Top Things

I get a an email newsletter from Sixwise.com that often contains useful and interesting facts. Today's email had articles which shared some things I thought I would pass along. All the comments here are my own. I have provided links if you want to read the actual articles.

Picking your nose and eating it is good for your immune system. Your finger does a better job of cleaning out the boogers than a kleenex does and the bacteria in them helps to recolonize the intestinal tract and thereby boosts immue function. Next time you see your kids picking their noses, instead of scolding them for it, join them in picking your own and set the right example!

Six most common causes of automobile accidents:

1. Distracted Drivers -- looking at scenery, kids, rubbernecking, talking on the cell phone, playing with the CD player or radio.

2. Driver Fatigue

3. Drunk Driving

4. Speeding

5. Aggressive Driving -- don't be one, and if you see one, keep well back!

6. Bad Weather

The Six Most Unhealthy Foods You Should Avoid

1. Soda Pop -- I can't understand people who buy this stuff for their kids! One teaspoon of sugar has the ability to shut down your white blood cells for about 5 hours. Most cans of soda contain 10 teaspoons of sugar! The sugar alone is terrible and we won't even discuss the artificial sweetners, colors, and other things in them. If you want to celebrate a party and want a reasonable alternative to pop, get some juice and add unflavored and unsweetened carbonated spring water to it instead.

2. Potatoe Chips and French Fries -- They are saturated with acrylamide, a highly toxic and carcinogenic compound, and transfatty acids which destroy your health through oxidized cholesterol.

3. Doughnuts -- "When it comes to health, the only thing good about them is the hole," said Carla Wolper, nutritionist at the New York Obesity Research Center.

4. Commercially Made Baked Goods -- extremely high in transfats because they are made with margarines and hydrogenated vegetable oils in order to extend their shelf life.

5. Luncheon Meats and Hot Dogs -- Nitrates and Nitrites -- these can cause pancreatic cancer in those who eat them in large quantities.

6. Canned Soup -- I won't bring a lawsuit on myself by mentioning brand names, but read the labels. Most soups contain MSG and way more salt than is good for you.

The Six Worst Lifestyle Choices You Could Make

This belongs to the "well duh" category. But people indulge anyhow.

1. Overeating

2. Smoking

3. Drinking and Driving

4. Living on Fast Food

5. Not Exercising

6. Living with Stress (and not doing anything to deal with it)

On a more somber note, the recent murder of pregnant wife and mother, Liana White, in Edmonton, Alberta has highlighted the fact that murder has become the number one reason for maternal mortality in North America. This surprises and shocks many, including journalists, who like to think of pregnancy as a joyous time and the pregnant mother as being offlimits when it comes to harm. But then, we used to think that about babies in the womb...