Free Republic

The whole world is about three drinks behind. -- Humphrey Bogart HOW DID IT come to this? When was it decided that the dorks and the squares, the button-down mediocrities for whom a third Friday-night beer is the height of excess, would be calling the shots? Who empowered these teetotaling chumps, these jogging crypto-fascists with spotless livers and unblackened lungs, to decide where we smoke and how we drink and what we eat? The Declaration of Independence professes a commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But apparently when it comes to substance abuse and foods of dubious...

Ciggie lover lived to 105 Life's one long drag ... Marie Ellis puffs away at her nursing home     By LUCY HAGAN CIGGIE-loving Marie Ellis was laid to rest yesterday — after living to 105 despite smoking nearly half a million fags. Marie, who died from heart failure caused by old age, had puffed 15 a day since she was 15-years-old. The ex-typist was cremated clutching a packet of her favourite Benson & Hedges with flowers in the shape of a cigarette laid on top of her coffin. Staff and residents from the nursing home she had lived...

Adult men and women are roughly an inch taller than they were in 1960, but are nearly 25 pounds heavier on average as well, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, average BMI (body mass index, a weight-for-height formula used to measure obesity) has increased among adults from approximately 25 in 1960 to 28 in 2002. The report, Mean Body Weight, Height, and Body Mass Index (BMI) 1960-2002: United States, prepared by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, shows that the average height of a man aged 20-74 years increased from...

Consuming moderate-to-high amounts of coffee is associated with increased levels of several inflammatory markers, a finding that could help explain previous reports linking the beverage to heart disease. Ongoing, low-level inflammation is thought to be an underlying factor in the development of heart disease. The latest findings, which appear in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, are based on a study of about 3000 subjects with no history of cardiovascular disease. A food-frequency questionnaire was used to assess coffee intake, and blood samples were tested for levels of various compounds that are known to promote, or are a marker of,...