Would you eat junk food that had anti-cancer medications? Would you buy the stuff? How expensive would it be? Wouldn’t it be easier just to not eat it in the first place or would more people start eating junk food or increase their consumption because of the anti-cancer properties?

All these questions – but with good reason. Because according to news reports, Health Canada is thinking about doing just that. If this was April 1, I’d be checking for an April Fool’s joke, for sure.

This was first reported on December 15th, when news came out that Health Canada wanted to add nutrients to a wide variety of food, including junk food, such as chips and cookies (Health Canada weighs fortifying junk foods). Yesterday, a published news story elaborated on this a bit (Health Canada proposes adding anti-cancer drug in junk foods).

Since the 2002 discovery of acrylamide, a known cancer-causing agent, in cooked foods like French fries, scientists have been working on a way to eliminate or drastically reduce the amount of acrylamide in the foods we eat. Scientists in Canada are proposing adding the enzyme asparaginase to the food. Asparaginase is a cancer-fighting medication used in leukemia.

Of course, adding vitamins and minerals to junk food is one thing, but adding a medication like asparaginase is a bit over the top, don’t you think?

~~~

Images: PhotoXpress.com

It seems that getting old is the worse thing that can happen to some people. I mean, it must be if you think about all the money and effort that is spent in trying to maintain the appearance of youth. Personally, I think growing old is a great thing considering the alternative: not growing old at all because you’re dead. Seriously.
I’m not shy about saying that I’m 48 years old. That means in a year and a half I’ll be 50 – a half a century. Wow, that sounds kind of shocking when you say it that way, but it …read more

It’s very likely that many of us in groups that aren’t usually discriminated against tend to think that racism is on the decline. After all, there are laws to protect those who may be discriminated against in the workforce, in schools, and in every day society. But racism doesn’t have to be outright “No ____ allowed” to be racism. Sadly, racism is alive and well in many parts of the world where we think of ourselves as being better than that.
Researchers are constantly looking at how we see each other and how we treat each other. And new research has …read more

It’s the holiday time and some people have a tendency to overdo it a bit more now then at any other time of the year. If you’re not driving and you don’t have a problem with alcohol, the only problem  you may encounter is the after effect: the hangover.
Does the type of booze you drink really affect the way you feel the next day? Sure thing, say researchers, if your choice is between bourbon and vodka.
The way alcoholic drinks are made vary according to the type. Some alcohols have yeast, for example (like beer), while others may be high in …read more

A rare gender identity defect, male pseudohermaphroditism, has been turning up more often in the Gaza strip than anywhere else in the world. Hermaphroditism is a condition where there are both sexes present when a child is born. Pseudohermaphroditism is labeled either male or female. This means a male pseudohermaphrodite is a female with male organs, usually inside the abdomen. A female pseudohermaphrodite is the opposite.
According to a CNN report, there are two young men who live with male pseudohermaphroditism and they are cousins. There are other family members with the same problem because, as in many cultures like this …read more

Professor David Colquhoun from University College London in the United Kingdom wrote an editorial that is sure to ruffle some feathers in many healthcare circles. The editoral, which appeared in this week’s Christmas issue of BMJ.com, said that the medical establishment’s acceptance of holistic approaches to medicine was embarrassing.
In the early 1900s, doctors tried to eliminate snake oil and secret remedies from being sold as cure-alls to unsuspecting consumers. While they may have eliminated some of it, not long after, in the 1970s or so, alternative and complementary medicines gained popularity, although many in the so-called mainstream medicine considered them …read more

I know, we don’t want to think of our daughters, especially in their teens, as having sex. I also know that many of them do have sex. So, whether you’re ready to deal with it or not, here are a few numbers you should be aware of:
Half of urban teenage girls may acquire at least one of three common sexually transmitted infections (STI) within two years of becoming sexually active.
Ok, some might say. STIs can be treated. The rebuttal to that is: yes and no.
Sure, some STIs can be successfully treated. But, there’s a big “but.”

The STI has to be …read more

We’ve heard “don’t drink and drive,” and I know I’ve seen campaigns in the summer for people not to drink while operating a boat – but the warning not to drink and ski or snowboard is a new one on me. Apparently, drinking and alpine winter months is a big enough problem that the British government has issued a warning to their citizens who travel to Europe to ski and snowboard.

Acccording to this article, Alpine enthusiasts, “don’t drink and ski,”
More than thirty Britons died in Alpine accidents last year, half of whom were under 25. Many died because they underestimated …read more

Drunk driving is a bit of a misnomer. It gives you the impression that you need to be obviously drunk: weaving as you walk, slurring your speech, acting like a jerk. But driving drunk is not that obvious most of the time. Driving while under the influence is a better term, but it boils down to the same thing: You’ve had too much to drink and you shouldn’t be driving because you’re a buzzed driver. Maybe, no matter how much alcohol you’ve had, you shouldn’t be driving at all. It works in many Northern European countries, there’s no reason why …read more

December 6, 1989, is a date that many Montrealers, many Canadians, and others across the world, may never forget. While here at Healthbolt, we like to have fun at the expense of some news, some news is just too serious, to painful, to be made light of. But it also needs to be shared if anything is going to be successful with stopping it from ever happening again.
Twenty years ago, a man who hated feminists, entered a male-dominated educational institution and began a massacre. At the end of it all, 14 young women were dead and 10 were physically injured, …read more