Toxins In Your Cereal? And Other Cheerful News 'Round The Web

Yep, it's time again for a round-up of random health news and links. Besides toxic cereal, we've got info on scrotum injections, free running apps, snacks to help weight loss, and how to tell if you might make a good cocaine addict.

Well, I did say random, didn't I?

First up, the whistleblowin' Cornucopia folks have a report out that may scare you off your favorite breakfast cereal.  They say "natural" cereals sold by companies like Kellogg’s, Quaker Oats, and even Barbara’s Bakery and Whole Foods are actually  "contaminated with toxic agrichemicals and genetically engineered organisms." They've got a cereal scorecard listing both Virtuous and Unfortunate choices.

Runners: Could you use a list of the best free running apps? There ya' go.

Over at Jody's great blog Truth2BeingFit, there's an important post about an auto-immune disorder called Lichen Sclerosis.  Sadly, because it affects the genitals, many people who get it are too embarrassed to seek treatment early enough--and they end up with scarring and other painful problems. Got anything funny going on down there? You may want to give it a look-see. (Um, I meant give the blog post a look-see. You may want to hold off on that other look-see until you're home from work).

And speaking of genitals...Male birth control: coming soon? One kind they're mulling over requires scrotum injections.  Good luck to the marketing folks on that one.

Got a dog who likes to chew on stuff ?  Lure that precious pup away from your shoes and purses with some lovely... antlers.  Roxy the Traveling Dog says they're so tasty they warrant a reader giveaway.  Random drawing happens Oct 19.

Stuff lifted from my Twitter Stream Out of Pure Laziness:

Research flip-flops yet again--say avoids most supplements, including multivitamins. But hey, calcium is now OK! http://bit.ly/pxmvP1

Hate broccoli? Sorry, you can't get its awesome phytochemicals in a pill. http://bit.ly/osYJTI. Worse news? You're best eating it raw.

Swedish study says chocolate reduces stroke risk: http://t.co/Y1OAhIMS But warns that typical crappy US chocolate may not do the trick.

Find dull tasks excruciating? Could be you have entitlement issues. http://t.co/07EVojTS Uh oh, I'm queen of chore-avoiders...

Best migraine-prevention drug? Study says: Exercise! http://t.co/4XZcpECz Then why do so many folks who exercise a lot still get' em?

Love coffee? Study says you'd make a good cocaine addict: http://t.co/UWqybknL I'm not worried... Least not til cocaine drops to $10/lb.

L'Oreal to introduce pill to reduce incidence of gray hair. http://t.co/aEN4MFr5 Say, isn't that called a "birth control pill?"

False memories good for more than sending innocent people to jail: expert says they can boost confidence etc http://t.co/7AaxPvrP

Think you can't get too much iron? Men and post-menopausal women sure can, so ditch iron-containing supplements http://t.co/Lp1p1tWE

Don't freak if your guy likes porn, it's normal! http://t.co/vPBSEQl2 Only about 5% let it interfere w/ life.

Yet another reason to quit: smokers have strokes 10 years earlier than nonsmokers. http://t.co/ypOq21zA But easier said than done, eh?

Scientists just now figuring out "brain continues to develop beyond adolescence?" http://t.co/LIhvR0TN Um... duh?

14 low-calorie snacks that power up weight loss http://ow.ly/6HPYy Alas, kettlecorn doesn't seem to be on the list.

Resveratrol stops breast cancer cell growth! http://t.co/XcLAGM83 But sadly, spoilsport experts do not suggest intensive red wine therapy

Reebok pays settlement over deceptive shoe "toning" claims. http://t.co/SC7lXfjU Gosh I'm shocked--gotta exercise, the shoes aren't magic?



In Blog News:

It was an exciting week at Cranky Fitness:  the blog got nominated in Shape's Best Fitness Blogger poll!  Voting is still on-going if you want to help Cranky Fitness stave off a bottom-of-the-pile finish.  Which would be a shame--even though Shape presents it as a one-person blog, it certainly wasn't in the good ol' days.  It would do a disservice to all the awesome writing by former cobloggers Merry, Jo, and Gigi if my crappy social networking ability sinks the Cranky ship.

And thanks again to all the kind readers who've been helping out--MUCH appreciated!

So, anything exciting or not-so-exciting happen for you guys this week?   Thoughts about toxic cereal, male birth control, or anything else?

Should You Panic If It's Not Organic?

Photo: Ken McCown

It's not like you hit the grocery store thinking: mmm, what kind of yummy pesticides do I want on my produce today? If you're like me, you might actually prefer to fill your cart with wholesome, natural, organic fruits and vegetables. You want those fruits and veggies to be ripe, unwilted, locally grown, in-season, not full of bugs and worms, untainted by salmonella or e coli, and reasonably priced. Oh, and you'd like Alice Waters or Jamie Oliver to stop by your house and cook it all up for you, while you have a cocktail or two with your bff's Rachel Maddow, Ricky Gervais, Ellen Degeneris, John Stewart, Emma Thompson, George Clooney, and Michelle Obama.

Make Mine a Double, Willya Crabby? Been a Tough Week.

Okay, I'll admit, we're talking pure fantasy... that part about the reasonably priced organic produce.

So let's say, hypothetically, that there may be a few fruits and vegetables that have made their way into your kitchen that are not organic. Even worse, what if some of these items appear on the Environmental Working Group's dreaded list of most pesticide-laden produce, dubbed "The Dirty Dozen?"


How big a deal is it?  Well, I was just alerted to a study that may have some relevance.

Pesticide Researchers say: Screw Organic, the Regular Stuff is Just Fine!

A study of dietary exposure to pesticide residue in the Journal of Toxicology took aim at the EWG's Dirty Dozen list, criticizing their methodology and disputing their findings.


The researchers concluded that:

(1) Exposures to the pesticides on the "Dirty Dozen" list posed negligible risks to consumers; (2) eating organic versions of the "Dirty Dozen" didn't appreciably reduce risk; and (3) the methodology used by the EWG lacked scientific credibility.

For example, the study said that exposure to the pesticides on apples, which were number one on the 2011 Dirty Dozen list, were "well below levels of toxicological concern, with relative exposures between 20,000 and 28 million times lower than levels that do not harm laboratory animals." Even better, for 3 others of the tainted twelve, blueberries, cherries, and kale – the pesticide exposure was over 30 million times lower than those that cause no observable adverse effects in lab animals. (Bell peppers, on the other hand, were the worst at 49.5 times lower).

But Wait Crabby, Where Did You Find This Study?

Why in an email sent from the completely unbiased source, the "Let's Convince Folks That Processed Food and Agribusiness are Totally Awesome So We Can All Make A Crapload of Money Council" the International Food Information Council! How do we know we can trust them? Well, another conveniently highlighted newsletter article was entitled: "Is Industry Funded Research Trustworthy?" And while the article doesn't actually ever answer that question, by mentioning it in an article title you can be reassured that they're all over it! So no worries.

Shouldn't I Trust The Environmental Working Group More than Food Industry Apologists?

Hell, I don't know; they both have their own axes to grind. The EWG are the same folks who think the sunscreen my dermatologist urges me to use will poison me, and listening to them is always depressing. I'd prefer they be wrong, so I can go about my business like ordinary Americans, cheerfully oblivious to all the environmental dangers that may surround me.

Problem is, I'm not an scientist, so when advocacy agendas clash and both sides cite scientific research, I need actual experts to weigh in. Anyone got one handy? There were things about the Toxicology Journal article that sounded vaguely suspicious to me, like using a "probabilistic modeling approach to estimate exposures." Or this sentence: "Residue findings considered as nondetections were assigned a value of zero...rather than using the much more conservative approach of considering nondetectable residues as being to one-half of the detection limits." But again--what the heck do I know?

So Are You Going To Start Buying A Lot More Produce That's Treated with Pesticides?

No way! Not only because I don't want ANY pesticides if I can avoid them, but because I want to support the stores and suppliers that don't use them. Perhaps if there was more of a market, prices would go down! But I think when organic isn't available, and I'm contemplating a tasty looking carton of fresh ripe conventionally grown blueberries, they have a much better chance of ending up in my grocery cart after reading the above toxicology study, even if I don't entirely understand it.

What about you guys--do you try to buy organic when you can? Or the heck with that, who would you invite to your celebrity BFF cocktail party?

Organic food: just as nutritious with pesticides?

Studies suggest... you should avoid grapefruit.

Sometimes I wonder about people.



Journalists, for example.

Researchers published a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which found that "found no differences in most nutrients in organically or conventionally grown crops, including in vitamin C, calcium, and iron. The same was true for studies looking at meat, dairy and eggs."


The BBC ran an article about this report. It was titled "Organic Has No Health Benefits."

Excuse me? WTF?


In what universe is food that has been grown with pesticides considered the same as food that's grown without pesticides?

Look, journalists. "Organic" fruit and vegetables are grown with a minimal amount of pesticides. Pesticides are bad.

Pesticides can be endocrine disruptors. These are linked to reproductive cancers.

The New York Times ran an article on a common weed killer, atrazine. "Recent studies suggest that, even at concentrations meeting current federal standards, the chemical may be associated with birth defects, low birth weights and menstrual problems." [The link may require you to login. But it's free, and they don't send you spam -- at least, they don't send it to me. Maybe they just like me.]

So how can these journalists say organic food doesn't have any benefit?

I figure this calls for a graph.

Yes, I am taking the argument to an extreme by suggestion people who ingest potassium cyanide might just possibly not be doing a healthy thing. But it's no more absurd than judging organic food by the extremely narrow criterion of whether its nutritional value is vastly higher than regularly grown foods -- and completely ignoring the wee bit about pesticides being Not Nice.


I'd started this post awhile ago, then set it aside so it could 'mature.' (Unlike moi, who just gets older.) Thanks to reader versweet for reminding Crabby and me of how absurd these news articles can be!


Am I being too cranky here? Should I just shrug and go back to worrying about Global Warming or Scrabble or something like that?

When do You Buy Organic?

Do you buy organic every time you shop for produce?

Some people do, and that's awesome. But Crabby tends to be a bit hit or miss about it. It's easier when she's at the Farmer's Market, buying local organic produce that was picked that day and looks and smells fresh and lovely. (Or even the farmer's market stuff that's not officially certified organic but is nonetheless grown without pesticides. Crabby doesn't think her kindly neighborhood vendors are lying to her about that).

Buying organic, however, can be tougher at the Big Chain Grocery stores. Sometimes the offerings are limited. Often what they do have is very expensive and old and wilty and scraggly because so few shoppers frequent that section. It's always tempting to stick with the big bright pyramids of perky-looking and attractively priced fruit and vegetables in the regular section, bypassing entirely the sad little clumps of pricey organic fare off in the corner.

But who wants to eat pesticides?

Crabby really doesn't. Even if sometimes she manages to "forget" that the regular produce she's throwing in her cart could be contaminated with all kinds of evil chemicals that no amount of scrubbing will remove.

Help is here, however! If you can't buy organic all the time, there's a handy guide available that rates the best and worst produce in terms of pesticide content. You can apparently reduce your pesticide exposure by about 90% by going organic on the 12 worst items.

And here's an additional important tip: Print that sucker out and put it on your refrigerator! Seriously. Crabby has seen these sorts of lists before and always thinks she will remember which foods are really bad, but when she gets to the store she never does. Take that info from your fridge when you're making a shopping list and put a little "O" by the high priority organic stuff--because that's where you want to spend your organic budget.

Who knows, perhaps if we all stop buying non-organic versions of the Worst Offenders, produce suppliers and supermarkets will get the message and offer more and cheaper organic produce!

(OK, Crabby won't hold her breath on that one. The readership of Cranky Fitness is not that big. It will be quite a while before we can influence the selections on offer at your favorite grocery store. But hell, we're working' on it.)

So, enough with the yapping, lets bring on the list!

Note: a much more attractive, suitable-for-refrigerator-display PDF file is available for free from the Environmental Working Group; also they have a way bigger compilation of pesticide data at their site too. But in the meantime...

Pesticide-Laden Fruits and Vegetables to Avoid:

• Peaches
• Apples
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Celery
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Lettuce
• Grapes (Imported)
• Pears
• Spinach
• Potatoes

The "Good" (Less Contaminated) Produce:

• Onions
• Avocado
• Sweet Corn - Frozen
• Pineapples
• Mango
• Sweet Peas - Frozen
• Asparagus
• Kiwi
• Bananas
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Eggplant

So how often do you folks buy organic produce?