Egg Recall
The salmonella-contaminated egg recall is an opportunity to think about numbers. Nearly 1/2 billion eggs have been recalled. That is 1-2 contaminated eggs for every American. 500 million is a staggeringly huge number of eggs. However, the most important questions, “why” and “how”, come down to a very small number. That number is 2. All of those eggs came from just 2 farms. That number “2”, almost-the-smallest-possible-number is the most startling fact of this case. The idea of 2 farms producing half a billion eggs is shocking. The number 2 also accounts for the problem. Mega-industrial farming inevitably leads to cross contamination of waste with food. Such a concentration of animals makes them extremely vulnerable to the spread of disease amongst the animals and those who would use them as a food source. Sure these farms were already notorious for their long track record of health violations, so no one should be too surprised. But how could such bizarre living circumstances ever be healthy? Absolutely the companies are at fault as is the lack of governmental regulation. But we are seriously deluding ourselves to think this sort of problem, as well as rising antibacterial resistance with new “superbugs”, are not dead certain consequences of consuming the products of such a dysfunctional approach to agriculture. Support your local farmer!
Ginseng
Ginseng has long been one of the most popular herbs. As a young man in Minnesota, I knew of people wild crafting ginseng in the local woodlands. A recent quality investigation found that nearly half of the ginseng products tested either did not meet the standards claimed on the product label or were contaminated by lead.
Chromium
Weight loss products are probably the most likely product to be either adulterated or contaminated, right next to herbal preparations imported from Asia. One of the most popular weight loss supplements is chromium. Although the form I recommend (polynicotinate) is safe, I do not like the more common “picolinate” form. Much worse, hexavalent chromium, the kind made notorious by Erin Brocovich, was found in 3 of 8 chromium supplements when tested by an independent laboratory.
Muscle Supplements
Most people think of body builders when they think of muscle-building supplements. They also suffer from the very wrong impression that the products used to this end are the sort of thing that gets your name in the paper for the wrong reason or are at least damaging to your health. Not so. Just like eating well and taking care of yourself in many ways can also help you build muscle, there are a number of supplements which build muscle mass and make you healthier, when used correctly. In recent years we have been learning a great deal about utilizing these approaches to help people who need to build muscle, not to win some contest, but to lose weight or simply move around better. For example, there is quite a bit of scientific evidence supporting the use of creatine in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Most players on a high school football team ended up in the hospital several days ago. Confused families and media ignored the unsafely designed practices (intense muscle work, twice a day, in extreme heat) of an inexperienced first year coach and instead blamed the problem on creatine.
Creatine is an amino acid abundant in meat and a useful training supplement for those seeking to increase their skeletal muscle mass (that includes us aging old folks as well as young football players). Despite widespread use accepted by the NCAA and high school authorities, as well as hundreds of studies demonstrating the safety of creatine, myths persist that it can cause everything from kidney damage to muscle cramps.
As I have lectured on creatine since 1998 and the evidence even then strongly refuted these misconceptions, I find such lasting ignorance disturbing. While it is kind of these families to think well of their new coach, the harm suffered by much of this high school football team is certainly due to his careless and over-aggressive training, not creatine. It is unfortunate that such unscientific “knowledge” is perpetuated. As some of you know, I am a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. The ISSN issued this commentary –
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs055/1101391748198/archive/1103638431468.html