Homeless in Atlanta and On the Internet?

I was shocked, and a bit intrigued when I came across the blog and twitter feed entitled Homeless in Atlanta. A blog claiming to be the rantings of one of Atlanta's street people. My first thought was that it was a fake; but, after reading it more closely, I'm not so sure.
If you have spent any time in downtown Atlanta you are familiar with Atlanta's homeless problem. During my three year stint at Georgia State University I watched a number of people beg and panhandle. It was hard for me to eat lunch downtown sometimes as homeless people can often be seen eating food from the trash next to you.

One day I counted, 17 people asked me for a dollar. If I were to give 17 people a dollar every day, I would be broke myself.

FDA Releases New Cigarette Warning Labels, Updated

The FDA has released nine new cigarette warnings this week that are both graphic and vulgar.

Will scare tactics really convince people to quit smoking? Are addicted smokers -- long term smokers-- really going to be phased looking at these new images on their cigarettes? I doubt it.

Anemia Drugs Pose Heart Threat

"Federal drug regulators said on Friday that three drugs that had been widely used to treat anemia in both kidney and cancer patients were so dangerous to the heart that doctors should consider avoiding the medicines altogether in some patients and using less of them in others."
via F.D.A. Urges Doctors to Cut Back on Anemia Drugs - NYTimes.com.
[Image:Erik Jacobs for The New York Times]

Food Packaging Increases BPA in the Body

If you are a mom you have undoubtedly heard of the term BPA. Almost all baby products have a large label on the front proclaiming to be BPA free. But, what you may not know is that BPA isn't just a concern for baby products.

Drug to Aid With Heart Attack Recovery

A new drug may offer heart attack victims some hope in a better recovery.
"The damage caused by a heart attack had previously been considered permanent.
But a study in the journal Nature showed the drug, thymosin beta 4, if used in advance of a heart attack, was able to "prime" the heart for repair."
via BBC News - Drug makes hearts repair themselves.

Sugar for the Sick

"Used to be that sick kids got lollypops after a visit with the doctor. But in some cases candy can be more than a reward—it can be part of the therapy. Because scientists have found that, in battling chronic infections, sugar can boost the effectiveness of antibiotics."
via Sugar Flushes Out Hidden Microbes: Scientific American Podcast.

Because sweet isn't good enough....

Yet another reason to put down that soda. "Pepsi's next major cola product looks to be a still-secret "mid-calorie" soda, with sixty percent less sugar than a regular can of Pepsi, but that still tastes exactly the same as the real thing. The secret? Flavor enhancements. "Biotech products that are not sweet themselves, but increase the intensity of sweeteners," so it tastes like real sugar."

If sweeter isn't enough, salt-ier is also a goal for the soft drink company.  "Pepsi's custom-designed a new type of type salt—"15 micron salt"—whose molecular structure is designed expressly to taste saltier (maintaining the "taste curve"), allowing Pepsi to douse Lay's potato chips with less sodium, while delivering the same salty kick. (Fun fact: You only taste about 20-25 percent of the salt on the chips. And no one knows how salt really works.) It's going to show up on Lay's in 2012." via The Future of Salt and Sugar Is Being Engineered in a PepsiCo Lab.

A Great Soda Alternative

When I was pregnant with my second child I had a hard time giving up my Coke. But alas, it was caffeinated -- keeping me awake when I desperately needed rest. I came up with a great alternative.

The Pregnant Ladies Soda

• 3/4 cup Simply Lemonade (or, even better your own homemade lemonade)
• 1/4 cup Club Soda
• Ice

Directions: Pour the lemonade and club soda in a glass over ice. Stir & stir well and enjoy.

This would also make a great soda alternative for children.

Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious?

"A landmark study on the topic by Donald Davis and his team of researchers from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was published in December 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. They studied U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional data from both 1950 and 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits, finding “reliable declines” in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C over the past half century."
via Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious?: Scientific American.