Karen Collins notes farmers' market numbers have more than doubled in 15 years, then offers shopping advice: highly seasonal items beat staples such as carrots and potatoes on price, buying in bulk with friends helps, and bargaining works best as a set offer near closing.
Food Consumer
Comments
Reader's Comment: Chocolate and Heart Attacks
A reader's letter responding to an article on chocolate and heart attacks, recommending a cold-pressed chocolate product she markets and linking to several promotional websites for it.
Food
Get to know what fish to eat
Reprints the 2004 EPA and FDA advice for women who may become pregnant, pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children: skip shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish, and choose lower-mercury fish and shellfish to keep the nutritional benefits while limiting exposure.
Lifestyle
Older Americans indulging in the sauce
A Duke University analysis of national survey data found 22 percent of men and 9 percent of women aged 50 to 64 binge drink. Lead author Dan Blazer says clinicians focused on college-age drinkers miss these patterns, which often lack the usual signs of dependence.
Drug
What women really know about mammogram benefits, risks
A Journal of the National Cancer Institute study of 479 women found 94 percent did not realize some early breast cancers may never progress. Of 1,000 women screened, one avoids a breast cancer death, while 10 to 15 learn of a cancer earlier with no change in prognosis.
Miscellaneous
Mags show images of babies in dangerous positions
More than a third of baby photographs in magazines aimed at new mothers showed infants sleeping on their sides or stomachs, and nearly two-thirds showed unsafe environments with pillows, blankets or stuffed animals, a Children's National Medical Center study of 28 magazines found.
Disease
Mozart victim of severe strep throat
Researchers reviewing Vienna's death register for November 1791 to January 1792 found a spike in deaths with swelling among men under 40, and conclude in the Annals of Internal Medicine that Mozart probably died of kidney failure following a streptococcal infection.
Drug
FDA okays Extavia to treat multiple sclerosis
The FDA has approved Extavia, Novartis's version of beta interferon, for multiple sclerosis. The company recommends it for newly diagnosed patients and those in relapse, saying it can slow physical disability and shorten attacks. Side effects include injection-site irritation and headache.
Supplements
Fish oil may not help prevent swine flu
A Clinical Nutrition study fed mice fish oil or corn oil for two weeks before influenza infection. The fish oil group showed less lung inflammation but an impaired immune response, with higher illness and death rates, suggesting fish oil may not help prevent swine flu.
Lifestyle
Good Bacteria Fight the Flu
Young children who drank a mixture of probiotic bacteria had fewer colds, needed fewer antibiotics and missed fewer school days, a study found. Mercola uses the result to argue that strengthening the immune system, not a flu vaccine, is the better defense.
Vitamins
Vitamin D may help prevent swine flu
The Globe and Mail reported that the Public Health Agency of Canada intends to test vitamin D levels in people who contract H1N1 and see whether serum levels track with severity. The piece reprints Dr. John Cannell's argument that flu season coincides with vitamin D deficiency season.
Lifestyle
Gene found that allows people to sleep less
Of 1,000 people studied at the University of California, only two, a mother and daughter, carried a mutation that let them sleep from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. with no apparent ill effects. Mice bred to carry the gene also slept less without adverse effects.
Food
Eat chocolate to avoid dying from second heart attack?
Swedish researchers followed 1,169 heart attack survivors for eight years and found those who ate more chocolate were less likely to die of a heart attack. The piece cautions this was not a trial: diets were recorded only at the start, and sicker patients may have stopped eating chocolate.
Miscellaneous
Swine flu vaccine could cause deadly nervous disorder
British authorities asked clinicians to report monthly any cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a nerve disorder that could be triggered by the swine flu vaccine due in October. The article recalls the 1976 U.S. campaign, in which 40 million were vaccinated and 25 people reportedly died of it.
Alerts
California Firm Recalls Ground Beef Products Due To Possible E. coli O157:H7 Contamination
Sterling Pacific Meat Co. of Commerce, California is recalling about 3,516 pounds of ground beef patties that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, FSIS announced. The Class I recall covers Fatburger and Cattleman's Choice brands; Stock Yards Brand products are not affected.
Healthcare
Sexual minorities more likely to seek mental health care
UCLA researchers analyzing 2,074 people in the California Quality of Life Survey found 48.5% of lesbian, gay and bisexual respondents had received mental health or substance abuse treatment in the past year, against 22.5% of heterosexuals.
Miscellaneous
Study: 50% of Americans want H1N1 vaccine
A RAND internet survey of US adults, reported in Vaccine, found 49.6% intended to get the novel H1N1 shot, about 115 million vaccinations and close to the previous year's seasonal flu rate. The researchers suggest people who skip seasonal flu shots may skip this one too.
Food
Fish and omega-3 don't reduce dementia risk
Researchers followed 5,395 Dutch adults aged 55 and over for 9.6 years, during which 465 developed dementia. Those eating the most fish or fatty fish had a risk similar to those eating none, and omega-3 intake showed no link to dementia either.
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