Archive for » May 12th, 2012«

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Barkley: Weight loss is about health

NEW YORK, May 12 (UPI) — Former basketball star Charles Barkley said he was inspired to join and campaign for Weight Watchers when he realized he’d gained 100 pounds since retirement.

Currently weighing in at 292, Barkley has lost nearly 60 pounds since joining the weight-loss program. He told Parade Magazine he’d like to drop another 20 pounds from his 6-foot-5-inch frame.

“I’d gained, like, 100 pounds since I retired, and that wasn’t good,” Barkley said.

Barkley admitted it was his idea to dress up as a woman for the Weight Watchers ad about “man food.”

“I thought their commercials were a little intense and I wanted to have more fun. I’ve dressed like a woman on Saturday Night Live, so it doesn’t bother me at all. My message is about health,” he said.

In January Barkley was caught on air during a Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks game calling his Weight Watchers gig a scam. He believed his microphone was turned off at the time.

“I thought this was the greatest scam going — getting paid to watch sports. This Weight Watchers thing is a bigger scam,” The New York Times quoted him as saying.

Weight Watchers released a statement from Barkley, in which he said: “I meant what I said. The fact that I’m dropping pounds, getting healthier and getting paid at the same time is my definition of a great scam.”


CBS sues ABC for copying ‘Big Brother’

LOS ANGELES, May 12 (UPI) — CBS has filed a lawsuit against ABC for infringement of copyright law, saying the network’s upcoming “Life in a Glass House” is similar to CBS’ “Big Brother.”

The complaint, filed by CBS Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, alleges the ABC show “replicates every key aspect of ‘Big Brother,’ including, among other things, its plot, themes, mood, setting, pace, characters [and] sequence of events.”

ABC had previously not responded to a cease-and-desist request filed by CBS last week, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

“The differences between ‘Glass House’ and ‘Big Brother’ are both fundamental and obvious, ranging from Glass House’s interactive elements and audience participation to its deployment of cutting-edge technologies,” ABC said.

Both reality shows film strangers living together in a competition in which one contestant emerges as the winner.

Lance Lieberman, an intellectual-property attorney, said it is CBS’ responsibility to prove in court ABC was directly copying ideas unique to “Big Brother.”

“Any time a new show comes out that’s basically the same idea, there are always these kinds of charges,” Lieberman said.

“Life in a Glass House” is scheduled to premiere June 18, the Journal said.


Damon, Affleck to host Warren fundraiser

SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 12 (UPI) — New Englanders Matt Damon and Ben Affleck will be hosts of a Hollywood fundraiser for Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, her campaign said.

John Krasinski of NBC’s “The Office,” a fellow son of the commonwealth, will also welcome donors to the May 21 event at the Santa Monica, Calif., production company owned by “Star Trek” producer J.J. Abrams.

It won’t be all celebrities at the party, The Hill noted. Two tickets will be issued in a raffle among donors who chipped in $5 or more. The campaign will pick up the travel costs to get the luck winners out to Los Angeles.

Warren has been on a financial roll in her campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., The Hill said. She pumped nearly $7 million into her war chest in the first quarter of 2012.


Jazz savant Matt Savage graduates college

BOSTON, May 12 (UPI) — Autistic jazz music savant Matt Savage celebrated his birthday and graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music Saturday with a 3.99 grade point average.

Savage, who was diagnosed with autism at 3 years old and couldn’t stand the sound of music, cut his first album at age 7, has won several ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards, has performed in numerous festivals and competitions around the world and has even played with the likes of Chaka Khan and Chick Corea.

“Music is a soundtrack to my life,” he told The Boston Globe. “It transports people into what life could be. When you play music, it feels like you’re making the world that much more exciting.”

Savage, 20, still has one semester left at Berklee — he’s graduating now because the school only has one ceremony per year — but plans to perform at the Heineken Jazzaldia Festival in San Sebastian, Spain, in July and has a gig lined up in Japan in September.

Despite Savage’s early success — he’s composed some 100 to 200 songs — he’s “basically a typical college kid,” said John Funkhouser, Berklee professor and member of the Matt Savage Trio.

“He’s gotten good grades, met tons of people, and played with a wide variety of people and in various musical styles,” Funkhouser added.


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The Diet Solution Program – Review and Details

The Diet Solution Program by Isabel De Los Rios is one of the top most selling e-books in fitness category. Isabel De Los Rios is a certified
nutritionist and graduate of Rutgers of University. There are many positive feedbacks of this program. Let us move on to detailed “The Diet Solution Program” review.

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The secret of this unique and effective weight loss solution is based on eating certain foods that naturally pump up the dieter’s metabolism and help them to burn a ton of calories every single day. Instead of eating the wrong foods and feeling fatter and dumpier every time people get dressed, why not learn how to eat the foods that make individuals thin?

The number one advantage of the solution diet program is that it does not instruct users to follow, no unnecessary meal. Instead, it about how to enjoy their meal and still burn significant calories. Other advantages of this weight loss program includes a higher level of energy, general health, a significant decrease in blood glucose levels, the elimination of digestive discomfort, reduce cholesterol, and clearer skin conditions.

The contents which you will get inside the diet solution include:

A Manual – This manual is your end all, be all reference for everything to do with your new healthier eating plan. It will answer all your questions and be a valuable source of information for years to come.

Success Journal – After you become accustomed to the plan, keeping track of your meals, successes and setbacks won’t be as necessary. But in the beginning stages, it’s a wonderful accountability tool.

Food Shopping Guide – Here you will be shown what and where to buy all the best options for your success.

Quick Start Guide – While you should read the manual completely, many people want to get started immediately. This quick start guide has been the sole diet for many people who never got to the manual.

Top 10 Nutrition Mistakes Keeping You Fat

Diet Solution Recipes – Included are simple and basic recipes that will taste great too. The writer knows that not everyone has unlimited time to spend preparing their dishes. With these recipes, you’re given a head start on the best foods to try.

60 Day Meal Plans – Here is where the flexibility comes in. They have a wide variety of meal plan ideas that can be customized to your likes and dislikes.

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Medifast Coupon Code Saves Consumers $66 on Advantage Program

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/5/prweb9497876.htm


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NO: ‘Bad-food’ taxes will clog nation’s economic arteries

Talk about it

    Proponents of an American Nanny State have a plan to improve your health: Tax sugar and “junk” food so you will eat less of it. Subsidies for broccoli and beets are close behind. These plans for bureaucrats and politicians to remake your diet are bad news for four reasons.

    First, it is no one’s business but yours what you eat. The freedom to eat a slice of apple pie might not sound quite as stirring as freedom of speech, but the ability to choose how to live our lives is the most fundamental freedom. What you eat is no one’s business but yours.

    Second, even if the government has a role to play in guiding our dietary choices, efforts at restructuring Americans’ lives via the tax code are fundamentally flawed.

    This strategy has given us a tax system of unimaginable complexity.

    Taxes need to be simple and easy to administer. As tax laws get fatter, they clog our economic arteries and stifle economic growth. Trying to fine-tune Americans’ diets via a “junk food” tax will further fatten the tax laws, and the wallets of accountants and tax lawyers. If there are any Americans unaware that sugar and potato chips are fattening, we don’t need a tax to enlighten them, just some public service announcements.

    Third, the government’s record on dietary control is problematic. The federal government has been involved in the sugar market since the War of 1812. Nanny Staters promise that this time they’ll get things right, but if they haven’t managed to do so in 200 years, why should we believe them now?

    For sugar, that’s the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup and the 17 domestic sugar cane producers who reap millions of dollars annually under our current agricultural subsidies and sugar tariffs — not you and me.

    Finally, the Nanny State brigade promises to spend the extra tax money on subsidies for “healthy” foods and lifestyles. New York Times columnist Matt Bittman enthuses about money for “gyms, pools, jogging and bike trails,” “Meals on Wheels” for the elderly, “Head Start” programs for children, and “supermarkets and farmers’ markets.”

    If we examine the government’s record in spending the billions of dollars from state governments’ lawsuits against tobacco companies, we can see that this is pure fantasy.

    States promised to spend vast sums on anti-smoking programs. The reality is different. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids tracks state tobacco prevention spending and tobacco revenue, and found that over the first ten years of the settlement, states spent just 3.2 percent of the money on tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

    Nanny Staters promise the sun, moon and stars to get new taxes on the books, but deliver little else.

    Andrew Morriss is a professor of law and business at the University of Alabama. He can be reached at amorriss@ law.ua.edu.

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    opinion, editorials, columns, columnists, politics, business


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    Top Chef star Gail Simmons: My diet and workout secrets

    Top Chef judge Gail Simmons is around delicious food all , but manages to stay healthy and fit by watching portion sizes and doing rigorous exercise several days a week. Like her gorgeous co-star Padma Lakshmi, Gail makes an effort to stay active even while traveling and sampling food all day long.

    “I wish I could say I was one of those people who loves working out, but I don’t; it’s just not that fun,” Simmons told the Los Angeles Times on May 12, 2012. “But I make an effort to work out aggressively three times a week.

    “I run a solid four to six miles at a time, and over the last year two years I’ve gotten really into SoulCycle. It’s sort of an evolved form of spinning. Because I travel so much, I bring my workout clothes and shoes wherever I go. That way I can always do some exercise.”

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    Gail, a food writer for Food Wine magazine who recently released her memoir, Talking With My Mouth Full, tries not to become obsessed with being skinny, despite working in the weight-conscious entertainment industry.

    “I’m a healthy weight for my height, and I like how I look on most days,” says Simmons, 35. “There are few women in America that don’t want to lose 5 pounds, but I refuse to let that thought dominate my life. And there are too many other real problems in the world — real obesity problems and real hunger problems — to worry that much about a few pounds that I’d like to lose.”

    While Gail samples mouth-watering desserts and entrees as a judge on Top Chef and its spinoff, Top Chef: Desserts, she follows a largely vegetarian diet when she’s not filming.

    “When I’m cooking for myself, I find that I eat almost completely vegetarian, although I’m not vegetarian,” says Simmons. “So I make a lot of vegetable soups and stews, and a lot of whole grains like barley, quinoa and brown rice. I also make a lot of salads. A salad could be a million things — I try to use lots of different vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains and seeds.”

    Gail, who loves food, has to be careful how and when she eats during shooting. “On Top Chef proper, we eat these big meals, but they’re full meals,” says Simmons. “On Top Chef: Just Desserts, if I relied on the food made on the show, all I would eat would be sugar and butter.

    “When we first started filming Top Chef: Just Desserts, I would skip breakfast sometimes, but by at the time we were sitting down at the judges’ table, I would crash; my eyes would roll back in my head, and I’d be starving. So I started pumping up my workout for the month or two leading up to filming the show, and I started really paying attention to breakfast. That way, if all else went south, at least I knew I got a healthy start.”

    Pre-production is currently underway for Season 10 of Top Chef.


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    Home nutrition vital for healing

    Imagine you’re a mother with two young children, just diagnosed as having breast cancer.

    You will face a series of taxing medical procedures that will help save your life, but leave you exhausted. If you make an inadequate income and are without an extensive support network, you must also find a way to deal with the daily activities that are necessary for survival but challenging for the critically ill. Shopping and cooking are overwhelming but absolutely essential for your family and for your own health.

    When we think about the relationship between food and health, we usually think about maintaining good nutrition to promote good health. But for those who are chronically or critically ill, especially those without a lot of resources, food plays an important role in healing. And as we contemplate ways to reduce health care costs, we must seriously look at how effective meal delivery reduces health expenses while also providing gravely ill individuals with a service that helps them support their family.

    Men and women who are hungry while they are also sick are not in the best position to recover. Most drugs work most effectively when they are taken with food because they will be absorbed into the system more efficiently. But many of the prescriptions that individuals take to combat a serious illness — cancer, heart failure, AIDS — can be toxic and difficult to keep down. The solution is to provide custom-tailored menus that address the special dietary needs associated with a certain illness or drug regimen. Not only will the patient receive a nutritious meal, she will also be on a diet that complements the medications she is taking.

    Community Servings began serving meals to people living with AIDS 22 years ago. At the time, food was the only medicine available to AIDS patients whose bodies were being consumed by the virus. The organization has since expanded its service to include patients with other critical illnesses. Emphasizing the philosophy that “food is medicine,” the group offers 25 different medically-tailored diets to suit the menu to the disease and treatment plan.

    A specialized diet can be challenging for adults who are not used to adhering to strict dietary restrictions. Organizations that provide this service are an integral part of the healing process because they allow patients to easily follow a nutritious, specific food plan that will help them recover more quickly and remain in their home and out of the hospital.

    For as little as $5 a day per patient, these types of essential services can be delivered to hundreds of critically ill patients throughout Massachusetts. When you compare that expense to the cost of hospitalizations, it becomes immediately obvious that funding such services is a small price to pay.

    As the health care system moves more toward a “medical home” model, where providers are reimbursed for avoiding re-hospitalizations, meal delivery service not restricted by age and more tailored to address specific illnesses makes a tremendous amount of sense. If the idea is to keep more people at home and out of expensive hospital beds, home-based nutrition must be incorporated into the health-care agenda. It is a smart, economically sound proposition.


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    Noda renews pitch for tax hike plan amid opposition hostility

    TOKYO (Kyodo) — Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Friday made another pitch for his signature policy goal of raising Japan’s consumption tax rate, appealing for the opposition bloc’s cooperation in passing a set of bills on social security and tax reform.

    Noda, however, faces a tough road in persuading opposition parties to help pass the relevant legislation during the current Diet session through June, as the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party and its ally, the New Komeito party, have been ratcheting up pressure on the premier.

    “We are now at a crucial stage of determining whether or not Japan’s social security system and fiscal health can be sustainable,” Noda said during a plenary session of the House of Representatives.

    As of Friday, all seven bills related to social security and tax hikes are subject to parliamentary deliberation. Noda is aiming to secure Diet approval of the bills before the current parliamentary session ends on June 21.

    In a renewed call for the opposition camp’s cooperation, Noda said, “It is necessary for the ruling and opposition parties to hold constructive discussions and implement reforms.”

    The prime minister, in an interview with a group of reporters, underscored the importance of securing the support of the main opposition LDP.

    During parliament deliberations, a “counterproposal may surface” from the opposition parties, Noda said, adding he will “take pains” to push for enactment of the tax hike legislation by taking into account the opposition camp’s opinions.

    The government is aiming to increase the current 5 percent sales tax rate in two stages, to 8 percent in April 2014, and to 10 percent in October 2015, to cover the nation’s swelling social security costs.

    Opposition lawmakers argue the envisioned tax hike reneges on the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s pledges in the 2009 general election through which the DPJ took power.

    The opposition camp’s support is essential for passage of legislation in the divided Diet, in which the opposition parties control the upper house. The ruling party only holds a majority in the lower house.

    Noda, known as a fiscal hawk, has repeatedly vowed to stake his “political life” on the tax hike plan, pledging to restore Japan’s fiscal health, the worst among industrialized economies.

    But the outlook remains uncertain as the LDP and New Komeito are becoming increasingly hostile toward the government, making demands such as the dismissal of two Cabinet ministers who were censured last month by the upper house.

    Noda has repeatedly said that he wants Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka and transport minister Takeshi Maeda to stay in their posts.

    The opposition camp is also taking issue over the DPJ’s decision to reinstate the membership of former party leader Ichiro Ozawa, who was acquitted April 26 over a political funds scandal.

    But Noda indicated in the interview he has no plan to review the DPJ’s decision.

    Noda reiterated he is willing to hold talks with Ozawa to seek his cooperation over the passage of the sales tax bill.

    Ozawa, who heads the largest intraparty faction, is strongly opposed to the planned tax hike.

    However, the lifting of Ozawa’s party membership suspension has emboldened some opponents of the tax hike plan within the DPJ.

    Debate over the tax hike bill is also having repercussions on parliamentary deliberations on other key legislation, including for the creation of Japan’s new nuclear regulatory agency.


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