Put Down the Cinnamon Shaker!

Over in the Great United States, those crazy teens have come up with a new game where they dare each other to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon without any water or liquid.  To me it sounds like the kind of thing the wussiest frat house in the world might come up with.  Or maybe a thing a bunch of Mormon kids might do instead of chugging back litres of beer.  


However, Dr Alvin of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Centre is alarmed by this trend.  "Don't mess with cinnamon kids", he implores, "just say no!" (I'm paraphrasing).  The poison centre has been inundated with calls this year (number of calls: 139; population of U.S.: 313,326,000) enquiring about cinnamon.  From these, it was suggested that 30 go see their doctor, just to be on the safe side.  


Consider yourself warned.


Source:   Los Angeles Times

Takeaway Pizza is Unhealthy - Whatever Next?

People are eating a lot of takeaway pizzas, and Big Ones at that.  Often with spicy wedges, garlic bread and litres of coke on the side.  Now apparently this is not good for you.  Yes, it's a surprise alright but there we have it.  So next time you find yourself slumped on the sofa, extra-large pizza box dripping grease onto your lap, think twice:  This is NOT health food.  Perhaps this is the wake up call we required, because too many people have been assuming that ordering a 16 inch pepperoni pizza with garlic fries three times a week forms a natural part of a healthy and balanced diet.  And worse, further revelations reveal that those garlic fries do NOT constitute one of your 5-a-day.  Think again people.


Source:  Irish Independent

Some Famous Soft Drinks are a bit Cancer-y

Seems like everyones favourite brown drinks - Coke and Pepsi - may have to make some alterations to their respective secret ingredients.  They both use an ingredient which the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the U.S. has linked to cancer in mice and rats.  Well rats and mice shouldn't be drinking coke anyway, how did they get the bottle open?  But due to concerns that humans might suffer the same effects, out goes the ingredient.  But Coke and Pepsi reassure us that it will be same great taste we know and love, just a bit less cancer-y.  Or words to that effect.


Source:  Independent UK

Less Sleep Makes You Fat

The first thing that bothers me about this study (by researchers at Brigham and Women's hospital) is that 'optimal sleep' is given as 10 hours.  Ten Hours sleep?  That seems like rather a lot.  I was given to understand that between 6 and 8 was the norm, and any more than that is just lax. 

Anyway, they tried to replicate patterns of sleep which shift workers would get (down to about 5 and a half hours a night/day and changing times) and it's not good for your health and can bring on diabetes and/or slow your metabolism.

'Getting enough sleep is important for health', says Orfeu M. Buxton Phd and BWH neuroscientist,  possibly thumping his desk for added effect, and I for one am not going to argue with him.  



Source:  Times of India