BuffedWildCat’s BodyBlog

Consumer Reports tests indicate that 83 percent of fresh, whole broiler chickens bought nationwide harbor campylobacter or salmonella, the leading bacterial causes of foodborne disease.Campylobacter was present in 81 percent of the chickens, salmonella in 15 percent; and both in 13 percent. Only 17 percent contained neither pathogen. No major brand fared better than others overall. Most of the bacteria tested showed resistance to one or more anti­biotics.

Premium brands costing $3 to $5 per pound were actually more likely to harbor salmonella than broilers costing $1 per pound. One exception was Ranger, a no-antibiotics brand sold in the Northwest, which was extremely clean.

Consumer Reports recommended storing chicken at 40 degrees F or below, cooking it to at least 165 degrees F, and preventing raw chicken and its juices from coming into contact with other foods.Consumer Reports.org January 2007
Dr. Mercola’s Comment:

If you believed pledges of no hormones or antibiotics by chicken producers — even those claiming to be organic — makes those animals raised on factory farms you buy from the grocery store any safer to eat, you should think twice before doing it again, according to this alarming Consumer Reports expose.

The amazing 83 percent of the chickens testing positive for campylobacter or salmonella represents a frightening increase from the 49 percent Consumer Reports found just three years ago.

And some of the worst offenders among the 525 samples tested (taken from 23 states) were from chickens labeled as organic or raised without antibiotics.

And, no surprise, the current standards chicken producers use to keep contamination in check and allegedly protect consumers — called the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) — aren’t enough to prevent it.

Each full-grown chicken in a factory farm has as little as six-tenths of a square foot of space. These extremely overcrowded conditions pave the way for disease. Many are also genetically modified, and due to genetic manipulation, 90 percent of broiler chickens have trouble walking.

If you are interested in learning more about the unsafe conditions in factory farms that can sicken your health, I detailed them in The Great Bird Flu Hoax expose that was a NY Times best seller last year.

On Vital Votes, reader Mary from Cabool, Missouri observes:

“Of course ‘organic’ factory farmed chickens would tend to be sicker than chemically raised factory farmed chickens. You can not have healthy chickens that are raised in cages and not allowed to act as chickens.

It increases their stress levels and makes them more prone to diseases. However, organic to most people means no antibiotics, so the animals will be sicker because of their higher stress levels.”

Other responses to this article can be viewed at Vital Votes, and you can add your own thoughts or vote on comments by first registering at Vital Votes.

http://www.mercola.com

So I’ve been on a mission since Aug 28, 2006 to gain back the strength I lost during my pregnancy and of course, being the impatient person that I am especially when it comes to strength & fitness, I thought my strength was coming back WAY TOO SLOWLY.  Well, as it turns out, it IS coming back quick!
Tonight I decided to look back in my journal to see what my lifts were back when I started this mission and lo and behold but I’ve gained back almost 15 lbs on my lifts in 4 months!  Now at first, I didn’t really know if that was good or not, I mean it sounded good, but it wasn’t until I started doing the math that I realized it IS REALLY GOOD!  I got to thinking, whilst doing my cardio, (what else can you do while doing your boring cardio anyway, heh) that I know for a fact that when I very first started lifting weights back in March 2000, that I was only pushing up 15 lb dumbbells on flat bench (eeeek, I shudder to think that I was ever such a weakling!) and by April of 2004, I was pushing up 55 lb dumbbells.  Sooo, if you do the math, it took me 4 YEARS to acquire 40 lbs of strength, which is 10 lbs a YEAR, which is LESS THAN 1 LB A MONTH!!  YEESH!  Yet I just gained almost 15 lbs of strength (somewhere between 10-15 lbs) in 4 MONTHS, not YEARS, but MONTHS.  So yeah, that IS AWESOME, that’s around 3 lbs a month!  So now I’m all happy. ~grin~  I really needed that kind of motivation.  Heck, EVERYBODY could use that kind of motivation once in a while!  So anyway, I just wanted to share.  I’m hoping this great muscle memory trend continues cause I still have 10 more lbs of strength to gain back before I’m back to where I was pre-pregnancy.

After a number of years in which almost no deaths were caused by heart attacks during marathons, at least six runners have died in 2006. Some physicians, including Dr. Arthur Siegel, author of numerous studies of Boston Marathon racers, believe that the extended races put the heart at risk.

A new study by Dr. Siegel and colleagues examined 60 Boston Marathon entrants. The runners showed normal cardiac function before the marathon.

But 20 minutes after finishing, 60 percent of the group had elevated levels of troponin (a protein that shows up in the blood when the heart is traumatized), and 40 percent had levels high enough to indicate the destruction of heart muscle cells. Many also showed noticeable changes in heart rhythms.

Another study, from Germany, showed that as many as one-third of middle-aged male marathoners may have higher than expected calcium plaque deposits in their arteries, putting them at a greater risk for heart attack. Just over 20 percent of a control group of non-runners had comparable calcium plaque buildup.

Dr. Mercola’s Comment:

You may recall the sad story of Grete Waitz, the nine-time champion of the New York City marathon and Olympic medal-winner, whose career as a runner may have played a huge hand in her continuing struggle to fight cancer. You might also remember Jim Fixx, a marathoner and author of "The Complete Book of Running," who died some two decades ago of a heart attack at the age of 52 — while he was running.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am a major fan of exercising and have been an active runner for nearly 40 years. However, I just don’t want people to make the same mistake I made when I started my exercise program.

It is very easy to get caught up in the philosophy that if a little bit is good then more is even better. Unfortunately, this logic rarely is true, and with exercise, I believe there is compelling evidence to suggest otherwise.

Exercise is a form of destructive stress and it tears your body down. But we absolutely need it to rebuild and repair because your body is in a constant flux or dynamic of repairing and rebuilding.

However, what most people fail to understand is that it is easy to overdo exercise. Although it is common knowledge that too much of a good thing can be harmful for you, exercise is clearly no exception to this rule. The vast majority of people in this country are severely underexercised, but it is possible to overdo it and actually harm yourself.

What you really need is a combination of endurance and anaerobic sprinting or strengthening exercises that help to increase the instantaneous and dramatic demands on your cardiovascular system and prevent heart attacks.

Just one more reason, among many, for treating exercise like a drug that must be prescribed precisely to do the most good.

On Vital Votes, reader Judy from Albuquerque, New Mexico argues in favor of moderation:

"I feel that everything we do must be done in moderation. That includes exercise. It stand to reason that if you exercise to the extreme, you will deplete your energy reserves and will soon be run-down. In this state, it is easy for diseases to get a foothold. That is a real no brainer. We also need to remember that we are all different. What is extreme for me may be moderate for someone else. Listen to your body and do what feels right for you — not someone else, even if that someone else is an ‘expert’."

Other responses to this article can be viewed at Vital Votes, and you can add your own thoughts or vote on comments by first registering at Vital Votes.

©Copyright 2006 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.

I would like to apologize to everyone who has private messaged me in this past year or two.  I have not responded to any of you and for that I am sorry, I hope you will accept my apology.  The reason I haven’t responded to anyone is that I have just been too busy with other priorities in my life.  We moved in January 2005 then I had my first baby June of 2005.  So I have not had time to be active on any bodybuilding forums.  These days I am kept quite busy with my 18mo old, keeping up with the housework, and finding time to get my own exercise in.  So I’m sorry to everyone who has asked for my help and I have not been able to give any.  I don’t foresee this changing any time soon, sorry.  I just don’t have the time these days to help and advise like I used to.  I use to spend A LOT of time typing up information to help people and taking care of everybody’s individual requests that I got via private messages and I just honestly don’t have time for that anymore.  So please accept my apologies and understand that I don’t have the time these days to help anyone individually.  Thanks!

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