According to the USDA about 450 egg facilities in the United States house more than 100,000 egg laying hens, and these account for nearly 80% of all egg production.

And, in 1959 there were more than 100,000 poultry farms.

Source: Food Politics

There's a lot of health news reporting, however, there are not a lot of reviews of the reporting. There is one individual - Gary Schwitzer - who reviews health news.

I recommend listening to this radio interview with Gary. I rely heavily on his reviews. Bottom-line: he exposes a tremendous amount of B.S. that we think is true and accurate. Thank you Gary for all the enlightening reports.

Check out Gary's site here.

Yes it is and the New York Times is telling the story.

It starts by stating: WHY are Americans getting fatter and fatter? The simple explanation is that we eat too much junk food and spend too much time in front of screens — be they television, phone or computer — to burn off all those empty calories.

Read the rest of the story.

We purchase about 500-million bottles of water every week. Sounds like a lot to me. Katie Couric discusses bottled water consumption with the producer of the movie Tapped and the head of the president of the International Bottled Water Association.

The greater the focus on nutrients, the less healthful foods have become. - Dr. David Ludwig

 . . . beware of the ones made in franchise stores. I've been making fruit smoothies in my blender. They're incredible and you do not have to add any sugar to make them sweet. They are naturally sweet!

The other day I decided to try one at a national smoothie store. The fruit ingredients sounded great. However, when drinking it, it tasted very sweet. I decided to look up the ingredients list. I found this one ingredient ... turbinado. What is it? Sugar!

In this one "healthy" smoothie there were 19-teaspoons of sugar. By comparison, that's twice as much as a 12-ounce Coke.

My advice: Make your own smoothies. They're cheaper and a lot better at home.

Update: The Center for Science in the Public Interest Reports:

At Smoothie King, a serving ranges from 20 to 40 ounces. So much for the FDA’s official 8 oz. serving. But who cares? Smoothies are mostly fruit, right?

Wrong. At Smoothie King, even a 20 oz. Stay Healthy Pomegranate Punch Smoothie packs a 460-calorie punch. And two-thirds of the calories come from juice concentrate, not fruit, which means that they won’t curb your appetite like the calories from solid foods do. Needless to say, stay away from the 930-calorie, 40 oz. Pomegranate Punch unless you’re hoping for a Smoothie King-size middle.

At Jamba Juice, the servings range from 16 oz. (“Sixteen”) to 30 oz. (“Power”). So you walk away with, say, 370 calories in a 22 oz. (“Original”) Pomegranate Pick-Me-Up. Not too smooth.

Headline:

New Beverage Boasts Ingredients Shown to Possess Anti-Aging and Rejuvenation Benefits

When you see claims like that, the best thing to do is hit the delete button. Ignore health items that seem too good to be true. And, when you read health claims on the front of food packaging, definitely ignore those.

McDonald's top chef, Dan Coudreaut, will impact more lives on a daily basis than any doctor could ever advise over an entire career.

J.J. Virgin, author of Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy:

Surprisingly, there are a number of chemically based foods lurking all over your kitchen.  For starters, get rid of anything with the word diet in it.  Diet foods are mostly not food at all but chemistry experiments.  In order to take out the sugar or fat, more sugar or fat has to be added, depending on the promise of the food.  Foods that are nonfat are usually higher in sugar.  There are also heaps of chemicals thrown in to keep them semi-tasty.  Not only are these foods horrendous for your system (and stop you from losing weight as your body goes into shock mode to process these chemicals), but they’re not even satisfying.  Ever eat a diet “food” then crave the real thing before you’re even finished taking the last chalky bite?

Being overweight raises your risk for developing osteoarthritis in a weight-bearing joint like the knee — and even in the hand, according to some research, since inflammatory factors related to weight might exacerbate this condition. Simply walking across level ground puts up to one-and-a-half times your body weight on your knees. That means a 200-pound man will deliver 300 pounds of pressure to his knee with each step. Off level ground, the news is worse: each knee bears two to three times your body weight when you go up and down stairs, and four to five times your body weight when you squat to tie a shoelace or pick up an item you dropped.

Fortunately, strengthening your quadriceps (the muscles on the fronts of the thighs) changes the equation, and so does losing weight. Each pound you lose reduces knee pressure in every step you take. One study found that the risk of developing osteoarthritis dropped 50% with each 11-pound weight loss among younger obese women. If older men lost enough weight to shift from an obese classification to just overweight — that is, from a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher down to one that fell between 25 and 29.9 — the researchers estimated knee osteoarthritis would decrease by a fifth. For older women, that shift would cut knee osteoarthritis by a third.

At state fairs, this is the food du jour. Yummy!

A few years ago, I attended the Iowa State Fair and witnessed this food first-hand. I was amazed and took this picture.

I snagged this photo from a TV commercial. By the advertisement, you might think this was a health food. However, I'd be more concerned with the grams of sugar and calories.

No thanks General Mills. I'll pass on this "health" food.

Here's one example. You've probably heard that it's a good idea to take Omega-3 supplements. However, many supplements have mercury and PCBs in them. So, the best idea is to purchase Omega -3 supplements that do not contain those chemicals.

That's just one example of many.

A very well-respected hospital in my area (Atlanta) wrote in its magazine: "Truly, no one nutrient is the magic bullet for weight loss."

With all due respect Saint Joseph's, I disagree. I wouldn't call it magic. I'd rather call it science. There are two nutrients that will do the trick.

While exercise does burn calories, what and how much you eat still matters. For example, a one-mile walk burns about 100 calories — so you'd have to walk for 12 miles to burn off the typical 1,200-calorie fast-food meal of a hamburger, fries, and a soft drink!