Health

NSW is moving to ban unvaccinated kids from schools and child care facilities.

Both of my kids were un-vaccinated…for a couple of reasons and none of it hippy dippy shit. Simply they were both highly allergic to egg white and other substances. No doctor, either GP or at the hospital was prepared to put their signature on a piece of paper to say it would be ok. In fact they insisted if we were to vaccinate at all that it MUST be done in a hospital under supervision.

They have since grown out of their allergies…but my daughter still has to be careful with egg-white.

I’m not sure a ban will work though.

A move to ban unvaccinated kids from NSW preschools and childcare centres isn’t about discriminating against the children of vaccine refusers, the state opposition says.

Labor leader John Robertson will introduce amendments to the public health act which would give early childhood centres the right to refuse kids who haven’t had their shots.

The move comes amid concern about high rates of unvaccinated children in some parts of NSW as well as the emergence of so-called ”anti-vaxxers” who refuse vaccination.

Some parts of NSW had lower vaccination rates than Rwanda, Mr Robertson said.

Read more »

Why don’t the media find decent examples to use in their whinge-fest stories these days.

This woman should lose weight then she might find her health problems will go away. She smokes as well. No wonder the health dollar keeps rising.

Is this fair when it is up to us to the lose weight?  Read more »

Looks like Chris Christie is serious about 2016 and taking on the presidency against whoever the Democrats select.

The standard knock on weight-loss surgery is that it amounts to taking the easy way out. But people interviewed on Tuesday who have had the same type of surgery as Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey say it is not so.

There will probably be no more bubbly Champagne or hefty steaks at political events. No more gobbling slices of pizza while on the campaign trail.

For Mr. Christie, the rewards of successful stomach-band surgery could be great, like reducing his risk of a premature death or having the chance to run for president as a slimmer person. But the consequences of not sticking to a post-surgery diet could be dire, like being forced to run to the bathroom after eating the wrong food or suffering the abject humiliation of being a public figure who still fails to lose weight publicly.  Read more »

Once again it looks like the masses will suffer because the few can’t stop stuffing food into their gobs. They should tax fat bastards not food.

Biscuits could be made smaller under plans to cut obesity rates by reducing the amount of fat in the nation’s diet.

Ministers are set to demand that food manufacturers, cafes and supermarkets reduce the portion size of items high in saturated fat, such as biscuits, doughnuts, milky coffees and cakes.

Under the plans, seen by The Telegraph, customers could be encouraged to buy low-fat options by restricting the availability of less healthy food in restaurants and shops.

When ready meals and snacks are being manufactured, saturated fat would also be replaced with healthier ingredients, where possible, under the deal.  Read more »

Fat-shaming doesn’t work, we need a fat bastard tax, if only to save fat bastards from themselves.

Fat shaming as a ‘motivational technique’ has divided the health and fitness community.

Queensland personal trainers, Sharny and Julius Keiser have been in the spotlight in recent weeks for their controversial comments likening the obese to dole bludgers, labelling them as ‘whingers’ and ‘lazy’.

Despite a public backlash, after the pair appeared on Today Tonight and Sunrise, they are unapologetic. “What we said came from a place of caring and after years of hearing too many excuses,” says Julius. “We know that many people don’t agree with us, but somebody needed to say it.”  Read more »

The tip line is always a good source of information, and the tips coming through since the recent The Lamington Files post is no exception.

Looks like there’s some very disgruntled Herald readers pissed at the continued falsehoods that Grey Lynn resident Wendyl Nissen spews forth each week. If it was accurate commentary that’s one thing, but when it’s full of lies and half-truths the Herald Bombs disease will carry on.

Witchy Wendyl continues to undermine the Herald with her latest Saturday column rant.

Determined to dumb down its readership even further, Witchy Wendyl takes great delight in saying how Campbell Live asked her for her scientific and academic views on a range of drinks.  Clearly an expert.

Read more »

Michael Bloomberg’s planned soft drink tax took one in the chook:

A judge struck down New York City’s groundbreaking limit on the size of sugar-laden drinks shortly before it was set to take effect.

The judge agreed with the beverage industry and other opponents that the rule is arbitrary in applying to only some sweet beverages and some places that sell them.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has championed the rule as a pioneering move for fighting obesity. It follows on other efforts his administration has made to improve New Yorkers’ eating habits, from compelling chain restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus to barring artificial trans-fats in restaurant food to prodding food manufacturers to use less salt.  Read more »

The Minister of Tourism probably needs to think this through. Bad publicity in the NY Times may be the result of some hippies putting out press releases but when the metrics are half our rivers are unsafe to swim in we have a serious problem.

Last month, the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment released a survey showing that more than half of the country’s freshwater recreational sites were unsafe to swim in. Fecal contamination of waterways, caused largely by dairy farming — the source of 13.9 billion New Zealand dollars, or $10 billion, in annual exports, nearly a quarter of New Zealand’s total — was widespread.

The survey showed that people who swam in those rivers were at a high risk of illness, including serious diseases like giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis and campylobacteriosis. The waterways were the cause of 18,000 to 34,000 cases of waterborne disease each year.

Dairy farmers should pay the costs they incur, including the cost of their pollution. A free right to pollute is just another subsidy, and this blog hates both subsidies and governments that promote socialism by giving business hand outs.

Back in 2011 I blogged about the new fat tax in Denmark and said at the time it wouldn’t work.

Unfortunately the Danes experiment won’t work because they are taxing the wrong things. Instead of taxing foods with fat in them they need to be taxing things with carbohydrates in them, that is a much broader tax base to start with and secondly will actually address the issue.

You would think that after 50 years of telling people to eat less fat to get thinner we would have a whole heap of thin people, instead we have the exact opposite with the high focus on carbohydrate rich foods. The obesity epidemic is being caused by the health professionals forcing us to carb load.

I was right…it didn’t work and is now it is being repealed…though that won’t stop Labour and the Greens adopting similar stupid policies:

Citing a harmful effect on businesses and consumer buying power, lawmakers in Denmark have repealed the so-called fat tax, which was charged on foods high in saturated fats, after just one year.

In a related decision, the Danish tax ministry said it was canceling plans for a sugar tax. “The fat tax is one of the most criticized we had in a long time,” Mette Gjerskov, minister of food, agriculture and fisheries, said on Saturday during a news conference in Copenhagen, the day the repeal was announced.

“Now we have to try to improve public health by other means.”

Fat bastards just need to stop stuffing food in their gobs.

Now this is commitment to the Movember cause:

A woman with a medical condition that causes her to sprout facial hair has joined the Movember campaign by growing a moustache and a beard.

Siobhain Fletcher, 36, is joining thousands of men across the UK by not shaving for a month to raise awareness and funds for men’s health causes.

The housewife, from Leek in Staffordshire, suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) which leaves her with high levels of testosterone.

She was diagnosed 12 years ago when she husband Jim struggled to conceive after trying to start a family.

Siobhain, who usually shaves every other day, said: “If I can go out on the street with a beard or moustache for a month, then surely men who are experiencing health problems can go and get themselves tested.

“I think it is awful that some men are too embarrassed to have a simple test which could save them from prostate or testicular cancer.