Heard the News: Read the Opinions!

Staff at Canada’s University of Ontario has conducted a research study into the effects of fruit juice on prescribed medication and the results are not good, especially if you take certain types of medication and are partial to grapefruit juice!

Apparently the juice (or eating the fruit itself if you eat enough of it) can counteract the effect of medication for such conditions as heart disease and cancer amongst others.  Orange and apple juice has also been cited by the research as having similar affects on medication.

I find this disturbing because it feels like we’re getting to a point where it’s unclear what’s really safe to eat and drink anymore.  I read somewhere recently about a research study that showed drinking too much water could even be bad for you.  Water!  No additives, no colorings, just plain water.  Now this research is saying that the juice we drink to increase our immunity and offset colds and germs by increasing vitamin C has the potential to harm us if we take certain drugs.  What’s a person to do?

For anyone who does take drugs, there’s an increasing awareness of the harmful potential of grapefruit juice on certain medications and so warnings are beginning to appear on packaging of products that could be affected.  If you’re not sure however, ask your GP or pharmacists next time you pick up a prescription.

OK so I was actually going to blog about something else today but as soon as I read this I confess to cheering aloud and knew that this news story had to be today’s “chosen one”.

From next week (end August 2008) any Brit who thinks they can go abroad and sexually abuse a child under 16 and get away with it because it isn’t illegal in that country will be eligible for a nice prison cell when they get back to the UK.  These so-called sex tourists have thus far been allowed to slip through the legal net.  They have been able to travel the world using children in a way that would be unlawful in the UK and avoid the usual pedophile radar as the countries they visit don’t have the same regard for minors as the one in which these people reside. 

Child abuse in any form is one of my soapbox topics and so this new law has me clapping my hands with absolute approval.  My only hope is that many of these sex tourists are currently out of the country and don’t hear about the new law until their return……!

If you think that you’ll never attract a man because you’re the real life version of Ugly Betty, or are the proud owner of an anti-Barbie figure, then perhaps a trip to Oz could be in your future.  According to a insensitive and degrading statement (to male and females alike) made by Mount Isa Mayor, John Molony, the women in the town are outnumbered 5 to 1 and so “beauty disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa”.

In a day when size 4 is considered plus sized, and tinsel town beauty comes too regularly via a cosmetic surgeon and dental veneers, real women may well be very tempted to take up Mayor Molony’s challenge, but what will they find there?  Well Mount Isa is located in Queensland – about  1136 miles from Brisbane.  It’s a mining town.  There’s a lot of lonely guys.  I’m guessing there’s no beauty parlor or Rodeo Drive wannabe, but if you’re looking for something different than eharmony.com to bring your romantic dreams to fruition then this could be worth checking out.  Don’t worry, not all the council members have the same idea of women as the Mayor does, another council member Jean Ferris said that Molony’s statement is “an absolute disgrace”.   I couldn’t agree more!

Reading this article I had a vision of reality TV program …….