The Frustrated Bunny

Technology. Science. Politics. Geek. Etc.

Tagged: health

Personal

Discovering Fort Worth on foot: An introduction

Andrew and I have begun taking walks around our neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods in downtown Fort Worth. Mostly, this has been for exercise, since we’ve noticed we’re not nearly as active as we were when we were in school. We’ve been doing this for several weeks now, and it’s proven to be a very interesting and educational experience. We’re discovering new places and learning how roads and neighborhoods connect in ways that would never be possible in a car, or even on a bicycle. Our approach to walking around downtown is actually pretty organic–we start at home, pick a...

Politics

Evidence mounts of political motivation behind Komen’s defunding of Planned Parenthood

In case you had doubts as to whether or not Komen for the Cure’s withdrawal of funding from Planned Parenthood was motivated by far-right social politics, add this to the evidence: Around the same time as the funding policy update was being rolled out late last year,  Komen released a statement (PDF) emphasizing that it does not and has never provided funding for cancer research using embryonic stem cells. The statement says that Komen will only fund researching using stem cells “derived without creating a human embryo or destroying a human embryo.” While embryonic stem cell research may or may...

Politics

That awkward moment when Komen for the Cure pulls funding from one of the largest providers of breast cancer screenings

In case you missed it, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has halted its partnership with Planned Parenthood, citing a change in their grant eligibility policies. Since 2005, Komen has provided grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates to fund breast screenings and mammograms for low-income and uninsured women. From the looks of things, here’s how it went down: Komen very recently instituted a new policy that prohibits them from providing funding to organizations under federal/state/local investigation. As far as I can tell, this happened AFTER Republicans in Congress launched a VERY politically-motivated “investigation” into whether Planned Parenthood used federal funds for...

Politics

Rick Santorum cites obesity rates as reason to eliminate food stamps

At a campaign event in Iowa last week, Rick Santorum promised to radically reduce federal funding for food stamps, claiming that high obesity rates among the poor indicate the program is no longer necessary. Santorum wonders why obesity is a problem among people who rely on food stamps to feed themselves and their families. If he honestly doesn’t know the answer to that question, or at least doesn’t have a pretty good idea of the factors that have resulted in high obesity rates among the poor in this country, I don’t see how he possibly can say with a straight...

Food / Random

How to eat your veggies and cut your grocery bill

This week, the USDA released “MyPlate,” the improved successor to the ubiquitous but oft-criticized food pyramid, that visualizes thee proportions of each food group a person should consume at meals. Among the things that this new visualization reveals (but that actually hasn’t changed) is that half of the volume of each meal should be made up of fruits and vegetables. Even though this is not technically a new recommendation, MyPlate makes this more obvious, and some people are treating this information with a certain amount of surprise. In particular, the reactions I’ve seen to this have revolved mainly around “how...