Many Americans Don't Understand Food Label

Most packaged foods in the United States are required to post nutrition facts and figures on their labels — but Americans cannot understand what those facts and figures mean, according to new research published in today's issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The study finds that many people can't understand the nutrition labels on food packages.

Researchers gave a nutrition-label survey to 200 patients in their family doctors' office. The survey had been drawn up with input from doctors and dietitians — and was designed to measure whether patients could understand those labels.

Even though the patients surveyed were reasonably well-educated, most of them couldn't understand much, the researchers found. Of those surveyed, 77 percent had at least ninth-grade reading abilities and more than two-thirds had at least some college.

Overall, patients answered close to 70 percent of the survey questions correctly. But only 22 patients could calculate the number of carbohydrates in two slices of low-carbohydrate bread. And only 60 percent of patients could figure out how many carbohydrates were in half a bagel when the serving size on the package was a whole bagel.

Basic Math Issues
Patients had a hard time with basic math calculations, such as how many calories are in a 20-ounce soda bottle if a single serving size is 8 ounces?

Some experts say that consumers don't always know what to do with the information on a food label. "When most people look at a food label, their eye goes right to the number of carbohydrates — the grams of fiber or sugar," said Felicia Stoler, a nutritionist and exercise physiologist in New Jersey. "But most people don't understand how many carbs are in a single serving, or how many carbs they should eat in a day."

If patients can't rely on nutrition labels to guide their food choices, how can anybody ever know how to eat right?

"Poor understanding of nutrition labels can make it difficult for patients to follow a good diet," said Dr. Russell Rothman, study author and professor at the Vanderbilt Center for Health Services Research in Nashville, Tenn.

And a good diet is something that everyone should probably follow. In this study, roughly 40 percent of the patients surveyed suffered from a chronic illness and needed to keep a close eye on their diets. Rothman said that doctors should "improve how they talk to patients about using food labels and following diets. There are also opportunities for the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] to improve how food labels are designed in order to improve how patients take care of their nutrition."

In the meantime, patients can pay attention to the number of serving sizes in their packaged foods, for example, to keep a good handle on good nutrition. Many government organizations offer healthy food shopping tips for consumers on their Web sites.

Ultimately, eating right might be everybody's own personal challenge. "Everyone is different and has different nutritional needs," Stoler said. "We have to learn what our individual bodies need. That's not too hard to do."

Source: http://abcnews.go.com

Cow Milk is not for Human Being

It is the most controversial opinion of Prof. Dr. Hiromi Shinya, a writer of best seller book, The Miracle of Enzyme. The professor said that no creature in the world drinks milk when they have been grown up except men. Why do people not do the same natural way as any other creature? "It is because the success of milk companies in advertising their products," he answered the statement himself. According to him, cow milk is the worst food or drink in the world.

Why is cow milk the worst food or drink for men in the world? It is because milk is a liquid substance. When it is consumed, it goes directly to men's throat and intestine, without having interaction with certain enzyme produced by men's mouth. Without interaction with the enzyme, intestine duty is harder. The compound in milk make the milk coagulate when it reaches intestine, and it is very hard to digest. In order to digest it, body must take main enzyme reserve. Whereas the main enzyme should be used for growth of bones and body, it is now be used to digest milk in the intestine. It is why milk drinker are easy to get oesteoporosis.

Prof Hiromi Shunya does not say sensationally. He is one of an outstanding expert of intestine in the world. He is the first doctor in the world who did operation on tumor and polyp in intestine without cut open patient's stomach. With his age of 70 years old, he has examine more than 300.000 of intestine of American and Japanese people.

Prof Hiromi always did experiment everytime he examined patient's intestine. he examined the relationship between the condition of intestine and the food or drink that his patient used to consume. Based on his research, he knew by heart that the patient with rumpled intentine was the one who consumed unworthy food or drink, i.e. milk and meat.

because the intestine duty is to digest and absorb food, the duty can not be executed properly if the food does not have criteria required by intestine. Not only the intestine is tired up, it also just can absorbed very few of digested food. As a consequence, cells growth are not good, the body immunity is low, and free-radicle cell freely wander around. Even unfibre food such as meat can leave residue on intestine wall, and bring diseases.

That is why prof Hiromi does not recommend meat as good food. He just suggests us to consume meat 15% of all food we consume.

Is the professor invention interesting or terrible for us?

Tobacco Produce Anti-Cancer Protein

Up till now we just apprehend that cigarette, which its main ingredient is tobacco, is the source of cancer. Recently, researchers from The Center of Biotechnoloy Research of Indonesian Science Intitution (LIPI) reveal that tobacco plant can produce anti-cancer protein.

How does tobacco produce anti-cancer protein? The expert basically tried to make trigger protein called Growth Colony Stimulating Factor (GCSF) by using tobacco plant (Nicotiana spp., L.). Tobacco used in the research was a local appropriate tobacco, i.e. Genjah kenongo. It is one of 18 local varieties researched. GCSF is an important hormone for stimulating blood production.

If DNA from human body is placed into tobacco using bacteria, the plant then can produce protein correspond with the DNA. If the plant is cultivated, we get its protein. The protein can be used as anti-cancer protein. The protein even also can be used to stimulate stem cells which can be developed to recover bad body network.

I think it is a good news for tobacco farmers.

Don't Underestimate Headache

According to a research of National Institute of Neurologic Disorder and Stroke (NINDS), USA, headache can lead to stroke if it do not handle appropriately.

There are several kinds of headache, some of them have serious effect. There is also headache accompanied by migraine and strain. It is difficult to know the kinds of one's headache that lead to stroke without going to a doctor.

NINDS research gives a note that many strokes which follow headache and migraine are caused by the disturbance of blood circulation on upper neck. So if you get both headache and feel pain at your upper neck, you must go immediately to a doctor. Do not let your headache without supervision, and do not just consume common medicine. A headache medicine you buy at store is just palliative. It gives you time to find the source problem of your headache and handle it before late.

There are two kinds of stroke, i.e hemorragic stroke and ischemic stroke. Hemorragic stroke happens when the main artery of brain is broken and the blood spreads to other tissues. ischemic stroke happens when the main artery of brain is clogged up, so blood current decreases or stop, making brain cells become die.

My wife has also such headache. Now she tries to cope it with traditional medicine made from extracted worm. Thank's god she is feeling better now.

Translated from Intisari