Wednesday What's in the News

MILK FROM COWS INJECTED WITH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED HORMONES MAKES TWINS
New research shows that consumers of hormone-tainted dairy products are five times more likely to have fraternal twins than vegans. In a report published in the current issue of the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, researchers linked recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) with this rise in twin birth rates. The study shows how rBGH, a synthetic growth hormone used to increase milk production in dairy cattle, increases ovulation in humans and persists in the body after entering via digested food, particularly milk. Monsanto's controversial hormone has been banned in almost every industrialized country in the world, due to scientific evidence indicating that the milk from injected cows contains more pus, antibiotic residues, and IGF-1, a potent cancer tumor promoter. Consumers can avoid dairy products that contain rBGH by purchasing organic dairy products or by looking for labels on natural products that say rBGH or rBST-free.

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_512.cfm

Tuesday Tip

Whoops - vacation has really gotten in the way.

**Plant your Halloween pumpkin. Determine the days to harvest for particular cultivar and count backward to find the proper planting date.
**Remove cold-season plants, such as radish, spinach and lettuce, as they bolt or form seed stalks.
**Every week or 10 days, continue planting carrots, beans and sweet corn for successive harvests.
And now for a "commercial"
Apply Preen Vegetable Garden Organic Weed Preventer to control crabgrass, dandelions, clover, plantain and many other common weeds.

Wednesday What's in the News

Wheat or white? Now you don't have to choose
Flour blends whole-grain nutrition, milder taste
Wednesday, May 24, 2006;
It's not new, but white wheat flour is growing in popularity.

(AP) -- Whole wheat is looking a whole lot less wheaty these days.

Food processors are selling more of a newly popular flour that merges whole-wheat health benefits with the color, taste and texture of white bread.

The secret: white wheat, a grain that can be milled to resemble pancake-friendly all-purpose flour, but is as healthy as traditional whole wheat.

Though white wheat has been available for years, it's recently garnered serious attention thanks to new government dietary guidelines urging Americans to eat at least three servings a day of whole grains.

"The word is out that Americans should eat more whole grains for a healthier diet," says Garth Neuffer, spokesman for ConAgra Foods Inc., which launches a white wheat-based flour this summer. "However, people also have shown they won't sacrifice taste and convenience. The majority of Americans still want a white flour-tasting product."

That's why white whole-wheat flour has shown up in numerous healthier versions of many refined flour icons during the past year, including Wonder Bread and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers.

Read more:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/diet.fitness/05/10/white.wheat.ap/index.html

Tuesday Tip

Remove faded blooms from peony, iris, delphiniums and other perennials.
Continue planting gladiolus for successive blooms.
Blanch (exclude from light) cauliflower heads when they are 2 inches in diameter. Tie leaves up over the developing heads.

Tuesday Tip - tips

Prune spring-flowering shrubs within a month after blooms fade. These include lilac, forsythia, weigela, rhododendrons and azaleas.

Plant container-grown stock, including shrubs, trees, perennials and annuals.

Monday recipe - Quick corn patties

2 ears uncooked corn
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

Cut corn from ears. Beat egg slightly; add with seasonings to corn. Grease griddle with crushed waxed paper. Drop corn mixture by spoonfuls onto hot griddle. When egg is set and patties are brown on one side, turn and brown other side.

2 servings.

Wednesday What's in the News

Does estrogen make cancer behave differently?
New study explores gender differences

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lung cancer acts differently in women from the way it does in men, and major new studies are exploring whether estrogen is a key reason -- and whether harnessing the hormone might help fight the No. 1 cancer killer.

The gender link may sound surprising. After all, ask women what cancer they worry most about, and surveys show breast cancer consistently tops the list while lung cancer is seldom mentioned.

Yet lung cancer is increasingly a women's problem. It will claim more than 162,000 lives this year, 72,000 of them women. That is more women than are killed by breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers combined.

While male deaths from lung cancer have been dropping since 1991, women's death rates are stubbornly holding steady. Much of that difference is attributed to gender variations in smoking, lung cancer's main cause.

But consider: Women tend to get different kinds of lung cancer from men's. While it is unclear whether they are at greater risk of developing the disease, some research suggests they may absorb more cancer-causing chemicals from cigarettes and become sick after smoking less. Among people who never smoked, more women than men are found to have lung cancer.
On the other hand, women tend to survive lung cancer slightly better than their male counterparts. And some of the newest lung cancer drugs, Tarceva and Iressa, seem to work more often in women.

Teasing out the biology behind the gender differences could lead to improved treatment for everyone, says Dr. Kathy Albain, a lung cancer specialist at Loyola University Health System.
She is heading a National Cancer Institute-funded study that is recruiting 720 patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer to examine what hormones, genes or other molecular factors explain why lung cancer behaves differently in men and women, smokers and nonsmokers.

"We're learning what's going on in the lung, and whether or not this is a real thing that can be exploited for cancer treatment," she says.

Estrogen already is a leading suspect.

"We're just at the infancy" of exploring the hormone's role in lung cancer, cautions University of Pittsburgh pharmacologist Jill Siegfried, a pioneer in the field.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/05/29/women.lung.cancer.ap/index.html