Looking for a diet fix?

Low-salt, heart-healthy dash diet as effective as drugs for some adults with high blood pressure

Johns Hopkins Medicine

A study of more than 400 adults with prehypertension, or stage 1 high blood pressure, found that combining a low-salt diet with the heart-healthy DASH diet substantially lowers systolic blood pressure -- the top number in a blood pressure test -- especially in people with higher baseline systolic readings.

Results of the randomized clinical trial of the dietary combination, conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, were published in the Nov. 12 issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

"Our results add to the evidence that dietary interventions are as effective as -- or more effective than -- antihypertensive drugs in those at highest risk for high blood pressure, and should be a routine first-line treatment option for such individuals," says Stephen Juraschek, M.D., an adjunct assistant professor at Johns Hopkins and an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, long promoted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the American Heart Association, is rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, along with low-fat or fat-free dairy, fish, poultry, beans, seeds and nuts.

Trump regime finds new ways to screw Puerto Rico

More terrible contracting and funding decisions leave island adrift

BY BENJAMIN LOCKE

Trump returns to take back paper towels from ungrateful Puerto Ricans

There are more questions about how millions in contracts have been awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide desperately needed services and materials to Puerto Rico in the wake of devastating Hurricane Maria. 

The contract awarded to the fledging Montana company Whitefish Energy, which has now been canceled,  is not the only case of millions in business being awarded by President Trump’s FEMA to a company that has no infrastructure, no significant history and little ability to do the job it promised to do.

In the case of Whitefish, the federal government blamed the government of Puerto Rico for giving a $300 million contract to a recently formed company with few employees and no real headquarters, let alone experience doing the job for which it contracted.

FEMA can’t make the same excuse about Bronze Star LLC, , a newly created Florida company that it awarded $30 million in contracts to provide emergency tarps and plastic sheeting desperately needed to cover homes and buildings where the roof was torn off and there was other damage when the hurricane made land on the island in September.

VIDEO: Your voice matters

To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFYlDh3OpW8

Trickle-down

For more cartoons by Matt Bors, CLICK HERE.

Nice for some

Climate change effects market costs

Social cost of carbon doubles effects on farm cost up to $8.50 per ton 

By Kat Kerlin

The “social cost of carbon” — an influential figure used by policymakers to weigh the value of efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions — is outdated and underestimated. Updated estimates focused on the agricultural sector alone more than double the social cost of carbon, according to analysis from the University of California, Davis, and Purdue University.

The social cost of carbon represents the damage a ton of additional carbon dioxide will have on society and the economy, including agricultural productivity, human health, property damage due to flooding and energy costs.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, show that for every additional ton of carbon dioxide emitted, the global economy loses between $3.50 and $8.50 due to effects in the agricultural sector, rather than gaining $2.70 as previously estimated. This leads the overall social cost of carbon to increase from $8.60 per ton of CO2 to between $14.80 and $19.70, an increase of 72 to 129 percent.

Climate change not a benefit to agriculture

URI to launch food initiative to spark innovation, advance production of local food

Effort will convene growers, researchers, industry for collaboration

Todd McLeish

The food sector in Rhode Island is booming, with growers, researchers, distributors and consumers ripe for new collaborations and initiatives to improve food security and food safety, support local farmers, and grow the local economy.

The University of Rhode Island is harnessing that enthusiasm by launching the URI Food Center, a resource center on its Kingston campus where stakeholders can seek answers, find partners, create innovations, and educate consumers.

Implausible deniability

Everything You Heard Me Say I never said

By Conover Kennard  ·

Former reality show star Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to be held responsible for the words that come out of his own mouth, even when it’s on tape. 

For example, the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which he suggests that because he’s powerful, he can just grab women by their p-ssies. 

Trump defended sexual harasser and Fox News host (yeah, I know that’s redundant) Bill O’Reilly in the recent past and even more recently, he has defended alleged pedophile and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. 

So, defending perverts is just another day for Donald Trump.

Here’s a quick reminder of what Trump said on the p*ssy grabbing tape:

“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women] — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

How will the tax bill screw Rhode Island? Let us count the ways

How the GOP tax plan would hurt Rhode Island

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future

The Republican tax proposals would ill-serve Rhode Island in a variety of ways, said federal, state, and local officials who have been busy studying the copious and potentially crippling ramifications either the House or Senate bill could have on life in the Ocean State.

The effects range from increased economic inequality, cuts to the social safety net, downward pressure on the state’s ability to fund government, and even provisions that would make it more expensive for cities, towns, and schools to borrow money.

The lasting legacy

For more cartoons by Jen Sorenson, CLICK HERE.

From the Rhode Island Community Food Bank

Status Report on Hunger makes the news.

Donate Now

Holiday Open House: Sat., Dec. 9, 9 am - Noon

The Food Bank’s annual Holiday Open House is Saturday, December 9 from 9:00 am to noon. This free, family-friendly event will include Food Bank tours, nutrition education demos and recipe samples, activities for the kids, live music and holiday refreshments. Attendees are encouraged to bring donations of food or funds to feed our neighbors in need for the holiday season and winter ahead.

Read More

Food Bank Status Report in the News

This year’s Status Report on Hunger highlighted the increase in the prevalence of hunger in Rhode Island at a time when federal safety net programs are being cut and the state’s benefit system is in need of repair. The report resonated with audiences and was featured in several news stories during the past week.

Read More

New Online Tool Tracks Your Donations

This holiday season, you can ask your friends and family to make a donation to the Food Bank in lieu of exchanging gifts. With our new online tool, you can create your own giving page where guests can make their gift and watch the numbers add up as others contribute. You can customize the page and donors can leave holiday messages so everyone feels good about their gifts.

Read More

Donate Now

© 2017 Rhode Island Community Food Bank

200 Niantic Avenue

Providence, RI 02907

Phone: (401) 942‑MEAL (6325)

VIDEO: Fake news, in my opinion

Sorry, Grumpy Cat: Study finds dogs are brainier than cats

Vanderbilt University

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ah5G9iYLO0

There's a new twist to the perennial argument about which is smarter, cats or dogs.

It has to do with their brains, specifically the number of neurons in their cerebral cortex: the "little gray cells" associated with thinking, planning and complex behavior -- all considered hallmarks of intelligence.

The first study to actually count the number of cortical neurons in the brains of a number of carnivores, including cats and dogs, has found that dogs possess significantly more of them than cats.

"In this study, we were interested in comparing different species of carnivorans to see how the numbers of neurons in their brains relate to the size of their brains, including a few favorite species including cats and dogs, lions and brown bears," said Associate Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences Suzana Herculano-Houzel, who developed the method for accurately measuring the number of neurons in brains.

(Carnivora is a diverse order that consists of 280 species of mammals all of which have teeth and claws that allow them to eat other animals.)

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

The results of the study are described in a paper titled "Dogs have the most neurons, though not the largest brain: Trade-off between body mass and number of neurons in the cerebral cortex of large carnivoran species" accepted for publication in the open access journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.

As far as dogs and cats go, the study found that dogs have about 530 million cortical neurons while cats have about 250 million. (That compares to 16 billion in the human brain.)

TOMORROW: Shop Local at the Octagon House

Holiday sale this weekend

The Carolina Fiber and Fiction Center is having its annual Holiday Sale at the Octagon House on December 2nd and 3rd from 10-3.

Both Fiber and Fiction, Textiles and Texts will be available for sale.

Three to four cups of coffee a day linked to longer life

3-4 cups a day confers greatest benefit, except in pregnancy and for women at risk of fracture

BMJ

Drinking coffee is "more likely to benefit health than to harm it" for a range of health outcomes, say researchers in The BMJ today.

They bring together evidence from over 200 studies and find that drinking three to four cups of coffee a day is associated with a lower risk of death and getting heart disease compared with drinking no coffee. Coffee drinking is also associated with lower risk of some cancers, diabetes, liver disease and dementia.

From demonizing Muslims to demonizing the poor

Crazy Republicans “honor” state Senator Elaine Morgan

By republicinsanity  

Charges were filed against Morgan
for impersonating a police officer.

Rhode Island State Senator Elaine Morgan has moved on from demonizing Muslims to instead, demonizing the poor.

In both 2015, and in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles of Elaine Morgan, a Rhode Island State Senator and dry cleaner.

Her district includes the northern half of Charlestown, Hopkinton, Richmond and Exeter.

She only seemed as kooky as the average conservative at first when she voted against the state of Rhode Island’s attempt to raise the minimum wage, in the midst of its worst period of income inequality in the United States in almost a century, despite in her own words that she thinks the people know “MONEY WORKS BEST IN OUR POCKETS”.

But what really got our attention about her was her response to a letter from a constituent who was angry about the idea that the United States would potentially allow Syrian refugees to seek refuge and potentially emigrate to the United States, sending them a horribly Islamophobic response while accidentally CC’ing EVERY MEMBER OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE.

Her inflammatory and disgusting take read,