How "Hyperpalatable" Foods Could Turn You Into A Food Addict -

How "Hyperpalatable" Foods Could Turn You Into A Food Addict - 



Over a third of the global population is now overweight, and the percentages are increasing. Some neuroscientists have suggested that the rise of so-called "hyperpalatable foods" may partially explain the unprecedented rates of obesity.

Our food environment has changed dramatically over the years, most notably through the introduction of so-called "hyperpalatable" foods. These foods are deliberately engineered in such a way that they surpass the reward properties of traditional foods, such as vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Food chemists achieve this by suffusing products with increased levels of fat, sugar, flavors, and food additives.



Conditioned hypereating

David A. Kessler, author of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite and former head of the FDA, claims that the food industry has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our brain circuitry, thus stimulating our desire for more. On their own, these ingredients aren't particularly potent, but when combined in specific ways, they tap into the brain's reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat and leaves us wanting more — even when we're full.

As Kessler told the New York Times, restaurant chains like Chili's cook up "hyper-palatable food that requires little chewing and goes down easily," while a Snickers bar is "extraordinarily well engineered." As we chew it, he says, the sugar dissolves, the fat melts and the caramel traps the peanuts so the entire combination of flavors is blissfully experienced in the mouth at the same time.

Eventually, the experience of eating impossibly delicious foods results in what Kessler describes as "conditioned hypereating." When we consume enjoyable sugary and fatty foods, it stimulates endorphins in our brains — chemicals that signal a pleasurable experience. In turn, and in Pavlovian fashion, these chemicals stimulate us to eat more of that type of food, while also calming us down and making us feel good.

But is it really addiction?

Conditioned hypereating sounds suspiciously similar to what we might call food addiction. And indeed, studies have shown that hyperpalatable foods may be capable of triggering an addictive process — one that's been postulated as a possible cause of the obesity epidemic.

But is it fair or reasonable to categorize food — something we need to keep us alive — alongside such things as illicit drugs, alcohol, and gambling? Some scientists say yes.

Last year, for example, neuroscientists from Connecticut College claimed that Oreo cookies are more addictive than cocaine. The researchers came to this conclusion after measuring a protein called c-Fos in the brains of rats. They found that the cookies activated more neurons in the accumbens — a region of the brain associated with pleasure, and studied for its role in addiction and reward-processing — than addictive substances like cocaine. Not surprisingly, the researchers were harshly criticized for suggesting that something as apparently benign as an Oreo cookie could be compared to a notorious party drug.

These concerns aside, evidence is mounting in support of the idea that food addiction is actually a thing.

It's known, for example, that food cues and consumption activates neurocircuitry, such as the meso-cortico-limbic pathways, implicated in drug addition.

In addition, work done in Bart Hoebel's lab at Princeton University have shown that rats overeating a sugar solution develop many behaviors and changes in the brain that are consistent with the effects of drug abuse, including withdrawal symptoms. Other studies support these findings, suggesting a reward dysfunction linked to addiction in rats who overeat hyperpalatable foods. Importantly, much of this compares reasonably well to humans, including cravings, continued use despite negative consequences, and diminished control of consumption. On the face of it, food addiction certainly exhibits all the hallmarks of conventional forms of addiction.



If it looks like a duck...

As noted by Nicole Avena and Mark Gold in a short-paper on the effects of sugars and fats on hedonic overeating, many of these "studies are supported by clinical research showing similarities in the effects of increased body weight or obesity and abused drugs on brain dopamine systems, as well as the manifestation of behaviors indicative of addiction."

Importantly, a relationship has been found to exist between binge eating-related disorders and addiction-like eating habits facilitated by the consumption of hyperpalatable foods. As summarized by addiction expert Adrian Meule:

In humans, increasing evidence suggests that individuals with binge eating-related disorders, i.e., bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and obesity, experience behavioral symptoms and neurochemical changes that are highly comparable to other addictive behaviors. Moreover, increased prevalence of drug use can be found in BN and BED, but not in anorexia nervosa. In recent years, neuroendocrine pathways have been identified that are involved in both drug- and food-seeking behaviors. Specifically, appetite-regulating peptides like ghrelin, neuropeptide Y, orexin, or leptin have also been associated with craving for alcohol or tobacco. On a neurochemical level, reduced striatal D2 receptor availability has been found in obese patients similar to patients with substance use.
In light of this evidence, some researchers are suggesting that "food addiction' join other non-drug addictions, such as sexual compulsivity and gambling.

Tackling the Problem

Though the addictive potential of foods continues to be debated, a number of strategies have been proposed to address the situation. Back in 2011, Ashley Gearhardt and colleagues reviewed some policy and public health strategies that have proven effective in reducing the impact of addictive substances. They concluded that:

Corporate responsibility, public health approaches, environmental change, and global efforts all seem essential in reducing food- and substance-related problems. Such approaches could be enacted in conjunction with individual-focused behavioral and pharmacological efforts that could also benefit from considering similarities between food-related conditions like obesity and drug addiction. Ignoring the analogous neural and behavioral effects of foods and drugs of abuse may result in a substantial loss of time, resources, and lives, as we rediscover lessons learned in reducing the impact of addictive substances.
Amongst their many recommendations, the researchers proposed that hyperpalatable foods be taxed like cigarettes, have their accessibility reduced (e.g. removal of vending machines from specific locations), and that manufacturers be limited in terms of marketing and sales (e.g. by not allowing certain products to alter the food environments of developing nations). It has been shown, for example, that obesity rates in countries such as France and the United Kingdom have been rising in parallel with increases in the availability of highly processed foods and fast-food chains.

Lastly, by recognizing and appreciating the neurological underpinnings of overeating, researchers will be encouraged to find new ways of improving treatments, while policy makers will have added support for implementing broader and more impactful health policies.

Read more - 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/guest-post-how-hyperpalatable-foods-could-turn-you-food-addict

SEC Official Claims Over 50% Of Private Equity Audits Reveal Criminal Behavior -

SEC Official Claims Over 50% Of Private Equity Audits Reveal Criminal Behavior - 



Last week, Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism penned a fantastic piece leveraging a talk by SEC official Drew Bowden. Mr. Bowden heads the SEC’s examinations unit, and at a private equity conference he explained that “more than 50 percent of private equity firms it has audited have engaged in serious infractions of securities laws.” What is so incredible about the talk, is that while Bowden goes into details of shady practice after shady practice, he ultimately admits that the SEC isn’t being particularly aggressive with the private equity industry because “we believe that most people in the industry are trying to do the right thing, to help their clients, to grow their business, and to provide for their owners and employees.”

Yes, go ahead and read that again. The industry regulator is assuming that private equity firms are trying to do the right thing, despite the fact that audits demonstrated to a tune of greater than 50% the opposite to be true.

Private equity managers are some of the savviest people in finance and they know exactly what they are doing. What the SEC is basically admitting, is that private equity firms are also “too big to regulate” and, of course, “too big to jail.” After all, every single person at the SEC is likely angling for a big payday at a PE firm via the revolving door. Of course they aren’t going to regulate.

Meanwhile, if you are just an average citizen, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law if you commit even the most minor infraction. This sort of behavior led to the death of prodigy Aaron Swartz, the incarceration of political prisoner Barrett Brown, a swat team raid on a young kid in Peroia, Illinois for a parody Twitter account, the firing of a constriction worker for not paying for a $0.89 soda refill. This list goes on and on. Yet private equity crimes, which likely run into the billions collectively, are treated with kid gloves. As I have maintained many times before, this is how the social fabric of a society dies.

From Naked Capitalism:

At a private equity conference this week, Drew Bowden, a senior SEC official, told private equity fund managers and their investors in considerable detail about how the agency had found widespread stealing and other serious infractions in its audits of private equity firms.

In the years that I’ve been reading speeches from regulators, I’ve never seen anything remotely like Bowden’s talk. I’ve embedded it at the end of this post and strongly encourage you to read it in full.

Despite the at times disconcertingly polite tone, the SEC has now announced that more than 50 percent of private equity firms it has audited have engaged in serious infractions of securities laws. These abuses were detected thanks to to Dodd Frank. Private equity general partners had been unregulated until early 2012, when they were required to SEC regulation as investment advisers.

Bowden heads the SEC’s examinations unit, and his rap sheet was based on his two years of experience in auditing private equity firms. As bad as embezzlement and other sharp practices are, at least as troubling is the revelation that the limited partners have been derelict in their duties. They’ve agreed to terms in their relationship with the general partners to make it easy for the general partners to abuse the investors. The general partners can steal from their limited partners because the limited partners are asleep. The LPs have failed to negotiate for contractual protections when they have the most leverage, prior to investing, and they’ve been unwilling or unable to monitor their investments effectively once they’ve handed over their money. Note that the industry was warned about this possible outcome; it corresponds to the worst scenario, ” A Broken Industry,” in a 2011 paper by Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner.

Bowden pointed out that private equity is unique among the investment advisers the SEC supervises. The general partners’ control of portfolio companies gives them access to their cash flows, which the GPs can divert into their own pockets in numerous ways.

He went on to describe some of the common fee skimming models. For example:

Some of the most common deficiencies we see in private equity in the area of fees and expenses occur in firm’s use of consultants, also known as “Operating Partners,” whom advisers promote as providing their portfolio companies with consulting services or other assistance that the portfolio companies could not independently afford.
Here’s how this scam works. PE firms raise funds by showing prospective investors a strong team of professionals who are going to find attractive companies to buy and manage them. The limited partnership agreement, which is the contract between the private equity firm and the investors, typically says that the private equity firm has to pay for the wages of people working on the fund’s behalf. However, unbeknownst to the investors because it was never disclosed, part of the PE firm “team”, usually the members that work with portfolio companies, are actually being paid as independent contractors. The private equity firm then bills most or all of these sham independent consultants to the portfolio companies with whom they interact.

Most troubling of all is that we have reports from industry insiders that Bowden failed to mention the most egregious forms of stealing, which may cost investors billions of dollars annually. As we understand it, the SEC is on to a couple of large-scale scams perpetrated by some of the biggest firms.

The SEC may be pulling its punches because it may be uncertain about what to do with the rot it has found. Side by side with the the unprecedented, detailed litany of numerous forms of lawbreaking and bad conduct, Bowden was also peculiarly deferential, which gave his speech a schizophrenic feel. For instance:

Some questioned why we would show our hand in this way, to which there’s a simple and sensible answer. We believe that most people in the industry are trying to do the right thing, to help their clients, to grow their business, and to provide for their owners and employees. We therefore believe that we can most effectively fulfill our mission to promote compliance by sharing as much information as we can with the industry, knowing that people will use it to measure their firms and to self-correct where necessary. Put another way, we are not engaged in a game of “gotcha.”
So you see, an average citizen gets locked up for life, yet a private equity partner is given the benefit of the doubt and, at worst, asked politely to change behavior by the SEC.

State legislators need to understand what is going on here. They have granted public pension funds and public endowments across the U.S. the exorbitant privilege of secrecy in private equity investing, even to the point of making these contracts virtually the only ones that are exempt from state-level Freedom of Information Act laws.

State legislators need to understand what is going on here. They have granted public pension funds and public endowments across the U.S. the exorbitant privilege of secrecy in private equity investing, even to the point of making these contracts virtually the only ones that are exempt from state-level Freedom of Information Act laws.

I recently wrote that private equity will deservedly emerge as the financial industry’s major villain in the next crisis. I detailed why in my post, Leaked Documents Show How Blackstone Fleeces Taxpayers via Public Pension Funds, which is a must read in the context of the article above.

Full article from Naked Capitalism can and should be read - here - http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/05/sec-official-describes-widespread-lawbreaking-material-weakness-controls-private-equity-industry.html

Nagging can be a health hazard, study says - and Men may be more significantly affected -

Nagging can be a health hazard, study says - and Men may be more significantly affected - 



Keep nagging your man and you'll send him to an early grave, a new study claims.

Carried out by scientists at the University of Copenhagen and published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the study says men may be more significantly affected because they tend to keep problems bottled up and have weaker support networks than women.

According to The Independent, scientists studied data from 9,875 men and women between the ages of 36 and 52. All were asked questions about their everyday social relationships.

Researchers analyzed the connection between recurrent arguments and general worry in relationships and mortality, and discovered that people who had reported frequent demands from a partner had a 50-100% increased mortality risk. Those who experienced regular conflicts within any type of relationship had a two to three times increased mortality risk, they claim.

“Having an argument every now and then is fine, but having it all the time seems dangerous," study researcher Rikke Lund, an associate professor of medical sociology at University of Copenhagen, said. “Worrying about people is a character of us loving them. It's just when it takes up all of your time that it's unhealthy."

About one in 10 participants in the study said their partners or children were a frequent source of worry or placed excess demands on them.

Read more - 

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2014/05/12/nagging-can-be-a-health-hazard-study-says

SHOCK CLAIM: Chemicals in soap, toothpaste can cause male infertility... -

SHOCK CLAIM: Chemicals in soap, toothpaste can cause male infertility... - 



Chemicals in common household products such as toothpaste, soap and plastic toys have a direct impact on human sperm which could help explain rising levels of male infertility, scientists have found.

One in three “non-toxic” chemicals used in the manufacture of everyday items significantly affected the potency of sperm cells, which may account for the high incidence of unexplained infertility in the human population, the researchers said.

It is the first time that a study has found a direct effect of the many ubiquitous man‑made chemicals in the environment on a vital function of human sperm. The findings will raise further concerns about the hidden toxicity of chemicals deemed safe by toxicology tests.

But the researchers believe they have developed a new way of testing the impact of household chemicals on human sperm which will allow regulatory authorities in Europe to decide whether to ban or impose restrictions on their use in certain products.

The study was part of wider research into so-called “endocrine‑disrupting” chemicals that for several years have been linked with declining sperm counts and widespread male infertility.

In some cases, these chemicals are thought to mimic female sex hormones – oestrogens – and in other cases act as anti-androgens, the male sex hormones, thereby interfering with the male reproductive system.

However, the scientists found that one in three common household chemicals found in products such as sun screens, detergents and plastics directly sabotaged the human sperm’s swimming behaviour and caused them to prematurely release the critical enzymes needed to penetrate and fertilise the egg cell – which would render the sperm infertile.

They also found that the concentrations needed to trigger these adverse reactions were similar to the very low levels commonly found within the human body. In addition, they showed for the first time that there was a “cocktail effect”, when a number of chemicals worked together to amplify their individual effects.

“For the first time, we have shown a direct link between exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals from industrial products and adverse effects on human sperm function,” Professor Niels Skakkebaek, of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, said.

“In my opinion, our findings are clearly of concern as some endocrine-disrupting chemicals are possibly more dangerous than previously thought. However, it remains to be seen from forthcoming clinical studies whether our findings may explain reduced couple fertility which is very common in modern societies,” Professor Skakkebaek told The Independent.

Professor Skakkebaek has pioneered the scientific investigation of rising male infertility. In 1991, he produced the first evidence showing that human sperm counts had fallen by nearly 50 per cent in less than 50 years – low sperm counts are a major cause of male infertility.

Some years later, scientists found that some common chemicals have an “oestrogenic” or “antiandrogenic” effect on the male reproductive system, which could be particularly important in the development of male foetuses in the womb during the critical first six months when the reproductive tissues form.

Read more - 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/chemicals-in-soap-can-cause-male-infertility-claim-scientists-9353159.html

Florida Man demands right to wed computer! -

Florida Man demands right to wed computer! - 



Man sues for the right to marry his porn-laden Macbook, arguing that if gays are allowed to marry then so should other sexual minorities

Chris Sevier, a man from Florida, believes he should be allowed to wed his Macbook.
Mr Sevier argues that if gays should be allowed to marry, then so should other sexual minorities.
Mr Sevier states he has fallen in love with a pornography laden computer.
“Over time, I began preferring sex with my computer over sex with real women,” he told a court in Florida.
This appears to be not a passing holiday romance, but a lifelong commitment.

If gays have the right to “marry their object of sexual desire, even if they lack corresponding sexual parts, then I should have the right to marry my preferred sexual object”, he said.
Mr Sevier, who describes himself as “a former judge advocate and combat veteran”, is persistent, filing claims not only in Florida but also Utah.
The Utah claim, which in reality is an attempt to throw a spanner in the works of a gay marriage case in the federal court, runs to 50 pages.
Mr Sevier argues that allowing gays to marry but denying him the same right amounts to discrimination.
“We are in different classes of sexual orientation,” he told the court in Utah.
If gays feel as is they are second class citizens, Mr Sevier argues then “those of us in the real minority, who want to marry machines and animals, certainly feel like third class citizens”.
Mr Sevier apparently sought a marriage licence for himself and his “machine spouse”, but for some reason was denied.
“The exclusion from marriage to a machine denies myself a dignity and status of immense import,” he argues in his motion.
Mr Sevier cites legal precedents around the world - including a case where a woman married a dolphin and a Chinese man wed a cardboard cutout of himself.
“Allowing my marriage to go forward will not adversely impact the fertility rate any more or less than a same sex couples.
“If there is a risk that is posed to traditional marriage and children, both man-man couples and man-machine couples pose it equally.
“In considering the equal protection clause, there are no fewer policy reasons for preventing man-machine couples from marrying than there are for same-sex couples.”
Unfortunately for Mr Sevier, the courts in Florida and Utah, found his legal arguments unpersuasive.
But with the gay marriage being tested in courts across the country, more motions are inevitable.

Read more - 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10814098/marriage-gay-marriage-mac-wedding-computer-Florida-Utah.html

USA Has Supervolcano Contingency Plan... -

USA Has Supervolcano Contingency Plan... - 



If the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts then millions of U.S. citizens could end up in Brazil, Australia, or Argentina.

That’s according to the South African news website Praag, which said that the African National Congress was offered $10 billion a year for 10 years if it would build temporary housing for Americans in case of an eruption.

The potential eruption of the supervolcano, one of the biggest in the world, has been a hot topic ever since videos of animals allegedly fleeing the area before an earthquake were posted online. Although the veracity of the claims haven’t been backed up, dozens of bloggers and others have been trying to figure out what, if anything, is going on.

One of the latest theories is that the U.S. Geological Service and its partners, which keep an eye on the caldera, are hiding data from the public.

The Praag article says that the South African government fears that placing so many Americans in South Africa could dramatically change the country.

“South Africa will not be part of the plan, because there is a risk that millions of white Americans could be sent to South Africa in an emergency situation and that this would pose a risk to black national culture identity,” Dr. Siph Matwetwe, spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, is quoted as saying.

“We have our own challenges, even if there is enough housing and infrastructure available, it will destabilize the country and may even bring back apartheid.”

The gigantic volcano in Yellowstone has erupted three times over the last two million years, covering a huge area of surrounding land. Maps from educational institutions and government officials project that up to 17 states could be fully or partially impacted if the volcano erupted again. The far south of Canada could also get hit, as well as the far north of Mexico.

Scientists aren’t sure when it will erupt next, although many have sought to assure the public that it probably won’t for a while. In reality, the volcano could erupt at any time, though officials would in theory be able to detect an impending eruption and alert Americans to the threat.

Read more - 

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/662805-yellowstone-volcano-eruption-report-claims-that-us-has-contingency-deal-with-brazil-australia/

TREND: Women Buying Positive Pregnancy Tests To Trap Men... -

TREND: Women Buying Positive Pregnancy Tests To Trap Men... - 



Used positive pregnancy tests can be found for sale all over the Internet.
And as CBS 2’s Alice Gainer reported, those involved said people are snapping them up – with less-than-ethical motivations.
One mother from Dallas did not want her identity revealed, but she does want people to buy her positive pregnancy tests. She talked about one woman who took her up on the offer.
“She wanted to trick him into thinking she was pregnant, so he would drop everything so I gave her two tests,” the woman said.
Buying and selling others’ pregnancy tests is the latest trend on the Internet. Those involved in the trade said the buyers’ motive is often to trap a man – and that is not all.
“Ninety-five percent of the girls just want to lie to get a man,” the seller said.
And the sellers know that.
One Craigslist ad posted last year by a Central New Jersey woman read: “I am pregnant and will sell you a positive pregnancy test. These will be taken right before you’re ready to pick them up. Wanna get your boyfriend to finally pop the question? Play a trick on mom, dad or one of your friends? I really don’t care what you use it for.”
Another ad from Buffalo promised no judgment at all. It read in part: “Ever since I became pregnant, I have been asked numerous times for a positive test, so I decided to start charging for it! I will test the same day you want to pick it up! I don’t care what you use it for, not my business!”
“You can tell the girls who are up to no good,” the seller said.
Ethics and morality aside, relationship expert Dr. Jane Greer said having to use a phony test to get your partner to commit is clearly a bad sign for the future.
“If you’re buying one of these, it really is a statement that you’re not on solid ground with the person you are in a relationship,” Greer said.
The Dallas pregnancy test seller said there are other motivations for buying the tests besides snaring a partner.
“One girl said she just wanted to play a trick on her mom,” she said.
And still others may have more sinister plans. Authorities warned people to be careful how they use the purchased positive tests.
“For example, if a married man is having an affair and he tried to break it off with the girl, and she became upset and decided to present this fake pregnancy test and demand money, otherwise she would tell the spouse. That would be a level of blackmail,” Overland Park, Kansas, police Officer Gary Mason told CBS affiliate KCTV-TV, Kansas City.
Whatever the reason for buying it, many said they find the idea inconceivable.
“That’s playing with people’s emotions,” one man said. “You don’t mess with stuff like that.”
“I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving side of that,” another said.
“It’s just like any other con – cons are no good,” a woman said.
But mothers-to-be who sell the tests for as much as $30 each said it is just the latest commodity online.
“It’s a neat, marketable skill – it’s kind of unique. You’re only going do it so many times in your life,” the Dallas woman said.
Some expectant mothers are going so far as to sell their urine online, as well.

Read more - 

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/05/07/seen-at-11-positive-pregnancy-tests-up-for-sale-online/

Psychologist: YOUTUBE Has Become Tutorial For Kids On How To Act Violent... -

Psychologist: YOUTUBE Has Become Tutorial For Kids On How To Act Violent... -



Researchers and psychologists have long questioned what kind of effects violent television shows, song lyrics and video games have had on audiences throughout the years. Now, those same questions are being applied to videos featuring violent attacks and fights on sites like YouTube.
Clinical social worker and psychotherapist Laura Miller explained that video sharing sites like YouTube and WorldStarHipHop are allowing users to receive unlimited attention.
“I do think there is something about the unlimited attention that the Internet and specifically social media offer youth today that provides an incentive to defy rules and morality in the pursuit of a certain kind of power through broadcasting violent and demeaning behavior towards others,” Miller told CBSDC. “But I don’t think that YouTube and other social media sites can really be blamed for this.”
Man’s Death During Tough Mudder Event Prompts Lawsuit
Miller said that a new reality of teenagers’ lives is social media, but sites like YouTube are not the reason why some teens are choosing to humiliate others by posting violent videos featuring attacks on one another.
“Cyber bullying and teen violence need to be addressed in schools and at home,” Miller said. “The sadistic impulse to demean and physically harm other for fun that is demonstrated by the videos is not new, only the breadth of the available audience is.”
Krystine Batcho, Ph.D., though, voiced her concern that sites like YouTube have become tutorials for anything, including how to act violently.

“A new phenomenon has occurred where sites like YouTube have become tutorials for kids,” Batcho, who has been seeing patients as a psychologist for over 30 years. “If you’re a teenage boy being rejected you’re going to look for a community or someone else out there who shares the same emotions as you. YouTube is so huge that the boy is likely to find someone else with similar thoughts or feelings.”
Batcho added that some kids can’t tell the difference between violent fantasies and what’s real.
“Young kids can’t tell what’s real and what’s not because there’s so much on there they can learn about things from all over the internet,” Batcho said. “We’ve had various incidents where people encourage young teens to commit suicide and you can find out how to do that on the Internet particularly social sharing sites.”
“A lot of people who post violent videos of them attacking someone or something else feel like the video is going to give them some immortality when it’s not.”

Michael Broder, Ph.D., a renowned psychologist, agreed with Miller, also suggesting that sites like YouTube do not perpetuate violence.
“If there’s a solution, people really have to take more responsibility for their own behavior,” Broder told CBS DC. “Sites are getting more interactive and so forth with their audiences and they’re not going away because they’re making money.”
Broder, who is a bestselling author of Stage Climbing: The Shortest Path to Your Highest Potential, explained that kids being bullied or mean to one another is a fact of life and something that they go through, but school shootings or acts of violence should not be blamed on violent or abusive videos that were shared on social media sites.
“If one percent of people who were bullied went around committing mass murders, we’d be walking down the street seeing bodies lying everywhere,” Broder said. “I think that there’s a tendency and this had kind of grown in the past 25 years or so to blame other factors for people’s behavior.”
Joanne Broder Sumerson, Ph.D., and a research psychologist, agreed with Broder and explained that people need to be held accountable for their actions, and not blame violent videos on YouTube.
“People should be held accountable for their violent actions,” Sumerson told CBSDC. “Parents should be held accountable for teaching the long-term legal, emotional, social, and physical damage from the video content. The sites are not to blame. Individual lack of emotional and social intelligence plays a larger role.”

Read more -

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/05/07/psychologist-youtube-has-become-tutorial-for-kids-on-how-to-act-violent/

94% Of all March Consumer Credit Was For Student And Car Loans -

94% Of all March Consumer Credit Was For Student And Car Loans - 



Another month, another confirmation that when it comes to the US consumer, it is all about student debt (and to a lesser extent, car loans). Moments ago the Fed reported that consumer credit number for March: at $17.5 billion, it not only blew out the expectation of a $15.5 billion increase (although when one adds last month's $3.5 billion downward revision to $13.0 billion the two month total actually missed), but was the highest monthly increase since February 2013. That's the good news.



The bad news was once again in the composition: of this $17.5 billion $16.4 billion was non-revolving debt, or about 94% of total. The "good", or revolving, credit card debt? Only $1.1 billion.

Further, recall that traditionally when measuring a consumer's confidence in the economy, and their ability to grow their income, the best proxy is a simple one - their credit card. Unfortunately, in the New Normal that is not the case, and as the chart below shows, revolving credit has barely budged from its post-Lehman lows and is still about 20% away from its previous all time high.



As for student debt? We'll just leave that one to the Fed to show:



So where does the consumer credit growth come from? Simple: mostly student and to a lesser extent car loans, aka non-revolving debt. The same student loans which Janet Yellen earlier today lamented are the main reason for the slowdown in household formation, and by implication, the reason why the housing recovery is failing to stick for the fifth year in a row, and despite $2.7 trillion in liquidity injections by the Fed.



Oh well, maybe next month things will be different and all that student debt which is crushing the willingness of young Americans to go out and spend on bulk purchases will be restored.

Finally, and perhaps most important, for all the talk about a surge in consumer bank loans, it bears highlighting that of all the consumer debt so far created in 2014, the Federal Government is by far the primary source at $36.8 billion. As for depository institutions, aka banks: negative $28.2 billion.



Read more - 

Can coffee protect our eyesight? -

Can coffee protect our eyesight? - 



Coffee has been associated with an array of health benefits recently. Last month, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting that coffee consumption may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Now, new research finds that drinking the beverage may protect against deteriorating eyesight and even blindness.

Researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, recently published their findings in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

We all know the main ingredient in coffee as caffeine - the stimulant that gives us that boost. But according to the research team, including senior author Chang Y. Lee, green coffee beans (raw coffee) only contain 1% caffeine.

However, each raw coffee bean contains around 7-9% chlorogenic acid (CGA) - an antioxidant that has been associated with many health benefits, such as weight loss and reduction of blood pressure.

Past studies have also indicated that CGA may be a powerful neuroprotectant, and there has been great interest in identifying neuroprotective compounds that block hypoxia - deprivation of oxygen in areas of the body.

Cup of coffee and beans
Researchers found that coffee extract and CGA protected mice against retinal degeneration.
The retina - a thin layer at the back of the eye that is made of light-sensitive cells and other nerve cells that are responsible for receiving and organizing visual information - is prone to hypoxia.

"The retina is one of the most metabolically active tissues in the body, consuming oxygen more rapidly than any other tissues, including the brain," the researchers explain.

"Therefore, it is susceptible to a variety of diseases caused by oxidative stress, including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma - all of which can lead to partial or complete blindness."

The investigators were interested to see whether coffee, particularly CGA, may prevent hypoxia and overall degeneration of the retina in mice.

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