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Annika Eriksson, a long-time Swedish chef revered for her school lunches, has been squelched. Has she made errors? Are her meals contaminated? Has the quality of her ingredients slipped? No, none of the above. The trouble stems purely from the fact that her meals are too good. Yes, you read that right. She’s exceeding expectations. She bakes fresh bread every day. She offers 15 different vegetables at lunchtime. She knows it pleases the students to have choices. This is her crime because, you see, other schools don’t have the same benefits in the Falun district in Sweden. (This is called...

BOCA RATON, FL, October 23, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Mitt Romney pledged to increase military spending by scrapping the health insurance reform known as ObamaCare last night in Boca Raton during a debate more marked by pointed answers and conflicting style than substantive disagreements. The third and final presidential debate, which focused on foreign policy, was held last night at Lynn University. When asked by moderator Bob Schieffer how he would increase military spending without raising taxes, Romney said he would begin “by reducing spending in a whole series of programs. By the way, number one I get rid of...

HAVANA (AP) — A top executive at Havana's Hotel Nacional says that Fidel Castro made a public appearance there, challenging rumors that he is in ailing health.

WEST HARTFORD —— The beef is there, but where's the pickle? That's the question students at Hall High School have been asking on hamburger day in the cafeteria since the food services department made menu changes to meet new school lunch rules from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Students are "outraged over the removal of pickles and salt from the cafeteria at Hall to meet nutrition guidelines," student representative Kendall Teare told the school board last week.

House Republicans say new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines aimed at forcing students to eat fruits and vegetables are a failure because students across the country are simply tossing the healthy fare into the trash. "[T]here remains great concern with the amount of food waste generated at school cafeterias, much of it brought on by requiring students to take fruits and vegetables rather than simply offer them," Reps. John Kline (R-Minn.), Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) and Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) told USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in a letter sent Thursday. "This is a waste of federal, state and local funds and...

A large federal study of whether diet and weight loss can prevent heart attacks and strokes in overweight and obese people with Type 2 diabetes has ended two years ahead of schedule because the intensive program did not help. About 25 million Americans have Type 2 diabetes. Many are overweight or obese. On average, the disease increases heart disease risk by 2 to 2 1/2 times, said Dr. Ronald Kahn, chief academic officer at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Dr. Nathan, though, said the results meant that people with diabetes might have a choice. The group assigned to diet...

(CNN) -- Would you be more likely to take the stairs if the elevator doors were slower to close? Would you be more likely to eat healthy foods if the unhealthy selections were harder to reach? You might -- and you might not even be aware of it. Humans, as well as other animals, are motivated to conserve energy and have a built-in preference for the shortest or easiest way of doing something over a longer or more difficult way. Our behavior is guided by two systems: a reflective system, in which we act in a conscious way, working toward...

During the debates, Romney brought up the fact that under obama, healthcare costs have not been cut in half, but in fact, doubled. Well, for me, that chicken has come home to roost. I am retired, and on Medicare, but my wife has us covered under her insurance. She is a manager for a major retail chain, which just announced the "changes" in healthcare coverage for the new year. We have always signed up for the top plan, the PPO, because I like to use doctors of my choice. For about five years we've been paying about $430 per month...

Was it some moldy ceiling tiles? The dusty shoes of a careless employee? Or did the contamination ride in on one of the ingredients? There are lots of ways fungus could have gotten inside the Massachusetts compounding pharmacy whose steroid medication has been linked to a lethal outbreak of a rare fungal form of meningitis. The outbreak has killed at least 15 people and sickened more than 200 others in 15 states. Nearly all the victims had received steroid injections for back pain. Federal and state investigators have been tight lipped about any problems they may have seen at the...

The recall of peanut butter and other nut products linked to an outbreak of salmonella from a New Mexico food company has now been expanded to include raw and roasted peanuts.

Another 19 people have been diagnosed with fungal meningitis linked to possibly tainted vials of a steroid medication, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases to 231. The CDC said there were two additional cases of infection in joints after a steroid injection but these were not confirmed as meningitis, bringing the total of infections nationwide to 233. The death toll from the unprecedented outbreak was unchanged at 15, the CDC said.

ORBE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Nestle SA and General Mills Inc will cut sugar and salt in the children's breakfast cereals they jointly market outside North America, the latest attempt by major food companies to respond to health concerns. The two have been in a joint venture since 1990 to sell Nestle-brand cereals such as Cheerios in more than 140 countries outside the United States and Canada, markets which account for about half total global cereal sales of some $25 billion. They say they will reformulate 20 cereal brands popular with children and teenagers by 2015, boosting wholegrains and calcium and...

Frail and vulnerable elderly people are being forced to rely on care in their homes from workers with convictions for theft and violence, an investigation has found.   Private care agencies, fulfilling contracts for councils across the country, have been employing convicted criminals to work in elderly people’s homes. In some cases, the criminals have been sent in without police checks or risk assessments being carried out, publicly available records show. One agency in Birmingham hired 23 people with criminal records, including assault and theft. Another in Sussex had five criminals on its books including a woman who was...

A new study has outlined for the first time a biological mechanism by which zinc deficiency can develop with age, leading to a decline of the immune system and increased inflammation associated with many health problems, including cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease and diabetes. The research was done by scientists in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University and the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences. It suggests that it's especially important for elderly people to get adequate dietary intake of zinc, since they may need more of it at this life stage when their ability to...

Health officials have been sounding the alarm about a drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea, and data from around the world now suggests that oral sex could be the means of transmission of the so-called superbug. Gonorrhea (i.e., the gonococcus microbe) is said to be the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the US, and cephalosporins — the class of drugs most commonly used to treat it — are apparently no longer effective against the infection. As a result, scientists fear a global sexually transmitted gonorrhea epidemic. The New Yorker discusses the connection between gonorrhea (a.k.a. “the clap”) and oral sex:...

In an experiment apparently aimed at keeping down the cost of health-care reform, Orlando-based Darden Restaurants has stopped offering full-time schedules to many hourly workers in at least a few Olive Gardens, Red Lobsters and LongHorn Steakhouses. Darden said the test is taking place in "a select number" of restaurants in four markets, including Central Florida, but would not give details. The company said there has been no decision made about expanding it. In an emailed statement, Darden said staffing changes are "just one of the many things we are evaluating to help us address the cost implications health care...

It may be possible to use a drug to prevent some of the lasting and crippling damage caused by a stroke, according to doctors in the US and Canada. A safety trial, published in the Lancet Neurology medical journal, suggested the chemical NA-1 was safe to use. The study on 185 people also hinted that patients given the drug developed fewer regions of damaged brain tissue. The Stroke Association said that it was promising, but needed more research. Tests in primates had suggested NA-1 prevented brain cells dying when a stroke starved them of oxygen.

Students boycotting school lunchesPublished: Oct. 6, 2012 at 4:46 PM NEW YORK, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Many U.S. high school students are protesting new, healthier school lunches, and a professor says it may take a while for students to accept healthier food. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required public schools to follow new nutritional guidelines this academic year, providing fruits and vegetables and limiting fat, sodium, and calories, The New York Times reported Friday. "Before, there was no taste and no flavor," said Malik Barrows, a senior at Automotive High School in Brooklyn. "Now there's no taste, no...

Nicotinamide, commonly known as vitamin B3, may help the innate immune system kill antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria, the so-called "superbugs". In lab work done with mice and human blood, researchers found high doses of the vitamin increased the ability of immune cells to kill the bacteria by 1,000 times.The discovery opens the door to a new arsenal of tools for dealing with antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, such as those caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus or MRSA, that have killed thousands of people around the world. They are increasing in hospitals and nursing homes, and also rising in prisons, among athletes, people in...

My "seasoned citizen" mom is concerned that she might be having memory issues, and feels that she's slow on the uptake on some things during conversations. In the past I've tried to recommend ginkgo to her, but she's resistant to try new things... but now, it seems she's willing to give gingko a shot. I understand some preparations are better than others, and I we sure the natural healing community on FR would have some recommends... My mom works here, she's not a member, but I'm going to send her a link to this thread, she'll read what you advise...~*Thank...