Don't Waste the Fruit!

The seeds are not the only amazing part of the inner pumpkin! Save your pumpkin flesh and use them in desserts, dinners, and even smoothies! It is difficult to believe how much healthy food is being thrown down the disposal so families can light these fruits shells for 2-3 days before they begin rotting. Do your part and conserve the food of our globe!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! :)

Pumpkin Pie

• 175g/6oz plain flour
• 75g/3oz butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cold water
• pinch salt
• 450 g (1 lb) prepared weight pumpkin flesh, cut into 2.5 cm (1 in) chunks
• 2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 275 ml (10 fl.oz) double cream

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add 2 tablespoons of cold water to mix it into a firm dough, then wrap it in cling film and chill for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, to make the filling, steam the pumpkin, then put it in a sieve and press lightly to extract any excess water. Then lightly whisk the eggs and the extra yolk together in a large bowl. Place the sugar, spices and cream in a pan, bring them to simmering point, stirring with a whisk regularly. Then pour this mixture over the eggs and whisk it again briefly. Now add the pumpkin pureé, still whisking everything until it is thoroughly combined. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface, then use it to line a 20cm flan dish. Prick the entire surface with a fork and bake blind at 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5 for 15 minutes until just firm to the touch. Then pour the filling into your pastry case and bake for 35-40 minutes, by which time it will puff up round the edges but still feel slightly wobbly in the centre. Then remove it from the oven and place the tin on a wire cooling rack. Serve chilled (stored loosely covered in foil in the fridge) with some equally chilled créme fraïche, but warm or at room temperature would be fine.

fiscal incentives

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/ideas-for-fixing-health-care/?ref=health

The higher spending — and much of the growth in spending — is due to the provision of unneeded and sometimes harmful care: hospitalizations that could have been avoided with better primary care; frivolous specialist consults; overuse of diagnostic tests. Unnecessary care can be harmful because hospitals are dangerous places to be, especially if you don’t need to be there. And having more physicians involved in your care makes it harder to know who is responsible: too many cooks can spoil the soup.

A topic of a recent discussion. Aside from the mentioned factors, physicians and other health care providers have fiscal incentives to treat patients in unnecessary segments, as well as provide incomplete or "possible fix-it" diagnoses for their patients. This brings patients back to their physicians, helping health care providers earn more bucks, while also driving up medical costs.

And just when I found my favorite brand!

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/06/bolthouse_farms_keep_keep_it_together.php

boo. It seems wrong to support this company any longer. ON THE OTHER HAND, Newman's Own is one of very few companies to donate 100% of their profit to foundations across the world, (with a special shout-out to Camp Boggy Creek!). Not only does Paul Newman's products help feed America, but they are also great for you. Most of the items on his menu are made with all natural and organic ingredients. What's even better, is that this company is moving toward eco-friendly packaging. So whenever you're stuck in grocery aisles choosing between which brand of cereal to buy, lean toward Newman's products!

Abstract Cigala

Mmmmm I wake up to the sounds of Cigala, a spanish musical artist, and can't help but dream of what he looks like. He has, in the least traditional sense, one of the most sensual and beautiful voices I have ever heard. I am so tempted to learn more about him through websites and perhaps get a glimpse of what he looks like. Though, I've finally decided I'd rather let him remain as a self-created portrayal within my imagination. Afterall, it is his voice that is important. I don't want to be influenced by a face when I can imagine so much more outside the boundaries his physical traits would place. This isn't about superficiality; rather, about allowing dreams to flourish. Afterall, I belive music breeds creativity. I'd rather not be disappointed.

Up yours FDA

I cannot imagine which parent would force--and I use the word force here literally, their own infant into medically-related pharmaceutical studies. What goes through a mother's mind when she essentially signs away her own child's life to the medical industry?

A very recent study examines the repercussion of drug, Paracetamol, in infants whom have been given precautionary vaccinations for fever. Paracetemol, a fever reducer, is an NSAID, which are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents/analgesics. It has been studied to cause liver failure in certain types of mammals, and to do serious damage on kidneys, even in low dosages, on humans. All this, and its more harmful effects are, by law, written in the print of the study contracts and thereafter provided to patients (in this cause the legal guardian of the patient) for their understanding prior to accordance of admission. What I am trying to say is that mothers are fully aware of the damaging possibilities their child may experience while being involved in such a study.

With a trial group of over 400 babies, of each who partook in vaccines against pneumococcal disease, Haemophilus influenzae type b, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hep B, polio, and rotavirus, were then provided with three "therapeutically relative" doses of this NSAID every 6 to 8 hours. It was found that these babies developed a WEAKER immune system with decreased amount of antibodies as a result of the said drug, alongside mild damages to infant kidneys.

BABIES DO NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY TO MAKE ARTICULATE DECISIONS, let alone moderately simple ones. It is therefore the task of the caretaker to make the most informed decisions for their child. I feel that there needs to be a greater amount of regulation and education for such cases. It seems striking to me that infants can bear horrible results from experiences in their life they did not have control over, especially in sitations that CAN AND SHOULD be easily regulated by the government. Why is the governmental health agency even allowing production of such research studies on infants? Especially when it is that that humans of this age group are most susceptible to disease and infection? The more and more I advance in my medical school education, the more and more I become disgusted with the process and influence the pharmaceutical industry has on my future career and on the future of global health. Research is crucial. However, I do not feel that drugs should make its way through the green light on FDA's horribly regulated roads without having successive POSITIVE tests in ALL directions on in vitro trials.

FDA fails to reduce accessibility of paracetamol despite 450 deaths a year. Confidential documents from the US Food and Drug Administration suggest that the agency has avoided a debate on tough new measures to reduce overdoses from painkillersto avoid offending the pharmaceutical industry. FDA fails to reduce accessibility of paracetamol despite 450 deaths a year. Confidential documents from the US Food and Drug Administration suggest that the agency has avoided a debate on tough new measures to reduce overdoses from painkillersto avoid offending the pharmaceutical industry.

In the United States paracetamol is associated with more than 100000 calls a year to poison control centres, as well as 56000 visits to emergency departments, 26000 hospitalisations, and
450 deaths.

According to one FDA insider, [decisions to black label this drug] were dropped because senior FDA managers saw them as too offensive to Johnson & Johnson. Asked about this alleged corporate influence within the FDA, Dr Cantilena smiled and said he did not want to speculate.

Of course.

Up yours FDA.

Amalgams

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?_r=1

Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.
[...]
Cargill, whose $116.6 billion in revenues last year made it the country’s largest private company, declined requests to interview company officials or visit its facilities. “Cargill is not in a position to answer your specific questions, other than to state that we are committed to continuous improvement in the area of food safety,” the company said, citing continuing litigation.

The meat industry treats much of its practices and the ingredients in ground beef as trade secrets. While the Department of Agriculture has inspectors posted in plants and has access to production records, it also guards those secrets. Federal records released by the department through the Freedom of Information Act blacked out details of grinding operations that could be learned only through copies of the documents obtained from other sources. Those documents illustrate the restrained approach to enforcement by a department whose missions include ensuring meat safety and promoting agriculture markets.

Information at our fingertips

Just as grade school children are now being taught arithmetic with calculators, I think that medicine should also take another step forward and embrace technology for efficiency purposes. This is an extremely handy application, and by the time I am a graduating physician, I can only imagine what else will be available. I still believe medical/health students alike should be taught anatomy in its most time-consuming forms. Perhaps, however, not in such a detailed and meticulously specified format. Rather, students could focus on general specifics and localities and instead dedicate more time to understanding its relative clinical functions/pathologies.