If anyone was wondering why the Dutch are not only healthier but also more productive than others, we have the answer: “Employees who regularly travel to work by bike are, on average, ill one day less a year than the others. Therefore they are better value.”

It doesn’t surprise us, because we already knew that cars make us fat, but bringing more profits for the companies we work … that’s a new one. And I’m thinking about it from the blogger’s perspective who’d be much more productive, but what do you do when you work from home? How about cycling (or exercising) at least a few times a week and embrace the “green” way? [via Pysorg]

Image courtesy of BikePortland.org

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Have you changed your habits? Do you commute to work on a bicycle or doing an extra mile walking? Well, good for you. Apparently you’re not only helping the environment to reduce carbon emissions, but you’re also helping yourself to stay healthier.

Researchers at the University of Tennessee and Rutgers University found a direct link between “active transportation” and obesity. As if there wasn’t enough evidence, the study showed that obesity levels in countries where people would rather walk or pedal (to be read Europe) instead of driving cars (to be read USA) are lower. And do we really have to ask why?

Oh and if you needed any stats, you should know that “Europeans walk an average of 237 miles each year and bike another 116, while Americans walk 87 miles and bike 24″. Also, only “12 percent of Americans use active transportation: 9 percent walk, 1 percent ride a bike and 2 percent take a bus or train; over 25% of Americans are obese.”

How about we find a way to help ourselves and the planet at the same time?

Source: Reuters

You say potato, I say poh-tah-toe. You say tomato, I say purple cancer-fighting tomatoes. Seriously, I can’t imagine how people can have the gall to think they can improve on the Creator’s original product, but British researchers have announced that they have a genetically engineered tomato that is part pizza topping and part berry.

What’s more, the finished product has helped prevent cancer in mice and the finding was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. The researchers learned that cancer-proned (they get that way from eating genetically altered food) lived significantly longer than animals who didn’t eat the purple tomatoes.

The mice were genetically altered to develop cancer and die within 142 days. Given the tomato, they lived 182 days. Um, how about we don’t give the mice anything that will cause them to get cancer and see how much longer they live, huh?

“The next step will be to take the pre-clinical data forward to human studies with volunteers to see if we can promote health through dietary preventive medicine strategies” said research leader Prof Cathie Martin from the John Innes Centre in Norwich.

The main finding – people can significantly improve their health by making simple changes to the daily diet. Gosh, eat right and exercise and you will live longer. – via DailyMail

Well, here’s a conundrum. There’s not enough food to feed all the people in the world (so some say) but there’s a very easy way to make people live longer, thus increasing the number of people that can’t be fed.

Some 30% of the world’s heart attacks are caused by a Western diet. Of course, 30% of the world lives in the West, but not ALL of them have heart attacks and leave the rest of the world alone.

A study shows, “if you eat a healthy diet you can actually reduce the risk of heart attack by about 30 to 40 percent. That is bigger than most drugs we have for protecting against heart disease.”

It is bigger than angioplasty or bypass, too. Tofu and soy have no effect on heart attack risk says the study. It doesn’t matter where people live, it matters how they eat. Eat like the west, grow fat like the west, die like the west.

But, what would the world do if everyone listened and started eating right?

Images source Micah Sittig

Pollution is killing more than AIDS in Sao Paulo, says a Sao Paulo University report Air Pollution Lab.

According to the study, some nine people die each day because of pollution – which makes it some 3,500 a year. Less than half of that number of people, 1,624, die each year as a result of AIDS and traffic combined.

Sao Paulo will spend $1.5 billion on pollution-caused diseases, caused mainly by the six million cars in the city. Is it just me or that sounds like, if the cars don’t kill you in traffic, they will kill you with what comes out the back?

Nearly two-thirds of the air pollution is caused by 10% of the total vehicles, the ones that run on diesel fuel. Statistics say that there are about 150 lives lost each year due to sulfur releases from diesel-fueled vehicles and 232 deaths caused by AIDS.

Sao Paulo will adopt a “clean diesel” in 2009 hoping to reduce pollution by at least 5%. Seriously time for the “B” in Bric to clean up its act. – via Xinhuanet

Image courtesy of Auntie P

Maybe there is something in the air, or in the water. Who knows? But, WHO knows that nearly one in every eight people in the world are suffering from some sort of mental illness. World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10th every year. (WHO knew that, but who knew that besides WHO?)

“We need to reinforce partnerships, accelerate efforts, scale up interventions, increase investments towards providing services to those who do not have any, and the political will to see all this through,” said Dr. Shigeru Omi, WHO’s director in the Pacific.

Notice the chain on the man’s foot

Programs have a list of goals:

1. reduce poverty,
2. achieve economic independence
3. empowerment for women,
4. reduce malnutrition,
5. iincrease literacy and education,
6. empower the underpriviledged
7. contribute to the prevention of mental and substance use disorders and
8. promote health.

First steps in promoting health is to get rid of pollutants says GreenPacks. What do you say?

The PETA girls are at it again, stripping down naked, well half-naked, to protest bullfights. Somebody has to do it, right? Why not the girls? And, it all depends on which half is naked, huh?

Activists for the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) taped on banderillas, a decorated barbed dart, and lay in front of the European Parliament in Brussels to protest EU tax payers money used for organized bullfights in Spain.

The fellows from the Parliament could be seen rushing out to interview all the girls to be sure that they got the right impression the PETA girls wanted to make.

I eat meat, girls. Would you like to assemble outside my house and protest?

Cleanliness is next to godliness. A green world is a godly concept, too. In that regard, House Peters, Jr, Mr. Clean, did his part to make the world a better place for 92-years. He died yesterday.

At GreenPaks we want our world to not just be green, but also cleaner, healthier and a friendlier place for animals.

Peters was an actor, as well as a commercial star for Procter & Gamble. But, what he really taught us is that cleanliness is indeed a better way of life. That means ridding the world of pollution, too, no?

When there is not enough food to go around caused by global climate change, poor stewardship of the planet’s resources, pollution, mismanagement or otherwise, bad things happen. Really bad things happen.

A little 9-year old boy was found who weighed only 8kg, (17.6 lbs) in Honduras. He’s doing better now after months of treatment, but the crime is that Jason was ever in such a situation in the first place. If there is no better reason to care for our planet than Jason and other little boys like him, then what is that reason?

In Honduras, about 30% of all children suffer from malnutrition. Something is wrong with that picture. What are you going to do about it?

Japan’s Dr. Shigeru Omi is/was a senior World Health Organization (WHO) offiical. He stepped down a couple days ago and was replaced by Dr. Shin Young-Soo of the ROK. Dr. Omi reflected on his 10 years on the post.

1. Tuberculosis in the Western Pacific Region dropped from 1,000 daily deaths to 600.

2. Tobacco control, fights against HIV/AIDS, measles and maternal mortality also made impressive progress.

The biggest problem – health care financing and building up human resources to fight the averse effects of climate change (global warming). “Dr Shigeru Omi said climate change would expand the range of mosquitoes that carry malaria and dengue to areas other than their natural Southeast Asia habitat.”

Omi continued,  “I must be honest. We have not been as successful in this area as we have with communicable diseases.”

So, what are we going to do? We can’t stop the world from its warming trend, but maybe we can do something about health care.