NEWS FLASH: VEGGIES FIGHT CANCER

"A large study of 500,000 U.S. retirees has found that just one extra serving of fruit or vegetables a day may reduce the risk of developing head and neck cancer."

Here's my favorite part: "'It may not sound like news that vegetables protect from cancer, but there is actually some controversy in the literature. It is important that we do these large studies,' said Dr. Alan Kristal, associate head of the cancer prevention program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle." Yeah, there's a big controversy, all right. More like polluting of the literature by animal-food-industry "studies" designed to do no more than confuse the public and delay the day when "the literature" could be considered unanimous. Any scientist today who finds it "controversial" that plant foods protect againsts multiple cancers should have their scientificking license removed.

"THE WAR IS OVER; WE LOST"

That's a paraphrase of the point of this article - FDA is failing to protect food, ex-chiefs say - showing that our much ballyhooed War On E.Coli, which I've covered to the best of my ability here and cheered on to the best of my lungs, has ended in defeat: "Regulators don't have the money, equipment, and staff to keep industrial chemicals, salmonella, and E. coli from contaminating the US food supply, former commissioners of the Food and Drug Administration said." Don't know what the point is now of appointing a War Czar for this particular battle; the cow has already left the barn - and left behind the usual food contaminants needing some serious cleanup.

GOT PARKINSON'S?

Milk has been previously, tentatively linked with Parkinson's disease, but this study should put the nail in the naysayers' coffin: Studying upwards of 50,000 men over nine years, researchers found that those consuming the most milk (3-4 glasses a day) increased their risk of Parkinson's by 60% over men drinking 1/10 that amount (note that there was apparently no control group of non-milk-drinkers). The results for women were not as definitive.

Getting into the 'why' question: "This study and previous ones indicate that calcium, vitamin D and fat are not responsible for the link between dairy foods and Parkinson's disease. One theory is that pesticides or other nerve-damaging toxins present in milk could contribute to Parkinson's disease over time. However, dairy foods would likely be only a small part of most people's exposure to these chemicals, according to [lead study author Dr. Honglei] Chen. Furthermore, pesticide residues may also be present in other foods, but no other foods were related to Parkinson's disease risk in this study, the researcher noted."

Y'see, it's a big mystery how milk could have such an extreme effect on brain cells when everyone knows it's a health food. So they're scratching their heads over what foreign element might be responsible - they literally seem unable to grasp the possibility that "pure, wholesome milk," as Robert Cohen used to say, can cause health problems. How many more dozens of these studies do we need to have before that's a given?

SO LUNG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE BACON

According to new research, cured meats such as bacon, ham and salami nearly double men's risk of lung disease, an interesting finding that points toward more ailments we thought were non-diet-related (e.g. lung damage = smoking) turning out to be affected by nutrition or lack thereof. And in case you're wondering whether the kind of lung disease this is connected to is worth worrying about, well, that's up to you - it's only the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.