], is due to speak at the TEDxLakeForrest[https://www.tedxlfc.com/] in November on why trusting your gut is the best diet because she’s a firm believer in the correlation between your gut and mental health.

TD 

But she hasn’t always been the epitome of health. Diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome and Candida in 2008, she also suffered from depression, bloating, hair loss and acne, after becoming “obsessed” with calorie counting.

“I self-diagnosed myself as Orthorexic,” she says, referring to the condition where users obsess over healthy foods and avoid those they see as unhealthy and harmful. “I was going to the gym at 5.30am every morning, sometimes several times a day. I was eating low-fat breakfast cereals, low-fat yoghurt and calorie-free processed food. I thought that foods labelled ‘low calories’ and ‘low fat’, were healthy. How could I have got it so wrong?

“I remember running on the treadmill one day, looking at how many calories I was burning, and just thinking I can’t live like this anymore, it’s exhausting. Eventually, I ended up at the doctors and they told me I needed to stop going to the gym. I was losing my hair and my skin got really bad. I was constantly hungry, which led to these cheat days where I would just binge all day.”

Five ways to find the joy in food again[https://cf-particle-html.eip.telegraph.co.uk/244b830e-24bf-4c03-a20d-1415a62715c9.html] Luckily for Karlsson, her doctor advised her to see a nutritionist: “They told me a lot of the problems I was experiencing were probably caused by my diet. I remember thinking that my depression couldn’t possibly come from my food because I ate super healthy (low-fat this and low-fat that), so when she told me that what I was eating was actually having the reverse effect, I was shocked.”

The fact our digestive systems are closely connected to what goes on in the brain isn’t a new revelation. Hippocrates, the Greek physician and father of modern medicine, claimed back in the third century that "all disease begins in the gut" and in the 19th century, Russian zoologist Élie Mechnikov made a direct link between longevity and the gut. As David Perlmutter’s writes in his latest book, Brain Maker, “What’s taking place in your intestines today is determining your risk for any number of neurological conditions."

So can simple dietary tweaks really change your mental wellbeing? Karlsson thinks so.

“After three weeks of altering my diet, and cutting out all processed foods like low fat cereals and yogurts, everything changed. The Candida went away, the bloating decreased, my energy levels went up and my acne cleared. I stopped obsessing about needing to burn off whatever I ate, and punishing myself with gruelling workouts every time I ate something ‘unhealthy’.

“By healing my gut, I also healed from my depression,” she continues. “All the clients I work with report an improvement in their mood when we improve their gut health and cut out sugary, processed foods. One of my clients is on her way to come off mood stabilizing drugs with the assistance of her psychiatrist, after being on them for over 10 years.

“I recommend eating whole, real foods close to their natural state. Nuts, seeds and avocado for example and pretty much anything that comes from Mother Nature like fruits, vegetables, fish and meat. I also suggest pulses and, in some cases, whole grains. Some people do well on them, others don’t, so it’s a matter of finding what works for each individual.”

Karlsson trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in the US in 2016 and one of her lecturers, Dr Mark Hyman, a leading functional medicine doctor, has since produced the documentary called Broken Brain[https://brokenbrain.com/01-epidemic/] . It deals with how a dysfunctional digestive system could be the root cause of anxiety, depression and an inability to focus.

In the docu-series, Dr Hyman introduces some of the world’s leading brain and health experts to talk about the issue of escalating mental health – or, suffering from a “broken brain”.

Max Lugavere, author of Genius Foods explains in the documentary how the foods we eat directly affect our ability to focus, learn, remember, create and maintain a healthy, balanced mood. “The brain,” he says “rather than being this static thing carved out of stone that we inherited and can’t do much to change, is actually more like plastic – it’s malleable. And the way that we can change the way it functions, and manipulated, is through our diets and our lifestyles. Eating a brain-healthy diet really promotes neuroplasticity of the brain.”

Brain boosting foods, says Lugavere, include extra virgin olive oil, dark leafy greens and eggs. “When it comes to gut health there is a very interesting study that was published recently from Rush University that found people who consumed a large bowl of dark leafy greens every single day had brains that looked 11 years younger on scans,” he says.

“What we eat doesn't just affect our weight,” adds Karlsson. “It also affects our emotions, our brain and our overall health too. I know what food is going to make me feel good and what’s not. I don’t eat bread or pasta – and some people think that’s really sad. Of course, some people are fine to eat those foods – and I was, up until a certain point where I was diagnosed.

“When people tell me I’m missing out by cutting out gluten, I say, well imagine waking up every morning and hitting your head on a pole and then complaining because you have a headache. One day you’ll realise the headache is because you’re hitting your head on that same pole - you’re going to stop doing it.”


NS 

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SE Lifestyle,Health
HD World Mental Health Day 2018: How to help yourself feel happier in five simple steps
BY By Andrew Gilpin
WC 919 words
PD 10 October 2018
ET 05:31 AM
SN Mirror.co.uk
SC MIRUK
LA English
CY © 2018 Mirror Group Ltd

LP 

On World Mental Health Day, Wellbeing consultant Charlotte Wiseman takes us through how to feel more mentally prepared for life

Mental health issues are one of the leading causes of ill-health, according to the World Health Organisation, with one in four people affected by mental or neurological disorders during their lifetimes.

TD 

Treatment and help is more widely available now, though more could be done surrounding the stigma and discrimination faced by many too afraid to admit they need help.

But what about the rest of us - the people not clinically depressed or suffering from a mental illness[http://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/mental-health], but who are always a little drained of energy and motivation. - the 75 per cent of the population just getting by?

Maybe we're not quite enjoying work as much as we used to, or personal relationships[http://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/relationships]seem more strained.

The good news is that a huge body of research over the last 20 years has shown that we have more control over our mental wellbeing than we realise.

World Mental Health Day: Theresa May appoints world's first minister for suicide prevention [https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/worlds-firstministerforsuicidepreventionappointed-help-cut-number-13392321]

In the same way that we can eat well and exercise to prevent physical injury and illness, we can build our mental health.

This helps us to become:

On World Mental Health Day, Wellbeing consultant Charlotte Wiseman gives five top tips for improving mental wellbeing....

It is easy to rush through life focusing on what we want next or the things that aren’t exactly as we hoped.

This actually reduces our capacity to see the positives in life so that we start to see more negative and miss the good bits. Start a healthy habit by taking five minutes before you go to bed each night to write down three things you are grateful for from your day.

Think about at least one of these things and consider why you are grateful for that thing.

Ask yourself “how did it make me feel?” Write down your ‘gratitudes’ in as much detail as possible.

And remember that nothing is too small to be grateful for – a roof over your head, a smile from a stranger, a good meal… we all have something to be grateful for!

People won't discuss mental health issues with colleagues for a heartbreaking reason[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/people-wont-discuss-mental-health-11313764]

Recent studies show that feeling isolated impacts our wellbeing more than ever.

A lack of social connection leads to disrupted sleep, increases in the stress in the morning as well as an increased risk of depression and a lower sense of wellbeing.

Loneliness is as much of a physical health risk as smoking. Take time every day to connect with others - and that doesn’t mean a 'like' on Facebook[http://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/facebook].

Can you take a moment to chat to a cashier at the supermarket and boost both your wellbeing? Can you take five minutes to visit a friend? And if it is not possible to connect in person then pick up the phone and make a call rather than text."

Recent research has highlighted that incorporating stretching into our regular daily routine is just as important to health and body functioning as regular exercise.

Doing a few gentle stretches three or four times a day can help to reduce stress, prevent energy slumps, support healthier digestion and even improve sleep patterns as well as keeping the joints and spine healthy.

It doesn’t need to be anything complicated, simply reaching your arms over head, stretching to the side or twisting is fine."

Sir Richard Branson admits he practices mindfulness as he shares tips for positive mental health[http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/sir-richard-branson-admits-practices-9018215]

We all think about eating more healthily for different reasons, to optimize the effects of our workout, to lose weight or perhaps to support our digestion, but we rarely think about the fact that our food is the Fuel for our Mind.

A diet that is high in complex carbohydrates (such as wholegrains and vegetables), includes essential fats (nuts, seeds and oily fish) and amino acids (found in eggs, turkey, oats and bananas) is essential to optimise our mental wellbeing.

What’s also interesting is that it is estimated that 90-95% of the bodies serotonin - a brain neurotransmitter associated with better mood - is produced in the digestive tract so it makes sense to keep a healthy gut.

Include unsweetened natural yogurt in your daily diet and you are on the right track for a healthy mind."

Mindfulness is simply training ourselves to be in the now rather than getting caught up in our thoughts about the past or future.

It can reduce stress, enhance problem solving skills, strengthen the immune system, support better sleep patterns and help you live longer, healthier and happier lives.

Set a timer for three minutes and sit in a comfortable place with your eyes closed.

Bring your attention to your breath and notice where you can feel it. When your mind wanders to other things - and it will quite quickly - notice that it has wandered.

Then bring your attention back to the sensations of the breath. The mind will soon get distracted again, notice it, and bring your attention back to the sensations of the breath. Do this for three minutes, until your timer says it's time to continue with your day."

For more information visit www.step-inside.org[http://www.step-inside.org] or e-mail charlotte@step-inside.org for details about classes and one-to-one coaching


NS 

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SE Food
HD Our gut feeling? You'll love stir-fry with kimchi.
BY Ellie Krieger
WC 318 words
PD 10 October 2018
SN The Washington Post
SC WP
ED FINAL
PG E02
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

LP 

Jarred kimchi, available in the refrigerated sections of most large grocery stores, might be one of the ultimate healthful convenience foods. It instantly adds a kick of tangy, pungent, spicy flavor as well as nutrition, particularly because, as a fermented food, it is a source of gut-friendly probiotics - good bacteria that are not only good for digestive health but also help the immune system in general.

Flavorwise, this staple of Korean cuisine can be transforming when you layer it on a simple sandwich, use it as topping for a grain bowl or fold it into a taco. And, as showcased in the accompanying recipe, it immediately revs up the seasoning of a stir-fry so you can pare down the overall ingredient list and still get big, bold flavor.

TD 

After browning lean strips of pork (you could substitute chicken breast or beef sirloin) you stir-fry onion and broccolini until they are charred a bit and softened. (Broccolini is especially convenient here because there is no need to blanch it.) Then garlic and ginger hit the pan before a slurry of broth, cornstarch and soy sauce is poured in to create a lovely, thickened sauce. The kimchi goes in toward the end - just to warm it through gently - because cooking it too long would destroy the good bacteria in it. A dash of hot sauce and sprinkle of fresh scallions provide a finishing punch.

There is not much prep to do for this dish overall, but be sure to have all of it done before you start cooking. This dish comes together very quickly, making it an ideal weeknight dinner.

food@washpost.com

Krieger is a registered dietitian, nutritionist and author who hosts public television's "Ellie's Real Good Food." She blogs and offers a weekly newsletter at www.elliekrieger.com[http://www.elliekrieger.com].


CT 

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SE Living
HD The big, bold flavour of kimchee
WC 620 words
PD 9 October 2018
SN The Hamilton Spectator
SC HMSP
LA English
CY Copyright (c) 2018 The Hamilton Spectator.

LP 

Jarred kimchee - available in the refrigerated sections of most large grocery stores - might be the ultimate healthful convenience food. It instantly adds a kick of tangy, pungent, spicy flavour, as well as nutrition: as a fermented food, it's a source of gut-friendly probiotics - bacteria that are not only good for digestive health but help the immune system in general.

Flavourwise, this staple of Korean cuisine can be transforming when you layer it on a simple sandwich, use it as topping for a grain bowl or fold it into a taco. And, as showcased in this recipe for Pork and Broccolini Stir-Fry with Kimchee, it immediately revs up the seasoning of a stir-fry so you can pare down the overall ingredient list and still get big, bold flavour.

TD 

After browning lean strips of pork (you could substitute chicken breast or beef sirloin), you stir-fry onion and broccolini until they are charred a bit and softened. (Broccolini is especially convenient here because there is no need to blanch it.) Then garlic and ginger hit the pan before a slurry of broth, cornstarch and soy sauce is poured in to create a lovely, thickened sauce. The kimchee goes in toward the end - just to warm it through, gently - because cooking it too long would destroy the good bacteria in it. A dash of hot sauce and a sprinkle of fresh scallions provide a finishing punch.

Pork and Broccolini Stir-Fry with Kimchee

Makes 4 to 6 servings

1-1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

1 pound pork tenderloin (may substitute thinly cut chicken or beef sirloin)

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

3 tbsp canola oil

1 medium onion, thinly sliced into half moons

8 ounces broccolini (tough ends trimmed), large stalks halved lengthwise

2 cloves garlic, minced

One 2-inch piece peeled, grated or minced fresh ginger root (about 1 tbsp)

10 ounces store-bought kimchee, chopped (1 cup)

2 tsp gochujang or 1 teaspoon Sriracha, or more as needed

2 large scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced

Whisk together the broth, cornstarch and soy sauce in a liquid measuring cup, until the cornstarch has dissolved.

Cut the pork crosswise into medallions 1/4 inch thick, then cut each medallion in half. Sprinkle the pork with the salt.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet or wok over a medium-high heat. Add half the meat and cook for about two minutes, stirring once or twice until it has browned. Repeat with another tablespoon of oil and the remaining pork, transferring the meat to a plate once it has browned.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Then add the onion and broccolini; cook for three minutes, or until they have softened slightly and are charred in spots, then stir in the garlic and ginger; cook for 30 seconds more.

Give the broth mixture a quick stir to reincorporate, then add it to the pan. Increase the heat to high and cook for about two minutes, stirring to form a slightly thickened sauce. Stir in the pork with any accumulated juices, the kimchee and the gochujang or Sriracha; cook for two minutes, until just warmed through and the pork and broccolini are evenly coated. Taste, and add more gochujang or Sriracha, as needed.

Stir in the scallions. Serve hot, over rice.

Per serving (based on 6): 200 calories, 20 grams protein, 10 g carbohydrates, 9 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 50 milligrams cholesterol, 590 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fibre, 2 g sugar.


ART 

This dish comes together quickly, making it an ideal midweek dinner.

NS 

grcps : Recipes | gfod : Food/Drink | glife : Living/Lifestyle | gnutr : Nutrition | gcat : Political/General News | ghea : Health | ncat : Content Types | nfact : Factiva Filters | nfce : C&E Exclusion Filter | nrgn : Routine General News

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SE City
HD Chopra brings self-discovery message to convention centre; Author to also address existential issues such as old age, infirmity, true identity
BY Gordon Mc Intyre
CR Vancouver Sun
WC 872 words
PD 9 October 2018
SN Vancouver Sun
SC VNCS
ED Final
PG A4
LA English
CY Copyright © 2018 Vancouver Sun

LP 

The true self offers the possibility of a life without struggle, the voice says, where desires are fulfilled effortlessly.

The voice belongs to Deepak Chopra, pitching a self-discovery workshop, and he will bring that voice and the promises it offers to the Vancouver Convention Centre on Wednesday to address the future of well-being.

TD 

"Everybody takes away different things," said Chopra - the author of more than 85 books translated into 43 languages - over the phone from the Chopra Foundation in Carlsbad, Calif., of what to expect from the workshop.

He will start by talking about what we're learning these days about neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to reorganize itself throughout life), the microbiome (the body) and the second genome (sometimes called the blueprint to human biology).

"And how lifestyle and stress management can optimize the integration between our genes, microbiome, brain and our healing system," Chopra said. "That's based on my new book, The Healing Self."

It's more than a book tour, however.

Chopra said he'll address existential issues like old age, infirmity, the meaning of death and ultimately our true identity beyond our provisional identity of body-mind.

"There's something deeper, and why it is important to understand fundamental reality so that we can reframe our existence not as bodymind but as awareness in which body-mind is a process," he said.

Chopra, whose father was a doctor and brother a former dean at Harvard Medical School, expanded his licensed physician's practice in neurology and endocrinology three decades ago, he said, to better understand how the body and mind, our emotions and even our spiritual identity, help us in finding our own healing.

"Thirty years ago, that seemed kind of on the fringe, but now because everything is measurable - there's no experience that is not measurable, whether it's a mental experience or an emotional experience, a relationship experience or sleep or stress management, or nutrition or being grounded or optimizing your circadian rhythm - every experience leaves a footprint or, you might even say, a digital imprint that can be validated and quantified."

The quantified-self movement, or self-knowledge through data, is no longer "fringe" or "hocuspocus," Chopra said. "Right now, if you're not understanding the quantified stuff, you're out of date, you're not current with your medical knowledge."

But what about his critics in medical and scientific fields? "There is none (criticism)," said Chopra. "The people who criticize these days are actually frozen in an old world view. The critics are either dying or they're shutting up. Most of them are really old guys."

At the end of the talk Wednesday, there will be an audience meditation.

"To give them an experience of not only restful alertness, but also insight into the nature of our existence, creativity, high purpose and identity beyond physical death," Chopra said "It will be a long evening." Two hours straight, in fact, enough time to ...?

"I think it's enough time to kind of figure out the meaning of the universe," he said, sharing a laugh with his questioner. "Or at least give it a shot, right?" Chopra was too young to remember the time, but his father, a prominent cardiologist in New Delhi, was the medical adviser to the viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten. About to turn 72 on Oct. 22, Chopra said he grew up with many tales of his father's service to the man who was Queen Elizabeth's second cousin, Prince Philip's uncle, Prince Charles'mentor, Admiral of the Fleet, Earl of Burma and IRA bomb victim.

The point being, Chopra also has rock-star status now, akin to Mountbatten's in the day. How does he handle the fame and fortune? "I have a wife and kids who don't take me seriously, that keeps me grounded," he said.

His Vancouver trip comes amid tumultuous times. "I've been many times to Vancouver. Canada is my favourite country right now with all the mess we have in the United States," he said.

"I've often considered immigrating to Canada and who knows, it may happen.

"It's a nightmare, a total nightmare. You can't even understand how this could happen in the 21st century to a country which was considered the example of everything we call freedom, democracy, decency. I don't know what happened. Maybe it's just a brief interlude, but it's almost like if you're a bully, you're a hero." gordmcintyre@postmedia.com twitter.com/gordmcintyre


ART 

/ Deepak Chopra will bring his Healing Self talk to the Vancouver Convention Centre on Wednesday.; / "Everybody takes away different things," says Deepak Chopra of his self-discovery workshop. A meditation will follow Wednesday's talk.; / Deepak Chopra will bring his Healing Self talk to the Vancouver Convention Centre on Wednesday. [VASN_20181009_Final_A4_01_I001.jpg]; / "Everybody takes away different things," says Deepak Chopra of his self-discovery workshop. A meditation will follow Wednesday's talk. [VASN_20181009_Final_A4_01_I002.jpg];

RE 

vancv : Vancouver | cabc : British Columbia | cana : Canada | namz : North America

IPD 

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PUB 

Vancouver Sun

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SE Beauty
HD How to get your hands on the Liberty Advent Calendar this year - and find out what's inside
BY By Emma North
WC 731 words
PD 9 October 2018
ET 06:39 AM
SN The Telegraph Online
SC TELUK
LA English
CY The Telegraph Online © 2018. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

LP 

After the past success of Liberty's luxurious advent calendar it is the fastest-selling product in the company's history - the highly-anticipated, festive treat has been brought back for 2018 and this year it's bigger and better than ever. Here, The Telegraph's beauty team will be doing the research for you, finding out what's inside, how to get your hands on one and where to buy to guarantee yourself one.

Launching on the 24th October, the calendar is likely to sell out, quickly. The 2017 edition sold out online in one day and stocks are limited in store, we predict another stampede sell-out so, move quickly if you're determined to purchase.

TD 

This years calendar retails at £195 but is actually worth £600, double last year's value and an undoubtedly amazing gift for the beauty-obsessed or an extra seasonal treat for yourself. With the growing success of alternative advent calendars, Liberty really stand out from the crowd and the preview of what's inside doesn't disappoint.

Liberty pride themselves on the fantastic brands and sheer quality of the calendar, which features a massive 18 full size products. Featured brands this year include Diptyque, Votary and Byredo, a carefully curated selection of cult classics and exciting favourites in the beauty sphere.

The 25 little windows are adorned with a seasonal image of Liberty's grand facade and open up to the interior, featuring the 2018 Autumn/Winter Liberty print, Juno Feather.

To guarantee one for yourself, Liberty staffers have shared their advice for securing the most sought after calendar of the year.

1. Buy online - 'We are going to be placing more of our calendars online this year due to international demand. With that, we’ll be shipping to the USA for the first time this year.

If you can't arrange a visit to the store on launch day, then the best option is to buy online and with new international shipping available, the race will be on the add to bag.

2. Get your calendar at midnight - We’re launching on libertylondon.com[http://libertylondon.com/] at midnight on the morning of 24th October. Anyone that wants to be the first in line, you might want to set an alarm!

3. Buy in store – If you’re local, we will be opening the store early at 8:30am on the 24th October, to let customers buy the calendar before work. Last year we had a queue around the block of customers.

Be there early for the store opening as there is likely to be a queue forming outside on the start of launch day. Be prepared for a little wait.

4. Don't hesitate - We sold out last year in 3 days, and foresee these selling out very quickly again this year. We’ve doubled our order to meet demands but have had searches for this year’s calendar from as early as 1st January.

Internet searches of beauty advent calendars boomed in the 4 weeks following Christmas 2017, the Liberty one in particular.

5. Eyes peeled - If you are willing to risk a little visit later on in the day, keep an eye on Liberty's social media pages for stock updates. Their Instagram, (@LibertyLondon) and Twitter, (@LibertyLondon) will keep you informed of stock levels to secure you a chance at bagging one.

This fifth year edition includes the following products:

Votary Super Seed Facial Cream 50ml

Hourglass Caution Mascara 3.5g

REN Clean Skincare Perfect Canvas 30ml

Malin + Goetz Mini Eucalyptus Deodorant 28g

Omorovicza Illuminating Moisturiser 30ml

Byredo Byredo Blanche Hair Perfume 30ml

Lixirskin Electrogel Cleanser 50ml

Dr Sebagh Serum Repair 30ml

Trish McEvoy Instant Eye Lift Jumbo

Surratt Baton Rouge Quaintrelle

Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel 50ml

Aromatherapy Associates Clear Mind Rollerball 10ml

Skin Laundry Wrinkle Release Sheet Mask

Le Labo Another 13 EDP 15ml

Diptyque Figuier Candle 70g

Susanne Kaufmann De-Stress Body Oil

30ml QMS Hand Care 30ml

Egyptian Magic All Purpose Skin Cream 30ml

Bobbi Brown Crystal Lip Gloss Davines Oi Milk 50ml

Pixi Glow Tonic 100ml

Sam McKnight Cool Girl Barely There Texture Mist 50ml

Aurelia Probiotic Skincare Revitalise and Brighten Eye Dew 10ml

Laura Mercier Translucent Setting Powder

Eve Lom Kiss Mix


NS 

gfas : Fashion | ncal : Calendar of Events | gcat : Political/General News | glife : Living/Lifestyle | ncat : Content Types | nfact : Factiva Filters | nfce : C&E Exclusion Filter | niwe : IWE Filter | nrgn : Routine General News

RE 

uk : United Kingdom | eecz : European Union Countries | eurz : Europe | weurz : Western Europe

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Telegraph Media Group Ltd.

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SE Good Healthealth
HD GET UP EARLY FOR THE BEST PROTECTION
WC 348 words
PD 9 October 2018
SN Daily Mail
SC DAIM
PG 34
LA English
CY © 2018 Solo Syndication. All rights reserved.

LP 

DON'T DILLY DALLY: As the vaccine can take up to three weeks to take full effect, those at risk should aim to be immunised by mid-November at the latest, ahead of December, when numbers affected really start to rise.

'I was involved in some research several years ago which showed that young students given flu vaccines produced a full immune system response within four to five days,' says virologist Professor John Oxford.

TD 

'But for over-65s it was more likely to be three weeks or so.

'But it's never too late — even if the virus is already in circulation, it's still worth getting the jab as it could remain a threat for months to come up until the spring.' After that, the virus doesn't disappear completely, but the number affected declines dramatically, as we  tend to stop congregating inside together so much.

GET VACCINATED BEFORE ELEVENSES: Some research suggests the time of day you get vaccinated against flu could determine how much protection you get.

A 2016 study by scientists from Birmingham University, published in the journal Vaccine, found that elderly patients injected in the morning (between 9am and 11am) produced larger quantities of flu-fighting antibodies than those who got the jab in the afternoon (between 3pm and 5pm). Research suggests our immune response varies in line with the body's internal clock.

'Quite how big the added benefit of a morning vaccine is remains unclear — it may only be a little,' says Professor Andrew Easton, a specialist in viral infections.

TAKE PROBIOTICS: One simple way to bolster the effects of flu jabs could be taking a course of probiotics — so-called good bacteria — supplements beforehand. A study in the journal Drug Design, Development and Therapy earlier this year found that patients routinely taking probiotics produced up to 20 per cent more antibodies to common flu virus strains when they were given a flu vaccine.

It's thought they may help boost the response from immune cells located in the intestines.

© Daily Mail


IN 

i257 : Pharmaceuticals | i951 : Health Care/Life Sciences

NS 

ghea : Health | gimmu : Immunizations | gcat : Political/General News | gtrea : Medical Treatments/Procedures

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SE Health
HD Why scientists are working to unlock these five puzzles about mother's milk
BY Lindzi Wessel
WC 1178 words
PD 9 October 2018
SN The Washington Post
SC WP
ED FINAL
PG E05
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

LP 

A mother's milk, rich in an exquisitely tailored mix of fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals, provides all the nutrition a helpless infant requires - and more. Breast milk is thought to protect against disease, set up a healthy digestive system and even influence a child's behavior. And yet we know a lot less about this important substance than we could, says lactation researcher Katie Hinde of Arizona State University.

In a 2016 talk, Hinde noted that more studies are done on coffee, wine or tomatoes than on human breast milk. (The scholarly database Web of Science identified about 1,200 scientific articles published in 2017 for the search term "breast milk," compared with almost 3,500 for "tomatoes.") "Breast milk has not been a research priority," Hinde says.

TD 

But the research is picking up. Here are five mysteries about breast milk that scientists are working to understand.

Nursing sick babies

It's well-established that human milk (as well as the fluid known as colostrum that mothers produce from the breast during the first days after birth) carries protective factors such as antibodies to help a baby stave off infections. But research suggests that immune components in milk might ramp up when babies need them most. A 2013 study found that when mothers and babies both had colds, levels of white blood cells in milk jumped by a factor of 64. But even when just the babies were sick, levels of white blood cells still increased 13 times. "That's quite a big increase," says the study's lead author, Foteini Kakulas (formerly Hassiotou), a cell biologist and lactation researcher at the University of Western Australia.

A second study found that lactoferrin - an immune molecule that performs protective functions, such as puncturing the walls of harmful bacteria - was elevated in the weeks before and after an infant was sick. Once again, mothers did not report being sick, although the authors write that there was "almost certainly" underreporting of illness from moms.

How might this work? The most likely explanation is that infant saliva traveling back through the mother's breast ducts carries a status report on the baby's health, Kakulas says. "When baby saliva is transferred back into the breast . . . it's very logical that the pathogen that is driving the sickness would be transferred too."

Sleep signals in milk

As new parents know well, babies don't come with built-in sleep schedules. Could breast milk help to set them? Both the sleep hormone, melatonin, and tryptophan, the amino acid it's derived from, are present in human breast milk and both seem to fluctuate on a cycle that might help babies sleep or wake. A 2016 study found that melatonin levels were, on average, nearly five times higher in breast milk produced at night than during the day.

Another report, in 2017, found that levels of the hormones cortisone and cortisol were higher in morning breast milk than in milk produced in the afternoon, evening and night. Both cortisone and cortisol are involved in the body's stress response, and cortisol serves to kick-start our physiology when it's time to wake.

But it still isn't clear whether these signals actually allow a mother's daily rhythm to shape her baby's sleep-wake cycle, Hinde says. Also unclear is what a lack of these chemicals might mean for formula-fed babies, or what may happen to sleep patterns if babies drink milk pumped at another time of day. "We know that babies have the receptors for these hormones in their bodies, that the hormones coming from the mother are binding to receptors in the baby," she says. "But what does it mean if they aren't getting that signal? We don't know."

Eating for the gut microbiome

Breast milk isn't food just for babies - it's food for trillions of microbes that set up camp in their digestive systems, a community dubbed the human gut microbiome. Recent research suggests that breast milk may have evolved to promote the growth of microbes that help keep babies healthy.

"The third-largest constituent of breast milk is not there to feed the babies - it's there to feed the microbes," says microbiologist David Mills of the University of California at Davis. He's referring to human milk oligosaccharides, complex chains of sugars found in breast milk. (Mills has established a probiotic company based on his research.) These complex sugars bolster the kinds of intestinal bacteria that can digest the compounds into short-chain fatty acids - ones that babies need to thrive.

It's not yet clear what defines a healthy infant gut microbiome, or how that system changes as babies develop. And scientists disagree on how the microbiome is set up to begin with: Are key microbes delivered to the newborn's uncolonized gut via breast milk, or do they come in from other sources such as amniotic fluid or the mother's skin?

Variations in milk

All breast milk is not created equal: It can vary in levels of proteins, fats, sugars, hormones and other components. But breast milk doesn't just differ from mother to mother. It can also differ when the same mother nurses different babies, and across the span of an infant's development.

It also may shift depending on a baby's sex. Working with rhesus monkeys, Hinde found that mothers make more milk for female offspring, but milk richer in fat for male offspring. She saw similar sex differences when she pored over the lactation records of more than a million cows.

If these kinds of differences translate to human milk, understanding them could help optimize formula or donor milk for babies who don't have access to their own mother's milk, Hinde says. But scientists have only begun to characterize this variation and the factors that drive it.

A dash of stem cells

In 2007, scientists discovered an unexpected ingredient in human breast milk: stem cells. These undifferentiated cells retain flexibility that most adult cells have lost and can develop into a broad variety of tissues. In a 2014 study, scientists tracked individual stem cells from the mammaries of nursing mice. They found that the cells crossed the pups' stomach walls into circulation and lodged themselves into developing tissues throughout their bodies. When the baby mice grew up, the mothers' cells were still there and had turned into mature tissues alongside the babies' own cells.

In a lab dish, scientists have grown stem cells extracted from human breast milk and coaxed them to form organlike blobs that have spherical endings reminiscent of the alveoli that make up the mammary glands. These organoids could even produce milk.

No one yet knows how these cells affect infant development or what happens to babies who don't get them - another mystery to add to the things-we'd-like-to-know list.

This report was first published in Knowable Magazine.


CT 

http://www.washingtonpost.com[http://www.washingtonpost.com]

RF 

WP20181009Breastmilk

NS 

gihea : Infant/Child/Teenage Health | ghea : Health | gnutr : Nutrition | gcat : Political/General News | gfod : Food/Drink | ggroup : Demographic Health | glife : Living/Lifestyle

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SE Lifestyle,Health
HD How you can heal your everyday ailments like a pro - according to ten health experts
BY By Matthew Barbour
WC 909 words
PD 8 October 2018
ET 06:00 PM
SN Mirror.co.uk
SC MIRUK
LA English
CY © 2018 Mirror Group Ltd

LP 

Whether you suffer with toothache, scarring or poor skin, little health problems can really get you down — but there are simple solutions

From stress to sleep and ­headaches to back pain, here’s what the experts do when they suffer those everyday ailments...

TD 

By Dr Neil Hopkinson, consultant rheumatologist at Christchurch Hospital, Dorset

“I regularly suffer from back pain after gardening and do exactly what I tell patients. Before any ­stiffness sets in I dose up on paracetamol or ibuprofen and keep taking it every four hours to stop the muscles in my back going into a spasm.

“Next, I have a brisk walk which gets the blood flowing through the muscles surrounding the spine to really speed the healing process.

“Taking a bad back to bed is the single worst thing anyone can do as it will get stiffer and stiffer.”

By Professor Jim Horne, from Loughborough’s Sleep Research Centre

“When I can’t sleep, I won’t lie there languishing. I get up and amuse myself by doing a jigsaw until I feel sleepy.

“Also, I’ll let myself get a bit chilly – a cool body will help bring on sleep. I’ll no doubt be sleepier the next day, so I’ll either have a 15-minute afternoon siesta or aim for an early night.”

Insomnia cures ranked: Which soothing sleep booster holds the key to the Land of Nod?[https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/insomnia-cures-ranked-soothing-sleep-13336394]

By flu virologist Dr Robert Lambkin-Williams

“What most people don’t realise is that viruses are much more commonly spread by contact than through sneezing, so keeping your hands clean is vital to avoid flu.

“I carry some hand sanitiser with me wherever I go, but it’s equally important to wash your hands with soap and water for a full minute.

“Also, take a minimum full week off work, if not two with any type of flu. I now refuse to shake the hand of anyone who has any cold or flu symptoms, and as soon as I get any symptoms myself I stay at home so I don’t pass it on.”

By Neil Shah, Director of the Stress Management Society

“I get stressed spending a lot of time producing reports on my computer, so I remove myself from the source as soon as possible and go for a run or cycle.

“The physical act of exercise helps you focus on the task at hand, it burns off the adrenalin and clears your head.”

Symptoms of Shigellosis - causes and treatment of contagious 'winter vomiting bug' as parents warned[https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/symptoms-shigellosis-causes-treatment-contagious-13384014]

By Professor Ashley Woodcock, respiratory specialist at the University Hospital of South Manchester

“When I need to cough, I simply do my very best not to – by distracting myself as best I can, resisting the urge to give into it or by swallowing it back.

“The more you cough, the more your throat and airways become inflamed, creating a vicious circle and before you know it, you’ve developed a severe hacking cough. Holding it in and suppressing a cough does wonders to help clear it up quicker.”

By Harley Street dermatologist Dr Christopher Rowland Payne

“It’s very common to suffer dry skin when it gets cold, particularly because of central heating.

“If I can’t open a window, I put a bowl of water on top of the radiator, and top it up regularly. This keeps humidity high which stops skin from drying out and getting irritated.”

Top Stories from Mirror Online

By Alex Karidis, plastic surgeon at the Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth in North West London

“As soon as any wound or cut I get heals, I start applying oil or cream that contains vitamin E. Being an antioxidant, it helps with healing of an early scar.

“The other thing I apply is a thin layer of silicone gel which is gently massaged in. This will help with the realignment of the collagen bundles in order to produce a flatter and softer scar. It’s important to do this for the first three months.”

By Professor Damien Walmsley, Professor of Restorative Dentistry at Birmingham University

“Brush before meals, especially breakfast, not after. The acid from any fruit juice or smoothie weakens the enamel, so if you do brush after eating you’ll be damaging your teeth. Also, fluoride in toothpaste needs to stay in your mouth to give a protective shield. So spit, but don’t rinse afterwards.”

By Dr Kevin Whelan, lecturer in nutritional sciences at King’s College, London

“Diarrhoea is bad enough without the dehydration that goes with it, so mix four teaspoons of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt into a pint of water, stir and keep sipping. The salt and sugar speed the reabsorption of the water in the body, helping it to rehydrate more quickly.

“Also, antibiotics can kill the helpful bacteria in the gut so I find this can be helped by regularly taking a probiotic drink.”

By Dr Andrew Dowson, leading clinician at East Kent Headache Services

“At the first sign of a ­headache, I eat a bowl of cereal. Going without food uses up sugar from our bodies’ stores which can trigger headaches. It’s also often worse at night when blood glucose levels are lower, so by eating ­something easily digestible you can avoid that full-blown headache.”


NS 

gstres : Stress-related Conditions | ghea : Health | glife : Living/Lifestyle | gcat : Political/General News | gmed : Medical Conditions

RE 

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PUB 

Trinity Mirror Group PLC

AN 

Document MIRUK00020181008eea9005ha


SE Life & Arts
HD How does your meat alternative stack up for protein content?
BY By LESLIE BECK
WC 832 words
PD 8 October 2018
SN The Globe and Mail
SC GLOB
ED Ontario
PG A12
LA English
CY ©2018 The Globe and Mail Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Plant-based meals are growing in popularity and it's not just vegetarians who are seeking them out. For health reasons and/or ethical considerations, meat eaters, too, are adding plant-based meals to their menu.

Just because bean burgers, tempeh “bacon" strips and jackfruit tacos are meatfree doesn't guarantee that they're jampacked with good-for-you ingredients.

TD 

Some are highly processed and contain salty additives while others deliver considerably less protein than their meaty equivalents.

Consider that 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of chicken breast delivers 31 g of protein. The same amount of firm tofu, chickpeas and jackfruit serve up 17, nine and two grams of protein respectively.

Store-bought veggie burgers vary widely in protein – and sodium – content.

Burgers made from soy protein, pea protein or seitan (wheat gluten) deliver anywhere from 10 to 25 g of protein and as much as 500 mg of sodium a patty. (Many are also fortified with B vitamins, iron and zinc.)

Patties made from grains and vegetables, on the other hand, supply four to six g of protein a serving, contain varying amounts of sodium and not fortified with vitamins and minerals.

You need to read labels to know what you're getting – and what you're not.

A guide to meat alternatives: TOFU Also called bean curd, tofu is made from soybeans that have been soaked and boiled to make a liquid, which is then curdled or set, often with a calcium or magnesium salt, to form curds that are pressed into cakes.

The firmer the tofu, the higher its protein content. Per 3.5 ounce serving, firm tofu has 17 g protein, while soft tofu has seven g.

Tofu that's been set with calcium sulphate is an excellent source of the nutrient, providing as much as 680 mg per 3.5 ounces. It also contains potassium, iron, magnesium and many B vitamins.

Cube firm or extra firm tofu and add to stir-fries and soups or try it scrambled and seasoned with turmeric, cumin, pepper and sea salt. If you want to avoid genetically modified organisms, buy certified organic tofu, which can't be produced with soybeans containing GMOs.

TEMPEH This traditional soy food is made by fermenting soybeans with the fungus Rhizopus oligosporus, a process that binds soybeans into a patty. It's not considered a probiotic food, but tempeh is an excellent source of protein that's easier to digest than tofu.

A 3.5 ounce serving of tempeh contains 20 g of protein, 11 g of fat and seven g of carbohydrate. It's also a good source of fibre, iron, potassium and magnesium.

Plain tempeh can be marinated and grilled, added to stir-fries or crumbled into soup, tacos, burritos and chilli. Some tempeh products are made with grains, seasoning and spices; read labels to avoid products high in sodium.

SEITAN Pronounced “say-tan," this high-protein meat substitute is made entirely of gluten, the protein in wheat. It's produced by mixing water into wheat flour to form a dough and then removing the starch.

It's sold in chunks or strips, flavoured with soy sauce or other seasonings and can replace meat in pasta sauces, fajitas, tacos, stir-fries and stews. Seitan is also the main ingredient in Field Roast's vegan burgers, sausages and roasts.

Upton's Naturals Traditional Seitan provides 26 g of protein, 2.6 g of fat, 12 g of carbohydrate and 460 mg of sodium per 3.5 ounces. It's also a good source of iron and selenium.

Many seitan products are high in sodium, so check labels. Seitan is not for people with allergies, intolerances or sensitivities to gluten or wheat.

JACKFRUIT Native to Southeast Asia, this meat alternative is sold raw, usually flavoured, in packages in the refrigerator section. Its texture is similar to that of pulled pork and pulled chicken.

If it's protein you're looking for, though, you'll need to supplement your meal with a side of beans or tofu: 3.5 ounces of jackfruit has only two g of protein. Jackfruit does, however, deliver carbohydrates, some fibre and potassium.

READ INGREDIENT LISTS When buying packaged meat alternatives, most often choose products with ingredients you'd find in your own pantry. Soybeans, for example, are in my kitchen cupboard but highly refined soy protein isolate is not.

Of course, there are far less processed ways to get your plant protein.

Beans and lentils (15 to 18 g protein a cup), edamame (21 g a cup), hemp seeds (six g per two tablespoons) and nuts and seeds are protein- and nutrient-packed whole foods that deserve a regular place in your diet.

Whole grains, too, such as amaranth, farro, freekeh, quinoa, teff and spelt berries, add protein to meals.

Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based private practice dietitian, is director of food and nutrition at Medcan.


IN 

isoya : Soya Products | i41 : Food/Beverages | icnp : Consumer Goods | ifood : Food Products

NS 

gfod : Food/Drink | gcat : Political/General News | glife : Living/Lifestyle

RE 

cana : Canada | namz : North America

PUB 

The Globe and Mail Inc.

AN 

Document GLOB000020181008eea80000e


SE News; Domestic
HD MTP DAILY WITH CHUCK TODD for October 8, 2018, MSNBC
BY Katy Tur, Elise Jordan, Conan Nolan
WC 8623 words
PD 8 October 2018
SN MSNBC: Meet the Press Daily
SC MSNMPD
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All rights reserved. Prepared by CQ-Roll Call, Inc.

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NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: That is what they say behind my back. That does it for this hour. "MTP DAILY" starts right now with my friend Katy Tur in Los Angeles in for Chuck. Hi, Katy.

TD 

KATY TUR, MSNBC HOST: I hear you`re going to be out here tomorrow, Nicolle.

WALLACE: I am on my way in the dark of night.

TUR: Well, enjoy the weather, it is gorgeous there. It is Monday, the mid-terms are brewing here at UCLA.

Hello and welcome to MTP DAILY. I`m Katy Tur in for Chuck Todd. Coming to you live from UCLA`s campus in California. A state that is critical to the midterm battle for control of Congress. In an election that is now just 29 days away, if you can believe it.

California is a prime target for Democrats as they look to flip a number of house seats here. Much more on that in a moment, but we`re going to begin tonight with the "I" word, impeachment. Right now the GOP is looking to rescue those vulnerable midterm seats by keeping its base energized after winning an ugly confirmation battle for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. President Trump has previously tried to make the mid-terms a referendum on his impeachment. Now he is warning his base that Democrats are coming for Kavanaugh, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now they`re thinking about impeaching a brilliant jurist, a man that did nothing wrong, a man that was caught up in a hoax that was set up by the Democrats, using the Democrats` lawyers. I think it`s an insult to the American public and I think you`re going to see a lot of things happen on November 6th that would not have happened before. It was all made up. It was fabricated. And it`s a disgrace. And I think it`s going to really show you something come November 6.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUR: The President might be getting ready to road test that message. He is blitzing the campaign trail this week with four rallies in five days. Iowa, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio. Politically he is looking for a two for. Fire up his base and drive a wedge between the Democrats and their base. There is energy on the left to potentially mount an effort to impeach Kavanaugh after the mid-terms. And Democratic leadership doesn`t seem too happy about it.

Democrats recently wrote a letter to the President vowing to investigate Kavanaugh, warning of impeachment proceedings depending on what they find. 40 House Democrats signed the letter, but the house`s top Democrat Nancy Pelosi was not one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: We`re not about impeachment. People care about what happens to them in their lives. They see the cost of prescription drugs and health care costs. They see a paycheck that doesn`t go as far as it should. They see -- they doubt whether their voice counts for much because big special interest money weighing in, would we ever get a gun bill, gun lobby, would we ever get a raise in the minimum wage, would we be ever protect the air our children breathe. All those things are more important to people than who is on the Supreme Court. That would not be my plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUR: Pelosi wrote her own letter to colleagues after Kavanaugh`s confirmation with this battle cry. We must not agonize. We must organize. People must vote. We must own October. She mentioned digging up White House records on Kavanaugh to set the record straight, but nothing about removing him from the courts.

Joining us now is tonight`s panel. With me here in California, MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan, who was the campaign advisor for Rand Paul and former aid in the Bush White House. Also here on set, the chief political reporter for NBC for southern California. Conan Nolan. And rounding out our panel Democratic strategist Aisha Moodie-Mills and political senior writer Jake Sherman.

Everyone, welcome. Let`s start here at UCLA. We talked earlier about Kavanaugh and the way he is igniting the Republicans and the way he is igniting Democrats and the way in which Republicans are using him now to sustain that energy from today, which is 31 days -- I`m sorry, 29 days until the election to election day. Is the way to do it by warning that Democrats are going to impeach him?

ELISE JORDAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it`s interesting to me that Donald Trump -- that wasn`t necessarily the most effective play when it was just him. When it was him alone, you`ve got to vote for these other people because of me, me, me, me, I can`t get impeached, but now with Brett Kavanaugh`s confirmation being such a lightning rod and really galvanizing Republicans outside of just the Trump base, pulling in more reluctant Republicans who just weren`t sure what they quite made of the protest and they also weren`t happy with how they perceived the mistreatment of Brett Kavanaugh.

So it could be a good rallying cry, but like we said this morning, you`ve still got another 29 days. And I find it telling that Nancy Pelosi herself is not using the "I" word. But she knows that also that counterproductive to her efforts to get Democrats to turnout.

TUR: What Nancy Pelosi is doing and what Democrats on the ground might want are two very different things. We`re here in California. It is an extraordinarily progressive state. It is a state that is seen as the resistance. How pressure are Democrats here under when their vote -- for their voters to do something like impeach Brett Kavanaugh?

CONAN NOLAN, CHIEF POLITICAL REPORTER, NBC: Remember, you had Brad Sherman in the San Joaquin or the Central Valley, what am I saying, San Fernando Valley who introduced articles of impeachment against the President, Maxine Waters, talks about it all the time. I have to tell you though, when it comes to Brett Kavanaugh that is going to be ancient history I think, by the time the election rolls around. People are not going to be thinking about him.

You have 43 Congressional districts in California. Of those 43, 14 are occupied by Republicans. That could be cut in half by Election Day. I don`t think the Supreme Court nominee is going to have anything to do with that. You see a Democratic base that is energized, and I don`t see it on the other side.

TUR: Jake, but Republican candidates are trying to use it to their advantage. Josh Howly in a press call to reporters today invoked this. That he is running against Claire McCaskill in a really tight race for the Senate in Missouri. How much are they banking on this and is it because they don`t have a lot of other things to run on having to do with this President?

The tax plan has been iffy with some people, not quite as popular as they would have hoped. And there is a real backlash when it comes to health care and what the Republicans are doing to gut health care.

JAKE SHERMAN, SENIOR WRITER, POLITICO: The reality is this message is going to be effective in deep red districts, deep red states and deep red elections, but that is not the political game for Republicans at the moment. The political game for Republicans, as you guys just mentioned, is in districts in California, middle of the road districts where Republican are running in tight races against Democrats. They`re in the suburbs. And as we saw the Washington Post did a poll this morning, Republicans are getting creamed with women.

So I don`t think in these middle of the road districts that the idea that Brett Kavanaugh might or might not be impeached is going to make any difference and polls show that they are that out. This is not an issue that is going to help Republicans win the house. Help Republicans keep the house. So, I think, again, yes, it could be helpful in deep red states and driving out turn out. But in these middle of the road suburban districts, it doesn`t matter a lick.

TUR: Mitch McConnell, though, is very bullish about what Brett Kavanaugh is going to do for the mid-terms. Mitch McConnell is known as a great strategizer, somebody who knows how to read the room, if you will. And here`s what he is saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN MITCH MCCONNEL, (R-KY) MAJORITY LEADER: We`ve finally discovered the one thing that would fire up the Republican base, and we didn`t think of it, the other side did it. The tactics that have been employed both by judiciary committee Democratic Senators and by the, you know, the virtual mob that is assaulted, all of us in the course of this process, has turned our base on fire.

They managed to deliver. The only thing we had not figured out how to do which was to get our folks fired up. The other side is obviously fired up. They have been all year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUR: Aisha, what do you think?

AISHA MOODIE-MILLS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: So, first of all, let`s be really clear about who he is talking about when he says the base is fired up. He is talking about they`ve got white men fired up. And so, great, they think they`re going to win this election with white men and they`re not. And the fact that Mitch McConnell would stand there and say that he has been assaulted by Republican Senators have been assaulted when in fact it is actually women who continue to be assaulted by some of his friends, and he doesn`t care about it, is exactly why Democrats are going to win and have a blue wave.

We have 69 districts right now that are toss up, 69. And the vast majority of those districts, including the Washington Post poll actually it was just mentioned says this, is that women in those districts are likely to support the Democrat. And in fact, in those districts, Democrats are winning by several percentage points, but women in particular are going to vote for Democrats and they`re going to vote for Democrats, because of guys like Mitch McConnell who say, oh, well, you know, I`m being assaulted, not women.

And so, I think that is really going to be what we need to watch in all of these swing districts. We need to watch how women turnout. Women are fired up. Women have been fired up since the women`s March when Donald Trump first got elected. And certainly, the Kavanaugh hearings have really, really called into question who was there to support survivors, who was there to be impacts with women. And I think the women know who their friends are.

TUR: Let`s put that poll up on the screen. I want to just dig in a little further of the matter. Are you saying there is no room in the conversation to talk -- to see a middle ground here? Not even necessarily a middle ground, but to talk about what this could mean for boys. I know the Democrat -- sorry, Donald Trump has invoked this, Donald Trump, Jr., has invoked this. This conversation has gone to two polar opposites. Which is if you don`t believe the woman, then you`re a supporter of the man. If you`re a supporter of man, that you don`t believe the woman. Where is the middle ground?

MOODIE-MILLS: There is no middle ground. Let me tell you it is offensive and mothers had been posting to go to like scarymommy.com. If you look on all the social media, mothers are talking about how offensive it is to try to equivocate, women being violated with the prospect that maybe little boys might be falsely accused, which is certainly not a phenomenon that is running rampant by any stretch of the imagination.

Let me tell you what we should be concerned about our boys being raised and being able to be grow up as compassionate human beings in this era of Donald Trump, which as the men are supposed to, you know, have locker room talk and be philanderers and grab them by their parts. And so, you know, I think that women are not silly, they are not stupid. Mother`s know that certainly their boys are not -- they are not raising their boys to be sexual predators and certainly they don`t value any discourse, any political discourse that suggest that that type of behavior is OK.

TUR: Elise, what do you think?

JORDAN: I think there has to be some middle ground, because the American public wants more nuance than just an either/or. And I think that is unfair to men, it`s unfair to women. It`s unfair to husbands and sons and it`s unfair to wives and mothers. So I do think that we have to look at the totality of the issue. And I think that what Mitch McConnell is referencing is that the climate last week on Capitol Hill, with the protesters, was definitely at a fever pitch and it definitely was a stronger, more frenzied environment than anyone had seen, long-time observers of Capitol Hill in a long time.

And so there is more of a risk for Senators and politicians these days with violence we saw with the horrible shooting that nearly ended Steve Scalise`s life. So, I think that is in the back of the mind of some of these Congressmen and women when they are talking about the violence just because they feel an elevated threat level and have had to increase their own security.

MOODIE-MILLS: There is no violence against any of these Senators. And I want to push back against that, because when Mitch McConnell and others --

JOHNSON: I wasn`t saying there was violence against Senators.

MOODIE-MILLS: That is completely foolish. Women literally have been assaulted and are coming forth courageously with their stories. And to try to equivocate some guy on Capitol Hill saying, oh, well, using the language of fever pitch and all this you know, suggestion that women are just in hysterics and are just up there on Capitol Hill yelling, they are actually talking about their lives and trying to be heard. And I think that women are offended by that entire attitude that tries to silence them and suggests that men are somehow, you know, also being threatened, because women are speaking their truth and we`re going to see that play out in the mid-terms.

TUR: Conan, jump in.

NOLAN: Well, read Jim Van der Zwaan heist piece in Axios about the radicalization of America. And in all due respect, there is no middle ground. On this there is no middle ground on climate change. It`s astonishing that we`ve gotten to the point where the Supreme Court is now arguably becoming the most politicized institution of the three. The founding fathers didn`t even have a place for them to meet, the Supreme Court.

And now we have the knock down drag out fight that we saw, that was unprecedented. And it goes to the tempo of the politics. We don`t see it as much here in California, because we`re a one-Party state, but what we see across the country is astonishing.

TUR: Jake, I want to talk about that, the radicalization, if you will, the polarization, the tribal aspect of politics now. Who does that affect more, who does that benefit more, the Republicans or Democrats? I know, Bannon loves the idea of running on the identity politics.

SHERMAN: I am not sure it benefits either party. I think what I see most on covering Capitol Hill on a day-to-day basis is that members of Congress view each decision they make as if, how it will affect them in a primary race. Because most of them in most years -- this is not a typical year, but most of them in most years, all they have to worry about is a primary challenge. So challenge from the right or a challenge from the left.

So their view is always going to be toward one of those polls. So middle ground as you guys just alluded to is not something that people are ever looking for, and that is never going to change as long as polarized and partisan state legislatures draw maps. So there is the idea that there is going to be some sort of renaissance of middle of the ground central thinking in politics is a fantasy. It`s not going to happen.

TUR: Elise, Conan, Aisha, Jake, we are just getting started. Stay with us. Ahead, Democrats see a golden opportunity in the golden states. Can they flip Republican seats this November? We`ll talk with two Democratic candidates who say, yes, they can.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUR: Welcome back. As we said, both Republicans and Democrats are trying to channel voter anger from the Kavanaugh fight into voter turnout as we head into the midterm homestretch. And one of the key places in the battle ground for the house is right here in California where early voting actually begins today.

Hillary Clinton carried seven districts in 2016 that are currently held by Republicans. The cook political report rates all, but two of them as toss- ups right now, making them prime targets for Democrats. And Democrats also have their sights set on Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter`s district. It is the reddest district in Southern California, but has become more competitive since Hunter was indicted for using more than $250,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses.

Winning seats in California will be a key test on election night for Democrats. If they can win here -- I`m sorry, if they can`t win here, can they win anywhere? Joining me now is two Democrats trying to turn red seats blue. Ammar Campa-Najjar is challenging Congressman Duncan Hunter and Harley Rouda is challenging Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. Gentlemen, thank you very much for being here. Omar, since you`re sitting next to me, I want to start with you. There is talk about the "I" word, impeachment when it comes to -- not the president any longer, but now Brett Kavanaugh. Is that something that you would support if you were elected to the Congress?

AMMAR CAMPA-NAJJAR, HOUSE CANDIDATE, CALIFORNIA: That is a good question. For me, I think Democrats, we need to stop complaining, and we got to start campaigning. We got to win some elections. We are where we are because we lost elections in 2016. You know, what happened a couple days ago is going to define many generations yet to come. These people`s kids. What we`re going to do in the next 29 days will also define many generations to come. So we got to win some states.

TUR: That is not quite an answer. Would you support impeaching him?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: No, we have to win fair and square and win some elections.

TUR: What do you think, Harley?

HARLEY ROUDA, (D), HOUSE CANDIDATE, CALIFORNIA: You`re talking about Kavanaugh. I think we do need to find out whether he lied under oath or not. He certainly showed a demeanor that is not consistent with somebody we would expect to be serving on the Supreme Court.

TUR: Would you want to find out more information? Nancy Pelosi file a FOIA request yesterday to preserve the records between the White House and the FBI, but also I think to get more information on the interview process, what happened behind the scenes when it comes to -- when it came to the investigation into Kavanaugh. Would you support that?

ROUDA: Yes. I think the American people want to know. They want to know whether the latest justice on the Supreme Court lied under oath. And as I stated earlier, it was very clear that his demeanor in the process was not becoming of a member of the Supreme Court. So we rushed him through and we are living with the consequence of rushing him through by not having a full story and a full understanding of what he said on the stand whether it was true or not.

TUR: How much should Kavanaugh and his status on the Supreme Court, the investigation into him, Kavanaugh period, be a campaign issue the next month?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: I think, I talked to a lot of people, women on both sides. Republicans, Democrats, independents who are really galvanized, but they are upset by the turnout. A lot of what Rouda said rings true for them. It`s going to galvanize both parties. I think at the end of the day, we need to focus on our districts. For me it`s not about the personal politics. It`s about our personal health, our personal safety, our personal dignity. I personally as a son of a single working class mom, who raised me on her own for being broken, broken hearted. I`m appalled by the toxic masculinity that is going on in Washington, a lot of this exist in my district. As you know, Duncan Hunter, is somebody who was accused of the allegations and his big bold idea was to blame his wife, and throw her under the bus. So there is a lot of toxic masculinity that men and women in this election need to hold them accountable for.

TUR: Looking at California as a whole, there is a big Senate race. Senator Feinstein is running against Kevin De Leon. Who do you support?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: I`m sitting out of that race. I`m still trying to figure out what best ideas are out there, but I think --

TUR: Why are you sitting out of it?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: Because s till want to hear, I think it is healthy for our democracy to challenge the establishment that is what I did on both sides. Democrats and Republicans were against me, because I was leading with my values. I think Kevin is running a campaign that is challenging the status quo and I`m still trying to figure out in terms of who has a viable chance. But what I will say that Dianne Feinstein is a fixture and she has a senior position that is able to give us voice --

TUR: What do you think of the job that she did on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Kavanaugh confirmation process?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: I was proud of her, I live in California, I am proud of the work she did.

TUR: What about you, Harley, would you support Feinstein or Kevin De Leon?

ROUDA: Likewise, I`m not picking sides here. I have one mission and that is to defeat Russia`s favorite Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. Dianne Feinstein has done a fabulous job in her service to our country and a great job on the judiciary panel as well. And we need to make sure that we have quality people like Diane in office. And whether she or Kevin win I will support them 100 percent.

TUR: I know you guys are both running for the house. But do you think the Senate Democrats should have done anything differently in the confirmation process for Brett Kavanaugh? Harley, first to you.

ROUDA: We should have been fighting back all along on the McConnell rule. McConnell rule seemed to work for the Republican Party and they delayed that confirmation process for almost a year. Yet we had to rush this one through as quickly as possible. And I think as Democrats we should have vocalized more that this process deserves the time to give it the depth and breadth to make sure Kavanaugh was the right person to go on the bench.

TUR: Didn`t they do that?

ROUDA: And I think that didn`t happen at all.

TUR: They were in the minority. I didn`t mean to interrupt. But they were in the minority. They tried to do that. They tried to slow it down as much as they could. They demanded more documentation, more of his paperwork from the e-mail chain from the time he was in George W. Bush`s White House. They tried to delay as much as they could.

CAMPA-NAJJAR: The key is they are in the minority. We cannot have this fights, we are going to continue to feel disempowered as Democrats, people were fighting for women until we win back some seats. That is what the focus is. The next 29 days, we`ve got to focus on flipping the house. That is the biggest focus. What happened a couple days ago happened? Let`s move forward the next 29 days. Win some seats and hold the administration accountable.

TUR: Here is part of an ad of Duncan Hunter is currently running against you.

CAMPA-NAJJAR: I`m familiar with it. Let`s watch it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ammar Campa-Najjar is working to infiltrate Congress. He is using three different names to hide his family`s ties to terrorism. His grandfather masterminded the Munich Olympic massacre. His father said they deserve to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUR: (Inaudible) fact checked on that, I don`t think we need to do that all over again. What is your response in?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: Right. That is not based in fact at all. I was cleared by the FBI to work at the White House. Duncan Hunter was indicted about the FBI. That is the contrast. One of us is a law breaker and another one is an aspiring law maker.

TUR: Why haven`t more Democrats come to your defense against that ad, why even more Democrats condemn that ad? Why even any Republicans condemned that ad?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: A lot of the Republican have condemned that ad in my district. And that is what counts the most. I don`t care about what is going on in Washington. I really don`t care. They don`t seem to have their act together. What we need is a new incoming class of 2019 as a congress like me and Rouda who will hold the administration accountable and will bring back civility and honor and get rid of chaos in Washington.

TUR: Harley, what do you think of the ad?

ROUDA: Yes, that is the first I`ve heard of it. That is consistent with what we`re seeing from the Congressional leadership finance, who is the one probably paying for it. And they have a long history of creating lies and making up stories to run an agenda that clearly is against the will of the American people. So Ammar, keep fighting back. You have a great race. And I think you`re going to win it.

CAMPA-NAJJAR: I have three polls to have specifically tied and I will say this. I`m not a threat to national security. That ad shows that I`m a threat to Duncan Hunter`s seat.

TUR: I know, there are three polls that have you slightly closer than some other polling that is out there. How do you feel about the polling right now? Do you think it`s adequately representing the people that are actually going to go out and vote or do you believe there is going to be first-time voters, not likely voters that will end up swaying as well?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: I agree, I think, Pollsters are having a hard time figuring out what a likely voter is. The only poll that matters Katy, is on Election Day. And that is on the next 29 days again, we have to get out the vote. We have to make sure to redeem ourselves, get back that country that we love and lost in 2016 by going out and voting.

TUR: Harley, you were a bit ahead of Dana Rohrabacher for quite a while a couple months back in July and August and part of September. That has since tightened. Now you`re neck and neck. Why do you think that is?

ROUDA: Yes, Katie, it really depends on the poll. So we`ve had numerous polls that show I`m either tied or slightly ahead. The polls have different modeling as to voter turnout. So, if you go with the more conservative voter turnout that is similar to 2014 general election, then you`re going to have a tighter race, but if we get the surge vote that we saw in the primary to carry over to the general, then you start to see a little bit more separation and I`m confident that we will carry the day on November 6.

TUR: Last question to both of you. First off, Nancy Pelosi has fund raised on your behalf, Harley. Would you support her as Speaker of the House?

ROUDA: Yes, I`ve said all along I`ve got one mission here that is to defeat Dana Rohrabacher. And if I`m fortunate and sworn in January, I will see who is holding their hand up to be Speaker of the House. I will do perfect new diligence and then make a decision then.

TUR: What is stopping you from saying now that you would support Nancy Pelosi?

ROUDA: Because I don`t know who else is running. So, I want to see who else is running for Speaker of the House before making a decision.

TUR: You said you don`t support Nancy Pelosi.

CAMPA-NAJJAR: I love this question, I have been earning my vote for the past 21 months.

TUR: Who would you support?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: Whoever can earn my vote just like I`m trying to earn --

TUR: Do you have any thoughts who that might be?

CAMPA-NAJJAR: let me get elected first and you will have the first exclusive on that question.

TUR: gentlemen, Harley Rouda, Ammar Campa-Najjar, thank you very much for joining us. We do appreciate it. And we do want to note that we did reach out to the Republicans in these races. The Democrats are challenging and to other Republicans as well to join us here today, but unfortunately none of them could be here.

Ahead, the GOP fights to close the enthusiasm gap. More MTP DAILY live from the campus of UCLA right after this break.

(APPLAUSE)

(CHEERS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATY TUR, CORRESPONDENT, NBC NEWS: Welcome back. President Trump met with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on board Air Force One this afternoon. And when the plane landed, Rosenstein still had his job. The White House says Rosenstein and the president spoke for about 45 minutes on the flight from D.C. to Orlando and the president characterized the great - - the conversation as "great."

Questions have swirled about whether the president would fire the deputy attorney general since The New York Times reported last month that Rosenstein suggested secretly recording the president and discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

Justice Department officials told NBC News that Rosenstein was joking. Today`s meeting comes after a face-to-face meeting between the two was scheduled and then postponed. Ahead of the Air Force One meeting, President Trump praised his relationship with Rosenstein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I actually have a good relationship, other than there`s been no collusion, folks. No collusion. And -- but I have a very good relationship. We`ll see. I don`t hear you. No, I don`t, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUR: So, as the president said, we`ll see. The deputy attorney general as of now remains at his job. More "MTP Daily" right after this live from the home of the Bruins at UCLA. Come on, guys, cheers!

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUR: Welcome back. As if the sting of Brett Kavanaugh`s confirmation weren`t painful enough for Democrats, there`s this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL RYAN, SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I could just see it just from traveling around the country in the last few days, traveling around Wisconsin. The Republican base is definitely animated after this.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: I think it really has energized conservatives across the state of Texas. I think a lot Texans, a lot of Americans watched what happened in the last few weeks and were disgusted by the behavior of Senate Democrats.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: This is going to the streets, at the ballot box. I`ve never campaigned against a colleague in my life. That`s about to change.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: I want to thank the other side for the tactics that have allowed us to kind of energize and get involved our own voters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUR: Those are Republicans celebrating not only their Kavanaugh victory, but also the notion that the grueling fight over his confirmation helped their chances in November. And recent poll numbers backed that up, Democrats enthusiasm gap, a measure of how many registered voters say they are interested in the midterms has been cut from 16 points in July to just four in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

For more, I`m joined by Marc Lotter, former special assistant to President Trump and currently a member of the Trump 2020 Advisory Board. Mark, good to see you.

MARC LOTTER, MEMBER, TRUMP 2020 ADVISORY BOARD: Good to see you, Katy.

TUR: Do you think that the Republicans are being a little bit too confident, too cocky about the Kavanaugh confirmation and the effect it is going to have on the midterms?

LOTTER: No. I think what we`re seeing is the enthusiasm level going up not only in your poll but we are also seeing it the fundraising. The RNC is reporting a 500 percent increase in the fundraising form the beginning of September to beginning of October. I think the NRCC which is the campaign arm of the congressional Republicans, I think their fundraising has been up 418 percent.

So, we`re seeing it across the board. The question is now we have to make sure we translate that and hold onto it all the way through November.

TUR: Does it help to have a social media campaign that is got a hashtag beers for Brett? That was apparently being supported by at least one very prominent Republican senator. John Cornyn tweeted this. It was champagne. He says, not quite beers for Brett, but bubbly for Brett instead. Is that the way to fire up the base? It is certainly a way to anger a lot of Democrats and women.

LOTTER: I`m not sure it`s funny, but I`m not sure it`s going to translate to any votes. No, I think what we`ve got to do is we`ve got to remind people what they have gone through and what`s at stake. I mean, as you`ve mentioned and you were asking your earlier guests, you know, is impeachment on the table if House Democrats take over come January of next year?

That`s a very real question. We know what it will mean to the president`s agenda. It looks like right now we`re going to gain seats in the Senate. So, that right now and control of the House is what`s at stake and how do we move forward from there.

TUR: Do you think that running on this idea that Democrats are -- Democrats intend to impeach Judge Kavanaugh is the way to keep the enthusiasm about this nomination in play for the next 29 days? And I ask that because Kavanaugh was confirmed with 31 days to go until the election. The Access Hollywood tape, which was all but forgotten by election time, came out 32 days before the 2016 election.

LOTTER: I`m not necessarily sure that will keep going for 31 days, but I do think there are aspects of what we saw play out that can carry forward.

We`ve seen not only an increase in enthusiasm and donations, but we`ve also seen -- starting to see some unity coming together even from some never trumpers and folks who are more in the middle, maybe moderate, who have come back to the Republican Party because of what they saw going on and how Democrats treated Judge -- now Justice Kavanaugh, but also just in terms of the general -- I would say the antics and the circus that was created during this entire process.

TUR: Is it -- is it -- are Republicans coming back after the Kavanaugh process or is it just male Republicans? Because when you look at the enthusiasm gap, there is a four-point advantage still for the Democrats. So there`s that. But there is also a very giant or very large gender gap there.

When you look at women for -- who women prefer, 55 percent say Democrats compared to 35 percent for Republicans. For men, it`s 50 percent for Republicans. Why do females, why are women not coming back to the Republican Party?

LOTTER: I think there could be many reasons for that. And that`s one of the things that we have to identify, not only in this campaign cycle, but moving forward as a party.

But one of the things I would -- that I think is that as we solve this process play itself out, I think outside of the very active on both ends of the spectrum of the political activists, when you look at those people in the middle, the moderates, maybe the suburban college-educated men and women, when they saw what was going on and then you add to that the far- left ward shift of the Democratic Party now really more embracing socialism, you`ve got a lot of people who are going to be asking themselves, is this the Democrat Party that I used to support or that I would occasionally support here and there?

TUR: Then why aren`t women coming back to the Republican Party? Do you think Kavanaugh helped or hurt Republicans with women?

LOTTER: I think in certain groups, with maybe some of those in the middle, it might help. We`ll wait to see. This has just happened, so polling will probably take a few days or a week or so to truly start to capture any kind of change there.

I`ll tell you, I have a lot of people -- friends of mine who were I would say moderate middle of the road, lukewarm on the Republican Party, that told me in recent weeks that they`re really taking a look. They did not like how they targeted this man, his family, his reputation over this.

And then when you saw the protests and you saw people literally clawing at the doors to get into the Supreme Court over the weekend, that just rubbed people the wrong way.

TUR: But are you so sure that those protesters are only Democrats?

LOTTER: No, I`m not convinced that those are only Democrats. I also don`t think that they were only women. There were a number of people there and there are a number of reasons why people would show up and protest on one side or the other. There were people who were there supporting Judge Kavanaugh in some of these rallies.

So -- but when you see overall the coverage that was -- it was mostly focused on the anti-Kavanaugh crowds. And I think whenever we get to that radicalization in terms of climbing the steps and banging on the doors of the Supreme Court or yelling during the confirmation vote itself, those kinds of things, people who are more middle of the road and moderate, not necessarily leaving every breath that politicians say like we do in Washington, D.C., I think it just has a general ability to put people off and make them think twice.

TUR: What about those women that were victims of sexual assault that were there protesting? What about the women who are at home who are victims of sexual assault who are watching? Do you think that that turns them off when they see that?

LOTTER: No, I think that absolutely -- there are probably a very good number of people who would identify with the feelings and rightfully so, because sexual assault is a terrible crime in some cases. It`s a terrible incident. Women who have been assaulted should be able to come forward.

I`m saying strictly from a political standpoint, though, when you look at the visuals of how that takes place, I think there is a chance that that is -- that could impact some people who are not necessarily as motivated as those who are coming out pro and con on the extremes and coming out and protesting.

TUR: We will see what the next round of polling says. We will see ultimately though what happens in November. Marc Lotter, thank you so much for joining us.

LOTTER: Thank you, Katy.

TUR: And ahead, Taylor Swift says to Democrats, you belong with me. More "MTP Daily" live from UCLA right after this.

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUR: Welcome back. Tonight in "Meet the Midterms," are you ready for it? Taylor Swift decided to speak now, breaking her silence on politics and announcing her support for two Tennessee Democrats.

In an Instagram post, the 10-time Grammy winner said that while she had been reluctant to bring up her political beliefs earlier in her career, the last two years have led her to change her mind and publicly back two Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee. And she showed some bad blood for Democrat Phil Bredesen`s Republican opponent, Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn.

Swift wrote in an Instagram post, "As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me."

President Trump is trying to shake it off, defending Blackburn just moments ago on the White House south lawn. No, this is not from your wildest dreams.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I`m sure Taylor Swift has nothing or doesn`t know anything about her, and let`s say that I like Taylor`s music about 25 percent less now, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUR: Twenty-five percent less. We`ll see if Swift`s endorsement helps boost Bredesen`s reputation. Come on guys, bear with me. Back with more "MTP Daily" right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUR: Welcome back. Time now for "The Lid." Our cross-country panel is back as well. Elise, Conan, Aisha, and Jake. We`re in California, guys. I think we need to talk about climate change.

The U.N. just released a study that is extraordinarily dire about where things stand in terms of getting carbon dioxide levels to an acceptable point, and emissions to an acceptable point to make sure that we don`t get the globe to warm past 1.5 degrees Celsius by, I believe, 2040.

It`s a campaign issue here in California the way that isn`t in other states. Conan, why is that?

CONAN NOLAN, POLITICAL REPORTER, KNBC-TV: California`s Democratic State Jerry Brown has called his a signature issue for the party. And the legislature acted in a way that puts the state in the leadership role worldwide.

Remember, this is a state that wants to abolish the fossil fuel engine by year 2050. It`s set goals for CO2 reduction to 50 percent of 1990 levels within the next 10 to 15 years. That`s a lot of wind. That`s a lot of solar.

So, there`s consensus in California. Yet the last Republican governor was Arnold Schwarzenegger. He`s on the cover of "Time" magazine being the green governor. So, this is an issue that even Republicans for the most part agree on. And when Donald Trump backed away from leadership on climate change, Jerry Brown was happy to have the climate summit in San Francisco go overseas, talk to the pope. He is the climate guy.

TUR: Are Republicans forced to embrace this issue here? I mean, I know there are moves to campaign against the gas tax, which is something the Republicans can get traction on. Why are Republicans as Conan said more likely to embrace this here?

ELISE JORDAN, POLITICAL ANALYST, MSNBC AND NBC NEWS: We look at an example of the national Republican stance on climate change and what Donald Trump has done pulling out of the Paris Accord. At the EPA, all of the deregulation, the less environmentally friendly standards that he`s chosen to usher in.

And that just isn`t where Republicans necessarily, even in California, even though they are a small sliver, necessarily are. So global and state party have a different posture if they`re going to be successful.

TUR: Aisha -- go ahead, Conan.

NOLAN: You`re a native L.A. girl. You`re a California girl. You know this better than both of us. Republicans who ran statewide were always environmental Republicans. Pete Wilson, when he became governor, talked about big surge and sectioning it off from development.

So, there is an environmental strain within the Republican Party in California which is one of the reasons why Donald Trump lost the state by 4.3 million votes. Think about that.

TUR: Aisha, why isn`t this more of a national issue? I mean, it`s certainly a big issue here in California. Conan said it`s one of the reasons why Donald Trump lost so baddy to Hillary Clinton. Why isn`t it capitalized more by Democrats across the country?

AISHA MOODIE-MILLS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: That`s a good question. I wish that it was more. I wish we were talking more about the environment. We talked about the environment a little bit around Michigan in Flint and the water there. But I think you`re right, I think Democrats would do well to talk about the future.

What we`ve been missing out a lot on -- and this is quite a Trump playbook -- is that we`ve allowed Donald Trump to gaslight us about a variety of issues to keep pointing the finger and finding boogieman. I think the Democrats are off balance now.

We used to be under Barack Obama party of hope, thinking about competitiveness, thinking about what it means to be a leader in the world, a leader on the environment, a leader generally, and what it means to transform our nation so that we can thrive in the future, and we have gotten a bit away from that. So I think the Democrats would do well to get back to our core values and make this a bigger issue.

TUR: Jake, this report warns of a crisis as soon as 2040, a real crisis. Is anybody in Congress talking about this?

JAKE SHERMAN, SENIOR WRITER, POLITICO: No. I mean, Democrats are. But if they take back the majority, we`ll see if the politics have shifted for them. It`s been 12 years since Democrats won the majority in 2006.

Remember, when Democrats had the majority last time, they tried to pass a cap and trade bill, which would presumably help this massive crisis that scientists are warning about. And many Democrats lost their seats, not many, but a few lost their seats after Republicans ran campaigns saying that they were looking to hike the cost of energy.

So, we`ll see if Democrats have a durable enough majority to take a vote on something like that --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nancy Pelosi --

SHERMAN: -- this time around if they do win the majority.

TUR: What about Republicans who are running on deregulation? How much is that helping campaigns across the country right now, Jake?

SHERMAN: It`s tough to say. I mean, I think it`s one of many issues that Republicans are talking about. I think it`s not a very animating (ph) issue for some people. But for others, it`s been helpful in the business front and energy front.

We see Republicans across the country trying to basically ruin their Democratic opponents across the board. And if you talk to Republican operatives, they are basically trying to make Democrats a not palatable party in 2018.

That`s the dynamic that`s kind of driving across many races across the country throughout a lot of regions, throughout a lot of different partisan lenses is that make the Democratic opponent not someone that people can vote for.

TUR: The Republican -- this report calls for an end to burning coal and end to coal period by 2050. That`s obviously something that Donald Trump ran against.

JORDAN: That was his big message in West Virginia and then in parts of Kentucky, too. Bringing back coal, but this has been part of Donald Trump`s message the entire time, to bring back industries that aren`t necessarily there to be resuscitated, like manufacturing. And instead of looking into the future, he`s looking into the past.

TUR: Elise, thank you. Thank you to the giant hot dog dancing behind you. That was charming. Conan, good to see you. Thank you, as always. Aisha and Jake, thank you as well. Ahead, our feature presentation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUR: In case you missed it, I may be out here in Hollywood land, but back in D.C. today, it`s all about the movie biz. The second annual "Meet the Press" film festival with the American Film Institute kicks off today. Tickets are sold out in Washington.

You can see most of the films online on NBCNews.com/MTPFilms or you can check out NBC News on demand or your cable box Apple TV, et cetera. Don`t miss your chance to see these great films and be a part of the second annual "Meet the Press" film festival.

That will do it for me tonight. We will be back tomorrow with more MTP DAILY. In the meantime, many thanks to UCLA for hosting us. It`s been quite a day. I`m going to be back on the road tomorrow for my battle --

(APPLAUSE)

TUR: Next stop, Reno. "THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER" starts right now. Hi, Ari.

ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: Hi, Katy. Do you have a minute? You look good having fun out there.

TUR: Sure.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END


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Show | Marc Lotter | Aisha Moodie-Mills | Jake Sherman | Ammar Campa-Najjar | Harley Rouda | Donald Trump | Rod Rosenstein | Brett Kavanaugh | Supreme Court Confirmation | Democrats | Republicans | Political Impact | Midterm Elections | Taylor Swift | Climate Change | MTP Film Festival | Politics | White House | Polls

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SE Food
HD Why you should make kimchi part of your weekly routine — starting with this stir-fry
BY By Ellie Krieger
WC 294 words
PD 8 October 2018
SN Washington Post.com
SC WPCOM
LA English
CY Copyright 2018, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

Jarred kimchi, available in the refrigerated sections of most large grocery stores, might be one of the ultimate healthful convenience foods. It instantly adds a kick of tangy, pungent, spicy flavor as well as nutrition, particularly because, as a fermented food, it is a source of gut-friendly probiotics — good bacteria that are not only good for digestive health but also help the immune system in general.

Flavorwise, this staple of Korean cuisine can be transforming when you layer it on a simple sandwich, use it as topping for a grain bowl or fold it into a taco. And, as showcased in the accompanying recipe, it immediately revs up the seasoning of a stir-fry so you can pare down the overall ingredient list and still get big, bold flavor.

TD 

After browning lean strips of pork (you could substitute chicken breast or beef sirloin) you stir-fry onion and broccolini until they are charred a bit and softened. (Broccolini is especially convenient here because there is no need to blanch it.) Then garlic and ginger hit the pan before a slurry of broth, cornstarch and soy sauce is poured in to create a lovely, thickened sauce. The kimchi goes in toward the end — just to warm it through gently — because cooking it too long would destroy the good bacteria in it. A dash of hot sauce and sprinkle of fresh scallions provide a finishing punch.

There is not much prep to do for this dish overall, but be sure to have all of it done before you start cooking. This dish comes together very quickly, making it an ideal weeknight dinner.

food@washpost.com


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HD How CBD has become the USA's coolest food and drink ingredient
BY By Meirav Devash CNN
WC 1644 words
PD 8 October 2018
ET 07:00 AM
SN CNN Wire
SC CNNWR
LA English
CY Copyright 2018 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.

LP 

(CNN) -- The latest "it" ingredient to hit menus is CBD, short for cannabidiol, one of over 60 cannabinoids found in the cannabis sativa plant (more commonly known as marijuana).

Unlike THC, the most well-known cannabinoid, CBD has no psychoactive effects. So, while it won't get you high, its reported therapeutic properties have driven CBD sales and popularity in the wellness industry.

TD 

While researchers are still trying to determine CBD's effects, some studies suggest it can help treat inflammation, pain, anxiety and seizures.

The controversy around this superfood stems from inconsistent cannabis regulation at the federal and state level. Despite growing legalization, the DEA still considers cannabis -- including CBD, unless sourced from industrial hemp -- an illegal drug.

To date, the FDA hasn't approved any CBD products apart from an epilepsy drug called Epidiolex. State laws vary and are changing all the time.

Take California, a state with legalized recreational cannabis and a famously vibrant cannabis cuisine scene: Just this summer, the California Department of Public Health stopped the sale of CBD additives in food and drink until it receives full FDA approval.

This left restaurants such as Gracias Madre and Superba Food + Bread scrambling to change their menus to accommodate the rule.

With the Golden State out of the culinary cannabis spotlight at the moment, it's time to highlight some other less celebrated locations where you can find CBD-infused treats out in the wild.

From a sleek, wellness compound in Miami to a Portland dive bar known for late-night hot dogs, here are the coolest spots to find CBD on the menu (for now).

Adriaen Block, Queens, NY

This newly opened Queens cocktail bar and restaurant is a CBD mecca, showcasing the ingredient front and center.

For the uninitiated, the menu offers a word of advice: "CBD will not get you high, but you may experience a calming sensation."

The infused drinks include the Stoney Negroni, Rolled Fashioned, and the Bakin' & Eggs, which is made with Pineau des Charente, Lillet Blanc, blood orange bitters, egg white, and garnished with crisped bacon.

Teetotalers can get in on the action too, thanks to an equally thoughtful selection of CBD mocktails made with Seedlip, a swanky, non-alcoholic distilled spirit. Not thirsty? Also on offer are entrees with a side of AB CBD sauce or a pillowy blob of CBD-infused whipped cream to top off dessert.

Adriaen Block, 19-33 Ditmars Blvd, Astoria, NY 11105, +1 (718) 686-1391

Broomwagon, Lexington, KY

A community mecca for bike culture, this bicycle shop is also a beer garden and café serving up locally-sourced coffee, creative comfort food and ice-cold crafts and drafts.

Customers bringing in their bike for repairs can enjoy a snack by the mechanic's work area while they wait, or check out the latest wheels and accessories. (New pannier bag, anyone?)

They'll add a dose of CBD to any beverage for $2, or you can order a specialty drink like the Sage Advice Latte, with maple and sage-infused syrup, espresso, steamed milk and CBD.

Broomwagon Coffee + Bikes, 800 N. Limestone St., Lexington, KY 40505, +1 (859) 554-6938

Koku, Brooklyn, NY

Think of the Zen Bowl as an ice cream sundae for the Goop set -- dairy-free, probiotic-enriched coconut soft-serve heaped with colorful superfood toppings like antioxidant blueberries, nutritious black sesame granola and CBD cacao magic shell.

Available April through October at Brooklyn's Smorgasburg on Saturdays in Williamsburg and Sundays in Prospect Park, it's allergy-free and utterly Instagrammable.

You can also find the frozen treat at sporadic pop-ups (check their website for upcoming events), but stay tuned: A brick and mortar location is in the works for next year.

Koku, multiple locations

Donnie Vegas, Portland, OR

The coolest downtown Las Vegas dive bar is actually located in Northeast Portland, serving cocktails on tap and cheap, creative hot dogs like the Seoul Dog (kimchi, sambal aioli, scallion) and Tijuana Dog (cream cheese, pico de gallo, jalepeno) until 2:30 am.

They offer Jell-O shots and wine in a can, and a slushee with a hemp-derived twist -- the Prickly Pear CBD Margaweeda, made with fresh lime juice, triple sec, silver tequila and prickly pear puree.

Donnie Vegas, 1203 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211, +1 (503) 477-7244

Green Goddess Cafe, Stowe, VT

This homey café, a neighborhood go-to for fresh-pressed juices and tasty breakfast scrambles, was one the first in Vermont to put the wellness ingredient on the menu after "we experienced the benefits of CBD firsthand with our son, who has autism and a tumor disorder," owner Athena Scheidet says.

One of their most popular specialty drinks is the Jamaican Me Shake, a CBD smoothie with tropical fruit, spinach, avocado, organic apple juice and whipped cream.

Green Goddess Cafe, 618 S Main St, Stowe, VT 05672, +1 (802) 253-5255

The James New York NoMad, New York City

Travelers who want a break from Manhattan's hectic pace don't even need to leave their boutique hotel room for the latest way to unwind -- CBD-infused room service from notable cannabis chef Annabel Drummer.

The in-room dining menu includes spicy meatballs, gorgonzola salad with walnuts and pear, and house tater tots. Or, you can pick a prepackaged CBD-infused treat like Chef For Higher Gummies, Grön Chocolate bars, and even Bark Avenue dog treats for stressed pets.

The James NoMad, 22 E 29th St, New York, NY 10016, +1 (212) 532-4100

VegeNation, Las Vegas

Downtown Las Vegas's Fremont East area has become an artsy hub for plant-based eats and health-conscious cocktails -- the antithesis of the Strip's bottle service and Champagne-shower decadence.

Affordable global street food at VegeNation is locally grown and plant-based, and even the cocktails have a positive spin -- particularly The Changemaker, a refreshing, infused whiskey tea made with local distilled liquor and tea from Bloomin' Desert Herb Farm, a brew of rosemary, ginger, holy basil, red clover, nettle, peppermint, clove and raw CBD oil in purified water.

VegeNation, 616 Carson Ave #120, Las Vegas, NV 89101, +1 (702) 366-8515

Plant Miami, Miami

Miami isn't all neon lights, and pumping basslines. When the South Beach scene feels like it's all too much, find your Zen at Sacred Space Miami.

The minimalist oasis in once-gritty Wynwood features a lush meditation garden, yoga and wellness classes, and Plant Miami, an organic, vegan farm-to-table restaurant.

The tropical Plant Medicine cocktail -- with fresh pineapple, house coconut milk, dark rum, and a dose of CBD oil -- is the perfect blend of Miami vibes and mindfulness.

Plant Miami, 105 Northeast 24th St, Miami, FL, 33137, +1 786 621 5006

River and Woods, Boulder

The comfort food at this historic cottage includes community-sourced dishes like Aunt Penny's Mac & Cheese with mushrooms and onion-potato crunch and John's Gnocchi Verde with spinach, Reggiano cream, and lemon zest.

There are family-friendly picnic tables in back, as well as an adult-centric Airstream that serves as an outdoor bar, where you can add a dose of CBD to cocktails like the Sloe Descent, with Luxardo amaretto, Spirit Works sloe gin, orange and pomegranate juice.

(They're in the process of formulating a dedicated CBD-infused wellness cocktail, too.)

River and Woods, 2328 Pearl St, Boulder, CO 80302, (303) 993-6301

Coalition Brewing, Portland, OR

This brewery changed the game with Oregon's first commercially produced CBD-infused beer, Two Flowers IPA, highlighting the kinship between cannabis and hops with an aromatic, grassy flavor.

The beer has become so popular that you can find it all over town at establishments like EastBurn Public House and Dot's Café, though it's worth a visit to the tasting room's new patio where you can enjoy it in its original birthplace.

Coalition Brewing, 2705 SE Ankeny St, Portland, OR 97214, +1 (503) 894-8080

Zenbarn, Waterbury, VT 05676

You haven't reached peak Vermont until you've visited this rustic barn-turned-restaurant's periodic "Hemp and Hops" dinners, where five-course meals are infused with CBD and paired with local craft beers.

It's a community-focused space, with a yoga studio upstairs and live music at night. (Be prepared to hear Grateful Dead covers.)

The daily menu offers CBD-spiked aioli for their burgers, including the vegetarian Zen Burger, a local black bean patty piled with cheddar, chipotle crema, avocado, lettuce, and crispy onion.

There's also CBD honey vinaigrette for salad, a CBD brownie sundae with house-made CBD caramel, and clever CBD cocktails with names like Gin and Chronic, Le Verde and Up in Smoke.

Zenbarn, 179 Guptil Rd, Waterbury Center, VT 05677, +1 (802) 244-8134

Grön Cafe Portland, OR

If there was a Willy Wonka of cannabidiol, it would Christine Smith, founder of craft chocolate company GrönCBD.

The manufactory's confections contain CBD extracted from a hemp alternative -- evergreen tree bark combined with citrus peels.

The front of house is a drop-in cafe, where you can order CBD Drinking Chocolate served with whipped cream and a shortbread cookie, as well as infused chocolate lattes, steamers, iced chocolate drinks, chocolate-filled croissants, and truffles.

They'll indulge your curiosity and your sweet tooth -- visitors are encouraged to ask questions or sample the CBD caramel and chocolate sauces, chocolate bars, tinctures and body products.

Grön, 960 SE Madison St, Portland, OR 97214, +1 (971) 279-4754

Meirav Devash is a writer based in New York covering beauty, style and wellness. Her work has appeared in Allure, The New York Times, Women's Health and more.


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CLM The Doctor Game
SE Life
HD Don't believe those travelling myths
BY W.Gifford-Jones
CR Times Colonist
WC 723 words
PD 7 October 2018
SN Victoria Times Colonist
SC VTC
ED Final
PG D11
LA English
CY Copyright © 2018 Victoria Times Colonist

LP 

What's the worst of times when travelling? It's when you're sitting on a bus tour 100 kilometres from the next stop and you begin to suffer the bowelspasms of traveller's diarrhea. If the worst scenario happens, it's a moment you will never forget. But this common risk, and the chance of acquiring other infections, can be decreased by ridding yourself of several travellers' myths.

Myth: Only in the Amazon jungle do you have to worry about mosquito-transmitted diseases.

TD 

Fact: That's not so. In the jungle, mosquitoes spread disease to humans by biting infected monkeys. In a café in Paris, Rome orIstanbul, mosquitoes infect you after biting infected humans.

Myth: So, to prevent this infec-tion in a Paris café, you'll have two glasses of chardonnay.

Fact: I wish it were true! Laboratory studies show that wine helps to decrease food-borne dis-eases such as E.coli and salmo-nella. This action might be related to the organic acids in wine that have the effect of alcohol. A couple of observational studies also show that those who consumed wine or beer at meals were less likely to become ill during salmonella outbreaks than non-drinkers.But no studies prove alcohol in any form is protective against infectious disease.

Myth: It's impossible to get rabies if a street dog just licks you.

Fact: Areport in the University of California Wellness publication says that most people believe youmust be bitten by an infected dog to get rabies. Not true. The message is, don't get too friendly with a foreign Fido. It's rare, but if you have a cut, open wound or abra-sion, and it'slicked by an infected dog, you could develop this dis-ease. This is also true for infected raccoons, foxes and bats. One night in my teens, I was awakened by something flying around my bedroom. My parents diagnosed abad dream. That is, until the fol-lowing evening a bat flew out from a lamp. Experts say I should have been tested for rabies, as a bite from a bat is hard to see.Myth:Probiotic supplements prevent traveller's diarrhea.

Fact: This is another misconception. Several studies published in Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease in 2007 suggested that different kinds of probiotic organ-isms might prevent this problem.But other studies concluded they have no benefit. So let the buyer be ware.

Myth: Suppose you were born in a foreign country and decide now is the time to return. Some people believe revisiting your home land protects you from illness.

Fact: Sad to say, going home is not risk free. It is true that early in life in a foreign country you can build up an immunity to water and infections transmitted by mosquitoes. But immunity has often faded away by the time you return. The Centers for Disease Control report that people who emigrate to North America from countries where malaria is endemic, such as India, are at high risk when they return home or visit other malarial-prone areas.And sometimes the person return-ing home decides against taking anti-malarial medication. The only places that are risk free of malaria is where there are no mosquitoes, such as the desert,high altitudes or during cold sea-sons of the year. Myth:Taking medication for malaria will protect you from other mosquito-bearing diseases.

Fact: Don't believe it. Other dis-eases such as Zita and Dengue are also spread by mosquitoes. But they are caused by different organisms. Consequently, treatment to prevent one of these dis-eases will have no effect on others.

Myth: When you begin a trip, it doesn't matter what seat you ask for on a plane, whether you want to look out the window or prefer easy exit from an aisle seat.

Fact: Sorry,it's not that simple.Studies show the window seat is safer. Why? Because bacteriological studies prove the aisle seatharbours more bacteria that can cause infection. Maybe you've noticed that many people, after using the bathroom on board,return to their seats by clutching the aisle seat headrest. It's sad to say that many have not washed their hands. Need I say more?


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Search Summary
Text"gut health" or "healthy gut" or "unhealthy gut" or "gut bacteria" or "microbiota" or "microbiome" or "probiotic" or "probiotics"
Date01/01/2018 to 10/11/2019
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AuthorAll Authors
CompanyAll Companies
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IndustryAll Industries
RegionAll Regions
LanguageEnglish
Results Found2,676
Timestamp11 October 2019 10:54 AM