Discover fast, safe, effective tips for weight loss without using drugs, counting calories or going hungry

The fastest way to lose excess weight is to cut down on salt/sodium. This reduces water weight/fluid retention.

Other tips include 1) increasing calcium intake, which reduces fluid retention AND fat retention and 2) lowering carbs and increasing intake of healthy saturated fats.

3) Avoid prescribed pharmaceutical drugs as far as you can because they are a major, and increasing, cause of fluid retention/salt sensitivity. See weight gain from amitriptyline and other antidepressants and also weight gain from prescribed steroids, HRT and other prescription drugs.

4) Cut down on bread and processed food. Cook fresh foods instead.

5) Avoid artifical sweeteners, including aspartame, saccharine, sucralose, diet drinks and low calorie drinks.

Only a snowball's chance in Hell remains for civil cases against pharmaceutical companies in England and Wales to obtain legal aid from the government

Only a snowball's chance in Hell remains for litigants in civil cases against pharmaceutical companies in England and Wales to obtain legal aid from the government in order to pursue a case of clinical negligence or personal injury, as investigated by Radio 4's File on Four this evening.

I cannot urge you strongly enough to AVOID taking prescribed pharmaceutical drugs if you possibly can! The drug companies have long histories of criminal negligence, corruption and giving misleading information about their drug products. They have teams of highly-paid corporate lawyers well-versed in all the technical dodges to secure a favourable outcome for their shady clients.

The programme will be repeated on Sun 23 Jan 2011 at 17:00 on BBC Radio 4.

Dangerous practices and details of gross negligence at the Cidra pharmaceutical plant, run by one of GlaxoSmithKline's subsidiaries.

Dangerous practices and details of gross negligence at the Cidra pharmaceutical plant, run by one of GlaxoSmithKline's subsidiaries. - Read Dr Mercola's article about this. Do you agree with me that the top people of drug companies that are guilty of such negligence should personally have to be answerable to criminal charges in court and receive severe punishments, like prison sentences, in order to discourage repetition of the offences? - What if you or your loved ones are the next patients to suffer from Big Pharma's dangerous products?
If you agree with me on this, then draw these scandalous details to the notice of your friends, family and colleagues.

All Cows Eat Grass: Discuss.

When I was learning to play the piano, All Cows Eat Grass was the mnemonic I was taught for remembering the notes - A, C, E, G -in the spaces of the bass clef. I expect music students are still taught that. - The notes are still the same. The mnemonic still works. But is the former axiom still true? In the modern world in which agribusiness has taken the place of so much traditional farming, to get the names of the notes right, maybe we should change the mnemonic to All Cows Eat Grain.
See 'Cows Eat Grass and Other Inflammatory Statements'.

Dieting in early pregnancy risks damaging your baby's brain

If you eat too little in early pregnancy you may stunt your baby's brain development. Read physorg.com article.

Here is the safe way to avoid gaining excess weight in pregnancy.

I've ordered a jar of coconut oil

I've ordered a jar of coconut oil which I intend to eat. I understand it can be applied as skincare too. I bet it will taste good and I expect it to benefit my health. I tried eating coconut cream a few weeks ago and it was delicious. It's a great shame that for most of my life I have tended to avoid eating anything made from coconuts because they contain saturated fat. - Like most people I had been misinformed, by people supposed to be health experts, that saturated fat is bad for our health. But of course, healthy saturated fats are very good for our health. See here and here. So much of what the experts call 'healthy eating' is not healthy at all. - I do hope you're not eating margarine! - I was misled into eating margarine years ago. These days I make sure it's good pastured butter I eat - never margarine.

Coconuts, it seems, are treasuries of healthy nutrition, skincare and haircare, and a great variety of other useful products, including coir for coconut matting and the leaves for brooms. This Wikipedia article has a wealth of interesting information about coconuts.

I watched Fish Unwrapped tonight on Channel 4 Dispatches

I watched Fish Unwrapped on Channel 4's Dispatches tonight, excellently presented by Alex Thomson. The lax hygiene standards, poor adherence to regulations, and inadequate inspection that obtain in some of the fishing areas from where the UK sources its fish led me to conclude that consumers here cannot trust the safety of much of the fish on sale in supermarkets. If you and your family ever eat fish fingers I suggest you watch this programme using the link I have given. I think you may well decide not to eat them any more. And I suspect there will be fewer takers for prawns after watching the programme: the thought of eating prawns injected with dirty liquid to bulk them up in order to sell the dirty liquid at the same price as the prawns... - Yuk! - Dunno quite what to recommend except that getting out of the EU would be a start, since the EU favours big business and the food industry over mere consumers/taxpayers.

This may help with problem of inadequate sleep

The hormone, Melatonin, is one of the many factors involved in helping us to sleep. Computer screens usually emit a lot of light. Apparently the blue part of the spectrum is particularly ‘melatonin-suppressive’. Here is some free software that filters the blue light out of computer screens at dusk. I've just downloaded it and am running it and my screen is now less bright. It seems more restful for my eyes.
Note: Beta-blockers such as propranolol deplete the body of melatonin.

Review finds exercise and vitamin D help to prevent falls in older people

A systematic review of over 50 clinical trials finds that exercise and Vitamin D supplements are the best ways to reduce the risk of falling in people aged 65 and over.
Read article at physorg.com

Pharmaceutical Industry's Criminal Fraud Settlements

Between 1991-2010, there were 165 criminal and/or civil settlements by major pharmaceutical companies comprising of $19.8 billion in penalties. Four of the world's largest drug companies--GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Schering-Plough--accounted for 53% ($10.5 billion) of penalties during these two decades.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Human Research Protection (USA)

Eat less salt and lower your risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart attacks, kidney disease and many more health problems

Reduce your salt consumption and lower your risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart attacks, kidney disease and many more health problems.

"The American Heart Association today issued a call to action for the public, health professionals, the food industry and the government to intensify efforts to reduce the amount of sodium (salt) Americans consume daily." See physorg.com article.

"Recently, the American Heart Association lowered their recommendation to no more than 1500 mg of sodium daily for the general public, after a report from the Centers for Disease Control found that a majority of the American population either have high blood pressure or are at high risk for developing it."

See Sodium in Foods

See Groups Vulnerable to Salt.

See Obesity and the Salt Connection.

Did you know that taking prescription drugs is a major cause of salt sensitivity? - Read about Amitriptyline and other antidepressants. And read about Prescribed Steroids, HRT and other Drugs.

Should fluoride really be added to the drinking water supply?

Should fluoride be added to the drinking water supply? It looks like we have been grossly misled for decades by the 'experts' who have encouraged us to believe that it should. Read this excellent article and discover the facts. If you click on the 'water fluoridation' label beneath this blogpost you will find quite a lot of articles critical of adding fluoride to the water supply.