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To your health
Three articles of medical interest:
In both first-time and experienced (marmoset) fathers with dependent offspring, the team found structural changes in the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain important for planning and memory. In these areas the neurons showed signs of enhancement, with a greater number of connections. They also had more receptor sites for the hormone vasopressin. The number decreases as the infants age, dropping back to normal as the young become independent.
I have always noticed that when one of my male collegues has a child, their behavior changes. I refer to this as "the packet of parenting firing off in their brains." Kind of like that kid in that movie, Doin' Time on Planet Earth, where his brain seems to explode when he finally gets laid. That was a funny movie.
Fatherhood Boosts Male Brains
More and more obese people are unable to get full medical care because they are either too big to fit into scanners, or their fat is too dense for X-rays or sound waves to penetrate, radiologists reported on Tuesday.
I will admit, I am a big guy, but not like totally huge. When I had my last MRI, my nose was touching the "ceiling" and my arms had to be jammed into my sides. It was not comfortable at all. I can't imagine anyone over 250 pounds even fitting into one of those. It gets me mad when I watch "House" and see them put the patient into the MRI machine and still have room left over for a buick. I want to go to that hospital.
More Americans too fat for X-rays, scans
More than 60% of all processed food in Britain today contains soya in some form, according to food industry estimates. It is in breakfast cereals, cereal bars and biscuits, cheeses, cakes, dairy desserts, gravies, noodles, pastries, soups, sausage casings, sauces and sandwich spreads. Soya, crushed, separated and refined into its different parts, can appear on food labels as soya flour, hydrolysed vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, protein concentrate, textured vegetable protein, vegetable oil (simple, fully, or partially hydrogenated), plant sterols, or the emulsifier lecithin. Its many guises hint at its value to manufacturers.
Soya increases the protein content of processed meat products. It replaces them altogether in vegetarian foods. It stops industrial breads shrinking. It makes cakes hold on to their water. It helps manufacturers mix water into oil. Hydrogenated, its oil is used to deep-fry fast food.
Well, shit. I figured that soy might actually be better for me than eating meat or processed foods. I am oversimplifying and know that certain types of soy are better than others. The article is quite long, but well worth the read. The wholesale eating of soy in the quantities we now ingest doesn't really seem like a good idea. What else you are going to eat, though, if it's in almost everything?
Should we worry about soya in our food?
(All three articles found at digg.)
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