Consuming Consciousness

If you’re like me and you often crave heat, you probably have a variety of hot sauces in your kitchen. But unless you hail from the Caribbean, I can almost guarantee you that you don’t have anything like this one. It’s a sweet, unbelievably spicy, and incredibly fruity and flavorful condiment that tastes great on poultry, turns your rice and your tofu into a taste treat, sharpens up fried foods, and is at its absolute best on fish. Unlike many hot sauces, this one doesn’t celebrate heat for the sake of heat; instead, it embodies the word “spicy” — flavor and heat combined in a heady, consciousness-altering mix. (more…)

This combination of rich black beans and sweet corn, tart vinegar and aromatic spices is positively luscious. If you use all fresh ingredients you need to give yourself several hours of preparation time to soak and simmer the beans and cut the corn off the cob. However, if you’re in a hurry, you can use canned beans and frozen corn (reducing the prep time to 45 minutes, since you have to pre-soak the dried chile) and put the salad together in about 15 minutes. At about 350 calories for a side-dish sized serving (200g), it’s not low-calorie, low-fat or low-carb, but it’s high in protein, fiber and vitamins, very low in saturated fat, has no cholesterol, and the beans have a low glycemic index (30). (more…)

In press releases that bring to mind a George Schuyler farce, a Bruce Sterling sci-fi novel, the Dr. Seuss story “The Sneetches,” or a Michael Jackson wet dream, medical news sites are all talking about the discovery made by University of Cincinatti and Tokyo Medical University scientists: how to manipulate skin color and tone.

The significance of the study, published in journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, is explained by the journal’s editor-in-chief, Gerald Weissmann:

Most immediately, this study should lead to bioengineered skin grafts that more closely resemble the natural tone and color of recipients, which may help reduce the appearance of scarring. Down the road, however, this study opens doors to new types of cosmetics based on our understanding of how and why ‘skin deep’ differences in appearance evolved over millions of years.

Such sweetly naive prose; such utopian musings. “Skin deep,” indeed. Not a murmur about or a nod toward the elephant in the corner: the question of … race. Not a comment about what it might mean for people (probably rich people, at least at first) to be able to choose their color. Not a single mention of what it might mean to erase the color line with an over-the-counter “antidote.” Science marches on. (more…)

Twenty percent of drugs approved by the FDA are later withdrawn from the market or are required by law to carry warnings that they may cause serious adverse effects. Dr. Jeffrey Dach recently published a newsletter article that explains how to spot and avoid possibly dangerous medication. He mentions three early warning signs which include:

1. The drug has been recalled or given a black box warning.
2. The drug is in litigation with numerous lawsuits against the drug company.
3. The drug has been banned in other countries.

The article includes pointers to a list of drugs with adverse effect warnings (“black box” drugs), a partial listing of recalled or banned drugs, links to Consumer Reports listings of risky drugs, and a description of the importance of litigation in keeping bad drugs off the market. A link to Yahoo search engine listings of drugs in litigation is included.

If you’ve ever wondered about how doctors distinguish (or are supposed to distinguish) between right and wrong, now you have a chance to find out. The World Medical Association, in cooperation with the Norwegian Medical Association, provides a free online course that anyone can take. You can even receive a certification for taking the course, sent to you by mail at no charge. The course can be taken as an unregistered guest or for credit, and can be completed in one sitting or several.

Though designed primarily for physicians, the material is an eye-opener for laypersons who may have experienced instances in which their health care providers acted in an unethical fashion, but didn’t have the right language to phrase a complaint. Understanding a doctor’s ethical responsibilities can make it easier for patients and families to demand proper treatment. It also makes it easier to document improper treatment and to seek remedies.

The course introduction explains:

Modern health care has given rise to extremely complex and multifaceted ethical dilemmas, and at times physicians are unprepared to manage these competently. This course is specifically structured to reinforce and strengthen the ethical mindset and practice of physicians and provide tools to find ethical solutions to these dilemmas. It is not a list of “rights and wrongs” but an attempt to sensitize the conscience of the physician, which is the basis for any sound and ethical decision-making. In this vein, you will find several case studies in the course, which are intended to foster individual ethical reflection as well as discussion within team settings.

I found the case studies particularly interesting, since I had been in the patient’s role in at least one case that resembled the example.

The same organizations also offer a free course on “Doctors working in prison: human rights and ethical dilemmas.”

On an emotional level, dieting is sometimes hard to distinguish from starving, and there are times one simply wants to sit down and tuck into a large bowl of rich, meaty stew. Here’s a way to do that without shooting your calorie count through the ceiling. I love the flavor of pork, but it’s often expensive, it packs a lot of calories (especially from fat), and like other red meats, it’s not wonderful for you in large amounts. My answer has been to capitalize on the flavor while minimizing my consumption of meat, and this stew is a model for stretching both the flavor and one’s dollar to feed a small army on only a pound of flesh. A single serving is a whopping 1000g bowl (you can, of course, eat less if you like), but you’ll only chalk up about 420 calories (520 if you decide to add the optional potatoes). In addition, you get a tasty meal that is high in protein, vitamin C, niacin, phosphorus, selenium and thiamin. As stews go, it’s not very time-consuming: it’s ready in two hours, and you need to spend less than an hour active in the kitchen. (more…)

Exercise may not help all forms of hypertension, but Yoga might help some. A paper entitled “Mind-Body Practices for Hypertension: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” by Ather Ali and David Katz of the Prevention Research Center, School of Medicine, Yale University concludes that “there is some high quality scientific literature supporting the use of mind-body therapies as a treatment for hypertension, and the magnitude of effect is clinically significant.” This month Dr. Ali presented his team’s findings at the 22nd annual meeting of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians.

This is an exceptionally rich and mild chocolate mole (though of course you can heat it up with cayenne). It’s my favorite sauce for grilled turkey or chicken breast, and it also goes wonderfully with rice or vegetables. I make a large batch because it takes time to cook and it freezes well. From beginning to end, the cooking process is about three hours long, but your active contribution is less than one hour. It’s on a day off, when you don’t want to fuss too much in the kitchen, but you’d like to fill the house with delicious smells. At less than 120 calories per serving, this is an exceptional treat. (more…)

A new study by Anya Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne claims to demonstrate that women and men have different color preferences. The study appears in the latest issue of Current Biology under the title “Biological components of sex differences in color preference.”

Both sexes preferred blue hues by a large margin when tested on a blue-yellow axis. On the red-green access, females showed a preference for the reddish side. The researches found that the women surveyed had a “significantly higher” preference for blues with “pinkish” undertones (lilacs, for example), while the men prefered “pure blues.” The single color most frequently picked by women was pink-purple, but by men was sky blue. (British participants showed this more markedly than Chinese participants, who overall gave stronger ratings for colors mixed with red.)

Compared to the public response, the survey itself is a minor problem. If you google “women prefer pink” you will get pages and pages of references to the survey, full of uncritical and often gleeful reviews with titles like “Proof that girls really do prefer pink.” These pieces cheer the “natural” preference of women for the colors that this culture deems are most suited to them, and ignore or obfuscate the fact that both sexes prefer the “male” color of blue by a large margin. In this culture of antifeminist backlash, what seems to please the writers most is that “the long-held notion that girls prefer pink while boys prefer blue may hold some truth” (New Scientist). The implication is that if this hackneyed cliché is really a universal truth, other female stereotypes might also be simple descriptions of reality. (more…)

The battle to wrest control of our bodies from us continues…

On August 31, 2006 the state of Washington’s Board of Pharmacy reversed its earlier decision and adopted a rule requiring pharmacists to dispense lawfully prescribed drugs and devices, whether or not the individual pharmacist finds those devices morally reprehensible. What this means is that right-wing pharmacists are not allowed to deny women birth control when women have a prescription to obtain it. It goes for ordinary birth control pills and devices, and for emergency “morning after” medications.

Predictably, the right wing is fighting back, despite the fact that the law allows them to ask another attending pharmacist to take over their duties in dispensing these items. One pharmacy (Stormans) and pharmacists Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen have filed a suit alleging that the rule “forces the plaintiffs to choose between ‘their livelihoods and their deeply held religious and moral beliefs.’” More detailed information about the suit can be found at the ACLU website.

Many states have similar problems. You can visit your local pharmacies and see which ones are willing to dispense morning after pills. You can have an effect by writing letters to store owners and pharmacists, and patronizing pharmacies that make these pills available to women who need them. If your pharmacy does provide this service, writing a letter to express your appreciation might make it easier for them not to bow to right-wing pressure.