Traditional medicine, widely ignored by meidcal Doctors fed by pharmaceutical companies in the US, is darn effective. Dana Fenton has a nice write up on the natural foods that can keep your body in good health: Natural Antibiotics: Foods that Work as Antibiotics

The morbid moralizers are always warning of impending doom when anything that tastes good is likely to be consumed by real folks. A pox on them. I always like it when there is evidence that something pleasurable might be good for you, too.

Evidently, beer, like the processor in your computer, has a small amount of silicon in it. Dietary silicon is a key ingredient for increasing bone mineral density, according to researchers from the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California. Pale ale has the most silicon, beer wise. Thus, pale ale is likely to build bones. Well, that and using them once in a while. Muscle activity is the only sure way to increase bone density.

Read: Beer, especially pale ale, promotes bone health: Study

This morning we’ve been treated to a very interesting analysis of a meta-analysis of the relationship between saturated fat intake and the risk for developing heart disease: Saturated fat and heart disease: studies old and new

Turns out it that there’s a good deal of evidence that reducing saturated fat intake does little for your heart health—and may in fact be detrimental to it.

Michael R. Eades comes to an interesting conclusion about these “saturated fat is very bad for your heart” studies:

Classic behavior from someone whose mind is made up. Ignore the evidence denying your hypothesis and focus on that confirming it. Instead of focusing on which people actually die of heart disease, let’s spend our time running through the maze looking at how our beloved low-fat diet reduces supposed risk factors.

Pig fat, once again, rules.

Read: Saturated fat and heart disease: studies old and new

If there is a statistic that shows the dire straits our culture and economy are squeezed by, this is it:

Pollan explained how “the less we spend on food, the more we spend on healthcare,” siting statistics that show that in 1960, we spent 18% of our income on food and 5% on healthcare nationally, while we now spend 9% of our income on food and 17% on healthcare nationally. They got into the nitty gritty about the western diet and its pitfalls, and Oprah got a laugh when she exclaimed, “the low-fat kick made everybody fatter!”

Read more and see clips of the Oprah show with Michael Pollan: We Need a Food Revolution: Oprah with Michael Pollan

You must read Maira Kalman’s NYT blog today. Back to the land

A few comments are odd, and reflect the extent to which odd thoughts have been injected into empty skulls by PR whizkids. Like if you don’t accept industrial crap food, you will be in a society in decline and will have to accept poverty as your fate. All because some people who farm for a living turn out to be poor. Like, for example, the milk producers in the US east, who are losing farms like crazy while the middlemen thrive on profits through the roof.