Authors: Laura Binder
Do Breastfeeding and Co-Sleeping Make You a Better Mother?
The latest issue of Time magazine, featuring a provocative cover photo of a mother breastfeeding her nearly four-year-old son, has sparked a media craze with everyone from U.S. congresswomen to Saturday Night Live weighing in.
What’s all the fuss all about? The photo, and the accompanying article about the attachment parenting philosophy championed by pediatrician William Sears, is generating controversy about everything from the sexualization of breastfeeding to the more fundamental question of what it means to be a good parent.
Mother’s Day Gift Ideas for a Happy, Healthy May
May is the month of Mother's Day, a holiday to celebrate all the amazing women who brought us into this world: our moms! Whether it's treating her to a day at the spa or going together on a hike, there are many ways to show your mother how much you care this May 13 (and all year round, for that matter!) Here are a few great Mother's Day gift ideas:
Personalize
Remember how much your mom always loved your childhood art projects? That's because there's nothing better than a personalized gift! If you're not so much into arts and crafts these days, a simple framed picture could do. We also recommend:
- Photo calendar for 12 months of personal pictures
- Personalized recipe cards with your family's favorite meals
- Custom iPhone case for protection with a sentimental touch
Chickens Are Eating Arsenic? Time to Buy Organic
Prozac. Tylenol. Benadryl. Though these may sound like the contents of a medicine cabinet, they are in fact the chemicals that are being routinely fed to industrially farmed chickens. According to Nicholas Kristof’s recent New York Times article “Arsenic in our Chicken?”, it gets worse: researchers have also discovered the presence of arsenic and banned antibiotics in poultry feathers.
As it turns out, feeding chickens trace amounts of arsenic reduces infections and improves the pinkish hue of the meat. Though there’s no evidence yet that these low levels of arsenic are harmful, the practice is still illegal in the E.U. and Canada – and as of last week, Maryland is to become the first state in the U.S. to ban arsenic in chicken feed.
As for Prozac, Tylenol, and Benadryl, Kristof reports that they are all used as sedatives to reduce anxiety among factory-farmed chickens. Crowded and often brutal conditions result in birds that are in constant distress, a state that stunts their growth and results in tougher meat. To counteract the drowsiness caused by these sedatives, chickens are also fed caffeine so they can stay awake longer and continue eating.
Is Sugar Really Toxic? Healthy Ways to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth
Is sugar poisonous? According to UCSF researcher and pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig, very. Though most people are quick to condemn sugar as an unhealthy choice, Dr. Lustig took sugar slandering to a new level when he asserted in February that sugar is toxic and should be regulated similarly to alcohol and tobacco.
On Sunday in an interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on 60 Minutes, Dr. Lustig argued that sugar, more than any other substance, is to blame for the skyrocketing rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
New research backs up Dr. Lustig’s claim. UC Davis nutritional biologist Kimber Stanhope has found that people who consume high-fructose corn syrup have increased levels of LDL cholesterol and are at a higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease than those who consumed the name number of calories without the added sugar.
Christian Yoga, Muslim Zumba? Finding Balance When Religion & Exercise Clash
What happens when one’s religious beliefs clash with making healthy lifestyle choices?
If there’s one thing that most religions around the world agree upon, it’s the importance of respecting one’s body. Ranging from the Christian tenet that the body is a temple created in the image of God to the Buddhist belief that a healthy body enables us to live longer in order to benefit others, most religious practices emphasize that caring for your health can in fact be a spiritual act.
As an essential source of primary food, spirituality not only offers a sense of community and comfort, but it also often explicitly rejects unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, excessive drinking, and overeating. Many studies show that religious people enjoy greater emotional and physical health than those who are nonreligious.
Yet clashes between religion and healthy behaviors can and do arise. A recent MSNBC article highlighted the conflict that some devout Christians feel towards yoga. Despite the exercise’s well-known physical, mental, and emotional benefits, there are concerns that yoga poses, interpreted as offerings to Hindu gods, are incompatible with Christianity.
Stand Up Against Pink Slime in School Food
If McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King all rejected it, you know it can’t be good.
Only a few weeks after the government announced new guidelines to improve the nutritional value of school lunches, the U.S. is buzzing with some startling news. In addition to offering more fruits and veggies, cafeterias will also be serving a decidedly less healthful option: pink slime.
Last week, The Daily reported that the USDA plans to purchase 7 million pounds of the controversial meat filler from Beef Products Inc. for use in America’s school lunch program.
Once only used for dog food, this substance – officially termed “lean beef trimmings” but better known as “pink slime” – is a ground-up combination of beef scraps and connective tissue that is treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens. In spite of this sterilization process, a 2009 New York Times investigation discovered dozens of instances of E. coli and salmonella pathogens in pink slime samples from across the country.
Vitamin L: All You Need is Love
Happy Valentine’s Day! Today’s devoted to one of life’s most important primary foods: romantic love. Whether you plan to dine in with your special someone or go out with your spouse, a happy romantic relationship is something to cherish all year long.
Having a partner to love is good for the soul – not just for the moments of passion, but also for the ordinary comforts of sharing how your day went over dinner and watching Modern Family together.
Study after study shows that love is good for your physical health, too. For centuries, scientists have observed the “marriage advantage” phenomeon; people in happy romantic partnerships tend to be healthier and live longer.
Why is Home Birth on the Rise?
For most of our great-grandmothers, and for many women throughout the world still, giving birth at home was not a choice motivated by emotional, political, or moral conviction – it was simply the only option. Fast-forward to present-day United States, and most women are lucky enough to receive close medical supervision throughout their entire pregnancy and delivery. The vast majority of women give birth in hospitals with an OB/GYN, and throughout the 1990s, the number of home births steadily declined.
In an interesting reversal of trends, a new report from the CDC reveals that the rate of home births in the United States is now on the rise. Though the actual number is still proportionately very small – home births account for less than 1% of all births – the 30% jump between 2004 and 2009 is substantial.
So why the increase? The CDC data doesn’t say, but it seems to have a lot to do with growing concern about personal choice. Unlike our great-grandmothers, women in Western countries today do have options as to where and how they give birth, and there may be new factors making hospital births less attractive.
Paula Deen, "Queen of Southern Cuisine," Announces She Has Type 2 Diabetes
After much speculation and murmuring in the gossip mills, Paula Deen finally confirmed yesterday on the Today show that she does in fact suffer from Type 2 diabetes. This news is not exactly surprising; the TV chef and self-proclaimed “queen of Southern cuisine” is famous for her decadent deep-fried cooking laden with butter, sugar, and lard.
What is shocking, however, is the fact that she waited three years to reveal her diagnosis – and is apparently only speaking publicly about it now that she’s a paid spokesperson for a diabetes drug. Aside from giving up sweet tea, she says she doesn’t plan to drastically change her diet and cooking habits. At best, her blasé approach to tackling diabetes is one-sided; at worst, it’s calculated and cynical.
Integrative Nutrition Reviews: Food Rules
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” In those seven simple words, celebrated writer and activist Michael Pollan cuts through all the confusion surrounding nutrition and sums up almost everything you need to know about healthy eating.
The premise of Pollan’s mantra is simple: until recently, people relied on food traditions instead of nutrition facts to guide their eating habits. All meals were home-cooked, made from fresh seasonal ingredients, and families and friends enjoyed them together sitting down at the table.
Fast forward to today, when the world has become dependent on what Pollan calls “edible food-like substances” – highly processed food that is produced not by nature, but in a lab – and eating meals has been replaced by scarfing down pre-packaged snacks on the go. The paradox is that the more we worry about nutrition and dieting, the less healthy we seem to become.
In Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, Pollan gives solid bits of wisdom and advice on how to adopt a saner approach towards food. This handbook of sorts provides simple common-sense rules, one on each page, that include such pearls as:
