As if you needed another reason NOT to give your baby formula...

Abbott recalls infant formula on bug contamination

By MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer Matthew Perrone, Ap Health Writer
–Wed Sep 22, 8:47 pm ET


WASHINGTON – Drugmaker Abbott Laboratories said Wednesday it is recalling millions of containers of its best-selling Similac infant formula that may be contaminated with INSECT PARTS.

Click to read the entire story

Bento Style Lunches

Borrowed from: http://wendolonia.com/blog/

Terrified Sandwich

Just because this is cute and I am not a fan of deli meat...

 

When I was little and about to eat a piece of meat, my dad would go, "Mooooo! Noooooo! Moooo! Don't eat me! That hurts!"
I think it's one of the reasons I'm mostly a vegetarian today.

This picture and comment is by: Sakurako Kitsa's photostream

The next 9 months...

No I'm not pregnant. But I will be completing my dietetic internship over the next 9 months which means I will not be working in the WIC clinic. For this reason, most of my blogs will likely be similar to the past couple I have posted. I may throw in some WIC stories from the past though ;)

Culture Crisis

The following was written by a young physician by the name of Dr. Roger Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis"..

It's worth a quick read:


Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.


While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture" a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD 

Letter written by my friend and coworker Alex Kenefic, a MUST read

To Whom It May Concern,

I recently visited your location in Baton Rouge, La.  The food was fine, the service was fine.  I’m writing about an advertisement on our table.  This advertisement was for the Grade A USDA Prime Grain-fed Beef that Copeland’s offers.  I had to read it twice to make sure it was actually advertising GRAIN-fed Beef!  Granted, I’m glad I saw that so I knew not to order the steak (although that’s what I really wanted, since it was my birthday).  My hope is that this advertisement was printed and distributed by people who don’t know what that implies.

Grain=corn.  Cows did not evolve to eat corn; they evolved to eat grass and hay.  Eating corn makes them sick and kills them slowly before they’re slaughtered early.  Eating corn greatly lowers the pH level in their stomach creating an environment too acidic for them to live.  After more than a few months on corn, their stomach ulcers are to the point of needing treatment, or they’ll die.  This acidic environment is also the reason why E. coli is dangerous when we eat it.  The bacteria become accustomed to an acidic environment caused by the corn, then stay alive in the acidic human stomach and make us sick.  To top it off, grain-fed meat has up to NINE times the saturated fat than grass-fed meat. 

Read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” or watch “Food, Inc.”, “King Corn” or “The Future of Food” to see what our food industry has become and what it’s doing to our country.  What has been the “norm” for decades is slowly coming to light as people realize what a danger feeding animals corn is.  More and more people are learning the truth, but unfortunately the average consumer doesn’t know and therefore relies on what they see to make their decisions.  Advertising grain-fed beef is telling your patrons that grain-fed beef is the best option and that you are proud to serve it.  This is irresponsible and certainly not in the best interest of your patrons or your company.  Because of the push to eat whole grains instead of refined ones, people associate “grain” with “healthy”-which is false!  When Sargento advertises their “real cheese”, it’s obvious that their real cheese is better than their competitor’s processed cheese product.  What are you saying your grain-fed beef is better than?  In this case, the grain-fed meat is the processed cheese and grass-fed is the natural. 

Customers (rightly or not) believe labels and advertising.  The food industry has taken money-making to a dangerous level that is destroying our health.  I’m certainly not asking Copeland’s to change the food industry.  I realize one letter probably won’t change how the company runs, or what it serves, but please stop advertising grain-fed beef as healthy and good!  That sign was a slap in the face to me and those of us who dedicate our lives to creating a healthier country.

Please contact me to inform me on what has been done to correct this.

Thank you for your time. 

Sincerely,

Alex Kenefic

A Glimpse of Hope

Ok, so someone pointed out to me that my blog is called, "the good, the bad...." and I havn't told any "good" stories. So here ya go...

I saw a mom today with her 4 day old premie. She was giving formula and had not tried to breastfeed at all. When I dug a little more, I found out that she really WANTED to breastfeed, she just had no one to help her! I had her go meet with one of our breastfeeding counselors, and an hour later, she had breastfed her baby, on both sides, and now wants to continute breastfeeding instead of formula! Moments like these are what make my days worth while.

Congratulations to all the moms that choose to give their babies the gift of breastfeeding :)

breastfeeding.com

what the CDC has to say