Happy Friday! A lot of talk about the Swine Flu this week. I don’t know about you, but I am already overwhelmed by the scary headlines and soundbites coming at us via the traditional media. I am sure there is cause for concern and we should all exercise common sense and the usual precautions to prevent its spread. But is it really necessary to create a sense of panic by all this talk about a pandemic?
This week, I want to highlight 5 posts from my fellow bloggers I admire. Go check out their blogs and Stumble these posts if you like them.
The economics of breastfeeding
The benefits of breastfeeding are well-known. Now there is a debate about the cost of breastfeeding, mainly to the working women who choose to breastfeed their children while trying to make a career. This insightful analysis of the costs and benefits of breastfeeding on PhD in Parenting tries to put things in perspective and draws attention to the gap between our desire, as a society, for promotion of breastfeeding on one hand and the risk to a woman’s work and earnings on the other. The cost argument against breastfeeding has a major flaw in my opinion – it is mainly focused on what I would call the “opportunity cost” to the breastfeeding mother. That is, she loses out on career and income growth if she decides to breastfeed her child beyond the duration of the standard maternity leave. In other words, the lost opportunity for career and income growth is worth more than the benefits of breastfeeding (to the mother). There are a lot of assumptions in this argument about what is valuable and worthwhile to the mother. I think it is best to let her decide the true opportunity cost of her decision to breastfeed.
And what about the cost of not breastfeeding, on the other hand, to the child and the entire healthcare system? The cost argument does not even address this aspect of the economics of breastfeeding! Instead of looking at the entire system of breastfeeding (mother, child, society, healthcare system), it focuses on a small portion of the total cost. A very weak argument indeed in my opinion. What do you think?
Watch out, those sugary drinks are also not good for your heart
Could sugary drinks be a risk factor for heart disease independent of obesity and diabetes? Dr Ayala highlights some recent research to answer this question in this post. Turns out that the risk of heart disease goes up by 20 – 40% for those who consume more than 2 sugary drinks per day. And this is after adjusting for a lot of other factors such as age, smoking, alcohol, family history, fitness, cholesterol, aspirin use, high blood pressure, dietary healthfulness (AHEI score) and Body Mass Index. Even for non-caloric artificial sweeteners, there was a higher risk for heart disease although the effect was not as strong. I don’t really understand the technical reasons why this should be the case, but the data is compelling. Advice from experts – eliminate sugary drinks at home, just don’t buy them!
Eating well is a matter of knowledge, money and time
Do you believe that healthful food costs more and is simply out of reach for many Americans? If so, you are not alone. The good news is that the committee working on developing the 2010 dietary guidelines for Americans is also focusing on drawing attention to the affordability of nutrient-rich foods in different categories. In today’s difficult economic environment, this attitude could not be more timely. This article on Nutrition Unplugged reflects the current mood among some experts who point out that healthful and nutritious food is not always expensive. I agree – just by cutting down on packaged food, you can save a lot of money while improving the nutritional value of what you eat. What it takes, though, is knowledge of nutrition and cooking, some time and of course pots and pans. I hope you all can manage that! Check out our simple recipes in this blog, and share yours if you like.
The secret of the “freshness” additive in foods
Very informative post about the so-called “freshness” additive TBHQ by Cathy on A Life Less Sweet! Once again, she gives you the technical details, including the chemistry of this synthetic anti-oxidant routinely added to processed food products to increase their shelf life. She also explains some of the concerns about this additive since it has been shown to increase the risk of cancer in animals when given in high doses. So should you be concerned? First, it is added to foods in very small amounts, and secondly there is a lot of uncertainty about long term effects in humans. It is also known as E319 when used as a food additive, which has been implicated in the hyperactivity disorder in children. However, the data is not conclusive and considerable uncertainty remains. Bottom line – there is no reason to panic, however it is generally a good idea to cut down on processed foods anyway.
A very yummy fish taco recipe
Check out this recipe for fish tacos with cabbage and fish taco sauce from Jenna on her Kid Appeal blog. It seems like a very simple recipe and looks delicious and very healthy in the photos! I loved the colors of purple cabbage, tomato, avocado and of course the breaded fish fillet strips. Another great idea in this recipe is the sauce, which does not require any fancy ingredients; something you can make with what you already have at hand in your refrigerator. So, give it a try – I know we are going to give it a shot this weekend. And don’t forget to involve your kids in the preparation so they can really enjoy it when it’s ready.
Enjoy your weekend!
Image source: Miriam Poppe on Flickr
©2009 Littlestomaks.com
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Another great post! Thanks for the mention.
I agree with you about the Swine Flu comment. To keep things in proportion I go to the CDC Flu website: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/fluactivity.htm which gives weekly and seasonal flu activity reports. If you look at flu activity for April 12-18, 2009, you’ll see the sad number of pediatric deaths for just this season: 55; that’s before a child died of swine flu this week. The other 55 died of other strains of seasonal flu. So flu’s always there—-about 37,000 American die of the flu yearly–we should always take common sense precautions and get vaccinated, but we somehow forget that there’s always background risk, and only pay attention to new and newsworthy topics.
Thank you so much for the mention! Always love your Five for Fridays!
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