Steel City Pizza

Not much to say here. Just some of the finest pizza I've ever tasted here at Steel City Pizza.  I don't get into football or the Steelers, but wow, they make a good pizza.

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3 Foods to Avoid That Skyrocket Your Risk of Cancer

Good information here about three foods that increase the cancer risk. I've known about the sodium nitrate - pancreatic cancer risk for awhile, and that one is included in the bunch. Hydrogenated oil is also up there as well.

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Another article on Wendy's "natural" french fries

Another article on the move of some fast food places towards more natural options. Healthy fast food is always a good thing, considering how much hyrdogenated garbage is generally available at these places.

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High fructose beverages tied to gout

Per the article, "According to Dr. Hyon Choi and colleagues from Boston University, drinking high fructose beverages increases uric acid levels in the blood, which eventually deposits into the joints where it causes gout."

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Thyroid symptoms with normal lab tests?

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High Fructose Corn syrup producers want to use the name "corn sugar"

The makers of high fructose corn syrup want to change their product name to "corn sugar".  But if, as they say, hfcs is harmless, why change the name?  All this means is another ingredient that I need to look out for and avoid, and another new Label to add to this blog.

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Back to Nature baked products

I've been eating a lot of Back to Nature products recently, and I've been impressed with the stuff they offer: tasty cookies and crackers made without hydrogenated garbage. I'm surprised that Walmart carries these, since it seems like most of what you'd find there would just be "Ritz"-style junk. The chocolate chunk cookies by Back to Nature are fantastic. A little costly, but worth it.

I wish more companies would get on the same wagon and produce more stuff like this. I was looking at a Quaker product, and I'm pretty sure that the Quakers never used high fructose corn syrup.

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Three mercury fillings gone...

I chipped a molar last night and, as a result, visited the dentist today, and while he was fixing the tooth, he took out three ancient silver fillings with all their old mercury goodness and put in three porcelains. And of course, whenever I get stuff like this done, I go to visit fascinating sites like this one, to read about what has been in my mouth for nearly 30 years. Ah, fun. Of course, per the FDA, mercury fillings are all harmless.

I spoke with my dentist about this, and he's a decent guy who said that there are two sides to it: yes, there are studies that show that the mercury fillings aren't good for you (and he doesn't do them anymore) but on the other side, when you go through the steps to remove the fillings, you'll be wearing down more of the tooth and could compromise the integrity of the tooth in the process. In my case, I had a chipped tooth in the vicinity of these fillings so I had a valid excuse for the removal, but I would like to eventually get ALL of these things out of my mouth for good.

After the work, I jokingly told my dentist I'd stay away from the jawbreakers, to which he, in all seriousness agreed, "yes, stay away from the jawbreakers." Drat, that used to be my favorite thing at Cracker Barrel...

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Wendy's New Natural-Cut Sea Salt Fries

Wendy's is going to launch a new natural-cut fries with sea salt, which I think is frankly a move in the right direction. I'm sure there will probably still be something troubling about it, like the preservatives, artificial flavors, and whatever oil they use to cook it with (and the age/amount of re-usage of those oils) but all the same, I think this could be a good thing.

Problem is also the comment about "has 0 grams trans fat per serving." When I see this, I'm wary, because they are using FDA-approved lingo to say that the product may or may not have hydrogenated oil in it, but since the hydrogenated oil serving is so small per serving, it gets to sneak under the radar as officially "trans fat free". I'd be much more impressed if these were advertised as being made "without hydrogenated anything" (I've seen words to this effect used on some natural foods.)

Anyhow, I hope this trend continues, and although I do know better, I might try these with a Frosty sometime...

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SF Moves Closer to Happy Meal Toy Ban

Banning happy meals seems a little stupid to me (and a little bit fascist/police state). The better avenue would be to just have the surgeon general put a warning label on the side of these things.

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Botched Botox

Link to an article in Prevention magazine that I was reading while waiting at the grocery store. Normally I dismiss Prevention magazine as little more than pharmaceutical propaganda, but I thought this article was interesting. Actress Dana Delaney talks about how a Botox needle "hit a nerve and created a huge hematoma", basically killing one of the nerves and causing one of her eyes to droop (Not one of the things the doctor routinely mentions when they give out this stuff, I imagine.)

Years ago there was a guy in a church I attended who was a dermatologist, and while I thought the profession of being a skin doctor seemed like a decent medical profession, it turns out a majority of all he did was botox injections.

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Various no circumcision links

I generally stand against circumcision, not just because I don't see the medical value of it in the modern day of hygiene (conditions are a lot better than the nomadic, desert-dwelling Old Testament days) but more principally because the book of Galatians makes it very clear that if you are still circumcising that you don't understand the message of the gospel. The apostle Paul lays this out very clearly (this might be more of a post for my theological blog).

But in any case, here are some links to various resources on circumcision. I found several of these in a tract by the AAP, which I take with a grain of salt since I believe the AAP is big into the idea that all babies/children should be chock full of vaccines, regardless of the state of their immune system or various other factors that could affect health (e.g. environmental toxins, powerlines, second-hand smoke, junk food, infant formula, etc.) But again, I'm getting off topic. The links:

www.circumcision.org
www.nocirc.org
www.coloradonocirc.org

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