The lure of McDonald's golden arches may take hold at a startlingly early age, according to the latest study on the effects of branding on young children published in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650268,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-topics&iref=werecommend 

Are we turning our toddlers into Pavlov's dogs? Read this horrifying research study - a McDonald's wrapper makes food "taste better"  http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/08/06/mcdonalds.preschoolers.ap/index.html

Quick parents, think about the ramifications of this! Study: Food in McDonald's wrapper tastes better to kids

Fat tax" could save 3,200 lives each year

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - A "fat tax" on salty, sugary and fatty foods could save thousands of lives each year, according to a study published on Thursday.

Researchers at Oxford University say that charging Value Added Tax (VAT) at 17.5 percent on foods deemed to be unhealthy would cut consumer demand and reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes.

The purchase tax is already levied on a small number of products such as potato crisps, ice cream, confectionery and chocolate biscuits, but most food is exempt.

The move could save an estimated 3,200 lives in Britain each year, according to the study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

"A well-designed and carefully-targeted fat tax could be a useful tool for reducing the burden of food-related disease," the study concluded.

The team from Oxford's Department of Public Health said higher taxes have already been imposed on cigarettes and alcohol to encourage healthy living.

They used a mathematical formula to estimate the effect of higher prices on the demand for foods such as pastries, cakes, cheese and butter.

However, they said their research only gave a rough guide to the number of lives that could be saved and said more work was needed to get an exact picture of how taxes could improve public health.

Any "fat tax" might be seen as an attack on personal freedom and would weigh more heavily on poorer families, the study warned.

A food tax would raise average weekly household bills by 4.6 percent or 67 pence per person.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has previously rejected the idea as an example of the "nanny state" that might push people away from healthy food.

The Food and Drink Federation has called the proposed tax patronizing and says it would hit low-income families hardest.

It suggests that people eat a balanced diet.

The British Heart Foundation said it does not support the tax.

"We believe the government should focus on ensuring healthy foods are financially and geographically accessible to everyone," it said.

The Span test....ClaraBaughn the world's MOST PATIENT cocker spaniel, tests ALL of our Prudent Wife recipes.

Is this a tail wagger?

What are my humans doing to me now? Should I really try this?

Carrot & 4 Garlic Clove Soup is NOT a winner

I  must be the only person in America that can go on a 12 day AM Juice Fast ,eat a sensible lunch and dinner, get a massive 9-12 servings of fruits and veggies in a day, exercise twice a day, have a psyllium fiber/bentonite clay shake daily, and not really lose weight! Had hoped to to have gotten below my current set point.  No such luck! 

It is a good thing I am incredibly STUBBORN and am looking far beyond merely "losing weight" and looking at the overall heath benefit I will get from sticking with this month long plan. If I have a temper tantrum about not losing weight, I will be tempted to quit, ultimately losing the far reaching benefits of the kidney cleanse, intestinal cleanse, gallbladder flush, and overall cleanse and detox. So I do not focus on today's result, which seems utterly pitiful, but on the long term effect and the long term desire, a cleansed system that funtions better, improved health, more energy. Everything I am doing is working toward those goals. Believe me, when  you taste some of my concoctions, as I am figuring out this whole Vita-Mix juicing/Cleansing thing, some have been pretty disgusting. But it is all organic, so I just drink it down and focus on results!

I did find some organic apple juice, a gallon of it for $4.99 at the regular store (as opposed to $11.99 at the HFS) so am now choking down 2 cups of apple juice to prepare for the flush. I am on a roll with this Cleanse - and am determined to see it through to the momentous gallbladder flush day. The Pig Roast (how totally cool is that, and how Southern) is today, and the blockwide July 4th party is Weds, and I know that I need a day or two away from those potentially UNHEALTHY events (where I am going to give myself permission to TASTE stuff - I am a foodie and love to TASTE all the different stuff, but know that means I will ingest chemicals and the un-organics!) so trying to find a day to do the gallbladder flush is quite the thing.  Goal - next Friday. 

Currently drinking juice in the AM - finding that I really like

• I piece of celery organic
• 1organic carrot
• 3 handfuls of organic spinach
• 1/2 an organic apple
• 3-5 sprigs of parsley
•  1/4 organic lemon, with peel (the white part has a lot of vitamin C)
• 1/2 small beet
• 1/2 inch piece of ginger

About half a cup of water and ice. Whir in the Vita-Mix and make sure you grind up WELL! This gives me two large glasses of juice. I feel immediate energy when I drink it, and I know it is cleansing my body beautifully.

The TRUTH about what the world really eats, in photos, with prices! Note boxes and cans VS fresh produce.

http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/What-the-World-Eats-21099.aspx  

Whole Foods: The whole truth

How to get the biggest bang for your "green" buck when shopping at the pricey chain.

Well, you never know where you will end up on the internet. While reading two. completely different articles, I cam across two articles on Kate Moss, and the way her looks are declining based on her lifestyle. It was fascinating to actually see the media point out that a model lives without wisdom - can you imagine - and that there are consequences for behavior. It also pointed out that there is little truth in advertising - with Kate being the queen of air brushing these days.

I do not post this to be cruel, mean or tear down a person who has chronically made bad choices. I think it is a great lesson for young girls. In the homeschool world, we don't tend to glorify models, pop culture, etc., so most of our kids won't even know who Kate Moss is. But for the kids in our neighborhoods, other kids at church, cousins, relatives, etc., they will know. I have always made it a practice to be aware of WHO is popular, in the news, an icon of pop culture, etc, so that when my kids hear about them through one grapevine or another, I have some clue. Why? We are called to navigate this world and we cannot do it by sticking our head in a bucket and ignoring reality. I try to have an idea of what is going on in the world....

So onto the Kate Moss articles:

The Brutal Truth About Her Fading Looks - by Liz Jones (link at bottom for full article)

Last Sunday night, I had a revelation that was both shocking and, let's face it, inevitable. There I was, listening to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, and a few rows in front of me was someone I could have sworn was Kate Moss. But I kept craning my neck to look at her, thinking: no, it can't be.

 The giveaway in the end was that she was sitting next to her lover Pete Doherty and was whispering in his ear. Yet, other than that, the tired-looking woman with brassy, over-dyed hair who was wearing a cheap, nasty vest (one of her own designs, perhaps?) bore no resemblance to the Kate Moss in the latest Topshop advertising campaign, or the latest Belstaff campaign, or the latest Dior campaign, or on the giant billboard outside the Burberry store in Knightsbridge.

The harsh reality is that only really famous models (of which Kate is the leader of a pack of about three) and celebrities are able to shift magazines or skin cream. It is why they warrant the extra expense and time of retouching.

 Rather than dropping Kate as she became an increasing liability close-up, the magazines and the big brands have shored her up, airbrushing her within an inch of her life so they can sell their product.

 The result is that we have all been party to the lie that Kate, despite being a mum, and despite her hard-drinking, alleged drug-taking, late-night partying lifestyle, has somehow, miraculously, because of good genes or good bone structure or sheer bloody luck, escaped completely unscathed.

The reason I have a problem with Kate is that for millions of teenage girls in this country, the images they see of her in a bikini 20ft high in the window of Topshop are taken as the living, shining, dewy proof that you can take drugs and drink and smoke and never eat any carbohydrates, and it won't make you any less beautiful.

 Young girls don't care about what their bone density will be when they are in their 60s, they don't care about developing lung cancer in their 50s. They care only about how they look at 18 or 22.

 How much more wonderful, and brave, would it be were Kate to say, sod the great lighting and the expensive airbrushing, this is what I really look like: if she were to say "My eyes have bags, my skin has fine lines and breakouts, my teeth are yellow and my health, well, who knows what my lifestyle has done to my inner beauty".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=463584&in_page_id=1879

That Moss gloss shows signs of fading and it's all in the thighs by Laura Roberts (liknk below)

She wasn't at work on an expensive photo-shoot, just making her way to Glastonbury for the music festival. So Kate Moss could be forgiven for not looking her best. Which is probably just as well, if the state of her legs was anything to go by.

And these latest unflattering pictures were taken on the day the Daily Mail told how her body is ageing way beyond its years - not something obvious in her airbrushed modelling photos. Critics say her love of parties and unhealthy lifestyle are responsible for taking a toll on her appearance, which until recently had seemed to defy the march of time.   

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=463822&in_page_id=1773 

Fascinating that the British media points out the imperfections of the icons of young girls - too bad the American media doesn't point out two sides with Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, etc. They just seem to glamorize the mistakes - rather than pointing out reality.