Individualism drives Japanese mad

The rapid spread of Western business practices in Japan has caused widespread mental illness and is responsible for a deepening demographic crisis, government officials say. Statistics indicate that 60 per cent of workers suffer from "high anxiety" and that 65 per cent of companies report soaring levels of mental illness.

Meanwhile, the size of the Japanese population is shrinking, and for the first time the Government has acknowledged that the falling birth rate is linked to job-related factors. Directors of the Japanese Mental Health Institute blame the same factors for rising levels of depression among workers and the country's suicide rate, which remains the highest among rich nations.

Merit-based pay and promotion are of particular concern because they are at odds with the traditional system, built on seniority, that has reigned supreme in corporate Japan. In the harsh new atmosphere of cut-throat rivalry between workers, the Institute for Population and Social Security argues, young people do not feel financially stable enough to start families.

The trend is put down to Japanese companies' attempts to globalise by adopting working practices more closely in line with US and British models. Larger numbers of temporary staff, a greater willingness to sack people and greater pay disparities are the downside.

A spokesman for the Mental Health Institute said that the emphasis on individual performance was driving Japanese workers - particularly those in their thirties - to mental turmoil. "People tend to be individualised under the new working patterns," he said. "When people worked in teams they were happier."

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All this talk about fat is unhealthy

Australia's fat epidemic is rarely out of the headlines. The most recent national health survey by the Bureau of Statistics found that since 1995 the overweight-obesity rate has grown by 10 per cent for men and 8 per cent for women. After a decade of warnings, we continue to grow fatter.

The promotion of overweight-obesity as an out-of-control disease rather than being one aspect of human diversity may be exacerbating the problem. Negative language surrounding fat increases psychological distress, while dieting leads to disturbed cycles of eating.

One in 20 Australians has bulimia, and binge eating is found in 4 per cent of the population, spread equally among males and females. Anorexia affects about 1 per cent of young women and kills more people than any other psychiatric illness. Studies show that dieting is the single greatest risk factor for the development of an eating disorder and dieters are starting younger and younger. Negative talk around fat children is especially dangerous, as disordered eating and food obsession develops in childhood, when social rejection is tied to appearance and as parents attempt to control their children's eating habits.

Eating disorders, especially anorexia, are not really about food, but about issues of control. It is easier to change the shape of your body than your emotional environment. However, emotion and power are intertwined. Incessant media coverage and constant social chitchat about fat, especially when it focuses on diets and attractiveness, for example, reinforces the notion that food and eating are not about nutrition and sustenance, but about who we are and the power we wield.

This is especially the case with celebrities. Superstars are skinny. People who refuse food are powerful. The thin ideal of pop culture and negative images surrounding the overweight destabilise self-esteem among the rest of us. As people deny themselves the pleasure of forbidden foods, obsession with food and desire for it grows until it is eaten in unhealthy quantities, which is followed by an overwhelming feeling of guilt and more craving. As shame and self-hatred build, eating habits reflect this despair. Whether the result is starving the body of food as punishment or binge eating to drown out the self, the physical and mental health implications are profound.

The British journalist William Leith explored his food addiction in his memoir The Hungry Years: Confessions of a Food Addict. By the end of his last round of binge eating, dieting and alcoholism, Leith concluded that eating was about the avoidance of emotional trauma. People overeat, he writes, to avoid dealing with the important emotional issues in their lives. For Leith, this was the rejection of his mother, epitomised in her decision to send him to boarding school.

Leith's book is one example of how body image and the cycle of guilt and binge eating are symptoms of deeper emotional issues and destructive thought patterns. Disordered eating is often a manifestation of unresolved psychological problems, a displacement mechanism increasingly encouraged by the preoccupation with fat. Salads and stationary bicycles won't solve obesity because they don't address the basic issue of self-esteem that underlies problem eating for many. If anything, guilt-easing rituals encourage the emotional conflation of food, self and power. If we are serious about a fitter, thinner (and happier) country, if we want our children to grow up with a healthy attitude towards food, then fat must cease to be an issue.

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Dangerous purses: "Women rarely go anywhere without a purse, which means that if a woman enters a place full of germs, so does her bag. That could mean she ends up carrying around microbes that could make her sick all day long. Microbiologist Chuck Gerba researches where organisms that make us sick lurk and lately he says he has found that germs gather on the outside of a woman's purse, especially on the bottom. "We found fecal bacteria you normally find on the floor of restroom," he said. "We found bacteria that can cause skin infections on the bottom of purses. What's more amazing is the large numbers we find on the bottom of purses, which indicates that they can be picking up a lot of other germs like cold viruses or viruses that cause diarrhea."




So how come we're not all dead? "A single meal high in saturated fat can affect the arteries and stop the body from protecting itself against heart disease and stroke, according to research to be published next week. A similarly calorie-laden meal that substitutes vegetable fat has far fewer ill effects, said the study by a team at The Heart Research Institute in Sydney. The study, to be published in the August 15 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, illustrates how daily bad habits add up over the years to heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, experts said. Saturated fats include all animal fats found in meat and dairy products, as well as coconut and palm oils. Most other vegetable fats are polyunsaturated or monounsaturated".

More food dictatorship in Melbourne schools

What's the point of restricting the diet of the great majority of the kids who are NOT overweight by any criterion? And ideas about what is "healthy" change all the time. Carbohydrates were really bad for a long time. Now they are really good. It is food fads that are being enforced, nothing else. And don't forget that salt is good for you

Fast food has been banned from a school to stop up to 20 parents delivering it to their children each lunchtime. The school's ban covers McDonald's, pizzas and other calorie-laden meals, including those from outlets such as KFC and Red Rooster. The school has also brought in a fitness instructor to help teachers keep healthy, and is reviewing the canteen menu.

Principal Leonie Fitzgerald said the ban was proving successful, drawing a positive response from parents and children. Ms Fitzgerald said the school had decided to ban fast food after it became a serious problem. "We had an issue with parents dropping off fast food, like McDonald's, KFC and Red Rooster, for treats for their kids," she said. Ms Fitzgerald said at one point up to 20 parents were coming to the school a day.

She said time-strapped parents often got fast food for their children because it was more convenient. "Sometimes they've been too busy in the morning . . . so they get something quick and easy," Ms Fitzgerald said. She said she also approached parents when they came into the school foyer with fast-food lunches. "That was the most effective way to explain it."

Ms Fitzgerald said parents had responded very well to the ban, taking the school's advice to prepare healthier lunches. "We have turned it around," Ms Fitzgerald said of the problem. "It only happens very rarely now, which is great." The school has other initiatives, including a fitness program for staff before and after school. A nutritionist will also talk to students, staff and parents next week.

Australian Medical Association president Mukesh Haikerwal praised Dandenong South PS. "It has been brave and changed people's eating habits and attitudes to food," Dr Haikerwal said. He called on the Government to ban fast food from all primary schools. "In the current climate of obesity in the community, all steps must be taken to make people aware of wrong food choices," Dr Haikerwal said. "There a lot of reasons to ban junk food at primary school, because children at that age are often unable to make informed food choices."

The State Government has already announced it will outlaw soft drink from schools and is looking at restricting the sale of lollies and chips. But a spokesman for Education Minister Lynne Kosky said there were no immediate plans to ban all high-calorie fast food from schools.

Nutrition Australia spokeswoman Kelly Neville said over a third of a child's food intake is consumed in school hours. "A healthy lunch, snacks and drinks are therefore very important," Ms Neville said. Victorian Principals Association president Fred Ackerman said the Government should help by funding programs and nutritious canteens. Parents Victoria's Gail McHardy said it was great to see school and community working together. Statistics show about 10,000 Victorian children become obese or overweight every year. The Department of Human Services said that up to 25 per cent of Victorian children are overweight or obese.

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Watch that booze: "Two of the British Government's most senior drug policy scientific advisors have just ranked alcohol and tobacco ahead of such Class A illegal drugs LSD and ecstasy in terms of the dangers they pose. On a new "league table" of both legal and illegal drugs, based on the harm they do, alcohol is listed as the fifth most dangerous drug and tobacco the ninth. That would male alcohol a likely Class A drug and tobacco a Class B drug -- both illegal under the current classification system. According to Professor David Nutt of the British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and Colin Blakemore, the chief executive of the Medical Research Council, who drew up the list, tobacco and alcohol cause about 40 times the total number of deaths from all illegal drugs combined.


Scots kids dodging food fascists too: "Entrepreneurial pupils are cashing in on a ban on unhealthy foods in schools. Youngsters are setting up businesses and doing a roaring trade selling forbidden sweets such as chocolate, fizzy drinks and crisps to schoolmates. Such plots were highlighted in the newsletter of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council. Judith Gillespie, the group's development manager, said: "Kids are kids. If you put a rule in place, they will find a way round it. "It's certainly enterprising, although not what the Scottish Executive would regard as enterprise - they would have a rather more po-faced take on it, I'm sure." Ms Gillespie stressed that she was in favour of children having a healthy and nutritious diet. But she added: "It's brilliant that kids are seeing a gap in the market. They are tremendous entrepreneurs.""

RUBBER NOW DANGEROUS!

Wrappers and packaging used for a wide variety of foods contain hidden quantities of latex rubber that can trigger fatal allergic reactions, a study has revealed. Tests funded by the Food Standards Agency on 21 types of packaging have shown that a third were contaminated with latex, which in some cases was transferred to the food. The findings have prompted calls for new labelling rules to ensure that consumers are aware of the use of latex in packaging across Europe. In one chocolate biscuit the amount of latex found was almost 20 times the level that can trigger a reaction in a person sensitive to latex rubber.

Contamination by rubber proteins was also discovered in ice-lollies and pastry, in stickers used on fresh produce such as avocados and apples, on rubber bands used to tie spring onions and asparagus and in the netting that keeps joints of meat intact. Natural latex, derived from the sap of rubber trees, is commonly found in the adhesive used to cold-seal ice-cream, chocolate bars and biscuits and other chilled foods where heat exposure would cause the product to deteriorate. It can contain rubber proteins known to be harmful or even dangerous to sensitive individuals. Four of these proteins, known as “Hev� allergens, are recognised as being a health risk. At present manufacturers are not required to include latex warnings on packaging labels.

There is no agreement on what constitutes a safe level, but as little as a billionth of a gram (1 ng/ml) has been known to trigger an allergic response. The research, which is published today in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine for the Society of Chemical Industry, was conducted by Leatherhead Food International, a leading science research laboratory, on behalf of the Food Standards Agency. It is the first known study to quantify the presence of latex in food and packaging. The agency said that it was too early to draw firm conclusions. It advised people not to alter their eating habits or the way they prepare food.

Joanna Topping, a food technologist who led the research, said that the survey of 21 food products found that one third of the packaging contained latex. Highest levels were found in ice-cream wrappers, including one choc-ice wrapper containing 374 ng/ml of latex protein. Another possible route for contamination is the widespread use of latex gloves by workers in the food industry.

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Bottled water a dental disaster: "Parents who buy bottled water are wrong to believe they are doing the right thing by their children, after a South Australian study found a 71 per cent rise in tooth decay. The report by the branch of the Australian Dental Association has found the lack of enamel-strengthening fluoride in bottled water is a major factor in the high level of tooth decay in children. ADASA president Bruce Noble said yesterday that permanent tooth decay in 14- and 15-year-olds increased by 71 per cent in the six years to 2002. The study was conducted by the Australian Research Centre for Oral Health, based in Adelaide. "They're carrying wounded teeth until they die," Dr Noble told The Australian. "It's not only the cost, it's the discomfort." He said the increase in tooth decay coincided with the rise in popularity of bottled water and sports drinks in the mid-1990s. "Fluoride in drinking water is essential to ensuring healthy teeth," Dr Noble said. "It has been rated by the US Centres for Disease Control as one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century."

Food rebellion in Melbourne schools continues

Students are ignoring healthy canteen initiatives by turning to nearby milkbars for their junk food fix. Some senior students are also offered money to buy junk food for younger students not allowed to leave the school grounds. Secondary school students across inner Melbourne told the Sunday Herald Sun how they turn their back on healthy canteens.

Northcote High School year 12 student Nicole, 18, said a nearby milkbar was more than happy to sell fatty fried foods such as spring rolls and hot chips. Nicole thinks these foods are popular because they are cheap. A spring roll at the milkbar costs $1.70, while the school canteen charges about $4 for a salad roll.

Princes Hill Secondary College student Natina, 13, said the milkbar near her school was cheap and had a wider range of junk food and good healthy options.

Northcote High School has one of the state's healthiest canteens, yet VCE students choose to buy junk food from a milkbar. Principal Gail Davidson said it was disappointing, but added that VCE students were young adults and able to make their own choices.

State Secondary Principals Association president Andrew Blair said many schools were concerned about milkbars. Mr Blair said some principals had even resorted to asking milkbar owners not to serve students. Nutrition Australia dietician Kelly Neville said milkbar owners often weren't aware of healthy eating guidelines.

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ANTIOXIDANTS BAD FOR YOU

This article is from last year but it deserves a re-run

Many cancer patients take a range of antioxidant vitamins in hope of improving their odds, but some research suggests the supplements may be doing more harm than good.

A report published in CA, an American Cancer Society medical journal, says cancer patients shouldn't use antioxidants during radiation or chemotherapy because the supplements may reduce the effectiveness of treatment. Worse, some research suggests that antioxidants may actually feed cancers, protecting the very cancer cells patients are trying to attack. The news further clouds the role that vitamins play in promoting good health. Earlier this year, a major study showed that certain people who regularly take vitamin E supplements had a higher risk for heart failure. The notion that antioxidants may be harmful is likely to be upsetting and confusing to the large number of cancer patients gobbling down vitamins and supplements to help fight the disease. Studies show that as many as a third to half of cancer patients are taking antioxidants, vitamins and other supplements.

Antioxidants include beta carotene, lycopene and vitamins A, B, C and E, among others. In the body, antioxidants mop up rogue molecules called free radicals, which have the potential to cause extensive cell damage and are believed to play a role in heart disease, cancer and numerous other health problems. A substance that attacks free radicals would seem to battle cancer in theory. But the results of both lab and human studies of cancer and antioxidants have been mixed. One concern is that because chemotherapy treatments sometimes act against the cancer by producing free radicals, taking antioxidants could interfere with that effect.

Some lab studies have shown that antioxidants can improve the effectiveness of cancer treatments, such as a 1997 study that showed antioxidant supplements boosted chemotherapy used for colon cancer patients. Other lab studies raise questions about their use, however. For instance, a 1995 report in the Journal of Biological Chemistry showed that cancer cells in a petri dish actually absorb more vitamin C than normal cells, suggesting that vitamin C is better at protecting tumors than healthy tissues.

Until more is known, patients undergoing treatment should avoid high-dose supplements, concludes Gabriella M. D'Andrea, breast oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and author of the CA article. In her review of the scientific evidence on use of antioxidant supplements to prevent or treat cancer, D'Andrea found a handful of human trials that showed supplements often don't benefit cancer patients and may be causing harm. "We would love to find a nutrient or antioxidant that could be anticancer, but I think we need to be very cautious," D'Andrea says.

For instance, two randomized trials of patients with advanced cancer found no benefit from vitamin C supplements and suggested that survival may have been worse in the vitamin group. Two large trials of smokers and former smokers found that beta carotene supplements appeared to increase lung cancer risk. Last year, the British medical journal Lancet published a study showing that antioxidants didn't prevent gastrointestinal cancers and may have increased mortality risk. In a 2002 study of early-stage breast cancer patients undergoing treatment, some were prescribed large doses of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Results weren't conclusive but suggested survival may be worse in the antioxidant users. A major study this year of patients at risk for heart disease showed high doses of vitamin E had no impact on risk of melanoma, prostate, lung, oral, colorectal or breast cancers, but they were linked with higher risk for heart failure. A separate vitamin E study showed head-and-neck-cancer patients who took the supplement increased their risk for developing a second cancer.

D'Andrea says a large human trial is needed to show the real impact vitamins and antioxidants have on cancer patients. The problem is that such trials are expensive, and it's notoriously difficult to study supplements because dietary patterns vary so widely and issues like fat content and fruit and vegetable consumption may alter the way one supplement acts in different people. Certainly, none of this means cancer patients should never take vitamins or other supplements. Many cancer patients suffer nutrition problems and may be advised to take vitamins. The main concern is that patients discuss diet changes with their doctor.

"A lot of people think nutrients in any dose are harmless, but that may not be the case," says Marji McCullough, nutritional epidemiologist for the American Cancer Society. "It's probably prudent to say people should avoid taking large doses of any single supplement unless specifically recommended to do so from their doctor."

Patients still may be able to help themselves by adopting a lifestyle of healthful eating and exercise. In May, researchers released the results of a study of 2,400 postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer. The study showed that a low-fat diet can lower the chances of the cancer coming back by 24 percent.

Source. The academic journal article underlying the above report is here