Health

The Ontario government is taking additional measures to protect farmworkers during the pandemic by expanding provincewide inspections to farms, greenhouses and other agricultural operations to ensure health and safety measures are being followed. "Our government is taking action to protect essential…

When the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Agriculture (USDA), released new Dietary Guidelines for Americans on December 29, 2020, they looked almost identical to the ones released five years earlier. There were new guidelines related to pregnancy, breastfeeding, and children under two, but to those who’d been paying attention to the process, what stood out was what had not changed.

Most glaringly, the guidelines failed to take up key recommendations from the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the group of experts responsible for preparing a detailed report intended to inform the final guidelines. This year, that document was 835 pages long and included recommendations for lowering the amount of recommended daily sugar from 10 percent of one’s daily calories to 6 percent, as well as limiting alcohol consumption to one drink a day for both men and women.

Mary Beth Kirkham hadn’t studied microplastics when she was invited to co-edit a new book about microplastics in the environment—but something stood out to her about the existing research.

“I had read in the literature that . . . cadmium and other toxic trace elements [are] increased when we have these particulate plastics in the soil. So, that was of concern to me,” said Kirkham, a plant physiologist and distinguished professor of agronomy at Kansas State University.

Kirkham’s expertise is in water and plant relations and heavy metal uptake, so she decided to conduct her own research in which she cultivated wheat plants exposed to microplastics, cadmium, and both microplastics and cadmium. Then she compared these plants to those grown without either additive. She chose cadmium because it’s poisonous, carcinogenic, and ubiquitous in the environment due to human activity—it’s shed from batteries and car tires, and is naturally found in the phosphate rock used to make agricultural fertilizers.

What's the best food for the winter blues? Adding these plant-based foods to your diet can help make seasonal affective disorder feel a little more manageable.

The post How to Reduce the Winter Blues With Plant-Based Food appeared first on LIVEKINDLY.

Sedans, trucks, SUVs, and minivans idling in two lines down both West Vernor Highway and 25th Street, meeting in a fork where vehicles take turns edging forward. Masked drivers unlatching trunks as someone scribbles the number of children in their home on the windshield. Grab-and-go meals at elementary schools handed out for students who take classes virtually at home, while others eat in a cafeteria.

“We wouldn’t be able to make it work without them,” a woman said of the free meals provided by Gleaners Community Food Bank. Sandy, who declined to give her full name, awaited food pickup at St. Anthony’s in a blue minivan in the Tuesday morning line on West Vernor in September. She said the food was for her niece who was supervising virtual school at home for her three children and couldn’t come herself. “It probably saves us $50 to $60.”

Each person is given 30 pounds of food, including produce and milk. “It’s real milk,” Sandy said. “What’s good is the stuff they’re giving is stuff they’re actually eating.”

This is the new picture of food insecurity in Detroit, where the coronavirus pandemic has made hunger more visible. In the last six months, food banks, schools, and social service providers have made a tremendous pivot to make sure people are able to eat.

Drones have already shown that they can reliably deliver vital shipments of blood across Rwanda, drop off prescriptions to senior citizens in Florida, and help quarantining families stay safe with contactless deliveries. Now they’re going to be buzzi...

A 54-year-old construction worker died after eating black licorice for weeks on end caused his heart to stop.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says there are now 239 confirmed cases of salmonella infections linked to red onions imported from the United States.