Health and Tips:Top 10 Healthiest Fast Food Restuarants

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HEALTH TIP: Health.com picks America’s ‘Top 10 Healthiest
Fast Food Restaurants’.

Health.com recently surveyed America’s 100 largest fast-food
chains and discovered that many of the menus on offer, which
range from soups and salads to whole grain breads and fruit
desserts, are actually very nutritious and health.

Here’s their Top 10 picks…

1. Panera Bread
2. Jason’s Deli
3. Au Bon Pain
4. Noodles & Company
5. Corner Bakery
6. Chipotle
7. Atlanta Bread Company
8. McDonald’s
9. Einstein Bros. Bagels
10. Taco Del Mar

To be honest, the only one I’ve ever heard of is McDonalds,
which, of course,  is here in New Zealand. But from the
descriptions of the other nine on the list, I’m hoping they
might also make their way over here…

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Needle exchange cuts disease spread

REGINA, Saskatchewan — The health minister of Canada’s
Saskatchewan Province says he would like to see a better re-
turn rate on the province’s needle exchange program. Health
Minister Don McMorris says while the program is helping re-
duce the spread of blood-borne diseases, the 90 percent re-
turn rate on needles could be improved, the Regina
(Saskatchewan) Leader-Post newspaper reported Wednesday.
A 100-page review of the program noted that all discarded
needles aren’t necessarily ones that were provided by the
exchange. The government ordered a review of the program last
summer following complaints about the number of needles found
littering the ground after the spring thaw. McMorris says a
committee has been formed to look at the possibility of dif-
ferentiating needle exchange needles from others. It is also
charged with developing a way to track the distribution of
needles, the Leader-Post said. Saskatchewan has an estimated
5,000 injection drug users.

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HIV therapy avoided by released prisoners

GALVESTON, Texas — University of Texas medical scientists
say they’ve found most prison inmates with HIV don’t seek
appropriate treatment immediately following release. The re-
searchers said they discovered approximately 80 percent of
Texas prison inmates infected with the human immunodeficiency
virus, the virus that causes AIDS, fail to fill an initial
prescription for anti-retroviral therapy within 30 days of
their release from prison. And that, said the researchers,
potentially increases the risk of harmful health consequences
due to treatment interruption. The researchers blamed the
failure to seek continued therapy on the fact that most for-
mer inmates don’t have health insurance during the first sev-
eral months following their release, so accessing anti-
retroviral therapy in a timely manner is difficult. “Those
who discontinue (therapy) at this time are at increased risk
of developing a higher viral burden, resulting in greater
infectiousness and higher levels of drug resistance, poten-
tially creating reservoirs of drug-resistant HIV in the gen-
eral community,” the scientists said. The study, led by
Jacques Baillargeon of the University of Texas Medical
Branch, is reported in the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
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Elmendorf: Uninsured could hit 54M

WASHINGTON — Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas
W. Elmendorf Wednesday said the number of people without
health insurance could grow to 54 million within a decade.
“Without changes in policy, CBO estimates that the average
number of non-elderly people who are uninsured will rise
from perhaps 48 (million) or 49 million this year to about
54 million a decade from now,” Elmendorf said in testimony
before the Senate Finance Committee. Elmendorf said the
growth in healthcare spending, driven largely by development
of new treatments and technologies, is imposing an untenable
burden on both the U.S. government and the private sector.
One approach for reducing these costs would be to move away
from fee-for-service to incentives for controlling costs
and ensuring value. “Exactly how to create these incentives
is, unfortunately, less clear,” he said. “A number of alter-
native approaches could be considered and are discussed in
our volumes, including fixed payments per patient, bonus
payments based on performance or penalties for substandard
care.” In opening the hearing, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.,
said we no longer have the luxury of waiting on healthcare
reform. “Comprehensive health reform is no longer simply an
option. It’s an imperative. We cannot afford to delay health-
care reform. Delay will make the problems that we face today
even worse,” Baucus said, calling on the CBO “to find a path-
way to health reform.”

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FDA criticizes Ranbaxy India plant

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it
is taking new regulatory action against Ranbaxy Pharmaceut-
icals Inc.’s Paonta Sahib plant in India. The FDA said it
has halted the review of drug applications from the plant,
accusing officials of falsifying data and test results in
approved and pending drug applications. The facility has
been under an FDA import alert since September. The federal
agency said it is continuing to investigate this matter to
ensure the safety and efficacy of marketed drugs associated
with Ranbaxy’s Paonta Sahib site. “To date, the FDA has no
evidence that these drugs do not meet their quality specif-
ications and has not identified any health risks associated
with currently marketed Ranbaxy products,” FDA officials
said, urging patients not to disrupt their drug therapy be-
cause that could jeopardize their health. “Companies must
provide truthful and accurate information in their marketing
applications,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “The American public
expects and deserves no less.” The FDA said it has asked
Ranbaxy to cooperate with the agency to resolve the questions
of data integrity and reliability.

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Working late hurts mental ability

CARY, N.C. — A study of British civil servants suggests
working long hours causes a decline in cognitive ability
during middle age. The report, published in the American
Journal of Epidemiology, found study participants who worked
more than 55 hours per week had lower scores in vocabulary
and cognitive reasoning than participants who worked no more
than 40 hours per week. More than one in four workers sur-
veyed by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Develop-
ment reported that working long hours had a negative impact
on their health, Health Insurance & Protection magazine re-
ported Wednesday.

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Doodling Stops Daydreaming.

Good news for those of us who discover at the end of a meeting
or lecture that our notes are hidden by messy doodles,
unintelligible to anyone but ourselves.

According to recent study carried out by UK researchers those
who doodle have better memory recall than those who do not.

The study had the participants divided into two groups - one
group was encouraged to color in shapes on a piece of paper
while listening to a 2.5 minute telephone message and the other
group was left to their own devices while listening.

Both groups, by the way, were told before the message began that
it would be dull.

Directly after listening to the message, everyone was asked to
write down the eight specific places and names mentioned in the
message.

The results - doodlers on average recalled 7.5, while the non-
doodlers only managed 5.8.

Seems doodlers might look like they are not paying attention
but in fact, it turns out that they are paying more attention
that those who are not doodling.

Why?

Well, the experts think that this is because doodling stops
you from daydreaming.

So, go ahead, doodle away…

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