The Food Additive That Fuels Lung Cancer

By James B. LaValle

Familiarizing yourself with the ingredient list on food labels is now more important than ever. While some additives are fairly benign, too many of them can cause significant health problems. Take "inorganic phosphates," for example, which are used to improve food texture and water retention in processed foods (including meats, cheeses, and baked goods).

It has already been shown that the phosphates in soft drinks and snack chips cause calcium to leach from the bones, linking them to osteoporosis and kidney stones. Now we can add cancer to that list.

Research conducted at Seoul National University has determined that inorganic phosphates have been associated with both the development and growth of lung cancer in laboratory rats. These effects were found at levels that mimicked our intake on a typical American/Westernized diet.

In a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers observed lung cancer tumors in mice fed with either a 0.5 percent or 1.0 percent phosphate diet. At the end of four weeks, the mice on the higher-phosphate diet had an increase in the formation of new lung tumors as well as an increase in the size of existing tumors. The researchers think it may be due to the role phosphates have in biochemical signaling pathways.

Although naturally occurring phosphates are necessary for human nutrition, the researchers noted that the consumption of phosphates in processed foods has more than doubled since the 1990s. Our hectic American lifestyle - which leaves little time or energy for home cooking - often forces us to rely on convenient pre-packaged foods and restaurant meals full of health-harming substances.

While food industry experts have downplayed this study, I would strongly recommend limiting your intake of inorganic phosphates. Doing so will help protect your bones, and could even lower your risk of lung cancer.

Stick to foods in their most natural state. Especially limit high-carb processed foods laden with cancer-causing phosphates. If you want to save on prep time for meals, choose precut veggies and salads and frozen vegetables. But always read the labels to make sure they have no additives.

[Ed. Note: Making wise choices when it comes to diet and lifestyle can have a dramatic effect on your health. James B. LaValle, RPh, ND, CCN - founder of the LaValle Metabolic Institute and a nationally recognized expert on natural therapies - can give you easy-to-understand directions for living the healthy life you've always wanted.]

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The Language Perfectionist: The Perfect Blend

By Don Hauptman

You hear and use them every day, perhaps without realizing why they're special. I'm referring to what linguists call blends: new words created via the marriage of two other words.

Familiar words of this type include the computer term bit (binary + digit), brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), and Spam - the edible kind (spiced + ham).

They've also been called telescope words and centaur words. Lewis Carroll called them "portmanteau words." That reference is now rather obscure, but back in the day, a portmanteau was a traveling bag that opened into two compartments. Thus, as Carroll defined the term in Through the Looking-Glass: "two meanings packed up into one word." And, by the way, several of Carroll's own blended-word coinages are still used, most notably chortle (chuckle + snort).

Decades ago, Time magazine and the gossip columnist Walter Winchell were known for devising new blends, some of which survived while others faded away. Among them: cinemactress, frauditor, genethics, guesstimate, and infanticipating.

If you keep your eyes and ears open, you'll discover that the list of blend words is surprisingly long: advertorial, camcorder, Chunnel, glasphalt, infomercial, Jazzercise, minicam, pixel, and sitcom, for example. Because new things are constantly being created, and they all need names, the roster will surely continue to grow.

Here are a few more, the origins of which may not be immediately apparent:

• guacamole: from the Aztec ahuacamolli - a conflation of ahucatl (avocado) + molli (sauce or paste).
• happenstance: from happen + circumstance.
• Tanzania: from the names of two countries, Tanganyika and Zanzibar, that merged in 1964.
• Velcro: from the French velours (velvet) + croche (hooked). The ubiquitous fastener was invented in Switzerland.

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant.]

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It's Fun to Know: Pepper Spray ATMs

A few weeks ago, we told you about Eastern European criminals installing "skimmers" to steal personal information from ATMs. Now, it looks like those thieves won't be trying their scam in South Africa... at least, not for long.

Cameras trained on cash machines detect when somebody tampers with the card slot. And then the troublemaker gets a face full of pepper spray from nozzles on the ATM. The idea is for police to rush to the scene and arrest the incapacitated thief. So far, however, only maintenance personnel on their rounds have been hit.

A promising approach. But some kinks still need to be worked out.

(Source: The Guardian)

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Word to the Wise: Conflation

"Conflation" (kun-FLAY-shun) - from the Latin for "to blow together" - is the process or result of fusing several elements into one entity.

Example (as used by Don Hauptman today): "[The origin of the word guacamole]: from the Aztec ahuacamolli - a conflation of ahucatl (avocado) + molli (sauce or paste)."
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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2736, 08-01-09], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.