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In A Nutshell A major review found no link between naturally occurring dairy trans fats and higher risk of heart disease or type 2 diabetes. Unlike artificial trans fats in processed foods, dairy trans fats appear to behave differently in the body. Some studies found that people with higher blood levels of a dairy-specific trans fat were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, though the evidence is not conclusive. Several of the study’s authors have ties to the dairy industry, a conflict of interest the researchers disclosed and that independent replication would help address. ============================================================================ For decades, “trans fat”...

The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

In A Nutshell Researchers found bacteria with probiotic potential in three British artisan cheeses. The hay-aged cheese had the biggest increase in bacterial diversity as it matured. Lactose was largely gone by maturity, which may matter for lactose-sensitive readers. The study is promising, but it does not prove these cheeses improve gut health in people. ========================================================================== For most people, cheese is a guilty pleasure: something delicious but probably not great for you. That assumption may be worth revisiting. A recent study took a close look at three traditional British artisan cheeses and tracked how their bacterial communities and chemical profiles...

Organs from genetically modified pigs are being used in trials in China and the US. A 53-year-old clinically dead man has become the first person to receive two kidneys and a whole liver from a genetically modified pig. The man’s organ function was sustained for almost five days with consent from his family, and there were no signs that the organs were being rejected in the first 24 hours, according to a study published in Med today1. Most procedures in which a pig organ is transplanted into a person — known as xenotransplantation — involve only a single organ. A...

This week, Lee Zeldin’s EPA announced “approving nationwide E15,” pitching it as “fortifying the domestic fuel supply.” What that means exactly is that the federal government will allow more stations to cut gasoline with ethanol, which, yes, makes it cheaper, but it also yields less power and worse fuel economy in your engine.

The stereotype here is so on the nose that The Babylon Bee couldn't have written it better 😂 VIDEO AT LINK............... As they say in Dearborn, Alhamdulillah! People had thoughts on a local news account: This week is the Islamic slaughter day of Eid al-Adha, where a goat is killed to cover their sins. They connect this to the biblical story in Genesis 22 where Abraham is asked by God to offer his son as a sacrifice. Muslims, however, believe God offered up a ram to replace Ishmael, ignoring the fact that God's provision and promises were made through Isaac....

Napa Valley stands as a crown jewel of American agriculture, its sun-drenched hills and meticulously tended vines producing some of the world’s most celebrated wines. Yet beneath this prestige lies a growing crisis: the region is pumping groundwater at unsustainable levels, even as regulators pile on costs that make viability increasingly difficult. Experts warn that without meaningful change, Napa’s wine industry risks a slow wither, not from some abstract climate apocalypse, but from a toxic mix of poor resource management and self-defeating government intervention. This overpumping is no temporary hiccup. For years, Napa County has missed its own groundwater sustainability...

As food prices spiral and farms shut down across Iran, even establishment figures are openly questioning how a country capable of producing precision missiles cannot manufacture affordable cars or keep chicken within reach of ordinary families. Former Industry Minister Mostafa Hashemitaba says the crisis is rooted not only in consumer markets but across the country’s collapsing production chain, from fertilizers to poultry farming. Writing in Sharq on May 20, Hashemitaba said the price of a 50-kg bag of triple-phosphate fertilizer had jumped within months from three million rials to 70 million rials, a nearly 24-fold increase. Other fertilizers, he added,...

Mexican Coke tastes different than American Coke; after all, it’s sweetened using cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. That, at least, was the conventional wisdom until 2011, when a paper published in the journal Obesity found that Mexican Coke contained no cane sugar. Instead, the authors found plenty of glucose and fructose, which are the main ingredients in high-fructose corn syrup.

A live frog was discovered in a lettuce bag purchased from a grocery store in Australia. Farmer Rhys Smoker found the frog hopping inside an unopened lettuce bag bought from Woolworths in Esperance, Australia, on Saturday, May 16, while preparing a steak and salad dinner for his housemates, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Associated Press reported.

The flavanols (a type of polyphenol) in this type of cacao are shown in studies to improve heart health, lower blood pressure, boost blood flow throughout the body, improve blood sugar, and even improve your gut health by diversifying your microbiome. (Earth Echo Foods ) ============================================================== There’s an indigenous group of people called the Kuna in Panama that are a fascinating story in longevity as well as stellar cardiovascular health, and lack of metabolic diseases like diabetes, etc. The Kuna people drink an average of 5 cups of a type of cocoa every day, and they have 9x lower rates...

Peppermint oil is a concentrated extract made from the leaves of the peppermint plant (Mentha × piperita), a hybrid of watermint and spearmint. Rich in natural compounds such as menthol and flavonoids, it is widely used in foods, medicines, and aromatherapy for its cooling sensation and potential health benefits. Credit: Shutterstock Peppermint oil lowered blood pressure in adults with mild hypertension during a 20-day study, offering a potentially inexpensive and effective treatment option. New research suggests that daily peppermint oil supplements may help reduce mildly elevated blood pressure. Researchers at the University of Lancashire found that taking 100 microliters (about...

After decades of stigma, researchers are studying cannabis and its compounds like never before. As regulations and restrictions ease in many parts of the world, including the US, this controversial plant and its ancient health claims are finally being put to the test. For many years now, scientists have noticed that some cannabis users tend to have lower body weight and a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who don't use cannabis. That is somewhat unexpected, as cannabis is known to trigger the 'munchies', or an appetite for food, in those who use the drug. Now,...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is going viral for all the wrong reasons after delivering a crazy, race-baiting speech in Alabama over the weekend. As Al.com reported, AOC joined several of her left-wing comrades in Montgomery on Saturday to whine about redistricting changes in the South that would eliminate heavily gerrymandered Democratic districts. Most of these are Black-majority seats. These bold moves could give Republicans an outside shot at keeping the House of Representatives this Fall, despite President Trump's low approval ratings. Naturally, desperate Democrats are pulling out the race card and stoking fires. AOC was no exception as she delivered...

Organ meats sit on the butcher’s shelf at a fraction of the price of premium steaks, yet most Americans walk right past them. Liver, heart, and kidneys deliver more vitamins and minerals per dollar than almost anything else in the grocery store, but cultural squeamishness and decades of convenience marketing have rendered them nearly invisible on American tables. Even as the Make America Healthy Again movement highlights these nutrient powerhouses, the rejection persists — a telling symptom of how far we have drifted from sensible, stewardship-minded eating. Beef liver, often called nature’s multivitamin, provides extraordinary levels of vitamin B12, vitamin...

A new global analysis published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology reports that cases of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) have surged 143% since 1990, reaching an estimated 1.3 billion people in 2023, according to the study, as reported by registered dietitian Molly Knudsen. The condition, driven by metabolic risk factors including high fasting plasma glucose, high body mass index (BMI), and smoking, is projected to affect 1.8 billion people by 2050 unless interventions are implemented, researchers stated. Liver cancer cases are expected to nearly double from 870,000 in 2022 to 1.52 million by 2050, with MASLD identified as...

James Rogers, the former CEO of Apeel Sciences, is seen at its headquarters in Santa Barbara, California. (Yuri Hasegawa/Redux) All it took was two Facebook posts to turn an online mob against Apeel Sciences and its booming business of keeping food fresh longer. ============================================================ The eureka moment for James Rogers arrived while driving past some California farmland in 2011. He was a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, focusing on world hunger, and the drive got him thinking about a huge problem with fresh produce. Growing it wasn’t the problem. Keeping it fresh was. Working out of...

The 6th Circuit upheld that 158-year-old law, while the 5th Circuit concluded it could not be justified as a revenue measure. If you search for "home still" on Amazon, you will see a wide variety of contraptions designed to separate and concentrate a liquid mixture's most volatile components. Many of them are explicitly advertised as appliances designed to produce alcoholic beverages such as whiskey, brandy, gin, and vodka. But if you bought one of those products with the intent to use it for that purpose, you would be committing a federal felony. The federal ban on home production of distilled...

A wearable gas sensor called “Smart Underwear” attached to the inside of people’s underwear monitors hydrogen gas emissions to track digestive health in real time. Image credit:© iStock.com, Nadezhda Kurbatova Just one bite of ice cream or a sip of a milkshake can’t hurt too much, right? Anyone with lactose intolerance knows that this bargaining usually results in some uncomfortable gut sensations and stinky side effects about 30 minutes to a couple of hours later. People with lactose intolerance cannot breakdown lactose, the natural sugar in dairy products. When gut microbes encounter this unabsorbed lactose, they ferment it and release...

If you've found yourself lingering over egg cartons at the grocery store, wondering about the difference between brown and white eggs, you are not alone. Despite the conventional wisdom about brown eggs being healthier or somehow more "natural" than white ones, the truth is simple. The difference between brown and white eggs comes down to one thing — the breed of chicken that lays the egg. Brown eggs are laid by chicken breeds such as Rhode Island Red, Speckled Sussex, Black Australorp, Buff Orpington, and Cuckoo Maran, to name a few. These chickens lay eggs in varying shades of brown,...