Orthorexia nervosa: I don't have it
22-hour road trips from Florida to Manhattan (KS) make for many McDonald’s Egg McMuffin breakfasts, KFC lunches and no dinner, cause I’ve already blown the daily 5,000 calorie limit.
So it’s good to know that an obsession with eating healthily could also be bad for one’s health.
Experts have reported a rise in such extreme behaviour, known as orthorexia nervosa.
Sufferers or orthorexia nervosa tend to be over 30, middle-class and well-educated.
While anorexia patients restrict the quantity of the food they eat, sufferers of orthorexia, named after the Greek for 'right or true', fixate on quality.
The 'rules' vary from person to person, but the drive to eat only the healthiest foods can lead to sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods being eliminated from the diet. …
Sufferers tend to spend hours reading the latest food research, trawling health food stores and planning menus.
Deanne Jade, founder of the National Centre for Eating Disorders, said,
“I see people around me who have no idea they have this disorder. I see it in my practice and I see it in my friends and colleagues.'”
She believes the rise of the condition is linked to society's tolerance of food fads and those who promote them, from gym instructors to naturopaths, who prescribe changes in diet to treat illnesses.
Perhaps like whatever the U.K. National Centre for Eating Disorders is.
CHUCK DODD: Eating dirt can be bad for you
New York Times journalist Jane Brody suggests that eating dirt is an instinctive behavior in humans. In her article, Eating dirt can be good for you - just ask babies, she interviewed researchers who think 
people should eat dirt in order to stimulate their immune system. Brody says that immune system disorders such as asthma and allergies have risen significantly in the United States.
Although allergies do appear to be on the rise, the awareness of allergies, the ability to diagnose allergies, and the number of people at risk (the U.S. population) have also risen significantly.
The director of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Dr. Joel Weinstock, said in the interview,
"There are very few diseases that people get from worms. Humans have adapted to the presence of most of them. … Children should be allowed to go barefoot in the dirt, play in the dirt, and not have to wash their hands when they come in to eat…let kids have two dogs and a cat, which will expose them to intestinal worms that can promote a healthy immune system.”
Dr. Weinstock, I’m sure glad you aren’t my doctor.
I agree that immune systems are naturally stimulated by various exposures to the environment, and that Americans use too many antibacterial products, but I question Dr. Weinstock’s knowledge of zoonotic diseases. Intestinal parasites from animals that infect humans, since many are not adapted to humans, often leave the intestines and migrate through the body. There are approximately 10,000 human cases of larva migrans in the U.S. each year. Unfortunately, most of these cases are in children, and a few of these kids die.
Eating dirt is an instinct? Not for me. Babies eat dirt because they don’t know better. Some may think that bad behavior is an instinct, but calling bad behavior an instinct doesn’t excuse it. Bad advice shouldn’t be excused either.
Dirt may have poop in it, so don’t eat it.
Clean the damn car once in a while and stop leaving food on the dashboard
I drove a Nissan Quest for about 8 years. Put on a lot of miles driving to Florida, saw a lot of vomit with four kids.
So for 6 a.m. hockey practices – and I was often the coach so I and whatever lucky kid was on that specific team had to be there at 5:30 or something stupid – I would often microwave an egg or two, slap it between some bread and away we’d go. I even sometimes put it on the dashboard.
Apparently I wasn’t alone. A poll by insurance.co.uk of 1376 car owners found that British motorists spend more than three years of their lives behind the wheel and over a quarter eat en route every week.
The poll also (...) revealed some startling hygiene calamities some drivers have faced.
Some motorist admitted finding dead mice, dog poo, fishing maggots, a three-year-old sandwich, a joint of beef, a partner's [or] ex's knickers, a used condom, child's vomit in a door pocket, and mushrooms growing in the floor.
My van wasn’t that bad.
Gross bathroom behavior at LAX
He went into a stall while continuing to eat his apple.I left.
The year of the rat -- tastes like chicken (or better)
And rice farmers are rejoicing, eating the rodent that is damaging crops.
In Thailand, BBC News reports that fast food sellers are enjoying a boom in rat sales, as people learn to love the taste of the rodent.
The rats are drowned and sold uncooked or ready to eat, with happy customers purchasing rat meat for as much as 150 baht ($4.82; £2.30) a kilogram.One customer was quoted as telling AP,
"It's better than chicken."
One rat seller, Sala Prompim, said that the hip and liver were the best cuts, adding,
"It's tastier than other meats - nothing can compete with rat."
Mr Prompim said he only used rats caught from rice fields, and not those found in towns or cities because,
"They are definitely clean."
The Wall Street Journal reports that due to bird flu, field rats have become a popular food in Vietnam.
The story says that in Tu Son, a small village sitting near the banks of the Red River, rat hunter Ngo Minh Tam reckons,
"99%" of the people regularly dine on rat meat."
Rat-based cuisine is beginning to catch on in the big cities as well. Handwritten signs in some of the backstreets of Hanoi offer cash in return for freshly caught rat.
Eating placenta derails postpartum in new moms?
My four daughters were born at home under the supervision of trained midwives. A question always arose: what to do with the placenta?Jodi Selander, founder of PlacentaBenefits.info has an answer: eat it.
"I believe nature intended women to begin their mothering journey balanced, rested and joyful. Placenta capsules are an easy way to restore what is lost during pregnancy and birth. There are many ways to prepare your placenta for ingestion. Some women feel comfortable putting placenta in a smoothie, creating a special recipe or even consuming it raw. My preferred method of ingestion is to dry the placenta and put it into capsules."
Is raw placenta microbiologically safe? Did Tom Cruise really dine on placenta after Katie gave birth like he said he was going to back in April 2006, and then denied as a joke?
A press release for the upcoming company, which will be at the upcoming Gentle Birth World Congress in Portland, Oregon, says:
"More than 80% of new mothers suffer from mood instability caused by hormonal fluctuations beginning in the first week after giving birth. The placenta contains a woman's own natural hormones to alleviate fluctuations, as well as iron, protein and other nutrients which provide the means to replenish and nourish a woman's body. Women who take placenta capsules report fewer emotional issues, have more energy and tend to enjoy a faster, more pleasant postpartum recovery. Research has found that placenta significantly increases a woman's milk production, and affects a variety of chemicals in the brain."
Not so say others. We buried ours.
