Forks Over Knives – The Official Movie Website

Forks Over Knives – The Official Movie Website

Forks Over Knives – The Official Movie Website

This could be the one. There’s been lots of films in the last few years trying to tackle the issues surrounding the epidemic of Chronic Disease in the West that is now starting to take hold in the far East. Most of them have been a little too earnest for general consumption, too many excuses for Doctors to be dismissive.

This film could be different.

Here we have a clinician and a scientist jointly presenting their evidence to argue that heart disease, cancer and diabetes is more a choice than an inheritance.

The problem is how to get those most in need to realise they have a choice for optimum health.

Better diet and health is not profitable enough for global corporations – there will be no Pharmaceutical company investing millions of Dollars of PR, advertising and Lobbyists’ time on this National Health Care, Welfare and Health Insurance Solution.

Night at the Patch

bmj.com: Ben Goldacre

bmj.com: Ben Goldacre
bmj.com: Just found this lovely response to The Bitch Doctor from Dr John Briffa on the BMJ website …….. it’s old but worth revisiting.

John P Briffa,
Doctor and health writer
Woolaston House, 
25 Southwood Lane, 
Highgate, 
London 
N6 5ED

Dr Goldacre’s opinion piece [1] takes a broad swipe at media nutritionists by focusing on some silly thinking and the ‘pseudoscience’ that undoubtedly can sometimes be found in the area. The author takes particular exception to Gillian McKeith’s claim that chlorophyll is rich in oxygen and that eating plenty of it will help to oxygenate the blood. In respect to this, Dr Goldacre comments “as any 14 year old biology student could tell you, plants only make oxygen in light: it’s very dark in your bowel; and even if, to prove a point, you put a searchlight up your bottom, you probably wouldn’t absorb too much oxygen through the gut wall.” Fair enough, but I wonder how many of us (doctors included) have beliefs and, where relevant, employ clinical approaches that in their entirely would stand up to scrutiny. Take, for example, Dr Goldacre’s own suggestion to test the oxygen-producing capacity of chlorophyll in the gut by illuminating the large bowel: this hypothetical test, albeit tongue-in- cheek, is flawed because the process of digestion would render chlorophyll biologically inactive by the time it reaches the colon. On the face of it, some of Dr Goldacre’s own musings here might be regarded as nonsensical at those of McKeith. Dr Goldacre appears to give the impression that much what media nutritionists do is unvalidated mumbo-jumbo. Yet, many nutritionists do refer to the research and scientifically reference their work. The accusations of misinterpretation, cherry-picking, inappropriate extrapolation of data and conflict of interest can be made, but these can also be levelled at the medical and scientific establishments too: The widespread promotion of statins despite there being no evidence that these are effective in reducing mortality in the primary prevention setting is a case in point [2,3]. The area of nutrition is an emerging field, and thus many nutritionists will advocate approaches that may not have been formally studied, but do seem to be of broad benefit in practice. It seems that for Dr Goldacre such clinical experience does not count for much. Is he of the mind, then, that everything health professionals do be properly studied and validated before implementation. If that’s the case, we doctors should pack up and go home now: only 15 per cent of medical practice has been proven effective, and most of what we do is of unknown effectiveness, is unlikely to be beneficial, or has been shown to be positively harmful [4]. Dr Goldacre expresses his belief that nutritionists have deliberately over-complicated their approaches and adds, “Basic, uncomplicated dietary advice is effective and promotes health.” Given his attachment to scientific rigour, it seems appropriate to ask Dr Goldacre what evidence there is for this assertion. If anything, the evidence is to the contrary. For example, the perhaps most pervasive nutritional message that has sunk deep into the population’s psyche is certainly a simple one: that we should eat a diet low in fat and high in carbohydrate. And despite this easy-to-understand piece of advice, rates of chronic conditions such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes in the UK continue to soar. And the evidence for the ineffectiveness of low-fat eating is not merely anecdotal. Studies show that this oft-touted ‘healthy’ way of eating is, for instance, thoroughly ineffective for the purposes of weight loss in the long term [5,6]. It is perhaps worth bearing in mind that the ‘low-fat high-carb’ dictum is not generally popularised by media nutritionists, but instead by dieticians and the professional bodies to which they are affiliated, notably the British Dietetic Association (BDA). Other dietetic ‘gems’ that come from the dietetic establishment include the notion that plenty of calcium and dairy products in the diet are somehow ‘essential’ to bone health in children and adults [7-9], that artificial sweeteners are preferred to sugar for those seeking to lose weight (not one single randomised, placebo-controlled study assessing the effects of artificial sweeteners on weight is to be found in the scientific literature), that diabetics should make starchy carbohydrates a cornerstone of their diet (many of these release sugar relatively quickly into the bloodstream and tend to disrupt glycaemic control, and eating less of such foods has been shown to improve biochemical markers including those of glycaemic control) [10-17], and that taking dietary steps to reduce cholesterol saves lives [18]. I accept that media ‘nutritionists’ may get it wrong sometimes (myself included) and some make a tidy living from their efforts. But if Dr Goldacre’s cry is for more accountability in the area, I reckon he should put the spotlight of scrutiny less on media nutritionists, and more on dieticians and the BDA. References: 1. Goldacre B. Tell us the truth about nutritionists. BMJ 2007;334:292 2. Abramson J, Wright JM. Are lipid-lowering guidelines evidence- based? Lancet 2007;369:168-169 3. Jauca C, Wright JM. Therapuetics letter: update on statin therapy. Int Soc Drug Bull Newsletter. 2003;17:7-9 4. http://www.clinicalevidence.com/ceweb/about/knowledge.jsp 5. Pirozzo S, et al. Advice on low-fat diets for obesity. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2002;(2):CD003640 6. Willett C, et al. Dietary fat is not a major determinant of body fat. Am J Med. 2002;113(9B):47S-59S 7. Lanou AJ, et al. Calcium, dairy products, and bone health in children and young adults: a reevaluation of the evidence. Pediatrics. 2005;115(3):736-43 8. Winzenberg T, et al. Effects of calcium supplementation on bone density in healthy children: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ 2006;333:775-778 9. Feskanich D, et al. Calcium, vitamin D, milk consumption, and hip fractures: a prospective study among postmenopausal women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2003 77(2):504-511 10. Collier GR, et al. Low glycemic index starchy foods improve glucose control and lower serum cholesterol in diabetic children. Diabetes Nutr Metab 1988;1:11-19 11. Fontvieille AM, et al. A moderate switch from high to low glycemic-index foods for 3 weeks improves metabolic control of type I (IDDM) diabetic subjects. Diabetes Nutr Metab 1988;1:139-43 12. Jenkins DJ, et al. Low-glycemic-index starchy foods in the diabetic diet. Am J Clin Nutr 1988;48:248–54 13. Wolever TM, et al. Beneficial effect of a low glycaemic index diet in type 2 diabetes. Diabet Med 1992;9:451–8 14. Wolever TM, et al. Beneficial effect of low-glycemic index diet in overweight NIDDM subjects. Diabetes Care 1992;15:562–4 15. Brand JC, et al. Low-glycemic index foods improve long-term glycemic control in NIDDM. Diabetes Care 1991;14:95–101 16. Fontvieille AM, et al. The use of low glycaemic index foods improves metabolic control of diabetic patients over five weeks. Diabet Med 1992;9:444–50 17. Frost G, et al. Dietary advice based on the glycaemic index improves dietary profile and metabolic control in type 2 diabetic patients. Diabet Med 1994;11:397–401 18. Studer M, et al. Effect of different antilipidemic agents and diets on mortality. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2005;165:725-730 19. Email communication (available on request) contact: john@drbriffa.com Competing interests: I am a private-practising doctor and health writer with a special interest in nutrition

Was Foster even entitled to an advance?Graham Foster’s

Was Foster even entitled to an advance?

Graham Foster’s story in the Sunday Star Timesdoesn’t tell the full story. He was refused a Work and Income grant to pay for a $50 pullover and a $140 pair of shoes. Instead he got an advance for the amount which he has to pay back at $3.00 per week. Any advances are supposed to be paid back within a 52 week period. But not this one. Still, Foster spent two years fighting the government through the courts, costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

The Benefit Review Committee decision of 2008 appears to be here, and was itself appealed. (The Court of Appeal’s recent decision is here). Foster wanted a lump sum non recoverable payment and reviewed a decision to advance the payment. His excuse for applying for these items was that his old jersey had a hole in it and as he sometimes suffered from mild bronchitis he didn’t want to catch a chill. He said he needed to wear specially constructed inner soles and good quality shoes and he said he needed to purchase Hush Puppy shoes ” that better fitted the odd contours of my feet”.

His budget indicated a deficiency of income over expenditure of $49.98 per week – and budgeted more than $87 a week on food . That’s in 2008. We have four in our family and don’t even spend double that each week. He also brought the Listener each week instead of reading it at the library for free. Although he wanted free shoes, the Social Security Appeal Authority noted that there is no specific provision in the Special Needs Grant programme for shoes. As Foster admitted that the items were needed due to to wear and tear, this was not an “emergency” as it was not unforseen. Clothes are expected to wear out, eventually. The authority said:

We are surprised to note that the appellant spends [$30 - inserted] per week on communication, apparently for cellphone, internet and fixed line charges. This seems particularly high for someone sharing accommodation. The appellant has not explained what his need for a cellphone might be. An allowance of $15.00 per week ought to be sufficient for telecommunications. We also have questions about the appellant’s allowance for transport, optometrist and newspapers. It is surprising that the appellant can afford to buy the Listener and pay for an internet connection but cannot budget for [shoes]. We are not convinced that the appellant has a deficiency in his budget of $49.98 per week. We accept that the appellant’s budget is tight but we consider that the appellant could have been expected to make provision for [shoes] in his budget.We are not satisfied on the basis of the evidence available that an emergency situation existed in this instance

But they did think it was fine for him to get an advance payment, even though he was able to make provision for it. In other words, the Committee considered that as Foster had an “immediate and essential need” he should be given a loan for the shoes and jersey, even though no emergency situation existed, and WINZ had no idea if he needed them because they apparently didn’t ask if he had other jerseys and shoes he could wear.

So how did they know that Foster had an immediate and essential need?

Has the Herald on Sunday breached name suppression?

Just got back from a week offline, and am still catching up with the news slowly. But from reading the Dom Post while I was away I learned that Cameron Slater ( who is extremely happy that he had 54,000 unique page views on his blog the other day) has been posting, in binary code on his blog, the name of a former MP who is up on charges of indecently assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

Now, I don’t know much about binary code, so I quickly found out by other means who this person was, and then saw an article in the Herald from Carolyne Meng-Yee, who loves to write about celebrities – and I`d be surprised if she understands most of the laws surrounding suppression. From that article I could narrow this man’s name down to two possibilities. He is a former MP, has a partner, he is not the father of the girl, and is a ” thoroughly decent bloke”. The girl’s mother is this former MP’s partner. But it was another sentence in that article that narrowed it down somewhat for me.

The Herald On Sunday has arguably published information that has led to the identity of the alleged offender, as it led with the man’s former occupation with the implication that he has links to more than one political party. The article is also in a more accessible form than Slater’s. In addition, another article on the same website the same week provided another piece to the jigsaw, which narrowed it down to one.

If a blogger provides clues that breach name suppression on one post, is that any worse than an online newspaper doing the same thing, but on different articles on different days? Particularly if both articles are available on the one page. Whatever, even if Slater posts clues to the multiple people who have suppression, as he has done, the Solicitor -General has said that he is not in contempt of court.

John Key has waded into the debate saying that Slater is not allowed to break a law he disagrees with. But the PM himself has advocated that it is fine to break the law if you want to smack your kids, whether you agree with the law or not.

BBC Panorama – The hunt for healthy food for children

BBC Panorama – The hunt for healthy food for children
BBC News – Panorama – The hunt for healthy food for children

Tremendous expose of children’s food and tricks currently being used to dupe parents.

Cow & Gates excuse for the high sugar in their follow on milk was a study that showed high protein children’s diets lead to obesity.

However what the study actually reveals is that too much meat and dairy can lead to obesity and certainly NOT that sugar is better than fat and protein!

The study from the Research Institute of Child Nutrition revealed

The ages of 12 months and 5-6 y were identified as critical ages at which higher total and animal, but not vegetable, protein intakes were positively related to later body fatness.

We’ve moved!

Buttons

Buttons

There’s another photo on our Twitter page (actually a Twitpic image) as well as more stuff on:

• Curler slays demons and turns his life around, now off to Olympic Games
• Regina to host 2011 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship
• Glenn Howard returns to Brantford today and thru the weekend
• Olympic curlers set to invade Kelowna, BC
• Wheelchair and vision-impaired curling workshops to PEI

… and more!

Buttons

Buttons

There’s another photo on our Twitter page (actually a Twitpic image) as well as more stuff on:

• Curler slays demons and turns his life around, now off to Olympic Games
• Regina to host 2011 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship
• Glenn Howard returns to Brantford today and thru the weekend
• Olympic curlers set to invade Kelowna, BC
• Wheelchair and vision-impaired curling workshops to PEI

… and more!

Free Weight Loss and Health Advice

The Diet & Fitness Show

Free weight loss and optimal health advice at Olympia, London on Sunday 24th January.

Leading UK weight loss expertYvonne Bishop-Weston will be explaining her no diet, no calorie counting approach to weight loss and optimal health at Olympia in London this Sunday afternoon at 2pm

Discover her secrets to sustainable weight loss and optimal health

Poetry Moment

Poetry Moment

If you looking for a fun mixed media moment in Second Life®. Gitte Broeng as her Second Life® avatar, Beatrice Coleslaw has a little minute long gem at Boom Pearls in SL. It’s a sweet poem called “Hypothetical imperatives (desserts)”.

This isn’t an amazing, blow your mind, Second Life Experience. But it is a quick, fun read along moment.

SLURL: http:/slurl.com/secondlife/Phyllira/169/139/90

The Official Press Release:

Gitte Broeng: Dessert Room – at Boom Pearls in Second Life
Opening online, 21. February. 16-18 gmt+1. 7am-9am sltime.

Dessert Room is a hybrid work that mixes words/sound/image in an ironic vision which challenges traditional ideas about one of life’s sweetest phenomena: desserts.

The work examines what happens when all context is removed and a space without orientation arises. It is inspired by Second Life’s wasteland with no physical reality, where you are able to build a “second life” from scratch – but without scents, tastes and feelings, senses without which a dessert does not seem to be any pleasure at all – or any kind of food for that matter.


The starting point for the work is Broeng’s conceptual poem Hypothetical Imperatives (Desserts) based on dessert recipes that she has “emptied” of all ingredients. Instead of descriptions of delicious desserts we are faced with imperatives such as whip, grate, decorate.
Recipes like to make use of imperatives in the instructions and if the ingredients are removed the odd thing happens, that the recipes will appear as insensible commands. Completely inverse of the product they describe the making of.


Dessert is a total sensory boom, we do not need to eat, but eat anyway – of sheer pleasure. However Gitte Broeng’s dessert room at Boom Pearls’s territory in Second Life is completely devoid of sensuality. Here visitors will meet a monumental cookbook, which stands as a sort of open brown building in the desert-like surroundings. On the pages of the book the vertical commanding poem is seen and by pressing “Play” Broeng’s reading of the words, or rather orders is activated in the dessert room. To view the installation inside Second Life please visit this link: http:/slurl.com/secondlife/Phyllira/169/139/90, which will teleport your avatar to Boom Pearls in Second Life. Avatars can be made at www.secondlife.com.

Gitte Broeng b. 1973. Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Being both a poet and visual arts facilitator Broeng is interested in hybrids between the two artistic fields. She published the book “Interiør” (Interior), Hurricane Publishing in 2006, a book that she designed herself. Broeng has done several public readings and published texts including visual poems in literary journals in Denmark and abroad.

Dessert Room is the third show at Boom Pearls in Second Life. 8 artists have been invited as newcomers to this online world which consists of mainly user created content, and the exhibition projects show art at the transition from Real Life to Second Life before the artists have decided if they want to be integrated users of Second Life or not. Screenshots and other documentation can be viewed at BoomPearls.com. Boom Pearls is curated by Jon Paludan.

The installation can be seen until 22. March 2009
Thanks to the Danish Arts Council

Latvia makes curling history

Vancouver 2010 medals unveiled

Vancouver 2010 medals unveiled

The heavy medals have been unveiled.

Sandhya2 Patel at The Crescent Moon Museum
Today marks the opening of Sandhya2 Patel’s exhibit at the Crescent Moon museum. Her artwork is a compilation of whimsical sculptures and figurines, some taken from stories or literary pieces such as Alice in Wonderland.

From the artist: “I was fascinated immediately by the possibility of building things in SL.
I started the fist day and have been building ever since.

I have created avatars, built houses, done landscaping , but the most fun
I have had is making statues and sculptures.”

Head over to the Crescent Museum now!

Mo’vember 2009

Mo’vember 2009

The Royal Society of Medicine – Events

The Royal Society of Medicine- RSM events – Academic

Nutrition pre-pregnancy birth and beyond – Windows of opportunity
Organiser: Food & Health Forum
Date: Thursday 1 October 2009| Venue: Royal Society of Medicine
More information

Chaired by Dr Marilyn Glenville, President of the Food & Health Forum, Royal Society of Medicine

Best of Us Curling Challenge?

Best of Us Curling Challenge?

Sue Bradford to resign from Parliament

Not long ago, Sue Bradford wrote this message on her Twitter account, breaking her own embargo.

Media conference 10am to announce I’m standing down from Parliament at end October – but am not resigning from Greens or political activism

Dave Clendon is the next on the list. He stood against John Key in Helensville but lives in Mt Albert- formerly held by Helen Clark.

Looks like the loss of the leadership to Metiria Turei really hurt. But, despite Bradford being one of the most effective backbenchers, in terms of getting legislation passed, this is the best thing that has happened to the Greens this year. Watch for a rise in the polls for the Greens.

Next Page »