Thursday, September 01, 2005
Fruit is Good, Smoke is Bad
Everyone knows that olive oil is good for you (and tasty with spinach, eh Popeye?), but exactly how it has its beneficial effects remains a mystery. Well, less so now: researchers have found that a compound in olives, oleocanthal, has a similar anti-inflammatory effect to ibuprofen, which has itself been found beneficial against heart disease and other problems.
We all know that cigarettes are bad for us, but they are so much fun to smoke! The thing is, they're also bad for people around us, particularly kids. A new Singaporean study indicates that children from smokers' households suffer more respiratory problems later in life than do kids from non-smoking households (the effect is dose-dependent: kids with 2 smoking parents had more trouble than those with one smoking parent). Most interestingly, the study also found that higher daily fiber intake as adults helped reduce these symptoms: as little as two apples a day!
