Mykayla Comstock's family says marijuana helps her fight an especially aggressive form of leukemia, keeps infection at bay and lifts her weary spirit. Twice a day she swallows a potent capsule form of the drug. Some days, when she can't sleep or eat, she snacks on a gingersnap or brownie baked with marijuana-laced butter.
Mykayla is one of 2,201 cancer patients authorized by the state of Oregon to use medical marijuana.
As is often the case with large-scale public problems, the ever-increasing rate of childhood obesity is a joint product of individual weakness and misguided government intervention.
For decades, the federal government has promoted a “food pyramid” that encourages heavy carbohydrate consumption. It has also subsidized the production of the toxic – and ubiquitous – sweetener called... (more)
Researchers at the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland have found that digested coconut oil inhibits the growth of common bacteria that cause tooth decay and could be an effective alternative to chemical additives in dental hygiene products.
The researchers tested the effect of coconut oil on several common strains of streptococcus bacteria found inside the mouth.
They tested the effect of the oil in both its natural and digested form.
"The government can come along and, with all the best intentions, cause enormous problems" says Gary Taubes, a science writer and author most recently of Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It .
Reason.tv's Zach Weissmueller talked with Taubes about his controversial work in the world of nutrition and epidemiology, including Taubes' hypothesis that carbo... (more)
A study in the August edition of The Journal of School Health finds that the generations old theory of a “gateway drug” effect is in fact accurate for some drug users, but shifts the blame for those addicts’ escalating substance abuse away from marijuana and onto the most pervasive and socially accepted drug in American ... (more)
The nation's most powerful anti-obesity groups are teaming up for a new HBO documentary--but it pushes the same tired advice. Gary Taubes on the research they're ignoring.
Most of my favorite factoids about obesity are historical ones, and they don't make it into the new, four-part HBO documentary on the subject, The Weight of the Nation. Absent, for instance, is the fact that the very first childhood-obesity clinic in the United States was founded in the late 1930s... (more)
I can't recommend Gary Taubes' book highly enough. I've been on the paleo diet for perhaps two months now and I'm leaner than ever. Trying to control your weight through portion control is a fool's game. The weight just melts off you when you're not choking down grains.
I must say I find it hilarious eating basically the opposite of what the government recommends is actually the healthiest thing you can do.
The state says eat a high carb, low fat diet, and as Taubes shows that horrible advice created the obesity epidemic. In reality, you should be eating a high fat, low carb diet. It's hilarious how all the "help" the state gives us always has the opposite effect.
Thank goodness we have the internet now and can circumvent such state propaganda!
- Chris
