Diet Soft Drinks Linked to Obesity

As reported from a study at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, diet sodas are worse than regular sodas. I'm assuming so far that the "regular" sodas are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which has it's own metabolic issues, rather than sucrose cane sugar.

In fact, when the researchers took a closer look at their data, they found that nearly all the obesity risk from soft drinks came from diet sodas.

"There was a 41% increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day," Fowler says.

Antibacterial Products Can Help Breed Superdiseases

According to this Scientific American article, triclosan and chemicals like it help select for resistant bacteria because they have specific targets in bacteria that are shared by some antibiotics, and antibacterial products leave behind a weaker residue that contributes even more to resistance selection because it is not as effective at killing. Products like alcohol and bleach, on the other hand, evaporate leaving less residue, and they do nonspecific damage to the bacteria, so the risk of bacteria developing cross-resistance with antibiotics from traditional cleaners is less.

We are harming ourselves and our children by continued, widespread use of antibacterial products by breeding more resistant forms of bacterial diseases and by the contamination of our crops, streams, food, and water with these products. If this is true, none it should really be surprising despite the SciAm article's title. It makes sense, and the concern has existed for several years.