Your health: what's better fruit or veggies?
Pick your produce
Fruits and vegetables offer different mixes of key nutrients. In general, vegetables have less sugar and fewer calories than fruits. Which would be your pick from each of these pairs? (Percentages are based on the daily value recommended by the USDA for a 2,000-calorie diet. The source is nutritiondata.self.com.)
Strawberries (1 cup)
Calories: 49
Sugars: 7 grams
Vitamin C: 149 percent
Broccoli (1 cup, raw)
Calories: 31
Sugars: 2 grams
Vitamin C: 135 percent
Blueberries (1 cup)
Calories: 84
Sugars: 15 grams
Vitamin K: 36 percent
Green peas (1 cup, raw)
Calories: 117
Sugars: 8 grams
Vitamin K: 45 percent
Banana
Calories: 105
Sugars: 14 grams
Potassium: 12 percent
Potato (1 small, baked, with skin)
Calories: 128
Sugars: 2 grams
Potassium: 21 percent
Orange
Calories: 62
Sugars: 12 grams
Vitamin A: 6 percent
Carrot (1 cup of strips)
Calories: 50
Sugars: 6 grams
Vitamin A: 408 percent
Apple (with skin)
Calories: 95
Sugars: 19 grams
Folate: 1 percent
Foreign drug testing
In a sobering article about the pharmaceutical industry in this month's Vanity Fair, reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele investigate how companies are testing new drugs in poor countries.
In 1990, 271 trials were conducted in foreign countries of drugs largely intended for American use. By 2008, that number had climbed to 6,485; also that year, 80 percent of the applications submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for new drugs contained data from foreign clinical trials.
Overseas testing appeals to the industry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors say, because it's cheaper, easier to recruit patients and not as closely regulated.
Snuff out that habit
There is good news for smokers who want to kick the habit in the new year.
The Chicago Tobacco Prevention Project is a partnership between the Respiratory Health Association and the Chicago Department of Public Health and is offering a free, six-session group program for adults in the Chicago area who want to stop smoking.
Visit QuitWinChicago.com for dates and locations of the Courage to Quit classes. A free telephone hotline also is available. Call (866) 784-8937.