What’s Going On June 14-18

And what about all the other documented benefits of vitamin D, including bone health and depression? It appears as if this particular writer has something against vitamin D, like he is rooting for it to fail… I wonder whose payroll he is on.

Vitamin D is actually not a vitamin; it is hormone. Vitamin D, or cholecalciferol, is made naturally by your body when your skin is exposed to direct sunlight. 20-30 minutes of summer sunlight produces as much as 100 glasses of vitamin D fortified milk (sans all the weird drugs that are in milk now!). Cholecalciferol works to make sure calcium is absorbed and maintain, a critical component for bone health. Headlines like this infuriate me, and with all the documented health benefits of vitamin D, including those associated with cancer, I feel like these people will eat their words very soon.

People may skip soft drinks if they cost more. Many policy makers and health experts have postulated that a tax increase on soft drinks would be a deterrent for people that would otherwise consume without reserve. Even as a recovered soft drink addict, I’m divided on this one. Soft drinks are essentially sugary poison, loaded with corn syrup and who knows what else. They are also extremely cheap; I’ve written before about the bottomless buckets of soda that cost about $1.50 you can get at fast food chains. However, the libertarian in me frowns at any sort of tax increase and is reluctant for such bold governmental intervention. But, I am willing to concede that it may be the only thing that can cut our addiction to the stuff, and the sooner the better in light of the diabetes epidemic.