Bull Bytes: Health & Wellness
FD-Eh-Whatever?
Germs. They’re everywhere. But while many of us take comfort in the use of straws and hand sanitizers, what should really concern us are the foods we eat. The FDA has released its Defect Levels Handbook, which outlines the appropriate levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods. Brace yourselves, the contents of some everyday food items are pretty gross.
Ground Cinnamon
Insect Filth: No more than an average of 400 or more insect fragments per 50 grams
Rodent Filth: No more than an average of 11 per 50 grams
Citrus Fruit Juices
Mold: No more than an average mold count of 10%
Insects & Insect Fragments: No more than an average of 5 Drosophila and other fly eggs per 250 ml or no more than 1 maggot per 250 ml
Fruit Juice Vs. Cola: Not So Clear a Distinction
It looks as though fruit juice has been deceiving us for years. Marketing would have you believe that juice is a good way to fuel up on that much needed intake of fruit. Sure, the vitamins are all there but what about the sugar?
American obesity expert Robert Lustig says that fruit juice is “basically just sugar” and is therefore “poison”. Eating an apple, he says, as opposed to drinking the juice means you also take in fibre, which balances out the sugar. Without the fibre, sugar is absorbed quickly, which means your stomach won’t know whether it’s OJ or cola.
So the next time you reach for the Sunny Delight, consider the real deal instead.
E-Cigarettes: Good, Bad, Ugly
Celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio have helped put e-cigarettes on the map. Since its inception in 2007, the e-cig has steadily grown in popularity, offering the nicotine-addicted a ‘healthier’ alternative. While regular ciggies contain tobacco, e-cigarettes use a mechanism that heats up liquid nicotine, which turns into a vapour that’s inhaled and exhaled.
But there are still some major concerns over whether e-cigs pose a health risk. Both the FDA and health experts agree there hasn’t been enough research into the matter. Some claim that the second-hand smoke released by e-cigarettes is harmless, while others note similarities to that produced by regular cigarettes. Others still are concerned that e-cigs and their assortment of flavours promote smoking to young kids, a definite no-no in today’s non-smoker-friendly world.
Until enough research is done, smokers will continue to fork over some scratch to help kick their habit. An e-cig kit, which includes a battery and a couple of cartridges, typically goes for $60-$150.
Health Craze or Health Crazy?
Humankind is no stranger to crazy health and diet fads. It is in our nature to want to look – and feel – our best, and history has shown we will go to great lengths to achieve it. For example, it was once believed that consuming cotton balls would stave off hunger and trick the stomach into thinking it was full. In the 1930s during the heyday of the Twinkie, it was said that if you ate nothing but the snack cakes all day (which contained only 150 calories each), the weight would just melt away. Stranger still is the Tapeworm Diet, which gained traction in the 1900s. Back then, pills that contained tapeworms were believed to eat the food in stomachs.
If these methods don’t interest you, there’s always that lemonade and cayenne pepper diet made popular by Beyoncé, which we hear is delicious.
