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Dr. Alfred J. Tria is the chief of orthopedic surgery at St. Peter’s University Hospital, a 478-bed facility in New Brunswick, N.J., and to the medical technology company Smith & Nephew, his good word is worth a million bucks. Well, $940,857, to be precise.

That’s how much the company paid Dr. Tria in fees for promoting its products and training doctors in Asia to use them from 2009 to 2011, according to disclosures required by the state of Massachusetts, where Dr. Tria is licensed. In 2010, Dr. Tria earned $421,905 from private industry — more than any other Massachusetts-licensed physician that year.

Dr. Tria may be an outlier, but gifts and payments to physicians from drug and medical device companies have been rampant in medicine for decades. READ FULL ARTICLE >>

This is a quick and easy meal from Heather McDougall, the director of the McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, California. It also reheats well for lunch the next day or two. Serve this stuffed into a whole-grain bun and eat with your hands, or ladle it over the buns (open-face style) and eat with a fork. You could also use this as a pita filling. Serve with steamed kale and fresh corn.

Ingredients, Makes 4-6

• 31?3 cups water or low-sodium vegetable stock
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 11?2 cups dried brown lentils
• 1 15-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
• salt to taste

Preparation

Place 1?3 cup of the water or stock in a large pot. Add the onions and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally until onions soften slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder and mix in well. Add the remaining liquid, lentils, tomatoes, and the rest of the seasonings. Mix well, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook over low heat for one hour, stirring occasionally. Serve on whole-wheat buns, or fresh baked bread, with the trimmings of your choice.

Worldwide, we raise and kill 70 billion animals for food each year, all of whom require water. A few billion of these animals need 40 or more gallons per day—that’s over 100 times what we as individuals need to consume daily.

Producing a pound of meat requires approximately 50 times more water than producing a pound of vegetables, fruits, or grain for us to eat directly.

Between 1,700 and 4,000 gallons of water are needed to produce one pound of beef, 880 gallons to produce one gallon of milk, and over 100 gallons to produce a single egg!

From 1941 to 2011 the world’s population has tripled, but freshwater consumption has quadrupled.

Nearly 50% of U.S. annual water consumption goes toward raising livestock, while less than one percent is used for human drinking purposes.

The 12-million-year-old Ogallala Aquifer, which has supported the life of more than 50% of our cattle industry since the mid 1940s, is predicted to run completely dry within the next twenty years.

While agricultural irrigation is responsible for the majority of global freshwater use (between 70 and 93%), the largest concern is irrigation of crops, alfalfa, and pastures used to feed livestock.

The livestock industry also uses fresh water for the animals to drink, for cleaning equipment and holding areas, for slaughtering, and for processing the dead animals. The meat and dairy industries combine to account for 29% of all the fresh water used in the world today.

One of the more common actions people tend to take in an effort to reduce their freshwater footprint is to reduce their shower time by a minute or two each day. The average shower requires 8 minutes and twenty gallons of water. Cutting off 2 minutes of shower time would conserve 5 gallons of water daily.

However, forgoing a single burger  for lunch or steak for diner that same day would save 500 to 1,000 gallons of water. Cutting out a turkey sandwich or a chicken salad would save 200 gallons of water.

Many commercial vegetable and fruit farms grow their produce without any irrigation, yielding 2,000 to 20,000 pounds of annual produce per acre, grown simply with rainwater.

According to the EPA, the average household of three in the U.S. consumes 50,000 gallons of water per year for indoor use. A more accurate view is that every U.S. household of just three people uses well over a million gallons of water each year, not 50,000. And 96% of that outrageous water use results directly from the choice to eat animals.

The long-term solution to our looming freshwater crises can be found on our plates. Why wait until we run out of water? Make the change to a water-smart, purely plant-based diet today—and then inspire others to do the same. READ FULL ARTICLE >>

Less than 2% of Americans achieve even the recommended minimum adequate intake of potassium due primarily to inadequate plant food intake.

More information: http://NutritionFacts.org and http://www.DrGreger.org

Elephant Parade

The highly popular King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament is celebrating its twelfth anniversary in the royal seaside town of Hua Hin from August 28th – September 1st 2013 and promises to have a tonne of ele-fun activities both on and off the field.

The four day festival has something for everyone including a spectacular opening parade, celebrity matches, Chang Noi Day (Children’s Day) with a baby elephant camp and fun fair, and this year for the first time, Ladies Day with prizes for the best dressed. A Moulin Rouge themed Auction Gala Dinner tops off fundraising efforts with all the proceeds donated to various projects for the betterment of Thailand’s elephants.

With free admission for everyone, spectators will also be able to rub shoulders with European and Asian royalty, international sporting stars and local celebrities. This year will see Thailand’s defending champions King Power team go head to head with the New Zealand Rugby All Black’s Robin Brooke, Olo Brown and Charles Riechelmann, European royals Prince Carl-Eugen Oettingen-Wallerstein and his wife Princess Anna and daughter Princess Joanna. Miss Tiffany Thailand will also be adding a hint of fun and a lot of colour to the event with a full team of transgender beauty queens playing to win as well performing at the Gala Dinner.

The tournament was introduced to Thailand in 2001 by Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas and has grown to become one of the biggest charitable events in Thailand. To date the event has raised almost US$600,000 for projects that better the lives of Thailand’s elephant population, including housing for the mahouts and families, shelters for the elephants and a mobile blood centrifuge and elephant ambulance for the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre (TECC).

In addition to the 30 rescued street elephants who now enjoy a comfortable lifestyle at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort, the annual event allows a further 50 young elephants to be taken off the streets for the two week period during the tournament, providing them with a native forest environment, the best food possible, as well as the only proper veterinary check and vitamins they receive all year.

Street life can be tough for an elephant, walking through crowded tourist areas and busy roads for ten hours a night, forced to rest during the day on small green spaces within the cities, often without shade and water. The King’s Cup schedule is deliberately designed to give these elephants rest and relaxation on a scale they are never afforded in their ‘normal’ lives.

Since 2009 donations have also gone to funding the world’s first ever elephant therapy programme to research the rehabilitation benefits for autistic children. The Thai Elephant Therapy Project (TETP) was created in conjunction with Chiang Mai University and the TECC, initially allowing a further five elephants to be rescued off the streets of Bangkok, rented and trained as assistant therapists for autistic children. The programme now runs free therapy sessions for Thai children every year.

Other significant benefits from money raised has gone to building the first elephant hospital in Krabi in the southern part of Thailand; research and tree planting to build elephant corridors in Kui Buri so there are no elephant/farmer conflicts; funding the first educational computer application for children to teach them the importance of conservation and protection of wild elephants in Thailand and funding Asia’s first workshop to show traditional elephant trainers and camp owners the benefits of Positive Reinforcement Training for domesticated elephants.

The 12th King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament will be held at Hua Hin’s Suriyothai Army Base approximately 20 minutes from Anantara Hua Hin Resort & Spa. For more information on King’s Cup Elephant Polo, please visit www.anantaraelephantpolo.com. Anantara Hua Hin Resort & Spa is a distinctive Thai village-style resort located on the sunrise coast of the Gulf of Thailand. Hidden amidst 14 acres of luxuriantly landscaped mature gardens and lagoon pools, the picturesque resort enjoys a beachfront location at the quiet end of Thailand’s historic royal seaside town. For more information please visit www.anantara.com.

Modest lifestyle changes that include the avoidance of alcohol may cut the odds of breast cancer in half, but certain grapes appear to contain natural aromatase inhibitors that may undermine the ability of breast tumors to produce their own estrogen.

More information: http://NutritionFacts.org and http://www.DrGreger.org

Larry Page, co-founder of Google, recently announced he is suffering from paralyzed vocal cords. Could this condition be rooted in autoimmunity?

Page, who in 2003 announced he has the autoimmune disease Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, has recently struggled with a second seemingly unrelated health issue – limited movement of his vocal cords – that could be tied to his Hashimoto’s.

According to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA), research studies show paralyzed vocal cords are associated with rheumatoid arthritis as well as other autoimmune rheumatic diseases, such as lupus and scleroderma. Unlike these autoimmune rheumatic diseases, however, paralyzed vocal chords are not often accompanied by noticeable joint pain so if the patient is not seeing a rheumatologist, getting a proper diagnosis could be difficult.

“We know autoimmune diseases cluster in patients and families. So if a patient has one autoimmune disease, like Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis , it’s fairly common that he or she could have multiple ADs that may or may not be diagnosed,” said Virginia T. Ladd, president, AARDA. “In the case of Larry Page, perhaps he should see a rheumatologist to rule this possibility in or out so he can get a correct diagnosis and move on with a proper course of treatment.”

Hashimoto’s disease, also known as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, is one of the 100-plus known autoimmune diseases. With Hashimoto’s disease, the immune system makes antibodies that damage thyroid cells and interfere with their ability to make thyroid hormone. Over time, thyroid damage can cause thyroid hormone levels to be too low. This underactive thyroid, known as hypothyroidism, causes every function of the body to slow down, such as heart rate, brain function, and metabolic rate, or the rate your body turns food into energy. Hashimoto’s disease is the most common cause of an underactive thyroid. It is closely related to Graves’ disease, another autoimmune disease affecting the thyroid.

Some 50 million Americans live and cope with ADs, 75 percent of whom are women. AD is one of the top 10 leading causes of death of women under the age of 65. It encompasses more than 100 diseases, including psoriasis, Graves’ disease, Sjogren’s syndrome, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and lupus. It is responsible for more than $100 billion in direct health care costs annually.

The distinguished neurologist Roy Swank‘s low saturated fat diet remains the “most effective treatment of multiple sclerosis ever reported in the peer review literature.” In patients with early stage MS, 95% were without progression of their disease 34 years after adopting his meat and dairy-restricted diet. Even patients with initially advanced disease showed significant benefit. To date, no medication or invasive procedure has ever come close to demonstrating such success.

More information: http://NutritionFacts.org and http://www.DrGreger.org

The opiate-like effects of the casomorphin in cow’s milk may have a depressive effect on the respiratory center of infants and lead to “milk apnea,” in which babies temporarily stop breathing and are placed at risk for sudden infant death syndrome (crib death).

More information: http://NutritionFacts.org and http://www.DrGreger.org

The Westin St. John Resort & Villas

From the Caribbean Summit of Political and Business Leaders that took place in the British Virgin Islands last week, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and NRG Energy, Inc. on Friday announced a new global alliance to expand the use of renewable energy systems at Starwood properties.

The alliance will begin with three properties, including the installation of a 1.3 megawatt (MW) solar array at the Westin St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands where NRG will build, own and operate the project. This array will provide clean, efficient power to the resort helping to reduce local air emissions and the impact of shipping on the fragile Caribbean ecosystem by directly reducing demand for diesel fuel imports.

NRG will own the solar arrays while Starwood will be the enabling partner through a multi-year agreement to purchase electricity from the solar arrays installed at several locations. Not only will Starwood reduce its electricity costs, it also will lock in predictable energy costs at an affordable level for years to come and reduce the company’s carbon footprint and local air emissions. The customized solar solutions designed by NRG in consultation with Starwood will seamlessly integrate with the aesthetic of each location while enhancing the guest experience.

“At Starwood, we have established an environmental sustainability goal we call 30/20 by 20 meaning we’re committed to reducing our energy consumption by 30 percent and water consumption by 20 percent by 2020 throughout our global hotel and resort system,” said Ken Siegel, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel for Starwood. “We are making great progress against those goals through a variety of programs in place around the world and we’re pleased to partner with NRG to be able to provide affordable and sustainable electricity that will benefit the environment, our guests and our business.” NRG’s wholly owned subsidiary NRG Solar, one of the largest developers and owners of solar power in the United States, is also a leading developer of industry-leading distributed solar for businesses. NRG Solar’s capability to customize and scale solar solutions to the specific needs of customers with a broad variety of facilities is what attracts organizations to partner with NRG.

“In many parts of the world, including in the United States, solar power, generated locally, is well on its way to becoming the most cost-effective, environmentally beneficial and aesthetically pleasing energy option for any customer-facing business,” said David Crane, NRG President and Chief Executive Officer. “Starwood, with its 30/20 by 20 initiative and other commitments to sustainability  best practices, is an acknowledged leader in this regard in the global tourism and hospitality industry. We look forward to working with Starwood on clean energy and related sustainability initiatives in order to achieve the environmental and economic goals that we share in common.”