Americans "addicted" to salt - CNN interviews author of "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us"

Americans overdosing on salt - Author Michael Moss talks about our addiction to salt, and how the food industry develops our taste for it.



From Amazon:

"From a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at The New York Times comes the explosive story of the rise of the processed food industry and its link to the emerging obesity epidemic. Michael Moss reveals how companies use salt, sugar, and fat to addict us and, more important, how we can fight back.

Every year, the average American eats 33 pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970) and 70 pounds of sugar (about twenty-two teaspoons a day). We ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt a day, double the recommended amount, and almost none of that comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food. It’s no wonder, then, that one in three adults, and one in five kids, is clinically obese. It’s no wonder that twenty-six million Americans have diabetes, the processed food industry in the U.S. accounts for $1 trillion a year in sales, and the total economic cost of this health crisis is approaching $300 billion a year.

In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how we got here. Featuring examples from some of the most recognizable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century—including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more—Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research.

Moss takes us inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the “bliss point” of sugary beverages or enhance the “mouthfeel” of fat by manipulating its chemical structure. He unearths marketing campaigns designed—in a technique adapted from tobacco companies—to redirect concerns about the health risks of their products: Dial back on one ingredient, pump up the other two, and tout the new line as “fat-free” or “low-salt.” He talks to concerned executives who confess that they could never produce truly healthy alternatives to their products even if serious regulation became a reality. Simply put: The industry itself would cease to exist without salt, sugar, and fat. Just as millions of “heavy users”—as the companies refer to their most ardent customers—are addicted to this seductive trio, so too are the companies that peddle them. You will never look at a nutrition label the same way again."

Cleveland Clinic - Past and Present (video)

Disclaimer: I was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic from 2005 to 2008.

Match Day 2013 at the Pritzker School of Medicine (video)

Holly J. Humphrey, MD'83, and James N. Woodruff, MD, describe the Match Day experience at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine as the medical students discover where they will be placed for their residencies. Look at the pure joy in their faces:



The most popular specialties chosen this year by Pritzker students were Internal Medicine (21), Pediatrics (11), Family Medicine (6), Obstetrics-Gynecology (6), and General Surgery (5).

For more information, see the Match Results at http://bit.ly/Yz681a

Disclaimer: I am an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at UChicago.

Acute otitis externa

What is Acute otitis externa?

Acute otitis externa is a common condition involving inflammation of the ear canal. It is caused by bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Acute otitis externa often occurs following swimming or minor trauma from inappropriate cleaning.

What are the symptoms of Acute otitis externa?

The rapid onset of ear canal inflammation leads to otalgia (earache), itching, canal edema, erythema, and otorrhea. Tenderness with movement of the tragus or pinna is a classic finding.

What is the treatment for Acute otitis externa?

For uncomplicated cases, use topical antimicrobials or antibiotics such as acetic acid, aminoglycosides, polymyxin B, and quinolones. Some of these agents come in preparations with topical corticosteroids which may help resolve symptoms more quickly.

There is no evidence that any one antimicrobial or antibiotic preparation is clinically superior to another. Here two suggested approaches:

- Neomycin/polymyxin B/hydrocortisone preparations are a reasonable first-line therapy when the tympanic membrane is intact.

- Oral antibiotics are used when the infection has spread beyond the ear canal or in patients at risk of a rapidly progressing infection.

References:

Acute otitis externa: an update. Schaefer P, Baugh RF. Am Fam Physician. 2012 Dec 1;86(11):1055-61.
Image source: Wikipedia, a GNU Free Documentation License.

Calorie Detective: The Real Math Behind Food Labels

With the help of a science lab, the filmmaker Casey Neistat found that calorie listings on food labels can be highly inaccurate - mostly underestimating the amount of calories in food products such as muffins, sandwiches, burrito, etc.

He selected 5 items he might consume in an average day: a muffin, a tofu sandwich, a Subway sandwich, a Starbucks Frappuccino and a Chipotle burrito. Then, two food scientists tested the caloric content of each using a device called a calorimeter. It’s a precise but slow process — taking more than an hour per sample. The results were surprising.

Four out of the five items had more calories than their labels reported, adding up to 550 calories. If he unknowingly consumed those extra calories every day, in a week he would put on an extra pound of body weight.



References:

‘Calorie Detective’ - NYTimes.com http://nyti.ms/Yit3KO

What is the current best RSS reader?

After it was announced that Google Reader will be shut down in July, some of my Twitter buddies asked me what I plan to use in the future as a RSS reader.

I have already switched to RSS Owl.

Pros:

- faster and more powerful than Google Reader
- portable program that does not require installation (choose the version labeled "rssowl-2.1.6.windows.zip"). You can take it on a USB drive if you wish.
- keyboard shortcuts - you can either customize the existing shortcuts or create new ones
- social media sharing integration (Buffer, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
- Easy export and import of your RSS subscriptions as an OPML file
- open source (just like WordPress, Firefox, WebKit, etc.)
- free

Cons:

- it is a downloadable program, not a website

For an online RSS reader, I would recommend Feedly in "Google Reader view". However, I prefer RSS Owl because it is faster and more customizable.

You can make Feedly look like Reader by going to preferences and changing "Default View" to "Condensed".

Why use RSS reader?

RSS is the most efficient way to collect information from multiple websites in one location. If you need to do that, that's the way to do it.

From Rex Hammock:

"I used to attempt to get my friends to use a newsreader. For whatever reason, most never quite got it. It’s one of the few things I use that I consider a competitive advantage and a tool I couldn’t operate professionally without. I decided to stop wasting time trying to give that secret away."

Please share your opinion via Twitter or in the comments section below.

References:

Google Reader was a Google Pigpen product | Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com http://bit.ly/XMB5A0
Which is the Best Alternative to Google Reader http://bit.ly/ZFKLKT

Comments from Twitter:

What is the current best RSS reader? http://bit.ly/WzPXST - I prefer the portable RSS Owl over online Feedly (quicker/custom kb shortcuts)

How to Dispose of Medications (video)

Watch this About.com video to learn how to properly dispose of your medications, and protect the environment at the same time.



For more information, check the selected references below:

FDA Consumer Updates > How to Dispose of Unused Medicines http://1.usa.gov/16yTnIf

Safe Disposal of Medicines > Disposal of Unused Medicines: What You Should Know http://1.usa.gov/16yTqnh