A few weeks ago, I got real stubborn and stamped my feel like a child because I did not want to go to a restaurant that I know serves conventional food and [more than likely] uses hydrogenated oils as the base for their fry grease. So we had that great reunion of friends and I began explaining what hydrogenated oils were, only to realize two things: 1. I did not know exactly what they were, nor how to explain them coherently, and 2. My audience knows me well enough to know when I am bullshitting an answer.
Unfortunately, it was both cases.
It was a New Years resolution of mine to avoid “trans-fats” as much as possible and have been very good about doing so. Along with this, my fiancée and I have stopped shopping at conventional grocery stores, where it is impossible to have a pleasant experience, especially while having to read all the ingredients on the back of over-processed food just to see whether or not they were living up to my new standards. Fortunately, we have a wonderful Co-op right down the street that does significant research into every product they put on their shelves, weeding out the majority of the stuff one doesn’t want in processed and unprocessed food. (I say majority because they do still serve junk food, but it’s Kind Hippy Junk Food. We don’t buy that crap either.

“By our most conservative estimate, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oils would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year, and epidemiologic evidence suggests this number is closer to 100,000 premature deaths annually.”

What this comes down to, is much more than just changing one’s diet to become healthier. What needs to happen in our society if we expect a change, is to dangle our dollars like carrots in front of a burro to guide companies into more responsible practices. Some people claim that companies control the consumers, but on the contrary I believe that if people consistently buy products and support services that are transparent and prove their dedication to health and the environment, global well-being and economic responsibility, companies will listen change. They have to, if they want to survive. For instance, look how many grocery stores now are carrying organic lines than were 5 years ago. Money is the honey and it speaks all languages. A consumer revolution might not be the end-all answer, but it could get us on a more worthy track.

So here is the answer to why this stuff is the devil.
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Italy’s most famous porn star Cicciolina has offered herself to Osama Bin Laden.

The 55-year-old actress said it was about time somebody tackled the terrorist and claimed she could be just the woman for the job.

Speaking at an erotic fair in Bucharest, Romania, Cicciolina said: “It is time someone did something about Bin Laden, and I am ready to do it.

“I am ready to make a deal, he can have me in exchange for an end to his tyranny. My breasts have only ever helped people while Bin Laden has killed thousands of innocent victims.”

The blonde porn star, whose real name is Anna Ilona Staller, pointed out that Bin Laden could learn from Saddam Hussein’s mistakes.

In the 1990s she offered herself to Saddam Hussein if he gave up dictatorship of Iraq, and added that if he had taken up her offer “who knows what might have happened.”

thanks, ananova!

I have always wanted to do this.
Google answers hard at work.

I swear these stories are finding me and not vice versa.

From the “recent studies suggest” department, we learn that sex is not only beneficial in lowering stress…

Volunteers who had sexual intercourse were the least stressed and had blood pressure levels that returned to normal more quickly than people who engaged in other types of sex. But people who had abstained from sex had the highest blood pressure response to stress.

…but also gives vitamin C a run for its money in boosting the ol’ immune system:

Swiss scientist Manfred Schedlovski claims his experiments show that regular love-making increases the amount of phagocyte cells, which boost the body’s immune system and fight the microbes that cause colds.

He claims the number of phagocytes - which attack alien antibodies, causing them to self-destruct - significantly increases during sexual intercourse.
And according to Schedlovski’s research, the number of phagocyte cells can even double after an orgasm, allowing alien microbes to be detected and destroyed more quickly.

Somehow, I don’t think these two tidbits will be added to any Sex Ed curriculums anytime soon.
Not to mention all these.

A new study finds that couples who watch tv in the bedroom have half the sex that tv-less couples do.

“If there’s no television in the bedroom, the frequency (of sexual intercourse) doubles,” said Serenella Salomoni whose team of psychologists questioned 523 Italian couples to see what effect television had on their sex lives.

On average, Italians who live without TV in the bedroom have sex twice a week, or eight times a month. This drops to an average of four times a month for those with a TV, the study found.

For the over-50s the effect is even more marked, with the average of seven couplings a month falling to just 1.5 times.

And these are Italians, imagine what TV does to the already underutilized* American libido!

*Results may vary, especially in my case.