Thursday, November 29, 2007

Jump in CT Scans May Lead to More Cancer

As many as 20 million adults and 1 million children in the U.S. receive unnecessary computed tomography (CT) scans each year, potentially causing thousands of excess cancers in decades to come, researchers say....

Read the rest of the article at WebMd.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Five Healthy Reasons to Eat Sweet Potatoes


Many of us in the United States think of sweet potatoes as a perfect complement to a Thanksgiving table (even though ironically sweet potatoes were probably not on the dinner menu at the first Thanksgiving).

These naturally sweet, bright orange root veggies have been enjoyed for about 10,000 years, and with good reason -- sweet potatoes are one of the healthiest vegetables (much healthier than a regular potato).

Continue here to read the Five Healthy Reasons to East Sweet Potatoes.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Obesity, Cancer Strongly Linked

Excess weight can now officially be added to the growing number of factors that contribute to cancer, according to the UK's Million Women Study.

The study, which included more than 1 million UK women, found that 5 percent of all cancers in the UK -- or about 6,000 cases each year -- are caused by being overweight or obese.

Some of these cancers are of the:

  • Esophagus

  • Uterine lining

  • Ovary

  • Kidney

  • Pancreas

  • Breast (in post-menopausal women)

Read more here.

How Do You Patent "Wild" Rice?


Read this fascinating article from Orion magazine called Ricekeepers, about the Ojibwe and their struggle to keep their traditional wild rice paddys their own:

AS FALL TEMPERATURES CHANGE on the White Earth Reservation and the mist lifts off the lakes, the Ojibwe take to the waters. Two people to a canoe, one poles through the thick rice beds, pushing the canoe forward, while the other, sitting toward the front of the boat, uses two long sticks to gently bend the rice and knock the seeds into the canoe. The sounds of manoominike, the wild rice harvest, are the gliding of the boat through the water and across shafts of rice, the soft swish of the rice bending, the raining of the rice into the canoe. They are soothing sounds, reminding my people of the continuity between the generations. We have been harvesting rice here for centuries.

Continue...