Avoid Magic Powder Coffee Dietary Supplement

A new warning this week from the Food and Drug Administration. Consumers are being warned not to use an instant coffee being sold online as a dietary supplement for sexual enhancement.

On the packaging Magic Power Coffee claims to be 100% natural and is labeled as an “all natural dietary supplement” yet this supplement can cause serious harm particularly for those taking nitrates (nitroglycerin).

Lab analysis done by the FDA determined that "Magic Power Coffer" contains a chemical similar to the active ingredient in Viagra, a prescription drug used to treat ED (erectile dysfunction).

Viagra has a list of contraindications for use. The chemical may interact with prescription drugs known as nitrates, including nitroglycerin, and cause dangerously low blood pressure.

A PDF File, Magic Power Coffee: POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS Not Magical is available for download with more information.

Source:
FDA. June 22, 2010. Magic Power Coffee: Potentially Dangerous—Not Magical. Consumer Updates. Food and Drug Administration.

A Look at Digestion with Video Clips and Articles

I found a few new video clips on YouTube, in 3-D that give you a good idea how the digestive system functions. These clips are updates to the prior post on The Digestive System from 2008.

The first on the Digestive System traces a bite of food from the mouth until it is eliminated. (Click on the link to go to the YouTube site, if the video doesn’t display below). Digestive System

Other interactive online animation:

• Digestive System from the National Geographic has an interactive way of looking at the digestive system. You can click to view certain parts of the system.
• A normal, healthy digestive system this 2-dimensional one is from a constipation advice company in the U.K.
• The Digestive Machine from Discovery Health. May appeal more to younger children, but it is kind of fun.

• The Digestive System. A WebMD text-based article updated last in 2008.
• Healthy Digestion. An article on digestion from Discovery Health.

Eating Brown Rice and Whole Grains May Be Best for Your Health

A new study published in the June issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine in which researchers looked at "White Rice, Brown Rice, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in US Men and Women" is supporting the role of whole grains in the diet. This study showed that substituting whole grains, including brown rice, for white rice may lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

In their findings researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Department of Nutrition found that those who ate two or more servings of brown rice per week had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, where as those who ate more than five servings of white rice per week had an increased risk.

The research group went on to recommend that most carbohydrate intake should come from whole grains rather than refined grains to help prevent type 2 diabetes.

The MyPyramid.gov Food Pyramid recommends to make 1/2 of your grains whole. It appears that focusing on eating whole grains, like brown rice, may be the best for your health.

Sources:
Hendrick B. 2010. Brown Rice vs. White Rice: Which Is Better? Replacing White Rice With Brown Rice Reduces Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Study Finds. WebMD.com

Qi Sun, MD, ScD; Donna Spiegelman, ScD; Rob M. van Dam, PhD; Michelle D. Holmes, MD, DrPH; Vasanti S. Malik, MSc; Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH; Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD
White Rice, Brown Rice, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in US Men and Women. Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(11):961-969.

Image: Rob Qld. Brown Rice. Creative Commons License.

Dirty Dozen - Foods to Watch According to EWG

The EWG's (Environmental Working Group) Shoppers Guide was developed to help consumers make informed choices to lower their dietary pesticide load. They released their new "Dirty Dozen" fruits and vegetables on June 1, 2010.

The complete "Dirty Dozen" list includes: celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potatoes and imported grapes. To decrease exposure to pesticides, these are the fruits and vegetables recommended by the EWG, that consumers should buy organic when possible. According to the EWG, "Consumers can lower their pesticide consumption by nearly four-fifths by avoiding conventionally grown varieties of the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables."

Through their research the EWG has found that people who eat five fruits and vegetables a day from the Dirty Dozen list consume an average of 10 pesticides a day.

Those who eat from the 15 least contaminated conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables ingest fewer than 2 pesticides daily.

EWG analysts have developed the Guide based on data from nearly 96,000 tests for pesticide residues in produce conducted between 2000 and 2008 and collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment. Find out more about the EWG at their websites, EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides and EWG (Environmental Working Group) Home.

Source: EWG's Shoppers Guide. 2010.

Video Online Survival Guide

A very helpful and informative video from Tulsa Community College's, MyTCCwork on "Online Survival Guide." They offer helpful tips and skill assessments for surviving in an online course.

Note: It gets a bit crazy after 3:24.



Tips from the Online Survival Guide

Some of these are pretty self evident.

• Be a Self-Motivator.
• Be able to express yourself through writing.
• Be able to meet deadlines.
• Be able to commit 3 - 10 hours per week per course.
• Have a computer with Internet access.

To be an online learner you also need to understand your learning style and then creating the right environment that allows you to learn.

• Audio Learner - learns by listening
• Visual Learner - learns by watching
• Kinesthetic Learner - learns by doing hands-on activities

Source: MyTCCwork. 2007. Online Survival Guide. YouTube Video. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkkHSQxXgNg

Tips for Suceeding as an Online Student

Two articles with a variety of tips to help students succeed in online courses were written for the Education & Career, Distance Education section of Suite 101:

Tips to Become a Successful Online Student
Tips for Getting Organized in an Online Course

These two articles are very helpful for new and not to new online students in being a successful online student, managing distance education courses, staying organized in distance education courses and managing weekly materials in online courses.

More information on succeeding in an Online course can be found by reading the additional articles below:

Dyer KA. 2008. Tips for Success in this Course. Nutrition & Wellness Edublog.
Dyer KA. 2008. Suggestions for Success in this Course.  Nutrition & Wellness Edublog.
Dyer KA. 2008. Tips for Online Success. Nutrition & Wellness Edublog.

Image: Elena Buetler. Working with Laptop 6. Royalty Free Use.

White House to Have a Garden

Reposted from Nutrition & Wellness Edublog, originally posted March 21, 2009.

We’ve been doing a garden at our house with the girls for the past 4 years. As they have grown they are able to do more. Needless to say, I was very happy to hear that the Obamas were starting a garden at the White House for the first time since the first time since first lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted her “Victory Garden” during World War II.

Michelle Obama shared her thoughts on (re)starting the White House Garden:

We want to use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet.

This video shows twenty-six elementary schoolchildren wielded shovels, rakes, pitchforks and wheelbarrows to help first lady Michelle Obama break ground on a produce and herb garden on the White House grounds.

Michael Pollen, author of Omnivores Dilemma and advocate for agricultural reform had this to say about the garden.

A garden like this is one of those small gestures that is powerfully symbolic…it teaches important habits of mind — helping people to reconnect with their food, eat more healthily on a budget and recognize that we’re less dependent on the industrial food chain, and cheap fossil fuel, than we assume.

Sources:
Barrett K, Hartman B. March 20, 2009. Foodies Celebrate White House Veggie Garden: Obama’s Shovel-Ready Project Nurtures the Sustainable Food Movement Amid Some Criticism. Abc News.

Stanglin D. March 20, 2009. First lady breaks ground on White House veggie garden. USA Today.