Group Health Insurance!

Following a diet thats low in saturated fat and quickly digested carbohydrates, such as doughnuts and white bread, could cut your risk of developing Alzheimers, suggests a study published today in the June issue of the journal Archives of Neurology.

Researchers fed 20 healthy adults either a diet that had a high glycemic index and lots of saturated fat or a low glycemic index and little saturated fat for four weeks. They then gave the participants a memory test. Those who ate the low-fat, low-glycemic-index diet performed better on the memory test, and also had lower blood levels of certain markers of Alzheimers disease.

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Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) want to make Medicare off-limits in negotiations over raising the federal governments debt limit. They argue that Medicare is too “complicated” (read: politically dangerous leading up to an election) to address when the heat is on concerning the debt. The upset victory of Kathy Hochul in upstate New York sends a clear message to politicians about the risks of leveling with the public about Medicares fiscal problems.

Harkin and Reeds statements confirm Bill Clintons fears that Democrats will take this as an excuse to sit idly by while Medicare continues to drive up the federal debt. B

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A new report from the Commonwealth Fund shows 600,000 young adults benefited by obtaining health insurance in 2010.

Twenty nine percent of young adults had no insurance coverage in 2001.

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New law designed to lead the state toward the nation’s first single-payer system

Vermont still has “a few challenges” ahead to meet its goal of a universal health care system this decade, Gov. Peter Shumlin said Thursday as he signed into law the bill designed to make the state the nation’s first with fully publicly funded health care.

More than 150 people, including legislators, administration officials, advocates who pushed for the bill and a handful of opponents gathered on the Statehouse steps as storm clouds threatened but gave way to humid sunshine.

“We gather here today to launch the first single-payer health care system in America, to do in Vermont what has taken too long — have a health care system that is the best in the world, that treats health care as a right and not a privilege, where health care follows the individual, isn’t required by an employer — that’s a huge jobs creator,” Shumlin said.

Among Vermont’s challenges: getting waivers from the federal government at a time when the U.S. House has come out st

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I had to laugh when I saw the title of our recent blog, “Gaining weight? Blame your desk job.” Thats because, when it comes to weight gain, I could be said to work in a particularly toxic environment. The new study our blog reported on linked less physical activity on the job with the expansion of girth in our population. But as part of the group that evaluates and rates food for Consumer Reports, I not only sit for hours every day, but Im also required to nosh all day long. Trying to lose a bit of weight? Too badweve got 15 ice creams to taste!

Now, there is one trick I use to lessen the health impact of tasting food all day long: spit everything!

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