Currently the top prepared salad companies are (in my neck of the woods) Fresh Express and Dole. You know what I’m talking about. Caesar by the bag, Mixed greens in plastic, or just straight up shredded lettuce. Its convenience man and its a big trend.

This audio clip talks about Kraft and Sara Lee getting into the game.

What are some international prepared salad brands? How popular are they where you live? Do you see this trend continuing?

CHILDREN with overly strict mothers are much more likely to get fat, according to new research. The study found disciplinarian mothers ended up with six-year-olds who were nearly five times more likely to be overweight than children treated with flexibility and respect, but who were still given clear rules.

Scientists said youngsters whose mothers were strict might be comfort eating due to stress.

Children of neglectful and overly-lenient mothers were also twice as likely to get fat as those of the “flexible rule-setters”. Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine in the United States surveyed the relationships of four-year-olds in 872 families.

When they measured their body-mass indexes later, they found that 17 per cent of the children of strict disciplinarians were overweight.

That compared with 9.9 per cent of the children of neglectful parents, 9.8 per cent of those with too-lenient parents and just 3.9 per cent of the flexible rule-setters’ offspring.

“The difference between the parenting groups is pretty striking,” said Dr Kay Rhee, a co-author of the study into the four parenting “styles” and their effects.

Another explanation might be that parents who show respect and warmth within a framework of rules help their children learn to make good decisions about food and exercise.

The study, which was published in the journal Paediatrics, said: “These results provide evidence that a strict environment lacking in emotional responsiveness is associated with an increased risk of childhood [obesity].”

Source: Scotsman News UK

–Very interesting research and evidence. Something I never thought of before. I may have been of victim of this when I was younger :). Now I have an excuse for being fat when I was a child! Who needs a pyschiatrist when there are great findings like this?

Maybe Frith was on to something when he wrote back in 2005, “So anyway, I was surfing the internet when I came across this totally awesome website called “I Called It”, and it looked like it was about making predictions, and what do ya know…I like to make predictions!

For example, I predict that BUY HIGH AND SELL LOW Microsoft, McDonald’s, and Kran Bioengineering will be the companies to invest in. This is not spam. This is not a joke. This is the chance of a LIFETIME to make a LOT of MONEY during your LIFETIME. Don’t you want to LEAVE A LEGACY for your CHILDREN? Do you want them to think you were a LOSER?”

He may have been slightly joking, but McD is up 4 bucks since that prediction back on 3-20-05 and now get this, McDonald’s is changing their entire look of their stores.

Read the rest of Frith’s prediction over here.

I think this is a good move for McDonald’s. Their menu has been evolving over the last 2 years to include healthier more modern options, yet their stores today still have that brick like flooring and yellow and red fiberglass/plastic benches. I’ve been eating at Mickey D’s since I was a baby where I ate their famous Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. I still eat at McDonald’s today 29 years later, however, most of the time I opt for their salad’s when I’m out running around. BTW the new Asian salad is pretty good.

I don’t own any McDonald’s stock, but I sure could get behind the company with this new look and new successful menu.

Source: MSN, Business Week Online

Two more bird flu outbreaks have occurred. Guess where?

China on Friday reported two new outbreaks of bird flu among its vast poultry flocks, even as it released dozens of farmers and villagers from medical observation with clean bills of health.

The latest poultry outbreaks were hundreds of miles apart - in the northern province of Shanxi and the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua News Agency said. All poultry on nearby farms were killed as a precaution.

China has reported 15 outbreaks of bird flu in poultry since Oct. 19 and has promised tough control measures to prevent human infections.

The country confirmed its first human cases of bird flu on Wednesday - a woman who died and a boy who recovered. The boy’s sister, who died, is a suspected case. But dozens of people who had contact with the three patients showed no signs of the disease, Xinhua said.

“In 2003, we triumphed over SARS,” Premier Wen Jiabao was quoted as saying on state television, referring to another deadly disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome. “It shows that we will triumph over bird flu as well.”

–Famous last words?

Source

–I really want to visit China sometime soon. I hope bird flu doesn’t get out of hand/mutate, but not for my own selfish reasons of wanting to travel there.

bird flu, china, sars, health, poultry, disease

Check this out.

Its a bong, its a testtube, its Bong Vodka!

Yes leave it to the Dutch to combine two socially acceptable “pastimes” that patrons not only injest, but get to have fun with.

Can you imagine the blooper reel of private bottle service everywhere?

http://www.bongvodka.com/