Reusable Grocery Bags: Shocking Scary New Study!

When using a reusable grocery bag made from cloth or plastic, the last thing you think of is it harming you in any way. Everyone seems so proud of themselves for reusing these bags instead of taking the kind that you use once and throw away; contributing to the billions of plastic bags sent to landfills every year. However, what most people don't know is how many pathogens these bags are carrying.

In a shocking new study conducted by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University in California, it was found that 12% of re-useable bags contained Escherichia coli (E.Coli)!!! Even more disturbing, is that when meat juices were added to the bags and stored in the trunks of cars for two hours, there was a two-fold increase in the number of bacteria, indicating the potential for bacteria growth in these bags! The purpose of this study was to assess the potential for cross-contamination of food products from reusable bags used to carry groceries.

Think about it, when you buy chicken you have a routine of cleaning your hands before and after handling it, followed by washing the surrounding kitchen counter. Did you ever think of washing the reusable bag? Most people don't because lets face it, we are so used to using plastic bags that you just throw out after putting the groceries away. What we fail to think of is the cereal box that was also put in the grocery bag which could have punctured the plastic wrap surrounding the chicken. If this did occur it could result in chicken juice leaking into the bag and thus possible salmonella contamination.

I have also noticed that people tend to reuse their petroleum plastic bags (the kind that you are supposed to throw away) to their carry lunches to school or work. Remember that bacteria aren’t picky and if that bag had been carrying raw meat, there’s always the potential of pathogenic bacteria being present, it doesn’t take much.  

When researchers from the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University took random reusable grocery bags from consumers as they entered the grocery stores in California and Arizona, what they found was disturbing. Indeed, a large number of bacteria were found in almost all of the bags and coliform bacterial was found in HALF. Even more interesting was that when the researchers interviewed customers, it was found that reusable bags are seldom if ever washed and often used for multiple purposes. It is also important to note that no bacteria were found in store-bought non-reusable petroleum plastic bags.

So what now? Simple, just clean your reusable grocery bags. In fact, the researchers in the study mentioned said that hand or machine washing, reduced the numbers of bacteria in reusable bags by 99.9 percent.

References

[1]  Gerba, C.P., Williams, D., Sinclair, R.G. (2010) "Assessment of the Potential for Cross Contamination of Food Products by Reusable Shopping Bags" University of Arizona (Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science) and Loma Linda University (School of Public Health).

Sewage to Plastic

Have you ever wondered what happens to your organic waste after you flush the toilet? Many people don’t. Did you ever think there was a downstream use for the stuff? How about turning it into biodegradable plastic? I know this seems far-fetched, but not according to a California based company called Micromidas who is doing just that. Micromidas is a new company that locates waste-water treatment plants, sets up a facility on site, takes the organic load and then converts it into plastic in-house.

Whenever I go scouting for new innovation, I say to myself “(a) is this a new product? and can it (b) reduce the impact an existing problem?” If the answer is yes to both, then I know there is a future for this product and my attention is immediately captured. Micromidas has created plastic from sewage that can potentially solve two problems: (a) sewage sludge  and (b) petroleum plastic waste. 

Indeed, the collection and disposable of sewage is very costly, time consuming and damaging to environment. As the cities of the world are expanding, a lot of waste-water facilities are becoming overloaded.  The solids in these facilities are very difficult and costly to remove as you can’t burn them, throw them in the ocean, or dig a whole and stick them in there. 

A lot of the money spent in sewage water disposable involves drying it out, putting it in trucks and just driving until they find an area to dump it. However, when it is dumped it dries out into methane and carbon dioxide... two greenhouse gasses destroying the ozone layer! After it’s all done the trucks go back and get more. It’s a cycle that never ends and involves a lot of manual labor.

Petroleum based plastic is a very involved process when you look at the entire life-cycle. First off, you have to drill down into the earth, pump it up, send it to a refinery, refine it, pull out fractions, send it to a chemical manufacturer who polymerizes it to get a final resin that is sent to a manufacturer....this process goes on forever. Is this very involved process worth making plastic from petroleum that will be used for 5 min and then throw away? In fact, plastic requires 8% of all the world’s oil and, 150 million tons of plastic is “thrown away” every year.  As a result there are literally these huge islands of plastic floating around in the oceans, some of them larger than the state of Texas.

What most people don’t realize is that sewage contains proteins, amino acids, carboyhydrates, simple sugars, fatty acids and fats. Micromidas feeds this sewage to their genetically modified bacteria cocktails. The reason they have a cocktail of bacteria is because no species will preferentially eat all of those ingredients. As a result, the bacteria produce/store a bio-polyester called polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) –type of plastic, similar in texture, feel, and properties to the plastic we have been using all of our lives. The only difference of PHA plastic is that enzymes can break it down. 

I always say, that it should not be about what a company is doing, but rather HOW they are doing it. This is exactly the case for Micromidas as it is their process in making biodegradable plastic that I find fascinating and so novel!

Society is using a model to reduce waste that is not working. By that, I mean we as consumers are under the impression that by just using less all of these problems will go away (i.e. cloth grocery bags instead of a plastic grocery bag; tin water bottle versus. plastic water bottle; obsessively shutting the lights off every time we leave the house). Yes, this may buy us some time but it is essentially a false solution and we have to recognize this. What we need to do is find better solutions, and Micromidas has proved that they have.

Learn more by watching this video where John Bissell, the CEO of Micromidas talks about his company...

Safe Texting -Type n' Walk App

Have you ever been driving through a parking lot and someone is walking oblivious to anything and everything around them because they are TEXTING? Or have you ever tripped over a curb or bumped into a person while texting? With all these new technologies emerging, peripheral vision just doesn't cut it when providing enough visual information to help one avoid such obstacles.

Today I discovered this new app called "Type 'n Walk" which lays your keyboard and text box over a visual of what your iPhone's camera sees...so no more worrying about tripping on the curve or colliding with a car while keeping in touch on the go.

To my surprise this app has actually been in the iTunes store since 2009! However, in February it was updated for just $.99. Also, the reviews are very good, averaging three and a half stars out of five.

Click here if you want to view a live demo of the app.

Self Cleaning Plastics

Have you ever put vegetables in the fridge for too long and the Saran wrap that you wrapped them in got all soggy? You're not alone. What if you never had to worry about dirty, microorganism infested plastics? What if the plastic just cleaned itself? This could save companies millions of dollars and put money back in consumers pockets, as they wouldn't have to go back to the grocery store to buy more food.This isn't far from reality thanks researcher led by Lukas C. Gerber at ETH Zurich. 

These Swiss researchers have isolated the fungus from blue cheese -yes, blue cheese - called peniciliium roqueforti and injected it into very thin porous sheets of plastic. The theory was to make plastic protect itself from unwanted bacteria, just like peniciliium roqueforti does to protect the cheese on the inside of a rind.

This could make dish detergents, soaps and sponges extinct!!  In fact, this novel material was called the "first eating material" and was recently described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To prove that their theory of "self-cleaning plastic" was indeed possible, the researchers put a small amount of sugar solution on the plastic and let it go to work. They said in their recently published paper that "“Gas exchange for breathing and transport of nutrient through a nano-porous top layer allowed selective intake of food whilst limiting the microorganism to dwell exclusively in between a confined, well-enclosed area of the material,”

What shocked most people was that two weeks later, the sugar solution had been completely consumed by the fungus, leaving the plastic perfectly clean.  

So, you may be asking "now that the fungus has eaten all the sugar solution, will it continue eating the plastic?" The answer is no. In fact, with nothing to feed on the fungus went dormant again. Incredible!

Yes, two weeks for a plastic material to clean itself might seem like a long time but there are endless applications for this in the marketplace. A lot of the time, salmonella bacteria get's into leafy vegetables that are packaged. If they were wrapped in this type of plastic, the bacteria could possibly reduce food borne bacteria and save millions. Also, what if you went on vacation and came back to moldy bread? The fungus in the plastic could prevent the mold from overgrowing and spoiling all the bread..saving you money. 

This is not the first time though I have heard of fungus' being used with plastics. Last month I read an article about how students from Yale University discovered a fungus in the Amazon that can break down and utilize plastic. According to their research, the pestalotispsis microspora fungi can break down the common plastic called polyurethane. This is incredible as polyurethane plastics cannot be recycled because they cannot be remelted -once formed, they are that way forever. Airplanes are an example of this kind of plastic.

Unlike the polyurethane eating plastic, this "self cleaning plastic" contains a fungus that doesn't break down the plastic as well.

The world of plastic innovation continues to inspire and amaze me.

Cancer Warnings on Coca-Cola Cans -Forcing Company to Change Coloring Ingredient

Have you ever wondered what makes your daily Coke or Pepsi drink that black color? In my opinion, any drink that has to be COLORED BLACK is because consumers most likely wouldn’t buy the soda drink if they saw what the true color looked like after processing. It seems today that there are so many chemicals put into our everyday soda pop that it is hard to keep track of.  

The latest news is that Coca-Cola is changing their formulation to prevent having to write “CANCER WARNING” on their soda cans. This is all because a carcinogen was found in Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi which exceeded the state of California’s 29-migrogram benchmark. What’s even more shocking is that while Pepsi and Coca Cola are altering their coloring to avoid having to write cancer warnings, the DRINK WILL REMAIN THE SAME IN CANADA.

This all boils down to the coloring ingredient called 4-methylimadazole, also known as 4-MEI.  4-MEI forms during the roasting, heating or cooling process of any soy sauce, caramel and molasses. Specifically, the caramel colorings Coca-Cola uses contain ammonia sulphite, which produces 4-MEI as a by-product after heating.  

The U.S. Center for Science in the Public Interest was the organization that tested the Coca-Cola drinks and said that 4-MEI posed a danger to those who drink Coca-Cola. They went on to say that it was linked to cancer in animals during testing and exceeds allowable levels in U.S. food supply. Specifically, the average amount (138 micrograms) found in a 12-ounce can was 4.8 times greater than California's 29 microgram-per-day limit.

California’s strict food laws have forced Coca-Cola to adapt to this crisis and reformulate their caramel color. So far they are the only state making this change as it is under the State of California’s Proposition 65 that food products containing a specific level of cancer-causing chemicals must be labelled... it just so happened that 4-MEI was added to the list in 2011.

Global News says that while Coke and Pepsi complied with this law, spokespeople for both companies disagreed that their products are carcinogenic.

 
“The caramel colour in all of our products has been, is and always will be safe. That is fact. I think it’s important to stress to your readers that the 4-MEI levels in our products pose no health or safety risks. They never have,” Garza Ciarlante told Global News.

Also, the Canadian Beverage Association claims that 4-MEI poses no risk to consumers. Specifically, they said that..

“4-MEI is not a threat to human health... Health regulatory agencies around the globe, including Health Canada, confirm that 4-MEI is safe. This is nothing more than another attempt to scare consumers. Our member's priority is the safety of the products they make and their ingredients.”
 

However, if this was the case why is Coca-Cola changing the way they make the caramel coloring used in their cola products sold in California? Also, I just read in the Vancouver Sun that Coca-Cola is going ahead now and changing the manufacturing process for the caramel throughout the entire USA.

I really think you are at risk if you have a soda every single day. This is because the FDA told Reuters that in order to reach the threshold for this carcinogenic food additive that was found in animals, you would have to drink 1000 sodas. Considering that there is ~365 days in a year and some people drink one soda a day, that means you could reach this threshold in just under 3 years!! 

If you really wanted to do something for your health though, just one thing that would make a large impact in your life, I would say to cut out your sodas, sweetened beverages etc., as obesity and diabetes is poses a higher risk overall compared to cancer from the caramel coloring. Eco-Savy is a website dedicated to helping people achieve a more eco-friendly, healthy lifestyle- check it out!You will also loose inches off your waist from that one simple change.

You are what you eat, so become educated on the food and beverage choices you make every day. Also, if you don’t agree with a policy or ingredient in a food product, never hesitate to contact that food company and learn more about it. Also, make them aware of what you as a consumer do and do not want in the food you buy. We all have the power to make a difference, everything counts.

 © new wave ideas -Sara Bonham

Algae Fueled Airplanes - Incredible!

I bet you have never thought that the answer to tackling our worldwide dependence on fossil fuels and limiting carbon dioxide emissions (linked to climate change) would reside in the hands of a simple photosynthetic plant/microorganism like algae. Yes I said it, ALGAE. 

The latest quest for biofuel manufacturers around the world is to produce clean jet fuel from algae. Why you may ask? Beyond the improved efficiency, biofuels are the only way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the airline sector. Furthermore, The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (part of the U.S. Department of Energy) recently reported that renewable fuel from algae could eventually replace 17% of the U.S. oil imports. There's no question that algae are productive little creatures, capable of yielding 10 to 100 times more fuel per hectare than a traditional crop like corn. 

What makes algae so unique is that its tissues are not organized into the many distinct organs that are found in land plants. Thus, they are more versatile and under certain conditions and able to produce small quantities of ethanol. In fact, up to 50% of an algae's body weight can be comprised of oil vs. oil-palm trees (largest produce of biofuel) yeild only ~20% of their weight in oil.[1] Algae are the least publicized source of biofuel feedstock yet may hold the greatest potential for simultaneously tackling a lot of the problems related to our reliance on petroleum based resources.  

“Put quite simply, microalgae are remarkable and efficient biological factories capable of taking a waste (zero-energy) form of carbon (CO₂) and converting it into a high density liquid form of energy (natural oil).”
-A Look Back at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Aquatic Species Program: Biodiesel from Algae, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

 

For as long as I can remember I was interested in the topic of algae and biofuels. However, the wave of interest has been a long time coming, as scientists have been researching algae and ethanol since the 1980's. The push really came though when oil prices began falling in the early 1990's and with peak oil on the rise.[2]  Today, dozens of start-ups have sprung out of Universities, government labs and corporate R&D divisions, all hoping to break the world’s addiction to oil in a way that’s economical and doesn’t compete with food production. 

COMPANIES LEADING THE WAY

Solazyme and Cellana are two very interesting biotech companies that I have been following for a while now. They are involved in the research and manufacturing of algae in the form of fuel, chemical, health and beauty products. I recently read a really interesting article in The Atlantic magazine with the CEO of Solazyme and the interviewer asked him "what new idea or innovation is having the most impact on the sustainability world"...his response was:

"...With a planet that is now heading towards nine billion people in the next 40 years, we are going to have to find new and different ways of doing things. Solazyme's technology provides one important link in that chain, as we are changing the oil paradigm with renewable and sustainable solutions for both food and fuel ...The trend happening across the industry is that these breakthrough technologies will be entering the market soon and are designed to fit seamlessly into existing infrastructure."

Solazyme, is now supplying algae based fuel (along with Dynamic Fuels LLC and Syntroleum Corp.) to the U.S. Navy. In fact, the Navy spent $12 million last year to buy 450,000 gallons of alternative fuel for aircrafts, ships and unmanned vehicles. This was the biggest government purchase of advanced biofuels according to the Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. 

Furthermore, according to Bloomberg.com: "Dynamic Fuels will process algal oil supplied by Solazyme and used cooking oil into 100,000 gallons of jet fuel and 350,000 gallons of marine distillate fuel at its plant in Geismar, Louisiana. The facility opened in November 2010 and has a 75 million gallon a year capacity. The Navy will receive the fuel in May 2012, the companies said today in a joint statement distributed by Globe Newswire. Both companies previously supplied fuel to the military for testing."

DOESN'T ALGAE ONLY GROW WITH THE SUN? 

PRODUCING ALGAE ON LARGE SCALE -RESEARCH!

What I find most interesting was when Solazyme realized that they didn't need the sun and photosynthesis to let algae multiply. They were able to leverage decades of industrial fermentation expertise and equipment to grow algae quickly and inexpensively -in the DARK- using standard fermentors. All it took was SUGAR!! Algae feed on sugar which allows them to grow, just as they can grown in the sun. With this unique approach, they are able to scale rapidly to descend the cost curve and meet today's needs for renewable and sustainable oils.

Magnetic Field

Another approach to making algae grow without photosynthesis is still the early stages of development at the University of Western Ontario, but worth mentioning. Wankei Wan, who is a professor of biochemical engineering has found a way to increase growth of algae through MAGNETIC FIELDS! How neat!! In his work an algae pond was circulated through an area exposed to static magnetic fields. What they found was that the algae produced dramatically more antioxidants, such as Astazanthin (often used as a food supplement) when exposed to the magnetic fields. They coined this process "milking algae". Overall, the researchers noticed that the growth would increase steadily as the field strength grew. Then, once peak growth was reached, there would be a steep decline. Further research is still needed but great progress is making way.

COMPETING WITH AGRICULTURE?

Biofuels - whether it be related to biodiesel or ethanol - have gotten a bum rap over the past two years. This is mainly because most of the ethanol comes from corn. Indeed, a fierce debate has emerged over whether prime agricultural land should be used to grow crops for fuel instead of food. Also, with the amount of energy put into the entire life-cycle of producing ethanol from cord, many even wonder if it is worth it at all. 

Biofuels themselves are not the problem, it is more in relation to how they are produced...AND THAT IS WHY ALGAE HAVE RE-ENERGIZED INTEREST IN THIS EMERGING MARKET. Specifically, when comparing the amount of acreage to the product, algae can produce up to 15,000 gallons per acre per year, while soy only produces some 50 gallons of oil per acre per year; canola -15 gallons; and palm, 650 gallons. That's a substantially more! [1]

Algae production in no way competes with food and requires no agricultural land to grow. By some estimates, algae uses one-tenth the land required for growing corn. The biggest challenge is to develop an approach to producing oil or ethanol from algae that can be done on a cost competitive, massive global scale.

References
1. http://cellana.com/why-algae/
2. http://www.thestar.com/article/671615--algae-the-next-biofuel-bet





© new wave ideas -Sara Bonham

Snail Turned into a Living Battery

With all the buzz talk today about the urge to discover alternative sources of energy, the last thing that comes to my mind are insects. 

I used to think the folks at DARPA only enjoyed looking at this kind of thing, but a team from Clarkson University in New York and BenGurion University in Israel, have gone one better by turning a snail into a power generator. Yes, ladies and gentleman, A SNAIL!!!

To make this possible, a pair of buckypaper electrodes (tough sheets of matter made of carbon nano-tubes that can generate energy) were charged by the electro-chemical reactions in the slow-moving invertebrates "hemolymph," its equivalent to blood.

The main questions that come to mind are, how much energy can this generate? Also, because snails move so slowly I am sure their blood does too, so would this then mean that not much energy can be generated? If so, what is the purpose of this? According to Discovery Magazine, the snail cyborg can only produce about 0.16 micro-watts of continuous power, though it can rise to more than 7 micro-watts for short bursts (your average light bulb consumes 60 watts). Furthermore, engaget.com said that "it is hoped the snails will provide a sustainable way to power listening devices for the Department of Homeland Security." It is said that the snails will be tiny spies for the military that can crawl through rubble in buildings and generate only enough energy to send signals back to their base.

...so if you see a bunch of snails with small attachments on their heads, watch out!

The first time I heard of  insects being used to harvest energy was when I found out researchers at DARPA had attached cybernetic implants onto beetles brains as a way to make a more useful and cost-efficient micro-air vehicles than fully robotic ones.

However, what amazed me the most was that they were able to attached piezoelectric generators to each wing and harvest the energy generated during flying and use it to power the mind-control circuit!!!

So how did all of this cyborg excitement come to be? Surprisingly, it can all be traced back to an experiment in 2003 that involved scientists generating power from a grape. However, unlike the grape, all the living creatures in these studies survived and thrived to tell the tail.
 

© new wave ideas -Sara Bonham

Biodegradable Plastic Taking from Agriculture?

Significant apprehension has been raised in response to bioplastics taking away from agricultural crops. This should not be a concern for consumers or companies whatsoever. Indeed, of all the land in the world, 92% is cultivated for agriculture, 6% for industrial materials, 2% for biofuels, and less than 0.1% is for bioplastics-miniscule! [1] Additionally, from a mass flow perspective, the amount of raw materials used for the production of bioplastics also is very small compared to the amount of materials used for biofuels. Based on different estimates by the nova-institute, it was concluded that “the impact of biofuels was about 250 times greater than the impact of bioplastics on food markets, agricultural prices and land competition in 2008.”[2]

Misconceptions and Economic Impact

There are common negative misconceptions within the renewable community associated with the consumer’s ideas of bioplastics that can potentially impact the marketplace. Specifically, it is viewed that consumers within business and amongst the wider public are unaware that bioplastics derived from feedstock even exists, not to mention all of the performance advantages they offer. In fact, materials based on renewable resources are often assumed to be of lower quality in terms of performance. The table below illustrates  all of the important primary and secondary factors in terms of price, product quality, product performance and business performance/reputation which allow bioplastics to remain effcient and competitive with a strong hold on the market.

                    Table: Bioplastics Efficiency and Competitiveness. [3]

Understanding customer needs has shown to be critical in order to successfully commercialize inventions. Interaction with customers can help the company to gain information about market needs and new technological advancements. In order to create the most value for the customers, it is essential for the company understand the customer needs by an active exchange of knowledge.[4] One kind of customer involvement is termed co-development, in which the producing company and the customers work closely through the entire product development process, exchanging knowledge, ideas and expertise.[5]

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References

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1. Carus, M., Piotrowski (2009) Land Use for Bioplastics. Bioplastics Magazine. Nova Institute, Germany

2. Carus, M., Scholz, L. (2011) Report on Bio-based Plastics and Composites. Biowerkstoff-Report, Edition 8. Available: www.nova-institut.de/nr. Online: March 28th, 2011

3. Theinsathid, P., Chandrachai, A., Keeratipibul, S. (2009) Managing Bioplastics Business Innovation in Start Up Phase. Journal of Technology Management & Innovation. 4(1), 82-93.

4.  Freeman, C. (1991). "Networks of Innovators: A Synthesis of Research Issues." Research Policy, 20(5), 499-514.

5. Neale, M.R., Corkindale, D.R. (1998), "Co-Developing Products: Involving Customers Earlier and More Deeply." Long Range Planning, 31(3), 418-425 

© new wave ideas -Sara Bonham

Preventing Cancer with Diet: Part 2

As a result of the huge interest in my first blog on “Preventing Cancer Through Diet”, I thought it was in everyone’s best interest continue to discussion…

For starters, did you know that ginger root has strong anti-inflammatory properties and may even reduce your risk of cancer?! Inflammation in the arteries and body is what most often causes free radicals, which lead to cancer.  You can picture free radicals as red hot particles bouncing around inside a cell burning anything they come into contact with such as your DNA, cell membranes and proteins in the cytoplasm. 

Now, researchers at the University School of Medicine have discovered that people who consumed 2 grams of dried ginger powder extract daily for a month, experienced a significant reduction in colon inflammation. Note that chronic inflammation has been highly associated with developing precancerous lesions, or cancerous polyps. Although you would need to eat 2 -3 tablespoons of fresh chopped ginger root a day to achieve these benefits, smaller amounts may also be helpful for those with conditions like irritable bowel syndrome or arthritis.

In 1997, the American Institute for Cancer Research [1], in collaboration with its international affiliate- the World Cancer Research Fund issued a major international report called “Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective.” Just to show that there was no bias in the study, it is important that I mention the report analyzed more than 4,500 research studies. Furthermore, the production of the report involved the participation of more than 120 contributors and peer reviewers.

What shocked me after reading this report was that 60 -70% of all cancers can be prevented by staying physically active, not smoking AND following the reports number one dietary recommendation: “Chose predominantly plant-based diets rich in a variety of vegetables and fruits, legumes, and minimally processed starched staple foods.”

The study also included a panel of 15 of the world’s leading researchers in diet and cancer. What they found was astounding! Of the 200 case-controlled studies that were reviewed on the link between fruits /veggies and cancer, 78% showed a statistically protective effect in regards to many kinds of cancer!!! Only 22% showed no significant link. None showed an increase of cancer with consumption of these foods.

Researcher published in the British Medical Journal  [2] and in the Journal of Epidemiology [3] has also found that cancer rates for vegetarians are 20 -50% less than those of the general population –even after controlling for smoking, body mass index, and socioeconomic status. Researchers have also found that the likelihood of a vegetarian reaching the age of 80 is 1.8 times greater than that to the general population- even after adjusting for smoking. [4,5]

So the conclusion here is to eat fruits and vegetables. Simple.

References

1.      1. World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective, 1997.

2.      2.  Thorogood, M., et al., “Risk of Death from Cancer and Ischaemic Heart Disease in Meat and Non-Meat Eaters,” British Medical Journal 308 (1994): 1667-70.

3.      3. Chang-Claude, J., et al., “Mortality Pattern of German Vegetarians after 11 Years of Follow-Up,” Epidemiology 3 (1992): 395-401.

4.      4. Key, T.J.A., et al., “Dietary Habits and Mortality in 11,000 Vegetarians and Health Conscious People: Results of a 17-Year Follow Up,” British Medical Journal 313 (1996): 755-9

5.       5. Key, T., et al., “Mortality in Vegetarians and Non Vegetarians: Detailed Findings from a Collaborative Analysis of 5 Prospective Studies,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 70 (1995): 516S-24S.

© new wave ideas -Sara Bonham