The Sensible Diet

Phosphacore, claims the advertising copy, is a new "medical weight loss miracle that is helping thousands of men and women lose pounds of excess body weight... some as much as 25 pounds in only two weeks."

The May 2009 Health Gazette ezine edition has been published on schedule today, May first. Subscribers will find it in their inbox and can also read it online in the subscriber-only archive.

This month's edition provides a response to the hype surrounding the so-called swine flu. We have not seen so much media hype since the so-called bird flu marketing exercise of 2005. The main article, Swine Flu: Avoid the Hype, encourages calm in the face of this episode and provides a more rational perspective than the mainstream media and many health authorities which seem to be dancing to the hype pedlars' tune. Read the article to learn what is an appropriate response.

Mitotropin™ is Gaspari Nutrition's heavy duty, extreme weight loss formula targeted directly at body builders. It claims to be a "very powerful thermophoric mitochondrial uncoupling agent" and, with the aid of an accompanying 52-page manual, offers consumers the ability to... "... take your physique to the next level and quite possibly the competitive bodybuilding stage."

I have been an avid reader of news since the ripe ole age of eight years old. Every Friday in grade 2 we had ‘current events’ where we had to choose an interesting news story from the week and present it to the class. Even back then I always looked for odd news or strange local stories.

As I grew older I started following daily news and because it was all ‘bad news’ I just gave up on it around 2 years ago. Then I stumbled onto websites that offered news of the weird and I was hooked. Since I started reading odd, strange news exclusively I have found I am a much happier person.

So it is no surprise to me that the University of Cohaina released a report that seems to prove just this. The followed the mood of 121 subjects over a period of two years. The first year they were asked to read 30 minutes of mainstream (mostly bad news) and they did a mood analysis quiz daily, with overall happiness ranked at 67%. In the second year they spent 30 minutes a day reading odd news stories (they were asked to avoid mainstream news on TV and prints) and almost immediately their scores rose to the 74% range and eventually topped out in the last three months to 76% on average.

So drop that newspaper and don’t bother reading about the financial collapse nor about the 300th murder rape in your city. Instead, head over to an alternative news site and read something that will put a smile on your face.

Once again the authors of a research report have revealed more about their own shortcomings than about the intended focus of the study. One has to wonder how they can be so ignorant. To be fair, part of the problem is the style, tone and structure -- the very literacy -- of such reports, which encourages or expects (at least subconsciously) the kind of statements made in the report that I find so revealing about the authors.

Still, this doesn't excuse them. Unless they live totally within their ivory towers (the University of California Davis School of Medicine and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry to be specific) or are exceedingly dull and uninformed there is simply no excuse for their ignorance.